back 9/11 Revised, 9/11 Official Tarpley Red Symphony Rothschild Continuation Holdings Hartman Thierry Meyssan |
9/11CommmisionRevised THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Revised December 2008 Final Report of the Investigation Into: the Murders of Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley; the Individuals Responsible for the Attack on the World Trade Center; National Security Issues as the Root Cause for the Attack on the World Trade Center. UNPUBLISHED EDITION (Fi f th Edi tion, December 2008) Not for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet:.com ISBN: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 2 FAIR USE NOTICE: This report contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is being made available in efforts to advance understanding of criminal justice, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. The belief is this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this report is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes, by publicizing contact information. For more information on this law go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this report for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner (JP Heidner). LIABILITY: The writer(s) disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, injury or expense however caused, arising from the use of or reliance upon, in any manner, the information provided through this report and does not warrant the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information provided. In all likelihood, a few of the hypotheses generated from this information will be shown to be false – when the investigative records are made public, and for that, the writer apologizes in advance. INTENT: The writer warrants that the information presented in this report is an accurate reflection of information presented on public news sites on the internet. Information on these sites is sometimes presented by individuals or organizations which may be viewed as pursuing objectives which are hateful and malicious. If information on such sites appears to have merit, and that information is consistent with other facts in the investigation, the factual information from that site is included as best possible, without any reflection on the merit of that site’s objectives. The intent of this report is to 1) provide a hypothetical explanation for the events of September 11, 2001 that incorporates currently public information not included in the official government report, and 2) focus public attention on circumstances that strongly suggest there has been wrong doing by public officials and organizations involved in misuse of government resources, 3) explain why officials may have been motivated to mislead the American public, and 4) provide a foundation of research and hypothesis for future research. Information presented in this report documents that the federal institutions responsible for investigating these events are currently involved in efforts to suppress the facts under the guise of National Security. Hence, this information is being made public in the hope that unknown officials with appropriate level of authority can re-institute the appropriate investigation, or that private investigative resources can further substantiate (or disprove) these claims. Copyright © 2008 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 3 CONTENTS List of Illustrations and Tables 6 Summary of Findings 8 Preface 25 Methodology 26 1. UNMASKING THE FACES BEHIND THE TERRORIST THREAT 29 2. THE SMOKING GUN – NICK BERG 32 2.1 Nick Berg was not killed by Muslim Terrorists 32 2.2 Nick Berg was executed by the elements of the Mossad 34 2.3 Why the Mossad killed Nick Berg -Motive – Cover-up for the World Trade Center Attack 39 2.4 Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden 45 3. EUGENE ARMSTRONG AND JACK HENSLEY 49 3.1 Working for Gulf Services 50 3.2 Eugene Armstrong 51 3.3 Jack Hensley 51 3.4 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 53 4. CENTRAL ASIAN OIL: MOTIVE FOR 9/11? 56 4.1 Caspian Oil 68 4.2 Azerbaijan 71 4.3 Richard Secord, UBS and the Azerbaijan Connection 74 4.4 Afghanistan 79 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 4 4.5 Afghanistan and the Intelligence Block 89 4.6 Afghan Heroin 90 4.7 Kazakhstangate 94 4.8 Nazarbayev, The Russian/Israeli Mafiya and Angola 100 5. RUSSIAN AND ISRAELI MAFIYA 107 5.1 Project for the New American Century 107 5.2 Follow the Money 110 5.3 The Threat to German Banking 116 5.4 The Link Between the Mossad and German Banking 119 5.5 Unplanned Consequences: The Invasion of Iraq 125 6. DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER 129 6.1 The Link between the WTC, Illegal Gold and Money- Laundering 139 6.2 The Destruction of Buildings Seven and Six 143 7. GOLD TRADING AND MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATIONS CANCELLED BY DESTRUCTION OF THE WTC 151 7.1 Tonnes of Illegal Gold 153 7.2 Gold Laundering 161 7.3 Burying the Truth 176 8. GOLD BACKED BONDS, CANTOR FITZGERALD AND THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE 179 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 5 8.1 Federal Reserve and the Elimination of Regulatory Control 192 8.2 The Naval Intelligence Threat 199 8.3 Collapse of the Soviet Economy and the Brady Bonds 206 8.4 8.4 Riggs Bank as an Agent for the Collapse of the Soviet Union 206 8.5 8.5 Ambassador Lee Wanta and the Riggs-Valmet Connection 226 8.6 The Yeltsin Family and the Investigations in the World Trade Center 232 8.7 Armageddon 240 9. BANK CARTEL OR OIL CARTEL? A QUESTION OF GREATER MOTIVE 243 9.1 The Swiss-German Banking Connection 244 10. REUNION: IRAN-CONTRA AND THE OCTOBER SURPRISE 252 10.1 The Iran-Contra Syndicate 258 11. WHITEHOUSE ASSASSINS 261 11.1 Threat 1: Texas Whitehouse – August 2001 261 11.2 Threat 2 and 3: Attempts at the Colony Resort –September 10 and 11 261 11.3 Threat 4: In the Air – September 11 263 11.4 Lessons from History 265 11.5 Attempted Assassination of Reagan 269 12. POTENTIAL “PERSONS OF INTEREST” 280 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 6 12.1 Murder of Nick Berg 280 12.2 Deutsche Bank Executives 283 12.3 Israeli “Fixers”-Arms Merchants 287 12.4 “Fixers” in Florida 292 12.5 Huffman Flight School “Fixers” in Florida 293 12.6 Mohammed Atta 298 12.7 Atta’s Connections to Pakistani and Syrian Intelligence 305 12.8 Iran-Contra Re-Union 311 13. COVER-UP: CREDIBILITY OF THE AMERICAN PRESS AND GOVERNMENT 315 13.1 Control of the Media 316 13.2 Systemic Fear 317 13.3 Media Control – the Facts 329 14. POLICY AND PHILOSOPHY: DEMOCRACY AND PATRIOTISM AS COVER-UPS FOR TERROR AND GREED 341 15. EPILOGUE 350 Appendix A: CIA – Banking Connections 355 Appendix B: Stratesec 357 Appendix C: World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt 361 Appendix D: The Federal Reserve and the Three Card Monte 370 List of Tables and Illustrations Figure 1: Chart of Conspirators 23 Figure 2: Map of Central Asia 56 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 7 Figure 3: US Bases and the Afghan Pipelines 58 Figure 4: US Bases and the Iraqi Pipeline 59 Figure 5: Central Asian Pipelines 69 Table 1: Unclaimed Stock Options 111 Table 2: World Trade Center Deaths By Building 134 Table 3: Towers One and Two: Deaths By Company/Floor 136 Table 4: Other Buildings: Deaths By Company and Floor 134 Table 5: USA Today List of Deaths by Floor 138 Table 6: Investigative & Evidentiary Agencies in the World Trade Center – Building 7 144 Table 7: Gold Weight/Value Conversion Chart for Purpose of Discussion 163 Table 8: Overview of Gold Price History 163 Figure 6: World Production of Gold (Tonnes) 164 Table 9: Who Owns the Media 340 Examples of CIA – Banking Linkage 355 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 8 Summary of Findings The September 11 Commission Report: Final Report of the Investigation into the Murders of Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley This report uses publicly available information to substantiate a hypothetical explanation of the causes and key conspirators in the attack on the World Trade Center. The findings of this investigation are not meant to be construed as proof or a statement of guilt, but rather are meant to serve as ‘probable cause’ for further investigation. These findings are substantiated, documented and amplified by the report that follows. To that end, this report finds that: I. Murder of Nicholas Berg A. The organization that murdered Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, reported to be terrorists including Abu Musab Zarqawi, was most likely an Israeli intelligence operation - and in all likelihood part of a larger organization responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center; 1. Nick Berg was probably murdered by a group including Steven Stephanowicz, an employee of Titan Corp., a subcontractor to CACI –which has demonstrable links to Israeli Intelligence, Richard Armitage and the CIA. CACI was responsible for interrogation at Abu Ghraib when Nick berg was killed. 2. Stephanowicz was found (by U.S. military investigators) to be directly and indirectly responsible for most of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, which demonstrates his ability to orchestrate the executions of Berg, Armstrong and Hensley. His presence at the scene of the crime, and a similarity to the tallest executioner in the photos of the execution makes him a likely candidate for suspicion. B. Nicholas Berg was probably operating as an agent for the Israeli government (in the US and Iraq), and possibly as a double agent, working for a US intelligence organization; C. Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were also probably government agents in US intelligence operations; D. Nicholas Berg was probably murdered by Israeli agents to prevent his knowledge of the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) from being handed over to the FBI, or as revenge for having provided that information to the FBI. II. Attack on the World Trade Center THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 9 A. Israelis have been extensively identified as involved in the WTC attack activities and having inside knowledge of the flights and time of attack. Seven lines of investigation support this claim 1. Two Israelis placed explosives in the twin Towers and Buildings 7 and 6, four buildings that housed multiple investigative agencies of the Federal Government and the State of New York. Khaled Odtallah (from Jerusalem) provided fake ID to Rocky Hammad (from Gaza). Hammad was employed by Sergie Dimitry Davidenko (from Ukraine) to work on the water system the weekend prior to the attack. The attacking plane hit the floor of the South Tower where the 5000 gallon reserve water tank was staged. Sergie Dimitry Davidenko has disappeared since 9/11. Davidenko is a proficient ham radio operator from the Ukraine and an ‘applied mathematician’ whose work is referenced by at least two recent articles on missile test systems. He most likely configured the guidance system which guided the plane into the building. 2. The guidance system on the market that best meets the requirements of guiding a multiple plane attack from a single source is provided by System Planning Corporation, where Rabbi Dov Zakheim, key PNAC (Project for a New American Century) member, is Executive Vice President. Zakheim is on record as having “an abiding commitment to the People and the State of Israel.” 3. Israelis were so close to the operation they knew the flights and time. They were able to warn the employees of Odigo, an Israeli firm, two hours before the attack. The CEO of Odigo has confirmed the advance warning. 4. Israel had agents involved in monitoring the supposed hijackers in both Norman, Oklahoma and Sheridan, Florida, at the flight schools attended by the hijackers. 5. The Israeli Prime Minister has acknowledged providing advance warning of the attack to the Bush administration. 6. The company that manages security at the Boston airport from which two planes departed, is managed by former Israeli intelligence and military personnel. 7. Israeli agents were arrested videotaping the attack from a roof-top, suggesting a-priori knowledge. These agents were released to Israel without charges. B. Israeli intelligence organizations have been found to previously have been responsible for ‘false flag’ operations in multiple locations, presenting themselves as Muslim terrorists. In 2000, 11 Israelis masquerading as Muslims were apprehended by the Indian government in their attempt to hijack an Indian airliner. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 10 C. The Israeli intelligence organization with responsibility for these attacks has extensive links to the Russian Mafiya and ex-KGB resources, all of which had motive, involvement and knowledge pertinent to crimes being investigated by several agencies in the World Trade Center; D. The Israeli links to September 11th are based on Russian KGB/oligarch émigrés to Israel who have created a rogue operation in the KGB, but are funded through operations born from the September 1991 bonds created by Bush, Greenspen et al. E. Six groups were involved in the attack on the WTC” 1. The group that initiated the attack most likely consisted of an international network of financial executives representing primarily the Bank of New York, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Riggs Bank, Deutschebank and the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), and should include representatives from Bank Menatep, Swiss-American Bank, Credit Suisse, Investor AB, and Allianz, and their respective subsidiaries and major investment partners. This decision was meant to stop multiple money laundering investigations which would have traced illegal money laundering operations to accounts that held stolen national treasuries. Only a very few of the individuals in this group would have participated in or been knowledgeable of the decision. With a decision being made in 1998, the attack on the WTC was probably delayed until September 11, 2001, to allow the Bush Family and Russian Mafiya to cover the settlement of the fraudulent Durham/Brady Bonds . 2. The group which probably planned and set-up the attack on the World Trade Center was most likely a mix of Russian/Israeli Mafiya, ex-KGB and Israeli secret service, with the assistance of David Kimche (Mossad agent), Meir Dagan (head of the Israeli Mossad), Adnan Khashoggi and Sheikh Kamal Adham (former head of Saudi Intelligence), Richard Armitage and Richard Secord. Kimche, Armitage and Secord are the only field intelligence operatives identified in the world press as having field management responsibility for Al Qaeda mercenaries. Khashoggi is documented to have coordinated similar types of false “terrorist” attacks in Russia, with the participation of CIA and Israeli agents working with Chechen Mafya (with its strong likages to the Yeltsin Family.) 3. The group that probably arranged for operational cover in the US, and intelligence support the operation required most likely consists of re-united participants in the Iran-Contra dealings of the 1980’s. This group has been working in concert in Central Asia, using Baku, Azerbaijan as a base of operations since the early 1990s. This group of former Iran-Contra conspirators includes: a) Adnan Khashoggi: whose Azerbaijan banks "played a big part in the formation of terrorist camps and in the opening of laboratories for developing chemical and bacteriological weapons in Nagornyy Karabakh” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 11 was a major mover of illegal gold; major investor and founder in Barrick; was a major investor in Oryx (financial backer of Huffman Aviation- the flight school that provided training to eleven 9/11 hijackers); and business partner with General William Lyon – founder of diploma mills which are linked to the access to the US for two hijackers. Khashoggi also is linked to the funding of the “9/11 Truth Movement” in an attempt to monitor and control civilian inquiries into the events surrounding 9/11. b) Richard Secord: a former U.S. Air Force major general who had been helping to recruit and train the Azerbaijani army as well as regional secret services in conjunction with David Kimche, and was reported to have assisted in the recruitment of Al Qaeda mercenaries and Osama Bin Laden for deployment in Azerbaijan; c) Richard Armitage: who managed illegal gold funds for George HW Bush during Iran-Contra period; who acted as a consultant to Halliburton and Unocal at the time, and was President of the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce. Armitage had demonstrated a history of visits to Pakistan and the rest of Central Asia, and was reported to have assisted in the recruitment of Al Qaeda mercenaries and Osama Bin Laden for deployment in Azerbaijan; d) Farhad Azima, a US arms merchant with Iranian background, a member of the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, who assisted Richard Secord in recruiting, transporting and training mujahedin mercenaries. He was owner of the Azerbaijan Airlines, and has a twenty year old relationship with the Iran-Contra syndicate. He is significant co-investor with Wally Hilliard of Huffman Aviation in a small California electronics company (Spatialight Inc). e) Khalid bin Mahfouz, owner, with the bin Laden family and members of the Saudi royal family of the Saudi oil companies Delta Oil and Nimir Oil. Both are partners with Unocal in Azerbaijan and partners in multiple Bush family enterprises. He is a major investor along with Khashoggi in Barrick and TrizecHahn. (TrizecHahn was the landlord to the corporate headquarters of Halliburton and Enron.) f) Dick Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, lobbyist for the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, on US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce; participant in Congressional hearings that let Iran-Contra participants off-the-hook. Dick Cheney’s role in the attack on the WTC is most thoroughly treated in the book Crossing the Rubicon, by Michael C. Ruppert, where Cheney is demonstrated to be fully accountable for the activities of NORAD and FEMA on September 11. John Mann, in Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, describes Cheney as “one of the principal defenders of the Reagan administration’s conduct in Iran Contra.” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 12 g) David Kimche, Israeli Mossad agent who brought Israeli agents and mercenaries into Azerbaijan at the request of Secord, and worked with Secord and the regional secret service organizations of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. He was a participant in the October Surprise and Iran-Contra scandal, and consultant to Manuel Noriega. h) Porter Goss, former CIA agent and Congressman, now Director of the CIA. He met with Mahmoud Ahmad, Director of the Pakistani Secret Service (ISI) shortly before and after 9/11. Mahmoud Ahmad was responsible for providing $100,000 in funding to Mohammed Atta. Goss has not been identified with any Azerbaijani activity, but has been identified with Iran-Contra activity. i) George Bush Sr., who (according to several eyes witnesses) authorized the Iran-Contra and October Surprise operations (although Congressional investigators concluded he was not involved), initiated the US covert operations in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, authorized the creation of the illegal Durham/Brady Bonds which went secretly to Russia, and authorized the assignment of $10 billion in un-mined gold reserves to Barrick. He later sat on the Advisory Board of Directors for Barrick. j) Robert Mueller, who as US Attorney headed the Iran-Contra and the BCCI investigations and trial found little fault with Bush Sr., also was responsible for the FBI investigation of 9/11. 4. Members of the US group that arranged for the September 11 cover-up most likely used the attack for multiple purposes related to financial gain and obstruction of justice, and set the timing of the attack to resolve a major financial fraud involving $240 billion in securities backed by illegal gold holdings (Durham/Brady Bonds). 5. The organization that managed the details of the US attack operation was most likely an Israeli secret service unit including Mohammed Atta (who organized the aerial attack), Rudi Dekker (responsible mostly for visas), and Khaled Odtllah (who was responsible for arranging explosives in the WTC); a) There are seven pieces of information that suggest Mohammed Atta, identified as the leader of the 9/11 hijackers, was probably a Mossad agent: (1) Comments by his father saying his son was with the Mossad, and alive after 9/11; (2) A number of clues suggesting he may not have been on the flight, and possibly disappeared out a back door at the Boston airport; (3) Atta expressed interest in a company specializing in space technology. This company was later acquired by Israel; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 13 (4) His ability to speak Hebrew; (5) His involvement with German, Pakistani, Saudi and Syrian intelligence and US military and intelligence organizations; (6) The cover-up of the identity of his German host family by US investigators; and (7) His dual personality attested to by his friends on two continents. 6. The group that actually was set up to take the blame were Muslim radicals recruited by either Yeslam Bin Laden (brother of Osama Bin Laden) or Richard Secord (CIA) and David Kimche (Mossad) at the probable request of Adnan Khashoggi and Sheikh Kamal Adham (business partners of George Bush Sr.). a) At least seven of these hijackers used names and other personal information acquired by identity theft. Five of these seven names had affiliations with US military training institutions. Most of the passports used by the hijackers came from the US embassy in Saudi Arabia. Khaled Odtallah (from Jerusalem) was responsible for establishing false American identities for the group inside the World Trade Center. These facts suggest the attackers were organized by intelligence agencies rather than terrorists. These facts lead to the assumption the attack was a joint effort between Israeli and Saudi Intelligence, with US support. b) Two of the hijackers had records of previous employment by the Saudi Intelligence. c) The individual that most likely acted as intermediary between Iran-Contra syndicate and the bankers was Edgar Bronfman. Bronfman is a significant owner of Barrick and TrizecHahn, and President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC). Acting in the role of President of the WJC, Bronfman negotiated the terms and conditions of the release of the Holocaust gold from the Swiss banks in 1998. It is hypothesized that as part of his negotiations, he was asked by the bankers to facilitate a termination of multiple US federal and NY investigations into Swiss banks. His negotiations brought an immediate end to US Department of Justice and US Congressional pressure to investigate Marcos gold accounts in the Swiss banks, Swiss holdings of Holocaust gold, and Philippine actions against the Swiss for holding the Marcos gold. An investigation of the Marcos accounts (and tracing the final disposition of the gold) would have exposed a broader money and gold-laundering scheme, which would have resulted in further exposures of crimes by the Russian/Israeli Mafiya (in particular, the “Yeltsin Family”) and the Iran-Contra syndicate. d) The plan proposed by Bronfman was probably provided to him by David Kimche, one of the initial Israeli intelligence agents that in 1980 proposed THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 14 the October Surprise plan to prevent the release of US hostages by the Ayatollah Khomeini. That plan subsequently resulted in a series of Iran- Contra deals to covertly fund pro-US revolutionary activity in Iran and Nicaragua. Kimche was actively working with Richard Secord and Richard Armitage (all three were involved in Iran-Contra scandal) in Azerbaijan, with multiple Central Asian Intelligence organizations, at the time the decision to attack the WTC was made. e) The plan proposed by Bronfman provided for the termination of investigations by various agencies of the US government into various Swiss accounts and Deutschebank transactions involved in money and gold laundering. This plan would require the destruction of the entire World Trade Center, which housed the investigative offices of the FBI, SEC, IRS, Secret Service, Department of Defense, US Customs, and bank records for the Export-Import bank, Deutsche Bank, and the investigative arm of the New York State Tax Department. Bronfman, as a major investor in Barrick, stood to benefit directly from a cessation of these investigations (and in his case, the FBI investigation into gold price fixing). The Bush family, as well as the Russian Mafiya, would benefit as well from the termination of these investigations, all linked. Later, Bush intelligence operatives would add the Pentagon to the list of targets, to destroy the Office of Naval Intelligence which was also engaged in a major investigation of money laundering most likely related to the Bank of New York/Russian Mafiya money laundering scandal. f) The detailed plan to crash commercial airliners into the World Trade Center was actually created in 1976 by the C-Battery 2/81st Field Artillery, US Seventh Army in Europe. It would have been provided to Kimche, most likely, by Richard Armitage, who worked in the Defense Intelligence Agency from May 1975 to November 1976, and went on to covert CIA operations. F. There was a diversified group of American, Canadian, Russian, Swiss and German business executives (bankers and traders) and government officials that allowed the attack on the World Trade Center to happen, and prevented the true story of what happened from being told, for the purposes of financial gain and protection from prosecution for complicity in illegal gold laundering activity and the fraudulent sale of gold backed securities. Under Federal law 18 U.S.C. 371 – Conspiracy Statute, they are equally guilty as if they had initiated the decision. This group includes, but is not limited to Adnan Khashoggi; Kamal Adham; George Bush Sr.; Tye Burt- former Chairman of Deutsche Bank Canada and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown Securities Canada; Otto Pohl, former President of the German central bank (Bundesbank) and chief officer of the International Bank of Settlements and IMF; Edgar Bronfman and Mayo Shattuck, who left his position as CEO of Deutschebank America on September 12, 2001 and is financial advisor to Khashoggi and Bronfman. The circumstances leading to this conclusion are: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 15 1. There are between 6,000 and 280,000 tonnes of illegal, stolen gold stored in bullion banks throughout the world. This gold needs to be laundered. This gold has been stolen from the national treasuries of the Philippines, Soviet Union, France, and Czechoslovakia. There are numerous sources that identify George Bush Sr. and Adnan Khashoggi, with Ferdinand Marcos, as extensively involved in the theft of the Philippines treasury. 2. Commodity experts that watch the gold market have made claims that significant, inexplicable amounts of gold were showing up in the market throughout the 1990s. These increases are attributed to ‘gold futures’ sales - in the absence of any other explanation. 3. There has been no known formal investigation into the possible laundering of this gold other than possibly the FBI investigation buried in the World Trade Center. This investigation was linked to the GATA/Howe lawsuit against the bullion banks, including the Deutsche Bank. 4. A significant group of powerful individuals, with demonstrated links to the movement of illegal gold, have been directly involved in the creation of a gold producing company, which was in a court battle over the legality of some of its trades. (It resulted in a sealed agreement in January of 2006.) A significant group of these individuals have a history of connections to money laundering activity. These groups include George Bush Sr., Adnan Khashoggi, Khalid bin Mahfouz and Edgar Bronfman. 5. The success of this company in gold hedging defies expert industry expert comprehension. The company has been extremely successful mining land that industry experts thought was “doubtful” in its potential. These inexplicable conditions could be explained under a hypothesis of gold laundering. 6. Two of the individuals (Khashoggi and Mahfouz) that started, controlled and owned significant portions of this gold company are the same people that started, controlled and owned a company that staged and ‘trained’ eleven of the 9/11 hijackers, who were involved in the destruction of the World Trade Center. This ‘terrorist’ event effectively ended the FBI investigation of global gold trades this company was involved in. G. German, Swiss, Russian and Saudi financial executives, combined with their U.S. business partners (Carlyle Group) initially requested the attack on the World Trade Center for the purposes of: 1. Stopping a series of on-going FBI and other federal agency investigations which were in the process of exposing multi-billion dollar, illegal, gold and money laundering activities and securities fraud. Tracking transactions into and out of accounts of individuals associated with these investigations would have exposed the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 16 · illegal retention of the national bullion treasuries of the Soviet Union, the Philippines, France, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Angola and more, as well as · the major participation of the “Bush Family” in the Bank of New York/Russian Mafiya money-laundering scandal, with its ultimate source of funding in the Bardy/Durham bond fraud of September 11, 1991; 2. Destroying potentially incriminating Deutschebank and US Export-Import bank records and investigative reports (FBI, SEC, Secret Service, IRS, US Customs, NY State Tax Auditors) associated with those gold and money laundering and securities fraud activities; 3. Enhancing their competitiveness and short term profitability in the European investment banking market; and 4. Revenge against “United States and its economy” for past economic transgressions against the German banking industry. H. The pinpointed targets of the 9/11 hijackers were the North Tower (FBI offices on floors 23 and 24 and the Cantor Fitzgerald offices), Building 7 (various Federal investigative agencies), the Pentagon (Office of Naval Investigation), and the South Tower (Eurobrokers and the NY State Tax Investigation Department). Flight 93, delayed for 40 minutes at the gate and downed in Pennsylvania, was probably intended for Building 7. Building 6 (US Customs) was destroyed by an internal explosion. These buildings were targeted because they housed the investigative offices and evidence of multiple investigations into money and gold laundering and securities fraud. I. There are seven conditions pertinent to the collapse of Building 7 that are not explained by any official explanation of the events at the WTC. These seven conditions are all explained with the theory of ‘targeted destruction.’ This report concludes that within minutes of it being known that Building 7 was not going to be hit by a third plane, it was ordered evacuated by an unknown individual so that incendiary explosions could be ignited without the presence of witnesses. These devices would have targeted federal and bank offices on multiple floors. The 9/11 Commission Report and FEMA have been unable to explain: 1. Source of fires throughout the building; 2. Lack of response by firefighters to those fires; 3. Order for evacuation of the Mayor’s emergency command center on Floor 23 of Building Seven, when no comparable order was given for the WTC command Center in the North Tower. This center was evacuated shortly before the collapse of Tower 1 (10:29), but after the crash of Flight 93 (10:07), when it became clear Flight 93 would not reach its target. No one claims responsibility for the evacuation order; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 17 4. Documented seismic spike just prior to the collapse of the Building 7 in the same magnitude as those preceding the collapse of the North and South Towers; 5. The reason for the tape-recorded “pulling” comment by the building’s owner, who has since refused to explain his comment; 6. Ability to bring down Building Seven with controlled demolitions, when it takes days to place explosives for controlled takedowns; 7. Misleading references to the locations of the fires, which are generally referred to as a couple of lower floors, but occurred throughout the building as documented by photographic evidence; J. The airline attacks on the World Trade Center were cover-up for explosives placed in the building. There are nine categories of evidence which support the statement that the North and South Towers were subjected to “targeted” demolitions: 1. Numerous eyewitness statements of explosions in and throughout the building; 2. Seismographic recording of the incidents showing massive underground explosions just prior to the collapse of Towers 1, 2 and 7; 3. Analysis of videotape of the collapse of the South Tower which shows the order in which floors are collapsing by exploding windows, demonstrating non-sequential explosions on lower floors; 4. Video tape evidence recorded on-site at the WTC by a rescuing fireman; 5. The pattern of deaths in the North Tower reinforces the theory that there were explosives set at lower levels of the North Tower, especially in the vicinity of floors 23 and 24 of the North Tower (Tower 1), which suffered inexplicable and unusually high death rates; 6. Multiple testimonies from a) small rescue team, 2) trapped workers and 3) people leaving the building which help explain events on the 23rd floor –site of a secretive FBI office which housed investigations into illegal gold-price fixing, gold trades and the Kazakhgate investigation linking Dick Cheney and George Bush Sr. to illegal bribes paid to Kazakhstan officials; 7. An FBI agent in the North Tower Operations Center received a call on his cell phone advising him the North Tower would soon collapse. The timing of this call, approximately 15 minutes before the building collapsed, suggests someone was in control of the primary demolitions in the basement; 8. Investigating government agencies have not been able to explain how fires reached required temperatures to melt steel and thus cause the towers to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 18 collapse. An official letter from Underwriter Laboratories to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, explains why the government’s official stance on how/why the buildings collapsed has no merit; 9. Unexplained and forgotten CNN video footage of the explosion inside WTC 6, which housed US Customs Agency, the agency that coordinated multiple federal agency money laundering investigations with its El Dorado task force. K. The attack on the Pentagon was for the purpose of destroying the Office of Naval Intelligence. This Office was investigating a gold backed securities fraud which might have been perceived as a threat to national security, but would link the Bush family to multiple illegal activities. L. The attacks of September 11 were timed to coincide with multiple war-games, which included scenarios of airline hijacking and building attacks. This coincidence creates a scenario of ‘plausible deniability’ under which FAA and NORAD officials can argue there was no air response because they were “confused” as to whether the attacks were part of the games or not. 1. These war games were being monitored by Vice President Dick Cheney at the time of the attack, rather than the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. 2. The war games which were usually scheduled for October were rescheduled for early September by an unknown decision-maker. 3. The war games probably included an unreported computer simulation of a financial attack on the US economy (as performed during war games in 1997 and 2000 by Cantor Fitzgerald.) It is hypothesized that this simulation computer program was the source of the illegal trades conducted in the minutes preceding the attack, and those illegal trades were meant to cover the settlement of the 10 year Durham/Brady Bonds which came due on September 11. M. The former heads of at least three Intelligence agencies and a private, commercial intelligence operation, all pro-US organizations - have been linked to funding of the 9/11 hijackers: 1. Mahmoud Ahmad, Head of ISI Pakistani Intelligence (Wired $100,000 to Atta shortly before the attack); 2. Mohamad Majed Said, a former head of Syrian Intelligence (provided employment for Atta in Germany); and 3. Kamal Adham, the former head of Saudi Intelligence (funded Huffman Aviation via Oryx.). 4. Mohammed Atta, while in Germany, was also an employee of, with travel funded by, Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. This is a joint US-German scholarship program, reportedly controlled on the US side by the US Information Agency THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 19 (State Department). The German side of this program is administered jointly with Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung, a commercial intelligence operation that studies global trading in weapons and drugs, money-laundering and, coincidentally, anthrax. It has board members from the Deutschebank and Allianz. Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft also has a fellowship funded by Alpha Bank, represented in the U.S. by ex-Bush administrators Lanny Griffith and Ed Rogers. The leadership of these three Muslim countries (Pakistan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia) is significantly detached from their mainstream population’s conservative beliefs, and their leadership is generally aligned with US leadership on key financial objectives. N. There are five indicators that World Trade Center security management (with the top security manager being George Tabeek) were co-conspirators in the attack: 1. The power shut-down during the weekend prior to the attack could not happen without security approval because it involved shutting off a primary building utility and security surveillance; 2. Permits to work in the building on the water system over the weekend could not happen without security approval because it involved shutting off a primary building utility and safety system. The attacking plane hit the floor where the 5000 gallon reserve water tank for the sprinkler system was staged.; 3. Bomb sniffing dogs were removed from service the day before the unexplained “power down”, during which all internal electronic surveillance (cameras, videos) were turned off. Rocky Hammad’s activity in the Towers occurred during this power down. The person who authorized these activities has not been found. Removal of the bomb sniffing security dogs could not happen without security approval. The dogs were brought back on the day of the attack, probably after any explosives were allowed in the building; 4. A CIA front company known as Stratesec Incorporated, formerly Securacom had a maintenance agreement for ‘access control’ with the WTC. A Director on the Board for this company is Marvin Bush, brother of President George Bush. This company is linked to the aerial attack on government investigative offices in the Pirelli Building in the financial district in Milan, Italy in April of 2002. 5. The New York City Emergency Command Center, located on the 23rd floor of Building 7, was ordered to evacuate hours in advance of the building’s collapse, but within a few minutes after Flight 93 was downed in Pennsylvania. Fires started after the evacuation. In the North and South Towers, there was no order to evacuate, and employees remained until the end. III.Cover-up THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 20 A. Representatives of at least three US government agencies (CIA, FBI, and NSA) were aware of the plans for the attack on the World Trade Center after having been advised by the intelligence agencies of Israel, Germany, UK and Russia. B. Key military officials in the US war games seem to have been involved in preventing an air response to the hijackers, thus allowing them to execute their attack. C. At least five employees of US investigative agencies have attempted to make public the level of deception being used to cover up the truth, but have been silenced by court order under the blanket of “National Security.” Numerous New York public employees with testimony relevant to the cover-up have been effectively gagged under the blanket of National Security by having their jobs threatened for speaking out. Another agent, Brad Doucette – 20 year veteran FBI agent in charge of counter-terrorism - was “suicided” in April in 2003, shortly after reporting controversial findings. D. The US government seems unwilling to pursue the true criminals in this case because of the political consequences of exposing the complicity of various key US politicians and political contributors in the various gold laundering activities, or involvement in a cover-up. This group includes, but is not limited to: 1. George HW Bush Sr., who is directly responsible for: · contributing to the success of what could appear to be a major gold laundering operation by approving changes in law which allowed the company to obtain an estimated $10 billion in gold reserves for a cost of $10,000; assisting in the operations acquisition of additional African reserves, and serving as a Director on its Advisory Board; · authorizing the fraudulent Durham/Brady Bonds; · initiating a range of illegal covert activities in Central Asia to support personal business partners in the oil industry. 2. The Bronfman family, with major connections to both the Democratic and Republic administrations; 3. Various executives of financial institutions (named in the report), the Federal Reserve banks, the SEC and other American bullion banks involved in the gold price-fixing practices and securities fraud; 4. Various associates in the Iran-Contra affair, who remained in various political offices. E. There were a series of seven actions undertaken by the Federal Reserve during the days and weeks that followed the attack on the WTC which served the purpose of covering-up the settlement and refinancing the fraudulent 10 year Durham/Brady Bonds which came due on September 11. Those actions include THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 21 1. the Commission for the first time invoked its emergency powers under Securities Exchange Act Section 12(k); 2. SEC lifted “Rule 15c3-3 - Customer Protection--Reserves and Custody of Securities” which allowed them to suspend all reporting and identity security controls; 3. The SEC temporarily injected $300 Billion into the US money supply while settling the fraudulent securities; 4. Government Securities Clearing Corporation sent a memo to banks encouraging them to make security ‘substitutions’ on “immediately maturing collateral;” 5. Government Securities Clearing Corporation treated the ‘fails’ as two separate groups, suggesting there was a large group of trades that required ‘special treatment’ for “other” problems; 6. GSCC issued another memo allowing blind broker settlements. A “blind broker” is a mechanism for inter-dealer transactions that maintains the anonymity of both parties to the trade; 7. SEC held an unusual “snap” auction of new ten-year securities to facilitate sale of government securities probably used to refinance the fraudulent Durham/Brady Bonds. F. There were a series of four attempts to assassinate President George Bush (Jr.), orchestrated by the same group that executed the attack on the WTC. This report concludes there was a quid pro quo between the Bush and Bin Laden families to mutually sacrifice sons. When the assassination attempts failed, Bin Laden was allowed to escape. It is speculated that is why George Bush Sr. was dining with Bin Laden on September 11, 2001. This theory is supported by the eerie parallels between these attempts on the life of George Bush Jr. in 2001, and the Hinkley attempt on the life of Ronald Reagan, suggesting that George Bush Sr. is familiar with the concept of family sacrifice. The simultaneous NORAD and FEMA exercises, scheduled to happen the same time as both attempted assassinations, suggests Bush’s concerns about the transfer of Presidential Power during both assassination attempts. On both occasions, a Bush family member was with a family member of the ‘accused shooter,” and the “accused shooter” was a family acquaintance. Each assassination attempt (Reagan and Bush) consisted of multiple attempts, with a final effort layered with contingencies. G. Numerous individuals received significant financial benefit from acting with foreknowledge of this attack, over-and-above protection from criminal investigation. Adnan Khashoggi was a clear beneficiary with his MJK Securities fraud. Other information suggests Israeli investors were responsible for the supposed inside trading profits made that day. Additionally, Russian Mafiya members, who had financially benefited from the default on approximately $240 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 22 Billion in gold backed loans from President George Bush Sr., had their defaults covered by the attack. Investigation of these individuals should be renewed to determine their complicity with the business executives responsible for this attack. H. Two key individuals throughout the entire timeline of this investigation are Adnan Khashoggi, and Sheikh Kamal Adham, most infamous for their role in the BCCI bank scandal and Iran-Contra scandal (Israeli weapons sold to Iran), but also linked to the recent MJK Securities fraud case and multiple Savings and Loans failures in the 1980s, the Harken Energy scandal, and the 1980 October Surprise. They are personal friends and business partners with George Bush Sr. This report finds evidence of them being directly linked to: 1. the theft, illegal hoarding, use and distribution of massive quantities of illegal treasury gold, 2. the creation of a potential international gold laundering operation, the probable investigation into which was halted by the destruction of the World Trade Center, 3. the creation and funding of a flight school used to provide visas for eleven WTC attackers, and 4. The recruitment of flight school trainees either through their family relationships with Yeslam Bin Laden, the brother of Osama Bin Laden, or through long-time business partners Richard Secord and David Kimche, 5. The recruitment of hijackers previously settled in the US. Adnan Khashoggi (owner of Genesis Aviation) is a business partner with retired General William Lyon (on the Board of Kellstrom Industries, Inc., an Israeli owned company) in a venture called Wings of Democracy, an attempt to penetrate the commercial Iraq air business. Lyon is the founder of several university diploma-mill operations in California (American Commonwealth University, also known as William Lyon University) which are speculated to be CIA front operations used for providing US visas to foreign operatives. These operations are directly associated with the entry to the US by two of the 9/11 hijackers in the early 1990s. Lyon is a major Republican fund raiser in Orange County, associate of Karl Rove, financial backer of the swift Boat Veterans, and keynote speaker at the Republican national convention. Conclusion Once the clues have been put together, and the individuals behind the organizations or quasi-organizations are identified and studied, it becomes clear there are three individuals THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 23 whose names repeatedly appear: Adnan Khashoggi, Kamal Adham, and George Bush Sr. These three men have strong, personal and business relationships with each other and other individuals whose names appear consistently. These relationships have been defined in the above chart. The attack on the World Trade Center was a complicated operation. These men have the experience and track record to demonstrate that they are capable of efforts to overthrow governments without regard for human life. There is also a group of financial backers behind the individuals identified by this report. They appear on numerous boards involved in these activities, and appear to have no function other than to represent the interests of large holding companies which operate as cover for massive family wealth. The individuals identified in this report can be identified because of their actions, while those not identified are the silent, more powerful individuals who finance these operations. One example would be Lord Powell, who represents the Rothschild family investments, and sits on the Boards of Barrick, as well as Diligence, which does business with a known criminal terrorist operation known as Farwest, Ltd. Figure 1: Chart of Conspirators There are many other incidental findings which are indicative of additional criminal activity. This list includes, but is not limited to: · Placement and detonation of explosive charges in the World Trade Center; · Murder of witnesses; · Terrorist activities; · Obstruction of justice and destruction of Government evidence in a criminal investigation; and · Criminal conspiracy and money laundering activity by US bankers, financial executives and government officials; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 24 · Violations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; · Violations of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Evidence supporting these claims is provided. A list of those who could be considered “a person of interest” is identified at the end of this report. Not one is a known member of any officially classified terrorist group. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 25 Preface This project started with a curiosity about the questionable circumstances surrounding the murder of Nick Berg, a US entrepreneur in Iraq who reportedly was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That curiosity led to research, which led to this report. Herein is a story – a true story - that needs to be told. Even without the ‘need’ for it to be told, it represents a mesmerizing story of intrigue, assassination, mystery, scandal, fraud, theft, cover-up, and twisted patriotism. It is a true story about real individuals, the list of which includes terrorists, spies (KGB, Mossad, CIA, FBI), murder victims, assassinated corporate heads, politicians, billionaires, international bank board members, Russian Mafiya, American mafia, Nazis, an Imperial family, and even a Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (Templars) from the crusades! It is a story about money laundering, illegal gold, securities fraud, conflict diamonds, weapons trading, drugs, espionage and international stock market manipulation. It is a story about a several layers of façade and false leads. It is a story in which the motive for the crime is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars, and has relatively little to do with oil. It is a story which explains the execution of seemingly innocent civilians in Iraq, the attack on the World Trade Center, and the attack on the US economy. It is a story that provides coherent meaning to what has been viewed as a collage of seemingly inconsistent, contradictory, inexplicable and just plain inconvenient facts. The search for an acceptable explanation for the death of Nick Berg in the summer of 2004 engendered more questions than answers – at first. The answers to these questions resulted in an interpretation of current events in the Middle East and the US that seemed far removed from any currently available explanations or hypotheses. The conclusion of this investigation is that Nick Berg was in all likelihood an agent of an Israeli secret service, executed by elements of the Israeli secret service, for reasons that are explained in the report. That hypothesis was so seemingly incredible that it begged “challenging.” The hypothesis has been challenged numerous times, and each time there are multiple accounts in the media that provide answers that are consistent with the conclusions presented in the research. Examples of such “if –then” tests (such as if X happened, then shouldn’t Y happen?) are: • If the hypothesis used to explain the reasons for Nick Berg’s execution is accurate, shouldn’t it also be valid for subsequent executions by the same group? (It is!) · If the Deutsche Bank was attempting to cover-up illicit gold movements, should one expect to find news which links the Deutsche Bank to illicit gold hoardings, measured in hundreds of tonnes? (There are such reports!) · If the German banking cartel had responsibility for initiating the September 11 attack, should one be able to demonstrate their ability to activate Muslim and Mossad agents. (It can be demonstrated, with multiple connections.) In none of the testing of hypotheses did the available information contradict one of the major conclusions of this paper: the official US government interpretation of terrorist activity confronting America is deliberately misleading, and the list of “bad guys” is totally different than what the public has been led to believe. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 26 Methodology Please note that this report generally follows several important rules of research: This report uses as many independent sources as possible, rather than relying on government press releases and mainstream media. In this report, there is evidence from U.S. agents themselves, that the US government has forced a CIA translator, a CIA agent and three FBI agents to fabricate and distort information on the 9/11 investigation. These people are in court to bring out the truth, and protect themselves from repercussions. These five are only the ones coming forward publicly. The public needs to ask - how many more remain silent? (Internet reports suggest up to 200 government agents are ready to testify against the administration.) There is also evidence from two college professors that the CIA deliberately falsified video-tape evidence. There is evidence presented from Underwriter Laboratories that the government has presented false information. Questions are best formulated by studying a situation and asking “What information is missing?” With the hundreds of investigative reporters in the world attempting to uncover the truth about 9/11, major points of evidence are totally ignored by the US government and many conspiracy theorists, and treated as ‘inconvenient’ facts. This report does not ignore them. Surprisingly, there is a strong coherency to what are reported as coincidences and inconsistencies – and all the “wild conspiracy theories” actually hang together. This reports looks at these events as crimes rather than political terrorist activities which are intended to create fear. The basic rules for identifying “who did it” still apply: motive, opportunity, weapon, and ‘follow the money.’ If one uses the same standard of evidence as applied under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to the alleged terrorists appearing before military tribunals, then hearsay evidence is acceptable. Some readers may conclude this report attempts to establish guilt by association and character, an invalid principle in the U.S. courtroom. Guilt is determined by due process – not a report. There are Constitutional processes for determining guilt, and this report does not seek to supplant them. However, the American criminal justice system has established and sanctioned two practices which are based on guilt by association and characterization: profiling and prosecution under the RICO conspiracy laws. This report assumes that if an organization (or partnership) has several key members that are publicly associated (not necessarily convicted) with similar criminal activity, activities of the entire organization warrant suspicion. If publicly available information about that organization reinforces those suspicions, those suspicions should be investigated and reported. That is what this report does – it summarizes that information and suggests that a different theory explaining the attacks of September 11 is consistent with the facts ignored by the official 9/11 Commission. Current interpretations of events in the Middle East (either that of the US Government or various conspiracy theorists) do not help us understand the facts as they are known today. There are too many dangling leads. This report attempts to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 27 address the ‘loose ends’ in this interpretation of the news. Major crimes have been committed and not one person has been convicted. “Terrorists” charged for supporting 9/11 in Germany and Spain have been found not guilty. Osama Bi Laden is not charged with 9/11 on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list because the FBI has no evidence connecting him to the crime. This report attempts to redefine leads that might result in holding people accountable for their crimes. This research represents a significant paradigm shift from most of the September 11 research available. That shift is brought about by two very significant challenges created by the information presented. · The first challenge: look at all the information before assigning guilt. Much of the current criticism of American public officials involved in cover-up activities has a tendency to focus on the ‘American and Israeli participants.’ Another large band of criticism is saved for the Saudi royal family, because of their familial relations to Osama Bin Laden and significant financial contributions to American politics. However, if one looks at the record of how these American and Saudi officials actually executed their operations (ranging from criminal to legal, but generally considered unscrupulous) there is a consistent participation by the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and the German banking cartel, which includes certain Swiss banks. As one digs deeper, one finds the Russian/Israeli Mafiya are quite significantly involved in these events, and the bank cartel may well be the greatest benefactor of the crime and cover-up. The research paradigm must include foreign nationals from Germany and Russia. · The second challenge: the timing of the attack on the WTC suggests a pace of events where the planners were comfortable with a two-to-three year execution phase. A decision to destroy the WTC was made in 1999 or 1998, with the key ‘hijackers’ in that plot being assigned in early 1999. The research paradigm needs to be focused on events in 1998 and 1999, not the events in January through July of 2001. Similarly, in suggesting that the maturity date of 10 year gold backed bonds issued on September 11, 1991 was a significant factor in the timing of the attack, that period needs to be understood as well. Addressing these two challenges will lead to the conclusion that a German/Swiss bank cartel undertook a decision in 1998 to destroy a number of US investigations that threatened their illegally gained wealth. Adnan Khashoggi was the common thread in most of those investigations, so the Cartel would have needed to approach him as well as Edgar Bronfman, Khashoggi’s business partner. They in turn, would have most likely approached their old colleagues: Bush Sr., Secord, Armitage, Kimche, and Azima. These five, in turn, would have used the foot-soldiers at their disposal: Al Qaeda and the Russian/Israeli Mafiya. This investigation is not an attempt to support a particular political viewpoint. In the end, there is no final proof and there is no confession. If there was a confession, it would disappear as if it never existed, and every mention of it would be erased. People who present information critical of the Iran-Contra Syndicate often commit suicide within 24 hours, and their reports disappear (e.g., Brad Doucette, John Millis and Gary Webb). A list of nineteen such murdered individuals is compiled in this report. The crimes THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 28 described here-in are very complex, and executed by both professional and vicious criminals. The cover-up of these crimes is done by people who cause their accusers and whistleblowers to lose promotions, jobs, freedom and possibly even lives. While “proof” is hard to come by, there is a very compelling case of circumstantial evidence. The explanation provides better answers for more of the open issues than the official 9/11 Commission Report. It also provides a better explanation than suggested by a number of conspiracy theorists who suggest the Bush administration and CIA or Israeli government are at fault. All three of those explanations leave too many unanswered questions, and none really explain the reason the World Trade Center was brought down with a series of explosions, or how suspicious trading indicated there were those with foreknowledge of the crime. Conspiracy theorists also like to conveniently forget that the attack on the World Trade Center was planned and initiated before the Republican National Convention, before George Bush Jr. was even an official candidate for President, much less President. Moreover, there is nothing in the historical record to suggest he is capable of architecting such a solution. At the end of the day, it’s always about the money, and the money trail points to none of the official suspects – Osama Bin Laden or Al Qaeda. However, even after identifying a more realistic suspect, there is no good news in this story for anyone. It is still a story about corrupt and greedy people – however noble they thought their intentions – they are directly responsible for the unnecessary death and suffering of thousands and thousands of innocent people like your parents, children and friends, for no reason other than selfgratification and ego. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 29 1 Unmasking the Faces Behind the Terrorist Threat In the realm of geopolitical turmoil, where political terrorism has taken on an international scope, the world has recently seen the emergence of two major terrorist groups – Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Al Qaeda’ and more recently, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Terrorist incidents around the globe have been attributed to both groups, with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi establishing global notoriety with the video-taped beheading of three hostages in Iraq. In October of 2004, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swore allegiance to Bin Laden, bringing about a merger of what had been seen as separate, but possibly “linked” groups. In a world were the international press had reported that the two leaders were not on friendly terms, and viewed each other as possible rivals, this surprising turn of events drew very little attention in the media. What the Muslim terrorists accomplished, with much fanfare and publicity, was to create the link between Al Qaeda and Iraq that helped justify the US invasion – a link that could not be proven, until someone created it and drew world attention to it. In retrospect, what the world knows about these two groups poses some interesting comparisons, and contradicts the conventional knowledge about these groups. This report attempts to bring a different perspective to the facts as commonly interpreted, and provides an explanation for some significant failures of conventional wisdom. The official U.S. government explanation for the success of Osama Bin Laden is that the foundation for his ability to conduct and support international terror is based on his inherited family wealth, family connections to conservative Saudi philanthropists, and an education that allows him to invest wisely. The conventional ‘unofficial’ explanation is that the CIA and British intelligence made Osama the success he is, and as long as he threatened the stability of Iran, or the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, he received all the arms and money he required. It allowed him to finance an impressive organization, capable of forging passports, moving people across oceans and borders, training 1,000 potential terrorists a month, and making major arms purchases. Subsequent to the sequestering of his funds after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, he appears to have been marginalized – with claim to no major terrorist attacks for over five years. Contrast that to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who comes from an impoverished family with little education. He is a common criminal street thug, with no known source of funding, and essentially comes out of nowhere with newly discovered politico-religious fervor. Without a funding source comparable to Osama Bin Laden, he is able to launch a multinational assault with purported attacks in Hamburg, Chechnya, Madrid (train bombing), Mombassa (hotel bombing) and now, all over Iraq (kidnappings). “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the organisation responsible for the beheadings in Iraq, is regularly portrayed by the US government as a terrorist mastermind, responsible for activity in places as widespread as Hamburg, Chechnya, Madrid and Mombasa. But while there is no doubt that Zarqawi has committed awful crimes, experts say that accusing him has become an easy fall-back for the authorities as they struggle to contain the insurgency. There is no unanimity on whether Zarqawi is a THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 30 henchman of Osama bin Laden or a rival.” [A thug who will stop at nothing to create pure Islamic zone in Middle East, Ewen MacAskill and Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, September 23, 2004] By executing three American hostages – Nick Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley - on videotape (the killing of the British hostage, interestingly, was not video taped), he gained as much international recognition as Osama Bin Laden, to whom he reportedly later swore allegiance and loyalty. If funding is a prerequisite to the level of activity supported by terrorists, one is forced to conclude that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is funded from some unknown source. One is also forced to conclude that al-Zarqawi had access to passport forgery capabilities, and that he had significant connections for the purchase of weapons, explosives, chemicals and more. More simply, the newer, more public Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq represented a mature, sophisticated intelligence operation. In retrospect, it seems as though the videotaped executions attributed to al-Zarqawi were nothing more than an extremely vicious publicity ploy. The kidnappings never really entailed any negotiations around conditions for release, as if the intent all along had been to execute the hostages. A careful review of the facts which surround these executions suggests that little is at is appears. An alternative interpretation of the events is suggested: 1. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is most likely a Mossad counter-espionage front (Whether this group is the original al-Zarqawi, or someone assuming his identity becomes immaterial.) This front was probably established under the direction of General Meir Dagan, current head of the Mossad who was responsible for setting up an Israeli intelligence network in Iraq after the Iraqi-Kuwait War; 2. The executed hostages of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were probably not innocent bystanders and victims, but rather players in the world of espionage. To that point, a number of other, less publicized beheadings were broadcast as the executions of CIA agents. (In passing, one should note that no “Israeli” agents have been publicly executed by this group, although it is reported that Dagan did set up a network in Iraq.) 3. The hostages executed in Iraq were most likely executed by the Mossad for five reasons: 1) to create publicity and credibility for their Muslim front in Iraq, 2) to create American support for Israel against the Muslim threat to Israel’s existence, 3) to clean-up loose ends in their own intelligence world, 4) to send a message to other operatives and intelligence trespassers that the Middle East belongs to the Mossad, and that Mossad deals with its enemies harshly, and 5) to foster divisiveness amongst the Iraqi Muslim population, ultimately resulting in break-up of Iraq into smaller countries – a Balkanization of Iraq. 4. There are, in all likelihood, two arms to the Mossad: one of which is patriotic and public-service oriented, with another that is a more-or-less a rogue operation, heavily infiltrated by Russian mafia, ex-KGB and ex-Israeli Special Forces. This latter side is the ‘dark side’. This group has extensive connections to the international black market in armaments originaring from former Soviet republics. It is linked to the conservative right wing of Israeli politics: Sharon and the Likud Party. The different THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 31 sides of the Mossad work together when it serves their own purposes – but neither controls the other. However incredible this may seem, a review of the public record suggests this interpretation is far more credible than the current, common view that the Muslim terrorists are fanatics striking out against America, and these are random executions meant to create fear. The commonly held interpretation offered by US government press agents is not credible under scrutiny. The probability that a terrorist group could coincidently target three (or more) intelligence agents is pretty slim. The probability that the level of sophistication demonstrated by Musab al-Zarqawi is not the product of a well-established intelligence organization is also pretty slim. The contention that Musab al-Zarqawi is a “front” for a Western ally is not isolated to this terrorist group. As shall later be shown, this contention is consistent with the reports that show that most of the Muslim terrorist groups which ring the former Soviet Union (the “Islamic Liberation Party, the World Wide Islamic Front, the Defenders of the Shariat, the Mukhadjiri movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Al Qaeda) are funded and controlled out of Western capitals by Western diplomats. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 32 2 The Smoking Gun – Nick Berg People who usually turn a blind eye to conspiracies took note of the suspicious nature and inconsistencies of the Nick Berg tragedy. People who have never said “something smells bad here,” were saying just that. Websites across the world were abuzz with observations, supported in some cases by the major media, that suggested that it was not Al Qaeda or Musab al-Zarqawi that executed Nick Berg, but speculated that it was either agents of the US Government or the Israeli secret service. The general trend of the public opinion on websites suggests that because the US had the most to gain by creating a distraction to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandals which were filling the front pages of the press at that time, they are the most likely culprits. The clues, however, point to elements of the Mossad. In doing so, the clues suggest that Mr. Berg was no innocent bystander caught between good and evil. Mr. Berg could find his friends amongst terrorists, the Whitehouse staff and the Russian Mafiya. Mr. Berg probably knew exactly what he was getting into, and the risks! In all likelihood, he was a smoking gun that pointed to dark, ugly secrets. Three premises need to be established: 1) Nick Berg was not killed by Al Qaeda or Musab al-Zarqawi, 2) Nick Berg was killed by the Mossad, and 3) the Mossad had motive to kill Nick. It is this last premise that suggests that the Mossad are the real terrorists, and it reinforces the view that the Mossad deliberately tries to manipulate American public at the expense of the lives of American citizens. Knowing that, however, is not enough. The Mossad – as are all intelligence agencies - are middlemen. They always work for a higher authority, and surprisingly, in this case, that authority is not Israel. The higher authority does not represent a ‘Zionist’ threat. The reader may, at this point, be tempted to disregard this analysis, because its premise is almost too unbelievable to be considered as plausible. Please, read on – because the information is truly overwhelming. 2.1 Nick Berg was not killed by Muslim Terrorists Across many websites, one will find various lists of questions, inconsistencies and observations that suggest the credibility of the videotape of Nick Berg’s execution is seriously challenged, and nothing less than food for suspicion. Fourteen significant inconsistencies and coincidences in such a short video should not be casually dismissed. These inconsistencies include: • Why does a man who wears a scarf to hide his identity announce his name to the public? • Why is the Muslim executioner’s face covered with a scarf when tradition suggests that Muslim executioners do not wear facial coverings? • Why would a fanatical Muslim violate other Muslim tradition such as using the left hand to cover a cough, or THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 33 • Why would a fanatical Muslim wear a large gold ring? • Why would five Muslim executioners be dressed in all-black commando style outfits (except for the clean white sneakers), when you rarely see terrorists in uniform in other videos and news clips? • Why would five Muslim/terrorist executioners be seen to be ‘stocky,’ when every terrorist you’ve ever seen on news video is gaunt? • Why would there be a general consensus that the dialect spoken by the terrorist in the video was not the same as that of the terrorist identified by the CIA, Al-Zarqawi? (Interestingly, the US Army had reported Al-Zarqawi killed by the bombing of Falluja, a month earlier.) Even more interesting, their Arabic is heavily accented (Russian, Jordanian, Egyptian). An aside comment in the video - in Russian - has been translated as "do it quickly". The Russian presence becomes an increasingly important factor as this story emerges. It is not insignificant. • Why didn’t that same terrorist walk with a limp that the one-legged Al-Zarqawi would have? (Although subsequent news reports contend no one is actually sure if Al- Zarqawi is a double amputee, single amputee or an amputee of any sort.) • Why would someone stage a public execution, by cutting off the head of a man already dead? • How does a prisoner of Muslim terrorists come to be wearing an orange jumpsuit, the garb of US prison inmates? • How does it happen that the white chair shown in the execution video is the same style and color of the chairs shown in videos of Abu Ghraib prison, and the painted wall and floor boards the same color as that of Abu Ghraib? (Interestingly, subsequent news revelations by U.S. General Karpansky about the prison have identified “secret” holding sites, which allowed Israeli interrogators to keep prisoners out of public site.) • Why would the Iraqi Police deny holding Berg as a prisoner when the FBI claimed he was an Iraqi Police prisoner? • Why would the US Military deny holding Berg as a prisoner, when the FBI had notified his parents, after investigating, that Berg was a prisoner of the US military? • Why would firearms experts state that the AK-47 carried by one of the purported terrorists in the video was actually a “Galil” – an Israeli made, enhanced AK-47. It is very expensive and generally unavailable to Muslim “terrorists.” There are just too many coincidences and inconsistencies to be ignored. (Web sites on the Internet list as many as fifty such discrepancies, but these appear to be the most pertinent.) Together, they suggest that someone pretended to be Al Qaeda or Musab al- Zarqawi, and did a relatively poor job at it. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 34 2.2 Nick Berg was executed by the elements of the Mossad The clues to this premise are not found in lists across the internet (although the Israeli manufactured Galil is a pretty specialized clue), but rather in the limited information in the news about Nick Berg. It becomes an exercise in ‘connecting the dots,’ which –after being connected, show a very different picture. The more dots – the better the resolution. When the dots are connected, they suggest Berg was not an innocent businessman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. What does the world know about Mr. Berg, given subsequent stories and insights into his life? Berg like to travel, and his passport indicated several trips to the Mideast prior to his final visit to Iraq. Berg previously traveled as a ‘good Samaritan’ to Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. In itself, this is a fairly benign statement, unless one is aware of the Mossad’s extensive history of activity in these three countries for strategic military reasons. He also traveled in Iraq, Israel and Iran. For the last thirty years, the Mossad has been involved in all five countries because of the strong Muslim influence in these countries. As a point of reference which helps demonstrate the significance of this travel pattern, the reader might research the history of Tony Weber in the 1970’s, a known double CIA/Mossad agent in Ghana who went there as a US AID worker (an agency with which Mohammed Atta – the alleged leader of the attack on the World Trade Center – has been reported to have had links). Berg traveled to Israel to study Hebrew and Arabic. Again, this is another incidental fact, until you consider a recently released CIA report from 1979, which described Mossad practices: “One of the established goals of the intelligence and security services is that each officer be fluent in Arabic. A nine month intensive Arabic course is given annually…. As further training, these Mossad officers work in the (Israeli controlled Arab lands) for two years to sharpen their language skills.” Berg told friends he was looking for work in Northern Iraq from a “former customer”. The only telecommunications contracts issued by the US occupation government during that year were to the Israeli firm of Iridium Satellite, whose major customer is the US Department of Defense. This then, was the only possible customer he could have. This also means he worked for Iridium Satellite before going to Iraq. The Mossad’s involvement in the Israeli telecommunications industry has been extensively documented, especially with their involvement in such Israeli firms as Verint (formerly Comverse Infosys) and its infamous wiretap computer programs, and Amdoc, which processes the phone data of all the major US phone companies, coincidentally gaining access to all US phone records. The Iridium Satellite connection is complex, because in addition to it being listed as an Israeli owned firm, Mike Ruppert reports (Crossing the Rubicon, 2004, p128) that Iridium was bought by the Bin Laden group in 1999 from Motorola. The Bin Laden group is controlled by the family of Osama Bin Laden. Cooperation between the Saudi elite and Israeli Mossad is based on a common enemy – the fundamentalist Shi’ites. This cooperation will be demonstrated over and over again throughout this report. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 35 Prior to being in Iraq, Nick Berg developed a relationship with Aziz Kadoory Aziz, also known as Aziz al-Taee. In Iraq, he linked up Aziz again. Aziz talked to Nick on the last day he was seen, and reports that Nick had found transportation to Jordan with “friends.” Aziz has a relevant background. Having left Iraq in 1993, he came to Philadelphia, where he got involved with the Russian Mafiya - a network run by a Soviet immigrant named Valery Sigal. (Sigal was arrested at least three times, once for involvement in distribution of drugs, and once for involvement with stolen computers, and once for selling counterfeit disks.) Aziz met Nick in the US, and Nick used his office in Baghdad. This strange linkage to the Russian underworld will continue to become a highly redundant phenomenon as this investigation unfolds, as many of the Israeli secret service are demonstrated to have roots in the underworld of the former Soviet Union. More curious though than the link to the Russian Mafiya is Aziz’s link to Washington DC based, neo-conservative, pro-Israeli group known as PNAC (Project for a New American Century), and a web site fronting for this group having labeled Nick Berg’s company (Prometheus Methods Tower Service) as a “traitor.” (See Section 4.1: Project for a New American Century) This website had trademarked a list known as the “Traitors List,” where those listed are accused of being anti-American. Nick’s father and Nick’s company were both identified on this list as “Traitors.” The owner of this site would later hire Jeff Gannon/(aka Jeff Guckert) as its Media Director. It seems that shortly after the murder of Nick Berg, Joe Aziz returned to the US to make a living with speaking engagements promoting the official US Government position in Iraq. As part of this promotional tour, Joe Aziz was escorted and introduced in US political circles by Jeff Gannon/Jeff Guckert of the Talon News Service. (Gannon/Guckert would later be exposed as a $200 an hour male prostitute who made over 200 trips to the Whitehouse, according to Secret Service log books at the Whitehouse.) Shortly after Nick Berg’s company was labeled “traitor” by the PNAC website, Nick was befriended by a convicted felon who traveled to Iraq with Nick and become the last known person to see Nick alive. After Nick’s murder, this same ‘instant business partner’ was then shopped around Washington DC by the same group that had labeled Nick’s company “traitor,” and promoted by a pro-Israeli website. (The role of the PNAC members in the events of September 11 is discussed in detail in later chapters.) Berg’s execution took place in Mosul. Mosul has been a hotbed of Mossad activity for strategic defense reasons. The Mossad has long worked in this region to promote its strategy of a weaker Iraq, created by supporting and fomenting rebellion in the Kurdish northeast. If the Mossad is active in Iraq at all, it will be active in Mosul. It has been reported by people who knew Nick in Iraq that Nick had the peculiar habit of traveling and working at night. When he was picked up by the Iraqi Police he was held because of "suspicious activity." His residence in Mosul was also suspicious. Staff at Al- Fanar Hotel in Baghdad apparently told The Associated Press that Berg stayed there for several days until April 10. It was reported that a U.S. Consul contract worker checked at the hotel on 4/14, and staff there did not remember Berg. It seems that a lot of people THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 36 who knew Nick Berg in his last days also had memory problems and retracted their stories: the police, the military, the hotel staff, and later, the press in Norman, Oklahoma. It would appear that some intelligence organization with influence was “cleaning up” after the execution of Nick berg. Prior to 9/11 and his murder in Iraq, Nick Berg spent time in Norman, Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma. In Norman, this highly ‘tech-savvy’ student supposedly shared his email password with an Arab stranger, possibly even Zacarias Moussaoui himself. The FBI found Nick’s email password (not his email address – his password that allowed him to send emails) amongst the information it confiscated from Moussaoui, an indicted 9/11 conspirator. "The FBI searched Zacarias Moussaoui's computer after the 9/11 attack and found Nick Berg's email account and password on it. When interviewed by them, Berg reportedly explained that when he was a student at the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1999, he allowed a stranger on a bus ride to use his email. The stranger turned out to be an associate of Moussaoui, we are told, and gave him Berg's password and email account name. This was reported by CNN and other news organizations. There are several big reasons to be extremely skeptical about this story and to wonder what kind of fools the FBI agents were who bought it. One glaring fact is that, according to his indictment, Moussaoui did not show up in the United States until February of 2001." [Anyone Shopping for a Bridge in Brooklyn? If You Believe Nick Berg's Story to the FBI I'll Sell You One, by Michael Wright] An interesting side-bar note on this event is that it is possible Nick knew more than one of these “terrorists.” “Previous reports spoke of but one, met on the bus. Berg's father, however, alluded to more than one. Ewing2000 quotes NewsMax -- not a reliable source -- to the effect that Berg met with Zacarias Moussaoui himself, an assertion conflicting with previous reports that Berg met a Moussaoui associate. More than that: The FBI apparently thinks that Berg"may have known" Moussaoui's two roommates, also tied to Al Qaeda.” [Unidentified web source- type any text into Google to locate source] The question arises: why was Nick Berg at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma? In Norman OK, one also finds the Norman Flight School, which has also been documented as a gathering location for such terrorists as Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Nawaf Alhazmi, and Khalid Mohammed. The link between the Norman Flight School and the University of Oklahoma is that students from the Norman Flight School stay in dormitories on the University campus. Students and police have testified to the strange behavior of Mr. Berg – in particular of his sleeping on couches in dormitories around campus. It might be fair to surmise that he was looking for someone by spending time in the dorm lounges. He was also arrested twice by the campus police for trespassing, but these records have disappeared. A couple of other random bits of information put more context to this scenario. The Mossad has been identified as active in Oklahoma City as far back as the Oklahoma City bombing. It is oddly strange that a student who is interested in telecommunication technology transfers to the Norman campus of the University of Oklahoma? One generally goes to a third college when you want to specialize – there is no Telecommunications Program in Norman. Is it possible that Nick (or a close associate) was the unknown “white male student” that made reservations on an Oklahoma University library computer terminal, for Flight 77 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 37 that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11? Was it possible his two arrests for trespassing on the campus (by Campus Police) were associated with his gathering of intelligence? Given that he spent no time in jail as a repeast offender for burglary or trespassing, should one assume he had ‘highly placed’ protection? (Possibly the President of OSU, Mr, David Boren, former CIA Director.) Around the same time, Mr. Berg had work installing telecommunications equipment at the Republican National Convention in 2000. Here, Ellis Kitchen, who managed the telecommunications implementation at the convention, would have pulled him into this assignment. Ellis is an interesting person, with virtually no public record. As a public official without a biography, all we know is that he ran special technology projects for the George Bush Whitehouse between 2001 and 2003, and that he arranged ‘secure satellite communications’ for sixty countries during that time. Two themes emerge on this information: high tech satellite communications, and the need to keep a low personal profile. Even more interesting are the three additional coincidences embedded in this tidbit of information. 1) Mr. Berg had connections in the Bush Whitehouse when he was executed. 2) In the space of less than a year, Nick Berg was bumping up against international terrorists, the PNAC, the Russian Mafiya, and the elite of the Republican Party security apparatus. The closeness of these two activities provided a much more compelling reason for the FBI to be investigating Nick Berg. 3) The security checks of the Republican National party convention – classified by the Secret Service as a National Security Special Event, who therefore vetted all convention personnel – somehow overlooked the public record that Nick Berg had been twice arrested for trespassing just months before. However, maybe this record was overlooked because of the vouching of George Tenet, Bush’s Director of the CIA. Tenet, (who had extremely close, personal ties to the President of the University of Oklahoma at Norman: David Boren - a former CIA director himself,) was in a position to provide a personal reference and introduction for Mr. Berg. Mr. Berg was the supposed owner of an unregistered, non-existent company called Prometheus Methods Tower Service. The fact that his company was not registered anywhere is not a big issue in-and-of-itself. A lot of consulting entrepreneurs do not register as a company. The company name also seems fairly benign: “Prometheus Methods.” The very interesting aspect of this clue, however, is the company name. ‘Prometheus Methods’ refers to one thing only – an extremely sophisticated computer program for solving extremely complex problems, using parallel processing. Again, this would be a benign fact until you learn that the creator of Prometheus Methods works for Sandia International, a weapons research firm, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, and a significant player in research and development for US national security. The Prometheus Methods technology is based on MPI programming, which simplifies the generation of code generation for running programs on multiple processors, creating in effect, a large supercomputer. Also, seemingly benign and unrelated, is the Mossad connection to spy ware distributed through its Israeli companies Odigo (instant messaging), Zone Labs and Cydoor (maker of Kazaa, and probably contributing to the core code of Grokster as well). By planting spy ware and backdoors on over 50 million home computers, the Mossad has created the foundation for the largest wide area network computational grid THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 38 on the globe. A documented example of this is Zone Labs. Zone Labs is an Israeli owned (Checkpoint Technologies Software Company) provider of “security software product” for home PCs. “A Perfect Spy? It seems that ZoneAlarm Security Suite has been phoning home, even when told not to. Last fall, InfoWorld Senior Contributing Editor James Borck discovered ZA 6.0 was surreptitiously sending encrypted data back to four different servers, despite disabling all of the suite’s communications options. Zone Labs denied the flaw for nearly two months, then eventually chalked it up to a “bug” in the software -- even though instructions to contact the servers were set out in the program’s XML code. A company spokesmodel says a fix for the flaw will be coming soon and worried users can get around the bug by modifying their Host file settings. However, there’s no truth to the rumor that the NSA used ZoneAlarm to spy on U.S. citizens.” [ZoneAlarm phones home, Apple throws Intel a bone Does crabby columnist deserve a raise, or is he just being shellfish? Robert X. Cringely® infoworld, January 13, 2006] The appropriate question is, how does an entrepreneur who repairs communication towers happen to be familiar with a truly obscure algorithm that has no publicly known connection to tower communications, but is a key component of the national intelligence arsenal. It is fair to speculate that he probably learned of this method from Dr. Arthur Breipohl, of the University of Oklahoma at Norman. Dr. Breipohl specializes in the analysis of random data and processes, and was a consultant to Sandia International for many years. (This story will coincidently (?) run into another main character named Dr. Diethart Breipohl of Germany, former CFO for Allianz. Arthur Breipohl, of Norman, was reportedly born in Higginsville, MO in 1931, the son of immigrant parents. If one looks at the pictures of Arthur and Diethart however, one might swear they were brothers. At the moment, their relationship has not been proven, but most likely they are cousins.) In a final piece of irony (?), the essence of Prometheus Methods is to create programs that solve problems on a single processor without communicating with the other processors, until called into play by a master or ‘global’ program – exactly like the organization he was watching, and also part of. A strong case can be made for the argument that Mr. Berg was an agent of the Mossad starting as what is referred to as a sayanim. (These are citizens in countries other than Isarel who have 100% Jewish heritage, can be considered sympathetic to the fate of Israel, and are recruited for specific Israeli intelligence needs.) Nearly everything the public knows about Nick can link him to the Mossad. Most people are murdered by someone they know. The Galil (the Israeli version of the AK47) and the strategic interests of the Mossad puts them at the scene of the crime. There are plenty of documented cases where the Mossad has been caught in the midst of a false flag operation, including the creation of phony Al Qaeda cells. The Mossad deals brutally with those who cross it. Rabbi Dov Zakheim, former Undersecretary of Defense, who has acknowledged knowing Mossad agents, described how Israelis deal with those perceived as traitors: "… I had heard of the virtual brutality with which the Israelis dealt with those who opposed them, especially if they were Jewish. …. Since the Israelis played hardball, and played it personally, I figured THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 39 that I would soon be on their hit list." [Dov S. Zakheim, Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S. Israeli Crisis, Brassey's, Washington 1996, p 21] From another source, one finds the same approach to guaranteeing silence: “Moser is a Jewish word for "rat-fink" or informer--punishable by death according to historical culture.” [Missile & remote control systems added to small jets before 9-11; same parts found at Pentagon, Tom Flocco, TomFlocco.com, 5/26/2005] The MO (mode of operation) for this crime fits the Mossad. What remains to be determined is motive. 2.3 Why the Mossad killed Nick Berg –Motive There are two possible explanations for motive. At one level, Berg committed a serious breach of security when he publicly created a link between the Mossad and the US telecommunications sector by naming his company after “Prometheus Methods.” By naming the company after this program, he demonstrated a willingness to be cavalier with security and intelligence information. It may be that this name was purposely meant to be a pointer back to Dr. Breipohl, for reason which will become a little clearer, later in the article. On several occasions in the recent past, the FBI has rigorously investigated Mossad penetration of the US telecommunications infrastructure, without any successful prosecution. Berg may have been the link they needed to indict the Mossad on this issue. Maybe that alone was cause for the Mossad to eliminate him. The probable cause is more ominous. A second theory is a founded on – but varies significantly from - research by Michael Phillip Wright and available on his website, and supported by an article in the British magazine Eye Spy (viii, 2002). There are literally dozens of websites that support versions or portions of this conspiratorial view of the WTC tragedy (including a 60 minute special by Fox News that was never aired, but released on CD,) in which the Mossad is demonstrated to be at the core of activity leading up to the attack. This theory suggests that the WTC attack was a FBI/CIA sting operation that went wrong. In this theory, the CIA and FBI, through its informants and through various intelligence agencies, were very well aware of, and allowed, the activities of 9/11. They believed the planes would be hijacked – with nothing more spectacular planned. They had a number of agents on each plane (assuming they knew that four or more planes were targeted) who were unable to prevent the disaster when they discovered the plan was not unfolding as they had been advised. These theories have no explanation as to why the “sting” went wrong. This report suggests the reason the plan failed was because the CIA was being misled by the Mossad, who wanted this event to be fully executed. In this theory, Mr. Nicholas Berg was a small player, but had the knowledge and the willingness to disclose his role. To prevent this, he needed to be silenced. This second theory becomes more viable when one considers that the Russians, Germans, British and Israelis have gone on public record as saying that they had notified the US THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 40 administration a couple of months prior to the attack that terrorists were planning on using planes to attack significant national institutions. "Israeli intelligence officials say that they warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent. The Telegraph has learnt that two senior experts with Mossad, the Israeli military intelligence service, were sent to Washington in August to alert the CIA and FBI to the existence of a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation...."[Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks, Daily Telegraph, 11/19/2001] "…The Mossad, Israel's feared secret service, gave the US an urgent warning, according to recent reports from Germany. These reports say that on August 23, 2001, the Mossad gave the CIA a list of terrorists living in the US and said that they appeared to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future. Apparently this warning and list were not treated as particularly urgent by the CIA and also not passed on to the FBI." [Deer Spiegel, 10/1/02] "August 23, 2001: According to German newspapers, the Mossad gave the CIA a list of 19 terrorists living in the US and said that it appeared that they were planning to carry out an attack in the near future. It is unknown if these are the same exact 19 names as the actual hijackers or if the number is a coincidence. However, at least four names did refer to actual 9/11 hijackers: Napa Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta." [Die Zeit, 10/1/02, Der Spiegel, 10/1/02, BBC, 10/2/02, Haaretz, 10/3/02] "As late as August 24, less than two weeks before the attacks, a Mossad warning, confirmed by German intelligence, BND, said that 'terrorists plan to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." [Globe-Intel. Number 104, 21/05/02] "On Monday 6, August, 2001, at 17:50, Ambassador Ischinger personally notified the President of the United States that information developed by the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz as well as the BND indicated that an attack by a radical Arab group partially based in Germany was to occur on 10- 11 September, 2001." The information was "gratefully received" by the US President who stated at the time that he was also aware of the same pending assaults. Subsequent to these attacks, the office of the US President, through the US Department of State, made an urgent request to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany that no reference whatsoever should be made to the official warnings given by Ambassador Ischinger." [Translation of BND Report on September 11, 2001] "... According to our intelligence agents among terrorists there were at least two Uzbeks, natives of Fergana who arrived in the USA on forged documents about ten months ago.... The organization of the International Terrorist, according to Russian Intelligence Service agents had been planning an operation against the USA more than a year and a half." [Russia Warned US of Impending 9-11 Attacks, Izvestia (Russian Newspaper), 11/12/2001] "Russian President Vladimir Putin has said publicly that he ordered his intelligence agencies to alert the United States last summer that suicide pilots were training for attacks on U.S. targets."[Clues Alerted White House to Potential Attacks, Fox News, 5/17/2002] “There was a story that ran on the front page of The London Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post, BBC.com and several other news websites on the morning of Sept 12, 2001 that said George Tenet had received a detailed warning of the attack 12 days before from the head of MI-6 on a special line that was only used for fully vetted, verified info that was urgent and impending, requiring immediate action.” If there is any thought that the official explanation for 9/11 makes this type of information moot, that thought should be reconsidered. The 9/11 Commission Report attempts to gloss over reports from other intelligence agencies, and contends that there THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 41 was a “major failure” in communications. Willie Brown, former Mayor of San Francisco, knows that is not true. Reported and dropped by the press: "For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he got a call from what he described as his airport security -- a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel." [Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel, Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/12/2001] A subsequent report clarifies that the source of the information was Condoleeza Rice, Head the National Security Agency. "According to a report today Friday, May 17, 2002, on Pacifica Radio, the warning to San Francisco's mayor came from squeaky-clean Condoleezza Rice." [http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/02/05/Bush_knew2.html] This suggests the people who were in a position to stop this act were possibly acting negligently. Ms. Rice has denied this claim, the response to which has already been made by a former FBI translator: "A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened. She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie". 'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes' " [Whistleblower the White House wants to silence speaks to The Independent, The Independent, Andrew Buncombe, 4/2/2004] Similarly, Congressional Intelligence committee leadership was aware of the specific threat to the World Trade Center towers. Randall Glass, FBI informant on the Kevin Ingram money laundering sting, has gone on record as having advised Florida Senator Bob Graham and his staff that Pakistani agents had specifically identified the Towers as targets in the very near term. It will later be shown that the FBI advised its FBI office in the North Tower of the World Trade Center to “harden” its data storage center in preparation for just such an attack. The data center was “hardened” a few months before the attack. While one can understand how representatives of the Israeli government might be aware of such plans, the fact that the only other national intelligence agencies to warn the US were Russian and German is of particular importance. Why would the Russians, Germans and Israelis be knowledgeable about these plans? This might be viewed as a meaningless question, but the answer is extremely important. The answer to this question is provided later, as the participation of the criminal organizations of these three countries unfold. Berg, as a probable agent of the Mossad, was identified by the FBI as having more than coincidental interplay with the 9/11 terrorists prior to the actual event. There is a large quantity of publicly available information and documented fact which can testify to the Mossad’s foreknowledge of the attack, found in six pieces of evidence: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 42 1. the notices sent to Israeli’s in the WTC two hours prior to the attack, advising them to not be in the building-(The occurrence of this message is now publicly confirmed by the executives of that Israeli company – Odigo.) 2. the five Israelis caught by the police on 9/11, dancing and shouting in joy at the destruction of the WTC, (After being detained for several months, these Israelis were released to the Israeli government, and returned to Israel.) These five were part of a group of 100 detained in the weeks immediately after 9/11. “Five of the Israelis, say Galloway, were arrested after "Angry witnesses had seen the five at a waterfront park in New Jersey apparently laughing and clowning, and photographing themselves in front of the burning towers." An FBI surveillance team had been monitoring the five and took photographs of their activities. One of the five Israeli had assumed a first name of Omer, which is close to the Arabic name Omar. Another had a German passport in addition to his Israeli passport. A third had an international flight booked to Thailand for September 13-two days after the highjackings. Yet another of the five Israelis was discovered by the FBI to be a former paratrooper, assigned to an elite Israeli defense forces unit. Two more Israeli Jews were arrested in a truck on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, near the site of the crash of American Airlines flight 93. A box cutter like the ones used in the airliner highjackings was found in their truck along with other incriminating evidence… FBI investigators believe that most of the 100 men detained are part of an Israeli intelligence unit operating out of New Jersey, near where the Anthrax letters were mailed. Israeli officials are desperately trying to paint the incident as a "mere mistake"-just some silly young men clowning around, unconnected to an official intelligence group.” [Israelis trapped in terror roundups cause worry at home, anger at U.S. Jim Galloway, The Atlanta Constitution, November 18, 2001] 3. the coincidental presence of an Israeli anti-terrorist, special forces martial arts training expert, on Flight 77. His name was Daniel Lewin. Even more coincidental, he was the only person shot on all four planes, and he was shot by terrorist sitting next to him. The news of a gun being used on this passenger, initially reported in the media, has since been “retracted” as an erroneous, “officially never happened” message. What are the odds that a terrorist, unassisted, would be sitting next to (or behind) a counter-terrorist expert, have a gun (on a plane!), know that he needed to kill the man next to him, and know that a box-knife wasn’t going to be of much use against a person with Lewin’s combat skills? "The "Executive Summary," based on information relayed by a flight attendant to the American Airlines Operation Center, stated "that a passenger located in seat 10B shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B at 9:20 a.m. The passenger killed was Daniel Lewin, shot by passenger Satam Al Suqami." The FAA claims that the document is a "first draft," declining to release the final draft, as it is "protected information." [See the FAA memo, originally posted at World Net Daily] "A report in Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on Sept. 17 identifies Lewin as a former member of the Israel Defense Force Sayeret Matkal, Israel's most successful special-operations unit. "[UPI, 3/6/02]. 4. the existence of Mossad living quarters within a block of the addresses known to shelter Muslim terrorists in Florida and Oklahoma City (as documented by the US Drug Enforcement Agency), "Mohammed Atta, the presumed lead hijacker had lived at 3389 Sheridan St, only a few blocks away from the Fake Israeli Art Students! "[Le Monde 3/5/02; Reuters 3/5/02; Jane's Intelligence Digest, 3/15/02; Salon, 5/7/02] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 43 5. the actual arrest and release of Mossad agents in Florida, who were mistaken to be terrorists by local citizens, but were actually tracking Muslim terrorists. These agents were also released and returned to Israel. 6. Actual warnings of the attack from the Israeli secret service to members of the CIA. On this point, it is appropriate to point out that all agencies have their “rogues” – which does not detract from the integrity of honest and committed patriots, who probably sought to prevent this attack. This report contends that rogue Mossad/ex- KGB agents played a significant role in the attack. Moreover, members or associates of the Mossad were in a position to enable the hijackers to get through airport security. Security at Logan Airport, from which two planes were hijacked, is managed by International Consultants on Targeted Security, (ICTS) through its' subsidiary Huntleigh USA. It is run by "former (Israeli) military commanding officers and veterans of government intelligence and security agencies" (according to the Huntleigh Web site). The company was owned primarily by Menachem Atzmon and his business partner Ezra Harel (57%). Atzmon is the former financial controller for the Likud, (the ultra right wing Israeli political party) and spent several years in prison for campaign fraud. The Likud connection will later be shown to be important. "September 11, 2001: Later in the day, weapons are found planted inside three other US airplanes. A US official says of the hijackings, "These look like inside jobs." The only footage of the hijackers boarding airplanes on 9/11 is of two boarding a connecting flight in Maine. Could the reason that no other footage has been released be that the hijackers entered the airplanes via backdoors with the help of accomplices? As a matter of fact, "Sources tell Time that US officials are investigating whether the hijackers had accomplices deep inside the airports' 'secure' areas." [Time, 9/22/01] There is plenty of information to conclude that agents of the Mossad not only knew of the attack far in advance, but may have actually facilitated it. Now, here was Berg – who could directly link the Mossad to the terrorists prior to 9/11, who had a loose lip, had been uncovered by the FBI, and was being pressured by the FBI. That is why Moussaoui had Berg’s email password – Berg and Moussaoui were on the same team. Berg was the smoking gun that had to be eliminated. Berg was the proof of complicity between what is made to appear to be two separate groups: Al Qaeda and the Mossad. There is far too much ‘obviously planted’ information in the official FBI story line that suggests that someone wanted the world to believe Al Qaeda attacked the WTC, and that the real instigators may not have been who they pretended to be. (If you haven’t taken the time to familiarize yourself with the research on the ‘planted information’, conduct an Internet search for one of the many sites that publish the lists). There is documentation in the commercial press regarding how the Mossad sets up phony Al Qaeda cells, and how they have been known to run ‘false-flag’ operations for the past thirty years. Rowan Scarborough, in The Washington Times, on September 10, 2001, reported the release of a 68-page paper by the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS). This report commented on the Israeli secret service: “Of the MOSSAD, the Israeli intelligence service, the SAMS officers say: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S. forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act." Evidently the School of Advanced Military Studies did not embrace the Mossad as an organization it could wholly trust. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 44 The information that identifies CIA/FBI involvement with the actual World Trade Center terrorists in the months prior to 9/11 is far too compelling to ignore. • Government officials from Russia, Israel and Germany have publicly stated they shared specific information and warnings with the CIA. (The CIA has denied this.) • The CIA/FBI has had known operatives working in Norman, Oklahoma. "As early as 1996 the FBI began investigating the activities of Arab students at US flight schools. Government officials admitted that “law enforcement officials were aware that fewer than a dozen people with links to bin Laden had attended US flight schools.” FBI agents visited two flight schools in 1996 to get information about several Arab pilots who received training there. The two schools were among those attended by Abdul Hakim Murad, who had told Philippine and US police about plans to fly a hijacked plane into CIA headquarters. In 1998 FBI agents questioned officials from Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma about a graduate identified in court testimony as a pilot for Osamabin Laden. This was the school later attended by Zacarias Moussaoui. A Washington Post article concludes: “Since 1996, the FBI had been developing evidence that international terrorists were using US flight schools to learn to fly jumbo jets. A foiled plot in Manila to blow up U.S. airliners and later court testimony by an associate of bin Laden had touched off FBI inquiries at several schools, officials say.” [Washington Post, 11/23/2001, “FBI Knew Terrorists Were Using Flight Schools,” by Steve Fainaru and James V. Grimaldi] "Beginning in early 2001 a trial was held in New York City of four defendants charged with involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The trial revealed that two bin Laden operatives had received pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma and another had been asked to take lessons. L’Houssaine Kherchtou, a bin Laden associate turned government witness, told the court how he was asked to take flying lessons in 1993. Another bin Laden aide, Essam al-Ridi, testified that he had bought a military aircraft for bin Laden and flown it to Sudan. Al-Ridi became a government witness in 1998, giving the FBI inside information about a pilottraining scheme three years before the September 11 attack. While the proceedings of the trial extended from February to July 2001, they did not produce any heightened alert in relation to US commercial aviation." [Court transcript available at www.cryptome.org[ "(David) Edger "arrived on the OU (Oklahoma University) campus in August 2001 to begin his duties as a visiting professor in the political science department. Up until that month he had responsibility for surveillance of the Al Qaeda cell in Germany, whose membership included Ramzi bin Al-Shibh, paymaster for the Al Qaeda organization, and Mohammed Atta, a hijacker on one of the airliners which crashed into the World Trade Center (WTC). Edger was described by The Norman Transcript as an "expert in intelligence collection, counterintelligence investigations, and political action”. The newspaper also reports that he has directed espionage and counterespionage activities. Edger was in Chile in 1973 when the CIA was overthrowing the Allende government." [Current Results about possible connections between Thomas Volz (CIA) and David Edger (ex-CIA), By Ewing2001, 8/26/2003] • There are FBI agents that have been trying to expose as false the US government claims that it was not aware of the details of the terrorist threat. "David Schippers, the well-respected veteran D. C. lawyer (he served as lead prosecutor for the Clinton impeachment and is admired for his decades of effort fighting organized crime), has gone public with an announcement that he is representing three FBI agents who had evidence of the 9/11 attacks months beforehand and were ready to arrest the suspects, but were blocked by their superiors and taken off the case. Schippers had been in contact with these FBI agents since before the attacks (owing to ongoing investigations he had been making into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing) and for several months before 9/11 attempted personally to present information about THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 45 the upcoming attacks to Attorney General Ashcroft and several members of Congress, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert. In every case, he was stonewalled. After 9/11, he continued to follow up with this issue privately through his own government connections, but to no avail. So, he has taken to the airwaves (talk radio only so far; it looks like there's a blackout on this in the mainstream media). Judicial Watch, a legal reform watchdog organization, is now representing one of the agents (who has filed an official complaint with the FBI, by the way) and is advocating for a full investigation." [http://www.judicialwatch org/ 1075. shtml] There were at least four organizations involved in the planning of the 9/11 attack on the WTC: terrorists, the Mossad, the FBI, and the CIA. (The role of an additional organization will later be elaborated.) These four were pretty much aware of each other’s participation in the scenario that was unfolding. If the CIA and FBI were already aware of the presence of the Mossad, why would they be so interested in Nick Berg? Probably because he could offer the FBI information they did not have – the realization that the WTC terrorists were really Mossad agents to begin with; that the Mossad really were not watching the terrorists, but were there to watch their back, if not to make sure they completed the assignment for which they were recruited. "It is very evident from surveillance conducted against Mossad agents in the Federal Republic as well as interceptions of Israeli diplomatic communication from the Federal Republic to Tel Aviv, that the Mossad has successfully penetrated various extremist Arab groups in both the Federal Republic and the United States. These investigations disclosed in late May of 2001 that an attack was to be made against certain specified targets in the American cities of Washington and New York. But it was apparent that the Mossad was not only fully aware of these attacks well in advance but actually, though their own agents inside these Arab groups, assisted in the planning and the eventual execution of the attacks. That the Israeli government was fully aware of these attack is absolutely certain and proven. Diplomatic traffic between the Israeli Embassy in the Federal Republic and the Israeli Foreign Office made it very clear that Minister President Sharon was fully aware of this pending attack and urgently wished that no attempt was made to prevent the attacks." [Translation of BND Report on September 11, 2001] Why would elements of the Mossad do such a thing? There are multiple reasons for this attack, and these will be explained further on in the report. For the moment, it is safe to say the reasons include the same reason they publicized the death of Nick Berg: to influence the American public to wage war on Israel’s enemies, and support the new, right wing Israeli assault on Palestine. Nick Berg knew that, and had to be silenced. Nick Berg’s father stated that “Al Qaeda had killed their best friend”- which most likely was the case because Nick was the one person who could clear Al Qaeda of responsibility for the attack on the World Trade Center. Clearing the name of Al Qaeda, however, is only a small part of this investigation, because if Al Qaeda did not orchestrate the attack, it begs the question: who did? 2.4 Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden With the evidence pointing at Israeli agents, an appropriate question to reflect on is “What about the ‘confession’ of Osama Bin Laden on videotape captured during the invasion of Afghanistan? Did he not admit to being responsible the attack?” Americans probably have all seen the officially translated version of that videotape, where Osama talks about planning the structural collapse of the building with the jet fuel in the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 46 airliners, and about how the operatives knew nothing of the plan until the last minute. With Osama directly implicating himself and Mohammed Atta, how does that fit with this analysis? The answer to this question is a lot easier to establish than some of the other questions presented by this investigation. There are a number of observations found in the foreign press that need to be brought into play, to make four arguments: 1. The videotape “proof” presented by the US Justice Department is a doctored tape. "Whether or not the voice was his can be debatable. The Arabic-speaking contact of Pravda.Ru in Lisbon pointed out that anyone could have dubbed on the voices because there are no close-ups of the lips of the people while speaking. What he could hear was a lot of mumbling and during the mumbling, the supposed translation comes up with some incriminating phrases." [Timothy Bancrofy-Hinche, Pravda.Ru] "Prof. Gernot Rotter, professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies at the Asia-Africa Institute at the University of Hamburg sums it up: "The American translators who listened to the tapes and transcribed them apparently wrote a lot of things in that they wanted to hear but that cannot be heard on the tape no matter how many times you listen to it." [German TV channel "Das Erste", on the show Monitor, 12/20/2001] "Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini, one of the translators, states, "I have carefully examined the Pentagon's translation. This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of Bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic." [German TV channel "Das Erste", on the show Monitor, 12/20/2001] If for some reason, someone would not want to believe the US Government would do such things, they should talk to Sibel Edmonds, a translator for the FBI, who claimed, before being legally silenced by the US Attorney General, that her work was distorted: "FBI translator Sibel Edmonds was offered a substantial raise and a full time job to encourage her not to go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA. Edmonds, a ten year U.S. citizen who has passed a polygraph examination, speaks fluent Farsi and Turkish and had been working part time with the FBI for six months--commencing in December, 2001. "In a 50 reporter frenzy in front of some 12 news cameras, Edmonds said "Attorney General John Ashcroft told me 'he was invoking State Secret Privilege and National Security' when I told the FBI I wanted to go public with what I had translated from the pre 9-11 intercepts." “I appeared once on CBS 60 Minutes but I have been silenced by Mr. Ashcroft, the FBI follows me, and I was threatened with jail in 2002 if I went public," Edmonds told tomflocco.com.[DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts, by Tom Flocco, 3/24/2004] To reinforce her story, consider the following report in the Washington Post of a former CIA agent, suing in US court, that he was forced to distort information about weapons of mass destruction, and was punished for not complying with the command. "WASHINGTON — A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused. The operative, who remains under cover, claims in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma." ….(The context of the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 47 lawsuit) context make clear the officer's work related to prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." [Ex-CIA officer alleges agency retaliated after he didn't falsify report, Dana Priest, The Washington Post, 12/9/2004] So far, the evidence has demonstrated that an FBI translator, two freelance translators, a CIA agent and three FBI agents have publicly stated that the US government has actively falsified evidence in this investigation. For some, this will come as no surprise. 2. Osama, while never claiming responsibility, has actually denied responsibility, and said the video ‘discovered’ by the US forces in Afghanistan is a fake. This reference in the Pakistani press is generally ignored. "(There is) an interview with the real Osama bin Laden, published in a Karachi, Pakistan newspaper, the Daily UMMAT, on September 28. In that interview, bin Laden denied any involvement in the September 11 attacks in the US, and pointed out Islam strictly forbids the killing of women and children, even in the heat of battle. "[www.Public-Action.com] In subsequent messages, he continually seeks to instigate defiance against Western culture – but he has never officially accepted responsibility for the attack on the WTC. 3. Osama, according to a number of intelligence agencies, is not the person to be blaming. Whoever actually runs the terrorist operation is an unknown entity. "Prince Nayef, head of Saudi security observed last week, Osama bin Laden is largely a figurehead. Its real leaders, said the prince, echoing this column's view, remain as yet unknown and are likely outside Afghanistan. "[Toronto Sun, 12/17/2001] 4. If Bin Laden is the guilty terrorist the US Government claims he is, why has the government gone out of its way to avoid capturing him? At least three times (some reports suggest the US avoided arresting him on at least 11 occasions) prior to the WTC attack, and once after, American officials have declined to take the steps necessary when they knew where he was: "…Bin Laden… was originally offered for extradition by Sudan, but then apparently allowed to head for Afghanistan in 1996 with barely a whimper from the US. Here is the world's most wanted man, explaining how he acquired his substantial arsenal during the 1980s: 'I settled in Pakistan, in the Afghan border region. There I received volunteers, trained by Pakistani and American officers. The weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis'....." [Guardian, 12/18/2001] "The Taliban's unprecedented offer to extradite bin Laden to a third country, well before the Sept. 11 attacks, was reported by the Times of London in February. In September, this newspaper reported on the often cozy relationship between Washington and the Taliban. Last month, the Washington Post reported that Sudan had offered in 1996 to extradite bin Laden, who was wanted at that time for attacks on U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia.” [Toronto Star, 11/27/2001] "Dubai … was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July. A partner of the administration of the American Hospital in Dubai claims that public enemy number one stayed at this hospital between the 4th and 14th of July..... While he was hospitalised, bin Laden received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. During the hospital stay, the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking the main elevator of the hospital to go to bin Laden's hospital room. A few days later, the CIA man bragged to a few friends about having visited bin Laden. Authorised sources say that THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 48 on July 15th, the day after bin Laden returned to Quetta, the CIA agent was called back to headquarters]... According to Arab diplomatic sources as well as French intelligence, very specific information was transmitted to the CIA with respect to terrorist attacks against American interests around the world, including on US soil. A DST report dated 7 September enumerates all the intelligence, and specifies that the order to attack was to come from Afghanistan." [The CIA met Bin Laden while undergoing treatment at an American Hospital last July in Dubai, Le Figaro, 11/10/2001] "US generals made it clear by the end of November that they believed senior al-Qa'eda operatives were inside Tora Bora. A convoy of several hundred Arab fighters, including bin Laden and his close associates, entered it from Jalalabad on the night of Nov 12, and the US bombing around the base intensified three days later. The US strategy bore little logic for those suffering the brunt of the attacks. 'When we round up a pack of stray sheep, we send in shepherds from four sides, not just one,' said Malik Osman Khan, a one-eyed tribal chief whose 16-year-old son Wahid Ullah was one of more than 100 Afghan civilians killed in the intense US bombing ....The eastern Afghanistan intelligence chief for the country's new government, Pir Baksh Bardiwal, was astounded that the Pentagon planners of the battle for Tora Bora had failed to even consider the most obvious exit routes. He said: 'The border with Pakistan was the key, but no one paid any attention to it. And there were plenty of landing areas for helicopters had the Americans acted decisively. Al-Qa'eda escaped right out from under their feet.'..."[Daily Telegraph, 2/23/2002] Bin Laden may be a lot of things, both good and bad, but it seems that being the “fall guy” (whether intentional or not) for the WTC attack seems to be the most appropriate interpretation of his role. The US (and British) governments set him up with financing, weapons and connections. They studiously avoided capturing him, both before and after the attack on the World Trade Center, and after his classification as “criminal mastermind.” Unable to find real evidence, they have created fake video evidence of his guilt. The government has not produced a single shred of reliable evidence, after years and billions of dollars of searching. A credible case has not been made for his guilt, other than from a source – American intelligence agencies - that is known by its own employees to fabricate and distort information. These facts should not be construed as denial of obvious: Al Qaeda does exist. There are thousands of angry, young, dispossessed Arab men and women, many of whom are willing to die to strike out against the powers than have disenfranchised them. Are they real? Yes. There are angry young men and women whose lives are filled with anger at seeing their values, families and lives trampled on by what they perceive as greed and exploitation. Are they a threat to the US? Possibly. Are a certain segment of them nothing more than criminals? Yes. Were elements of Al Qaeda involved in the attack on the World Trade Center? Probably. Is Al Qaeda responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center? – It will become more and more obvious as the results of this investigation are revealed that Al Qaeda is not the responsible party. Al Qaeda operatives were clearly used, but by whom, remains unproven by anyone. This report provides testimony to suggest there is plausible reason to believe that Al Qaeda operatives were being used and directed by US and Israeli intelligence as a “false flag” operation. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 49 3 Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley The re-occurrence of grisly, videotaped beheadings of two American hostages in Iraq, in a manner very similar to the execution of Nick Berg, provided an opportunity to test the hypothesis that these executions were not quite what they appeared to be. Like the execution of Nick Berg, there is reason to believe the executions of Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were not terrorist attacks on innocent victims, but were in fact, executions administered by the Israeli secret service on individuals who had willingly cast their fortunes and lives on the sea of international espionage. These individuals (and their families) were probably being punished - not to influence US policy, but because they jeopardized the very existence or authority of the Mossad in Iraq. In Section 2, (written prior to the murders of Armstrong and Hensley) it was argued that the execution of Nick Berg was actually a cover-up of the Mossad’s involvement in the United States and the attack of 9/11, and at the same time, a message to their own organization that ‘loose lips’ are dealt with severely. When these two Americans were executed three and a half months later - purportedly by the same individual, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - it seemed appropriate to test the basic premise of the prior interpretation of events. The initial hypothesis going into the research was that if these latter public executions did not withstand scrutiny similar to that imposed on the Nick Berg affair, it may be possible that the interpretation of events was ‘unreliable.’ The question was: were Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley also spies killed by the Mossad? Unfortunately, that appears to be the case. The known facts surrounding this affair are scarcer than those around l’ affaire de Berg but they point to one conclusion: both Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley most likely worked in or for the American intelligence world, and were not innocent victims. The analysis starts with the observation that these gentlemen were not average Americans. They were not – as the news would suggest - a couple of normal, civil engineers who were trying to help in the reconstruction of Iraq. They were not normal ‘guys’ who might have worked at one or two local construction or engineering companies, got laid off, and applied for an overseas job. Like Berg, these gentlemen: • Traveled internationally, and extensively so; • Demonstrated exceptional risk-taking behaviors in terms of going places they should not be; • Worked for companies with significant contracts to the US intelligence world; • Consorted with known spies or terrorists; • Had the FBI investigating their lives; and • Left behind puzzling questions and contradictions about them in their life stories. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 50 This is not normal. 3.1 Working for Gulf Services Both gentlemen worked for a major US defense contractor that won the largest of four contracts to build ‘bases’ in Iraq. They were not there to build schools, repair utilities, or rebuild Iraq, as they had informed their friends and family. In fact, their work and the contract won by their employer are ‘classified.’ All we know is what they told their friends and family, and that appears to be contradictory with the official documentation. Why the lies? Second, they were not living on a secure construction site as foreigners usually do under such contracts, but rather “lived in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood of villas surrounded by walls and protected by metal gates and armed guards outside the high-security area known as the Green Zone.” As one security guard in Iraq noted regarding a contractor that would live under such conditions: “It is unbelievably naïve.” Interviewing a fellow employee, an African newspaper quoted the fellow contractor: “Those who have no military experience almost never travel outside the camps of the military zone designated Multi-National Division (South East) without an escort. The majority are accompanied by soldiers in "snatch wagons" - armoured Land Rovers - providing cover with heavy machine guns and SA80 rifles. Ex-military types, armed to the teeth, also provide escorts. He took an unnecessary risk. We live on camp and travel with green fleet [the British army]. There are no ifs, buts and ands about it. It's company policy, we don't travel without the army. If the army say you don't move, you don't move.” In fairness, it must be noted that the three kidnapped gentlemen had private security guards. They were not totally reckless. However, in the week prior to their kidnapping, they were notified by their guards that the lives of their guards had been threatened, and that the guards then actually abandoned them. This situation raises significant questions: 1. Why would either government or private guards not be replaced or reinforced by their employing agency? The scenario suggests the guards were ‘private’ in nature, and not provided by an agency, but rather by the three hostages themselves. 2. Why would three gentlemen – working hard to send money home (“to make ends meet”) be taking risks and unnecessarily be spending their own cash on ‘guards’? 3. Why would these gentlemen remain at this home, in a war zone, in an unsecured region of the city, after being advised of death threats specifically targeted at them? These are conditions which suggest that the three kidnapped men were involved in activities above and beyond ‘helping the people of Iraq, and taking care of their families.” The company that employed them is Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services. The contract was for $46 million, and was largest of four similar contracts in Iraq, larger than the other three combined. One would think a major defense contractor is subject to public scrutiny – but not so Gulf Commercial Services. They have no website that distributes information, nor is there another single reference to them on the Internet search engines, other than their linkage to this atrocity. When approached by the media, the normal media report is that “GSCS has not replied to requests for further information.” One reporter was able to gain some insight into Gulf Supplies from confidential sources, but this information is not verified by another source. Gulf Supplies is a 13-year-old firm THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 51 that provides “technical, logistical and operational support to local and international clients doing business in the Middle East, Arabian Gulf and Central Asia regions.” Its customers include Bechtel, CH2M Hill Cos. Ltd., Fluor Corp., Kellogg Brown and Root, and Parsons Infrastructure and Technology. GSCS has no recorded history of international construction – unlike an international construction company such as Flour City International, which recorded one Eugene Armstrong as a Board Director. Gulf Services maintains itself as a ghost company from the United Arab Emirate. When people and organizations go out of their way to prevent disclosure, it begs the question – what is there to hide? 3.2 Eugene Armstrong Unlike Hensley, Armstrong has not had published the traditional funeral and obituary announcements. His life is fairly well hidden from the news and Internet references. The little information available about Mr. Eugene Armstrong is very telling. His cousin, who managed to avoid the ‘family spokesperson’ control clamped on the families of these two victims, described Armstrong as a traveling worker, who lived as a youngster in Germany, and had major work engagements in Bosnia, Angola, and Thailand. (Is it possible he first crossed paths with Kenneth Bigley in Thailand?) If he was a normal contractor in these areas, his behavior did not demonstrate it. As an acquaintance of Armstong’s reported, "He talked about how in Bosnia no one would ride in a pickup truck with him toward the end because he had so many bullet holes in his truck and he'd had so many windshields blown out that he was considered to be bad luck." This is highly reminiscent of Nick Berg’s behavior – being in places he shouldn’t be, often enough to get caught at it. Evidently, his life-style in Baghdad demonstrated the same tendency towards risk taking. Interestingly, November 1995 finds one Eugene Armstrong testifying in Washington as the spokesperson for the CIA representing of the “Ames Damage Assessment team.” Ames was the Russian mole in the CIA who leaked the names of hundreds of agents, causing the death of more than a few. Armstrong was the CIA agent that summarized the impact of that leak on the CIA field organization. Ames will later be shown (in this report) to have played a key role in promoting George HW Bush’s role in various aspects of the financial scandals associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union. 3.3 Jack Hensley The opening lines of the Jack Hensley story usually read like this: “The past couple of years were hard on Jack Hensley: part-time jobs at a convenience store, a post office and as a substitute teacher were not quite enough to support his wife and 13-year-old daughter, and new opportunities seemed scarce.” This generally strikes us as a story of a normal guy who fell on hard times, and went to Iraq to make ends meet. For a man who left a lucrative, professional position – to spend time with his family – ‘going back’ was THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 52 probably not what he wanted. However, he did choose to “go back”- to life a travel and risk-taking. Jack liked to travel. Jack his met wife in Columbia, South America. It has also been noted that he worked for a year and a half in Saudi Arabia. It is also known that Hensley worked for at least 17 years at Getronics, managing large-scale telecommunications projects. Getronics is a global firm with locations in 44 countries. Because nothing is known of these seventeen years, it is speculated that Jack did a number of international projects, and then left the company to spend time his daughter, after having been absent as a father. It is of pertinent interest that in reviewing the 150 pages of messages on the Jack Hensley memorial website that there are numerous people who wrote saying ‘I worked with Jack…’ at Wang, at his bar etc. – but not a single person, in over 1500 messages said, I worked with Jack at Getronics. It suggests a 17 year black hole. Getronics holds a number of contracts with the US Defense Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, and is described as “one of the leading suppliers of innovative seat management and secure computing to the DoD (Department of Defense)…and the intelligence community.” Then, in the space of about three years, there were a series of acquisitions of the Getronics assets. It was purchased by DigitalNet, which was purchased by the British firm BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace)– the fourth largest arms manufacturer in the world. BAE North America was then purchased by IDT, (Integrated Defense Technologies), which was then purchased by DRS Technologies. BAE North America is a leading manufacturer of ‘high performance radio frequency surveillance equipment used in signals intelligence operations.” [Aerospace & Defense Market Update, October 2002]. According to DRS’s annual report, DRS is working heavily with Lockheed-Martin on the “Navy’s network centric tactical warfare environment.” Interestingly, Mr. Hensley took interest in conspiracy theorists. In June of 2000, he traveled to North Carolina to join a radio audience at WTZY, to listen to the conservative conspiracy advocate Craig Roberts. Jack Hensley was quoted by the local news after the show: "I like what he's doing, in general – digging and bringing things out that people need to know." This sounds like Jack had a tendency towards ‘loose lips’ – which is what got Berg killed. The second miscellaneous bit of information was shared by his brother, Ty Hensley. Ty “said he felt that despite their demands, the hostage takers always intended to kill the hostages. They never called an embassy to communicate their demands, he said. ‘The terrorists wanted to kill my brother and hurt my family,’ Ty Hensley said.” The third bit of information comes from Jack’s wife. When asked if she could comment on what she new about her husband’s kidnapping, “She said she did not know if there had been any communication between her husband's captors and the Iraqi or American governments. ‘Nothing that I am privy to. I know there is far more superior intelligence behind this, both here in the states and in Baghdad, that they know things that I don't know and, to be honest, I don't need to know them,’ Pati Hensley said. ‘I just need them to follow through and do what they can to save these two gentlemen’." The oddities in the Hensley family messages are this: 1) Ty seems fairly convinced that the attack on Jack is an attack on his family (Was he told this, and if so, why?), and 2) Pati’s use of the words ‘superior intelligence’ and her desire to not know the truth, suggests a familiarity with intelligence operations beyond that of a innocent bystander. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 53 These small bits of information beg a number of questions: • How does a ‘technology expert’ and a ‘professional managing large scale telecomm projects’ for a Defense company end up being hired to supposedly repair barracks in Iraq? One must assume he was doing something else. • Is there a connection with the type of telecommunications work done by Nick Berg? • Why is there an inconsistent message from the public about why he was in Iraq? His acquaintances and family are telling the press he was there to build schools and rebuild Iraq. Why would he tell them that? One must assume it was a cover. • Why does his wife need to spend time with FBI investigators, reported by the press to be at her house? Usually, this type of activity is covered by a representative from the State Department. All the evidence suggests Jack was a great guy – someone you’d want as a friend. At the same time, he was a guy who took risks he did not have to - in terms of where he lived, who he lived with and what he did. There was part of his world his wife didn’t want to know about. 3.4 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Finally, there should be a discussion of the group taking the blame for this outrage. Looking at a picture of the executioners, the outfits are the same as those from the Nick Berg execution, the physical size is the same, and the orange jumpsuits are back in the picture. The video and pictures suggest are these are the same guys that executed Nick Berg. The US Embassy issued a statement that it’s probably the same group. But… does the world really know who they are, and is it really Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the organisation responsible for the beheadings in Iraq, is regularly portrayed by the US government as a terrorist mastermind, responsible for activity in places as widespread as Hamburg, Chechnya, Madrid (train bombing) and Mombassa (hotel bombing). But while there is no doubt that Zarqawi has committed awful crimes, experts say that accusing him has become an easy fall-back for the authorities as they struggle to contain the insurgency. There is no unanimity on whether Zarqawi is a henchman of Osama bin Laden or a rival.”[“A Thug who will stop at nothing to create pure Islamic Zone in Middle East,” Ewen MacAskill and Rory McCarthy, Guardian Unlimited, 11/23/2004] First, the profile presented by the Guardian Unlimited is not the picture of an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist. It is the profile an international hit-man, not unlike Carlos the “Jackal” Ramirez – who, once captured, was buried by the authorities so deep in prison no one could ever hear his story. (Who is hiding what dark secrets in that case?) Second, these Iraqi executions do not follow the modus operandi of Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. His infamous reputation is built on use of weapons of mass murder (bombings and chemicals) used against those whose religions he disagrees with: Shia Muslims and Jews. These executions meet none of the three characteristics of his group’s modus operandi: 1) mass murder, 2) religious affiliation or c) use of bombs and chemicals. Nor THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 54 do the other incidents attributed to his group have attributes of the executions: videotape, political extortion and kidnapping. There are two totally different modus operandi here, inexplicable unless there is a totally different agenda or person committing the crimes. More importantly, however, it should be noted that possibly the only other group that would have the same enemies as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and have the organization and skill to execute globally – would be the Mossad. In a parallel analysis Michel Chossudovsky has documented and argued that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was always meant to be a headline for the US war in Iraq. “An internal document produced by U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, states that "the Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." (WP, op cit). The senior commander entrusted with Pentagon's PSYOP operation is General Kimmitt who now occupies the position of senior planner at US Central Command (USCENTCOM), responsible for directing operations in Iraq and the Middle East. "In 2003 and 2004, he coordinated public affairs, information operations and psychological operations in Iraq -- though he said in an interview the internal briefing must be mistaken because he did not actually run the psychological operations and could not speak for them. Kimmitt said, "There was clearly an information campaign to raise the public awareness of who Zarqawi was, primarily for the Iraqi audience but also with the international audience." [Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend", Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, April 18, 2006] Of great intrigue, Zarqawi’s exit from Iraq was also announced by a major media event. In early 2006, a Christian Science Monitor reporter was “kidnapped” by Zarqawi’s followers. These followers – according to her report - kept her in a sound proof room, but allowed her to overhear that Zarqawi would soon be replaced as leader. A month after the reporter’s release, Zarqawi was reportedly killed in a US bombing. Once again, Zarqawi is linked to a major media event that seems to be suspect in its circumstances, but results in intelligence useful to theose who benefit from the attack on Iraq. A geopolitical explanation is required at this point. Ninety percent of the world Muslim population is Sunni, and ten per cent is Shia, also known as Shiite. (This schism between the Muslims dates back 1400 years.) Although a global minority, the conservative Shia currently controls Iran, and represents 60% of the population of Iraq. Saddam Hussein was secular, favored the Sunni’s and kept the Shia under control. The threat to Israel of “real democracy” in Iraq is that it would allow the Shia clerics to re-gain the control of Iraq that was taken from them by the Sunni’s 500 years ago, and then by the British in 1920. Shia control of both Iraq and Iran, thus creating a Shia ‘power bloc’ would be an unacceptable threat to Israel, because of the Shiite cleric’s religious preoccupation with the holy cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. However, with Shiites focused on their grievances with Sunnis, and both groups attacking each other, Israel remains safe. With Shiites unable to merge and unify the wealth of Iran and Iraq, Israel remains safe. Hence, it is ‘fortuitous’ for Israel that there are such a groups as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Al Qaeda that can fragment Muslim unity and polarize the religious sectors. If these two organizations didn’t exist, Israel might have to invent them. Once again – as in the Nick Berg story – there arises the specter of the Mossad masquerading as Muslim terrorists, dealing out death and horror and fanning the flames THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 55 of American outrage, and Muslim disunity. (It is also fortuitous that current efforts in January 2005 at implementing “partial voting” – using Bush’s argument that “some democracy is better than none” – happens to disenfranchise a good portion of the Shia population.) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 56 4 Central Asian Oil: Motive for 9/11? ‘Connecting the dots’ helps demonstrate that the seemingly inconsequential and random executions of Berg, Hensley and Armstrong are not as they appear, and that Nick Berg’s murder, timed as it was, was an attempt to silence an FBI investigation into his past. This report continued the investigation into his past, and discovered his probable involvement with the attackers of the World Trade Center, the Mossad, the Russian/Israeli Mafiya, the PNAC (Project for a New American Century), and the Republican Party. It would seem that someone in one of these groups needed to silence Nick Berg before the FBI got too close to whatever insights Nick Berg could provide. Someone had something to hide. Might the secret be that all five groups were linked somehow? Nick Berg was brought to the attention of the FBI because of his connection to 9/11. It is appropriate to continue the investigative thread around the events of 9/11. How were the groups Nick Berg was linked to associated with the events of 9/11? Having established that Osama Bin Ladin and Al Qaeda are not necessarily the guilty parties in this event, it becomes necessary to determine who else may have been responsible. So begins the quest for understanding the motive for 9/11. Figure 2 Many analysts believe the driving force for the attack on the WTC was the US energy industry’s need, most pertinently headed by Enron’s need, to consummate a pipeline deal THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 57 with Afghanistan, and secure access to Central Asian oil and gas reserves. There are two (at least) versions of this theory 1. In one version of this explanation, the first Bush administration, under the guidance of Zbniew Brezinski and Henry Kissinger, formulated and initiated a strategy to control Central Asian Oil. U.S. covert activities in the region were guided by that strategy. Prior to his departure from office of the Presidency, Bush put into motion a number of covert activities that would ensure the continuation of his strategy, despite prohibitive legislation to the contrary. Those activities would include sending his former Iran-Contra operatives (Richard Secord, Richard Armitage and Farhad Azima) into Azerbaijan, and James Giffen in Kazakhstan. 2. In a second version of the Oil cartel explanation, oil industry executives unduly influenced the American political process through massive contributions to political campaigns, thus ‘purchasing’ secret influence over policy, regardless of the law of the land. Under this latter hypothesis, in it’s simplest form, the Taliban government had reneged on a deal with Unocal (US) and Delta Oil (Saudi) in August of 2001, to allow Unocal & Delta to build and control a pipeline from the Caspian Basin through Afghanistan; and awarded the contract to Bridas, an Argentinean firm. The Bush administration - heavily populated by former energy sector professionals (Bush- Bush Exploration, Harken Energy, Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. Arbusto Energy Inc; Cheney- Halliburton; Condoleezza Rice – Chevron; Secretary of the Army, Mr. Tom White – Enron, to list a few), and with the energy lobby representing the single greatest source of Bush campaign contributions, planned, executed and covered-up the attack on the WTC to justify a war with the Taliban government, and a subsequent invasion of Iraq. According to this explanation of the attack on the World Trade Center, the attack provided an all-too-convenient excuse for a series of actions that benefited the oil industry, actions that could not have occurred without the “excuse” of 9/11 being used to mobilize the American public and “justify” attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. With either theory, there are seven arguments that support the premise that the energy industry was the primary beneficiary of the attack on the World Trade Center. · U.S. companies were allowed to benefit from the regained pipeline construction contracts; · Enron’s investment in an Indian energy plant, and a Pakistani docking facility at the Arabian Sea terminal were to have been salvaged, possibly helping Enron avoid bankruptcy; · The U.S. strategic interests (both economic and defense) were served by preventing the flow Caspian Oil through either Russia or Iran, · The attack allowed the US to create a permanent footprint of US military bases throughout the area, setting up a sphere of influence in the fourth largest oil region in the world and establishing a launching pad for an invasion of Iran. Additionally the establishment of U.S. bases in Afghanistan geographically mirrors the route of the planned natural gas pipeline. The U.S. had been locked out of the bidding for this pipeline, just months prior to the invasion. A major investment by Enron in the region was threatened by the loss of this pipeline. Now, in a fortuitous change of governments caused by the destruction of a THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 58 conservative Muslim government (in the name of democracy, for the benefit of specific U.S. oil interests,) these contracts would be awarded to U.S. construction firms. Figure 3 US Bases and the Afghan Pipelines “The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv astutely notes: "If one looks at the map of the big American bases created (in the Afghan war), one is struck by the fact that they are completely identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean." Ma'ariv also states, "Osama bin Laden did not comprehend that his actions serve American interests... If I were a believer in conspiracy theory, I would think that bin Laden is an American agent. Not being one I can only wonder at the coincidence." [Chicago Tribune, 3/18/02] • As part of the need to secure Central Asian/Middle Eastern oil, the attack on the World Trade Center was also leveraged as an excuse to invade Iraq. There was no proven link between terrorism and the Iraqi government, although a very large segment of Americans believe this to be true, and President Bush has done nothing to counter this belief. “January 31, 2003, when a reporter asked both Bush and British Prime Minister Blair, “Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 59 September the 11th?” Bush replied, “I can't make that claim.” Blair then replied, “That answers your question.”[White House, 1/31/2003] A New York Times/CBS poll from earlier in the month indicates that 45 percent of Americans believe Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was “personally involved” in the 9/11 attacks. [New York Times, 3/11/2003] The Christian Science Monitor notes, “Sources knowledgeable about US intelligence say there is no evidence that Hussein played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks, nor that he has been or is currently aiding Al Qaeda. Yet the White House appears to be encouraging this false impression….” For instance, Bush claims Hussein has supported “Al Qaeda-type organizations,” and “Al Qaeda types.” [New York Times 3/9/2003] Never-the-less, the invasion of Iraq occurred, and while museums, schools and hospitals went unprotected – securing the oil fields and pipelines remained the primary defensive strategy for security forces. There too, as in Afghanistan, the placement of military bases follows the pipeline, as seen in Figure 4. It is fairly safe to assume that the same pattern of military base placement occurs in the rest of Central Asia as well. Figure 4 US Bases and the Iraqi Pipeline Map created by overlaying maps found at the BBC website • The construction of permanent bases in both countries suggests that the US plans to ‘occupy’ in some sense, these countries – thereby laying claim to the governments and mineral privileges. Construction contracts for ‘bases’ went to firms traditionally strong in the petrochemical industry. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 60 "US military bases here (Afghanistan), “originally agreed as temporary and emergency expedients, are now permanent.” [Guardian, 1/16/2002] "It is reported that the US military is drawing up a plan for a long-term military “footprint” in Central Asia. The US says it plans no permanent bases, but the leaders of Central Asia speak of the US being there for decades, and inside US bases temporary structures are being replaced by permanent buildings." [AP, 4/30/2002, Washington Post, 8/27/2002, Los Angeles Times, 4/4/2002] • The observation that a large segment of the Bush administration’s national security and defense planning structure came from the energy industry, and set national defense policy lends some suspicion to the objectivity of that policy. Any and all arguments might easily lead one to conclude that the invasions sparked by the attack on the World Trade Center were conducted more for the benefit of the American oil industry that for the sake of world security against “terrorists.” (Although conspiracy theorists could make a better argument that the invasion of Afghanistan was meant to control the world heroin trade, with Afghanistan producing 80% to 90% of the world’s heroin. The world narcotics industry is larger than the gas and oil industry combined, and more profitable. The current drug war for control of Afghan heroin pits the Russian military against a strange alliance of the Yeltsin crime Family and its U.S. allies.) The hypothesis that the Administration of President Bush “initiated” the attack on the World center as an excuse for war is based on a set of clues that suggest the President - knowing the attack would happen - planned the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in advance. This would require that the President, like the authors of the Project for a New American Century, believed that a “Pearl Harbor” event was a necessary condition to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. What will be demonstrated in this report is that the WTC did not have to be destroyed for the Central Asian pipeline deals in Afghanistan and Azerbaijan to be successful. However, the bribes and money laundering behind these pipeline deals were “illegal,” and the investigative evidence pointing to the money laundering was the target of the attack on the WTC. While the actual illegal trading and bribing activity leaves very little physical evidence, money always leaves an audit trail, and that trail was being tracked and documented in Building Seven, the North Tower and Buildings Four and Six– hence the need to destroy the entire World Trade Center. In a manner highly reminiscent of the investigation of the BCCI bank fraud, once the bank’s criminal activities were exposed, bank records in England were destroyed in multiple warehouses by no less than seven separate fires, and sixteen material witnesses were murdered. “There's a lot about BCCI that outsiders will never know. Once the investigations started, there were seven fires in the fireproof London warehouses where BCCI stored records. In one of them, four firemen were killed.” [BCCI: The Case that Kerry Cracked, Lucy Komisar] “The Manhattan D.A. who closed the American branch (of the BCCI) announced that 16 witnesses had died in the course of investigating the bank's entanglements in covert operations of the CIA, arms smuggling to Iraq, money laundering and child prostitution.” [The False Memory Alex Constantine, Copyright © January, 1996] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 61 “There were a lot of BCCI documents in Panama that disappeared because they would have implicated too many people.” [Outlaw Bank: BCCI, Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, Random House, New York, 1993, p.79] The individuals involved in the destruction of the warehouses of BCCI evidence and the destruction of the WTC are same the individuals linked to the Central Asian money laundering crimes as well as the theft of Russian and Philippine gold treasuries. Understanding that the invasion of Afghanistan was not a necessary condition for the securing of the pipelines allows the analysis to entertain other theories as to why these individuals felt the need to murder thousands of people in the WTC attacks. Events in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and related activities in Angola are generally viewed as independent scenarios, but should not be. When approached from the perspective of four separate but linked operations, there is a consistent pattern that is not obvious when analyzing these events one at a time. · Each operation involves brutal warlords or dictators controlling access to oil. · Each operation includes reports of US agents trying to legally control access to that oil by aiding and abetting these dictators and warlords with bribes and IMF loans. · Each operation involves the provision of weapons, mercenaries and bribes in exchange for mineral, oil or pipeline rights. · Each operation involves complex money laundering schemes, involving billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars provided by the US Export-Import Bank and the IMF. · Each opeartion involves Halliburton, Saudi oil and American oil companies. · Each operation involves money flowing through the Deutschebank and/or the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS.) What is generally found to be missing in the reports on these operations are answers to the questions: “Who is providing the weapons?” and “Where is all the money going?” The answers are always the same. The Russian/Israeli Mafiya provides the weapons; the German/Swiss Banking Cartel moves and hides the money (for very significant profit), and the western oil companies claim the oil revenues. There are generally a number of smaller banks and other financial intermediaries involved, but the final resting place of the stolen treasuries generally appears to be a solid bank with vaults deep in the Swiss Alps. The provision of illegal weapons around the globe is heavily dominated by the Israeli/Russian Mafiya, who source their weapons from former Soviet regimes as well as Israeli firms. Even when the US intelligence agencies wanted weapons for the Contra rebels, they turned to Russian/Israeli traders (Russians seeking protection from international law in Israel, with a good participation by indigenous Israelis.) With the arms merchants, comes the same banking network, the same German banking cartel, generally fronted by the Deutsche Bank. However, and all too often, news reporters and investigators lose track of most of the money. That is because the real profiteers are the bankers, with the old bloodlines of Europe. If every banker that touches the money takes THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 62 2-5%, and the crime requires six or seven fixers, the money disappears fast. (The real pay-off to the bankers comes when these dictators and war lords die – leaving secreted accounts in the hands of the bankers.) In that respect, the examples discussed later (Angola and the Bank of New York) are illustrative in that it generally takes at least four or five financial companies operating as middlemen to launder the money, not to mention the bonuses to the buyer and seller. This is probably why Enron and Halliburton have set up so many offshore subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands – to cut out the middleman and circumvent US and international law. (Enron was reported to have over 300 Cayman subsidiaries, Halliburton at least twenty.) “Cheney's leadership also saw a dramatic increase in subsidiaries located in offshore tax havens—at least 20 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, alone. —Laura Peterson “Halliburton is now being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for Enron-style accounting practices that took place while Cheney was CEO.” http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/business/30HALL.html “Halliburton has also provided oil services to Iran in contravention of U.S. sanctions by operating through a foreign subsidiary based in the Cayman Islands which opened an office in Tehran in 2000.” —Laura Peterson These oil and gas operations, however, help expose a larger criminal pattern. In this pattern, the leaders of these countries (or in the case of Afghanistan, tribes) allow their national treasuries to be siphoned-off in an array of financial maneuvers abetted by large corporations and international scam artists, and hide this money with the expertise of the German/Swiss Banking Cartel. This pattern is exposed in Germany, the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Angola, and Philippines and with all probability, the US. Here is the larger story: the theft of these treasuries is what the destruction of the WTC was meant to cover-up. Investigations into these lesser operations in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Angola would have stumbled on Swiss and Deutschebank accounts and transfers that if investigated, would expose a grander scheme. In this grand scheme, the Bush ‘syndicate’ are “nickel players” in a “dollar-ante” game, and while their support was provided to the cartel in the form of cover-up, they were paying their dues as ‘wannabe’-players. Their goal – other than the furtherance of the security of the United States- is to become coupon clippers at the Board of Director meetings, to become the guys that bring the money to the meeting, rather than being the guys who leave the meetings with all the dirty work. Had George Bush and his Iran-Contra colleagues allowed the German/Swiss bank scheme to come unraveled, their own involvement in various money-laundering schemes as well as ‘misplacement’ of $3.3 trillion of the US assets would come under investigation. They- as the implementers of these schemes – would be held liable if exposed, while the financial backers walked away clean. Such is the deep pocket methodology that controls the legal system. Not widely reported, the US government has somehow “misplaced” 3.3 trillion dollars during the late 1990s. Donald Rumsfeld announced to the press on September 10, 2001 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 63 that 2.2 trillion dollars was missing from the DOD accounts – but the world was too preoccupied the next day to worry about the world’s largest heist. “the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Defense (DOD) and some of the other federal agencies for which … DynCorp manages highly sensitive information systems are reported to be missing…over $3 trillion since fall of 1997….” [ The Hijackers of Harvard, Catherine Austin Fitts (Former Assistant Secretary of Housing, First Bush Administration), On-Line Journal.com, 2/21/2002] The interesting point made by Catherine Fitts (Former Assistant Secretary of Housing, First Bush Administration) is that the “same people” involved in the BCCI fraud, (hence the theft of the Russian and Philippine treasuries) are now associated with what some call the world’s largest money-laundering scheme – Enron – about the same time as 3.3 trillion dollars goes missing from the US Treasury. “Catherine: I was hired by the first Bush administration to help clean up $100 billion sized financial frauds. These had to do with Iran Contra, the S&L crisis, BCCI and the HUD scandal. I was there for 18 months…we've seen the government readily permit the transfer of Enron Online -- which I believe was a money-laundering and slush fund operation -- to the Swiss bank, UBS, one of their largest creditors. So now it's very possible that a great deal of information that would be needed for a proper investigation is under the protection of the privacy laws of a Swiss bank. And by the way, it's very interesting, and perhaps quite significant, to note that the newest Board member of UBS, the bank that purchased the Enron Online operation, is the former chairman of Arthur Anderson. Enron was also permitted to have the gold bullion and gold derivatives trading operation transferred. Understand that to be able make these two transfers, as quickly and quietly as they were, in the middle of an initial bankruptcy filing, was nothing short of miraculous based on what I'm told by bankruptcy attorneys. In combination with the shredding, it permitted the coordination of cover-up of two things: money laundering and a lot of financial fraud between the banks and the entity itself.” [Enron: An Anatomy of a Cover-Up. Dennis Bernstein's interview with Catherine Austin Fitts, 3/12/2002] “We had a huge amount of money disappear from the accounts of all these federal agencies: General Accounting Office (GAO) (and Inspector General) reports and testimony document that $59 billion was missing from HUD in fiscal 1999, and $17 billion was missing in fiscal 1998, and they refused to say how much was missing in fiscal 2000. So I was trying to figure out how you could launder hundreds of billions of dollars (stolen from the federal government) starting in the fall of 1997, because that is so much money that you can't just run it (launder it) through a pizza restaurant. You are talking about a huge amount of money and you are talking about something that JP Morgan, Lockheed, DynCorp and Arthur Anderson would have to be part of.” [Enron: An Anatomy of a Cover-Up. Dennis Bernstein's interview with Catherine Austin Fitts, 3/12/2002] “So, in the fall of 1997 there was an explosion of revenues (at Enron Online), with nobody being able to explain where the revenues came from. They just say it's very complicated, it's "derivatives," you know. Well that's ridiculous. In my experience, if you can't explain something, then something is wrong. So I'm looking for the missing money: there is over $3.3 trillion missing from federal government agencies over a 3-year period, and my big question is, “Is Enron the laundromat," and is that why Congress is covering this up?” “Fitts: As far as I'm concerned, Ken Lay was just the lead patsy. We're talking about a top ten Fortune 500 company with annual revenues exceeding $100 billion---which suddenly fell off the map. What the Enron CEO's made was nothing compared to what the inside-trading investors made---both with corporate assets liquidated out before the implosion or in the pump and dump of stocks. And many of these investors look to be from the same syndicate that I saw playing the Iran-Contra/S&L game in the eighties…. in testimony already, former Chief Accountant of the SEC, Lynn Turner, offered that these banks and investment banks "shopped their structured finance vehicles'' around to other corporations. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 64 Turner indicated that in one case where the SEC was able to intercede on his watch, a bank had people sign privacy agreements as not to divulge details of the scheme proposed to regulators and others.” [The Real Deal About Enron (Part 1), Catherine Austin Fitts, Sanders Research Associates 4/3/2003] Fitts’ questions are pertinent in that besides the obvious energy scams (such as that which created a financial crisis for the State of California) Enron also created Enron Online, the world’s largest on-line trading site. This site traded oil, gas, electricity as energy commodities, but included (surprisingly) gold, gold derivatives and even bundled mortgage derivatives from HUD. During the Enron bankruptcy proceedings, Enron On- Line was reportedly “given” to UBS at no cost, and any potential audit trail fell under the control of a protected Swiss bank. Enron On-line would have been a critical component of a laundry scheme to convert large blocks of stolen wealth into other forms of assets. If Enron On-line didn’t exist, major money launderers would have had to create it to manage the thousands of daily transactions required for major money laundering activity. While Enron On-line allowed computers to create volumes of small trades to avoid regulatory control, the collapse of Enron and it’s bankruptcy assignment to UBS shielded the audit trail from exposure. The rest of the evidence was destroyed with the WTC. The money of the various oil operations involved in Central Asia (including Halliburton and Enron, both key players in Afghanistan,) starts to cross paths at the Deutsche Bank and UBS. Here is where one finds the ‘old men of Europe’ – secretive names that rarely show up in the press, and old family names changed to hide the lineage. Here is where the money stops. When all the investigations spawned by the money-laundering of the late 1990s began to narrow the search to these banks, it was these old men and families of Europe who had to be protected. These are the families that “own” the banks through holding companies based in offshore countries, where the laws are controlled so that the owners’ names do not need to be divulged. The physical assets however, are in Swiss vaults, as the offshore banks can never offer the types of security guarantees offered by a Swiss bank. Here, they can be ‘frozen’ under a new set of anti-money laundering laws that went into effect in 1998, thus magnifying the risk the U.S. investigations posed. Clues that Point to Money-Laundering To fully understand the Afghani events, which many 9/11 writers focus on, one must understand a coordinated set of covert activities being undertaken in Central Asia at that time. Prior to the attack on the World Trade Center, there were a number of seemingly independent, US covert operations occurring in many Central Asian countries, but primarily: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. This report suggests the Kazakhstan operation is also linked to covert activities in Angola. The central figures in these ‘theatres of operations’ are Richard Cheney, Richard Secord, Richard Armitage and George Bush Sr. Research demonstrates that covert activities in these regions were supported by additional participants from the Iran-Contra and October Surprise Scandals of the 1980s. These participants include David Kimche (Mossad), Adnan Khashoggi (Saudi), and Farhad Azima (arms merchant and airline owner). The central institutions in these operations are Halliburton, Unocal, Delta Oil, Enron, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), Credit Suisse, the Bank of New York, and the Deutschebank. In the background of these operations one finds the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and arms merchants. Their base THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 65 of operations was Azerbaijan. (For the benefit of readers not familiar with the events of the Iran-Contra scandal, and how this group single-handedly turned the Carter-Reagan election in favor of Reagan, and how they subverted the will of Congress – these events are reviewed in Section 4.3 Richard Secord, UBS and the Azerbaijan Connection.) This is an extremely high-powered group of individuals which had been thoroughly tested on more than one occasion in its ability to execute large scale covert operations and maintain silence in the face of being ‘caught in the act.’ They were the “A” team. Their reunion in Azerbaijan demands an answer to the question: “Why was this high powered team working together in a small, impoverished corner of the world?” The answer to that question is revealed in this report. As their activities are disclosed, and the dots connected, it becomes clear that this group – more so than Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda - had the wherewithal to direct the events of September 11. More importantly, it will be shown that Osama Bin Ladin (and his mujahedin) was a contractor to this group, and that even up to 2001, the press was reporting that Osama Bin Ladin was a ‘figurehead’ for Al Qaeda, with the real leadership being unknown. Kimche, as an integral member of this “A” team, had developed a loyal following with ex-KGB agents he had helped escape to Israel, and had access to both the Mossad and the Russian/Israeli Mafiya. Together, this “A Team” had access to all the right resources, had connections to the same banks and had a vested interest in helping bring to an end the investigations into their gold and money-laundering, illegal bribes and securities fraud. There are three primary clues in the volumes of 9/11 data that point to the conclusion that the attack on the WTC was an attempt to stop investigations into money-laundering. Each clue reinforces the legitimacy of the other clues. Those clues are: 1. The accusation of Sibel Edmonds, an FBI translator who was silenced with a constraining order from public comment by Attorney General Ashcroft. After the attack on the World Trade Center, the FBI hired extra translators to help with a backlog of taped phone transmissions. One of these translators was Sibel Edmonds who has gone on public record accusing the Bush administration of covering up its knowledge of events which would help explain 9/11. Sibel Edmonds - after reading and interpreting raw intelligence data - contends that the 9/11 perpetrators were protected by Dick Cheney’s “intelligence block” which prevented the investigation into terrorists. Since making her accusations, she has been silenced by a restraining order from US Attorney General Ashcroft, in the name of national security. The essence of her accusation is as follows: “To this date the public has not been told of intentional blocking of intelligence, and has not been told that certain information, despite its direct links, impacts and ties to terrorist related activities, is not given to or shared with Counterterrorism units, their investigations, and countering terrorism related activities. This was the case prior to 9/11, and remains in effect after 9/11. If Counterintelligence receives information that contains money laundering, illegal arms sale, and illegal drug activities, directly linked to terrorist activities; and if that information involves certain nations, certain semi-legit organizations, and ties to certain lucrative or political relations in this country, then, that information is not shared with Counterterrorism, regardless of the possible severe consequences. In certain cases, frustrated FBI agents cited `direct pressure by the State Department,' and in other cases `sensitive diplomatic relations' is cited. The Department of Justice Inspector General received detailed and specific information and evidence regarding this issue THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 66 (Please refer to DOJ-IG report Re: Sibel Edmonds and FBI Translation, provided to you prior to the completion of your report). I provided your investigators with a detailed and specific account of this issue, the names of other witnesses willing to corroborate this, and the names of certain U.S. officials involved in these transactions and activities. (Please refer to tape-recorded 3.5 hours testimony by Sibel Edmonds, provided to your investigators on February 11, 2004).” [Letter to Thomas Kean from Sibel Edmonds] “… (Sibel Edmonds) claims that certain well known politicians in this country have been receiving illegal campaign contributions from organizations involved in drugs and arms trafficking, and terrorism. That fact is extremely important because Edmonds claims that she discovered evidence of the 9/11 plot in intercepts that were not part of counter-terrorism investigations, but that were part of counter-intelligence investigations related to money laundering. And that money laundering was for cleansing the proceeds from arms and drug smuggling. Most likely, she was translating intercepts of Azerbaijani businessmen or politicians that were involved in laundering large quantities of cash raised by Afghan heroin smuggling. She has also made clear that the drug dealers and the arms dealers are mixed up together and that the divisions become blurred between these organizations. So, what kind of people have experience in money laundering, arms smuggling, and drug smuggling, but who also are known to have been involved in Azerbaijan? The most famous Americans with such experience are the veterans of the Laos war during Vietnam. Many of them were later implicated in the Iran-Contra affair, which, of course, involved money laundering, arms, and drug smuggling. Among these crafty spooks are such veterans as Richard Secord, Heinie Aderholt, Farhad Azima and Richard Armitage. To this list, we must also add a little known charlatan named Gary Best.” This revelation offers a close link to what FBI translator Sibel Edmonds told TomFlocco.com three weeks ago regarding what she heard during FBI intercept translations, telling us she personally identified ten well-known Americans who are politicians and heads of federal agencies linked to drug-money laundering in the federal banking system which was used for political campaigns--but also linked to financing the World Trade Center/Pentagon 9-11 attacks. She has yet to divulge the names, however. [Missile & remote control systems added to small jets before 9-11; same parts found at Pentagon, Tom Flocco, TomFlocco.com, 5/26/2005] To understand the activities Sibel Edmonds was referring to, operations in both in Azerbaijan and Afghanistan must be understood, because the types of activities Sibel was reporting were happening in both countries. Sibel Edmonds’s language skills as a translator were Turkish, Farsi (Iran) and Azerbaijani, so there is a predisposition to assume she was prevented by the block from translating records from the Azerbaijani region. 2. The co-location in the North Tower of the WTC of the FBI investigation into two seemingly independent crimes: illegal gold trades and Kazakhstangate – the illegal payment of bribes to Kazakhstan officials by Mobil Oil representatives Giffen and Williams. Co-location suggests the two investigations were related, but there is other reason to believe that to be the case. Additional evidence suggests the money laundering involved in both cases crosses paths through the Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. Evidence is later presented in the report which indicates that the secret services of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were working together, in unison with Richard Secord and David Kimche (Mossad), so any investigation into Kazakhstan bank accounts probably would have carried over into Azerbaijani bank activity. 3. FBI counter-terrorism chief John O’Neill’s accusation that Vice President Dick Cheney officially blocked investigation into Afghan terrorist activities by the FBI so to protect oil industry interests. O’Neill’s accusations, however, are broader than just THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 67 Dick Cheney’s “intelligence block.” As early as 1996, the Department of State had been blocking his investigations in the Middle East - Yemen and Saudi Arabia specifically. “Jean-Charles Brisard, who wrote a report on bin Laden's finances for the French intelligence agency DST and is co-author of Hidden Truth, met O'Neill several times last summer. He complained bitterly that the US State Department - and behind it the oil lobby who make up President Bush's entourage - blocked attempts to prove bin Laden's guilt. The US ambassador to Yemen, Ms Barbara Bodine, forbade O'Neill and his team … from entering Yemen. In August 2001, O'Neill resigned in frustration and took up a new job as head of security at the World Trade Centre. He died in the September 11th attack. Brisard and his co-author Guillaume Dasquié, the editor of Intelligence Online, say their book is a tribute to O'Neill. The FBI agent had told Brisard: "All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organisation, can be found in Saudi Arabia." But US diplomats shrank from offending the Saudi royal family. O'Neill went to Saudi Arabia after 19 US servicemen died in the bombing of a military installation in Dhahran in June 1996. Saudi officials interrogated the suspects, declared them guilty and executed them - without letting the FBI talk to them. "They were reduced to the role of forensic scientists, collecting material evidence on the bomb site," Brisard says. O'Neill said there was clear evidence in Yemen of bin Laden's guilt in the bombing of the USS Cole in which 17 US servicemen died, but that the State Department prevented him from getting it." [Oil Interests: Bush Obstructed FBI Investigation, By V.K.Shashikumar, New Delhi, November 21, 2001] These clues (1. the accusations of Sibel Edmonds, 2. the FBI investigations into Kazakhstan, and 3. the accusations of John O’Neill) point to five distinctly separate, but inherently related sets of events, occurring in the same time period – starting in the early 1990s through 2001. Together, these seemingly unrelated events demonstrate a larger pattern of investigation into the German banking cartel by US investigators. · the James Giffen (aka Geffen)/Bryon and the Credit Suisse scandal involving Mobil Oil, Phillips Oil, Chevron and Halliburton in Kazakhstan, which while reported as isolated to the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), seems to avoid reporting involvement of Marc Rich (Russian Mafiya/Israeli) and his use of the Bank of New York/Cayman Islands/Deutsche Bank chain for his money laundering and oil swap operations ; · the Mega Oil operations in Azerbaijan, involving the former Iran-Contra guns for drugs operatives and their UBS accounts; · Enron and Unocal operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, using Deutsche Bank channels to funnel money through the Pakistanis to the Afghanis; · the Kevin Ingram scandal in which this Deutsche Bank executive was convicted of laundering money for weapons purchases for Muslim terrorists through Pakistani agents; and · The Bank of New York Russian money laundering scandal, in which Russian funds were being sent back to Russia via the Cayman Islands, where they were being picked up by the Deutsche Bank and Banker’s Trust. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 68 These were the five incidents brought to light as part of a broader investigation by the agencies housed in the WTC, Together they suggest that consecutive US administrations had sought to further the interests of the US and Saudi Oil companies in Central Asia and Russia, and had undertaken covert operations to do so. In and by itself, while these activities to some may be reprehensible, they are not all illegal (In many countries, money-laundering is not illegal). There is however, a common thread buried in the detail which is illegal: money laundering used for heroin, weapons and bribes, as well as at least three assassinations. Finally, lest not anyone forget, there were probably up to several trillion dollars of stolen national treasuries open to discovery and disclosure in these accounts. With the same ‘players’ being involved in so many of these activities, their German/Swiss bank accounts represents a house of cards, and any one investigation into any one of the aforementioned crimes could lead to a major exposure of the world’s greatest criminals – and their criminal bankers! 4. 1 Caspian Oil Before the Central Asian money-laundering activities can be explained, the Afghan pipeline, and the lesser discussed BTC (Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan) pipeline from Azerbaijan through Turkey, need to be understood with some geographical context. At one time, the Caspian Sea Basin was considered to be the fourth largest oil reserve in the world, although the actual reserves have been significantly downgraded to between 6% and 25% of the original estimates since 9/11. The oil fields were largely undeveloped by the Soviet Union during its reign of control. Three of the four largest oil fields in the Caspian basin are located in Kazakhstan: Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan. The fourth field is located in Azerbaijan: the Azeri-Chirac-Guneshli field. The region also includes the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves in Turkmenistan. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are landlocked, thus requiring pipelines to export the reserves to market. The current pipelines out of the Caspian move oil north, through Russia. An alternative pipeline was planned to the south, through Iran. Having Caspian oil and gas flow through either Russia or Iran was not a situation that the US and Saudi oil companies wished to have happen. Nor was Russia willing to allow US owned oil flow through its pipeline. The only options available to the US and Saudi oil firms were controlling the Afghan and/or the BTC pipeline through Turkey. The Russians were investing in surrogate military forces which they hoped would control the political situations in Azerbaijan and Afghanistan to a point that US and Saudi interests and partners were prevented from controlling the oil and gas. In the meantime, the US and Saudis were investing in surrogate forces in Dagestan, Chechnya and Azerbaijan to help counter Russian forces. Most Americans continue to believe the Chechnyan conflict was a religious, political conflict. The truth however is that the conflict in Chechnya was always about controlling the pipeline (and the heroin traffic). Generally ignored in the economic overview of Caspian Oil, is a discussion of the vast gold wealth, as well as opium and heroin, found in this region. Long before oil became a global battleground, gold and heroin trafficking had attracted the Russian/Israeli Mafiya THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 69 to this region. Kazakhstan is reported to hold 20% of the world’s gold reserves. The Caspian basin was Russian Mafiya turf before the oil companies appeared on the scene, and payoffs to the Russian/Israeli Mafiya were absolutely critical. Under American law, Figure 5 Central Asian Pipelines these payoffs were illegal, and punishable by severe penalties. Keeping the payments secret is equally important to the Russian/Israeli Mafiya, who are being prosecuted in French, English, Russian and Nederland’s courts for tax evasion and money laundering. (Historic example – the FBI could only convict Al Capone of tax evasion. The same phenomenon seems to hold for these Russian/Israeli criminals as well.) With regional wealth, one finds significant inroads by Russian and Saudi organized crime: “Kazakhstan's location as a transit point from Central Asia to Russia-and hence to Europe-makes it a channel for drug smuggling and people trafficking, particularly where women are concerned. The president's tight control over the security services and the main lucrative industries in Kazakhstan arguably limits to some extent the ability of Kazakh organised criminal groups to penetrate the official economy. However, Russian mafia groups-with links to the Russian oil and gas industry-are reported THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 70 to have played a part in organising some of Kazakhstan's oil deals with both Russian and Western companies”. [Country Profile: Kazakhstan, Economist On-Line Store] “The Mahfouz and Al-Amoudi families are not coincidentally involved in oil field development projects in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.” [Part 1: Big Oil, the United States and corruption in Kazakhstan, Larry Chin, Online Journal Contributing Editor May 12, 2002] As the Soviet Union faded into history in 1991, the region struggled - as it still does – with different groups competing for control of the resources. Those historic struggles of area ethnic groups were re-surfaced, and added to that mix were elements of Russian/Israeli organized crime, US covert intelligence and Saudi investors. These latter two groups were simply “buying” their way into a territory opening itself up to market forces – much like one buys distribution access to retail in New York City by paying tribute to the Mafia. While US and Saudi oil companies were “buying” access to Caspian oil, many other western companies were being forced out of the region. It was reported that 35 Canadian businesses had been forced to evacuate Russia as a result of Mafiya pressures during the late 1990s. Two companies managed to establish a rapprochement with the Mafiya: one of them was Barrick Gold. Also, from Barrick’s Annual Report, one discovers that Barrick had leveraged for itself a significant position in Kazakhstan, in a partnership with Celtic Resources Holdings Limited PLC: “We have an equity position in Celtic and have back-in rights to participate on an exclusive basis for up to 50% in any assets acquired in Kazakhstan and to certain other assets including the Nezhdaninskoye project.” In connection with Barrick’s plan to develop a business unit in Russia and Central Asia, Barrick acquired a 10% equity interest in Highland Gold Mining Ltd. (“Highland”) in October 2003. In January 2004, Barrick acquired an additional equity interest, bringing its total equity interest to approximately 14% at December 31, 2004, in Highland and certain participation and other rights with respect to properties in Russia. In January 2005, Barrick acquired a 9% equity interest in Celtic Resources Holdings PLC (“Celtic”). In addition, Barrick acquired additional subscription rights for shares in Celtic and certain rights with respect to a property in Russia and certain participation rights with respect to properties in Kazakhstan.” [Barrick Annual Information Form, December, 2004] Barrick’s singular ability to maintain a presence in Russia and Central Asia, when all legitimate companies are being forced out, or taken over, suggests they have a special relationship with the ex-KGB Russian/Israeli Mafiya. This relationship is best explained by the earlier hypotheses of this report that Barrick may be a major gold laundering operation used to launder thousands of tons of gold stolen from various treasuries, including those of the former Soviet Union. It can be further explained by the “partnership” between Barrick and Nelson Gold, noted in the Barrick annual report. Nelson Gold is a subsidiary of Nelson Resources – run by Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, and probably successor to Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev will later be shown to be extensively involved in money laundering and illegal oil deals, with this same cast of suspicious characters. This relationship does not bring any new evidence to this report other than to validate that the individuals being investigated for Central Asian activities are the same as those involved in the probable Barrick’s gold operation. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 71 4.2 Azerbaijan Because of the restraining order imposed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, analysts can only speculate that Sibel Edmonds is referring to payments and transaction stemming from the Mega Oil/ Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) operation in Azerbaijan. (Another possible group is the Farwest/Diligence/Halliburton, which is reviewed in a later section, but essentially involves the same players.) This speculation is due to Edmond’s linguistic skills being limited to Turkic languages, with her attention being focused on activities in that region of the Caspian. In Azerbaijan, one finds a large cast of participants all linked through supporting roles in the Iran-Contra Scandal and its cover-up. (The Iran-Contra scandal, the October Surprise manipulation of the Presidential election by George Bush Sr., the deliberate sabotage of a US rescue attempt of US hostages in Iran, and the cover-up of these activities is reviewed in a subsequent section of this report, to demonstrate the collaborative history of these individuals.) In Azerbaijan, these individuals are · Adnan Khashoggi, whose Azerbaijan banks "played a big part in the formation of terrorist camps and in the opening of laboratories for developing chemical and bacteriological weapons in Nagornyy Karabakh.’ · Richard Secord, a former U.S. Air Force major general who been helping to recruit and train the Azerbaijani army as well as regional secret services; · Richard Armitage, acting as a consultant to Halliburton and Unocal at the time, and President of the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce; · Farhad Azima, arms merchant with Iranian background, member of US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, assisted Richard Secord in recruiting and training mujahedin mercenaries, owns the Azerbaijan Airlines, and has a twenty year old relationship with the Bush family enterprise; · Khalid bin Mahfouz, owner, with the bin Laden family and members of the Saudi royal family of the Saudi companies Delta Oil and Nimir Oil. Both are partners with Unocal in Azerbaijan. · Dick Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, lobbyist for the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, on US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce; · David Kimche, Israeli Mossad agent who brought Israeli agents into Azerbaijan at the request of Secord, and worked with Secord and the regional secret service organizations. The essence of the Azerbaijan operation was an effort by former Iran-Contra conspirators to illegally support (support was made illegal by the US Congress) the despotic government of Azerbaijan in its war against Russian backed Armenia. In doing so, they supposedly sought to protect for US and Saudi Oil interests a western access to the Caspian Oil basin, and one of the four largest oil fields in the region. They did so by THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 72 illegally recruiting Afghan mujahedin mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan (against Russian backed Armenians), using Mega Oil as the financial cover. (This approach appears to be part of the CIA handbook. This same approach of using an oil company as cover for covert operations was used in the 1970s, with right wing CIA trained death squads in South America masquerading as Bridas employees. This is the same Bridas that competed for the Afghan pipeline rights.) “Over the course of the next two years, the company they founded procured thousands of dollars worth of weapons and recruited at least two thousand Afghan mercenaries for Azerbaijan - the first mujahedin to fight on the territory of the former Communist Bloc. And they did it under the guise of an oil company… - MEGA Oil - … we have discovered no documentary evidence to tie MEGA Oil, as an entity, definitively to the United States government. There is however considerable evidence that all three prime movers in the company - former Iran-Contra conspirator Richard Secord, legendary Air Force special operations commander Harry "Heinie" Aderholt, and the man known as either a diabolical con-man or a misunderstood patriot, Gary Best - were in the past involved in some of the most infamous activities of in the history of the CIA.” [God Save the Shah: American Guns, Spies and Oil in Azerbaijan; by Mark Irkali, Tengiz Kodrarian and Cali Ruchala; May 22, 2003] It is of small historic note that of the mercenaries procured by Secord, one of them was actually Osama Bin laden: “In the summer of 1993, Azerbaijan’s President Heydar Aliyev hired over 1,000 Islamist mercenaries in the war against Nagorno Karabakh Armenians. They were flown on civilian aircraft from Afghanistan to Azerbaijan. The mercenaries, including Arab veterans of the Afghan war (`1979-89`), took an active role in the Karabakh conflict (Moscow News 9/13/00). One of Bin Laden’s associate claimed that Bin Laden himself led mujahedin in at least two battles in Nagorno Karabakh.” [Associated Press 11/14/99] Secord also brought the Mossad into Azerbaijan, which confirms reports that Israelis fought side-by-side with mujahedin. In the news report of David Kimche’s involvement, is the very important observation that not only are the Mossad in Azerbaijan, but that the secret service organizations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are all working in unison with the Mossad and Richard Secord. When trying to understand why such a high powered team as the Iran-Contra/October Surprise team – is reconstructed in a little country like Azerbaijan, it becomes clear that Azerbaijan is merely a base of operations for the broader Central Asian operation initiated by Bush in 1991. “According to Wolfgang Bueschel in BCDX 351, "Mr. Vafa Culuzadeh, adviser of former Azerbaijan President Ebulfez Elicibey, told the Italian press agency IPS in October 1992 from Baku, that the Israelian secret service specialist David Kimche and... Richard Secord, who was involved in the `Iran- Contra`-Affair, visited Azerbaijan, (and) presented a delegation of more Israelian secret service personnel. Mr. Culuzadeh took part on a return visit to Israel, (and) lead a delegation of Azerbaijan/Uzbek/Kazakh secret services." David Kimche is a `30-year` veteran of the Mossad and was an important force behind the Reagan administration's `arms-for` hostages swap with Iran and its secret aid to the Nicaraguan rebels (coined `Iran-Contra`.) In fact, it was Kimche who helped to organize the Contras, who supplied them with Israeli military advisers, who sold the US government Palestinian weapons Israel had seized in 1982, and who claimed he could get access to the `hostagetakers` in Lebanon.” [Voice of Southern Azerbaijan, Nick Grace C., 4/13/1998] Secord’s employer in this operation - President Heydar Aliyev – was no novice in the realm of covert operations, being a former top KGB official. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 73 “The elections confirmed Ilham Aliev as the nation's new ruler. He is the son of Heidar Aliev, a former top KGB official and Kremlin adviser, who became president two years after Azerbaijan became independent in 1991. The elder Aliev died last month while receiving medical treatment in the United States.” [Washington Trades Human Rights for Oil in Azerbaijan, Jim Lobe] The operations were “covert” because American support was illegal according to Section 907 of the "Freedom Support Act" “The Americans' avowed priority in the Caucasus was to find a method to deliver the crude from the Caspian oil shelf to market, avoiding both Russia and Iran as middlemen. Since the oil would flow from Azerbaijan, this strategic goal was quite at odds with the American government's favouritism towards Armenia in the Karabakh War. In fact, providing support of any kind to Azerbaijan was illegal. Congress passed a law (Section 907 of the "Freedom Support Act") effectively banning foreign aid - and, needless to say, all military aid - to Azerbaijan. Thus America's top long-term interest in the Caspian was threatened by the promises of Armenian-American retribution at the polls - a very real threat considering Armenian electoral power in the key state of California. ” [God Save the Shah, Part Three,Mark Irkali, Tengiz Kodrarian and Cali Ruchala, May 22, 2003] Those who allege that MEGA Oil at least began as a project approved by Washington point to the involvement of Richard Secord, whose visit to Azerbaijan in early 1992 came at MEGA's expense and coincided with the company's negotiations with Mutalibov on building Azerbaijan's army. Secord's only public comment on the matter to date was to state that Mutalibov couldn't decide whether he wanted his American friends to build an army or a Praetorian Guard to hold onto power. The fact that Congress had outlawed support to Azerbaijan would not have mattered to Secord. At the heart of the Iran-Contra controversy was a Congressional ban on aid to the Contras strikingly similar to Section 907, and Secord's primary role in that first scandal was as the head of a private corporation which worked at the behest of Oliver North for covert and illegal weapons procurement for the Nicaraguan Contras. Secord appears to have been violating congressional intent in Azerbaijan exactly as he had for the Contras. It should not be assumed that he was just once again demonstrating patriotic fervor. Many forget that Secord's involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair was motivated to a large degree by personal profit. The special investigator's report on Iran-Contra concluded that: "one of Secord's central purposes in establishing and carrying out the operations of the enterprise was the accumulation of untaxed wealth in secret overseas accounts... that [Secord] received at least $2 million from his participation in the enterprise during 1985 and 1986, that he set up secret accounts to conceal his untaxed income, and that he later lied and encouraged others to lie to keep it concealed." [God Save the Shah, Part Three, by Mark Irkali, Tengiz Kodrarian and Cali Ruchala, May 22, 2003] Secord was reportedly investigated by the US Department of Justice for his involvement in Azerbaijan, but there has been no mention of this report in the US press, and the investigation appears to have been ‘buried.’ The collapse of the Azerbaijan regime was prevented by this tactic long enough so that when the 9/11 tragedy occurred, the Bush administration was able to remove the law that prevented the US from giving aid to despotic governments. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 74 “The only thing preventing the Americans from offering the same sort of "help" to Azerbaijan had been Section 907. In the interest of national security, and to help in "enhancing global energy security" during this War on Terror, Congress granted President Bush the right to waive Section 907 in the aftermath of September 11th. It was necessary, Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress, to "enable Azerbaijan to counter terrorist organizations." [God Save the Shah, Part Four, by Mark Irkali, Tengiz Kodrarian and Cali Ruchala, May 22, 2003] 4.3 Richard Secord, UBS and the Azerbaijan Connection The key player in the operation to control Azerbaijan politics was Richard Secord, and Mega Oil. Richard Secord is the same individual who was intimately involved in multiple sets of illegal activities with George Bush Sr.: the alledged sabotage of the US attempt to rescue 52 US citizens in Iran; the October Surprise scandal, and the Iran- Contra scandal. It is through Secord that one realizes that Adnan Khashoggi had a second viable connection which would allow him to recruit the 9/11 hijackers. Secord was recruiting mercenaries for Azerbaijan that had the exact same profile as the 9/11 hijackers, and while doing so, he was working with a Mossad agent (David Kimche) who had placed Israeli mercenaries in Azerbaijan and Nicaragua. In recruiting these mujahadin, Secord was pushing the funding through UBS, thus exposing the bankers at UBS to further investigation. “…found this cluster of accounts buried in the Union Bank of Switzerland, including General Richard Secord's Mega Oil Corporation. There was a cluster of two or three hundred accounts, controlled by all of the aforementioned, wherein money continuously passed back and forth, almost in a loop, in these accounts. Where the money was coming from, where those dollars were being generated, was oil. Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Dagestan. Uzbekistan. That’s where the money is." [Kurds Get Saddam; Next - Kurdistan or Cabalistan? Al Martin] Richard Secord and Mega Oil have a long history which intertwines with the Bush Family Trust, Harken Energy (George Bush Jr.’s insider trading scandal and ‘pump and dump’ scheme), UBS and the BCCI group of Saudi investors. “Saudi European Investment Corp was basically a dummy company set up to launder all the stolen money from Lincoln savings. Gaith Pharon, Head of Saudi Intelligence & Harken Energy Saudi European Director … also acted as registered agent for numerous Bush-controlled corporations for Bush interests in the Middle East. These involved Bahrain oil interests controlled by Richard Secord's Mega Oil. These would then get sold back to Harken Energy. Of course most of them were worthless. The leader of Bahrain, Prince Abdullah, was also one of the directors of the Saudi European Investment. This entire daisy chain fraud and money laundering is actually a global fraud network because of its offshore and transnational connections. Saudi European Investment Corp was laundering money into Union Bank of Switzerland and also into BCCI accounts. BCCI of course is the notorious worldwide CIA-criminal bank, Bank of Credit and Commerce International. ….Years later it would be revealed that Agha Hasna Abedi (the founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International -BCCI)and accomplice Gaith Pharon went right ahead anyway succeeding with the takeover in 1982 of the National Bank of Georgia (Corporate Crime Reporter, July 22, 1991). Abedi used front man Gaith Pharon to act as his intermediary, taking over Lance's stake in the National Bank of Georgia for BCCI.” [Waste Not, Published: July 1997 Author: Brian Lipsett and Ellen Connett Posted on 09/10/1999] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 75 “In 1987, Stephen’s deal [Jackson Stephens, head of Stephens, Inc., a large investment bank in Little Rock, Arkansas] made arrangements with Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to provide $25 million to Harken in return for a stock interest in Harken. As part of the Stephens-brokered], Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, a Saudi real estate tycoon and financier, joined Harken's board as a major investor. Stephens, UBS, and Bakhsh each have ties to the scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). It was Stephens who suggested in the late 1970s that BCCI purchase what became First American Bankshares in Washington, D.C. BCCI later acquired First American's predecessor, Financial General Bankshares. At the time of the Harken investment, UBS was a joint-venture partner with BCCI in a bank in Geneva, Switzerland.” [The Harken Connection, "The Family That Preys Together” Jack Colhoun, Covert Action Quarterly, Issue No. 41, Summer, 1992] In actuality then, the Azerbaijani Mega Oil operation – if it is the investigation referred to by Sibel Edmonds– would have involved the same cast of illegal money launderers as associated with the Barrick gold laundering hypothesis: the BCCI Saudis and Adnan Khashoggi, the Bush enterprise, and illegal weapons merchants. As with the Giffen/Williams scandal in Kazakhstan, this operation began under President George Bush Whitehouse sponsorship. “In 1991, Azerbaijan began negotiating with Amoco, BP, McDermott, Pennzoil, Ramco, Unocal, TPAO, Statoil and other corporations on a deal to develop the Azeri, Chirag and Gunashli fields in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) is to have a 20 percent share in the project and the Russian company Lukoil will take a 10 percent holding. The deal was signed in September 1994, and in December the consortium had formed as the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), with Terry D. Adams as chairman. American corporations (Amoco, Pennzoil, Unocal, Exxon) have a 40 percent interest in the $8 billion AIOC. British corporations (BP, Ramco Khazar) have a 19 percent interest. SOCAR (Azerbaijan), Lukoil (Russia), Den Norske Stats Olieselscap (Norway), Turkie Petrollari (Turkey), Itochu (Japan), and Delta Nimir Khazar (Saudi Arabia) are also involved. The AIOC consortium's plan to build a pipeline from Baku to Ceylon, Turkey, has gotten lobbying assistance from former British Energy Minister Tim Eggar (now CEO of the British corporation Monument Oil), former British Foreign Minister Malcolm Rifkind (now a director of the British oil corporation Ramco), two former U.S. National Security Advisors, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft (now a director of AIOC), as well as former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker (oil corporation attorney), former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen, former U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney (then CEO of oil services corporation Halliburton, now candidate for U.S. Vice President), and former White House chief of staff John Sununu. Iran-Contra figure and former U.S. Air Force major general Richard Secord has been helping to train the Azerbaijani army.” [Oil Wars: The Balkans, George Draffan, www.endgame.org,a case study for the report The Corporate Consensus] “Giffen’s lawyers contend that “his actions were taken with the knowledge and support of senior officials of the U.S. intelligence and national security agencies,” including the CIA, the National Security Council (NSC), the Department of State and the White House, which could effectively “immunize Giffen” as the judge phrased it.” [Manhattan Judge Rules On Pre-Trial Motions In “Kazakhgate” Case, Marlena Telvick, 09/07/2004] The connection is fairly explicit, with Giffen being responsible for a meeting between Nazarbayev and George Bush Sr. in May of 1992 “Giffen was consolidating his position as a trusted adviser to Nazarbayev. According to U.S. officials, he helped set up Nazarbayev's first presidential visit to Washington in May 1992, when he met with President George Bush. His company, Mercator, took charge of many arrangements for the visit, from making appointments to paying bills. Such was Giffen's pull that he began traveling to and from Kazakhstan on a Kazakh diplomatic passport, even though he remained a U.S. citizen. ...According to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 76 foreign law enforcement sources, Swiss investigating magistrate Daniel Devaud examined between 50 and 60 accounts in at least four different banks: Credit Agricole Indosuez, Credit Suisse, Pictet and United European Bank. Many of the most controversial transactions went through Credit Agricole Indosuez, an affiliate of the French bank Credit Agricole. (Author’s note: Credit Agricole Indosuez would later absorb the operations of the scandal ridden BCCI as it was shut down.)” [American at Center of Kazakh Oil Probe, Michael Dobbs, David Ottaway and Sharon LaFraniere, Washington Post Staff Writers] In addition to covert Whitehouse sponsorship, significant lobbying assistance was provided by The United States Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC). “Azerbaijan is key to understanding the region and the power. During the past decade the only western source of power and force projection into the region was with the USACC. The United States Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. It was this body that has, and remains, the source of negotiations, planning and structure in the region. Prior to many of its board members entering the present White House along with Mr. Bush, they were the force behind the U.S. Congressional effort called the Silk Road Strategy of `1996-1998`; the Caspian initiative; Black Sea pipeline routes and the division of the Caspian Sa, etc. The USACC Advisory Board consisted of "only" these seven men: Dr. Henry Kissinger, James A Baker III, Lloyd Bentsen, Zibigniew Brzezinski, Dick Cheney, Brent Scowcroft, John Sununu. It is noted here that the current Vice President’s daughter, Elizabeth `Cheney-Perry`, has been named Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs for regional economic issues; she left Armitage Associates for the job. The USACC `Vice-Chairman` of the Board is James A Baker IV (Baker Botts, L.L.P.); Chairman Emeritus is T. Don Stacy (VP, Amoco); with Richard Armitage as Board President, until he resigned to become Colin Powell’s Deputy, which rounds out the US elite running the USACC. The remaining Board of Directors are a who’s who of the oil and gas multinational corporate interests of the west and specifically the United States. On the Board of Trustees or USACC the latter interests hold sway again with three primary exceptions: Senator Sam Brownback (`R-KS`) and Joseph R. Pitts (`R-PA`) (whose efforts formed the 1996 legislative backbone of the House/Senate Silk Road Strategy for Afghanistan, [Unocal, Texaco] et al) and Richard Perle (US Defense Policy Board). The Legal Counsel for USACC is Ted Jones of the Texas Law firm Baker Botts L.L.P. (James A Baker III & IV’s law firm.); Treasurer is Karl Mattison (VP, Riggs Bank, NA). It was the James A. Baker III Institute of Rice University which outlined the Cheney Strategic Energy Initiative which later became the Administration’s Strategic Energy National Security Policy. (Clearly Dick Cheney wouldn’t be interested in giving Congress the names of who he consulted on the Energy Initiative as they would amount to the remainder of the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees of USACC.)” [U.S. political objectives in the Middle East will Fail, Creating a New Cold War with China and Russia; Target is Iran not Iraq., By. Craig B Hulet] From the point of view of this group, the grander ‘Silk Road’ strategy was one of capturing the Caspian Oil: “…what are Bush’s political objectives? It is not so much Iraq’s WMD as we are led to believe; it is more about Iran. Bush will try to outflank Iran and not allow oil and gas pipelines to run through Iran from the Northern Caspian region, Russia, Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan/ Kazakhstan, South to the Persian Gulf and into Pakistan. Bush, inextricably tied to western oil interests, wants to run their pipelines through Afghanistan into Pakistan as the counter weight on the Eastern front. Then pipelines through Iraq, an Iraq controlled by the U.S., is the counterweight on the Western front. Control Baghdad, you control the Euphrates and Tigris rivers’ trade waterways. But Russia will try to dominate in the North, with pipelines running North and Northwest into Russia and across to the Black Sea; China will try to dominate the East with pipelines running East and Southeast into China, "The Silk Road" route. Put succinctly: Russia wants the Black Sea routes, China the Silk Road routes, Bush wants everything to flow South from the entire region into his deep pockets via the Persian Gulf routes. Geography rules even if borders no longer matter. Also, recently reported (Jan.14, 2003 NYT), Russia is negotiating massive pipeline routes from its Siberian oil fields: one from Angarsk into the northern industrial region of China and a separate one which would bypass China. Negotiating with the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 77 Japanese for a pipeline which would run from Lake Baikal to the port of Nakhodka, near Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan. Oil is the Great Game and everyone is in on it. Russia and China have already opened dialogue on security issues with India, and Japan will not remain in economic doldrums forever. [U.S. political objectives in the Middle East will Fail, Creating a New Cold War with China and Russia; Target is Iran not Iraq, Craig B Hulet, 7/9/2003] The grander strategy however seemed to find a way to enrich the business partners, going as far back as Iran-Contra, and resulted in a series of coincidences that suggests that the Iran Contra group of businessmen could have been responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center. The Secord/Armitage foray into Azerbaijan introduces some relatively curious coincidences pertinent to the attack on the WTC. Two of the reported hijackers were reported to be Uzbek; a number of other hijackers traveled to, and fought in, Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Secord, and his 1,000 Afghan Mujahedin fought along side of Chechen, Turkish and Israeli forces as well as American mercenaries. The Afghan Mujahedin mercenaries hired by Secord are reported to have also fought in other regions of the Caucuses: in Chechnya and Georgia and Dagestan, and to have been a destabilizing force in the entire Caucuses region. Additionally, Secord had twice traveled to Uzbekistan, and the CIA had recently set up a sizable operation in the area: “Only belatedly have major outlets like the Wall Street Journal (Oct. 2), The Associated Press (Oct. 5), and the Washington Post (Oct. 5) begun to acknowledge, in stories placed well back in the paper, and with much less emphasis, that the Northern Alliance – our allies against the Taliban – are now in real control of the heroin trade. Smuggling routes have shifted from south through Pakistan northward through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. They acknowledge the obvious – that the Taliban is no longer the primary supplier of heroin. How could they be?... In March 2001 FTW reported from Moscow that Uzbekistan was “awash” in a sea of poppies. Since September 11 we have seen Uzbekistan not surprisingly become the hub for all U.S. military operations going into Afghanistan. It was, in fact, the very first place that U.S. military and “special operations” forces deployed – within days of the attacks. Unmentioned in press stories is the fact that firms like Southern Air, Evergreen and other CIA proprietary or contract operations have been establishing a presence in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent for more than a year. …as we are hearing the first reports that the Uzbeki government, fighting its own battle against a Muslim insurgency, will permit offensive operations from its military bases, FTW has had two reports that CIA operative Richard Secord has recently traveled to Tashkent. Secord’s documented history of involvement in heroin smuggling, from Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the 1960’s and his criminal involvement in illegal operations, including drug smuggling during the Iran-Contra years, tells us exactly what is happening. These same intelligence sources have also reported that many other CIA veterans of Iran-Contra and Vietnam – despite their age – are converging on Tashkent like bees to a field of flowers – poppy flowers.” [Russia and Oil the Real Objectives With Heroin As A Weapon of War, A Replay of CIA’s Vietnam-era Drug Dealing - FTW Revises Its Map On Economic Impacts, by Michael C. Ruppert http://www copvcia.com/stories/oct_2001/heroin.html, FTW, 10/10/2001] Another “Neocon” active in the region and supporting Muslim “terrorists” was Richard Perle: “Perle was also a major player in the Bosnia Defense Fund, which acted as a financial liaison to funnel money between Muslim nations and the government of Bosnia. An adviser for the now-defunct Riggs Bank, which handled the finances for the Bosnia Defense Fund and its accounts at the Bosnian Central Bank in Sarajevo, claimed that Perle was not alarmed when he was told that some of the Bosnian Defense Fund money was bleeding over into the hands of people connected with terrorism in Bosnia. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 78 Perle's response to the concern of the adviser was reportedly, "Just make it fucking happen." [http://waynemadsenreport.com/2007_01010110.php] Assuming these reports about Secord and Perle to be true, Secord, Perle and the neoconservative group is in a position to be considered as much a logical source for the 9/11 hijackers as is Osama Bin Laden. Another ‘coincidence” would be Adnan Khashoggi’s role as a banker in that conflict, funding the anti-Armenian “terrorists”: “… in Armenia. Banking fraud was rampant there, Global News Wire reported in August, 2004, "thanks to the Arab millionaire Adnan Khashoggi-- an active partner of Armenian businessmen in the illicit drug and arms trades." Khashoggi's first bucket-shop banking operation was a branch of the Caucasus Investment Bank in Susa. In quick succession, with the assistance of Abu Muslum, an Arab businessman, he opened the Hamaz and Beit ul-Muqaddas banks. Rovsan Novruzoglu, a political scientist and director of the International Strategic Research Center in Azerbaijan, observes that Adnan Khashoggi's banks "played a big part in the formation of terrorist camps and in the opening of laboratories for developing chemical and bacteriological weapons in Nagornyy Karabakh."11 1) M. Macidli, "Azerbaijani Daily Outlines Activities of International Armenian Haybun Organization," Global News Wire, August 27, 2003. [Saudi Entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi Linked to 9/11 Terrorists (Part 1-7) By Alex Constantine ] Finally, this report would also be remiss in not bringing to the reader’s attention the role of some other Iran-Contra and BBCI bank fraud players not often identified with the Azerbaijan operations: including Dick Cheney, Brent Scowcraft, Khalid bin Mahfouz and Farhad Azima. The first two are former Congressmen who were involved in Congressional Committees that investigated the Iran Contra scandal, and found no involvement by Vice President Bush. (This involvement is further discussed in Section: 10 Iran-Contra Scandal and October Surprise) “You might be interested in a lobbying group known as the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce. You can learn about it here. http://elitewatch.9/11review.org/USACC.html The members include James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, Zbiniew Brezinski (the mastermind of arming Islamic militants in Afghanistan to fight the Russians), and Lloyd Bentsen. Dick Cheney resigned from the board when he was elected to VP. Richard Armitage resigned from the Presidency when he was appointed to the state dept. Armitage seems like one of the few upright and honest members of this administration, but he has a dark history of drug trafficking for the CIA in Laos, among other things. Which leads us to the most notorious member of the board, Farhad Azima. Farhad Azima has smuggled guns, drugs, weapons systems, and mujahidin for the CIA for over 35 years, as the head of about a dozen different cargo airlines. He leased the plane Ollie North took to Tehran. He also was involved in the Savings and Loan scandal, and the Clinton fund raising scandal, and he recently gave Dick Gephardt $4000 in his run in the primaries. He knows how to grease the skids. Back in 1992, he [Farhad Azima ]and infamous AF Gen. Richard Secord flew Afghans into Azerbaijan and trained them to fight against Armenia. These soldiers wound up in Chechnya and Georgia and Dagestan and have destabilized the entire Caucuses region.” [http://elitewatch.9/11review.org/USACC.html] It is not coincidence that Secord’s CIA mercenaries went to Chechnya. The Chechnyan conflict too, was part of a grander strategy to control Caspian Oil, and deter it from entering Russian markets. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 79 "With regard to Chechnya, the main rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab were trained and indoctrinated in CIA sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this regard, the involvement of Pakistan's ISI and its radical Islamic proxies are actually calling the shots in this war. "Russia's main pipeline route transits through Chechnya and Dagestan. Despite Washington's perfunctory condemnation of Islamic terrorism, the indirect beneficiaries of the Chechen war are the Anglo-American oil conglomerates which are vying for control over oil resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin." [Chossudovsky] “One of the main goals of the Russian attack on Chechnya in December of 1994 was to ensure control of the oil pipeline which runs from Baku, via Grozny, the Chechen capital, to the Russian city of Tikhoretsk. The pipeline ends at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, designed by Russia to be the terminal for the proposed Kazakh and Azerbaijani pipelines. In addition, Grozny boasts a large refinery with a processing capacity of 12 million tons per year. During its brief self- proclaimed independence under President Jokhar Dudayev from 1991 to 1994, Chechnya illegally exported crude oil and refined products worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. The rebel government worked closely with corrupt politicians in Moscow to obtain export licenses. Partly to cut off this activity, Russia launched a massive but covert military action in the fall of 1994 to support opponents of Dudayev. In 1994, Dudayev turned to radical Islamic elements in the Middle East and Central Asia for support. This exacerbated the religious aspect of the conflict between the Muslim Chechens and Christian Orthodox Russians. The overt military action began on December 12, 1994, when the Russian army marched on Grozny, destroying Chechnya's capital city by brutal aerial, tank, and artillery bombardment. Since the start of the campaign, over 30,000 people have been killed, and more than 300,000 have become refugees. Hostilities continue, with hostage-taking crises erupting in July 1995 and January 1996.” [Turkmen Oil and Natural Gas: The Viability of Delivering Prosperity to Global Markets , Turkmen Oil and Natural Gas. The Manadal Projects, American University] Additionally involved in Azerbaijan is Iran-Contra participant and Barrick co-founder Khalid bin Mahfouz, as a major investor in Delta Oil and Unocal (both also involved in the Afghanistan pipeline operations) “French sources have located Khalid bin Mahfouz and his family at the center of a nexus involving other firms owned by his family, the bin Laden family and members of the Saudi royal family. Some of these were oil companies, like the Saudi companies Delta Oil and Nimir Oil. Both are partners with UNOCAL in Azerbaijan, and Delta was a partner in UNOCAL's efforts in 1996 to build a pipeline through Afghanistan. Bin Mahfouz himself was named to the governing council of the Saudi oil giant Aramco by King Fahd in 1989 (Brisard 187).” [Synopsis: The "Truth" Which Is Now "Forbidden" on Bin Mahfouz, Bin Laden, the CIA, BCCI, & Saudi Regime, Source: socrates.berkeley.edu via mailarchive. com , Published: January 1, 2002 Author: Peter Dale Scott, For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.] 4.4 Afghanistan The Afghan pipeline from the Caspian, through Afghanistan to India and the Arabian Sea, was originally conceived and proposed by Bridas, the Argentine energy company, in 1991. For many years, Bridas invested and promoted the pipeline, in the midst of great political instability in Afghanistan. Bridas initially approached Unocal to be a partner, but Unocal decided that a partnership with Bridas was unnecessary. Unocal marshaled a heavy campaign to change the hearts and minds of Central Asian politicians, and where they could not change their minds, Unocal replaced the politicians. All this was occurring in a country preoccupied with tribal warfare, where warlords maintained personal armies of between 15,000 and 30,000 warriors. These armies were fed by weapons and cash from the Russian and US intelligence operations, and where possible, THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 80 self-funded through the sale of heroin, opium and female slaves using either the Soviet military or the CIA as a middleman. The initial conquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban was initially viewed by the US, Pakistani and Saudi politicians as a favorable development. “The Taliban conquer Kabul, establishing control over much of Afghanistan [Associated Press, 8/19/02]. A surge in the Taliban's military successes at this time is later attributed to an increase in direct military assistance from Pakistan's ISI. [New York Times, 12/8/01] The oil company Unocal is hopeful that the Taliban will stabilize Afghanistan and allow its pipeline plans to go forward. According to some reports, “preliminary agreement [on the pipeline] was reached between the [Taliban and Unocal] long before the fall of Kabul . . . . Oil industry insiders say the dream of securing a pipeline across Afghanistan is the main reason why Pakistan, a close political ally of America's, has been so supportive of the Taliban, and why America has quietly acquiesced in its conquest of Afghanistan.” [Daily Telegraph, 10/11/96] The 9/11 Commission later concludes that some State Department diplomats are willing to “give the Taliban a chance” because it might be able to bring stability to Afghanistan, which would allow a Unocal oil pipeline to be built through the country. [9/11 Commission Report, 3/24/04] Recognizing the significance of the pipeline for its many military and economic benefits, the US –under both Clinton and Bush – encouraged the Afghan and Indian participants in the pipeline to support the US effort rather than the previous Argentine contracts. “Bridas officials are stunned when they witness Turkmenistan's President Niyazov sign an agreement with Unocal and its partner, Delta Oil Company (owned by Saudi Arabia) to build a pipeline through Afghanistan, thus essentially abrogating Turkmenistan's earlier contract with Bridas. On Oct. 21, (1995) the nod went to the Americans as Niyazov announced the selection of Unocal. Looking on at the announcement ceremony was former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, now a Unocal consultant."[Gas Pipeline Bounces Between Agendas, Washington Post, 5 October 1998] “In the Spring of 1996 the United States pressured Prime Minister Bhutto to change her allegiance from Bridas to Unocal. Her failure to comply was "one of the factors" in her downfall, according to the Herald of Pakistan.” Part of the list of wealthy individuals trying to promote this Unocal pipeline was none other than Adnan Khashoggi: “Hank Greenberg has had a long time relationship with Henry Kissinger, the partner of Richard Perle in Trireme Partners, the firm that, according to Seymour Hersh, attempted to negotiate deals with Saudi Arabia using Saudi billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi as an intermediary. Greenberg and Khashoggi, according to CIA sources, have long had an interest in exploiting the oil and natural gas reserves of Uzbekistan and the construction of pipelines across the Uralskaya region of Russia. Uzbekistan has also featured prominently in oil and natural gas plans of Enron and UNOCAL. According to Enron insiders, on Saturday, September 7, 1996, 42 representatives of Enron and UNOCAL met in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, with Khashoggi, Taliban representatives, and Uzbek government officials. The subject was the CentGas pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan, a project that involved UNOCAL, Enron, and Saudi support. Current Afghan President Hamid Karzai was a consultant on the pipeline for UNOCAL…. The Tashkent meeting was followed by a spring 1997 meeting between Enron, UNOCAL, and Taliban representatives at the posh Houstonian Hotel in Houston.” [Intelligence Whispers, Wayne Madsen Report, June 20, 2005] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 81 Two years later, another historic milestone occurred that would change what appeared to be a new-found, amicable relationship between the US and Afghanistan. In 1998, (the same year the decision to destroy the WTC was made) Osama Bin Laden – exiled from Saudi Arabia - issued a fatwa, or religious proclamation, calling for the death of all Americans, including civilians, men, women, and children. This fatwa is reported to have resulted in attacks on the USS Cole and US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. While the Taliban was not responsible for the attacks, the relationship between Afghanistan and the US started to sour after President Clinton ordered the bombing of terrorist camps in Afghanistan in response to the attacks on the USS Cole and US embassies. Understanding the fatwa bombings Because of the suspicious and questionable nature of the evidence presented regarding Osama Bin Laden, the question was investigated: Is it possible the US Embassy bombings were not what they appeared to be? The evidence available suggests the embassy bombings may have been CIA operations, planned by CIA operative Ali Mohammed, and supported by MI5 (British Intelligence). "U.S. investigators are concentrating on a possible U.S. Army connection between John Muhammad and former U.S. Army Sergeant Ali Mohammed. A former Egyptian Army officer, Ali Mohammed left the US Army Special Forces in 1989 after a three-year enlistment. He was arrested by U.S. authorities after the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa and pleaded guilty to charges of aiding Osama bin Laden. Ali Mohammed was the chief planner of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and, more interestingly, entered the United States under a covert CIA visa program. Ali Mohammed received an M-16 Expert Badge and a Secret clearance from the Army and was a special instructor at the JFK Special Operations Warfare School in Fort Bragg, North Carolina." [http://libertythink.com/2003_09_14_archives.html] ”An alleged member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network wanted in connection with the bombings of US embassies in Africa claimed yesterday he was in frequent touch with British security services, including a named MI5 agent. Khalid Al-Fawwaz, 38, whose fight against extradition will be heard by the law lords today, has demanded to see MI5 intelligence reports which his lawyers insist are crucial to his defence. Mr Al- Fawwaz, a Saudi, says his meetings with an MI5 officer took place at the Old War Office building in Whitehall, and will reveal the limited extent of his involvement with Bin Laden's organisation.” [Suspect claims MI5 can clear his name: Man wanted over embassy bombs takes case to lords, Richard Norton-Taylor and Nick Hopkins, The Guardian Unlimited, 10/22/2001] This evidence is reinforced by reports that high ranking US and British authorities actively discouraged and prevented investigations into the crimes. "In a dramatic interview with ABCNEWS, FBI special agents and partners Robert Wright and John Vincent say they were called off criminal investigations of suspected terrorists tied to the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. U.S. officials say al Qaeda was responsible for the embassy attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.... The suspected terrorist cell in Chicago was the basis of the investigation, yet Wright, who remains with the FBI, says he soon discovered that all the FBI intelligence division wanted him to do was to follow suspected terrorists and file reports — but make no arrests.... 'The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: 'You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects,' ' Wright said. Even though THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 82 they were on a terrorism task force and said they had proof of criminal activity, Wright said he was told not to pursue the matter.... even after the bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests. 'Two months after the embassies are hit in Africa, they wanted to shut down the criminal investigation,' said Wright. 'They wanted to kill it.' ... The move outraged Chicago federal prosecutor Mark Flessner, who was assigned to the case despite efforts Wright and Vincent say were made by superiors to block the probe....'There were powers bigger than I was in the Justice Department and within the FBI that simply were not going to let it [the building of a criminal case] happen. And it didn't happen,' Flessner said. He said he still couldn't figure out why Washington stopped the case... On Sept. 11, 2001, the two agents watched the terror attacks in horror, worried that men they could have stopped years earlier may have been involved.'"[Called Off the Trail? ABCNews, 19 Dec 2002] “ The Observer has obtained a copy of a personal memo sent from Sudan to Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, after the murderous 1998 attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It announces the arrest of two named bin Laden operatives held the day after the bombings after they crossed the Sudanese border from Kenya. They had cited the manager of a Khartoum leather factory owned by bin Laden as a reference for their visas, and were held after they tried to rent a flat overlooking the US embassy in Khartoum, where they were thought to be planning an attack. US sources have confirmed that the FBI wished to arrange their immediate extradition. However, Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, forbade it.... Sudan held the suspects for a further three weeks, hoping the US would both perform their extradition and take up the offer to examine their bin Laden database."[Resentful west spurned Sudan's key terror files, Observer, 30 September 2001] “The Libyan al-Qaeda cell included Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government's most wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. He is wanted for his involvement in the African embassy bombings. Al-Liby was with bin Laden in Sudan before the al-Qaeda leader returned to Afghanistan in 1996. Astonishingly, despite suspicions that he was a high-level al-Qaeda operative, al- Liby was given political asylum in Britain and lived in Manchester until May of 2000....."[MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden', Observer, 10 November 2002] Another example of this unwillingness to detain key Al Qaeda mercenaries is the case of Abu Haf (aks Abu Hafs, Abu Hafsi). Abu Haf was a significant Al Qaeda operative in the original US strategy to deploy Al Qaeda against the Russians. Al-Qaida emerged from another organisation, Maktab al-Khidamat, the services bureau that Abdallah Azzam set up in the early 1980s to support Afghan resistance. Azzam was assassinated in 1989; he was succeeded by Bin Laden, one of his leading disciples, who transformed the organisation into al-Qaida. “During a recent interview in Amman, Azzam’s son Hudayfa, who has spent almost 20 years among Arab militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, told me: “Most Yemeni fighters, simple minded warriors whose only ambition was martyrdom, left Afghanistan after the fall of the Communist government. The Egyptians stayed because they had other ambitions as yet unfulfilled. When Osama bin Laden joined them, after he left Sudan in 1996, they focused on shifting his basic thinking from opposition to American hegemony in the Middle East towards a Takfirist perspective.“When I met Osama bin Laden in 1997 in Islamabad, he was flanked by three members of the Egyptian camp: the Somali Abu Obaida, and the Egyptians Abu Haf and Saiful Adil..” [Global jihad splits into wars between Muslims: Al- Qaida: the unwanted guests, Syed Saleem Shahzad, Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2007] In 1994, he joined the US operation to disrupt Russian control of oil in Chechnya. At the end of 1994, this Jordanian, together with a group of his associated, moved to Chechnya, joining military activity against the Russian troops. [World Secret Services and the Caucasian Emissary of Al- Qaeda, Michel Elbaz , 30.11.2006] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 83 “In 1996, Abu Hafs relocated to Georgia "on Osama Bin Laden's order" to take charge of al-Qaeda operations in the Pankisi Gorge. Abu Hafs is allegedly in charge of the distribution of all al-Qaeda funds sent to Chechnya. (Before his death last year, Russian intelligence usually attributed this role to al-Walid.) Abu Hafs is also described as having been in charge of weapons supplies to the fighters in the Pankisi Gorge. (This statement implies that arms were being shipped in to the fighters. Aside from the practical difficulties of such international shipments, it is known that Gelaev arranged the reoutfitting of his men from Georgian sources in exchange for joining the fighting in Abkhazia. Russian arms are also available from the cash-strapped Russian rump garrisons in Georgia.) In the FSB's account, Abu Hafs returned to Chechnya in 2002 … There were numerous reports of Abu Hafs' largesse, building both a mosque and hospital in the Pankisi Gorge.” [Abu Hafs Al-Urdani: The Quiet Mujahid, Andrew Mc Gregor, Chechnya Weekly, Volume 6, Issue 5 (February 02, 2005)] Even after the fatwa embassy bombings in 1998 and the September 11, 2001 attack, Abu Haf was allowed to continue his work against the Russians unimpeded by the US, until the Russians killed him in 2006. The US allies in Georgia never attempted to arrest him during his many years in Georgia, even though the National Security Agency identified his location by a cell phone call to him in 2001. A US financed operation in 2002 to ‘clean up’ the Pankisi Gorge allowed him to escape. “…since 1996 and till his very death, Abu Hafs’ activity was closely related with Georgia, its secret services did not pay any attention to him for quite a long time. In the second half of the 1990s, they showed almost no interest towards the Arab Islamists, who, like Abu Hafs, were basing in the Akhmet region (Pankisi Gorge), in the northern part of the country. At that time the local secret services were occupied by operations directed against the inner opposition and against the separatist enclaves in the territory of the republic. Moreover, given its complicated relationship with Russia, Georgia was showing silent empathy to the Chechen separatists, and therefore did not cause particular obstacles to the Arab mujahideen connected with them. Only following September 11 attacks, and as a result of Moscow’s growing pressure, in 2001-2002 Tbilisi, with the help of Washington, somehow began coping with the foreign mujahideen’ issue. In spring 2002 Abu Hafs moved to Chechnya, and in February of the following year the Georgian Minister of Interior Koba Narchemashvili publicly announced that the Jordanian is not in the country any more. He also affirmed that the local secret services had not collected intelligence about this person during the six years of his stay in Georgia. In spite of the fact that later Abu Hafs had repeatedly visited Georgia, and even stayed here for the most part of 2005, no effort of his arrest was ever made.” [World Secret Services and the Caucasian Emissary of Al-Qaeda, Michel Elbaz , 30.11.2006] “At the same time, Georgian officials described an incident in which an Arab fighter with apparent links to Al Qaeda might have been allowed to get away. Georgian officials said they believed that the man, Abu Hafsi, had been running financial operations in the gorge and had supervised the building of a military hospital there. He slipped away, presumably to Chechnya, officials said.” [U.S. Entangled in Mystery of Georgia's Islamic Fighters, Dexter Filkins , June 15, 2003, NYTimes] Similarly, Peter Lance, in his 2006 research into the FBI’s mishandling of terrorist investigations title Triple Cross, documents how the FBI failed to bring to justice: · Ihab Mohammed Ali Nawawi, who trained at Airman Flight School in Norman Oklahoma and became Bin Laden’s personal pilot; · Ali Mohammed, a major Al Qaeda operative in the US and abroad linked to the embassy bombings; · Mohammed Jamal Khalifa: Osama Bin Laden’s brother-in-law who was connected by evidence to multiple Al Qaeda operations, but was extradited to Jordan to be set free; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 84 · Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a major Al Qaeda operative considered the ‘mastermind of the September 11 attacks; · Al-Midhar Nawaf al-Hamzi, 9/11 hijacker; · Khalid al Midhar, 9/11 hijacker. At one point, Lance attributes these failures to a “stovepiping” between U.S. agencies in their failure to share intelligence before 9/11.” (Page 333). Elsewhere, he suggests “If they failed to connect the dots, it wasn’t because a legal barrier or “wall” had been erected. It was because of management interference, incompetence, or sheer lack of will.” (Page 72). Lance however is able to tell his readers that the “Malaysian Summit ... that set the stage for not only the Cole bombing and the 9/11 attacks” “was monitored, as it took place, at the highest levels of the intelligence community – even at the White House. White House National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was reportedly kept up to speed on the conference and …FBI director Louis Freeeh himself was briefed.” (Page 337). The simplest explanation is not government incompetence. There are so many examples of Al Qaeda operatives being released so many times, that one can only conclude that these men were and are protected by the US intelligence world, because they serve the US National Security apparatus. Understanding the attack on the USS Cole also provides insights, with indications the attack required a complicated and sophisticated bomb, which was built in Lebanon by the Hezbollah, and transported with the assistance of the Syrian Intelligence. “The Oct. 12 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen is the work of network headed by Osama bin Laden. However, the sophisticated nature of the bomb--which was placed within a metal container to channel the blast into the Cole's hull--suggests state involvement. The bomb-makers were Hezbollah terrorists led by Imad Mughniyah. Everything was done in Lebanon under the protection of the Syrian army who then helped the transfer of the bomb to the terrorists. Iran delivered the first material necessarily to make the bomb. This delivery cannot be done without the agreement and the help of Damascus.” [Syria – Al Qaida Connection, Dr. J. R. Albani, Senior Official in the Guardians of the Cedars, May 24, 2003] The evidence suggests there are multiple intelligence organizations (known to have cooperated with U.S. intelligence in the past) involved in these fatwa bombings. In an earlier decade, agents from Iran and Syria worked directly with US intelligence to execute the October Surprise and the Iran-Contra weapons deals. Syrian troops fought along side US troops in the first Gulf War. The rhetorical question that might be asked is: would agencies that have been traditional allies of the US now be part of an attack on the US? Even the agencies of United States’s avowed enemies do not attack the U.S. This multi-national conspiracy known as the fatwa bombings was coordinated by the same team now operating in Azerbaijan. This is a consistent theme with the evidence. Mohammed Atta was involved in multiple intelligence organizations, the same as those identified as backing the US embassy bombings. The 9/11 hijackers had histories with multiple western intelligence agencies. Moreover, a number of them, including Mohammed Atta, seemingly had links to the US Military. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 85 “Three of the alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.—known as the “Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation,” according to a highranking U.S. Navy source. Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said another high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source.” [The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI, George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp and John Barry, Newsweek, 9/15/2001] “As the investigation gathered strength yesterday, unusual leads began to surface, among them the possibility that some of the hijackers may have received training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida or other U.S. military facilities. Two of 19 suspects named by the FBI, Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi, have the same names as men listed at a housing facility for foreign military trainees at Pensacola. Two others, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami, have names similar to individuals listed in public records as using the same address inside the base. In addition, a man named Saeed Alghamdi graduated from the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, while men with the same names as two other hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, appear as graduates of the U.S. International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and the Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, respectively.” [Washington Post, 9/16 2001] The observation that 9/11 required involvement by multiple intelligence agencies has been made by at least two well-respected intelligence observers from Russia and Germany. “(General) Ivashov hits the nail square on the head. “The organizers of [the nine eleven] attacks were the political and business circles interested in destabilizing the world order” because they “were not satisfied with the rhythm of the globalization process or its direction.” As others have explained—most notably Andreas Von Bulow, Bundestag member of a parliamentary commission which oversaw the three branches of the German secret service—only “secret services and their current chiefs” (or retired staff with “influence inside the state organizations”) have the “ability to plan, organize and conduct an operation of such magnitude. Generally, secret services create, finance and control extremist organizations. Without the support of secret services, these organizations cannot exist—let alone carry out operations of such magnitude inside countries so well protected.” Thus the obvious patsy “Osama bin Laden and ‘Al Qaeda’ cannot be the organizers or the performers of the September 11 attacks” because they “do not have the necessary organization, resources or leaders” (or the military and intelligence experience and knowledge required). Instead, “a team of professionals had to be created and the Arab kamikazes are just extras to mask the operation.” [Russian General - 9/11 a Globalist inside Job, January 22,2006] Moreover, the more one looks at these Muslim ‘terrorist’ organizations, one finds they are generally headquartered in Western capitals. The ring of ‘terrorist groups’ (including Al Qaeda) supported by the US and its allies and which ring the former Soviet Union have a consistent funding and support from the US and its allies. In addition to Syrian, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence support for Muslim terrorist groups, one also finds extensive British support. “A terrorist network whose purpose is to undermine Russia is organized and coordinated from London. There, under the wing of British intelligence, thrive the world's most radical Islamic terrorist organizations, such as the "Islamic Liberation Party", the "Worldwide Islamic Front", the "Defenders of Shariat", the "Mukhadjiri" movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and others. I've named only those organizations which are forbidden in the majority of Islamic countries. In London also are THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 86 located the nerve centers of Chechen terrorism along with the bank accounts of the terrorists.” [Who's Noticing the NATO danger? General Leonid Ivashov , Sovetskaya Rossiya , April 8, 2004 ] Even after the World Trade Center attack of September 11, Britain was ‘protecting’ known Al Qaeda officials. “Investigators from Spain, Germany and Italy are desperate to question Abu Qatada, who they claim is a pivotal figure in cells they have under arrest in their own countries. Their requests to question him and some of the other suspects directly have been rejected by the Government. Investigators in Spain who named Abu Qatada as 'the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Europe', say their own terror trials are hindered by Britain's refusal to let them interrogate the cleric. The Jordanian Government has sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in planning a bombing campaign to coincide with the millenium celebrations and cannot understand why Abu Qatada is not extradited. In spite of holding most of the terror suspects for many months, the men are providing the security services and police with little intelligence on terrorist activity in the United Kingdom."[ London Times 19 December 2003] "Described by some justice officials as the spiritual leader and possible puppet master of al-Qaeda's European networks, Abu Qatada has been missing since mid-December after British authorities confiscated his passport, froze his assets and ordered him confined to his London home. With Jordan seeking his return to serve a life sentence for terror-related crimes, some observers figured Abu Qatada went underground—and perhaps left Britain—to avoid extradition. But senior European intelligence officials tell TIME that Abu Qatada is tucked away in a safe house in the north of England, where he and his family are being lodged, fed and clothed by British intelligence services".['Sheltering A Puppet Master?' Time Magazine 7 July 2002] The Mujahedin mercenaries hired by Richard Secord to fight in Azerbaijan fought for multiple causes in multiple countries. Their use as instruments of US policy in Afghansistan, Kosovo, Chechnya, Georgia, Azerbaijan has been documented in hundreds of reports. Their protection by US and British policy makers long after the fatwa proclamation is equally well documented. The reader needs to suspend judgment when it comes to accepting at face value the claim that the hijackers and fatwa bombers were in the service of Osama Bin Ladin. The timing of the fatwa and the embassy bombings is consistent with the timing of a decision to destroy the World Trade Center, in such a way that it is possible that the fatwa and bombings were part of a larger plan to blame the WTC attack on ‘terrorists’. Evidence has been presented that the individuals responsible for these bombings were US trained, and belonged to a resource pool available to Secord, Armitage and Kimche. This is another in a list of hundreds of coincidences that support the conclusion that the Al Qaeda explanation offered by the US investigation is a falsehood. U.S. Control of Afghanistan In December 1998, following the US bombardment of Afghanistan and the anti-Taliban campaign of the Feminist Majority that was directed against Unocal, that company withdrew from the pipeline consortium. Unocal, in a related news release, also announced a 40 percent drop in capital spending for 1999 because of low oil prices, which it suggested, would prevent moving ahead on the pipeline in a timeframe required by the Taliban. The Taliban wanted the financial rewards associated with a pipeline, and THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 87 Unocal was not in a position to provide it in the desired timeframe for political and financial reasons. Hence, the Taliban opened the door once again to Bridas. The Unocal move, however was purely a political response to US public opinion, and the true intentions never were to give up on the contract. When the Taliban indicated a renewed willingness to work with Bridas, the US negotiators responded with threats of invasion. The timing of these threats is a critical clue. The July, 2001 threats could only be made with a pre-knowledge of a “Pearl Harbor” event by at least one of the three negotiators: Tom Simons, Karl Inderfurth or Lee Coldren. “Three former American officials, Tom Simons (former US Ambassador to Pakistan), Karl Inderfurth (former Deputy Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs), and Lee Coldren (former State Department expert on South Asia) meet with Pakistani and Russian intelligence officers in a Berlin hotel. [Salon, 8/16/02] This is the third of a series of back-channel conferences called “brainstorming on Afghanistan.” Taliban representatives sat in on previous meetings, but boycotted this one due to worsening tensions. However, the Pakistani ISI relays information from the meeting to the Taliban. [Guardian, 9/22/01] At the meeting, Coldren passes on a message from Bush officials. He later says, “I think there was some discussion of the fact that the United States was so disgusted with the Taliban that they might be considering some military action.” [Guardian, 9/26/01] Accounts vary, but former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik later says he is told by senior American officials at the meeting that military action to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan is planned to “take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest.” The goal is to kill or capture both bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, topple the Taliban regime, and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place. Uzbekistan and Russia would also participate. Naik also says, “It was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taliban.” [BBC, 9/18/01] One specific threat made at this meeting is that the Taliban can choose between “carpets of bombs” —an invasion—or “carpets of gold” — the pipeline. [Brisard, Dasquie and Madsen, 2002, pp 43] Naik contends that Tom Simons made the “carpets” statement. Simons claims, “It's possible that a mischievous American participant, after several drinks, may have thought it smart to evoke gold carpets and carpet bombs. Even Americans can't resist the temptation to be mischievous.” Naik and the other American participants deny that the pipeline was an issue at the meeting. [Salon, 8/16/02] Creative Commons Just prior to the time these statements were being made to the Taliban, Richard Armitage was in Islamabad, and it is speculated by this report that the above three agents were working under his direction. Armitage’s expertise in the Afghan region was substantial in that he holds the ‘highest Pakistani civil decoration that could be awarded to a foreigner’ for his role during the Afghan war in the 1980s. While Unocal publicly appeared to back away from any association with the Taliban, it maintained a presence in Afghanistan, and the US intelligence agencies worked on behalf of Unocal (and Enron) to promote an environment that would support a re-instatement of the pipeline. At that time, there were twenty CIA agents working for Enron using a leave-of-absence from the agency. They all managed to return to their positions within the agency when Enron went under. A key player in facilitating that covert operation was Dick Cheney. “A chief benefactor in the CentGas (Central Asian Pipeline) deal would have been Halliburton, the huge oil pipeline construction firm that also had its eye on the Central Asian oil reserves. At the time, Halliburton was headed by Dick Cheney.” [Provisional leader Karzai links to US Oil, Indymedia Somewhere, Wayne Madsen, 2002-01-21] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 88 Cheney was initially involved in the pipeline negotiations while CEO of Halliburton. As newly elected Vice President of the U.S, he would intercede in January of 2001, supposedly at the request of Enron, to impose an “intelligence block” that would prevent numerous US investigative agencies from interfering with or monitoring discussions between Afghan, Saudi and US covert operatives who were “fixing” the situation. During this time while the block was in effect, two key leaders of the Northern Alliance (Abdul Haq and Ahmad Shah Masoud (Masood)) were assassinated, and the Taliban leadership was “courted” with cash. “Abdul Haq, the assassinated former mujaheddin leader from Jalalabad, and the leadership of the Northern Alliance… When Haq entered Afghanistan from Pakistan last October (2001), his position was immediately known to Taliban forces, which subsequently pinned him and his small party down, captured, and executed them….” [Provisional leader Karzai links to US Oil , Indymedia Somewhere, Wayne Madsen, 2002-01-21] "The Taliban's execution of Afghan opposition leader Abdul Haq will be a subject of contention at a congressional hearing today and could lead to new scrutiny of the CIA's close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence service. A House International Relations subcommittee is expected to air charges that Pakistani agents betrayed Abdul Haq, and the CIA didn't do enough to save him. Recriminations are rising in the aftermath of Abdul Haq's execution Friday in Afghanistan. His champions say the hero during the war with the Soviet Union was a potential unifying force for anti-Taliban opposition factions... Abudul Haq's death has prompted some of the strongest criticism of the U.S. war effort. 'A lot of people are very upset,' says Al Santolly, an aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. 'The whole episode shows a lack of coherence in the (Bush administration) policy.' The crux of the criticism over his death is the CIA's relationship with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)... The CIA went along with the ISI, including the ISI's creation of the Taliban, critics say... Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA director of counterterrorism, says there is 'credible information' that the ISI tipped off an Afghan tribal leader about Abdul Haq's whereabouts, and the tribal leader told the Taliban. A senior official of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance made the same charge on Tuesday, as did several congressional aides." [Taliban foe's death sparks criticism of U.S. goals," USA Today, 10/31/2001] “September 9, the leader of the Northern Alliance, Commander Ahmad Shah Masood, was assassinated. The Northern Alliance informed the Bush administration that the ISI of Pakistan was implicated in the murder.”[ Mahmoud Ahmad and The Secret Cult of 9-11, Laura Knight-Jadczyk] A significant amount of money was spent in courting the Taliban leadership. There are accounts that both the US and Russian fixers were each plowing $20 million per month into the Afghan leadership. What is widely perceived as a collapse of negotiations is thought to be the impetus for the invasion of Afghanistan. However, key Northern Alliance resistance leadership had already been removed. The Taliban, to a large degree, supported a US pipeline, and only this fact can explain the limited assault on Taliban forces by US troops, once the invasion began, and the willingness of US forces to let thousands of Taliban fighters to escape. With the dispersal of the Taliban and the elimination of Northern Alliance leadership, it was easy for the US to install as president its own candidate, an oil industry executive who formerly worked for Unocal - Hamid Karzai. Coincidentally, it also created conditions allowing for a change in heroin traffic through Northern Afghanistan, THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 89 switching traffic from the Russian military routes through Moscow to the more southern routes controlled by the Chechen Mafiya and Yeltsin Family. 4.5 Afghanistan and the Intelligence Block John O’Neill was confounded by the same ‘intelligence block’ as Sibel Edmonds, and before his murder indicated the ‘block’ was preventing investigation into arms and drug smuggling and money laundering because it was connected to the Taliban and the need for Enron to salvage its Indian electrical generating plant investment. Without the pipeline, the plant was a financial failure with an estimated at $3 billion price tag. Salvaging its value might have prevented Enron’s bankruptcy, but most likely only would have delayed it. “… in January 2001, Vice President Cheney allegedly reinstated the intelligence block and expanded it to effectively preclude any investigations whatsoever of Saudi-Taliban-Afghan oil connections. Former FBI counter-terrorism chief John O’Neil resigned from the FBI in disgust, stating that he was ordered not to investigate Saudi-Al Qaida connections because of the Enron pipeline deal. Loftus has confirmed that it was O’Neill who originally discovered the AL Qaida pipeline memo after the Embassy bombings in Africa….” [What Congress does not know about Enron and 9/11, John Loftus] “Loftus asserts that the Enron block, which remained in force from January 2001 until August 2001 when the pipeline deal collapsed, is the reason that none of FBI agent Rowley’s requests for investigations were ever approved. As numerous British and French authors have concluded, the information provided by European intelligence sources prior to 9/11 was so extensive, that it is no longer possible for either CIA or the FBI to assert a defense of incompetence.” [May 31, 2002 For Immediate Release, By Atty. John J. Loftus ] “During the investigation of the August 7, 1998, US embassy bombings, FBI counterterrorism expert John O'Neill finds a memo by Al Qaeda leader Mohammed Atef on a computer. The memo shows that bin Laden's group has a keen interest in and detailed knowledge of negotiations between the Taliban and the US over an oil and gas pipeline through Afghanistan. Atef's analysis suggests that the Taliban are not sincere in wanting a pipeline, but are dragging out negotiations to keep Western powers at bay.” [Salon, 6/5/02] “Their ongoing terrorist investigations appear to have been hindered during the same sensitive time period while the Enron Corporation was still negotiating with the Taliban. An inadvertent result of the Taliban pipeline cover-up was that the Taliban's friends in Al Qaida were able to complete their last eight months of preparations for 9/11 while the Enron secrecy block was still in force….” [What Congress does not know about Enron and 9/11, John Loftus] The real need for the ‘intelligence block’ becomes confusing, because there was a public courting between the Taliban and Enron, and the US government was inviting Taliban leaders to the United States through July of 2001 to negotiate successful closure to the pipeline deal. If the discussions were public, what might be the need for an “intelligence block?” Indeed, Enron felt it had successfully achieved its objectives. “The Enron Corporation gave the Taliban millions of dollars in a no-holds-barred bid to strike a deal for an energy pipeline in Afghanistan -- while the Taliban were already sheltering terror kingpin Osama Bin Laden! Enron executives even met with Taliban officials in Texas, where they were given the red-carpet treatment and promised a fortune if the deal went through.… As The ENQUIRER revealed two weeks THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 90 ago, Enron secretly employed CIA agents to carry out its dealings overseas. And a CIA insider disclosed: "Enron was wooing the Taliban and was willing to make the Taliban a partner in the operation of a pipeline through Afghanistan. Three days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Unocal announced it had withdrawn from the Afghanistan pipeline project. But the CIA insider said Enron and its CEO Kenneth Lay held on, waiting for the Taliban to give up Bin Laden as the Bush administration was demanding. "Enron figured the Taliban wanted to stick to their deal, that they wanted riches the same way Enron did.” [March 4, 2002, American Patriot Friends Network] The evidence suggests: 1. The intelligence block was unnecessary to protect Enron and Unocal, unless their agents were engaged in negotiations that could not be made public because they were illegal. The pipeline was a done deal, despite common perceptions in the press; 2. The attack on the WTC was not required to cement the pipeline deal. · The pro-Russian opposition leadership of the Northern Alliance had been assassinated (Abdul Haq and AhmadShah Masood), as had key Taliban resistance. · the Taliban had been bought off; “the chief Taliban leader based in Kandahar, Mullah Mohammed Omar, now on America's international Most Wanted List, was firmly in the UNOCAL camp.… Mullah Omar knew UNOCAL had pumped large sums of money to the Taliban hierarchy in Kandahar and its expatriate Afghan supporters in the United States. Some of those supporters were also close to the Bush campaign and administration. And Kandahar was the city near which the CentGas pipeline was to pass, a lucrative deal for the otherwise desert outpost…” [Provisional leader Karzai links to US Oil, Indymedia Somewhere, Wayne Madsen, January 21, 2002] · The Pakistanis while very pro Taliban, were more pro-Pakistani, and knew the pipeline meant large dividends for them. Payoffs to the Pakistanis – especially the by the Saudis measured in the hundreds of millions. This should suggest that if the intelligence block and the attack on the WTC were unnecessary to secure the Afghan pipeline, both were needed for something else. This report concludes that while the attack on Afghanistan was part of a larger strategy, the attack was not a necessity as reported by a large school of conspiracy theorists. The deal was sealed. It was a fait accompli. An attack on the WTC was not necessary to secure the pipeline, but was more of a coup de grace for any vestige of resistance. It was not the oil negotiations that were being covered up by the “intelligence block” –but the illegal money behind the negotiations. Most importantly, the decision to destroy the WTC was made long before the crisis in pipeline negotiations occurred in mid-1999. The recruitment of Atta’s hijackers was already underway. 4.6 Afghan Heroin Unocal – as part of the negotiations with the Taliban up until the attack – had a documented record of supporting local warlord business enterprises in Asia, which resulted in dealing with drugs and money laundering THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 91 “An article in The Nation magazine asserts that Unocal's pipeline partner, the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) is the main conduit for the laundering of drug money by the junta. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said, "Burma's drug traffickers, with official encouragement, are laundering their profits through Burmese banks and companies -- some of which are joint ventures with foreign businesses." The State Department reports that Burma exports 60% of the heroin found on US streets…” [Unocal, Heroin and Forced Labor, Rogue Oil Company Undermines US Foreign Policy, Free Burma Coalition, Los Angeles, 9/1/1998] The “leap” of faith that needs to be made, and the hypothesis here, is that if Unocal and Enron were comfortable in laundering money for drugs in Burma, wouldn’t they also be likely to do so in Afghanistan? It appears as though the same mujahedin dealing with the US team in Azerbaijan were moving heroin, and laundering the funds through the Deutsche Bank: “Additional direct CIA and Deutschebank ties to heroin smuggling and money laundering were also revealed by the FT story. "In the 1980's, at the insistence of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Internal Political Division of the [Pakistani] Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), headed by Brig Imtiaz... started a cell for the use of heroin for covert actions. This cell promoted the cultivation of opium and the extraction of heroin in Pakistan as well as in those parts of Afghanistan under Mujahedeen control for being smuggled into the Soviet-controlled areas to get the Soviet troops addicted.” [Part III in a Special FTW Series on Insider Trading and September 11th: All Roads Lead to Deutschebank and Harken Energy, W’s Own 1991 Insider Trading Scam – the Mother of All Enrons, by Tom Flocco and Michael C. Ruppert, Edited by Michael C. Ruppert, © Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications] “Just 32 days before the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a Financial Times of Asia (FT) Wire-Business Line report linked Deutschebank to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pakistani and Afghani heroin smuggling, and money laundering of narcotics proceeds (8-10- 2001). Retired Pakistani intelligence chief Brig Imtiaz was jailed for eight years on July 31, 2001 for laundering heroin profits -- for covert actions -- via a CIA-linked drug smuggling cell, using Deutschebank and other financial entities and properties.” "[In Dec. 2001] Pakistan and the United States have turned to a tried and trusted 'friend' in their efforts to exert control over events in Afghanistan - convicted Pakistani drug baron and former parliamentarian, Ayub Afridi.... Without fanfare, Afridi was freed from prison in Karachi last Thursday after serving just a few weeks of a seven-year sentence for the export of 6.5 tons of hashish, seized at Antwerp, Belgium, in the 1980s. No reasons were given for Afridi's release..... It is a matter of record that top US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials believed in the early 1980s that they would never be able to justify a multibillion-dollar budget from the government to provide support to the mujahedin in the fight against the Red Army. As a result, they decided to generate funds through the poppy-rich Afghan soil and heroin production and smuggling to finance the Afghan war. Afridi was the kingpin of this plan.... "[US turns to drug baron to rally support, Asia Times, 12/5/2001] Quite simply, these were the illegal deals being hidden by the intelligence block. These are the conversations that could put executives from Enron and Unocal in prison, as well as Deutschebank executives and US intelligence operatives. These deals were hidden. The US oil companies got the oil. The Mafiya got the heroin. The Deutsch Bank got its 20% laundering fee. "Criminals now pay around 20 percent in laundering commissions. Just a few years ago, they were paying only five to six percent. That change is the result of better legislation, better regulation, better enforcement and better international cooperation."[Russia: U.N. wants Russian help in $3 trillion crime fight, By Konstantin Trifonov ,06/05/2001, Reuters English News Service , (C) Reuters Limited 2001] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 92 It was this “better legislation, better regulation, better enforcement and better international cooperation” that indirectly brought about the destruction of the World Trade Center. The Pakistani-Deutschebank money-laundering story was indicative of a broader, ongoing investigation of money laundering involving weapons and drugs being undertaken by US agencies, which named the Deutsche Bank in at least three indictments across separate crimes. Initially, the US Department of Justice indicted two American executives of the Bank of New York in September 1999 for laundering money for the Russian Mafiya– an investigation started in 1998 at the request of the Russians. The investigation was dropped prematurely (which was then picked up by European investigators), the Deutsche Bank connection to the laundering was not publicized in the US press, and the only person punished for a multi-billion dollar fraud was a bank secretary who went to jail for two weeks. The investigation was initially associated with nothing more than illegal money transfers. After the Swiss investigators revitalized the investigation a couple years later, the involvement of Marc Rich, an international arms merchant was identified, as were other associates of the Yeltsin Family. The extensive connections between Jonathon Bush, the Riggs Bank and the Russian money-laundering scandal were totally ignored by the U.S, press. Subsequent investigations produced an unrelated, but second money-laundering conviction in July of 2001 (that of General Imtiaz), and was still generating leads. A few weeks after convicting Imtiaz the Deutsche Bank was named in a third indictment of money laundering and weapons sales: “In the trial of a former Deutschebank executive Kevin Ingram, who pled guilty to laundering drug money to finance terrorist operations linked to Al Qaeda just two weeks before the 9-11 attacks, indications surfaced that the Justice Department had penetrated the terrorists’ financial network. A Nov. 16 Associated Press story by Catherine Wilson stated, "Numerous promised wire transfers never arrived, but there were discussions of foreign bankers taking payoffs to move the money to purchase weapons into the United States, said prosecutor Rolando Garcia." [The Case for Bush Administration Advance Knowledge of 9-11 Attacks, Michael C. Ruppert, FTW Publications © COPYRIGHT 2002] “On August 28, 2001, 14 days before the Trade Center attacks, former Deutschebank senior bond investment trader Kevin Ingram, pled guilty in a $2.2 million dollar money laundering conspiracy, resulting from a government sting operation investigating the illegal sale of night vision goggles, Beretta machine pistols, M-16 machine guns with silencers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), TOW anti-tank missiles, and Stinger missiles, according to court papers examined by the New York Post.” [Profits of Death (A Special FTW Series) Part II -- Trading with the Enemy, Tom Flocco - Edited by Michael C. Ruppert, Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness Publications] “Interesting confirmation of the U.S. government's familiarity with banking operations connected to terrorist activities was revealed in an 11/16/01 AP story by Catherine Wilson. In describing events in a Florida prosecution of Egyptians connected to Ingram's case she wrote, "Numerous promised wire transfers never arrived, but there were discussions of foreign bankers taking payoffs to move the money to purchase weapons into the United States, said [federal] prosecutor Rolando Garcia." This is yet another clear indication that intelligence agencies routinely monitor banking transactions in terroristrelated cases. It has not been disclosed whether Ingram's plea bargain produced testimony in this case.” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 93 [Profits of Death (A Special FTW Series) Part II -- Trading with the Enemy, Tom Flocco - Edited by Michael C. Ruppert, Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness Publications] However, it should be noted that the US Justice Department investigations were significantly less than thorough and addressed substantially less than the tip of the iceberg. The original Bank of New York investigation found $500 million to be laundered for the Russians. After the Swiss re-opened the case, the actual amount laundered was reported to be closer to $10 billion. Subsequent estimates provided at the Russian criminal trials suggested the amounts might be closer to $15 billion. “An aggressive European investigation of international crime has revealed alleged Russian mafia leaders operating in the United States. The U.S. Justice Department, write PNS contributors Lucy Komisar and Ivan Feranec, dropped the ball three years ago during the Bank of New York scandal, which now threatens to explode. Nearly three years ago, the Justice Department called the Bank of New York (BoNY) money-laundering scandal "just" a Russian tax-evasion scheme. Now, European investigations show that BoNY was a channel for organized crime. And according to a document obtained by Pacific News Service, some of the alleged Russian mafia leaders have operated freely in the United States. The widening scandal reveals Washington's dangerous reluctance to confront international criminal networks.” [U.S. Investigators Missed Russian Mob in N.Y. Bank Scandal, Lucy Komisar And Ivan Feranec, Pacific News Service, 8/6/2002] In fact, there are grounds to assume that the Justice Department was under similar instructions from the administration to initially “block” the sharing of information on this case, just as the CIA put a block on FBI investigations: “In June, at a conference on dirty money at Washington's Brookings Institution, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau questioned whether the Justice Department "thoroughly investigated" the case (Bank of New York). A top official in the district attorney's office said the Justice Dept. would not provide his office with information and told them to drop the case. Morgenthau ran into similar federal displeasure a decade ago when he brought criminal charges against leaders of the Pakistan-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which collapsed in a mega-fraud that made $8 billion "disappear." [U.S. Investigators Missed Russian Mob in N.Y. Bank Scandal, Lucy Komisar And Ivan Feranec, Pacific News Service, 8/6/2002] A similar lack of aggressiveness on the part of the Justice Department also may have contributed to the success of Adnan Khashoggi’s GenesisIntermedia to defraud MJK securities in September 2001. It appears that GenesisIntermedia, and its Pakistani promoter Rafi Khan, had been under intensive investigation by a number of U.S. authorities, including the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, more than a year before those stocks mysteriously disappeared, forcing MJK into bankruptcy: “As noted in SEC court filings, the period of investigation dates back to June, 2000, less than a month after Mr. (Rafi Mohamad) Khan signed his consent settlement with the regulator.” [Street Wire, Brent Mudry, 11/14/2002] Finally, of ‘interesting’ historical note, there was another trial related to the Kevin Ingram money laundering investigation. A New Jersey surgeon, who was a brother to one of the terrorists in the Ingram deal, was indicted for fraud and accused of diverting government funds to terrorists. Although $15 million dollars of taxpayer funds were never recovered, he was released without conviction. His lawyer was a de jure Israeli citizen named THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 94 Michael Chertoff, who would later head up the official 9/11 investigation, and become Secretary of Homeland Security. On one hand, in the US, Europe and Central Asia, Deutschebank executives were being identified by the US Department of Justice– a key indicator that a major investigation of the Deutsche Bank was under way or being threaded together. On the other hand, it appears as though the investigations were deliberately constrained in their thoroughness, at the direction of the US Attorney General. Whatever results were being realized, the attack on the WTC certainly help put an end to that investigation: “Michigan Senator Carl Levin's Minority Banking Report of February 2001 calls correspondent banking the "gateway to money laundering," a financial technique wherein illicit money is moved from bank to bank with "no questions asked," thereby cleansing funds prior to being used for legitimate purposes. Via correspondent banking relationships, banks not licensed in the U.S. may gain access to American financial markets by establishing a correspondent relationship with banks that are. Deutschebank is licensed in the U.S. and maintained offices at the World Trade Center. All U.S. Deutschebank records were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.” [Part III in a Special FTW Series on Insider Trading and September 11th, All Roads Lead to Deutschebank and Harken Energy, W’s Own 1991 Insider Trading Scam, Tom Flocco and Michael C. Ruppert, Edited by Michael C. Ruppert, © Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications] “But more importantly WTC 7…. housed high-level government offices including the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service. WTC 7 was also the storage facility for millions of files pertaining to active cases involving international drug dealing, organized crime, terrorism and money laundering.” [PBS Documentary: Silverstein, FDNY Razed WTC 7, Jeremy Baker] Conclusion: there were honest and diligent investigators who were getting too close to the German cartel’s key customers. Despite efforts by high level politicians to constrain investigations, progress could not be prevented without raising too much suspicion. The evidence was destroyed in a manner similar to the destruction of the BCCI fraud records, and the investigators were re-assigned to the war on “terror.” 4.7 Kazakhstangate The location of FBI files in the North Tower of the WTC related to the Giffen and Williams bribery case has lead to the speculation that the attack on the WTC might have been an attempt to silence this investigation. Indeed, information presented in Section 6 of this report suggests that the FBI offices were specifically targeted for destruction. In researching the set of events leading to this investigation, the evidence shows the Giffen/Willimas Kazakhstan operation was a key component of the Caspian Oil pipeline strategy. The relationship between Kazakhstangate, and the war on Afghanistan, can be understood by the following US announcement in December 2001: “During a visit to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, Secretary of State Powell states that US oil companies are likely to invest $200 billion in Kazakhstan alone in the next five to ten years.” [New York Times, 12/15/01 Creative Commons] The motive for that investment was the knowledge that the US would be able to finalize and control a pipeline through Afghanistan, to the immensely rich Tengiz oil field. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 95 “The Tengiz oil field on Kazakhstan’s Caspian coast is one of the 10 largest oil deposits in the world, and was first developed in 1993 in a joint venture headed by Chevron, which owns 50 percent of the consortium. The resulting enterprise, Tengizchevroil, was later joined by Mobil (now ExxonMobil), a 25 percent owner. The government of Kazakhstan owns another 20 percent, and Russian-American joint venture Lukoil holds a 5 percent share.” [blog] US oil company control of this field (75%) is largely attributable to three gentlemen: James Giffen (an independent agent) and Bryan Williams of Mobil Oil, and Dick Cheney, of Halliburton. (The role of Condoleezza Rice, who by her credentials, surely had a role – remains unreported.) “Chevron’s involvement throughout the region is quite ubiquitous. Alexander’s Gas and Oil Connections reported the company has invested more than $20 billion in Kazakhstan alone. From 1989 to 1992 National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was on the board of directors of Chevron, and was its main expert on Kazakhstan. [The Forging of "Pipelineistan", Dave Allen Pfeiffer, From The Wilderness (FTW) Publications, www.copvcia.com, July 2002] During the course of acquiring rights to this oil field, it appears that Giffen and Williams acted illegally in the manner in which they won these contracts. That story is the essence of Kazakhstangate! But there is much more to the story than initially published. It appears that Dick Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, may have also been involved in illegal activity in Kazakhstan (in the same manner as French investigators suggested he was in Nigeria.) Just as intriguing, government prosecutors attempted to gloss over the involvement of President George Bush Sr.in the Giffen/Williams investigation, by limiting the period of activity in the indictment to after 1995. Giffen’s lawyers argued that there were documents showing his instructions from the Whitehouse going back as early as 1992, and earlier, suggesting involvement of George Bush Sr.! “THE COURT: … I am looking at Exhibit S to your motion papers, which was a letter dated May 22, 2003, to Mr. Neiman in which you asked for documents relating to communications between Mr. Giffen and a series of individuals at the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, the Department of State and the White House. What timeframe – MR. SCHWARTZ: It appears, your Honor, if I look at this, we did not specify a timeframe. Your Honor, I would suggest that an appropriate timeframe would be going back to the creation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 1992, that that's when Mr. Giffen was in routine contact -- THE COURT: That is three years before the time period covered by this Indictment. MR. SCHWARTZ: But the documents, your Honor, will corroborate the very important relationship he had. If there was evidence in this case that over a period of time he formed the state of mind that it was very, very important to keep the CIA abreast of what was going on in Kazakhstan, that wasn't something that occurred starting in 1995. That was something that occurred long before -- I would suggest even going back, your Honor, to the days of the Soviet Union, when Mr. Giffen was very active on behalf of American interests in the Soviet Union. But we RT would be prepared to take documents from 1992, from the creation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.” [UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, New York, N.Y. v. 4 JAMES H. GIFFEN, June 3, 2004, Eurasia-Internet, 6/21/ 2004] This relationship to the Bush Sr. Whitehouse should not be viewed as coincidental. MEGA Oil, with its ties to the Bush family and Saudis, (Section 4) also initiated its covert activities on the opposite side of the Caspian - in Azerbaijan - in 1992 under George Bush Sr. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 96 Information will later be presented in this report (Section 6) as to the destruction of the FBI office on the 23rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. That office not only contained investigative documents relating to the illegal gold trades of numerous banks, but also included an investigation into the bribery and money laundering charges brought against James Giffen and Bryan Williams of Mobil Oil, who made illegal payments to Kazakhstan officials – President Nazarbayev in particular – on behalf of Mobil oil. “As Cheney, a millionaire petroleum executive who served as defense secretary in the administration of George Bush, the candidate's father, rose to accept the vice-presidential nomination from the cheering Republican convention in Philadelphia, Swiss prosecutors quietly moved to impound over $130 million in allegedly laundered funds deposited in Swiss banks. According to preliminary findings of the Swiss inquiry, the frozen funds represent under-the-table payoffs slipped to the top government officials of Kazakhstan by giant U.S. petroleum companies seeking favored access to that oil-rich country, a former Soviet province that attained independence after the collapse of communism. Advised by Swiss authorities that the suspect accounts -- more than $85 million found hidden in private numbered accounts controlled by Kazakh President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev in a single Geneva bank, Banque Pictet -- may violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, federal authorities in New York launched an investigation of their own. According to this memorandum, the Giffen probe was triggered by the findings of FBI agents in New York indicating that the millions impounded at Banque Pictet and other Swiss money-centers represented illegal payoffs to Kazakh officials by three major U.S. oil companies: Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, and Phillips Petroleum. Giffen’s alleged role was that of the go-between who secretly transferred these huge bribes from the U.S. oil corporations along circuitous international money-laundering routes to Kazakhstan's president and his top aides.” [Martin Mann, August 14, 2000] “A federal grand jury in Washington has been hearing evidence on the swap allegations, along with allegations of money laundering and bribery… In Mobil's case, the company's in-house investigators came to believe that the proposed swap between Kazakhstan and Iran was but one element in a complex of seemingly high-risk business deals that were devised by Bryan Williams. Kazakhstan's desire to swap oil with Iran was widely known in the oil industry. Kazakhstan's only ports are on the Caspian Sea, which has no route by water to the ocean, whereas Iran can ship oil south through the Persian Gulf and on to the Indian Ocean. In May, 1995, however, the Clinton Administration had issued an executive order strengthening the sanctions against Iran. Under the executive order, American companies were prohibited from trading with Iran, which included any involvement in a swap, without a license from the Treasury Department”. [The Price of Oil, Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, July 9, 2001] Included in the investigation were William’s accounts at Credit Suisse: “The Department of Justice criminal division’s supplemental request for assistance to the Swiss Federal Office of Justice dated April 27, 2001 states “On March 4, 1998 after the executive ceased employment at Mobil, Mobil inventoried the contents of his office. Among the items found in the executive’s office at Mobil was information suggesting that he had control over three bank accounts at Credit Suisse in Geneva.” [Manhattan Judge Rules On Pre-Trial Motions In “Kazakhgate” Case Marlena Telvick, 09/07/2004] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 97 Giffen and Williams were found guilty in 2003 of money laundering, and no one else was charged. Williams was sentenced to 5 years, and no report of Giffen being sentenced has been found as of February 2007! According to sources in Kazakhstan, the FBI investigation extended to much more activity than the illegal swaps with Iran, leaving investigators to speculate what had been dropped from the indictments: “The contracts investigated in the Kazakhgate trial, (were) first of all regarding the Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak fields and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.” [The end of the “controlled” democracy, Interview with Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan] Dick Cheney was extensively involved in at least two of the four areas of the Kazakhstan investigation: the Caspian Pipeline Consortium and the Tengiz oil field contracts. As the CEO of Halliburton, his company was a direct beneficiary of construction of the pipeline. As a member of Kazakhstan’s Oil Advisory Board, with Giffen, he helped broker the Chevron Oil deal for the Tengiz oil fields. Interestingly, the Chevron press release distinctly mentions the payment of bonuses to Kazakhstan. “Cheney sits on Kazakstan's Oil Advisory Board, a sounding board for the country's president. ... Dick Cheney helped broker the Chevron-Kazakhstan deal when he sat on the Kazakhstan Oil Advisory Board in the mid-'90s….” [Amarillo Globe-News, June 13, 1998] “REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN AND CHEVRON CORPORATION ANNOUNCE FORMATION OF THEIR JOINT VENTURE Almaty, April 6, 1993 -- The Republic of Kazakhstan and Chevron Corporation today announced the formation of their joint venture company, Tengizchevroil (TCO), to develop the Tengiz and Korolev oil fields on the northeastern Caspian Sea coast. …. Tengizchevroil is owned 50/50 by Tengizneftegaz, a subsidiary of Kazakhstanmunaigaz, the national oil company, currently operating the field and by Chevron Overseas Company, a unit of Chevron's international exploration and production subsidiary. The joint venture has been formed as an export project to generate hard currency revenues in international oil markets. To acquire its 50 percent interest in the joint venture, Chevron will pay the government of Kazakhstan bonuses as well as provide funds for development….” [Chevron Press Release Archives] To shed more light on Cheney’s role, just a Giffen and Williams cheated their partner (Farhat Tabbah), so did Cheney ‘cheat’ his original partner: Scott Van Dyke of Anglo Dutch Tenge – an oil company. As part of his efforts to get Chevron into Kazakhstan, Mr. Cheney breached his confidentiality agreement, for which Halliburton was later found guilty: “A jury has awarded $70 million to a Houston man who claimed that Halliburton and another oil company cheated him out of the chance to develop an oil field in Kazakhstan in the late 1990s. . . . Scott Van Dyke and his company, Anglo Dutch Tenge, sued the Halliburton and Ramco Oil in 2000. A jury found in favor of Van Dyke's company on Friday. Van Dyke's attorney John O'Quinn said his client was promised a concession for an oil field near the Caspian Sea when he met the Turkish president. When he was unable to fund development of the field, Van Dyke sought out an equity partner. Halliburton contacted him in 1997 and signed a confidentiality agreement not to disclose data that Van Dyke allowed the company to review, O'Quinn said. After opting not to invest, Halliburton located another company with ties to the Kazakhstan government and bought the field out from under THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 98 Van Dyke, according to the lawsuit. Halliburton will appeal $77 million jury verdict.” [OilOnline, 11/4/2003] Because of Mr. Cheney’s involvement on the Advisory Board to President Nazarbayev in the creation of these various contracts being investigated by the FBI, it probably seemed appropriate for President Nazarbayev to approach Cheney and request that Cheney run interference on the FBI investigation. Evidently, there was an effort by the Department of Justice to keep Nazarbayev’s name out of the trial, so it is possible Cheney encouraged the Justice Department to “exempt Mr. Nazarbayev from prosecution” despite Whitehouse claims to the contrary: “WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have said that President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan accepted large bribes in connection with dispensing his country's oil concessions during the 1990's, and later tried to obstruct the federal inquiry into the payments, which came from American oil companies, according to legal documents. The allegations were made by the Justice Department in a sealed motion and described recently in a letter of complaint from Kazakhstan's lawyers to the deputy attorney general. The letter was part of a quiet effort to exempt Mr. Nazarbayev from prosecution. Mr. Nazarbayev and his representatives have raised the issue with Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials several times, but the effort to curb the investigation has been unsuccessful, according to court records and officials of both governments. Administration officials said Washington had rebuffed the Kazakhs' efforts.” [Bribery Inquiry Involves Kazakh Chief, and He's Unhappy, New York Times, Jeff Gerth, 12/11/2002] To a large degree, Mr. Nazarbayev’s name was not mentioned in the indictment, and he was referred to as “co1” in the court documents (suggesting that contrary to what the administration reported, the administration influenced the prosecutor to keep Nazarbayev’s name out of the documents.) It is worth noting that while the Bush administration publicly announced that Nazarbayev’s request to stifle the investigation had been “rebuffed,” the facts suggest that is not what happened, and that the administration actually did go out of its way to control the results: “A source familiar with the grand jury investigations… said Ashcroft has quietly moved… to exert control over the New York grand jury from Washington and to exercise “unusual” influence over the Washington investigations. FTW has also received multiple reports that several high-ranking career prosecutors in both New York and Washington have raised serious objections to Ashcroft’s actions and his failure to publicly recluse himself in these cases. Channing Phillips, speaking for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. told FTW, “I checked with [Assistant U.S. Attorney] Wendy Wysong and she confirmed that the investigation is still ongoing. There are three aspects to these investigations: one in New York, one in Washington [at the U.S. Attorney’s office] and one at main Justice [DoJ headquarters]. If the attorney general had reclused himself, we would know about it, and we are not aware of any such development.” ….Ashcroft’s decision in this case had an impact on the grand jury process. According to the Times, “Officials in Washington have not said where grand juries investigating the attacks will sit, or where the indictments may eventually be brought.…” The two grand juries have been investigating allegations that ExxonMobil, the world’s largest corporation, and BP-Amoco paid cash bribes to the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his oil minister, Nurlan Balgymbayev, and that Mobil engaged in an illegal oil swap of Kazakh oil through Iran in 1997. Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force -- now the center of a constitutional battle over the release of its records -- was meeting representatives of both companies after the grand juries had been empanelled as a result of information received from a Middle Eastern source in 1997 and inquiries from Swiss banks in 1999. The fact that these known targets of criminal THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 99 investigations had access to the vice president’s energy task force would be comparable to having allowed Manuel Noriega, while under indictment for drug smuggling, to consult in the war on drugs. At issue is a 25 percent stake purchased by Mobil in Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oil field, following an earlier purchase of 50 percent by Chevron and an apparently desperate attempt a year later to start making money from the fields by engaging in an illegal swap with Iran as a means of getting the Tengiz oil to market…. it is clear that Kazakhstan-related issues were discussed behind Cheney’s closed doors. In an analysis of the final report of the vice president’s energy task force, released in May, The Washington Times on July 20 wrote, “While saying private investors must lead the way, the Cheney report devotes considerable time to the Kazakh market, urging U.S. government agencies to ‘deepen their commercial dialogue’ with Kazakhstan.” [The Elephant in the Living Room – Part I, Michael C. Ruppert © Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, 3/ 26/2002] Nazarbayev also turned to the Russian/Israeli Mafiya to help keep the matter quiet, as reported by a Prime Minister under Nazarbayev: “…members of the Eurasia Group (the Alexander Mashkevich syndicate) have promised the President that they (will) hush up the Kazakhgate investigation through their ethnic contacts in the U.S.” [The end of the “controlled” democracy, Interview with Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan] The Mafiya boss that made the claim to be able to “protect” Nazarbayev from US courts with his US contacts was Alexander Mashkevich. Also known as Alexandr Mashkevic, he holds both Kazakh and Israeli citizenship, and is President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Mashkevich and other members of the Trio (Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov) worked with U.S. businessman and former Exxon Mobil executive, James Giffen, who is awaiting trial in a New York court under the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Passed in 1997, the F.C.P.A. cites it is unlawful for any American to bribe foreign officials, either directly or through an agent, "for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business." Swiss investigators found that Japan Chrome, one of Trio’s companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, transferred millions of dollars into the accounts of another offshore company, Hovelon, owned by Giffen. These funds along with millions more were then transferred into an offshore account of a company owned by Nazarbayev. Mashkevich and fellow Trio members are awaiting pending trials in Belgium for money laundering, falsifying documents and criminal association. Even though these charges were filed five years ago, legal proceedings have been slow and the cases haven’t started. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mashkevich] Turning to the Mafiya and other Washington DC channels for assistance in keeping this scandal quiet was probably consistent with the scope of this scandal, as the Russian Mafiya was considered by Mobil executives to be significant recipients of the funds: “The Orenburg losses were noticed by financial analysts at Mobil's headquarters, in Fairfax, Virginia, but they didn't take their concerns to the C.E.O. "These accountants went to Williams and said 'What's going on?' "a former company officer recalled. "He said Noto (ex-Mobil President) knew all about it and had approved it." Nothing more was done. The losses soon became known throughout headquarters. "It wasn't that the money was lost but the specifics of how it was handled that shook Fairfax up," Don Voelte, the former Mobil vice-president, told me. "When I ran into Bryan and said, 'What happened?' he said the Russian mafia had got hold of it, and it was gone." [The Price of Oil, Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, July 9, 2001] “Giffen also arranged to do all the legal work and lobbying through his white-shoe law firm, Shearman and Sterling. Nazarbayev poured millions of dollars into the firm, even though no one seemed to know THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 100 where the money ultimately ended up.” [Part 1: Big Oil, the United States and corruption in Kazakhstan, Larry Chin, Online Journal Contributing Editor, May 12, 2002] At a superficial level, the FBI was able to prosecute two American business executives for violating the law with an oil swap between Iran and Kazakhstan. Dick Cheney’s role in this particular set of crimes, and his efforts to have Nazarbayev exempted from prosecution remained unreported in the press. There were extraordinary measures taken by Bush’s Attorney General to influence the outcome of this grand jury investigation – the reason for such an important intervention has never been explained. The question remains: what were they trying to hide? The answer to this question is provided in Section 8, where George HW Bush’s Russian strategy is clarified. There is however, at least one other set of activities that Cheney was most probably involved in which were unreported oil swaps between Kazakhstan and Angola, with a significant shipment of Russian weapons. This deal included the Russian/Israeli Mafiya, and two individuals later identified with the laundering of Russian diamonds by passing them off as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds: Lev Leviev (Leveyev) and Arcadi Gadamayek (aka Arcadi Gaidamak, Arcady Gaydamak, Gaydamac or Arye/Ari Barlev). (The blood diamond connection was originally reported in the press to be an Al Qaeda money laundering operation. The ‘blood diamond’ investigation was just another investigation dropped by the FBI, most likely when it became apparent it was really a Mossad operation, with a potential link between the Mossad and the US hijackers. This subject is explored in Section 12.3 Israeli “Fixers”) There are two sets of clues, which lead to the hypothesis that Halliburton was involved in illegal oil swaps with Angola. First, Halliburton (under Cheney) apparently was involved in bribery in that region of Africa, with enough evidence for the Department of Justice to open an investigation: “Feb. 4 - The Justice Department has opened up an inquiry into whether Halliburton Co. was involved in the payment of $180 million in possible kickbacks to obtain contracts to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria during a period in the late 1990’s when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company” [Another Halliburton Probe, Michae Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, February 4, 2004] Granted that Nigeria and Angola are different countries, it demonstrates that Halliburton under Cheney was amenable to methods that were not above suspicion. Second, Halliburton and the oil companies in Kazakhstan are the same companies that benefited from major contracts from questionable activities in Angola, using the same financial conduits used by Giffen and Williams and the US oil companies in Kazakhstan. These activities are explored in the following Section. 4.8 Nazarbayev, the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and Angola-gate The evidence presented thus far indicates: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 101 · US oil companies in Kazakhstan were in need of moving oil out of Kazakhstan because their oil pipeline was not finished, the Russians were not allowing oil to be moved through Russia, and US law prohibited moving it through Iran; · The individuals arranging swaps to move oil out of the country ran a large number of swaps, but the swap with Iran drew the most attention because of the illegality of trading with Iran; What will now be demonstrated is that: · These same businessmen were running oil deals between Angola and Russia. Like Iran, Angola had it’s own maritime access, so a swap between Kazakhstan and Angola would serve the same purpose as a swap between Iran and Kazakhstan – except the Angola swap would not violate the law. · These same oil businessmen in Angola and Kazakhstan were dealing with the same Russian/Israeli Mafiya oil and weapons traders. President Nazarbayev, besides being an absolute source of authority in Kazakhstan, has been in close league with the Russian Mafiya for many years. Three of the world’s foremost Russian/Israeli Mafiosi – Arcady Gadamayek, Alexander Mashkevich and Grigori Loutchansky, all have had major deals with Nazarbayev and his family. What the records shows is that Nazarbayev was involved with Arcady Gadamayek during the same time frame that Gadamayek, Lev Leviev and Pierre Falcone (a French criminal) were running their Angola-gate scam. Seymour Hersh reports that there are thousands of illegal oil transactions involving Kazakhstan that never come to public attention – and that the Giffen/Willams Iran swap only came to light because they attempted to “stiff” a partner, (Farhat Tabbah) who then complained to the UK authorities. The facts suggest Nazarbayev may have been part of an Angola deal on the basis of an oil swap, with Halliburton benefiting in both Angola and Kazakhstan. If true, this would implicate Halliburton and Cheney as complicit in multiple frauds, violation of international law and murder in Angola, and that the investigation into Angolan financial fraud would be linked to the same German and Swiss bank accounts that the entire house of cards was built with. An intelligence block and court intervention by Cheney in Kazakhstan may have been necessary to cover-up linkages to additional crimes related to activities in Angola. This investigation begins with an understanding that Nazarbayev – the key contact for Giffen and Halliburton – had significant Mafiya connections: 1) Nazarbayev’s daughter and son-in-law are employed by the Russian Mafiya at Nordex, a well documented Russian/Israeli Mafiya front: “By 1994, Nordex's turnover had reached some $3 billion and it had 40 subsidiaries and jointventure firms in the West, and some 100 such affiliates in the former Soviet empire. It employs close to 8,000 people. Among the big names associated with Nordex are Robert Maxwell's sons Kevin and Ian in London, the daughter and son-in-law of President Nursultan Nasarbayev of Kazakhstan, and until recently former Israeli finance minister Yitzhak Moda'i.” [Maxwell - THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 102 Mogilevich -Russian Mafia in Bulgaria -5 Guilty in Lukanov Murder –Part 2,Stefan Lemieszewski, December 1, 2003] The role of Nordex in the larger Bush and Yeltsin conspiracy to defraud the Soviet economy of hundreds of billions is clarified in Section 8. 2) The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported that the Russian Mafiya was seeking to intercede to keep Nazarbayev’s name out of the American Kazakhstan scandal, also – while working for Nazarbayev- was receiving Mafiya funds: “And RFE Turkmen Service reported on the alleged bribe of $100 million made by Loutchansky to Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the prime minister of Kazakhstan.” [http://www.rferl.org/bd/tu/reports/2001/04/0-080401.html ] 3) A large portion of the Mobil funds sent to Kazakhstan went to the Mafiya. (See Previous reference: The Price of Oil, Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 2001-07- 09) 4) Nazarbayev was a business associate of Arcadi Gaydamak. “Gaydamak cultivated relations with Russian leaders and the country's emerging tycoons. His contacts in the post Soviet power structure came to include Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov; the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev; the former military chief and later governor of Russia's Karatchevo Cherkesia province, Vladimir Semenov; and the Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, president of Yukos Oil. In December 2000, Gaydamak was appointed chairman of the Russian Credit Bank, a post that was filled when he stepped down in 2001 by the economics minister and adviser to former President Boris Yeltsin, Aleksandr Livsits.” [The Influence Peddlers, from the 11-part series: Making a Killing, The Business of War, The Center for Public Integrity] Gaydamak was actively involved, on at least two occasions, in moving Russian and Eastern bloc weapons into Angola in exchange for oil. Gadamayek, Lev Leviev and Pierre Falcone arranged to provide Russian weapons for Angolan oil and conflict diamonds. No one has asked how Russia got the Angolan oil, but there is an extremely high probability that Gadamayek arranged an oil swap with Kazakhstan, and then moved Kazak oil –purchased from US companies - through the Russian pipeline. If true, the key US companies used to facilitate this swap would have been Mobil Oil (ExxonMobil), Phillips and Halliburton. This would allow the US oil companies to sell their landlocked Kazak oil without the need of a pipeline. The Angolan oil was probably swapped for Kazakhstan oil and sold on the Russian market to pay for weapons. Before this could happen, the Russians demanded that the Angola ‘debt’ to Russia be resolved. Hence, Angola had to arrange for a large loan to pay back previous Russian aid loans, with a payback arrangement established somewhere in the range of 30 cents on the dollar. This loan appears to have been arranged by Dick Cheney and Halliburton at the US Export Import Bank, and moved by Marc Rich through Glencore International, through Sonangal (the Angolan treasury), UBS (Gaydamak’s account) on to Bank Agricole Indosuez (formerly BCCI), Unicom Bank (Russia) and various offshore accounts. Along the way, hundreds of millions disappeared. Naturally, part of the deal was large oil and construction contracts for Phillips Oil, Exxon Mobil and Halliburton in THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 103 Angola. Unfortunately, while the swap may have been legal, the arms portion of the deal was prohibited under International Agreement: “arms purchases by the government and UNITA remained prohibited under the 1991 Bicesse Accords negotiated in Portugal” “Perhaps the most ironic link described in the Global Witness report is one involving the former "fugitive financier" Marc Rich. He appears as a major player in the arms-for-oil scandal through a Swiss-based oil trading company named Glencore. The firm played a major role in guaranteeing a total of $1 billion in oil-backed loans for Angola in 1998. The first set of oil-backed loans in 1993 involved Glencore, Falcone, and Gaydamak. Soon after, Gaydamak arranged for the sale of Russian helicopters and ammunition through a Slovak company called ZTS-OSOS. The 1998 billion-dollar loan deal included the Export-Import Bank loans being pushed by Halliburton and Cheney.” [Report Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal, Special to CorpWatch, Wayne Madsen, May 17, 2002] “Glencore UK Ltd. is to obtain loans for future Angolan oil sales from commercial banks … The proceeds of these oil-backed loans is transferred by Glencore UK Ltd into our accounts for use by Sonangol, the Angolan state oil export company, so that it can finance the repurchase of these [debt] obligations. Sonangol then transfers through our bank to the buyer, Abalone Investements [sic] Limited, its remuneration for its role as determining intermediary in this operation to buy back the Angolan debt and the price fixed by the Russian Finance Ministry for the repurchase of its obligations. Then, UBS will transfer the amount corresponding to the cost of these obligations to Unicombank. In return and simultaneously, Abalone Investments Ltd receives from the UBS the obligations purchased and their repayment certificates, and returns them to Sonangol on behalf of Angola which can cancel them and thus progressively erase its debt to Russia.” [TIME FOR TRANSPARENCY, Coming clean on oil, mining and gas revenues: A report by Global Witness. March 2004] As a point of historical reference, it is appropriate to document at this time the Marc Rich was not a ‘novice’ in this business, and had decades of experience, including some participation in the Iran-Contra deals of the 1980s. Paul Klebnikov, Russian expert and Senior Editor at Forbes Magazine, has documented Marc Rich's early years as one of the Russian oligarchs involved in plundering Russia’s treasury through ‘privatization.’ Rich also had a business relationship with David Kimche of the Mossad, previously shown to have been helping Richard Secord move mercenaries and weapons into Azerbaijan, and Al Schwimmer, implicated in numerous Savings and Loans scandals in the 1980s. “In 1988 the Iranian journalist Amir Taheri revealed that in the Victoria district of London Schwimmer operated an arms procurement operation along with his partners David Kimche, the British born Israeli diplomat and longtime intelligence operative, and Yaacov Nimrodi, the former Iranian Jew who had been Israel’s main operative in the court of the Shah for many years. It was from this office that the huge Iran arms and illegal oil traffic was directed from 1981-1987, including the activities of Marc Rich. There is another knot of connections between Schwimmer and Rich, as well. Before becoming .… an arms procurer in the 1940s, Schwimmerhad been a shady American business man with connections to Mafia figures including Miki Cohen and Meyer Lansky, as well as Hank Greenspun, who was the most important “legitimate” front man and ‘fixer’ for the Mafia takeover of Las Vegas.All of the men mentioned participated in the 1940s Zionist arms network, as well as in the European crime network which the Mossad organized in the … temporary refugee camps of postwar Europe.” [Fallujah 101: A history lesson about the town we are currently destroying, Rashid Khalidi, 11/12/2004] Also for historical reference, it should be noted that an apparent bonus was given to Angola’s President Dos Santos by Halliburton. That bonus was the targeted assassination of Jonas Savimbi, previously hailed by Ronald Reagan as the “George Washington of Angola.” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 104 “The net effect of the Angolan arms buildup was the scrapping of the 1994 Lusaka Peace Agreement between Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and long-time UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, a one-time favorite of the Central Intelligence Agency and a person who President Reagan once hailed as the "George Washington of Angola." Jardo Muekalia, who headed UNITA's Washington office until it was forced to close in 1997, says that that the military forces that ultimately succeeded in assassinating Savimbi were supported by commercial satellite imagery and other intelligence support provided by Houston-based Brown & Root, Cheney's old outfit…. According to Global Witness, the links between Angola's corrupt government and the Bush administration are just as odorous as those linking Luanda's leadership to past and current members of the French government, both Socialist and Gaullist. In addition to the French oil giant Total-Fina-Elf, oil companies like Chevron, Texaco, Philipps Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, and BP-Amoco -- all with close links to Bush and his White House oil team -- were heavily involved in propping up dos Santos in return for profitable off-shore oil concessions.” [Report Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal, Special to CorpWatch, Wayne Madsen, May 17, 2002] The Marc Rich (Glencore) connection is insightful because it identifies the probable link between the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and the oil swap industry, and the structure of its money laundering methods. These methods demonstrate involvement by the Deutsche Bank. During the US Justice Department 1998-1999 investigation of the Bank of New York’s money-laundering on behalf of the Russian Mafiya, Marc Rich was implicated: “The probe, one of the largest in recent history, was born out of the U.S. Justice Department investigation of the Bank of New York's role in large-scale money laundering from Russia in 1999. The "Spiderweb" probe focused on the repatriation of funds from the Bank of New York and offshore centers to Russia through Italian and other European front companies…. "Basically, the Russians were sending all the money that they could out of the country, and at one point, many of the same people decided they wanted to bring the money back," one Italian investigator said…. "I have an Interpol report that states that Marc Rich was one of the founding partners of Nordex," he said. According to prosecutors, Nordex, a company based in Vienna, Austria, with offices in Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Russia, Switzerland and Ukraine, is accused of having had a central role in the money-laundering operation uncovered by the "Spiderweb" operation…. …Mr. Rich, as the principal director of Glencore International AG, had a direct relationship with Benex. Although the true owners of Benex were never conclusively identified in Miss White's investigation, Benex's offices, located on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, N.Y., shared the same building with two companies connected with Mr. Loutchansky…. U.S. and Italian authorities say that a good part of the money laundered on behalf of the Russian mafia and businesses passed through Benex's Bank of New York account and that from June to December of 1998 there had been a number of wire transfers from the "Glencore of Rich" to Benex for a total of $178,000.…” [Marc Rich Linked To $9 Billion Money Laundering Investigation, P.K. Semler, Washington Times, June 23, 2002] Marc Rich’s Glencore was involved in laundering Russian Mafiya money through the Bank of New York. (Pierre Falcone, the French/Algerian arms merchant indicted in the Angola-gate arms deal also maintained an account at this bank as well.) According to Australian sources, from the Bank of New York, the money was moved to the Pacific island country of Nauru. What is interesting is the revelation that at the same time that the Bank of New York was required to shut down relations with Nauru as a result of the investigation so did the Deutsche Bank and Banker’s Trust. (Banker’s Trust is a Deutsche Bank subsidiary, whose CEO-Buzzy Krongard went on to be the No. 2 Director at the CIA), The simultaneous cessation of relations of these banks with Naura suggests these THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 105 banks were part of the same money-laundering investigation, and conduit used by Marc Rich, on behalf of the Angolagate gang and the Russian Mafiya. “Melnikov said Nauru "has the most attractive regime" for Russians trying to hide money offshore. Most of the operation is via the Internet through the government’s Nauru Agency Corporation in the main village of Yaren. It was central to the laundering of between 7-10 billion dollars through the Bank of New York (BNY)last year. Following that Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust, which operate a global money transfer system for retail banks, and by the US Republic National Bank and BNY placed a ban on any US dollar trades with Nauru, as well as Palau and Vanuatu.” [Accused of Russian Mafia connections, Pacific’s Nauru to clean up its banks, Michael Field, AFP, 4/26/2000] These banks are also reportedly used in laundering the heisted Philippines, and probably Russian treasury gold: “REPUBLIC NATIONAL BANK OF NEW YORK: The bank is a reputed money laundry for smuggled gold as used by the intelligence agencies, such as the American CIA.” [Reputed Cocaine Bank Money Laundry Wizard for George Bush Family Arrested in Chicago, Sherman H. Skolnick] The elegance and complicated nature of the Angola oil scam does not stop with these revelations. After moving these funds through offshore accounts to Angola, and then to UBS before hitting the Russian banks as repayment, the funds were then stolen from the Russian bank in a scam quite similar to the one Adnan Khashoggi used to defraud MJK Securities in 2001. The money was loaned by the Russian Banks and transferred to accounts in the Cayman Islands, using stock for collateral which then turned out to be worthless. The net result would be US taxpayer dollars being transferred to the Russian/Israeli Mafiya, oil contracts for US oil companies (including Halliburton) and the dictators of Angola and Kazakhstan taking a personal percentage on the swap, and the Russian banks losing their debt repayment. Deals such as these are the foundation of “the New World Order,” proclaimed by George Bush on September 11, 1991. The US Export-Import Bank funding was used to buy weapons and towards the end of its journey, was put in the Bank Rossiisky (third largest bank in Russia), where Gaydamak was a director. (Bank Rossiisky is later documented to be a part of the Riggs-Valmet banking network, run by Jonathon Bush, brother of President Bush Sr.) The money was then loaned to Russian and Angolan officials using securities as collateral. The collateral turned out to be worthless, and the Bank nearly went Bankrupt. “BANK ROSSIISKY KREDIT: Stole eXile's money. President Vitaly Malkin said to control bank account that helped funnel $700 million in Angolan money intended to pay back Soviet-era debt which instead was kicked back to Russian and Angolan officials. Vavilov was also involved.” [The Man Behind The Man, Alexander Makarkin, The Exile, Issue #167, May 29, 2003] Lending credibility to the claim that there was most likely a link between Angola-gate and Kazakhstan-gate, reports indicate that the bribes to Kazakhstan officials involved three of the same banks as the Angola-gate money laundering operation: Bank of New York, Banker’s Trust (aka Deutschebank) and Credit Agricole Indosuez. Credit Agricole THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 106 Indosuez was a correspondent bank with Bankers Trust in New York, New York – and was operated using the assets of the closed BCCI bank. . "According to a formal request filed under a treaty between the United States and Switzerland, the Justice Department says that on March 19, 1997, Amoco Kazakhstan Petroleum, one of the companies involved in the big offshore project in the Caspian Sea, transferred $61 million from Banker’s Trustin New York in two payments to account 1215320 at Credit Agricole Indosuez, a bank in Geneva. (The Amoco unit is now part of BP). [THE ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM - PART I, Michael C. Ruppert, © Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, 3/26/2002] “One such document, a letter of credit from a Republic National Bank of New York account in Switzerland, shows that Mobil transferred 100 mln usd in May of 1997 to a Swiss bank account held by the Treasury of Kazakhstan but which Kazhegeldin believes to have been controlled exclusively by treasury director Saouat Mynbaev.” [Ex-Kazakhstan premier says US firms' oil fees diverted to ministers, Interview with Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Justin Cole, AFX, 7/17/2001] “A recent book by S. Mendybayev and V. Shelgunov under the title "Cleptocrats" contains more detailed information regarding the accounts controlled by Nazarbayev-Balgimbayev-Giffen (Moscow, Sputnik Co., 2001): "Reporters provided information on the Nazarbayev family foreign accounts, including the names of banks and the amounts on those accounts. In Swiss Pictet - over $300 mln, $150 - 200 mln in Credit Suisse, hundreds of millions of dollars in the National Republic Bank of New York. In these and other cases those amounts were detected or frozen in the course of investigation. Naturally, much more money could have passed through those accounts in previous years.” [Total claimant, Tsentralno-Asiatskiy Bulletin, International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, Valery Steshin, 9/6/2001] Russia got the oil. Angola got the weapons. The whereabouts of about a half million dollars is known – and the rest (About $1.4 billion) disappeared, and in a bizarre twist of fate, the Angolan debt to Russia was transferred to the US taxpayers under the guise of loans, compliment of Halliburton and Cheney. Somewhere in between, brutal dictators and corrupt businessmen got “bonuses.” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 107 5 Russian and Israeli Mafiya Before Nick Berg traveled to Israel and Iraq, he was engaged with Joe Aziz, a business partner that had connections to the Russian Mafiya and the Project for a New American Century. Joe Aziz is reported to be the last person to see Berg alive before he was kidnapped and executed. To investigate the death of Nick Berg, one must understand the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and the PNAC. Like the terrorists and the Mossad, both the PNAC and Russian/Israeli Mafiya have been accused of having a role in the attack on the World Trade Center. What these latter two groups have in common is a strong affiliation to Israel. Because of the reported Israeli role in various events and circumstances leading up to the attack on the World Trade Center, and because of the reported ties of these groups to Israel, this investigation pursued an understanding of those allegations. The result of the investigation was the discovery of a set of business and political relationships that started in Russia in the 1980s and moved to Israel in the 1990s. These relationships created a bond between elements of the Russian Mafiya and elements of the CIA involved in economic warfare operations which facilitated the collapse of the Soviet Union. This alliance has evolved into the dark side of the current Neocon movement. The destruction of the World Trade Center targeted with pinpont precision those offices that held evidence of their relationships. 5.1 Project for the New American Century There is a group of independent writers that claim the attacks on the World Trade Center were conducted not by a U.S. oil cartel, but rather by right-wing elements of the Mossad with the intent of providing a justification for a U.S. attack on Iraq. Under this scenario, writers refer to the bulk of evidence presented earlier in this article, as well as the history of the policy making group that can claim responsibility for swaying George Bush to attack Iraq. This group is referred to under several names – neo-conservatives, neocons, neokons, PNAC, and Hillary Clinton’s unidentified “right wing conspiracy.” "In 1997 a group of neo-conservatives founded the 'Project for the New American Century' (PNAC) - A year later PNAC called for the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq - In 2000 they predicted that the shift in US foreign policy towards that aim would come about slowly, unless there were "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor". That event happened on September 11th 2001 - Ten people in the Bush administration are currently members of PNAC. They include Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, John Bolton, Zalmay Khalilzad and member of the advisory Defense Science Board, Richard Perle" [The Dossier, ukonline.co.uk] The publicly acknowledged intent of the PNAC group is the ‘furtherance of democracy,’ in a manner that was inconceivable under prior U.S. administrations. Essentially, the PNAC model for U.S. foreign policy is one of unilateral aggression, putting the U.S. foreign policy in the company of many historical imperialist powers: the Christian Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks, the British Empire, Napoleon’s France, Hussein’s Iraq, Hitler’s Germany, and Stalin’s Russia, to mention a recent few. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 108 "Bill Kristol, (is) one of the most sought-after political commentators in the US, editor of The Weekly Standard, and President of The Project for a New American Century. In his talk, entitled “US Foreign Policy after 9-11: The Bush Doctrine,” Kristol declared that “for the US, the world really changed on September 11. We are no longer prepared to rely mainly on negotiations, trade pressures, arms control regimes and international institutions in order to solve critical world problems. The Israeli operation against the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osirak is our new paradigm. Time is not on our side. We need to act soon, act preemptively, and act alone if necessary. Osirak is now the model of how foreign policy has to be conducted,” said Kristol. “Indeed, today the US is committed to forcing regime change in Iran, Iraq, and North Korea,” continued Kristol “We will be much more aggressive in pursuing this goal; no longer are we content to wait for history to work things through. Unfortunately, Europe does not yet seem to understand our new world. They wish to return to pre-September 2001 rules.” [Begin –Sadat Center For Strategic Studies, May 2002 No. 14 ] "Later in the year, Bush's influential advisor Richard Perle states, “No stages. This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq … this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war … our children will sing great songs about us years from now.” [New Statesman, December 16, 2002] While the praises for the victory of democracy in these conquered countries of Afghanistan and Iraq are sung by the Bush administration, those who visit these countries are aware of the realities of this new policy, which do little to change the ways these countries operate: "Apart from notional freedoms, little has changed. The warlords installed to power by America are as bad as the Taliban, terrorising whole communities, and ensuring that 90 per cent of Afghan women remained oppressed and that pledges of Western reconstruction aid remain empty promises."[The Betrayal Of Afghanistan, John Pilger, The Guardian, November 22,2003] The background of many of these key policy players however, suggests they are far more interested in the security of Israel than that of the US. Two of the key architects of this group – Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz- have a well documented (both Congressional and FBI investigations) past of being alleged agents for the Israeli government, and have been directly responsible for the employment by US Policy making groups (Office of Special Plans- OSP) of at least four other similarly documented and alleged agents of Israel: Douglas J. Feith (Undersecretary of Defense for Policy), Lawrence Franklin (currently under investigation by the FBI as being a potential Israeli spy), Michael Ledeen and Dr. Stephen Bryen. Lawrence Franklin works in an office overseen by Douglas J. Feith, the Defense Undersecretary for Policy. Feith is an influential aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Also included in this list is Dr. Rabbi Dov Zakheim, who at the time was acting as chief-financial officer for the Department of Defense. A signer of the “Pearl Harbor” statement and an original member of the PNAC, Dr. Dov Zakheim’s personal and family’s significant involvement in Yeshivat Sha’alvim is a clear demonstration of his loyalties. "Sha'alvim is a dynamic and comprehensive educational community where … students are imbued with …an abiding commitment to the People and the State of Israel.”[www.shaalvim.org] From all available evidence it was these “unofficial” political advisers organized by Wolfowitz, Feith and Rumsfeld in the US Office of Special Planning (OSP) who were the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 109 source of the fabricated evidence, which was used to “justify” the invasion and occupation of Iraq. "Precisely because of the qualms the administration encountered, it created a rogue intelligence operation, the Office of Special Plans (OSP), located within the Pentagon and under the control of neoconservatives. The OSP roamed outside the ordinary inter-agency process, stamping its approval on stories from Iraqi exiles that the other agencies dismissed as lacking credibility, and feeding them to the president. At the same time, constant pressure was applied to the intelligence agencies to force their compliance. In one case, a senior intelligence officer who refused to buckle under was removed." [NEWS BRIEF: "There was no failure of intelligence: US spies were ignored, or worse, if they failed to make the case for war", The Guardian (London), February 5, 2004, carried in Daily News Updates 2/8/2004.,http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1141116,00.html ] These fabrications which took America to war with Iraq were based on a long standing Likud policy paper authored by Perle and Feith in 1996. "The OSP and the other members of the networks that operated throughout key US agencies shared a right-wing, pro-militarist ideology and are fanatically pro-Israel. Feith and Perle authored an infamous policy paper in 1996 for the Likud Party extremist, Benjamin Netanyahu, entitled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” This strategy called for the destruction of Saddam Hussein and his replacement by a Hashemite monarch. Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iran would then have to be overthrown or destabilized for Israel to be secure in a kind of ‘Greater US-Israel Co-Prosperity Sphere.’ The OSP was an arm of the Wolfowitz-Feith policy of furthering the policies of the most extremist groups of the Sharon regime, forging close ties with a parallel ad hoc intelligence operation in the Israeli regime according to a report from the British newspaper, The Guardian" [“Who fabricated the Iraq War Threat: An Inside View” James Petras, Centre for Research on Globalisation, August 22, 2003] To that end, the invasion of Iraq was as much a foregone conclusion as was the invasion of Afghanistan. It was a decision made by this group years before ‘weapons of mass destruction’ were presented to the public as the excuse for invasion, and years before the attack on the World Trade Center. Nothing would have prevented the invasion, because it could easily have been prevented – and spared thousands of lives and injured. According to the Chicago Tribune, Saddam Hussein was more than ready to leave Iraq, just like the Taliban was ready to surrender Bin Laden, but the US Government chose to start a war instead. "As Trireme (Richard Perle’s and Henry Kissinger’s venture capital firm)solicited investors at the end of 2002, Harb al-Zuhair (a wealthy and politically connected Saudi businessman) made a trip to his native Iraq, and met with government officials including Saddam's intelligence chief -- Tahir Abd' Jalil Habbush al-Tiktriti, head of Iraq's Mukhabarat, or General Intelligence Service. He returned with an important message for the U.S. government: On the eve of war, Saddam wanted to throw in the towel, Zuhair reported to Khashoggi. The Iraqi dictator sought back channel negotiations with America that might offer him a safe exit. Harriman and Khashoggi decided to arrange for Zuhair to tell his story to Perle…."[Hersh uncovered Pentagon adviser Richard Perle’s role in securing homeland security contracts, David Jackson, Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2004] Both so called “conspiracy” interpretations (one in which oil interests are responsible, another in which pro-Israeli Neocons are responsible) provide compelling insights, and may explain the Bush administration’s behavior after the WTC tragedy, but do little to explain events leading up to the attack. The hard truth is, this tragedy was beginning to unfold long before Bush won the election, and before he won the Republican National THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 110 convention. President Bush initially declined the recommendations of the PNAC, preferring to invade Afghanistan before paying attention to Iraq. Information suggests that Bush may have been knowledgeable and supportive of allowing what he was probably told would be a ‘controlled’ terrorist attack, but there is nothing to suggest he was responsible for its initiation. (The circumstance of him not actually making the decision would not exonerate him of conspiracy in murder. However, by focusing solely on the Bush administration involvement in a cover-up, more powerful criminals may be over-looked. Bush and his father had very significant responsibility for the attack on the WTC, but no one has ever suggested he is capable of being its mastermind.) The Republican National Convention had not even occurred when the actual perpetrators of the attack on the World Trade Center were organizing in the US. Similarly, all the credible information available and reviewed elsewhere in this report suggests Osama Bin Laden was not responsible. Who then was? There is a need to identify a new and viable master criminal behind these tragedies. For all the effort being put into the search for who is responsible, there are no alternatives being offered other than Osama Bi Laden or the Bush administration: but neither of these is a credible suspect. President George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden were involved, but neither were calling the shots, nor capable of calling the shots. The search should pick up on a trail dropped by nearly everyone doing research long ago. 5.2 Follow the Money Without a serious investigation into the financial aspects of the attack of 9/11, it is difficult to understand who benefited, and therefore, who had motive. This report hypothesizes that the participants and planners of the 9/11 events profited by over several hundred billion U.S. dollars, and stopped investigations into financial crimes, securities fraud and bank fraud valued at a comparable amount. The press often refers to illegal stock trades that occurred at the time the towers were attacked. These - however significant - will turn out to be relatively small earnings when compared to motive associated with the other incentives. This report will investigate four sources of financial motive: · Illegal stock trades; · Brady Bond (See Section 8 of this report) and MJK Securities Fraud; · Gold price-fixing and probable laundering of stolen gold; and · Control of equity banking market share. An often forgotten set of events leading up to the WTC attack include the financial market “put” options placed up to four days before the attack. These were initially the most obvious trades with the “unclaimed” payout. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 111 Table 1 Unclaimed Stock Options Target Put Options Time when trades were placed Of Interest Merrill Lynch & Co 12,215 four trading days before the attacks Occupied 22 floors of the World Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co 2,157 three trading days Occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center United Airlines 4,744 two and three trading days American Airlines 4,516 one trading day These are the data points one always sees in the news, but there were other trades – significant trades, mostly in financial companies! • "Citigroup Inc., which has estimated that its Travelers Insurance unit may pay $500 million in claims from the World Trade Center attack. It had a jump in trading of October options that profit if shares fall below $40 apiece. Almost 14,000 of those options contracts were traded from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10 -- about 45 times the previous daily average. Citigroup shares fell $2.85 today to $39.60. " • " Bear Stearns & Cos., where investors traded 3,979 contracts from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10 on September options that profit if shares fall below $50. The previous average volume for those options was 22 contracts. Bear Stearns shares fell $3.79 today to $46.45. " • " Marsh & McLennan Cos., the biggest insurance brokerage, which had 1,700 employees working in the World Trade Center. Traders on Sept. 10 exchanged 1,209 contracts on options that profit if company shares fall below $90 through the third week of September. Previously, 13 contracts had traded on an average day. Marsh & McLennan shares fell $2.50 today to $84.50.' • "The Wall Street Journal reported on October 2 that the ongoing investigation by the SEC into suspicious stock trades had been joined by a Secret Service probe into an unusually high volume of five-year US Treasury note purchases prior to the attacks. The Treasury note transactions included a single $5 billion trade. As the Journal explained: “Five-year Treasury notes are among the best investments in the event of a world crisis, especially one that hits the US. The notes are prized for their safety and their backing by the US government, and usually rally when investors flee riskier investments, such as stocks.” The value of these notes, the Journal pointed out, has risen sharply since the events of September 11. The article went on to quote Michael Shamosh, a bond-market strategist for Tucker Anthony Inc., who said, “If they were going to do something like this they would do it in the five-year part of the market. It’s extremely liquid, and the tracks would be hard to spot.” The SEC has been extremely tight-lipped about its probe, in which it has enlisted securities firms and government agencies in Europe, Canada and other countries. But on Tuesday the Investment Dealers Association, a trade association for the Canadian securities industry, posted on its web site a list sent by the American SEC of 38 stocks. The US agency had asked the Canadians to look into trading in these stocks between August 27 and September 11. As soon as US officials became aware of the Internet posting, they demanded that the Investment Dealers Association yank it from the web site, and the Canadian organization complied. However, reporters and others were able to copy the list before it was pulled. The list includes the parent companies of American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, United and US Airways, as well as Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines, aircraft THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 112 maker Boeing and defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Several insurance companies are on the list— American International Group, Axa, Chubb, Cigna, CNA Financial, John Hancock and MetLife. The SEC list also includes several big companies that were tenants in the collapsed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center: investment firms Morgan Stanley, the complex’s largest occupant; Lehman Brothers; Bank of America; and the financial firm Marsh & McLennan. Other major companies listed include General Motors, Raytheon, LTV, WR Grace, Lone Star Technologies, American Express, Bank of New York, Bank One, Citigroup and Bear Stearns. [Suspicious trading points to advance knowledge by big investors of September 11 terror attacks, Barry Grey, October 5, 2001] It is also fair to speculate that the breadth of the pre-attack investments trades was far broader than ever admitted to by the investigators. The general literature suggests trading in four companies, using one mentioned bank – the Deutschebank. Generally excluded from discussions of those reports is a subsequent report from a survivor of the World Trade Center. "...Convar, a German firm hired to retrieve data from damaged computer systems left in the rubble of the World Trade Center, found that there was a deluge of electronic trading just minutes before the first plane struck. Quoting a December 16 report from Reuter's, writer Kyle Henry found a compelling quotation from one of Convar's directors: Peter Henschel, director of Convar...said, 'not only the volume, but the size of the transactions was far higher than usual for a day like that.' Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert, estimated that more than $100 million in illegal transactions appeared to have rushed through the WTC computers before and during the disaster….The Reuter's story was partially confirmed for me when I was contacted by a Deutsche Bank employee who had survived the attacks by fleeing the WTC after the first plane hit. According to the employee, about five minutes before the attack the entire Deutsche Bank computer system had been taken over by something external that no one in the office recognized and every file was downloaded at lightening speed to an unknown location." [Crossing the Rubicon, Chapter 14, Michael Ruppert] The four stock trades usually mentioned, however, are the “unclaimed’ trades – suggesting a potentially larger number of successful trades having taken place. The reality was far greater than generally reported. Trades were placed across the globe, far in excess of the few million dollars of “unclaimed” trades. More simply, a lot of the trades were successfully claimed. "ABC World News reported on Sept. 20, "Jonathan Winer, an ABC News consultant said, 'it's absolutely unprecedented to see cases of insider trading covering the entire world from Japan, to the U.S., to North America, to Europe." "How much money was involved? Andreas von Bülow, a former member of the German Parliament responsible for oversight of Germany's intelligence services estimated the worldwide profits amount at $15 billion, according to Tagesspiegel on Jan. 13. Other experts have estimated the profit at $12 billion. CBS News gave a conservative estimate of $100 million." [The Case for Bush Administration Advance Knowledge of 9-11 Attacks, Michael C. Ruppert, April 22, 2002] "According to Phil Erlanger, a former Senior Technical Analyst with Fidelity, and founder of a Florida firm that tracks short selling and options trading, insiders made off with billions (not mere millions) in profits by betting on the fall of stocks they knew would tumble in the aftermath of the WTC and Pentagon attacks." [http://www.erlangersqueezeplay.com] A very important element of this trading “mystery” is that the “pre-September 11” stock trades are the trades commonly discussed, and generally ignored are the trades that occurred on September 11, during the course of the attack. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 113 "Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert estimated that more than $100 million in illegal transactions appeared to have rushed through the WTC computers before and during the disaster." “Henschel said the companies in the United States were working together with the FBI… to piece together what happened on September 11 and that he was confident the destination of the dubious transactions would one day be tracked down. ``We have been quite surprised that so many of the hard drives were in good enough shape to retrieve the data,'' he said. ``The contamination rate is high. The fine dust that was everywhere in the area got pressed under high pressure into the drives. But we've still been able to retrieve 100 percent of the data on most of the drives we've received. ``We're helping them find out what happened to the computers on September 11 as quickly as possible. I'm sure that one day they will know what happened to the money…”[German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals. Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters, 12/16/2001] Richard Wagner – a security expert – included in his assessment that the transactions were illegal. Henschel describes the transactions as trades. These small observations are important for two reasons: 1. At the time of the attack, neither the stock exchange nor the commodity exchange had opened. The put options were placed before September 11. This should lead to the conclusion that the transactions being referred to are securities trades, probably being run through computers at Cantor Fitzgerald, Garbon Inter-capital (now ICAP PLC), or Euro Brokers. Most of their day’s business had been conducted by 9:00 am. Cantor Fitzgerald and Euro-Brokers would take almost direct hits by jets attacking the North and South Towers. 2. In noting that the transactions were illegal “trades”, Wagner shares a piece of information not released by the FBI or 9/11 Commission. Hence, we are forced to conclude he was referring to illegal securities transactions. This assumption is supported by information that suggests it took the Federal Reserve’s Government Securities Clearing organization over a month to rectify the accounting caused by these trades. “As GSCC has previously informed you, however, during the period immediately after the September 11 events, many securities clearances were processed successfully through the Fedwire book entry system without GSCC's knowledge. As GSCC did not know that these items had been delivered, it continued to mark the transactions as if they were fails. As a result of these "incorrect" fails, certain members are owed fail marks by GSCC, and other members owe fail mark amounts to GSCC. GSCC has a complete database of all obligations and clearance transactions for the entire period, and will attempt to identify all adjustments required by early next week. GSCC staff will be in touch with all affected members.” [Reconciliation Process, GSCC087.01, October 5, 2001] The issues around these bond trades (as opposed to stock trades) will be discussed thoroughly in a separate section of the report (Section 8). There are so many coincidences and ambiguities surrounding the settlement of these trades, that there is reason to believe that they are related to the true reason for the attack, rather than being what the Federal Reserve refers to as technical errors. If nothing else, for now, it is noted that according to Henschel, the information regarding these illegal securities trades was recovered and given to the FBI. Neither the FBI nor the 9/11 Commission have reported on these findings. During the week of September 11, demand for almost 86 tonnes of gold, or almost $900 million dollars, was created by demands in the Far East. These purchases did not go into the jewelry market, but were primarily targeted at investment hedge funds. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 114 "While hedge funds are a rapidly growing part of the financial industry, the fact that they operate through private placements and restrict share ownership to rich individuals and institutions frees them from most disclosure and regulation requirements that apply to mutual funds and banks. Funds legally domiciled outside the main financial market countries are generally subject to even less regulation." [Hedge Funds: What Do We Really Know? Barry Eichengreen, Donald Mathieson, ©1999 International Monetary Fund] It is proposed that to launder the profits of the anonymous trades, the profits from the attack on the World Trade Center were shifted into gold certificates purchased by hedge funds (probably via Enron On-Line) - both of which are easy to conceal ownership with, especially in places like Thailand and Vietnam, which is where this gold went. With the range of leverage currently used by financial institutions (between 100:1 and 400:1, although it does go as high as 600:1), it might be fair to say the people responsible for this crime converted it into a leveraging of between $75 and $200 Billion dollars. Additionally, as will be discussed in Section 7.2, there were individuals like Adnan Khashoggi and institutions like Deutsche Bank Securities that may have made other types of investments that benefited from the effects of 9/11, as discovered during the MJK Securities fraud suit in 2005. Khashoggi and the Deutschebank were both found liable for the losses in 2006. These options suggest a number of observations being made in advance about who stood to “lose” or “gain” during the aftermath of the attack: • The first target and primary target (as determined by the level of investment and number of days preceding the attack) was Merrill Lynch. • The secondary targets were Morgan Stanley and insurance companies. • It appears as an afterthought that someone decided the airlines stood to lose as well. It is very possible that these airline trades were not placed by the true criminals, but were the product of normal, but sporadic trading. Given that nearly all airlines were spiked during the time period – not just those involved in the attack – the following explanation makes more sense. "Adam Hamilton of Zeal LLC, a consulting company that does research on markets worldwide, has crunched the numbers and recently told Insight magazine: "The market was in bad shape in the summer and early fall, and you know there were a lot of people who believed that there would be a sell-off in the market long before Sept. 11. For instance, American Airlines was at $40 in May and fell to $29 on Sept. 10; United was at $37 in May and fell to $31 on Sept. 10. These stocks were falling anyway, and it would have been a good time to short them." The downward trend in the airline stocks was backed up in the pre-Sept. 11 trading picture." "Insight reported that there were repeated spikes in put options on American Airlines during the year before Sept. 11 (June 19 with 2,951 puts, June 15 with 1,144 puts, April 16 with 1,019 and Jan. 8 with 1,315 puts). In the same period, United Airlines had slightly more action (Aug. 8 with 1,678 puts, July 20 with 2,995, April 6 with 8,212 and March 13 with 8,072)." [Dave Eberhart, “Still Silence From 9-11 Stock Speculation Probe”, NewsMax, June 3, 2002] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 115 On the other hand, almost always, if investors believe the airline industry is due to drop, they will short all three major carriers. This was not the case here because Delta did not see spikes similar to UAL and AMR. • It appears financial companies were the focal point of investors with apriori knowledge of the attack on the WTC. These criminals were sophisticated investors, with inside knowledge which identified the insurers of these building and financial targets. Inside knowledge of this sort might easily be established by a competitor who worked that market – a competitor like Allianz, one of the primary corporate entities in the German/Suisse Bank Cartel. • The attack was on financial companies (especially investment banking) in the World Trade Center as well as financial companies in general, including Citibank, Bear Stearns & Cos., Marsh & McLennan Cos. American Express, Bank of New York, and Bank One, which are not in the World Trade Center. The plan was to create an event that would shake the American economy to its core, and cripple the highly leveraged investment banks. In another of a long list of strange co-incidents, all of these banks have a unique and special relationship with the President Bush when it comes to economic policy. "President George W. Bush played host to the heads of several top US banks at a private meeting in the White House this week, in an effort to persuade the markets of his commitment to deficit reduction. Mr. Bush's invitation underscores his desire to secure Wall Street's support for the ambitious economic reform agenda planned for his second term. Vice President Dick Cheney, political strategist Karl Rove, chief of staff Andrew Card, outgoing commerce secretary Don Evans and the White House economic team were also present for the talks with the heads of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wachovia, Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and American Express." [Bush Holds Private Meeting With Bank Chiefs, Copyright 2004, InvestmentsMagazine.com, November 18, 2004] • Interestingly, if oil was the objective as claimed by so many, someone might have invested in ‘Call options’ on companies who would obviously benefit –such as Halliburton. This didn’t happen, because an invasion of Iraq was not contemplated. (More on this later.) Moreover, in one story that received no follow-up, oil related companies were traded with “calls” shortly after the attack. "Sadi, a Geneva-based investment group that is controlled by the Bin Laden family, is under investigation for an appalling interpretation of insider-trading. Twenty minutes before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the Sadi group instructed to sell certain stock portfolios at several European stock markets. In the days following the attacks, large buying-orders, especially in the oil and chemical sector, were placed. The world-wide investigation in the Sadi-group's actions have been felt also on the Italian stock market based in Milan. "[Stock Speculations of Bin Laden Investment Group Investigated] Another set of clues that have been commented on, and again generally ignored – is a series of articles in Pravda during the summer of 2001, and comments by Vladimir Putin. In these comments, Russian intelligence was predicting a catastrophic financial event in late August of 2001 (a couple weeks before September 11). This unidentified event was expected to bring about the collapse of the dollar, and Russians were being advised to get out of dollars. Similarly, the chief economic strategist for Dresdner Wasserstein was predicting a major crash in the American stock-market for that same time-frame, in a sense, encouraging the Dresdner Wasserstein customer base to get out of dollar based THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 116 assets. (Dresdner is part of the German Bank cartel.) These are clear indicators that the financial impact of the attack was a consideration by those with pre-knowledge. (There is another conclusion to be drawn from the Russian and German financial forecasts, which stood alone in the midst of other financial forecasts at that time– that a financial collapse was actually possible. This forecasted collapse actually was a very real possibility, and the prevention of this collapse was one of the specific reasons for the attack on the World Trade Center. This possibility is analyzed in depth in Section 8 of the report, where it is hypothesized that $240 Billion in fraudulent 10 year bonds under the control of Cantor Fitzgerald needed to be re-issued to prevent the financial collapse of the US securities market.) The first and cardinal rule of any criminal investigation has been totally ignored in an attack on the headquarters of three of the world’s largest investment banks. That rule is “Follow the money.” The 9/11 Commission Report does not even acknowledge the occurrence of any of this crime. The terrorist gambit has convinced most of the world this atrocity was the responsibility of fanatics with little concern for wealth. As a result, what little thought was given to the “apparent” money trail – the put options – was dropped as incidental to a bigger evil –global terrorism. What if, however, the attack was about “the money?” The original hypothesis of this investigation was that the financial beneficiaries of these crimes were part of a German and Swiss banking cartel. Subsequent investigation of that cartel and the cover-up it required, resulted in findings that suggested that an American financial cartel of commercial banks may have participated in the planning and execution of the attack (the Federal reserve Banks). These two cartels were interlocked by a common customer base of money launderers, heroin dealers and corrupt politicians. 5.3 The Threat to German Banking For the moment, please assume the actual targets were the three largest equity banking firms of Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co (MSDW), and Goldman Sachs – filling 22, 22, and 15 floors of the WTC respectively. (Goldman Sachs had a significant presence in the WTC, but the instigators did not take “put options” on Goldman Sachs.) In the course of a normal investigation, one might ask – who stood to gain from the direct disruption of these financial giants. These giants, along with Citibank and JP Morgan Chase represented the five major threats to the German banking market, and as a result the Dresdner Bank (a subsidiary of Allianz) and Deutsche Bank stood to gain from a temporary disruption of the capabilities of Merrill Lynch, MSDW, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase. A brief bit of background on these two German banks, and the German banking industry in general, is relevant. Banks have created a bank-center culture, with banking centers created in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Frankfurt. These centers have become fairly ‘incestuous,’ swapping employees and favors. These centers represent common interests and policies generally based on their country’s primary currency values. Today, Paris and Frankfurt are creating a unity around the Euro, and incorporating Basel into the Frankfurt center, while London and New York operate around the dollar. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 117 During World War II, the two German banks represented the primary banking powers in Nazi Germany. There are three events that occurred during the last 50 years which have provided a basis for resentment on their part with the American banking community. When the Allies took over Germany, the British generally left the banking structure in their zone as they found it. The Americans, however, broke up these banks into 30 autonomous regional banks and put in place a number of regulations to prevent these banks from ever re-establishing themselves as major global powers. Those rules, however, were ultimately circumvented, and the banks manage to re-establish themselves in the 1960’s. Just as these banks were re-emerging as global players, the Richard Nixon administration unilaterally took the dollar off the Bretton Woods System of Fixed Exchange Rates, which then created an advantage for the American banks and economy that has taken the rest of the world several decades to recover from. It seriously undermined the German competitiveness in the export market, which took the Germans years to recover from. The advantages that came with the move off the Bretton Woods agreement – in terms of enhanced perceived value of the dollar– has given a global advantage to the New York bank center for almost two decades. Over the next three decades, Europe was able to muscle its way back to a position where the banks were almost on par with New York. Together, the two banks represented a coordinated and balanced global strategy: Deutsche Bank had 21 of its 28 foreign affiliates in Africa and Asia, Dresdner had 16 of its 21 affiliates in Latin America. Not all of this “comeback” can be attributed to the inherent attractiveness of the Euro or European currencies. At one point, Tokyo banks, representing the growth of the orient, stood to overwhelm European banks in the 80’s. In response to this threat, the International Bank of Settlements (heavily weighted by participants from Paris, Frankfurt and Basel, and taking advantage of the unfortunate absence of the American delegate) voted to establish new bank capitalization requirements which targeted the Tokyo banking practices of defining property value as equity with which to create loans. This redefinition of the asset base with the stroke of a pen essentially drove the collapse of the Tokyo banking system, and subsequently, the rest of the Pacific Rim. (Currently, this same group is driving another round of re-defining capitalization requirements which are designed to cripple the US banking industry by regulating the use of government debt as a capital base. Given that a devaluation of the dollar is globally perceived as inevitable, requiring the US banking system to hold large amounts of US government debt will automatically devalue the reserves of the American banks. American bankers watching this regulation emerge over the years have converted their primary strategies from traditional banking to equity banks, hence the battle with the German equity banks.) A third American attack on the German banking industry took place in 1993, led by George Soros and George Bush Sr. “His US contacts put Soros very close to the financial and secret service circles around George Bush. His most important deposit bank and main lender during his attack on the European monetary system in Sept. 1993 was CITICORP, America's largest bank. Soros called upon the international investors to unhinge the Deutsche Mark. When in late 1989 a reunification became probable, a high ranking Citicorp manager who before had been advisor in the Dukakis campaign said: "German unity will be catastrophic for our interests. We have to take action to insure a decline of the Deutsche Mark by about 30% so that Germany will not be able to built up Eastern Germany to become the economic factor THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 118 within a new Europe." [George Soros and the Rothschilds Connection, Jan Von Helsing ("Secret Societies and their Power in the 20th Century")] One might conclude from the financial banking history of the last 50 years that the German bankers play hard, and have some legitimate reason for resentment of the US banking circles. This brings the analysis back to new threats to the German banking center in 2001. • Merrill Lynch was in the process of bringing electronic banking to the European market, being the first overseas bank to directly attempt to challenge the German’s lock on their traditional customer base. As a German foundation, Merrill Lynch had acquired Sannwald Jaenecke Bank, and was heavily recruiting German resources. Neither Dresdner (a subsidiary of Allianz), Commerzbank nor Deutsche Bank were in a position to counter that technology. • The US banks were positioning themselves for a major penetration of the European equity market. In the US, equity banking fees were at 6-7% less than 1998 levels, while in Europe, the market was expected to be 44% above 1998 levels. The profitability on this business had increased due to the introduction of the Euro, which simplified and encouraged cross border banking. Because of a history of national banking, cross border trades were allowed to increase commission rates, thus making the European business even more attractive. • Five US banks were seen as threatening the equity banking market formerly dominated by Germany: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase. Goldman Sachs had 15 floors in the WTC, Merrill Lynch had 22 floors as did Morgan Stanley. (Investment Banking in Europe, August 2001, Freeman and Co. LLC) • More importantly though, in 2000, both Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and MSDW had risen to the top three investment banks in Europe, bumping Dresdner out of the top 5 and pushing the Deutsche Bank to the number 4 slot. The European market for equity underwriting was expected to generate $913 billion in new offerings, which would have generated $23 billion in revenue. Twenty three billion dollars, while significant, is relatively small in comparison to the larger losses if Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs cemented themselves into the European market. Dresdner was already suffering financially due to this competition. Faced with insolvency, it had to be rescued by a white knight investor named Allianz – the one major insurance company that remained untouched by the WTC attack. That being said, the German banking group, after years of planning a comeback and revenge, was anticipating a collapse of the US economy within a month of the date of the WTC attack. The chief economic strategist for Dresdner Wasserstein was publicly predicting a major crash in the American stock-market for that same time-frame, publicly covering Dresdner Wasserstein’s (and other Germans’) retreat out of dollar based assets, when other forecasters saw little reason to move away from the dollar at that time. So far, one might say the German banks had specific motivation for seeing a collapse of the US bank challengers: 1. $23 Billion in banking revenues at risk to American competition; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 119 2. seething resentment due to U.S. attempts to destroy them after WWII and take unfair advantage of them in the 1970’s. 3. There is a third reason. At stake was –and remains – the discovery of hundreds of billions of dollars of stolen national treasuries held in the German/Swiss vaults. This discovery was imminent, based on U.S. investigations under way in the late 1990s. This premise will be developed in Sections 4 and 9. Motive, however, is not enough. One needs to be able to demonstrate that these “old men of Europe” had the means and connections to execute this deed. These old men that virtually rule the world banking environment needed to be able to reach deep into the Mossad, and finance the attack on the American equity banking establishment. Once the dark side of the Mossad was involved, its criminal elements used it’s pre-knowledge of the attacks to benefit from this knowledge by manipulating the stock market across thirty eight stocks. They used the Deutsche Bank subsidiary of AB Brown, and made investments in exchanges that were weak in control: Canada. (As a small historic note, Alex Brown Deutschbank is the result of a merger between the Deutschebank and Alex Brown Investments, long associated with the Harriman and Bush families across four generations.) 5.4 The Link between the Mossad and German Banking There is a common perception that the Mossad is an organization of extremely efficient and dedicated patriots of Israel. Most likely, most agents are just that. There is however, another side of the Mossad. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a steady stream of ex-KGB agents and Russian Mafiya thugs into the Mossad. This has resulted in a unique relationship between the Mossad and former KGB intelligence groups. When the Cold War came to an end, and the Soviet Union started to collapse economically, the KGB did exactly what the Nazis did towards the end of WWII. They started stripping national and party assets and bank accounts, and investing the funds in foreign companies. At the same time, millions of Soviet citizens were allowed to immigrate to Israel, to the point where one in five Israelis is Russian or of Russian heritage. "Starting in December 1990, Vladimir Ivashko and Nikolai Kruchina, and senior officers of the KGB, organized a new department of the KGB which began transferring of a major part of Communist Party money to the bank accounts of dozens of foreign enterprises created by the KGB for laundering money. The classic example of this relationship is found in a company called Nordex, an international company based in Austria. Nordex is widely recognized as having been a front for post Cold War KGB money-laundering. " "A classified report from the German intelligence agency BND on Loutchansky, obtained by Time, charged that Nordex had been created as an espionage front "to earn hard currency for the KGB." The report continued, "Nordex subsidiaries are alleged to be defrauding Russian firms, i.e., the Russian state, of several millions in hard currency annually." [Time, July 8, 1996] In return for laundering money through Israel, Nordex (a company owned by Robert Maxwell, a widely recognized Mossad agent) provided cover for Israeli agents applying THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 120 for access to Eastern Europe and Russia. This interplay between rogue agents of the KGB, Russian Mafiya and Israeli secret service soon resulted in a major corruption of the Israeli secret service. "By the time Netanyahu was running for Prime Minister in 1996, in the wake of the Rabin assassination, the Russian Mafiya factor had become so prominent, that some top Israeli law enforcement officials broke their code of silence and went public with their concerns. Moshe Shahal, the country's chief of internal security, warned that "Elements of the Russian Mafiya are effectively trying to control Israel. The gangsters are now trying to buy and influence politicians," he warned. Shahal and others warned of credible reports that the Russian Mafiya was prepared to spend between $1.5 and $4 billion to "secure political power," according to Robinson." [Sharon and His Mafiya Allies Plot Israel Election Theft, Jeffrey Steinberg, Executive Intelligence Review, January 10, 2003.] Using Nordex as the example, and knowing other such companies existed, the search started for a link between German banking and the Russian/Israeli underworld. Another such KGB money-laundering company in Austria and Bulgaria is reputed to be MG Corp. or Multi-Group. Just like in other countries (e.g. Nordex in Austria), Multigroup was involved in the scheme to loot the country after the breakup of the USSR. The scheme involved the highest levels of the Communist Party and the KGB/Mafiya with help from Westerners. This former Maxwell subsidiary came into the public light in 1996, when the President of MG (Iliya Pavlov), was assassinated the day after he testified in the trial of the murder of the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Andrei Lukanov. The BBC (3/8/2003) reported that: “Mr. Lukanov, who masterminded the downfall of Bulgaria's long-serving communist leader Todor Zhivkov in 1989, was found shot in front of his Sofia home in October 1996. At the time, Bulgarian media said Mr. Lukanov's death was a contract killing related to his business activities.” Pavlov – the President of MG Corp. - was ranked as the wealthiest person in Bulgaria and the eighth richest in Eastern Europe. Pavlov’s wife, Toni Chergelanova, was the daughter of Chergelanov, the chief of the Bulgarian Intelligence Service, according to the Nova Makedonija (11/2/1995). This connection identifies Multigroup’s links to the KGB and Mafiya, as well as intelligence organizations in Macedonia and Serbia. In looking at this revolving doorway for the Mossad into Eastern Europe, and KGB/Russian mafia into Israel, the Board of Directors and current ownership of Multi- Group is quite interesting. Allianz, (owner of Dresdner Bank) owns 10.1% of MG, Deutsche Bank owns 9.04%, and the Kuwait Investment Office owns 7.9%. On its board we find: • Dr. Diethart Breipohl, Icking, (until June 3, 2003) Former Member of the Management Board of Allianz AG, former CFO of Allianz, (and in the all-too-small world, probable cousin to Dr. Arthur Breipohl of Norman Oklahoma.) • Dr. Jürgen Krumnow, Königstein/Ts., Member of the Advisory Board of Deutsche BankAG • Bernhard Walter, Bad Homburg v.d.H., Former Spokesman of the Board of Managing Directors of Dresdner Bank AG THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 121 • Board representatives from ThyssenKrupp and Siemens. (These are mentioned only because it is of interest to those who track the financial lineage of where the Nazi’s put their stolen assets at the end of the war. All of these were heavy recipients of Third Reich funding: Deutsche Bank, Dresdner, Allianz, Krupp, Siemens, and Thyssen. Deutsche Bank was founded by Georg von Siemens.) This interest in MG by such banking luminaries really places munitions and explosives in the ‘key competencies’ of German bankers. If Board Members are usually selected so they can bring the appropriate experience and expertise to the direction of the company, why would so many financial types be sitting on the board of a company whose primary holding (at the time) was Dynamit Nobel – defined in the company literature and press as a “specialty chemical company” – whose specialty was munitions and land-mines. This is not an unimportant factor. Directing a company whose product is highly desired by terrorists and war lords allows one to come into regular contact with warlords of various sorts who are willing to arrange just about anything to get the weapons that allow them to stay in power. Through its sales and distribution channels of independent distributors, the Board can set up nearly anyone it chooses to represent the product line, while claiming to maintain total lack of accountability for its sales. Deutsche Bank seems to have had a number of such arms merchants using its banking services. "Just 32 days before the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a Financial Times of Asia (FT) Wire-Business Line report linked Deutschebank to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pakistani and Afghani heroin smuggling, and money laundering of narcotics proceeds (8-10- 2001). Retired Pakistani intelligence chief Brig Imtiaz was jailed for eight years on July 31, 2001 for laundering heroin profits -- for covert actions -- via a CIA-linked drug smuggling cell, using Deutschebank and other financial entities and properties." [Tom Flocco and Michael C. Ruppert, Edited by Michael C. Ruppert, © Copyright 2001, From The Wilderness Publications] "On June 15, 2001, the New York Post, reported that experts said the most likely buyers (of weapons) connected to the former Deutschebank securities trader and the two Pakistanis were current U.S. ally Pakistan or Osama bin Laden." The German bankers had financial and emotional motive to attack the World Trade Center, and they had the connections and capability. At any time they could reach directly into any number of the organizations that used Russian/Israeli Mafiya or Muslim ‘muscle’:1) using their drug connections in Pakistan and Afghanistan; 2) using their Mossad connections; 3)using their Saudi family connections, including Bin Laden, or 4) using their old Iran-Contra connections- Secord, Armitage, Kimche and Khashoggi. The choice will lean towards the final group for five reasons. 1. First, many of the mercenaries hired by Richard Secord and David Kimche fit the travel profile of the suspected hijackers: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Uzbekistan and Dagestan. This was Secord’s and Kimche’s theatre of operations more so than Osama Bin Ladin’s. 2. Second, only the Iran-Contra team could provide a mix of Saudi, Israeli, and Muslim terrorists, with support by US officials, that matched the profile of the hijackers who participated in the attack on the WTC; 3. Third, Adnan Khashoggi is known to have funded the Huffman Flight School in Florida that 11 of the hijackers used to get visas, and funded the Al Qaeda THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 122 mercenaries in Azerbaijan. Another Iran-Contra/Azerbaijan figure - Farhad Azima - is a partner with the US owner of Huffman Aviation, whose name is Wally Hilliard. Hilliard and Azima are both major owners of a small electronics company in California (Spatialight Inc). 4. Fourth, two of the hijackers who had been in the US since the early 1990s are associated with American Commonwealth University, (aka William Lyon University) in San Diego. This diploma mill was set up by General William Lyon (financier for the Swift Boat Veterans in the 2004 Presidential Campaign) largely as a method for applying for education visas to the US. A number of CIA agents are linked to this back door into the US. a. “Still, we are left with the question of why both Bush Jr. and Clinton would hold back disclosure of Saudi funding of terror. I got the first glimpse of an answer from Michael Springmann, who headed up the US State Department's visa bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during the Reagan-Bush Sr. years. "In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. These were, essentially, people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I complained bitterly at the time there." That was Springmann's mistake. He was one of those conscientious midlevel bureaucrats who did not realize that when he filed reports about rules violations he was jeopardizing the cover for a huge multicontinental intelligence operation aimed at the Soviets. Springmann assumed petty thievery: someone was taking bribes, selling visas; so he couldn't understand why his complaints about rulebreakers were "met with silence" at the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.” [Greg Palast Interview by Bruce David, Hustler, On-line] This doorway would only have been known to recruiters like Khashoggi, Armitage and Secord. Adnan Khashoggi (Genesis Aviation) is a business partner with retired General William Lyon (on the Board of Kellstrom Industries, Inc., an Israeli owned company) in a venture called Wings of Democracy, an attempt to penetrate the commercial Iraq air business. 5. Fifth and finally, the Iran-Contra team was and is the “A” team. These operatives have been proven and trustworthy over numerous scandals and illegal operations – never having been caught, and never having broken silence. They were the team that could handle “big ticket” ops, and had a vested interest in protecting the Bank Cartel as well. It is important to recall that it was the Israelis (via Kimche) who originally approached these same people with the plan for preventing President Jimmy Carter’s October Surprise, and illegally selling arms to the Iranians. George Bush Sr. recognized the opportunity as a chance to secure the Presidency for Reagan and Vice Presidency for himself. In this case, the Bush family would recognize the opportunity to use such an event to advance its previously illegal oil industry strategy. (Providing U.S. aid to Azerbaijan was illegal until after 9/11.) There is far more evidence implicating the original Iran-Contra group (which includes the lawmakers and administrators that let them go unpunished.) The scenario is summed up like this: two top German banks closley linked with two Swiss banks, working with four other companies who all benefited immensely from the Nazi looting of German government accounts (Allianz, Thyssen, Krupp and Siemens), THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 123 have purchased major ownership positions of a company formerly owned by a Russian/Israeli Mossad agent (Robert Maxwell), managed by the son-in-law of the Bulgarian Secret Police, and invested in by the KGB and Russian Mafiya. (Now there is one hell of a company picnic!) This group uses its contacts to set up a false flag operation to destroy (murder) its key banking competitors: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase. The Iran-Contra/Azerbaijan recruiters set up a rogue Mossad/false flag operation to attack the WTC, and monitor their recruits closely to ensure the success of the attack. These same rogue agents – barely distinguishable from the Russian Mafiya – capitalize on this knowledge in their own manner by shelling short 38 stocks on the stock market. "Between August 26 and September 11, 2001, a group of speculators, identified by the American Securities and Exchange Commission as Israeli citizens, sold “short” a list of 38 stocks that could reasonably be expected to fall in value as a result of the pending attacks. These speculators operated out of the Toronto, Canada and Frankfurt, Germany, stock exchanges and their profits were specifically stated to be “in the millions of dollars.” [SEC Secret Probe of Stock Dealings Before 9/11] There is a bit of a jump from “Israeli citizens” to “Russian Mafiya” that is made with the presented information. The actual clues which allow this assumption are the trade exchanges used for the suspicious trades. The Toronto Exchange is extremely well known for it’s listing of mining and mineral companies. At the end of 1996, there were about 1400 mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges. The Canadian financial services sector appears to have raised more equity capital for the mineral industry than was raised in Australia, the United States and South Africa combined. These companies are heavily traded by players in gold and diamonds – of which there are more than a few in Israel. These are companies that hone the skills of a speculator. The reality of the Israeli role in the minerals and mining market is that it is dominated by black marketers and Russian Mafiya. These are the folks that ‘trade’ arms for gold and diamonds. These are the distributors for companies such as MultiGroup’s Dynamit Nobel. People such as Shaptai Kalmonovitch or Yair Klein (with ten more identified in Section 11): "Russian-born Shaptai Kalmanovitch and his Israeli-based enterprise, the LIAT construction and Finance Company. While in Sierra Leone, Kalmanovitch brought in other money launderers, drug traffickers and arms dealers, all scrambling to gain access to diamonds. In 1986, Marat Balagula, considered the ‘Godfather’ of Russian mafia in Brooklyn, N.Y., found a safe haven in Sierra Leone and was known to be operating with Kalmanovitch. Balagula was considered one of the initiators of the Antwerp operations of the Russian Mafia. He and Kalmanovitch became involved briefly in the importation to Sierra Leone of gasoline, in a deal reportedly backed by a fugitive American businessman, Marc Rich, and guaranteed by the Luccheses, an old-time American crime family…. Kalmanovitch was reportedly expelled later from the South African ‘homeland’ of Bophutatswana and arrested in Israel, where he stood trial as a spy for the Soviet Union. He was released in 1993 and is currently thought to be living in the Baltic region. A more credible and better organized Israeli company appeared in Sierra Leone soon after Kalmanovitch's arrest. The N.R. SCIPA Group, owned by Nir Guaz (known as ‘The Skipper’), set up diamond buying offices in Freetown and Kenema." [The Heart of the Matter: Sierra Leone, Diamonds & Human Security, Ian Smillie, Lansana Gberie, Ralph Hazleton] "In January 1999, the West African ECOMOG force apprehended an Israeli named Yair Klein attempting to sell helicopter spare parts to the Freetown authorities just after the devastating attack by the RUF on the capital. Klein is a former Israeli military officer. He was (at the time of writing this THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 124 report) facing trial in a Freetown court, accused of spying for the rebels, and supplying them with arms through Liberian networks directly linked to the Liberian President. Klein had been involved in the training of Taylor’s elite fighters and before that, through his company, Spearhead Inc., he worked in Colombia. He is still wanted by Colombian authorities for providing ‘instruction and training in terrorist activities’ to paramilitary and vigilante groups in Colombia’s Magdalena valley region between 1987 and 1989, according to the warrant issued by Colombian judicial authorities for his arrest in February 1994. The trainees later joined the Medellin drug cartel. Freetown authorities say that Klein provided them with information about the RUF’s drug and arms trade, implicating the Liberian president. Curiously, the same informant claimed that Israel has been quietly putting pressure on the authorities to have Klein, a former senior member of the Israeli reserve force, released.' [The Heart of the Matter: Sierre-Leone, Diamonds and Human Security, Ian Smillie, Lansana Gberie, Ralph Hazleton] Here is the perfect win-win scenario for everyone except the victims in the WTC and the citizens of the U.S. The German/Swiss financiers eliminate their competition. The Mossad whips up American public support for the Israeli counter-terrorist assault on Palestine, the Russian/Israeli Mafiya exploits the stock market, and a group of exploited Muslims get to die as martyrs. George Bush and his administration of oil industry executives ignore numerous warnings of the attack because they are expecting a hijacking they think they can both control and leverage as an excuse to further their own aims. These warnings come from the same intelligence groups whose darker side is populated with thugs and criminals. By not stopping the event – the U.S. oil oligarchs conveniently had an excuse to invade Afghanistan and secure their takeover the natural gas and pipeline construction contracts, where previously they had been frozen out of by the Taliban. "The BBC reported that Niaz Niak, a former Pakistan foreign secretary, was told by senior American officials at a meeting in Berlin in mid-July 2001 that 'military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October'. Until July 2001 the US government saw the Taliban regime as a source of stability in Central Asia that would enable the construction of hydrocarbon pipelines from the oil and gas fields in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean. But, confronted with the Taliban's refusal to accept US conditions, the US representatives told them 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs' .... The 9/11 attacks allowed the US to press the 'go' button for a strategy in accordance with the PNAC agenda which it would otherwise have been politically impossible to implement. (It allowed the US to build and control two pipelines, one of which) would extend eastwards through Afghanistan and Pakistan and terminate near the Indian border. This would rescue Enron's beleaguered power plant at Dabhol on India's west coast, in which Enron had sunk $3bn investment and whose economic survival was dependent on access to cheap gas..."[The Guardian, September 6, 2003] "Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.... he said it was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if Bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taleban." ["US planned attack on Taliban," BBC Online, September 18, 2001] In addition to an excuse to invade Afghanistan, the attack on the WTC provided the “Pearl Harbor” catalyst that was envisioned by the tight-knit group of neo-conservative defense analysts (PNAC) as the necessary and sufficient condition to invade Iraq, and then the rest of the Middle East. This invasion was required for the ‘security’ of Israel. The explanation and hypotheses in this report addresses many of the strange information coincidences and contradictions that exist in the world as we know it: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 125 • How is it that Russian, German and Israeli intelligence organizations knew in advance of the attack on the WTC? • How is it that Russian and German financial advisors could forecast such a pinpointed time for a collapse of the dollar, which coincided with an attack on the WTC? • Why would the Israeli secret service – purportedly an ally of the United States – go to such extensive lengths to execute this attack on the WTC and US intelligence agents in Iraq? • How can so much evidence point to Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda without them being the responsible parties? • Why were large investment banks targets of the WTC conspiracy? • How is it that Nazi sympathizers and Israeli patriots could find themselves on the same side of a fight? • Why would the Bush Whitehouse cover-up the warnings it had received? • Why would the Bush Whitehouse attack Iraq, when Saddam had nothing to do with the international terrorists? This hypothetical explanation seems to fit together previously contradictory and inconsistent pieces of information known about the attack. This explanation however, is only the tip of the iceberg. The attack was meant to cover-up far more than moneylaundering and illegal gold trades. It was meant to accomplish far more than cripple American banking competition. It was meant to preserve for its owners the greatest treasure on earth – the stolen national treasuries of the world, and prevent investigators from auditing the bank records leading to that treasure. 5.5 Unplanned Consequences: The Invasion of Iraq Here is the ironic twist in the story. The invasion of Iraq was not part of the original plan of the banking executives that required this attack. This same group that planned and financed the WTC attack had a vested interest in Saddam Hussein staying in power, and keeping the US and Israel out of Iraq. As this report later unveils Adnan Khoshoggi’s involvement in the attack on the WTC, it should be noted that in a meeting arranged by him with Richard Perle (the Whitehouse ‘neocon’ advisor), Khashoggi tried to broker a deal that would prevent the attack on Iraq. The American government ‘nixed’ the deal. “According to both Khashoggi and Zuhair, there were two items on the agenda. The first was to give Zuhair a chance to propose a peaceful alternative to war with Iraq; Khashoggi said that he and Perle knew that such an alternative was far-fetched, but Zuhair had recently returned from a visit to Baghdad, and was eager to talk about it…. Perle, in a series of telephone interviews, acknowledged that he had met with two Saudis at the lunch in Marseilles, but he did not divulge their identities. (At that time, I still didn't know who they were.) "There were two Saudis there," he said. "But there was no discussion of Trireme. It was never mentioned and never discussed." He firmly stated, "The lunch was not about money. It just would never have occurred to me to discuss investments, given the circumstances." Perle added that one of the Saudis had information that Saddam was ready to surrender. "His message was a plea to negotiate THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 126 with Saddam." [Why Was Richard Perle Meeting With Adnan Khashoggi? Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, March 11, 2003] The financial organization behind Total Elf Fina – the major oil company representing European oil interests in Iraq – is inextricably linked to the same old men of Europe than requested the attack on the WTC, and the Russian/Israeli Mafiya that helped execute it. The group that started the series of events that precipitated the Invasion of Iraq wants Iraq for its own. The Mossad wants to keep other intelligence organizations out of its sphere of influence. Hence, it executes American agents. The bankers – whose fortunes are heavily linked to the Euro – want the Iraq oil revenues to use Euros as the reserve currency rather than the dollar. The Russian Mafiya, who has a significant ownership in the Russian oil industry, had the balance of the oil contracts being offered by Saddam that were not taken up by the French Total Elf Fina interests. The Bush White House needed to invade Iraq, not so much for the oil – but to prevent the further erosion of the value of the dollar – which was heightened by the attack on the WTC, the American banking system, and the American economy. This attack was discussed in the very first National Security Agency meeting held by President Bush on January 31, 2001, and planned long before the attack on the WTC, the attack on Afghanistan, and the warnings from foreign intelligence. The following memo has been released from White House archives, and shows WhiteHouse planning in regards to Iraq starting as early as January 2001. (As a side note, when inspecting the document it is an amazing point of interest that the NSA was using a briefing from the Deutschebank to help create the Bush administration policy for Iraq.) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 127 “I got the document here, on the website about Ron Suskind's book about Paul O'Neill, The Price of Loyalty. It is the agenda for President Bush's first National Security Council meeting. The agenda is stamped "January 31, 2001." That was less than two weeks after the inauguration. The purpose of the meeting was "To review the current state-of-play (including a CIA briefing on Iraq) and to examine policy questions on how to proceed." The third item on the agenda: "Tab C: Executive Summary: Political-Military Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq Crisis." This indicates that the Bush administration thought that planning for Post-Saddam Iraq was the most important security issue they faced. Why else would it be the topic at the very first NSC meeting? It would be a matter of interest to see what conclusions they reached "on how to proceed," but that remains secret information.” [Question: What is this, and why is it important? trots.blogspot.com, Sunday, May 29, 2005] Morevover, the attack on Iraq was part of a larger strategy, as later related by four star General Wesley Clark in his 2006 book, Winning Modern Wars: "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan." [The Secrets Clark Kept: What the General Never Told Us About the Bush Plan for Serial War, Sydney H. Schanberg, The Village Voice, September 29, 2003] Saddam Hussein threatened to break the US stranglehold on the oil market, which required US Dollars as the reserve currency for trading oil. If he had been successful, the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 128 value of the dollar would have dropped precipitously. Bush had to prevent that, and create a managed decline. Whether deliberate or not, by invading Iraq, Bush parried the financial attack on the US economy created by the attack on the World Trade Center. This may have been the issue that put George Bush in alignment with the PNAC, whereas he had not been earlier. It is fair to conclude that just as the Bush ‘machine’ was used by the German Bank Cartel in their attack on America, so was the German plan turned against themselves, when the attack was used to deny them the benefits of their investments in Iraq. There is testimony and documentation that Bush planned the attack on Iraq before September 11. There is evidence he planned the attack on Afghanistan before September 11. The Bush administration avoided opportunities in both instances which would have made the attacks unnecessary. In both instances, he used the attack on the World Trade Center as an excuse for attacking countries he planned to invade before the attack on the World Trade Center. He was advised of the plan to attack the World Trade Center by the intelligence agencies of foreign governments, yet he did nothing. In fact, some would argue that his government took actions that made it difficult to respond to an aerial attack. Who “used” who in this conspiracy is debatable? Did the Germans use Bush, or vice versa? Did the Israelis use both? Most certainly. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 129 6 Destruction of the World Trade Center Since September 11, 2001, there has been an undercurrent of testimony that the collapse of the WTC Towers was preceded by a series of explosions inside the towers, which appeared to those fleeing as totally unrelated to the holocaust created on the upper floors by the jet airliners. To a very large degree, those statements have been “sealed” by the FBI along with statements by the NY Fire Department and rescue workers. That information will never see the light of day for the next twenty years. There are however, ten sets of publicly available information which strongly suggest other explosions occurred in conjunction with the airline attacks on the WTC: 1 Public knowledge of numerous eyewitness statements that there were multiple explosions. No one ever expected these statements to be sealed and kept off the record, but everyone knows multiple statements were made. Some witnesses have gone public: “A second WTC maintenance worker has now come forward with eye-witness testimony that a massive explosion erupted in the lower levels of the north tower at approximately the same time the jetliner struck the tower’s top floors. Jose Sanchez, 45, of New Jersey in a never-released tape recorded statement made in early 2002 to William Rodriguez, the first WTC maintenance man to claim a bomb exploded in the north tower basement, said he heard what sounded like a “huge bomb,” causing lights to flicker on and off, while he worked in a small sub-level 4 workshop.” [2nd Janitor Comes Forward With Testimony About Bombs In Towers, Greg Szymanski, July 12, 2005, www.politicalsoundoff.com] “Louie Cacchioli, 51, told People Weekly on Sept. 24: "I was taking firefighters up in the elevator to the 24th floor to get in position to evacuate workers. On the last trip up a bomb went off. We think there were bombs set in the building." Auxiliary Lieutenant Fireman and former Auxiliary Police Officer, Paul Isaac Jr. “many other firemen know there were bombs in the buildings, but they’re afraid for their jobs to admit it because the ‘higher-ups’ forbid discussion of this fact.” Paul further elaborated that former CIA director Robert Woolsey, as the Fire Department’s Anti-terrorism Consultant, is sending a gag order down the ranks. “There were definitely bombs in those buildings.” [“Bombs in the Building: World Trade Center ‘Conspiracy Theory’ is a Conspiracy Fact,” Randy Lavello, PrisonPlanet.com] “Jim Marrs, an award-winning journalist and author on the New York Times bestseller list, relays these words from Ross Milanytch, who stared in horror from the 22nd floor of a building near the WTC: “I saw small explosions on each floor.” (Source: The War on Freedom: The 9/11 Conspiracies) Likewise, Teresa Veliz, a facilities manager who fled from the 47th floor of the North Tower, described the scene as she made it down to street level: “There were explosions going off everywhere. I was convinced that there were bombs planted all over the place and someone was sitting at a control panel pushing detonator buttons.” (Source: September 11: An Oral History by Dean E. Murphy – Doubleday Books, 2002) Phillip Morelli, a construction worker, told reporters at a New York television station (NY1 News) that on the morning of 9-11 when the North Tower was struck, he was thrust to the ground by two explosions in the fourth sub-basement. Somewhat later, another explosion (which made the walls explode) once again THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 130 hurled him to the ground. Morelli then exited that building and went inside the South Tower’s subbasement, where once again he felt the same type of underground explosions. “Chief Engineer magazine also ran an article in their We Will Never Forget commemorative issue on those who were eyewitnesses to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. One of these men was Stationary Engineer Mike Pecoraro, who worked in the WTCs second sub-basement. After hearing some loud explosions, they ventured to a machine shop and found, much to their amazement, “There was nothing there but rubble. We’re talking about a 50-ton hydraulic press – gone!” Pecoraro then went on to say that “he was convinced a bomb had gone off in the building.” [Bombs in the World Trade Center, Victor Thorn, Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.] 2. The reference to the possibility of planting explosives in the building should draw attention to an internet posting by an IT worker from that Tower: "On the weekend of 9/8, 9/9 there was a 'power down' condition in WTC tower 2, the south tower. This power down condition meant there was no electrical supply for approx 36 hrs from floor 50 up. I am aware of this situation since I work in IT and had to work with many others that weekend to ensure that all systems were cleanly shutdown beforehand ... and then brought back up afterwards. The reason given by the WTC for the power down was that cabling in the tower was being upgraded. "Of course without power there were no security cameras, no security locks on doors and many, many 'engineers' coming in and out of the tower. I was at home on the morning of 9/11 on the shore of Jersey City, right opposite the Towers, and watching events unfold I was convinced immediately that something was happening related to the weekend work."[San Francisco Indymedia, Allen Aslan Heart, April 23, 2004 © 2004] In a similar vein, other suspicious work on the WTC was reported after the fact: “A photo ID pass for Sept. 5 found on one of the men charged with fraudulently obtaining a Tennessee driver's license from a Memphis woman gave him access to the six underground levels of the One World Center building. But which tenant hired Sakher 'Rocky' Hammad, 24, to work on its sprinklers is lost, said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Alan Hicks on Friday. Hammad told federal authorities that he was working on the sprinklers six days before the twin towers were brought down by terrorists, court testimony revealed this week. But Hicks said the Port Authority, which owned the building, did its own sprinkler work, and that any other work involving sprinklers would have been arranged by an individual tenant. "We don't know (which one) because all our records were destroyed in the World Trade Center, as were some of the people who know that," Hicks said. [License Suspect Had WTC Repair Pass, But Port Authority Did its Own Work, GoMemphis, Bartholomew Sullivan, February 16, 2002] The September 5th date is important, because that is the day after the WTC bombsniffing dogs were removed from service, without reason. "The World Trade Center was destroyed just days after a heightened security alert was lifted at the landmark 110-story towers, security personnel said yesterday. Daria Coard, 37, a guard at Tower One, said the security detail had been working 12-hour shifts for the past two weeks because of numerous phone threats. But on Thursday, (Sept 4) bomb-sniffing dogs were abruptly removed. "Today was the first day there was not the extra security," Coard said. "We were protecting below. We had the ground covered. We didn't figure they would do it with planes. There is no way anyone could have stopped that.” [Heightened Security Alert Had Just Been Lifted, Curtis L. Taylor and Sean Gardiner, September 12, 2001] Also reported in the world of coincidences, the woman (Katherine Smith) who provided the false ID to Rocky Hammad was killed in a bizarre auto accident the day before she THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 131 was to testify in court about her role in the fake IDs. A suicide note was found, but the FBI determined that gasoline was poured on her clothes before she died. [AP, 2/13/2002, Reuters, 2/15/2002] In most news reports, this was left to the world of intriguing coincidence. Once again, the general reports have not emphasized certain pieces of information because they are inconvenient to the common perspective. Further investigation into the facts indicates that Katherine Smith was also the witness of record into a trial of individuals providing false identification to two of the hijackers. She was killed before being able to testify in this trial as well. The middle-man between Rocky Hammad and Katherine Smith who procured the false identification was Khaled Odtllah. Odtallah had come to the US from Jerusalem, Israel where his wife, son and ten siblings still live. Katherine Smith was murdered in his car. While Rocky Hammad is generally reported to be from Jordan, his mother lives in Gaza, Israel and his father in New York City, under a name other than Hammad. Hammad’s employment letter which covered his access to the WTC was from Denko Mechanical, Ltd. This company is actually a small shop run by Sergie Dimitry Davidenko, who has disappeared since 9/11. Research on his name indicates he is most likely a proficient ham radio operator, Ukrainian, and an ‘applied mathematician’ – whose work is referenced by at least two recent articles on missile test systems. Later on, when evidence is presented that the planes which flew into the WTC towers were guided by radio guidance systems, the involvement and disappearance of man with these skills becomes increasingly suspect. The link between the work on the sprinkler system and the attack on the WTC becomes even more compelling when one realizes that a major component of that system – a 5,000 gallon water tank – was located on one of the floors of the South Tower struck by the attacking jet. The appropriate suggestion is that Rocky Hammad was given access to plant signal transmitters in the utility room that held the water tanks, and the jets were guided into their targets by this signal. (This information is elaborated in Section 6.6.). Another intriguing hypothetical possibility is that Hammad – if working on the sprinkler system in the basement – may have been creating a “poor man’s nuclear bomb,” in which a liquid combustionable agent (such as 50,000 gallons of fuel oil) is vaporized (with a sprinkler system) and ignited. This might possibly explain the disappearance of that 50 ton hydraulic press, or a nuclear like explosion in the basement of the towers. Similary, there are other references to the possibilities of explosives being planted. The recovery of a MSNBC newscast from the morning of September 11, 2001, which was either totally overlooked by the investigating commission, or purposely buried (until recent discovery). “MSNBC news anchor Rick Sanchez on the morning of September 11th 2001…’Police have found what they believe to be a suspicious device and they fear that it may lead to another explosion….I spoke with some police officials moments ago, Chris, and they told me they have reason to believe that one of the explosion at the (WTC) besides the ones made with the planes, may have been caused by a van that was parked on the building that may have had an explosive device in it.” [Police Found Suspected Bombs In WTC On 9/11, Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet, December 5, 2005] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 132 3 The investigating government agencies have difficulty in explaining how the towers collapsed. The WTC towers were designed to withstand a direct hit from a Boeing airliner, as testified to by the architect. There is at least one demolition expert who stated in the press that the collapse of the buildings looked controlled, but later mysteriously and without explanation recanted that opinion after being visited by the FBI. Even the FEMA report suggests the only possibility it could find for the ignition of the huge diesel fuel tank under Building 7 was statistically improbable, if not impossible. 4 An official letter from Underwriter Laboratories to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, saying the government’s official stance on why the buildings collapsed has no merit. “We know that the steel components were certified to ASTM E119. The time temperature curves for this standard require the samples to be exposed to temperatures around 2000F for several hours. And as we all agree, the steel applied met those specifications. Additionally, I think we can all agree that even un-fireproofed steel will not melt until reaching red-hot temperatures of nearly 3000F (2). Why Dr. Brown would imply that 2000F would melt the high-grade steel used in those buildings makes no sense at all. …Your comments suggest that the steel was probably exposed to temperatures of only about 500F (250C), which is what one might expect from a thermodynamic analysis of the situation. However the summary of the new NIST report seems to ignore your findings, as it suggests that these low temperatures caused exposed bits of the building’s steel core to "soften and buckle." (5) Additionally this summary states that the perimeter columns softened, yet your findings make clear that "most perimeter panels (157 of 160) saw no temperature above 250C."…. This story just does not add up.” [The collapse of the WTC, Kevin Ryan, Underwriters Laboratories, November 11, 2004] The issue of the jet fuel causing the steel infrastructure to melt is a hypothesis offered by the government that does not appear to have merit. As a secondary line of evidence on this issue, please refer to the following: “One worker who had tunneled into the debris said he had found the remains of people strapped into what seemed to be airplane seats. Another, in one of the most searing discoveries among the ruins, found the body of a flight attendant, her hands bound.” [The Trade Center, Heart-Rending Discoveries as Digging Continues in Lower Manhattan, Susan Sachs, The New York Times September 15, 2001] It is difficult to imagine that an explosion creating temperatures hotter than a blast furnace would leave these types of remains. 5 Seismographic recording of the incidents, which suggests there were at least two subsequent explosions, and possibly three, after the planes hit the towers. At 9:06, three minutes after the second attack, there is a reading which exceeds the norm and equals the magnitude of the first two impacts. There are also readings which suggest smaller explosions consistent with the timing reported for the devastation on Floor 22 of the North Tower, approximately 9:07. Prior to the collapse of Towers 1 and 2 and Building 7, there are very sizeable explosions, accompanied by eye-witness testimony, of explosions in the basements of those towers; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 133 6 Analysis of videotape of the collapse of the South Tower, which shows clouds of dust and smoke blowing out from floors in a nonsequential manner, which would be inconsistent with a theory of floors collapsing sequentially. “The evidence showing that the World Trade Center towers were demolished is compelling. Here are a few photos of explosives detonating during the collapse of the South Tower. Each frame is numbered by its position in the video. The video was shot at 30 frames per second. So an eight frame interval covers about one quarter of a second. Frame 147 shows a row of explosives detonating right across the east face at the 79th floor. Frame 203 shows a row of explosives detonating right across the east face at the 75th floor. It has been claimed that the explosions of dust that span the east face of the tower, were caused by air being forced from the windows as each of the floors above collapsed. This explanation is obviously incorrect. If it was correct, such lines of dust would have been expelled from the windows of each floor in succession. That is, we would have seen such lines of dust expelled from floors 79, 78, 77, 76 and 75 in succession, but what we observe is an explosion of dust at floor 79, no new clouds of dust for a few floors, then another explosion of dust at floor 75. “It is worth noting that the second line of (much larger) explosions occur at the center of a section of mechanical floors (the three mechanical floors appear as a slightly darker gray band across the building and are important for the strength they impart to the building). It is possible that the mechanical floors 76 and 75 (and also 74) have no windows, but of course, if this is so, it raises many more questions than it answers. In particular, if the mechanical floors have no windows, then the explosions of dust from floor 75 cannot be caused by air being forced from them as the floors above collapsed. There should have been dust from the windows on floors 78, 77, 76, 74, 73 etc. ……. it would be feasible to gain covert access to the mechanical floors of the WTC to plant demolition charges. Even the 79th floor could be reached via the elevator shafts at the core of the building. Since the World Trade Center is a series of floors suspended from the core and stabilized by the external columns, it should only be necessary to rig the demolition charges where the floor supports connect to the core columns. The dust due to the visible explosions is a whitish grey. The dust from the demolition of the upper section (which is disintegrating as it falls) is dark grey. One wonders what caused this difference." [http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/DemolitionWTC.htm] 7 Video tape evidence recorded on-site at the WTC by a rescuing fireman: “When the above-noted fire crew and cameraman Jules Naudet arrived at WTC's tower one along with other fire crews and entered the building's ground floor lobby, they were to a one completely puzzled -- actually astonished -- to find SIGNIFICANT and widespread damage to the entire lobby area; although NOT of a deep, structural kind. Moreover, NOWHERE was there ANY indication whatsoever of an incendiary-type explosion or ANY kind of fire in this area. Yet the incredible number of blown-out windows and other extensive though rather superficial damage throughout the lobby area was profoundly perplexing to these EXPERIENCED professional firefighters in relation to the impact of the plane eighty stories above. As one put it: "The lobby looked like the plane hit the lobby!" But it DIDN'T: it hit EIGHTY STORIES ABOVE. There is NO WAY the impact of the jet caused such widespread damage eighty stories below. [www.apfn.org] 8 The pattern of casualties in the Towers reinforces the theory that there were explosives set at lower levels of the building, especially in the vicinity of floors 23 and 24 of the North Tower (Tower 1). In the following charts, the casualties are summarized by company, and then by the building and floor those companies were THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 134 associated with. The remarkable aspect of those tables is that in addition to the widespread devastation of the top floors one would expect, one also unexpectedly finds significant clusters of casualties in the vicinity of the 23rd and 24th floor of Tower 1, and the 10th – 12th floors in Tower 2. These two clusters, as well casualties from two companies in the basement are consistent with reports of explosions from within lower levels of the Towers, and from the basement. World Trade Center: Deaths by Building Total World Trade Center Deaths Tower 1 1275 Tower 2 490 1 Liberty Plaza 11 2 World Financial 4 3 World Financial 6 Building 4 2 Building 5 3 Building7 7 Total WTC Employees 1798 Non Employees 731 2529 Other Buildings: Deaths by Company and Floor Company Reported Deaths Floor Building Genuity 3 20 1 Liberty Plaza Zurich American Insurance 4 21,28,53 1 Liberty Plaza Compaq 4 27 1 Liberty Plaza Merrill Lynch 3 Unknown 2 World Financial Nomura Research Institute Ltd. 1 Unknown 2 World Financial American Express 5 1,2,22,23,30-51 3 World Financial Marriott World Trade Center Hotel 1 3 World Financial New York State Supreme Court 2 8 Bldg 5 Deutsche Bank 2 4,5,6 Bldg 4 Credit SuisseFirst Boston 1 7,8,9 Bldg 5 Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. 1 22 Bldg 7 Internal Revenue Service 1 24,25 Bldg 7 American Express 5 7,8,13 Bldg 7 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 135 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 136 Tower One: Deaths by Company/Floor Company Reported Deaths Floor Building CBS 2 110 Tower 1 Bronx Builders 5 107 Tower 1 Risk Waters Group 17 106 Tower 1 Windows on the World 72 106 Tower 1 Cantor Fitzgerald 661 101-105 Tower 1 Nishi-Nippon Bank 2 102 Tower 1 Kidder Peabody-Paine Webber 2 101 Tower 1 Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. 281 93-100 Tower 1 Fred Alger Management 35 93 Tower 1 Carr Futures 69 92 Tower 1 Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. 2 89 Tower 1 May Davis Group 1 87 Tower 1 Julien J. Studley Inc. 2 86 Tower 1 LG Insurance Co. 1 84 Tower 1 General Telecom 13 83 Tower 1 Bank of America 3 81,9-11 Tower 1 First Liberty Investment Group 1 79 Tower 1 International Office Centers 2 79 Tower 1 Alliance Consulting 7 77 Tower 1 World Trade Center 2 77 Tower 1 subtotal for floors 77-110 1180 Sidley Austin Brown & Wood 1 54, 56-59 Tower 1 Hill International 1 52 Tower 1 Rohde & Liesenfeld 2 32 Tower 1 Empire Health 11 17,19,20,23,24, 27-31 Tower 1 Lehman Brothers 1 2,4-21,24- 26,29* Tower 1 Port Authority of NY and NJ 76 3,14,19,24,28,3 1 Tower 1 Garban Intercapital 1 25,26 Tower 1 Instinet (Reuters) 4 13,14 Tower 1 subtotal for floors 32 and below 95 Tower 1 Total 1275 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 137 Tower Two: Deaths By Company/Floor Company Reported Deaths Floor Building Sandler O'Neill & Partners 67 104 Tower 2 Aon Corp. 170 92,99,100 Tower 2 Fiduciary Trust International 78 90,94-97 Tower 2 Regus 5 93 Tower 2 Washington Group International 13 22, 91st Tower2 New York State Department of Taxation and Finance 39 86,87 Tower 2 Harris Beach LLP 5 85 Tower 2 Euro Brokers Inc. 60 12, 84 Tower 2 Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Co. 2 83 Tower 2 IQ Financial Systems 3 83 Tower 2 Fuji Bank 15 79-82 Tower 2 First Commercial Bank 1 78 Tower 2 Baseline Financial Services 4 77-78 Tower 2 Morgan Stanley 9 43-46,56,59-74 Tower 2 Seabury & Smith Co. 1 49 Tower 2 Lee Hecht Harrison 1 21 Tower 2 The Westfield Group 1 17 Tower 2 Verizon 2 LL,9-12 Tower 2 Deloitte Consulting 1 10 Tower 2 Summit Security Services 11 B2 Tower 2 Xerox Corp. 2 BSMT Tower 2 Tower 2 Total 490 The above charts were calculated from the CNN final list of causalities. The chart on the following page, from USAToday, seems to be a gross miscalculation, but is presented as the only other attempt to look at casualties in this manner. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 138 USA Today List of Deaths by Floor North- Tower 1 Floors South- Tower 2 203 106-110 30 744 101-105 148 Plane struck 93rd to 192 96-100 92 98th 221 92-95 102 6 86-90 105 20 81-85 92 9 76-80 26 Plane struck 78th to 84th 2 71-75 1 5 66-70 1 6 61-65 1 1 56-60 1 0 51-55 0 4 46-50 0 0 41-45 0 3 36-40 0 4 31-35 0 8 26-30 0 0 21-25 0 1 16-20 0 0 11-15 0 2 6-10 0 1 1-5 0 1432 599 [http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/12/19/usatcov-wtcsurvival.htm Special Report: World Trade Center , Interactive graphic: For thousands, a sealed fate] http://www.capnhq.gov/nhq/capnews/02-01/feats.htm 9 Testimony from a small rescue team, (with a great deal of corroborating testimony) that ventured onto the 22nd floor of Tower 1 prior to the collapse of the tower. “The 48 Hours anchor was interviewing the Head of Security of the WTC about the evacuation who had received a call, after the South tower was down, from the Port Authority's Command Center on the 22nd floor asking for rescue. The Head of Security himself traveled to that floor in the company of a NY Fireman where they found the offices devastated to the point where they had to "tunnel through debris" to "dig out" the two or three Port Authority workers who were trapped there. All of this happened 73 floors below crash bombing impact.” [Dick Eastman, 223 S. 64th Ave, Yakima, Washington] It is with the realization that explosives were planted in the Towers, and that they were targeted at certain floors, that the deeper motives for this crime become apparent. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 139 6.1 The Link between the WTC, Illegal Gold and Money Laundering The first nine pieces of information only lend credence to the tenth data point, which is where the interest needs to focus. The testimony comes from the Security Manager - George Tabeek - who was accompanied by a fireman -Andy Desperito - during a reported rescue effort on the 22nd floor. The two had reported via radio a massive amount of debris they had to crawl over and through during the course of their search. The conclusion of this effort was that the debris came from above the 22nd floor, i.e., the 24th and 23rd floors. There is significant corroborating testimony for this. There is additional information which suggests that these floors were inhabited by the FBI, and used to store their records regarding the investigations into an alleged, international gold price-fixing scheme and international drug money-laundering. Two witnesses document the presence of FBI agents in the vicinity of the alleged explosion. The co-location of these records should not be viewed as co-incidental. This report later argues that the alleged gold price-fixing scheme was in fact a gold laundering scheme. “The contention that the destruction of the WTC was used to destroy evidence contained on the 23rd and 24th floors of the North Tower is now incontrovertible. …Here is evidence supplied by the Head of Security of the World Trade Center on network television indicating that the floors used by the FBI (22nd, 23rd and 24th floors) of the North Tower -- 70 floors below the crash-bombing impact -- had been devastated and reduced to debris. This same Head of Security himself dug through the debris to save persons who were trapped there. It was on these floors that the evidence and investigation briefs on two highly important cases were being stored: 1) The case against Mobil Oil and James Giffen on illegal oil swaps between Iran and Kazakhstan (at that time before a New York grand jury as described in great detail by Seymour Hersh in the July 9 New Yorker magazine); 2) The evidence in the investigation of Gold Price Fixing which stemmed from charges brought against Alan Greenspan, Morgan & Company and Goldman Sachs At noon I received a phone call from New England from Steve. He was reviewing recorded footage of coverage of the destruction of the WTC on NBC's program "48 Hours." Steve has reviewed the footage many times and taken detailed notes. I took notes at my computer as he spoke. After the south tower collapsed, men went up to the 22nd floor of the WTC and "dug" someone out of the "rubble" he found there. It is known that these floors contained the New York FBI offices. Peter Jennings actually did a two-day network news story on the effects of the destroyed evidence and files on American financial crime investigations around the world. The 48 Hours anchor was interviewing the Head of Security of the WTC about the evacuation. He had received a call, after the South Tower was down, from the Port Authority's Command Center on the 22nd floor asking for rescue. The Head of Security himself traveled to that floor in the company of a NY Fireman where they found the offices devastated to the point that they had to "tunnel through debris" to "dig out" the two or three Port Authority workers who were trapped there. All of this happened 73 floors below crashbombing impact.” [WTC Attack Destroyed Criminal Evidence , Dick Eastman, http://www.conspiracyplanet.com, 10/26/2001] Eastman’s report is substantiated by other reports from CBS News and an individual chronicler of events. These reports suggest that while one drama unfolded throughout the WTC conplex, another drama was unfolding on the 22nd Floor of the North Tower. "... George Tabeek, who was the Trade Center's security manager... got a call that three Port Authority workers were trapped in a command center on the 22nd floor. He informed a fire battalion chief that he was going up to rescue them. The chief assigned a group of firefighters, led by Lt. Andy Desperito. The men walked up to the 22nd floor. Tabeek didn’t know that a second jet had just struck Tower 2. When they reached the 22d floor of Tower 1, Desperito and his men tunneled through the debris and THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 140 opened up a path for those trapped inside. ..."[http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,315156- 412,00.shtml ] "...we hit a major bottleneck as we got close to the 24th. In fact, we came to a total standstill. I could see that the holdup was due to the fact that people from the 24th were trying to make their escape into the stairwell too. White smoke seeped in slowly through the open door, and it was getting harder to breathe in there by the minute. I looked around at the pure concrete surrounding us. God, we've got to get the hell out of here... if this place caves, we're in big trouble. I was counting the minutes. When we finally got to the door at the 24th, two women were holding the door open and screaming as they looked down the hall. Morbid curiosity got the best of me. I peeked my head through the door and saw that ceiling had caved in from the above floors. It looked like a tornado had come through the place. [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PASCDiscuss/message/7,"From: [email protected], "Date: Mon Sep 17, 2001 5:25 pm , "Subject: Personal Account] Moreover, it was reported that there were two FBI agents in that area and on Floor 22 of the North Tower until the end. This reinforces the argument there was a “secreted” FBI office in that vicinity. "An FBI agent told Mr. Cho his job was done that he too needed to escape. Pumping with adrenaline, Mr. Cho ignored the warning. Instead, he helped the agent clear floors. Then, at 9.50am, the south tower collapsed, taking thousands with it. When the FBI agent received a call saying their tower (North) would soon also fall, Mr. Cho joined the mad rush down the final 20 flights.... [http://special.scmp.com/aua/ZZZQTXCVJRC.html] "Sometime around 9:30 I noticed the pedestrian traffic slowing down and decided it was time to get to the SCC. I managed to climb the 22 flights of stairs with only two short breaks and arrived at the 22nd floor about 9:45. I thought that was pretty good for a 67-year-old "geezer." A few fire fighters were there to challenge my presence, and then helped me move more of the debris away from the door and assist me in getting to the sally port without falling through the now-open elevator shaft. Evidently, this wall had exploded into the corridor and was the stuff that had blocked the staff from exiting the SCC. When I got into the SCC, I found several of my co-workers, including George Tabeek (manager of security operations), Tom Comerford (information services project manager - system), Fire Lt. Andy Desperito (who later died when the North Tower collapsed), an unidentified FBI agent and my SCC staff. We all conferred on the status of the SCC, the two towers, and the various security and building management systems." [http://www.capnhq.gov/nhq/capnews/02-01/feats.htm] The pattern of increased death in the vicinity also reinforces Eastman’s contention that area was “targeted.” In the vicinity of the blast was Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a company that lost eleven people: nine employees and two consultants. They have no explanation for the deaths. “At Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, nine employees and two consultants died. Some deaths are understood: One man, for example, stayed on the 27th floor with a disabled friend; both died. Other deaths remain a mystery. "We suspect some were in elevators" when the plane hit, vice president Deborah Bohren said. "But we don't really know." [World Trade Center Locked Stairwells/Evacuation Problems, Accumulating Comments on…. (c) 2001, Mike Barkley] Similarly, Summit Security Services, Inc., reported to be headquartered in the basement of the South Tower also was reported to have an office on the 22nd floor of the North Tower, with a number of employees working in that command center rather than the basement. They lost 11 employees in the blast. [Nico Haupt on WTC "Security Connections".2004, 9/11research in NYC, THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 141 http://sync.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=169 x2228] Whatever happened on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th floor is clearly a mystery. At one level, there is confirmed and inexplicable death and extraordinary destruction. At another level, we find deception and inconsistency. There are at least three mysteries: 1. What happened on the 22nd Floor Command Center? As the WTC drama unfolded, CBS was reporting a “rescue mission” was happening on the 22nd floor of the North Tower. In a related Internet journal, a firefighter’s interview suggests there might not have been the rescue previously described by CBS news: “So we started up the stairs. We’d go up six stories and then we’d rest, our third rest was gonna be on the 22nd floor, we get up to the 22nd floor, our lieutenants had heard that there was some sort of command center on that floor and they wanted to go see what was going on and what we were gonna do when we got up a little higher or if they even had a destination for us. But we were told in the lobby, get up as high as you can. So I guess they were gonna play it by ear and see what happened you know as we got up, as things progressed. At that time the two officers went away to try to talk to somebody at the command station where at the end of the hall there was a partial collapse that came out of the elevator shaft, so they had to climb through some rubble to get to where that command center was.” [Interviews and introduction, Fire Department of New York Firehouse 16-7. 234 East 29th Street, Manhattan. Edward Helmore, September 11, 2001] The revelation which suggests a rescue was not required is that two officers were not so much on a rescue as they were going “to talk to somebody” at a previously undisclosed Port Authority “command center,” and that they went alone – leaving the firefighters behind. This observation is supported by other testimony, where Tabeek is seen standing and conversing for an extended period on the 22nd floor by someone who arrives at 9:45. Tabeek arrived at the 22nd floor just as the South Tower was being hit (9:02). At about 9:45, he is seen standing and talking with an FBI agent and the Information Technology Manager. The South Tower collapses at 9:59, and Tabeek is still there: "...the bomb resistance, bullet proof glass put in the Security Control Center on the south wall of the 22nd floor of One World Trade Center months earlier withstood the blast of Two World Trade Center coming down immediately outside those windows. Undoubtedly this saved my life and the lives of at least seven others in the room with me." [George Tabeek, Eulogy for Douglas G. Karpiloff] The reason for standing in one place and having a “meeting” for nearly an hour, while everyone else is evacuating, and the building is burning, remains a significant mystery. The contention that there may not have been a rescue is also suggested by Alan Reiss, who reported that the occupants of the command center freed themselves from the inside of the control room, rather than requiring rescue! "The ceiling came down and some of the walls and we realized we were trapped," says Reiss, who thought he might die. "But I wasn't gonna give up that easy. There was two or three feet of debris in front of this heavy, bulletproof door." Reiss and others used an ax to push the door open, and then ran THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 142 through the clouds of dust. Says Greene: "It just completely engulfed the north tower where I was and I started crawling." [Port Authority Heroes: Part 2, CBS News, New York, October 19, 2001] Here is where the mystery and questions begin. Tabeek, who supposedly received a call for help, volunteered to go on a rescue mission that apparently didn’t need to happen. He was given resources to assist in the rescue that he did not need, and which he left behind. The one resource (Desperito) that continued on the mission with him did not return. There are conflicting stories about how Desperito died. Tabeek testified that he was with Desperito when he died, that he died when the South Tower collapsed, and that he was in the control room during the collapse of the South Tower. Tabeek also reports that seven others plus him survived when the South Tower collapsed because of the hardened glass in the command center. However, the “67 year old geezer” testified that Desperito died later, and Tabeek elsewhere testifies that Desperito and he were elsewhere when the South Tower collapsed! Moreover, Tabeek would later change his story so that Deperito died on the West Street “overpass” rather than on the 22nd floor. From Tabeek’s story below, one might also come to the conclusion that he feigns sincerity “too much.” “Security Manager George Tabeek and Firefighter Andy Desperito were continuing to rescue others. They raced into an overpass above West Street, just as the second tower began to collapse. "All of a sudden, all hell broke loose," says Tabeek. "We got hit with debris, couldn't see. I couldn't get air. I was choking. He was there one second. Next second, he was gone from my side or from behind me." Tabeek held onto a column while debris rained down on him: "It kept building up on me when it was coming down, almost up to my shoulder blades. And I kept pushing it off. All of a sudden, everything just stopped. Dead silence. I got hit with a blast of heat and I got burnt on my face and my hand." Shaking free of the rubble, he looked everywhere for the firefighter who'd been at his side for the past hour. Desperito was nowhere to be found. "I started calling, 'Andy, Andy. Where are you? Tell me where you are. Let me help you. Where are you?'" says Tabeek. Desperito, 44, died on that overpass. He was married with three children.” [Port Authority Heroes: Part 2, CBS News New York, Oct. 19, 2001] Evidence suggests that the mission involved an FBI office that was targeted for destruction. Desperito was an ‘expert’ witness to that destruction. He died standing next to the person who had to be involved in authorizing the removal of the bomb-sniffing dogs, and the approvals required for turning off the sprinkler systems for repair work by Rocky Hammad. There are no witnesses to his death other than Tabeek. Another potential witness (Cho) who stopped to help the FBI ‘pick up’ was told to leave. The floors officially reported to be occupied by the Port Authority do not include the 22nd floor. There is a report of an FBI agent ‘clearing the floor’ in an area where there are no reported FBI offices, and there is another report of an FBI agent seen on the 22nd Floor. Nine minutes before the Tower collapses, the FBI receives an advisory call that the Tower was about to come down! Who knew that? 2. Why was the FBI center hardened, while the rest of the building was not? The FBI facility had been recently upgraded with additional security to protect itself from just such a terrorist attack. The 22nd floor was a hardened, bomb-proof, highly secured computer center, which seems consistent with Dick Eastman’s claim that this location THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 143 was used for storing files and evidence. There is probably every reason to believe these files were backed-up in an off-site facility, and are available yet today. "Security guard Hermina Jones said officials had recently taken steps to secure the towers against aerial attacks by installing bullet proof windows and fireproof doors in the 22nd-floor computer command center. “[Heightened Security Alert Had Just Been Lifted, Curtis L. Taylor and Sean Gardiner, September 12, 2001] As to why the facility had been upgraded, one discovers the FBI was planning for such an attack. “Alan Reiss, former director WTC and Bernard Kerik both testified, that they knew ex-FBI anti terror chief John O'Neill, who told them that there would be a pending attack on the Twin Towers. In fact, Larry Silverstein hired O'Neill (on behalf of Jerome Hauer, ex-OEM.)” [INN World Report Panel Round 11: Updates incl. tripod, May 19, 2004] 3. Why had bomb-sniffing dogs been removed between September 5th and 10th? Adding to the mystery however, just in time to miss the crews from a weekend power shutdown and sprinkler system repair, the bomb-sniffing dogs were removed on September 5th. "The World Trade Center was destroyed just days after a heightened security alert was lifted at the landmark 110-story towers, security personnel said yesterday. Daria Coard, 37, a guard at Tower One, said the security detail had been working 12-hour shifts for the past two weeks because of numerous phone threats. But on Thursday, bomb-sniffing dogs were abruptly removed. "Today was the first day there was not the extra security," Coard said. "We were protecting below. We had the ground covered. We didn't figure they would do it with planes. There is no way anyone could have stopped that.” [Heightened Security Alert Had Just Been Lifted, Curtis L. Taylor and Sean Gardiner, September 12, 2001] There is testimony that on the day of the attack, the dogs had been re-instated and were present. The question remains – why were they removed for the weekend? In an eerie manner, the ad hoc internet testimonials and death notices from that day support the argument that bombers targeted that section of the North Tower to destroy FBI files. There were strange activities associated with those floors. There was an extremely high death count for these floors some fifty stories below the attack. If the security protection against bombs was removed, one cannot say for certainty there were no bombs. If the facility was hardened to protect against an attack from the outside, the destruction had to be caused from the inside. The one outsider who witnessed the destruction, and could professionally testify as to how it occurred, died in manner which has multiple versions. 6.2 The Destruction of Buildings Seven and Four Building Seven has never been a focal point of the media or any remarkable investigation. This report contends that there is plenty of evidence suggesting that THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 144 Building Seven was a primary target, and a small amount of evidence suggesting Building 4 was a target as well. Building Seven housed government offices of the CIA, SEC, IRS and Secret Service, which held documents for thousands of investigations of financial crime. The center also housed the El Dorado group, an interagency moneylaundering group of specialists under the control of the US Customs agency. Never explained fires raged for hours on the floors of those offices, and seismic recording show the same burst of energy prior to the building coming down, as was experienced just prior to the collapse of both Towers 1 and 2. There has never been even a plausible explanation for the deliberate destruction of Building Seven. Building Seven was probably the target for United Airlines Flight 93, delayed at the gate for 40 minutes, and downed in Pennsylvania, before it could reach its unknown target. Just a very few minutes after Flight 93 downed, Building 7 was ordered evacuated by parties unknown today. After everyone had evacuated, the fires started! There are a number of anomalies regarding the collapse of Building Seven that remain unanswered by anyone. These unexplained occurrences include: 1. Unexplained source of fires throughout the building; 2. Unexplained lack of response by firefighters to those fires; 3. Unexplained order for evacuation of the Mayor’s emergency command center on Floor 23 of Building Seven, when no comparable order was given for the WTC command Center in the North Tower; 4. Unexplained seismic spike just prior to the collapse of the building in the same magnitude as those preceding the collapse of the North and South Towers; 5. Unexplained reason for “pulling” the building; 6. Unexplained ability to bring down Building Seven with controlled demolitions, when it takes days and weeks to place them; 7. Unexplained misleading references to the locations of the fires; The result of the loss of this building was a major loss of investigative documentation by US agencies. Agencies known to have lost evidence include the Export-Import Bank (source of loans to Afghanistan and Angola), CIA, SEC, IRS and Secret Service. Investigative & Evidentiary Agencies in the World Trade Center – Building 7 Export-Import Bank of the US Floor 6 US Secret Service Floors 9 & 10 Securities and Exchange Commission Floors 11,12 &13 Internal Revenue Service Floors 24 & 25 CIA Floor 25 Department of Defense Floor 25 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 145 The key matter for consideration and inquiry is that, according to John O’Neal, and Sibel Edmonds, the FBI (whose files were in the North Tower) was denied information by the CIA and Secret Service, whose files would have been kept in Building Seven. One has to presume that any files relating to financial investigations of money laundering related to “intelligence” operations and the Russian/Israeli Mafiya around Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan were kept in Building Seven or Tower 1. These Towers also held investigative information for the Bank of New money laundering scandal, which will later be shown to be intricately linked to covert oil operations in the aforementioned countries. From another perspective, three of the agencies involved in the Enron investigation were housed in the WTC: SEC, the Justice Department, and the FBI. (With a great deal of certainty this report concludes that Enron was a major money-laundering vehicle for the financial rape of Russia, buying and selling petrochemical contracts from the U.S. subsidiaries of the Russian oligarchs.) Both DoD and HUD had contracts with Enron, and those agencies were reported by Rumsfeld (on September 10, 2001) to be unable to account for some $3.3 trillion in funding. The IRS, in Building 7 was looking at Barrick’s offshore hedge book. What is suggested about the collapse of Building 7 by reports other than FEMA’s report? Unexplained Evacuation of the Control Center In the key emergency control center of New York in Building 7, someone gave the order to evacuate the building and the control center. No one knows who gave that order. In the Buildings that were hit by planes, personnel were not given that order, and remained in the control centers until the end. “WTC7 has received a lot of attention because of its inexplicable collapse at 5:20 PM on September 11.WTC7 purportedly burned for hours before collapsing, but the source of the fire remains a mystery, as does the complete failure of the building's modern fire-protection systems. Another interesting fact is that the entire twenty-third floor of WTC7 was a state-of-the-art command center, reportedly set up by Mayor Giuliani. That floor was designed to serve as a base of operations during times of crisis. It was reinforced to withstand winds of 160 miles per hour, and had an independent air and water supply. On September 11, 2001, the command center was monitoring the situation in lower Manhattan -- until personnel there received an order to evacuate. One official told the filmmakers: "to this day, we don't know who gave that order." [www.davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr43.html] Lost Documentation Investigators of financial crimes throughout the U.S. lost evidence in thousands of cases, including original SEC filings falsely reporting the Deutschebank’s lack of involvement in the Cayman shell companies of Enron. “So very unfortunately, lots of documentation and evidence was lost with the collapse of WTC 7. The CIA's clandestine New York station was lost, seriously disrupting United States intelligence operations…. Unfortunately, "Some further email records the committee has requested cannot be retrieved," wrote Citigroup Deputy General Counsel Jane Sherburne in an Aug. 7 letter to House Committee on Financial Services. "The backup tapes were lost when the building in which they were stored (7 WTC) was destroyed in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001." [www.thestreet.com/markets/matthewgoldstein/10041194.html] (Author’s note: No IT professional THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 146 stores back-up tapes in the same building as the hardware they are sourced from. Off-site storage for the WTC was vigorously pursued after the 1993 attack.) “But more importantly WTC 7…. housed high-level government offices including the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service. WTC 7 was also the storage facility for millions of files pertaining to active cases involving international drug dealing, organized crime, terrorism and money laundering.” [PBS Documentary: Silverstein, FDNY Razed WTC 7, Jeremy Baker] “WTC 7 had a clandestine CIA bunker on the 23rd floor, and offices were occupied by the Department of Defense (DOD), INS (Immigration & Natural Services), the IRS (Internal Revenue System), as well as some of the banks involved in shady wire transactions to the supposed Arab terrorists involved in 9/11. Additionally, the SEC had much of its filings in WTC 7 - including Enron's SEC filings. WTC 7 was likely a central planning station for what really happened on 9/11.” [9-11 Science Report, Dr, Stefan G.E. Grossman, Appendix D] "Maybe no financial institution lost more critical documents than the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had its New York regional office at 7 World Trade Center. While the regulatory agency was fortunate in that it lost no employees in the terror attacks, it suffered setbacks in a number of long-running securities investigations." [www.thestreet.com/markets/matthewgoldstein/10041194.html] "Regardless of what the regulators say, they lost a ton of files," says Bill Singer, a New York securities lawyer, who says one case he had pending before the SEC quickly settled because so many of the original documents were destroyed. "In my opinion it was a wholesale loss of documents." [www.thestreet.com/markets/matthewgoldstein/10041194.html] “What's curious, especially given all the Wall Street scandals later in the year, is that Building 7 was where the SEC was storing files related to numerous Wall Street investigations. All the files for approximately 3,000 to 4,000 SEC cases were destroyed. Some were backed up in other places, but many were not, especially those classified as confidential. [National Law Journal, 9/17/01] Lost files include documents that could show the relationship between Citigroup and the WorldCom bankruptcy. [The Street, 8/9/02] The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission estimates over 10,000 cases will be affected. [New York Law Journal, 9/14/01] The Secret Service also lost investigative files. Says one agent: "All the evidence that we stored at 7 World Trade, in all our cases, went down with the building." [Tech TV, 7/23/02] It is also eventually revealed that there was a secret CIA office in Building 7. [CNN, November 4, 2001]” [http://www.thenewliberator.com/wethepeople.htm, Douglas R Page, April 3, 2003] Inexplicable Fires and the Absence of Firefighters There has been no explanation of how the fires started all over the building, or why there was no firefighting assistance, especially after the other buildings collapsed hours earlier. “The 9/11 Commission report discusses inextinguishable fires on the 5th through 7th floor. Other sources report fires on 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 19, 27 and 28, but a “photo seems to have smoke pouring out of the windows on almost every floor.” “Second, a fifth-floor fire burned for up to 7 hours. "There was no firefighting in WTC 7," Sunder says. Investigators believe the fire was fed by tanks of diesel fuel that many tenants used to run emergency generators. Most tanks throughout the building were fairly small, but a generator on the fifth floor was connected to a large tank in the basement via a pressurized line. Says Sunder: "Our current working hypothesis is that this pressurized line was supplying fuel [to the fire] for a long period of time." How can a fire burn for seven hours without spreading to other offices or other floors? Perhaps some diesel fuel was dripping from a supply pipe. Since the fire was small, and since the building had a steel THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 147 frame with concrete floors, the fire could not travel to other offices. So how could such an insignificant fire bring down an entire skyscraper?” Controlled “Pulling” of Building Seven The owner of the building is recorded on tape referring to decision to “pull” the building. The building comes down in a totally controlled manner – without any attempt to explain how that happened. “In a PBS documentary “America Rebuilds," Larry Silverstein admitted that WTC 7 was "pulled," that is, intentionally demolished: "I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it. And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse." [http://www.pbs.org/americarebuilds/] Note: Silverstein does NOT say they actually “pulled” the building. Note that intentional demolition undermines the FEMA assessment: "The specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to collapse remain unknown at this time." “How did the owner of the WTC Building 7 manage to have the building pulled (a term meaning the application of a controlled demolition) when no one could have safely entered the burning building to do so, even if there were time to do so - which there was not. Set up for a demolition requires many days of preparation and work. In addition, why would he want this done. What of importance was in the building, which was relatively new? ….. In the documentary 9/11 In Plane Site, you will see the statement by the developer that he decided to have the building pulled. The website, www.WTC7.net, gives you the background, and asks many questions about how this building, which suffered limited fire damage form unknown sources, collapsed almost 8 hours after the Trade Center Towers collapsed. Other steel frame buildings adjacent to WTC 2, suffered severe damage and burned for almost 24 hours after the Towers collapsed, but they did not collapse. We have no other answers. If you do, contact us at [email protected].” “Why would the Real Estate magnet, Mr. Silverstein buy the WTC properties from the Port Authority of NY/NJ, only 2 months before 9/11, knowing that the original buildings were all in need of a major costly renovation to rid them of asbestos? Perhaps he knew that if the buildings were destroyed, he could collect the insurance, rebuild and still make a big profit? Did he know what was about to happen and know that it would be a very profitable investment?” Recently, witnesses have come forth saying there was plenty of discussion by fire officials saying that Building 7 would be ‘pulled.’ “Two more ground zero emergency rescue personnel are on the record as stating they were told Building 7 was going to be brought down on 9/11 hours before its symmetrical implosion, completely contradicting the official explanation of accidental collapse….Yesterday we reported on the testimony of an anonymous EMT named Mike who told Loose Change producer Dylan Avery that hundreds of emergency rescue personnel were told over bullhorns that Building 7, a 47 story skyscraper adjacent the twin towers that was not hit by a plane yet imploded symmetrically later in the afternoon on 9/11, was about to be "pulled" and that a 20 second radio countdown preceded its collapse. Indira Singh was a volunteer civilian Emergency Medical Technician at the World Trade Center on September 11th. She was a Senior Consultant for JP Morgan Chase in Information Technology and Risk Management. Singh was responsible for setting up triage sites for the seriously injured and walking wounded. These sites were closed down and consolidated one by one as the day wore on. Appearing on the Pacifica show Guns and Butter, Singh describes her experience to host Bonnie Faulkner. Click here to listen with commentary by Alex Jones. SINGH: "After midday on 9/11 we had to evacuate that because they told us Building 7 was coming down. [More Ground Zero Heroes On The Record: Building 7 Was Deliberately Brought Down, Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones, Prison Planet, February 9, 2007] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 148 Seismic Spike Prior to Collapse Much attention is paid to the “seismic spike” that preceded the collapse of the North and South Towers. Rarely mentioned, if the explosions in North and South were deliberate – so was that of Building 7. “As with the Twin Towers, the seismic of the building 7 collapse indicates the release of a strong underground explosion energy just prior to the collapse, see chart from the data of Columbia University…”[ Massive pre-attack ‘insider trading’ offer authorities hottest trail to accomplices, Kyle F. Hence, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), globalresearch.ca , April 21, 2002] The End of Building 7 and Investigative Effort Building Seven was targeted for destruction, no more or less that the North and South Towers. If one assumes 1) the fires were targeted, as were the explosives in the North and South Tower; 2) planted explosives brought down the building; 3) the key reason for the attack was to destroy investigative evidence – and all the evidence suggests that is the case – the reason for the “pulling” of Building 7 becomes obvious. Virtually every destructive symptom experienced by the North and South Towers was experienced by Building 7, except that there was no assault by a plane to explain them away. No less important than the destruction of the information in Building 7 and the rest of the WTC, however, was the associated direction by the Bush administration to refocus the efforts of the US federal investigative apparatus: “On page B1 of the Sunday New York Times [NYTimes "Trial Balloon" 10/21/2001], Philip Shenon and David Johnston reveal that the Bush administration is "discussing proposals that would lead to the most fundamental reorganization of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its history, shifting its focus to counterterrorism and away from crime fighting, senior officials said…. Also in the article: "...Attorney General Ashcroft and the bureau's director, Robert S. Mueller III, have agreed that the emphasis on counterterrorism will be permanent and that other major changers are inevitable. ..." "...Mr. Mueller, as the bureau's new director. Mr. Mueller had earned a fearsome reputation from previous jobs, for shaking up government agencies, notably the United States attorney's office in San Francisco, where he forced out most of the senior management." [Ending of FBI anti-drug trafficking & banking "white-collar" crime role, Dick Eastman, October 22, 2001] The Curious Loss of Building 4 There are three curiosities to the destruction of Building 4, which was destroyed mostly when The South Tower collapsed on it. There has been a remarkable lack of substantive reporting on whether or not there was a significant amount of gold bullion stored under and missing from this building. “WTC 4's basement housed precious metal vaults, the apparent disappearance of most of whose billion-dollar contents has gone curiously unreported.” “There appear to be no reports of precious metals discovered between November of 2001 and the completion of excavation several months later. It would seem that at least the better part of a billion THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 149 dollars worth of precious metals went missing. It is not plausible that whatever destroyed the towers vaporized gold and silver, which are dense, inert metals that are extremely unlikely to participate in chemical reactions with other materials. “ “The circumstances surrounding part of the gold that was recovered offer clues to what may have happened to the unrecovered gold. According to reports, two truckloads of gold were found in a delivery tunnel under 5 World Trade Center in a 10-wheel lorry which had been crushed by falling steel. The vault was under 4 World Trade Center, which was closer to the South Tower, and more heavily damaged. There were no bodies discovered with the lorry, suggesting that whoever was removing the gold was warned of the imminent collapse of the South Tower.“ The intriguing aspects of this loss are: 1) There are photos of the remnants of Building 4, which comment on the appearances of damage done by raging fires: “The portion of WTC 4 that remained standing had a blackened appearance suggesting that it sustained severe fires. However, FEMA's report does not describe the fires in WTC 4….” Given the debates over the causes of fires in the Twin towers and Building 7, it becomes apparent there is no reason that there should have been fires in Building 4. (The fact that almost half the building was occupied by the Deutschebank, a target of many federal investigations, has been overlooked.) 2) The picture of standing walls however suggests the damage done by the collapse of the adjacent tower was less than complete. Vaults like that in the basement are designed to withstand direct nuclear attack, suggesting that if the vault was destroyed, it probably wasn’t by the collapse of the adjacent tower. 3) The only gold found in the recovery that was reported to be at that site was actually on the move at the time of the attack, and considerably less that reported to be on-site. This may suggest the vault wealth had been removed, and the vault emptied (!) in advance, but there has been no reporting on this matter. These are insignificant observations, in the total scheme of things. However, they add to the list of inexplicable circumstances which suggest that the destruction of the buildings other than the Twin Towers was planned well in advance. The Unmentioned Loss of WTC 6 A key hypothesis of this report is that the attack on the World Trade Center was intended to stop investigations into various forms of money laundering by officials of the US and the Russian/Israeli Mafiya. It would not be appropriate to avoid a discussion of Building 6, which housed U.S. Customs – one of the key U.S. Agencies with responsibility for investigating money laundering. The fate of Building 6 is ignored in virtually every report available, but the couple of references found are totally aligned with the hypothesis that these agencies were targeted. “CNN broadcast the image of smoke rising up from street level near the base of Building 6, the Customs House. This video footage had originated at 9:04, about one minute after United 175 struck the South Tower. Remember that WTC 6 was on the north side of the north tower, so any explosions THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 150 there cannot be regarded as having been generated by the impact to the South Tower. A powerful explosion inside WTC 6 had hurled a cloud of gas and debris 170 meters high. A CNN archivist commented, “We can’t figure it out.”(Marrs 36) This incident was soon eclipsed by the collapse of the South Tower, and has tended to be forgotten. The various official reports have had precious little to say about WTC 6. Overhead views of the ruins later showed a large crater in the steel structure of WTC 6; it was clear that this crater could not have been caused by fire.” [The Collapse of World Trade Center 1, 2, and 7, Webster Tarpley, http://www.reopen9/11.org/Tarpley_ch_6.pdf.] “there was a giant explosion that shot 550 feet into the air above the U.S. Customs House at WTC 6, just northwest of the towers before they fell, a totally separate event that clearly had nothing to do with the plane crashes or hijackings, incontrovertible evidence that something else was going on? Neither did I, but 9/11 IPS has the footage from CNN.” [Michael Dare, http:// www.9/11inplanesite. com/9/11review_disinfotainment.html] There is also eyewitness testimony to the deliberate destruction on this facility. “Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby KT: You mentioned you were running west on Vesey Street, what happened after that? PO: I just kept running. I was aware there were other people running as well. After passing the cars on fire, I was trying to find someplace safe. I tried to run into the lobby of 6 World Trade, but there were federal police -- maybe 4 to 6 of them -- standing in the open doorways. As I tried to run in, they wouldn't let me, waving me out, telling me "you can't come in here, keep running." As I turned to start running west again, I saw a series of flashes around the ceiling of the lobby all going off one-by-one like the X-mass lights that "chase" in pattern. I think I started running faster at that point. KT: Did you hear any "popping" sounds when each of these flashes in the WTC 6 lobby were going off? PO: Yes, that part was like a movie. The pops were at the same time as the flashes. KT: Can you estimate either how many flashes you saw or how many of these "pops" you heard inside this lobby? PO: At least 6 before I was turned away.” [Ground Zero EMT Patricia Ondrovic talks about her harrowing day at the WTC on 9/11, February 10, 2006] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 151 7 GOLD TRADING AND MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATIONS CANCELLED BY DESTRUCTION OF THE WTC The 23rd floor of the North Tower of the WTC held FBI records pertinent to investigations of international gold movements and violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The stimulus for the FBI investigation was a lawsuit initiated by GATA against a number a major bullion international banks and the former US Secretary of the Treasury. The lawsuit alleged that these banks conspired to manipulate and artificially depress the price of gold. The evidence presented by GATA was quite compelling, and suggested that 1) these parties had used national gold reserves to illegally regulate the price of gold, 2) these banks had created a significant risk that threatened the liquidity of all of the key players, and 3) that the national gold reserves had been illegally depleted as a result. The basis for this suit was analysis of gold market prices and trades that suggested approximately 14,000 tonnes of paper gold had been artificially created to keep gold prices depressed. This report speculates that gold prices were not being manipulated, but rather 14,000 tonnes of stolen gold was being illegally laundered. The logic of what GATA called a scam ‘on the American citizens and individual gold buyers’ was this. Bullion banks “loan” gold to each other at 1% or 2% interest. When they borrow gold to cover needs, they buy a gold future and assign it the lender. Thus the lender always has the “same” amount of gold, except some is ‘paper gold.’ According to GATA, these banks would loan gold to each other, and then sell the real gold, using the proceeds to invest in equities, which paid a higher return. This is a good deal when the investment’s return on the equity is greater than the costs of the increased price of gold. The GATA claim is that this process had been going on secretly for a number of years, with US private banks making hefty profits using US treasury gold. This process is not illegal – fixing-prices is. At some point in the process, these banks had loaned out more gold than could be produced by all the gold mines in the world in the next two and a half years. Because the world started viewing the dollar as overvalued, there was a move towards gold, which stood to drive the price of gold up – dangerously so. These banks then had to borrow and sell even more US gold, and then (it is contended) brought in the London banks to support them, to keep the price of gold artificially down. The prices had to be kept artificially low because if there was an actual call on the gold loans by one bank, it would bring them all down like a house of cards. There was not enough physical gold available to make good all the futures being held by the banks. It has been speculated that it was these banks – with a focus on the American banks -that somehow brought about an attack on the FBI office, using the cover of the airliner assault to destroy the evidence against them. According to this theory, the attack needed to happen before October 9, 2001, when this lawsuit opened in court. It may be fair to speculate that U.S. bank executives were not worried about being convicted for violation of dubious and ambiguous laws. However – win or lose, this report speculates there was at least one group of bank executives that had plenty of reason to worry if this lawsuit THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 152 saw the open courtroom, and that is the group that set out to destroy the World Trade Center. These are the executives who were worried that an investigation and trial would expose their gold laundering activity. This report speculates that gold being sold on the market was not ‘artifically created,’ but rather illegal, stolen gold that needed to be laundered. If the illegal gold was confiscated by the judicial system, the bankers responsible for protecting the gold would be help responsible, and their lives – most likely – would be forfeit. The argument that the attack on the WTC was an attempt to silence an investigation into gold transactions and money laundering has never seriously been considered. In a world that has recently seen reports of the disappearance of 4,000 to 60,000 tonnes of illegal gold stolen from various national treasuries, no one seems to have asked: how is this gold being laundered. The selling behavior demonstrated by the bullion banks could also be interpreted as selling off huge, illegal gold hoards at a previously agreed upon price point. The hypothesis that a large portion of this may be laundered by the Deutsche Bank becomes more compelling when one focuses on the Deutsche Bank, and its possible reasons for wanting this investigation quashed – which no one, except maybe the FBI, has focused on. The Deutsche Bank (along with Dresdner, and US banks) had been conducting gold sales for years, and indeed, it was speculated in the GATA suit that the European banks in general had illegally dumped large amounts of their reserve gold to buoy up bank profitability. "Deutsche Bank, the largest German bank, which had precious metals derivatives at the end of 1996 with a total notional value under US$5 billion, by the end of 1999 had grown this business to a total notional value in excess of $50 billion, or by more than 10 times in three years. What is more, a huge amount of this growth came in 1999, especially in the last half, as can be seen by comparing the average notional value for 1999 ($37.7 billion) with the year-end notional value ($51.2 billion). Note also that this growth was almost all in the longer maturities. Nor can the 1999 growth in Deutsche Bank's precious metals derivatives be ascribed in any major way to its acquisition of Banker's Trust. Its OCC report for March 31, 1999, listed precious metals derivatives with a total notional value of around $6 billion, which by June 30 were just over $1 billion….." "The only major gold fund manager that I know who never owned a single share of Bre-X told me that he never bought the stock because: (1) even if you believed the company's story, the stock almost always looked too expensive; and (2) however great the ore deposit, large gold reserves are not built as quickly or as easily as Bre-X claimed to do. So too, the amazing emergence of Deutsche Bank from almost no gold derivatives business in 1996 to a book with a notional value approaching 5000 tonnes, larger by far than the book of any of the three principal U.S. commercial banks in this business, does not pass the smell test. Indeed, it is very hard to see any reason for the rapid creation of this huge position in gold derivatives other than to try to manipulate and control gold prices. [www.goldensextant.com, MPEG Commentary] The question needs to be asked, however: what if the German banks, but primarily the Deutsche Bank – and possibly some American banks - were not selling its gold reserves, but rather was laundering gold for its clients from the dark side? Until this report, there has been no mention of this possibility. Not too long ago, several previous board members of the Deutsche Bank were indicted for helping high profile clients avoid taxes by laundering money into Switzerland. The bank certainly also had a reputation for the less dignified money laundering activity associated with ‘organized crime’ and the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 153 Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Board admitted the bank was “possibly” had been “misused” by these same Russian Mafiya types, previously linked to the Mossad by this report. "On September 5, 1999, the German newspaper Weld am Sonntag quoted Deutschebank CEO Rolf Breuer saying that "It could be that we were abused as an intermediate coordinating point" in the fastdeveloping Russian money laundering scandal. Deutschebank and its U.S. affiliate Bankers Trust (BT) filed "suspicious transaction" reports about Russian clients, as BT had "correspondent banking" relationships with Russia's Inkombank, which "allegedly had ties to organized crime," according to USA Today ( 8-27-1999 ). Moreover, an Inner City Press story (9-11-1999) also revealed that German magazine Der Spiegel quoted Breuer as admitting that it was "possible" his bank was "misused" as an intermediary for money laundering." [The Profits of Death, Part III, Tom Flocco and Michael C Ruppert, From The Wilderness Publications, 2002] "On August 28, 2001, 14 days before the Trade Center attacks, former Deutschebank senior bond investment trader Kevin Ingram, pled guilty in a $2.2 million dollar money laundering conspiracy, resulting from a government sting operation investigating the illegal sale of night vision goggles, Beretta machine pistols, M-16 machine guns with silencers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), TOW anti-tank missiles, and Stinger missiles, according to court papers examined by the New York Post." [The Profits of Death, Part III, Tom Flocco and Michael C Ruppert, From The Wilderness Publications, 2002] Any serious investigation into illegal gold laundering by the FBI probably would have exposed transactions no one wanted to make public. Any FBI evidence would have to be destroyed, and the investigation stopped. One of the more convenient aspects of the attack on the WTC is that while destroying relevant FBI investigation materials, it also destroyed all US Deutschebank records: "Michigan Senator Carl Levin's Minority Banking Report of February 2001 calls correspondent banking the "gateway to money laundering," a financial technique wherein illicit money is moved from bank to bank with "no questions asked," thereby cleansing funds prior to being used for legitimate purposes. Via correspondent banking relationships, banks not licensed in the U.S. may gain access to American financial markets by establishing a correspondent relationship with banks that are. Deutschebank is licensed in the U.S. and maintained offices at the World Trade Center. Deutschebank is licensed in the U.S. and maintained offices at the World Trade Center. All U.S. Deutschebank records were destroyed in the September 11 attacks." [The Profits of Death, Part III, Tom Flocco and Michael C Ruppert, From The Wilderness Publications, 2002] The original GATA lawsuit was dismissed, and the FBI investigation was ended. A reorganization of the FBI in 2002 refocused agency attention on terrorism, leaving bank crime to “other agencies.” Another civil suit seeking to avoid the shortcomings of the first suit, was initiated in 2003, and was scheduled to be heard in April of 2005 – after successfully surviving the defendant’s motions to dismiss. It was settled out-of-court, under sealed conditions in 2006. 7.1 Tonnes of Illegal Gold What the GATA and the subsequent suit never considered was that while “large, inexplicable” amounts of gold (estimated at 6,000 to 14,000 tonnes) were being released on the market by the bullion banks, possibly this was a gold laundering operation. Certainly enough stolen gold had poured into Germany and Switzerland from various THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 154 sources to explain a majority of the German trades (and possibly trades by US banks as well), and these flows will be documented in this report: · 3,000 tonnes of gold stolen from Russia by the KGB, a theft made public in September 1991 by Grigory Yavlinski; • 40 tonnes of Czech gold; • an undisclosed amount of Third Reich (Nazi) gold stolen from the Holocaust victims and their survivors as well as undisclosed treasury gold removed from the banks of conquered countries; • at least 1,000 tonnes of Philippines gold from the Marcos family, which had previously been the wealth of the Japanese Imperial family hidden during World War II.. (Some estimates of this Golden Lily treasury reach up towards 60,000 tonnes.) "Approximately 1,000 tons of the loot was liberated by Ferdinand Marcos before his ouster. Billions of dollars worth were shipped overseas by American intelligence agents and the Mafia. Much of the horde was cabbaged away in a high-security, subterranean storage cache buried beneath the Zurich airport. This vault was once used to conceal European gold from Hitler’s greedy SS scavengers. Fifty years later, some of the same bullion has found its way into the campaign coffers of ultraconservative political candidates in the U.S., according to the Las Vegas Sun. But Marcos didn’t recover the lion’s share of the pelf. A six-month series in the Sun reported in 1993 that Marcos abandoned thousands of tons of gold hidden in his homeland. Gary Thompson, the newspaper’s former managing editor, and journalist Steve Kanigher published copies of gold certificates from Credit Suisse, deposit records from the Union Bank of Switzerland the correspondence of Corazon Aquino and letters to Reagan administration officials documenting witness accounts that lackeys of the CIA and Army Special Forces carted off an unknown quantity of the bullion…. Citibank was drawn into the operation to negotiate ownership of a Philippine gold horde secreted in the Bahamas…. From the balmy islands, Imelda Marcos was heaving billions of dollars in gold on the black market, frantically, before the remains of their tin dictatorship was seized by the courts. The sudden infusion of Philippine gold on the world market threatened to depress the already-sagging price of the metal. This cabal settled on a drastic solution - a strategic terrorist act staged to drive up the price of gold. " [Saudi Entrepeneur Adnan Khashoggi Linked to 9/11 Terrorists, Alex Constantine] While the early reports of this Philippine treasure were generally regarded by the media as rumor, the story was subsequently well substantiated by the reporting of David Guyatt and others. A major source for this documentation was a death bed statement by Brigadier-General Erle Cocke, in April 2000. Cocke was a banker before he became a black operative. He had worked as a “fixer” for "every President since Truman." Additionally, he was an Alternate Executive Director of the World Bank for four years, a member of the US delegation to the UN for two years running, with the pay and rank of a US Ambassador, a Knight of Malta and a Shriner Mason. According to these sources: "the OSS--the wartime forerunner of America's spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-- began recovering the bullion plundered from a dozen or so nations. This bullion formed what became known as the "Black Eagle" fund, which was part of a secret agreement eclipsed behind the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. Consequently, the metal was placed under the care of OSS (and later CIA) operative Severino Garcia Santa Romana, who put it under the control of numerous corporate entities he formed for the purpose. These entities, in turn, proceeded to establish 176 bank accounts in 42 different countries in which to deposit these assets under private treaty agreement……. Santa Romana died in 1974, and following his death his former attorney and trustee was able to "acquire" THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 155 considerable portions of Santa Romana's estate by illicit means. The lawyer was Ferdinand Marcos, who went on to become President of the Philippines and a favourite friend of the United States until his overthrow in 1986. The acquisition of these assets helped give rise to stories of "Marcos gold"--a legend that was supplemented by additional later recoveries of WWII gold and other loot using a Filipino Army battalion under the overall command of Marcos henchman General Fabian Ver." [Project Hammer Reloaded ,Part 1 of 2, Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 5 (August-September 2003), by David G. Guyatt] "Additional evidence of Marco’s recovering the Golden Lily treasure comes from the Filipino newspaper, The Inquirer. In 1998 the paper published an article entitled "Soldiers of Fortune." The article revealed that all members of the 16th Infantry Battalion had signed a joint affidavit declaring that, together with members of the 51st Engineering Brigade, they had recovered 60,000 metric tons of gold from thirty sites between 1973 and 1985. Both units operated in strict secrecy under Marcos’ henchman Fabian Ver." [Nazi Gold, Part 10: The Emperor's Golden Lily, Glen Yeadon , Copyright 2001-2004] There are other versions of this story. From an individual who provided a day of testimony to the lawyers who went after the gold: “I was frankly stunned to read, in Lear's own typed wording, that he was supposed to secure the planes for the gold shipment for a company in Amsterdam called Kindrich International, and that 106 tons of gold were to be flown from Guam to Taiwan, where it was to be smelted down, and then to Zurich, Switzerland via Dubai or Abu Dhabi. According to his memo, there were several other people involved in the operation: Juanita Hanson was the managing director of Kindrich International; Bob Kerkez was instrumental in some way from West Germany; Hank Warton of Miami, Florida was in charge of the operation; Vern Peoples in Las Vegas was in charge of coordinating with Lear, and Jack Taggert was to receive a "10% cut" for setting it up. I couldn't help but wonder what Lear's slice was to be for his participation in the deal.” [The Marcos Gold Mystery, Lars Hansson] In the version provided by Paul Manning, many of the details of the “Golden Lily’ are reconfirmed, and indicate yet another – this time, British – group moved gold to Switzerland as well. “In his transfer plan of 1944, Lord Privy Seal Kido was con-fronted with the problem of physically moving the emperor's gold kilo bars from the Imperial Palace to some safe haven where their value would be credited to the imperial account in Switzerland. In 1944, when Japanese fighter planes still con-trolled the air space of northern Asia, this proved a soluble problem. The major Swiss banks, such as Swiss Bank Corpora-tion, have five key areas throughout the world where gold and silver bars can be deposited in Swiss controlled vaults, with a credit then telegraphed to the relevant bank in Switzerland. These key localities are known in the Swiss banking business as "Loco," so once Kido had dispatched a Japanese imperial courier plane with fighter escort to Hong Kong and Macao and other sites with imperial kilo bars they quickly became a deposit credit in the Swiss receiver bank. By the end of the war the deposits on hand were astronomical, and during the postwar rehabilitation of Japan, the imperial fortune kept increasing from the interest charges for loans to various zaibatsu companies who were struggling-as were German firms-for a comeback in world markets. As a result of these tranfers, American SOAP* fiscal investigators found the imperial vaults pretty nearly bare when they went poking through the recorded assets in the imperial palace following Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2, 1945. They found jewelry, gold, silver, coins totaling 3,010,066 yen, and as the yen at that time was worth about 360 to the U.S. dollar, it was a token $2 million.” [Martin Bormann – Nazi in Exile, Paul Manning] “…by 1944 Japan had taken 25 tons of gold from the vaults and mines of various Asiatic countries it had overrun. Like so many other moveable assets, the 25 tons of gold bullion disappeared in 1944, and THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 156 this is a secret known only to a cadre of top leadership among the zaibatsu.” [Martin Bormann – Nazi in Exile, Paul Manning] As part of this illegal gold movement, it is extremely important to notice where at least 50 tonnes of it went, because it starts a chain of events involving the banks of Bankers Trust, JP Morgan and the Deutschebank Alex Brown. It is also important to note that the gold started to be moved into the market place in the early 1980’s by Marcos himself and in the late 1980’s by his wife. It was during this time that George Bush Sr. got involved. "In 1982, Ferdinand Marcos arranged via his right-hand man, General Fabian Ver, to transfer 50 tonnes of gold bullion to Switzerland via two chartered 747 aircraft. These were arranged by an individual using the name Ron Lusk, who had been retained by Ver to deliver the gold to Bankers Trust, Zurich." [Project Hammer Reloaded, Part 1 of 2, Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 6 (October-November 2003), David G. Guyatt] "(in) 1983…, according to U.S. intelligence insiders, then-Vice President Bush authorized a Boeing 747 with a special "carriage" to airlift several tons of gold bars from Clark Air Force base in the Philippines to LaGuardia Airport in New York." [Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software, Online Journal, Wayne Madsen http://www.politrix.org] "(David) Guyatt goes on to claim that a letter from Henry Kissinger …demanded that Marcos sell "63,321 tons of gold to 2000 US and European banks ….." The letter was dated February 21, 1986. Marcos refused and was overthrown as a result of his refusal. Imelda Marcos, however, chose to sell the gold to avoid criminal charges, and the gold was transferred aboard the US Eisenhower to the United States." [Nazi Gold, Part 10: The Emperor's Golden Lily, Glen Yeadon , Copyright 2001-2004] The question may be asked: how and why did George Bush Sr. get control of a portion of that gold. The answer is reported by Wayne Madsen. “The Bush family off-shore money tranches originated with gold bars and jewels spirited out of the Philippines upon the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. The Marcos fortune was the price exacted by Vice President Bush for his being granted asylum in Hawaii. The gold bars were transported from the Philippines to the International Diamond Exchange Vaults near Rockefeller Center. A CIA proprietary firm called Oceaneering International of Houston procured barges to move some of the gold from secured warehouses to a specially-configured Boeing 747 which then flew the cargo to New York. Oceaneering sealifted the remaining gold to Oregon. After George W. Bush’s victory in 2000, the last of the gold and jewels stored in New York was moved to UBS Bank in Zurich. Marcos and Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi set about to create Five Star Trust in 1983 as a means to create a vehicle to use the Philippine wealth to create and funnel fungible assets abroad. In 1989, Five Star Trust was officially established in the Isle of Man by a Houston-based attorney who was a close friend of the Bush family.” [https://www.waynemadsenreport.com] Is should be of historic note that it was three of George Bush’s key aids who played primary roles in convincing President Ronal Reagan to withdraw his support for Marcos, thus forcing Marcos to seek asylum and deal with George Bush Sr. “Armitage, Wolfowitz and Sigur were at the center of what was in many ways the most surprising change in the Reagan administration’s foreign policy; the decision to encourage Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to give up power in 1986.” [Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann, Penguin, 2004, p128.] In answering the question as to “why?” the records point to the conclusion that George HW Bush set up a private funding mechanism for his own personal, ‘dark-ops’ foreign policy. This was a fund THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 157 protected from Congressional oversight and a fund that would allow him to authorize and fund operations that violated United States law. This fund would subsequently be used to wage war against the former Soviet Union by financing Muslim terrorists and Russian Mafiya oligarchs in his continued efforts to destabilize the Soviet Union. It would be used illegally to fight “Communists” in South America. Some of the Marcos/Bush gold was even considered for use in the Iran-Contra dealings: “In 1985, [Oliver North] attempted to sell 44 tons of Marcos bullion, worth $465 million, on the black market. He blithely suggested skimming $5 million to finance the Nicaraguan contra war, but the deal fell through when North, true to form, stiffed the Israeli middlemen on the Marcos payroll. Tapes and documents implicating American officials in the gold transfers were withheld from the Iran-contra committee by Major General Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and William Odom, director of the NSA. "It wasn't so much the mention of gold that concerned them," say Thompson and Kanigher. "It was Marcos talking (on tape) about contributions to U.S. presidential campaigns and the use of the gold proceeds to fund illegal arms deals." [Iran-Contra Connections to the Oklahoma Bombing, by Alex Constantine © 2000 Alex Constantine. All rights reserved] This Marcos gold would be a fund the use of which had to be protected from ever being exposed to the world. It would be a fund that investigators housed in the World Trade Center were on the path to uncover. It would provide the basis for the “National Security” rationale for all the cover-up associated with the government investigation of the destruction of the WTC. Bankers Trust, where Marcos placed his gold in 1982, becomes an important name in this report in that the merger of Bankers Trust (formed by JP Morgan in 1903) and Deutschebank Alex. Brown was conducted by “Buzz” Krongard, with the assistance of his primary staff assistant, Mayo Shattuck. What it suggests is that Krongard, Shattuck, executives of JP Morgan, and executives of the Deutschebank were in a position to be knowledgeable about the illicit gold movements that ultimately were covered up by the destruction of the World Trade Towers. Krongard has been implicated as a potential “person of interest” in the alleged cover-up by the US Government of what really happened on September 11 because of his association to the bank to which many illegal stock trades were traced, and the unexplained ‘shutdown’ of that investigation. "By profession, Krongard is a banker and formerly was the Chairman and CEO of investment bank Alex. Brown, Inc. In September 1997, Krongard engineered the merger of Alex. Brown with Bankers Trust and became the Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Bankers Trust. A few months later, in January 1998, he was recruited as a "counselor" to CIA boss George Tenet. In March 2001, he was promoted to Executive Director, making him the No. 2 man of the spy agency." [Project Hammer Reloaded, Part 1 of 2, Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 6 (October-November 2003), David G. Guyatt] What is not recognized by many is that Krongard’s main assistant at Alex Brown was Mayo Shattuck. Mayo – who was also the personal financial advisor to Edgar Bronfman and Adnan Khashoggi - resigned as CEO of Deutschebank, America on September 12, 2001, and went on become CEO of the company that would replace the bankrupted Enron as the primary energy market maker. Mayo’s Deutschebank operation in the WTC was buried on September 11. Also rarely mentioned is the fact the Senator Carl Levin’s Senate Hearings into US money-laundering identified AB Brown – where Krongard, Shattuck and Beese were the top three executives - as one of the top twenty US banks involved in money-laundering. Finally, one should note that Krongard was mentor to another placement from the CIA training facilities of the U.S. War College and John THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 158 Hopkins. That protégé was named J. Carter Beese, who was one of George Bush appointees to the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation in 1992, and later would become Chairman of Riggs Bank, as well as an SEC Commissioner (appointed by Bush.) J. Carter Beese Jr. was Chairman at Alex from 1994 to 1997, and would move from there to also be vice-Chairman of Bankers Trust. Beese went from Banker’s Trust to become President of Riggs Capital Partners, which will later be demonstrated to play a major role in George’s Bush’s 1991 10 year bond fraud, one of the major drivers behind the September 11 tragedy. Beese was the son of an FBI agent, and would live the life of a “made” man: “In the annals of charmed lives, the Honorable J. Carter Beese had made an improbable and Algeresque journey from son of an FBI agent in New Jersey to the rarified halls of government and business. From afar, his life seemed miraculously blessed. The road to Alex Brown in the early 80s had three typical entry points: Gilman, Griswold or The Harvard Business School, rather than his New Jersey and Rollins College roots.” [A Tribute to the Honorable J Carter Beese Jr., Edwin Warfield, April 12, 2007, http://www.citybizlist.com/blog/warfield/2007/04/tribute-to-honorable-j-carter-beesejr. html] Beese, like many CIA trainees, would have his life ended in April 2007 with a reported suicide, at the age of 50. It also suggests that the management of the JP Morgan syndicate of financial institutions was in a position to be aware of these illegal gold transactions, as were other American financial institutions such as Citibank and Drexel. "Drexel, Burnham, Lambert, New York, was a recipient of gold bullion from Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in January 1984." [Project Hammer Reloaded , Part 1 of 2, Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 5 (August-September 2003), by David G. Guyatt] Another potential source of illegal gold in the market was uncovered in the 1990’s by the WJC. (World Jewish Congress). Recent disclosures from World War II documents released in the 1990’s demonstrated that the Swiss banks had understated the amount of gold received from Nazi Germany during the war. This gold appears to have originated with holocaust victims and the national treasuries of conquered nations. Technically, this gold was to have been returned to those nations and families it was confiscated from. Swiss banks denied the existence of this and the Marcos gold, despite historical evidence to the contrary. It was only when a janitor for one of the banks discovered and saved records of this gold in the process of being destroyed by the banks, and handed over these records to the press, did the whole Swiss denial begin to crumble. At that point, the World Jewish Congress began to apply more pressure on the Swiss banks, and on the US Congress to penalize the Swiss banks. At about the same time, the Philippine government was pressuring the banks for a return of the Marcos gold, and the American legal system was seeking billions from the Marcos accounts on behalf of victims of Marcos torture that had won a lawsuit against the Marcos estate in Hawaiian courts. On top of these legal probes into the illegal gold holdings of the Swiss banks came the GATA lawsuit and its associated FBI investigation. (This is elaborated in Section 9.1) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 159 The amounts of illegal gold from all of these various sources may have been adequate to explain the “inexplicable” gold volume being sold in the gold market, as suggested by GATA statistics. This illegal gold is also of interest because one of the key individuals heading the international law suit against the Swiss banks was the President of the WJC – Edgar Bronfman. The Bronfman family, along with executives of JP Morgan, (as will later be demonstrated), were key investors in a Canadian company called Barrick – named as a defendant in the second gold price-fixing suit, and the largest producer of “paper” gold in the world. This report speculates that Barrick was operating as a ‘front’ for moving stolen gold into the market. Winning or losing this lawsuit would be quite immaterial to a large number of people unless the banks had to reveal the sources of their gold, which generally had been funneled into Swiss accounts by German banks and its global network of banks. A substantial future revenue stream would be lost to the German banks if the underworld lost trust in them. It would also be fair to speculate that a few bankers would suffer cruel deaths if the details of these gold thefts were revealed. It is hypothesized that the exposure of this gold laundering activity was the ‘issue’ that allowed German banking executives and Russian KGB/Mafiya lords to sit at the same table and discuss a mutual interest in destroying the World Trade Center. It created the incentive to leverage Russian/Israeli Mafiya relationships within the Israeli Mossad, and initiate the attack on the World Trade Center. Interestingly, it was also this same type of interest in ‘preventing public disclosure, or exposure’ that may have encouraged Bush to divert attention away from this economic motive for a crime. "There is substantial evidence suggesting that a detailed investigation into Deutschebank's connection to Islamic terrorists and 9-11 might reopen a mysteriously closed 1991 investigation of criminal insider trading connected to Harken Energy, a Houston company where George W. Bush served on the board of directors as a major stockholder with his some of his father's key campaign contributors. On January 30, 1990 Harken, with a remarkably unsuccessful history of drilling projects, signed major oil drilling contracts with Bahrain. Five months later, Bush's company suffered an unexplained huge loss of stock value just prior to the Gulf War -- but not before the future president had already cashed out, making close to a million dollars selling his own stock. The future president completed his key insider trade eight days before Harken announced a $23 million second quarter corporate loss and about six weeks before the invasion. Having just profited by nearly $1 million--representing a 200 % insider windfall-- the SEC investigation of George W. was led by general counsel James R. Doty who, according to a UPI report, mysteriously neglected to interview any of the Harken directors --including the younger Bush -- regarding "enforcement" oversight. Moreover, Doty had previously served as George W. Bush's personal lawyer to Bush 43's purchase of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. So, in the end, a future president--George W. Bush -- was cleared of insider trade wrongdoing by his personal attorney and by his father's counsel " [The Profits of Death, Part III, Tom Flocco and Michael C Ruppert, From The Wilderness Publications, 2002] The argument made by Flocco and Ruppert, while valid, misses the real cover-up. An investigation into the Deutsche Bank connection to the terrorists would have demonstrated that at the heart of the connection was a need to cover-up probable illegal gold movements. Moreover, the names of two banks (JP Morgan and Deutschebank) and three individuals (George Bush Sr., Adnan Khashoggi and Edgar Bronfman) reported to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 160 be involved in these probable illegal gold movements are linked to a single gold company: Barrick. These names are not linked as a group to any other gold company. These individuals, along with Shiek Kamal Adham, (the former head of the Saudi intelligence agency and a regular business partner of Khashoggi) have been widely reported as involved (but not convicted) in money laundering schemes and illegal gold movements: · George HW Bush: the Iran-Contra scandal, the Marcos gold; · Adnan Khashoggi: the BCCI-Vatican Bank money laundering scandal, Iran-Contra, MJK securities fraud, and the US savings and loans bankruptcies, the Sand casino bankruptcy, and the Marcos gold; · Shiek Kamal Adham: the BCCI-Vatican Bank scandal, Iran-Contra; and · Edgar Bronfman: Harris Bank and Household Bank money laundering, the Nazi gold hoards, as well as the family history in Canada of bootleg alcohol smuggling. If four suspected money-launderers, at least two of which are involved in prior movements of this gold, are all financially involved in a company responsible for the generation of billions of dollars of paper gold, and producing bullion from mining deposits with a history of dubious value, then should not those facts warrant suspicion of that company’s intent? In fact, the Barrick gold operation is a phenomenon that could not have occurred without the assistance of President George Bush Sr. In his last days as President, Bush pardoned his former political colleagues convicted in the Iran-Contra Scandal, including Adnan Khashoggi. The Iran-Contra conspirators executed their crime with the heavy involvement of three individuals who continue to appear throughout this report: · Adnan Khashoggi; · Khalid bin Mahfouz, owner of 20% of BCCI; and · Shiek Kamal Adham, who belonged to a group that owned approximately 55% of BCCI, and was on the board of directors with Mahfouz. At the same time that Bush pardoned the convicted Iran-Contra conspirators, he authorized a procedural change which allowed Barrick (a company started with funding from Khashoggi and Shiek Kamal Adham as an original investors) to claim $10 billion in unmined reserves in Nevada, for the meager cost of $10,000. It is speculated this process needed to be expedited because it was anticipated the Clinton administration would not approve transaction without sizeable royalty requirements. This report speculates that Bush expedited the approval so that laundering of gold could happen much sooner – that having the reserves on the books was a necessary step to begin laundering the stolen treasuries. Not often reported, Barrick claims it paid $63 million for the company that owned those rights, although the details of that investment are not known. Even at that rate, $63 million for $10 billion in assets seems like a suspicious arrangement. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 161 About the same time Khashoggi and Adham were investing in Barrick, a partner of their BCCI partner (Khalid bin Mahfouz) was becoming a 12% investor in Harken, which would later be identified with George Bush Jr.’s insider trader. "In 1987 an obscure Saudi financier named Adbullah Taha Bakhsh invested in Harken, a Texas oil company of which George W. Bush was a director from 1986 to 1993. The deal consisted of recapitalizing the company, which was going through difficult times. This Saudi investor is none other than the partner of Khalid bin Mahfouz and Ghaith Pharaon. And so Taha Bakhsh became an 11.5 percent shareholder in Harken Energy Corp. Between 1976 and 1982, Abdullah Taha Bakhsh – an investor in Harkin Energy, recall – was the representative for the bin Laden family." [The Real Intelligence Cover-Up: America's Unholy Alliance, Joe Trento's Column, 8/6/2003] The current Bush administration has dropped all investigations of potential financial crimes associated with the destruction of the WTC. It has forced the FBI to drop the GATA/gold price-fixing investigation so as to focus on ‘terrorism.’ The Bush administration dropped the investigation of illegal stock trades once they were traced back to Israel. The 9/11 Commission report does not mention them, and there is no SEC nor FBI report on the investigation. Any formal announcement of the findings disappeared a long time ago, and an only inadvertent leak let the world know what really happened. An investigation into the destruction of the WTC as a classic criminal act rather than an act of political terror would most likely result in exposure bringing disrepute to the Bush family, and some of the most powerful banking executives in the world. Criminal charges would also be possible. It would also start in motion actions required to return billions of dollars of illegal gold to their rightful national treasuries. It would probably bring about the collapse of a number of major financial institutions. Therein lays the heart of real the National Security issue. 7.2 Gold Laundering – A Hypothesis Before attempting to unravel the mechanism by which the laundering of illegal gold may have been perpetrated, one needs to understand the magnitude and difficulty of this crime. Gold, because of its scarcity and value, is a closely monitored commodity. Gold traders across the world monitor supply and demand, and report regularly on web sites. They watch it so closely, that when unexplained amounts of gold on the market in the 1990s started to depress prices, they traced it to bullion bank sales of reserves. The annual mining and production of physical gold contributes only about 2,500 tonnes per year (See Figure 4 for annual production rates). The price of gold has remained relatively stable from 1992 to 2003 (See Table 4). Had there been a significant ‘dump’ of illegal gold in the magnitude of 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes or more in a short span of time, the transaction would have been easily identified by the market watchers as laundering activity. Hence, illegal gold from Russia, Switzerland or the Philippines would have had to been moved into the market slowly, with a credible paper trail. The strategy for laundering gold without depressing prices would have been a rate of laundering in the range of 10% of market supply and demand, possibly 200 to 300 tonnes per year. Anyone sitting on stolen gold could not dump it immediately, but would require institutional help in laundering 5% to 10% of the hoard per year, over ten to fifteen years – unless they got greedy, and wanted a faster payout. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 162 The following Table 3 demonstrates the range of value for 1,000 or 2,000 tonnes of gold. Based on market conditions, estimated illegal gold from the Philippines (at least 1,000 tonnes) and Russia (3,000 tonnes) might be worth up to $40 to $50 billion if unlaundered. If it was laundered and converted into the foundation for derivatives, at a ratio between 100:1 and 400:1, the managed value falls somewhere potentially between $4 trillion and $20 trillion. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 163 Gold Weight/Value Conversion Chart for Purpose of Discussion Troy Ounces Tonnes Low Value High Value 1 $270 $320 32,150.7 1 $8,680,689 $10,288,224 1,000,000 31.1 $270,000,000 $320,000,000 24,000,000 746.5 $6,480,000,000 $7,680,000,000 32,150,700 1,000 $8,680,689,000 $10,288,224,000 64,301,400 2,000 $17,361,378,000 $20,576,448,000 Overview of Gold Price History Year High Low Year High Low 1972 $70 $44 1988 $485 $389 1973 $126 $64 1989 $417 $359 1974 $195 $117 1990 $424 $346 1975 $185 $135 1991 $403 $344 1976 $142 $102 1992 $360 $330 1977 $168 $127 1993 $407 $326 1978 $244 $166 1994 $398 $370 1979 $524 $217 1995 $397 $372 1980 $850 $474 1996 $416 $367 1981 $599 $391 1997 $368 $283 1982 $489 $297 1998 $315 $273 1983 $512 $374 1999 $324 $253 1984 $407 $303 2000 $326 $264 1985 $341 $284 2001 $291 $257 1986 $443 $326 2002 $343 $278 1987 $503 $390 2003 $417 $320 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 164 Figure 6 World Production of Gold (Tonnes) How might a bank launder $10 billion dollars, or 1,000 tonnes in gold? (Ten billion is a nice, round number, which conveniently matches the ‘market rumors’ of how much gold the Deutschebank has borrowed from the Bundesbank, i.e., how much gold the Deutschebank has put into the market. This is about half of the amount reported stolen from the Russian treasury in 1991.) There are two possible ways. 1. If laundering gold, a German bank would “borrow” $10 billion in gold from the Bundesbank with the publicly acknowledged intent to sell it on the open market, (to facilitate the carry trade, producer hedging, etc.) Then it would put the Bundesbank gold in its own vault and launder $10 billion in Russian bullion. Ultimately, the German bank would have to re-purchase $10 billion in gold, to create a record of repayment to the Bundesbank. Unfortunately, doing so would create a physical gold imbalance on its own balance sheet. What would need to happen is that the bank would need to create the financial transaction of a gold purchase, without ever actually receiving the physical gold. A gold future from a gold producer or bullion bank would work for this. 2. Another option for laundering gold would be to turn over to the buyer of the gold a “gold future certificate” saying the purchaser could take delivery of gold from a producer that had promised the gold to the bank, and then launder the stolen gold through the mining and production company. The mining and production company could claim the gold came from either the mine or a bank. How could this be done? Quite simply, by buying, creating or corrupting a major gold producing company, that would be willing to facilitate such a fraud. The steps to doing so might be: 1. Create a major gold mining and producing company. 2. Attract capital from a few significant investors that would have a tendency to avoid intense scrutiny of operations. 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 165 3. Create credibility for the company by giving it the reserves large enough to accommodate the appearance of being able to support large volume trade. 4. Install trusted management to establish credibility and respectability in the investment market while watching over the company’s less reputable activity. 5. Create a ‘flood’ of small transactions to cover larger gold movements. 6. Scale up the gold laundering volume based on market limitations. In reviewing recent history, there are familiar names (with a few mentioned elsewhere in this report in relation to other activities) who appear to have undertaken exactly the six steps outlined above, by creating and using Barrick Gold. Barrick is easily worthy of suspicion, but note that this is an unproven hypothetical scenario: · It has attracted investors and management who have a public history of being associated with in illegal or potentially fraudulent activity; · It has passed the smell test of the American judicial system that says it should go to trial over gold price-fixing charges; "GATA consultant Reginald H. Howe brought a similar federal lawsuit in Boston in 2000. It was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds in 2002. Since then GATA has documented and publicized evidence of manipulation of the gold market by Barrick, Morgan Chase, other bullion banks, and the U.S. government." [Class-Action Suit Seeks Damages For Gold Investors from Barrick and J.P. Morgan Chase, Business Wire, 11/27/2004] · It demonstrated financial performance in accomplishingwhat no other gold or derivatives trading company had been able to do: it has achieved financial success that seems inexplicable to industry experts: unparalleled growth in volume, 62 straight financial quarters of profitability in the extremely risky futures commodity market, and growth while all competitors are in decline or closing. For the record, GATA’s charges have been neither upheld nor denied by the US courts system, although the charges had enough merit to have survived requests from the Barrick legal team to dismiss the suit. A review of the six steps will demonstrate the involvement of various individuals and companies in the creation of a potential gold laundering machine. Step 1: Create a major gold mining and producing company. In 1983, two investors of international renown, worked with Peter Munk to establish Barrick. "At its inception, Barrick’s principal investors were Saudi Arabians who had close ties to the Saudi Intelligence Services, or to the CIA, or to both. Those Saudi Investors were Sheikh Kamal Adham, the head of Saudi Intelligent Services at the same time that President Bush was head of the CIA; Adnan Khashoggi, the first of the Saudi investors in Barrick; and Prince Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz, one of the biggest of the initial shareholders in Barrick and now head of Saudi Intelligence Services. Sheikh Adhamwas the CIA’s principal liaison to the Middle East and was so closely tied to the CIA that he THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 166 even had an agency codename: “Tumbleweed.” [J. Taylor's Gold and Technology Stocks, Jay Taylor, 1/3/2004] One of these same investors – Khashoggi – was a primary money mover for the Marcos family, thus linking him to the origins of one of the major sources of gold at the heart of this crime, and linking Barrick to a source of knowledge of illegal gold. "Khashoggi had long been associated with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and the so-called Marcos gold. Indeed, so trusted was he that Marcos had him fronting for two "eclipsed" Marcos accounts--one in the name of Etablissement Mabari with the private Swiss bank of Lombard Odier & Cie, and the other in the name of Etablissement Gladiator at COGES Corraterie Gestion SA, Geneva." [Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 6 (October-November 2003), David G. Guyatt ] "Marcos and Khashoggi set about to create Five Star Trust in 1983 as a means to create a vehicle to use the Philippine wealth to create and funnel fungible assets. In 1989, Five Star Trust was officially established in the Isle of Man by a Houston-based attorney who was a close friend of the Bush family… Five Star entities, active and dissolved, have been discovered in the Isle of Man, the island of Nevis, the Bahamas, Florida, Kentucky, and Texas. Other Five Star-related entities stored large sums of money in the Cook Islands, according to U.S. intelligence sources, and these funds were directly linked to Khashoggi and BCCI …. Five Star's accounts are said to funnel more funds from Saudi Arabia as well as cash reserves hidden away in offshore artificial shells by Enron before it collapsed ." [Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software, Online Journal ,Wayne Madsen http://www.politrix.org] Khashoggi’s acquaintance with Munk is reported to go back as far as 1974, when they were investment partners. Peter Munk is a Hungarian who fled from Hungary to Switzerland with his parents to escape the Holocaust. Peter Munk was brought into business prominence by Sir Henry Keswick, with an able assist from Sir Peter Abeles. Peter Abeles was a business partner of Bernie Houghton and Michael Hand of the Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. Nugan Hand was a major CIA front for moving Marcos gold and laundering narco trade profits weapons. Keswick himself appears as no stranger to the money-laundering world. “According the the author’s of the book “Dope Inc,” the Keswick family control a substantial part of the world’s narcotic trade and use HSBC, the bank they are said to control, to ‘provide centralized redsicounting facilities for financing of the drugs trade.” [David Guyatt, Project Hammer Reloaded, 2003] Munk’s origin’s with the ‘Hungarian Mafia’ in Australia easily could have provided him with a connection to the Marcos/CIA gold stores. “Munk's approved biography reports that this Vansittart activated the formidable Sir Henry Keswick, who made arrangements to lift Munk into a new career. Keswick's family merchant banking firm, Jardine Matheson, had long been the British Empire's leading, out-in-the-open organizer of Asian illegal narcotics trafficking and drug-money-laundering. (Keswick, Jardine Matheson, and their cohorts are central figures in {EIR'}s book {Dope, Inc.} (Washington, D.C.: Executive Intelligence Review, third edition, 1992.) Jardine Matheson made Munk the chief executive of a Bahamas-registered hotel corporation called Southern Pacific Properties (SPP), with Jardine money, and Jardine's chief executive, David Newbigging, as a director. Then, Jardine's historical dope partner, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), joined the Munk enterprise; P&O's Lord Geddes himself joined Newbigging on the Munk-SPP board. In future years, as Munk rose to world prominence in the gold business, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. and the Royal Bank of Canada, two ``Dope, Inc.'' financial agencies, would provide credit in the billions of dollars for Munk's expansion. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 167 Munk-SPP became a giant hotel owner in Australia and the South Pacific islands, and seized control of the Travelodge chain. Munk's rise in Australia was aided by his lifelong close association with fellow Hungarian emigre Sir Peter Abeles, Australia's transport mogul. Munk's stepfather had been secretary and assistant to Abeles's father in Vienna in the late 1940s. Abeles is reportedly known in Europe as ``the White Knight,'' in reference both to his British knighthood, and his reported large role in the cocaine trade…. In 1974, Munk signed an investment partnership agreement with arms-trafficking billionaire Adnan Khashoggi of Saudi Arabia. According to Munk's approved biography, the new alliance was cemented when Munk and Khashoggi were summoned to the London headquarters of Peninsular and Orient. P&O's hereditary boss was Lord Inchcape, whose predecessor in the 1920s (also Lord Inchcape) had directed Britain's India Commission to continue the Empire's opium production. Munk later told his biographer that he was nervous--Khashoggi was late and perhaps ``the P&O directors wouldn't wait for us and it would seriously harm the relationship. It was already remarkable that they should have a Jew and an Arab together in their dining room.'' But, the mighty Lord Inchcape convinced Khashoggi to plunge in, and Khashoggi now provided most of the cash for the Munk enterprise Khashoggi and his associates, backers of the British- and Bush-linked faction of the arms trade, created Barrick Petroleum Corp. in 1981, registered as a Delaware, U.S.A., corporation. Junior partner Munk, having returned from London, set up a parallel ``Barrick Resources'' in Canada. But Munk's name was anathema to Canadian investors. So, Khashoggi was brought in to lend his prestige to Munk. Khashoggi made a televised publicity tour of the Toronto stock exchange, and announced that he had purchased 10,000 (Canadian) Barrick shares. At that point, in fact, Khashoggi, his brother, and their international associates already controlled the company, partially through Khashoggi's Lichtenstein-U.S.A. conglomerate, ``Triad.'' Munk was now launched as a corporate chairman in Canada. But this first Barrick, an oil development firm, went bust and lost all its money. In 1983, the Khashoggi-led group formed the gold company whose name was soon changed to Barrick Gold Corp. Sheik Kamal Adham was reportedly one of the new company's founding co-owners. Adham, the chief of Saudi intelligence, had coordinated royalist guerrillas in Yemen, with British arms secretly provided through Khashoggi. [Inside story: the Bush gang and Barrick Gold Corporation, Anton Chaitkin, Afrocentric News Network, http://www.afrocentricnews.com/html/bush_gang.html] Barrick Gold was reportedly started in 1983, but remained inconspicuous for the period between 1983 and 1988. What is known is that in 1986, prior to his involvement in Barrick, Khashoggi failed in his attempts at another gold start-up company as chairman of a Denver-based exploration group called Mali American Mines. Investors were not impressed with the offering, and Khashoggi left Las Vegas without the necessary capital. (Elizabeth Taylor is reported to have been at the intial attempt to solicit investors in Las Vegas.) Khashoggi’s partner on the Barrick investment - Sheikh Kamal Adham – also has a checkered past of being involved in money laundering business deals: "The great Afghan expert on Muslim strategy, General Kamal Adham, also the former head of the Saudi intelligence agency, is now under house arrest. He was responsible for arranging the meeting between Hekmatyar and a Soviet representative, Yu Voroustsov, in Taif Saudi Arabia. The meeting was requested by Dr. Najeebullah, the former President of Afghanistan in 1989. The reason for the arrest of Kamal Adham is said to be his role in heroin money laundering and recycling of drug money through BCCI." ['Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had links with KGB', The News International, Imran Akbar, 10/8/1992] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 168 Sheikh Kamal Adham was a co-investor in the BCCI bank with Khalid bin Mahfouz (Mahfouz owned 20% and Kamal Adham was part of an Arab group that owned 55%. Both were BCCI bank directors. This bank was documented by the USDEA as responsible for over 120 money laundering incidents.) This relationship is of note because Mahfouz is the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden. Additionally, one finds “Abdullah Taha Bakhsh … represents Khalid bin Mahfouz’s financial interests in the Middle East.” Bakhsh, amongst other roles, was a 12% owner of Harken Energy - George Bush Jr’s company. Khashoggi and Shiekh Kamal Adham would combine forces eleven years later to create the Oryx Corporation (Dubai). Oryx would be the owner of Rudy Dekker’s flight school in Florida, where Mohammed Atta and many of the supposed 9/11 hijackers received flight training. This report finds both Khashoggi and Shiek Kamal Adham (now deceased) both having criminal records, both having been linked to financial fraud, and both directly linked to: 1. the distribution of massive quantities of illegal gold, 2. the creation of potential gold laundering operations, the investigation into which was covered up by the destruction of the World Trade Center, 3. the funding of a flight school used to train WTC attackers, and 4. the recruitment of flight school trainees through Khashoggi ’s relationship with Yeslam Bin Ladin, the brother of Osama Bin Laden, or Adham’s relationship with Osama Bin Laden as brother-in-law. At this point in time, Khashoggi remains protected by agencies of the US government (in the name of National Security) against arrest and prosecution by several nations. Step 2: Attract capital from a few significant investors that would have a tendency to avoid intense scrutiny of operations. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, there would be at least two additional major investors brought into Barrick, as Khashoggi backed out. Khashoggi used his stock in Barrick as collateral to finance the arms sent to Iran by the US under President Reagan, and CIA Director George Bush. The second group – after the Saudis - would be the Bronfman family, who merged its mammoth real estate firm, Trizec, with Barrick Gold. Today, the Bronfman family of New York is a widely respected name. "To Montrealers, Charles Bronfman is the shy former owner of the Expos baseball team. In Israel, he is the country's most important foreign investor. But in Manhattan, where he now resides, Charles is merely the Big Apple's third-most-famous Bronfman. Nephew Edgar Jr. gets most of the attention as president and CEO of family-controlled Seagram Co. Ltd., which he has transformed from a purveyor of premium spirits into an international film and music powerhouse (through its Universal Studios and Polygram divisions). Elder brother Edgar Sr. is president of the World Jewish Congress and led the public battle to force Swiss banks to settle the claims of Holocaust survivors. But despite his low profile, Charles Bronfman has an array of interests: he controls Israel's largest conglomerate, Koor Industries Ltd., and is chairman of The Jerusalem Report. He is a renowned philanthropist, dispensing more than US$20 million annually through his personal foundation. Two years ago, he moved from Montreal to Manhattan after growing weary of the unstable political climate in Quebec. In 1991, Revenue Canada allowed his family trusts to move $2 billion offshore without paying taxes." [The rich THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 169 100, Ellen Himelfarb; Laura Janeshewski; Carolyn Pritchard; Cynthia Reynolds; Et al, Copyright UMI Company 1999, 07/30/1999] After that recognition though, comes the recognition of other relationships which help explain how a ‘family’ like the Bronfman family might get involved in a business that might have links to illegal gold laundering. First, the Bronfman family uses the legal services of White & Case, who also represented the Marcos family, JP Morgan, and Banker’s Trust. (Bankers Trust reportedly was in possession of illegal gold from Marcos requiring laundering, and JP Morgan later – as shall soon be demonstrated – surreptitiously invested in Barrick.) The Bronfman’s also have reported connections to the Israeli Mafia and the Bush administration through Arie Genger. "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "back channel" to the Bush Administration is Israeli-American businessman Arie Genger. Genger has been used to send messages between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Sharon. Genger met Sharon in 1981 when he was working for Sharon's good friend, Meshulam Riklis, one of the top operators in the Israeli Mafia. Genger heads the privately held, New York-based, Trans-Resources Inc, which owns Haifa Chemicals in Israel. He has numerous business connections to top Z-lobby and other notorious types. He sits on the investment committee of The Challenge Fund-Etgar LP which is chaired by Edgar Bronfman." [Sharon’s “Private Channel” to Bush Administration is a Riklis Man, Ha'aretz, 12/30/2001] The most telling report regarding the Bronfman’s proclivity for possibly turning a blind eye to illegal money laundering is their involvement in Bank of Montreal, Harris Bank and Household Bank. If the following report is true, recruiting the Bronfmans for ownership of a gold laundering operation would have been ideal. "In Chicago, is a branch of a huge Canadian octopus, the Bank of Montreal, owned by the … Bronfman family. … Their branch in Chicago, Harris Bank, has for some time been THE heavy weight in foreign currency trading, handling and exchanging most every type of money instrument. Several years ago Harris Bank merged with a known reputed money laundry, Household Bank, with units of Household International, headquartered in the Chicago-area. Household is the successor and alter ego to Nugan Han Bank that operated in California, Australia, Manila, Saudi, London, and a few other places. The General Counsel of Nugan Hand was William Colby, former Director of Central Intelligence. Former Generals and Admirals, close to CIA, operated Nugan Hand's worldwide offices. It was a CIA proprietary operation, transferring clandestine funds, for "national security", for Southeast Asia secret operations, including assassinations, such as the Phoenix Program, murdering some 63,000 Viet Namese civilians who opposed the Saigon government. Also disguised as something else were the skimming off of U.S. weapons shipped to Viet Nam, some 20 per cent of which were stolen upon being off-loaded. Dope funds from the "Golden Triangle". Large U.S. military gambling pools. The dark underside of the real financial world. Nugan Hand was "The House". Colby became the unlisted general counsel of Household, Nugan Hand's alter ego. Amid a scandal starting with the assassination of one of its founders in 1980, and the shredding of its financial records, Nugan Hand disappeared. Rising from the espionage ashes, to continue the reputed money laundering, was Household, which had previously been mostly a loan shark operation, Household Finance Corporation. At about the time Harris Bank took over many of the units of Household Bank, 1996, the unlisted "general counsel" of Household, William Colby, was assassinated, covered up, his friends say, as a supposed "boating accident". Colby was about to make public statements about Nugan Hand, about Household, and a few other entities which he began to realize were not really carrying out a "national security" purpose but were a vast dirty money machine. Major owners of Harris Bank were the Peter Fitzgerald family of Chicago. He was ahead by between 25 to 50 million dollars when Harris Bank became a unit of Bank of Montreal.(His mandatory financial disclosure was reported in the Washington Post, 6/12/99, page A-3). Fitzgerald also reportedly has a sizable interest in one or more Mexican Banks, reportedly major THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 170 dope money laundries, including Grupo Financiero Bancomer which was reportedly involved in a federal "sting" resulting in indictments May 19, 1998. [www.usdoj.gov/criminal/tost8ind.htm] Bancomer with branches in New York and Los Angeles reportedly operates through Harris Bank, by postal and wire transmissions, in what is called tri-national cash management system of Harris. The prosecutions were called "Operation Casablanca". The Chicago Tribune, sensitive to bank scandals, played down Bancomer's problem. (Head of Tribune Company for many years was board chairman of the Federal Reserve District Bank in Chicago.) "[Clinton's Money Laundry, Sherman H. Skolnick, June 13, 1999] The third major group that would invest in Barrick in a significant way did so rather surreptitiously. In 1994, the controlling shareholder of Barrick was Horsham. The President of Horsham was Tariq Kadri, Khashoggi’s long-time lawyer. That year, Horsham joined with Argo Partnership (in which J.P. Morgan had a partnership interest), and acquired controlling interest of Trizec Corp. In 1996, Horsham acquired the remaining equity in Trizec Corp, and merged with Argo to become TrizecHahn Corporation – which became the controlling shareholder of Barrick with about 16% of its stock. A subsequent investigation by Donald W Doyle (CEO of Blanchard & Company) showed that Argo was owned jointly by JP Morgan Capital Corp and JP Morgan Securities Inc. The Managing Director of JP Morgan Capital Corp. was appointed to the Board of Directors of TrizecHahn, which in turn controlled Barrick. JP Morgan in turn, has a vested interest in Citibank, which was also reported to be one of the larger recipients of illegal gold from Marcos. "Citibank's largest stockholder was J. P. Morgan, which in December 2000 merged with Chase Manhattan to form the all-powerful J. P. Morgan Chase. Bankers Trust was a J. P. Morgan creation from day one." [Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 6 (October-November 2003), David G. Guyatt] The three major investment groups associated with Barrick each have a history of being linked – but not convicted – with money laundering schemes and illegal money movements. Should the convergence of these three groups in the financial control of Barrick be considered coincidental? Step 3: Create credibility for the company by giving it the reserves large enough to accommodate the appearance of being able to support large volume. If a new gold mining and producing company was going to be required to sell futures in the magnitude of $10 to $30 billion, it would need to demonstrate significant reserves to provide a credible offering in the international marketplace. In 1983 Barrick Gold Corp. was a start-up company with a single mine in Canada and a founder with no experience in the gold business – Peter Munk. According to his biography in the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame: "…in 1983 … he bought a stake in an Alaskan placer mine and half the Renabie mine in Ontario. Gold production was a mere 3,000 oz. that year; revenue, roughly $1.7 million. He then purchased the Camflo mine in Quebec, which gave him a stellar technical team led by mining engineer Robert Smith. Munk then turned his attention to a Nevada heap-leach project producing a mere 40,000 oz. gold each year. The industry doubted its potential…"[Canadian Mining Hall of Fame] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 171 By 2001 Barrick had amassed off-balance-sheet assets that were worth more than the market capitalization of the next five biggest gold-mining companies in the world combined. Barrick did not do this alone. "At the very end of his presidency (President) Bush gave a sweetheart deal to the Canadian company Barrick Goldstrike. They got the rights to US land worth $10 billion in return for a nominal payment to the treasury of $10,000. In one of his last acts as president Bush pardoned Khashoggi's alleged (Iran- Contra) co-conspirators, who were key members of Bush's own cabinet. As a result, no case could be made against Khashoggi – or against Bush himself…..To express its gratitude for these favors Barrick Goldstrike hired (Bush) right after he left office and donated $148,000 to the Republican Party, at least that is the amount that can be traced." [Bush the Elder’s Scheme to Sell Pardons and Get a Payoff – Where is the Outrage Over a 10 Billion Dollar Taxpayer Ripoff?, Jock Gill, February 26, 2001] Again, for the record, Barrick bought the American company (for $63 million) which in turn, purchased the land rights. In 1996, Barrick is again reported as having received help from the elder George Bush in getting the Congo’s government monopoly reserve – the Gold Office of Kilomoto, worth 100 tonnes of gold reserve. If the reports of the 1992 purchase are correct, that would mean the mineral deposits acquired by Barrick for $10,000 represent about 32 million troy ounces. In 1997, the Annual Report of Barrick reported that the company’s gold reserve in 1994 was 37.6 million ounces. This would imply that without the ‘Bush bonanza’, Barrick might not have the credible reserves to engage in the transactions it did over the next seven years. It is also possible that the Bush gift is what brought the Americans and JP Morgan into the game plan. It is reported that Khashoggi sold his investment in Barrick to finance his portion of the Iran-Contra guns for drugs deal, hence the Reagan/Bush administrations complicity in Barrick may go back even further than the 1992 sweetheart deal. Khashoggi and Bush, both deeply implicated in the Iran Contra scandal (laundering drugs and money for weapons) – created Barrick. Any serious investigation into the gold dealings of the bullion banks would have exposed this complicity. Prevention of this exposure may have been a primary motivation for misdirecting or stunting the investigation into the attack on the World Trade Center. Even worse - it may also have been a motive for allowing the carnage to take place. Step 4: Install trusted management to establish credibility in the investment market while watching over the company. Barrick, started by several individuals with documented histories of fraud or unscrupulous behavior, has had the ability to attract a board of Directors that includes more than a few of the most powerful men in the world. As far back as the Annual Reports for Barrick’s can be located, one of the most consistent members of the Advisory Board has been Karl Otto Pohl, former President of the German central bank (Bundesbank) and chief officer of the International Bank of Settlements and IMF. This would be pretty powerful talent for a start-up company, but would make sense if the Bundesbank had an interest in staying close to the management and activities of Barrick. In a potential gold laundering scheme by a German bank, complicity by the Bundesbank would be a requirement, as the Bundesbank would be the initial provider of legal gold being used to cover the sale of illegal gold. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 172 In 2002, just after the Deutsche Bank Alex Brown Securities Canada and Adnan Khashoggi were being sued by MJK Securities for fraud, former Canadian CEO of Deutschebank became an Executive Director board member of Barrick’s. That individual was Tye W. Burt - the former Chairman of Deutsche Bank Canada and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown Securities Canada, and Managing Director and Head of Deutsche Bank’s Global Metals and Mining Group. Again, an executive of Khashoggi’s financial partner (Deutsche Bank Canada) is brought into a control position. Barrick’s Advisory Board Additionally, one will discover that the Advisory Board of Barrick has brought in a large number of board members that create “credibility” for Barrick: Former President George Bush (Sr.) served as Honorary Senior Advisor, Senator Howard H. Baker, a former Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate and White House Chief of Staff; and Senator William Cohen, a former U.S. Secretary of Defense have also served. Senator William Cohen, as vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was responsible for negotiating the “most significant reforms to result from the Iran/Contra hearings.” In 1989, he was the vice-chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence in the Senate. President Bush's ambassador to Canada (1989-92), Edward N. Ney, had been for many years a Bush political operative and an international coordinator of Bush's “privatized'' intelligence activities. In 1992, Ney quit as ambassador and became a director of the Barrick Gold Corp. As long time Chairman, President and CEO of Young & Rubicam Inc., the world’s largest independent advertising communications company, he founded Burson-Marsteller, a subsidiary used extensivley by groups that have been exposed as infringing on the public interest. “Burson-Marsteller (B-M) is the world's largest PR firm, with 63 offices in 32 countries and almost $200 million in income in 1994. Although its name is unknown to most people-- even to many in activist circles-- B-M is fast becoming an increasingly important cog in the propaganda machine of the new world order…. On the human rights front, B-M has represented some of the worst violators of our age. These include: · The Nigerian government during the Biafran war, to discredit reports of genocide. · The … junta that ruled Argentina during the 70's and early 80's, to attract foreign investment. · The totalitarian regime of South Korea, to whitewash the human rights situation there during the 1988 Olympics. · The Indonesian government, which got into power through a CIA- sponsored bloodbath. (It should be pointed out, however, that B-M denies that it is handling the issue of genocide in East Timor) … · the late communist Romanian despot Nicolae Ceaucescu. · Other third world human rights violators that have been represented by B-M include the governments of Singapore and Sri Lanka…. One of The Brock Group’s (TBG- a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller) top executives happens to be former Miami businessman and ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich. During the Reagan administration, the Cuban-born Reich headed the US state department's Office of Public Diplomacy (OPD), whose task was to disseminate disinformation about the Sandinistas and discourage reporting critical of the contras. This outfit, whose operations were later found to be illegal by the US General THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 173 Accounting Office, was staffed with five psychological warfare specialists from the 4th Psychological Operations Group of Fort Bragg. According to John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, the OPD...helped spread a scurrilous story that some American reporters had received sexual favors from Sandinista prostitutes in return for writing slanted stories. In 1987, after the US Congress shut down the OPD, congressman Jack Brooks called it an important cog in the (Reagan) administration's effort to manipulate public opinion and congressional action.” [Burson-Marsteller: PR for the new world order, Carmelo Ruiz, July 6, 1997, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27/061.html] Additionally, one more recently finds Andrew Young and Vernon Jordan on the Advisory Board. In wondering how these two Washington “fixers” added to the value of the company, one discovers their role in silencing a request for a congressional investigation into Barrick. … was Barrick’s Congo gold mine funding both sides of a civil war and perpetuating that bloody conflict? Only one Congressperson demanded hearings on the matter…Cynthia McKinney.... it wasn’t covered at all in the U.S. press. The New York Times wrote about McKinney that Atlanta’s prominent Black leaders -- including Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP and former Mayor Maynard Jackson -- who had supported Ms. McKinney in the past -- distanced themselves from her this time. Atlanta has four internationally recognized black leaders. Martin Luther King III did not abandon McKinney. I checked with him. Nor did Julian Bond (the Times ran a rare retraction on their website at Bond’s request). But that left Atlanta’s two other notables: Vernon Jordan and Andrew Young. Here, the Times had it right; no question that these two black faces of the Atlanta Establishment let McKinney twist slowly in the wind -- because, the Times implied, of her alleged looniness. But maybe there was another reason Young and Jordan let McKinney swing. Remember Barrick? George Bush’s former gold-mining company, the target of McKinney?s investigations? Did I mention to you that Andy Young and Vernon Jordan are both on Barrick’s payroll? Well, I just did. Did the Times mention it? I guess that wasn’t fit to print. [The Screwing of Cynthia McKinney, Greg Palast, AlterNet. June 18, 2003] Representing the Bronfman family on the Advisory Board is J. Trevor Eyton. “Eyton started his career in British intelligence's Argus-Hollinger nexus, next to media magnate Conrad Black. Since 1979, he has managed Brascan and other entities for the Bronfman family. He was appointed a Canadian senator as a reward for channelling the Bronfmans' money into buying the 1984 election for Mulroney's party, and to help get the Bush- and Mulroney-backed NAFTA three-way accord with the United States and Mexico through the Canadian Parliament. When the Bronfmans fused with Barrick, Eyton joined its board.” [http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/bushgold.htm] One also finds Lord Robert Powell, representative of the Rothschild family wealth. (His name will also appear on the Board for Diligence/New Bridge, which is connected to the events of 9/11 described in Section 8.) Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada, and Paul G Desmarais Sr, probably the wealthiest individual in Canada are also on the Board. Of special interest is Mr. Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada. Mr. Mulroney appears to be more than a passive participant who garners respectability for Barrick. Besides being on the advisory board of Barrick, he has been a Director of TrizecHahn Corporation since 1996. In 1992, prior to President’s Bush executive change to the procedures which allowed Barrick to contractually lock-up the gold reserves, Mr. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT age 174 Mulroney met with President Bush on three occasions. Mr. Mulroney, at this time was working closely with Karlheinz Schreiber, an infamous German-Canadian arms dealer. "… shortly after stepping down as prime minister in 1993, Brian Mulroney accepted $300,000 over 18 months from Karlheinz Schreiber, an infamous German-Canadian arms dealer. In cash. To help promote a fresh pasta business and develop international contacts, said a spokesman for Mr. Mulroney." [Canada’s Mulroney Baloney, Stevie Cameron, Globe & Mail, November 22, 2003] Discovery of payments from Schreiber to Mulroney was later used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to accuse Mr. Mulroney of accepting kickbacks to facilitate a $1.5 billion deal with Franz Josef Strauss, then head of the Bavarian government and chairman of Airbus Industrie. Mr. Mulroney sued for defamation, and won. "In 1995, with the RCMP digging into the circumstances surrounding the deal, a government lawyer wrote to the Swiss authorities asking them for help. The letter alleged that Mr Schreiber had used a Zurich bank account to pay the former prime minister, Brian Mulroney, a C$5m (£2.1m) kickback. Mr Mulroney sued and two years later won an apology and a settlement of C$2m. The government also apologised to Mr Schreiber, but did not offer him any compensation." [Schreiber: The man who would topple kings, The Guardian, John Hooper, January 14, 2000] The key piece of information in this story is that Mr. Mulroney had a business relationship with Karlheinz Schreiber. The question then becomes, what type of businessman is Mr. Schreiber? "Although Germany has been trying to extradite him from Canada since August, 1999, on fraud charges involving three government contracts in Canada and one in Saudi Arabia, it was Mr. Schreiber's 1991 secret political contribution of one million Deutsche marks (DM) to Germany's Christian Democrats that brought him international infamy. Delivered in a suitcase to the party's treasurer, and as usual in cash, the undeclared donation brought down Helmut Kohl, the former chancellor of Germany, in the worst political crisis in that country since the war. Known as the Spendenaffare or slush-fund scandal, it spawned two parliamentary inquiries. Investigations showed it was Mr. Schreiber who organized the payment of secret commissions on a DM 446-million deal to sell Thyssen tanks to the Saudis in the 1991 gulf war. Half the money went for secret commissions to pay bribes and kickbacks. None of this money was his own; it was provided by German munitions companies. Mr. Schreiber's job was to spread it where needed and by his own admission, his main beneficiaries were politicians. He took a percentage as his fee." [Schreiber: The man who would topple kings, The Guardian, John Hooper, January 14, 2000] Once again, a key participant in the Barrick organization is linked to individuals who have been linked to money laundering and weapons deals. Wouldn’t it seem as more than coincidence if one of the German munitions firms bank-rolling Schrieber was Dynamit Nobel, controlled by the German bank Cartel? This is a very credible group of individuals, all working to support the image of respectability for a company started by individuals repeatedly associated with investor fraud and financial misrepresentation. It is probably also of coincidence that in the months prior to acquisition of American mineral rights by Barrick, Brian Mulroney met with President Bush on three occasions. This contact may or may not have been necessary, because court documents from the Iran/Contra trials have shown that THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 175 Khashoggi on at least two occasions had direct phone contact with George Bush Sr. The two were not strangers. Step 5: Create a ‘flood’ of small transactions to cover larger gold movements. In the second suit which accused the bullion banks of illegal price fixing, initiated by Blanchard in 2003, Blanchard alleged that: "…Barrick used private derivative contracts and engaged in off-balance sheet accounting to conceal the addition of billions of dollars worth of gold…..Barrick's actions made it "virtually impossible for gold analysts and investors to determine the size and the market impact of its trading positions”….J.P. Morgan financed Barrick's alleged short selling with remarkably advantageous terms not available to others. None of the lawsuit's allegations have been proven in court." [Barrick Gold, J.P. Morgan Chase accused of manipulating gold market, CBC News Online, December 18, 2002] Analysts were essentially saying that billions of dollars of gold had been added to the market in a series on transactions that were virtually impossible to analyze. In one year alone, according to the annual report, Barrick placed over 6.8 million options – a haystack of transactions. It is speculated by this report that most of these transaction were managed through Enron’s gold trading desk, with the records of those transactions now protected by UBS, Switzerland. Step 6: Scale up the gold laundering volume based on market limitations. In 1988, when Barrick started, it reported sales of 341 thousand ounces (10 tonnes) of gold. By 2001 its annual sales of gold equaled 6.3 million ounces (194 tonnes). Its short positions for 2000 and 2001 totaled 14.3 million ounces, which is significantly more than the annual gold sales of all the central banks in the 1990’s. Global investment demand for 2000 and 2001 combined was 6.7 million ounces. (J Taylor’s Gold and Technology Stocks, Donald W Doyle, Vol. 22, No 15, 12/15/2003). Clearly, with a large assist from Bush, this fledgling gold company became the major gold mover in the world. All of these suspicions may be unfounded, but the circumstantial evidence certainly warrants thoughtful consideration and investigation: There are thousands of tonnes of illegal, stolen gold in bullion banks throughout the world, which need to be laundered. Commodity experts that watch the gold market have made claims that significant, inexplicable amounts of gold are showing up in the market. There has been no known formal investigation into the possible laundering of this gold other than the FBI investigation buried in the World Trade Center. A significant group of powerful individuals, with demonstrated links to the movement of illegal gold, have been directly involved in the creation of a gold producing company, which is now in a court battle over the legality of some of its trades. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 176 A significant group of powerful individuals with reputed connections to money laundering activity are associated with the management and ownership of this gold producing company. The success of this company in gold hedging defies expert industry expert comprehension. The company has been extremely successful mining land that industry experts thought was “doubtful” in its potential. Some of the same people that started, controlled and owned significant portions of this gold company started, controlled and owned a company that staged and ‘trained’ eleven of the 9/11 hijackers, who were involved in the destruction of the World Trade Center. This ‘terrorist’ event effectively ended the investigation in global gold movements. 7.3 Burying the Truth Someone wanted to make sure that the buildings of the World Trade Center came down, and that no one was able to remove information from the 23rd and 24th floor of the North Tower before it happened. The evidence that these floors were targeted is very substantial. There is also substantial evidence presented that other buildings in the WTC –in addition to the Twin Towers - were “targeted” as well. A key investigation into global gold movements was halted first by the destruction of evidence, and then by the removal of investigative resources. Continuing that investigation would have brought to light a host of crimes against the nations of the world. While many organizations would benefit from the closure of that investigation, one group (so far) stands out in terms of motive and capability, and a demonstrated past for involvement in comparable crimes. This is the German-Swiss bank cartel, which is connected to multiple investigations of corruption, bribery, and money laundering that were terminated by the destruction of the WTC. Other organizations stand out as being involved in activity that benefited from the cessation of the investigation, but do appear to have the same degree of motive or capability. To that extent, these other organizations and their respective leadership had a “capability” (contacts to other ‘black ops’ groups) to execute the destruction of the WTC, but the heavy involvement of rogue Israeli agents suggests a different buyer for this cover-up than a U.S. buyer. The financial organization most associated with these rogue Israeli agents, ex-KGB and Russian Mafiya figures is a group of German/Swiss banking executives. However, the German-Swiss cartel had an American partner. In Section 8, this report will demonstrate how George Bush Sr. operated through Valmet SA (a Swiss subsidiary of Riggs Bank) to penetrate the KGB and help launch the Russian oligarchs which brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. George Bush Sr., and remnants of his 1980s “Activity Group”- also known as the Iran-Contra conspirators, are also seen at the core of the motive and planning for the 9/11 conspiracy. “Conspiracy” is more than a ‘theoretical boogeyman,’ or a word which can be used as an ad hominum argument in an attempt to sidestep the real issue. “Conspiracy” is a crime recognized by 18 U.S.C. 371. "CONSPIRACY - 18 U.S.C. 371 makes it a separate Federal crime or offense for anyone to conspire or agree with someone else to do something which, if actually carried out, would amount to another THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 177 Federal crime or offense. So, under this law, a 'conspiracy' is an agreement or a kind of 'partnership' in criminal purposes in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member. In order to establish a conspiracy offense it is not necessary for the Government to prove that all of the people named in the indictment were members of the scheme; or that those who were members had entered into any formal type of agreement; or that the members had planned together all of the details of the scheme or the 'overt acts' that the indictment charges would be carried out in an effort to commit the intended crime. What the evidence in the case must show beyond a reasonable doubt is: First: That two or more persons, in some way or manner, came to a mutual understanding to try to accomplish a common and unlawful plan, as charged in the indictment; Second: That the person willfully became a member of such conspiracy; Third: That one of the conspirators during the existence of the conspiracy knowingly committed at least one of the methods (or 'overt acts') described in the indictment; and Fourth: That such 'overt act' was knowingly committed at or about the time alleged in an effort to carry out or accomplish some object of the conspiracy." [The 'Lectric Law Library's Legal Lexicon On Conspiracy] Using this definition, there has been, according to the hearsay and circumstantial evidence presented in this report, six major conspiracies: 1. Conspiracy to destroy the World Trade Center. 2. Conspiracy to fix gold prices. This conspiracy is currently be adjudicated in the US courts. 3. Conspiracy to launder illegally obtained gold. 4. Three conspiracies to cover-up complicity in each of the aforementioned conspiracies. The investigative departments of the U.S. government probably know the names of the bankers and the investors who profited from pre-knowledge of the attack, and have gone to great length to cover this up. The cover-up has not been for the benefit of the German or Israeli governments, but rather for the benefit of the German-Swiss banks, U.S. banks, the U.S. oil industry, and coincidentally, two Presidents from the Bush family, and their business partners. To reveal the truth would: · invalidate any reasons the US had for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, thus bringing to end huge profits being made in the Defense and Oil industries; · put administrators of the Bush and Clinton administrations at risk of charges and conviction of various crime ranging from price-fixing to conspiracy; · put the legacy of the Bush Presidencies at risk; · put various financial executives at risk for prison; and · expose billions of dollars of hidden slush funds, stolen from the banks and citizens of numerous countries. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 178 Most of the truth was buried with the World Trade Center –but not all! THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 179 8 Gold-Backed Bonds, Cantor Fitzgerald and the Office of Naval Intelligence A small and unseemly clue opened the door to an investigation which suggests that Cantor Fitzgerald, at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), in the Pentagon, were specific and related targets of the 9/11 attacks. This theory is corroborated by a wide range of information, which taken together suggests that while the attacks on the WTC may have been initiated to bring to an end investigations into money and gold laundering, the actual timing of September 11 was set by George Bush Sr. to cover his tracks left by a ten year old securities fraud in which he partnered with the Russian oligarchs and rogue KGB that overthrew the Soviet government. This fraud is linked to the banks and accounts which were a part of the Bank of New York money laundering scandal, and the Marcos gold theft, which served as the collateral for the securities. When one begins to ponder why investigations into what may be the world’s largest money-laundering scandal – the Bank of New York/Russian Mafiya scandal - was completely sidestepped by the U.S. judicial system, or why the Enron losses were never fully tracked down, the answer is found in the revelation that these were extensions of a Bush family foreign policy to decimate the Soviet Union. A normal day on September 11 would have begun the exposure of an illegal foreign policy and crimes that have enriched the Bush family, their political and business network and, of course, the German-Swiss bankers, and with it, their US counterparts. Just as the FBI offices on the 23rd floor of the North Tower seem to have been targeted with explosives, both Cantor Fitgerald (North Tower) and the ONI (Pentagon) seem to have been targeted for assured destruction by near-direct hits from hi-jacked airliners. A new target needs to be added to this list: Eurobrokers (South Tower). The small clue which led to further investigation and this hypothesis was found in the observation of the Director of Convar, a German company responsible for recovering data from computer hard drives recovered from the World Trade Center: "...Convar… found that there was a deluge of electronic trading just minutes before the first plane struck. Quoting a December 16 report from Reuter's, writer Kyle Henry found a compelling quotation from one of Convar's directors: Peter Henschel, director of Convar...said, 'not only the volume, but the size of the transactions was far higher than usual for a day like that.' Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert, estimated that more than $100 million in illegal transactions appeared to have rushed through the WTC computers before and during the disaster….The Reuter's story was partially confirmed …by a Deutsche Bank employee who had survived the attacks by fleeing the WTC after the first plane hit. According to the employee, about five minutes before the attack the entire Deutsche Bank computer system had been taken over by something external that no one in the office recognized and every file was downloaded at lightening speed to an unknown location." [Crossing the Rubicon, Chapter 14, Michael Ruppert ] The illegal ‘put’ options discussed earlier in the report and by all other independent reports were “stock-related.” Now, a whole new type of transaction is being unwittingly revealed. At that time of day, the only transactions being processed in the World Trade THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 180 Center were bonds and government securities. The US stock market did not open that day, and even if it had, would not have been open at the time of the attack. “The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market never opened for trading the day of the attacks. The facilities of the New York Board of Trade in Four World Trade Center were destroyed. Regional stock exchanges, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange all closed as well. European markets remained officially open but “most traders found it difficult to do much business.” (Schroeder 2001) Equity markets reopened on Monday morning, September 17.” [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper 03-16, December 23, 2003] “Trading in U.S. government securities starts at 8 a.m. in New York, and repo trading starts as early as 7 a.m. 3 “(T)he bulk of government securities cash and repo trading takes place before 9:00 a.m., … so September 11 was close to a full trading day.” (Green 2003, p. 3) According to Jeff Ingber, the general counsel for the Government Securities Clearing Corporation, on the morning of September 11, some $500 billion in repo transactions and about $80 billion in government securities trades had already been executed when the planes hit. (Shephard 2002) Reconciling these trades would occupy backoffice personnel for weeks.” [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper 03-16, December 23, 2003] There were only three companies in the WTC that serviced government securities and “repos” (A repurchase agreement -“repo” or “RP”- is a sale of securities coupled with an agreement to repurchase the securities at a higher price on a later date): · Cantor Fitzgerald, (which lost 661 of its employees when the high-jacked airline hit the tower immediately below its offices in the North Tower.) · Garbon Inter-capital (now ICAP PLC, on the 25th and 26th floor of the North Tower, sitting right over the destroyed FBI offices), and · Euro Brokers (a much smaller broker, which lost 60 employees when the high-jacked airline hit the tower immediately below its offices in the South Tower). Had the towers not collapsed, it is fair to surmise that the three government bond operations would have been effectively compromised. Of the three bond traders, Cantor Fitzgerald was by far the largest, being the largest government securities trader in the world and moving up to a half of the U.S. securities. “the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which also keeps tabs on primary-dealer trading activity (but on a delayed basis), says primary dealer trades with interdealer brokers averaged $101 billion a day last year, while primary dealer trades with others averaged $86 billion a day. Cantor doesn't disclose volume numbers, but it claims to do more than 50% of all interdealer trades in the Treasury market and more than 90% of all interdealer trades of the 30-year Treasury bond.” [http://www.thestreet.com/tsc/basics/tscglossary/govpx.html] Co-incidentally, in August of 2001, the Deutschebank – the bank of origin for numerous illegal stock trades or “put options” made in the days preceding the attack- had just signed an agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald to install Cantor Fitzgerald’s eSpeed trading system. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 181 “On August 1, 2001 eSpeed announced that it had signed an agreement with Deutsche Bank, one of the world's leading international financial service providers, whereby the European bank will channel its electronic market-making engines and liquidity for a broad range of European fixed income products through the eSpeed® system. The agreement makes eSpeed a primary distribution channel for Deutsche Bank in the wholesale market. This liquidity arrangement with Deutsche Bank furthers eSpeed's goal to become the leading fixed income trading platform in Europe.” [eSpeed Reports Record Second Quarter 2001 Results, August 1, 2001 - eSpeed, Inc.] At the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald was reported to set up operations with Buttonwood International Group and PNB Paribas. “…the eSpeed New Jersey office provided electronic trading services in derivatives and commodities using a software package called TreasuryConnect, which had been bought from an Enron subsidiary and licenced on August 1, 2001 to …Global Custodian and …BNP Paribas. By September 11, 2001, BNP Paribas had a network of about 70 global trade centers operating 24/7 around the world…. By hitting the 89th floor of One World Trade Center, al-Qaeda’s first-time pilot hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11, managed to miss the Buttonwood ‘Global Custodians’ offices on the 79th floor below, while killing all of their Cantor-eSpeed competitors on the 101st floor and above.” [9/11 and the mob, Judi McLeod & David Hawkins, July 11, 2005] Without the actual trade data (which the FBI has, according to Convar) it stands to reason that most, if not all, of these ‘illegal trades’ on September 11were being pumped through Cantor Fitzgerald – the largest of the US bond traders, the only company which had no on-site survivors that day, and the company that had just set up computerized trading with the source bank of the illegal stock trades. Information on these reported ‘illegal’ trades was recovered by Convar and given to the FBI, and subsequently “buried” by the FBI and the 9/11 Commission. “Henschel said the companies in the United States were working together with the FBI… to piece together what happened on September 11 and that he was confident the destination of the dubious transactions would one day be tracked down....we've still been able to retrieve 100 percent of the data on most of the drives we've received. We're helping them find out what happened to the computers on September 11 as quickly as possible. I'm sure that one day they will know what happened to the money…” [German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals. Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters, December 16, 2001] With a small clue leading to two strange coincidences and a potential cover-up, all of which point to Cantor Fitzgerald, the question should be asked: Was there specific reason for Cantor Fitzgerald to be targeted? In researching the background of Cantor Fitzgerald, there are five reference points that provide further grounds for suspicion that the Cantor Fitzgerald office was a specific target. These include: 1. At least seven of the top Cantor Fitzgerald executives were absent from the office at the time of the attack. The President of Cantor Fitzgerald was taking his child to a first day of kindergarten, and six more executives were scheduled for a fishing trip that day. The trip was reportedly cancelled due to inclement weather at 8:00 am, but every picture of the WTC that day shows cloudless skies. Moreover, theses charters THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 182 generally leave between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning, and if the charter was to be cancelled, it would have been cancelled a lot earlier. “… a six-member eSpeed carbon-credit trading team escaped death. Their annual one-day fishing trip had to be cancelled about 8 a.m. on the fateful morning of September 11, due to alleged bad weather over the Atlantic. Can anyone confirm the weather? New York looked pretty sunny. Hearing that the Twin Towers had been hit, the six lucky fishers hightailed it to New Jersey, to what Joseph Noviello, executive vice president said of Rochelle Park, N.J., "where we had duplicates of everything that was destroyed at our offices in the world Trade Center.” [9/11 and the mob, Judi McLeod & David Hawkins, July 11, 2005] What then seems so out-of-place about seven executives being absent from work during peak trading hours? Three of these executives had been key participants in a US Navy/Cantor-Fitgerald sponsored, wargame simulation of an attack on US securities just a year earlier. One of the three, Retired Admiral William ( aka Bud or Bill) Flanagan, is identified as a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Group International. Bill Flanagan’s role in this theory is of import because he seems to have 1) had a major role in the ‘economic war games’ which should have been conducted simultaneously with the other six simulations being executed that day, 2) had corporate responsibility for two firms that benefited financially from the tragedies of 9/11 (Titan and CACI), and 3) had responsibility for a third firm that may have played a role in the actual attack (Raytheon). · Washington Group International had just purchased the Engineering Division of Raytheon. Raytheon had five executives die on three of the four attack flights that day, and Raytheon would be reported to have been responsible for retrofitting planes on behalf of the Defense Department (in secured civilian hangars,) to look like the plane that hit the Pentagon. “According to two civilian defense contractor employees working at commercial corporate facilities at Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport (left), in the months before the September 11 attacks U.S. Air Force defense contractors brought in A-3 Sky Warrior aircraft under cover of darkness to be completely refitted and modified at the small civilian airport in Colorado. The revelations are important evidence for a reportedly ongoing secret 9/11 probe because widely available Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) photographs taken during the attacks clearly show that the few aircraft parts found at the Pentagon belonged to a small jet very similar to a modified A-3 Sky Warrior--not the American Airlines Boeing 757…. Air-traffic controllers from the Washington, DC sector originally said the incoming plane was a military jet according to reports; but no grand jury has called them to testify and they have been strangely gagged from speaking out. "Only the Raytheon executives and the Air Force would have known which team installed a particular system on the A-3 and who was involved in the operation," said Schwarz. Coincidentally, five key Raytheon executives died on 9-11: Stanley Hall--Director of Electronic warfare program management (American 77), Peter Gay--VP of Electronic Systems on special assignment at the El Segundo, CA division office where the Global Hawk UAV remote control system is made (American 11), Kenneth Waldie--Senior Quality Control Engineer for Electronic Systems (American 11), David Kovalcin--Senior Mechanical Engineer for Electronic Systems (American 11), and Herbert Homer--Corporate Executive working with the Department of Defense (United 175). THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 183 Curiously, the five Raytheon executives chose three of the four doomed jets and all happened to fly on September 11.” [Fort Collins, Colorado, May 26, 2005, TomFlocco.com] · Washington Group International would later benefit significantly from military contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq. “On April 4, 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Transatlantic Programs Center announced that it had awarded three contracts "to rapidly execute design and construction services as needed anywhere" in the area of operations for the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM). The one-year contracts, awarded to Fluor Intercontinental, Perini Corporation and Washington Group International, are indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contracts with a guaranteed minimum value of $500,000 and a maximum of $100 million. In late September 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued additional task orders totaling $278 million on the three contracts, and the Corps decided to raise the contract ceiling from $100 million to $500 million.” “According to the Pentagon, the same U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracts won by Washington Group International, along with Fluor Continental and Perini, will cover work performed by the companies in Afghanistan. There, they will rebuild damaged roads and replace a destroyed bridge in Afghanistan as part of their individual contracts to support CENTCOM. Those contracts have a minimum value of $500,000 and a maximum of $500 million.” [Center for Public Integrity] · Flanagan would then become a VP of Titan Corp., the Defense contractor responsible for those contractors charged in the Abu Ghraib torture cases, and according to this report’s speculation, the murder of Nick Berg. Titan Corp. is also a major owner of Skyways Aircraft, a business partner with another shell company called Royal Sons Inc. of St Petersburg, FL. This latter company used a mailing address which was the same as Huffman Aviation, which was the flight training school used by 9/11 hijackers. According to SEC documents, in early February of 2000 Titan put up $72,386 for restricted shares of a shell company Farkas created which later became SkyWay. …Several top executives of SkyWays Aircraft, the American firm which owned the DC9 in partnership with Royal Sons Inc. of St Petersburg, FL. including the company’s President, James Kent, are former members of U.S. military intelligence….The plane's registered owner, “Royal Sons LLC,” a Florida air charter company, at one time used the address of a hanger at the Venice Fl. Airport owned by infamous flight school Huffman Aviation. No one at the Venice Airport remembered them. [Dusty & 'the boys' II: Secrets of the Black Budget Scandal, Daniel Hopsicker, MadCow Morning News, May 7 2007] The “war games” connection is important and disturbing. As documented later in this report, Cantor Fitzgerald had, in 1997 and 2000, participated in official US war games. At least six major U.S. war games were under way on September 11, having been “rescheduled” from their original date in October. (The question needs to be asked and answered: why were the games rescheduled, and why was the September 11th date chosen?) There has to be an assumption that in a major war game exercise, Cantor would have been involved again. Flanagan and the other executives involved in supporting those games should have been at the office, but were not. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 184 2. Cantor Fitzgerald has what is described in the press as a long-standing relationship with the Office of Naval Intelligence, the one and only intelligence group that had offices remaining in the section of the Pentagon that was struck by the attacking flight. “Mr. Barnett's work with Cantor Fitzgerald…stemmed from a long-standing relationship between the firm and the Naval War College.” [At The Pentagon, Quirky PowerPoint Carries Big Punch: In a World of 'Gap' States, Mr. Barnett Urges Generals To Split Forces in Two, Greg Jaffe, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2004] What defines the nature of the long-standing relationship has yet to be defined. At least one internet blogger has commented that Cantor-Fitzgerald was able to somehow provide an alternative source of funding for defense projects that somehow were not approved by Congress. There has been no verification of this claim. Nevertheless, the Navy had worked with Cantor-Fitzgerald over the prior four years in at least two war games: 2000, and 1997. The 1997 participation by Cantor Fitzgerald is documented in: “Jeffrey Sands, The Critical Link: Financial Implications of Threats to National Security (a report on the Economic Security Exercise, cosponsored by the U.S. Naval War College and Cantor Fitzgerald, Newport, R.I., December 1997.”) A relevant piece of information notes that it was William Flanagan, as a representative for Cantor Fitzgerald, that approached Mr Barnett to lead this work. 3. A group of Cantor Fitzgerald executives and traders had been the primary ‘financial/private sector’ participants in economic war games the year earlier, and in 1997 as well. These war games had been set up, and participated in by various U.S. intelligence agencies and the Council on Foreign Relations, and run out of the Cantor Fitzgerald offices. It is of notable coincidence that the few published notes on the games indicated the primary trades analyzed during the games were trades in government securities, oil and gold. The coincidence is rooted in the observation that it is these three types of assets that have become the focal point of nearly any and all contrarian theories explaining the events of 9/11. “Early in the year 2000, I was approached by senior executives of the Wall Street bond firm Cantor Fitzgerald. They asked me to oversee a unique research partnership between the firm and the Naval College that would later yield a series of high-powered war games involving national security policymakers, Wall Street heavyweights, and academic experts. Our shared goal was to explore how Globalization was remaking the global security environment-in other words, the Pentagon's New Map.” [Thomas P.M. Barnett, the Pentagon's New Map] “On Jan. 22, 2000, the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Project held its second big event: a scenario of a global financial meltdown, run as a war-game simulation at its Manhattan headquarters. For the simulation, the CFR conscripted 75 people, including bankers, former Treasury Secretaries, and former State Department officials. Participants were divided into four teams, sent into four rooms, with the ability to communicate with each other and with a command headquarters through the computers. The four teams covered 1) monetary-financial, which dealt with the functions of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; 2) economic and trade, which dealt with the functions of the U.S. Treasury Department; 3) regulatory matters; and 4) national security—…former CIA director James Woolsey played the role of Secretary of Defense. … a major objective of the exercise was to bail out the financial markets. According to an article in the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 185 March 10 issue of Euromoney magazine, written by an eyewitness reporter during the simulation, two of the largest mutual funds in America went to the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that they were experiencing redemption rates that could threaten their firms. The article reported, "They need an injection of cash to meet the payments without having to dump their portfolio on the market at fire-sale rates. . . . on the panel was four-star Adm. William Flanagan (ret.)” [CFR Bankers Plan for Financial Crash, Richard Freeman, Executive Intelligence Review, July 28, 2000] A list of participants in the economic war game, suggests that Cantor Fitzgerald, the U.S. Navy and various intelligence operations dominated the simulation. (Note that the Cantor Fitzgerald ‘executives’ involved in the games “survived,’ and the Cantor Fitzgerald ‘traders’ were victims.) - ADM William Flanagan, USN (ret), securities director, Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Philip Ginsberg, financial director, Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Calvin Gooding, trader, Cantor Fitzgerald LP (Died in 9/11 attack) - Kent Karosen, director, Cantor Fitzgerald LP - Glenn Kirwin, senior trader, Cantor Fitzgerald LP (Died in 9/11 attack) - Norm Green, deputy national intelligence officer for science & technology, National Intelligence Council - Damian Harte, vice president, Westdeutsche Landesbank G.Z. - Carolyn Landry, banking and finance analyst, National Intelligence Council - RADM Peter Long, Provost, U.S. Naval War College - John Rice, U.S. Treasurer, Citicorp Bank - CDR Gary Shrout, public affairs officer, U.S. Naval War College - Robert Stevens, National Information Protection Center, FBI - Robert S. Wood, dean, U.S. Naval War College. - Charles Nemfakos, Senior Civilian Official for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management and Comptroller (ASN (FM&C). - Leif Rosenberger, Economic Advisor to Admiral Blair, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command.’s chief economic intelligence analyst. , Soviet foreign policy/Asian analyst at CIA - Douglas H. Paal, senior analyst for the CIA The disturbing element of this information is that on September 11, there were a number of officially sanctioned war games under way. “During the September 11, 2001 attacks the US was holding multiple annual and one-time war games with at least one resembling the actual attacks. The war games included: · a National Reconnaissance Office exercise on September 11, in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure. The NRO, whose name was classified until 1992[1], is the branch of the CIA in charge of spy satellites.[2] · Global Guardian, an annual exercise that would pose an imaginary crisis to the United States Strategic Command. It had been running for several days. The exercise allegedly involved a simulated Russian bomber attack. [3] Global Guardian is performed in conjunction with Vigilant Guardian, the annual training exercise (usually occurring in October) conducted by NORAD as well as exercises under the direction of Air Combat Command (Crown Vigilance) and US Space Command (Apollo Guardian)[4]. "Vigilant Guardian" is a HQ-sponsored CPx (Command Post Exercise), meaning it is conducted in offices and with computers, but without actual planes in the air. All of NORAD was involved in "Vigilant Guardian"[5]. However, it did include radar injects, or false blips, which could explain the FAA's observation of a 'phantom flight 11' on FAA radar well after the plane struck the WTC and after NORAD claims to have called off all war games. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 186 · Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD live-fly (confirmed by its second name 'warrior') exercise mentioned in Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies page 4-5 (possibly the same as Vigilant Guardian, or possibly the complementary "offense" or "red team" portion of the drill involving real planes acting as simulated hijacked plane) · Operation Northern Vigilance, which involved deploying fighter jets to locations in Alaska and northern Canada. According to the Toronto Star: " Part of this exercise is pure simulation, but part is real world: NORAD is keeping a close eye on the Russians, who have dispatched long-range bombers to their own high north on a similar exercise." Planned on September 11, it was called off when the Federal Aviation Administration had evidence of a hijacking [6]. · Operation Northern Guardian "In late August 2001, two-thirds of the 27th Fighter Squadron are sent overseas. Six of the squadron's fighters and 115 people go to Turkey to enforce the no-fly zone over northern Iraq as part of Operation Northern Watch. Another six fighters and 70 people are sent to Iceland to participate in "Operation Northern Guardian." These were real-world operations which resulted in many fighters from Langley AFB to be unavailable for scrambling on 9/11.[7] · TRIPOD II, a joint FEMAand Department of Justice biowarfare vaccination exercise, scheduled for September 12 at New York's Pier 29, and revealed in testimony by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the 9/11 Commission. The command center assembled at Pier 29 was used for FEMA response to the events of 9/11 after Giuliani's Office of Emergency Management offices were evacuated and later destroyed in WTC 7. The Vigilant Guardian war game was discussed in chapter 1, footnote 116 of the 9/11 Commission Report: "116. On 9/11, NORAD was scheduled to conduct a military exercise, Vigilant Guardian, which postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union. We investigated whether military preparations for the large-scale exercise compromised the military's response to the real-world terrorist attack on 9/11.” [War games in progress on September 11, 2001, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.] Other than the curious coincidence of these war games being re-scheduled for September 11 is the learning that the normal practice for these war games is to schedule them in October. “Thompson (Paul Thompson, the 9/11 Timeline) cites multiple reports (see 8:30 am) indicating that Global Guardian is normally held in October, and that the run-through in 2001 was in fact originally scheduled for late October and then re-scheduled for early September at some point after March 2001. Who made that scheduling decision? That may be the most crucial question of all in determining the criminal culpability for 9/11 among US officials.” [New Wargames Findings, Nicholas Levis, 9/11Truth.org, Aug. 2005] Additionally, it is noteworthy that the New York Federal Reserve was coincidentally operating out of its back-up data facility on September 11. “On September 11, we at the Federal Reserve never had to shift our Fedwire operations. On that day the operations were being managed by staff at our backup facility, a procedure we undertake regularly. Fedwire was up and running at all times.” [Jamie B. Stewart, Jr., First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, remarks before the Bankers' Association for Finance and Trade, April 25, 2002] If the Navy had this relationship with Cantor-Fitzgerald, and had made economic attacks a part of their war gaming drills during two prior occasions, it seems appropriate to assume that on September 11, an employee(s) of Cantor-Fitzgerald might have been tasked with running computer simulations of an economic attack on the US securities market, not knowing a real attack was underway. In the simulaton, one would have a computer program the simulates an “attacking” server and a THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 187 “response” server. One server simulates buys, and the other simulates sells. It does not take a lot of effort to switch simulations from targeting test database servers to real-life production database servers. However, if the war game servers are simulating banks, none of the originating bank trade data ever gets copied to a disaster recovery server (test servers are not copied to disaster recovery sites), nor does it get found on an originating bank server. Hence, under a scenario like this, one half of the clearing and settlement data would be missing – which is exactly what caused and led to the US securities settlement problems in the weeks that followed the attack. (This situation is described at length further on in this Section.) At least two of the traders who knew how to run those programs were present and died in the attack. One of the many strange observations from the technology reviews of the events September 11 is that the government security trading system(s) never went down and trade data was never lost! Much is made on Convar’s observation that there was lost data of illegal trades, but subsequent reports suggest the data was never really lost! "All the data and software was mirrored to Rochelle Park," said Noviello, adding that the facility was established as a full-fledged data center, not just a recovery site, in February. Many Rochelle Park systems are primary, as well as backup… A triangular architecture, with points at the WTC, Rochelle Park and London connected by DS 3 pipes, worked exactly as planned. "When one corner went down, we never stopped trading," Kiewel said. "The system kept functioning in Europe and Asia." …said Noviello, adding, "we did not lose any data." [Cantor Fitzgerald - Forty- Seven Hours, Edward Cone, CIO Insight and Sean Gallagher, October 29, 2001, Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in eWEEK] “With many key facilities for the fixed income markets located in or near the World Trade Center, the loss of communication services prevented market participants from interacting with one another and with clearing and settlement providers, such as the GSCC and the Bank of New York (BONY). Clearing and settlement of fixed income transactions in general was a major problem in the days and weeks after the attacks, especially since the bulk of government securities cash and repo trading occurs early in the day – meaning that significant amounts of data from the IDBs on almost a full day’s trading in this area was lost and had to be meticulously reconstructed. BONY, which was the clearing bank for many major market participants and maintained some ofGSCC’s settlement accounts, had to evacuate four facilities including its primary telecommunications data center and over 8,300 staff located near the WTC. BONY conducted processing activities as part of clearing and settlement of government securities transactions at several of these facilities. …The critical payment systems, such as Fedwire and CHIPS, continued to operate with minimal disruption on September 11, 2001. While both Fedwire and CHIPS (as well as some of their customers/users) were affected by communications disruptions in the aftermath of the terrorist strikes, transactions could continue being processed because the actual processing facilities are not located in lower Manhattan. Retail payment systems, including check clearing and ACH transactions, also generally fared well following the attacks and continued to operate without significant disruptions. Some check clearing functions were delayed, however, due to the grounding of air transportation. The U.S. banking system as a whole continued to function relatively smoothly on and after September 11, 2001.” [Survey and Analysis of Security Issues in the U.S. Banking and Finance Sector – September 2003 Institute for Security Technology Studies AT Dartmouth College , Copyright 2003] What a detailed review of the technology experts review of activities that day suggests is that the primary trading systems did not go down and data was not lost THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 188 because of system redundancy, mirroring, and extensive back-up centers. What did fail was the telecommunications infrastructure which prevented buyers and sellers of securities from making “subsequent” trades. Hence, the settlement and clearing data should have been “whole,” and a securities buy record and sell records should have been able to be matched in the setllement process. There is one last element of the settlement process that was disrupted by the attack on the WTC. The actual certificates for the securities were destroyed. “The difficulty with lost certificates was dramatically demonstrated during the September 11,2001, tragedy when thousand of certificates were destroyed in vaults maintained by brokerdealers.” [Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 151 / Tuesday, August 6, 2002 / Notices] “Settlement: The Central Securities Depository (CSD) implements the settlement instructions: securities are delivered, and funds paid. The depository controls the actual securities, and so can register and transfer ownership. …. However, some trades, such as mortgage-backed securities, still require physical movement of paperwork. The deal is not complete and “irrevocable” until this is done.” [Harvard Research Group Experience- Expertise- Insight- Results Harvard Research Group, Inc. Copyright © 2003 Harvard Research Group] (There will be some readers who observe that securities no longer require ‘physical certificates,’ and in many cases this is true. In fact, many US government securities are managed that way. Unfortunately, the certificates that were at the core of this plot had to be physical, because they were originally created for cross-border transactions, and the evidence cited from the Federal Register indicates they did indeed exist. One internet blogger argued that if the certificates needed to be destroyed, that would not warrant destroying the whole complex. In fact, all indications are, including on-line testimonial from a Garbon employee, that the certificates were held in vaults in the basement of the Tower.) An overview of this situation is worth providing: Illegal trades were reported on September 11, which had to be government securities trades, as the stock markets had not yet opened. Computers at Cantor Fitzgerald are known to have hosted programs that simulate attacks on US securities. These programs should have been operational on September 11 as part of a broader synchronization of Department of Defense War Games. The terrorist attack on the financial center of the US failed to bring down any core trading system or Cantor Fitzgerald’s eSpeed trading system. The only trading system that reported problems was the securities clearing and settlement system, which publicly attributed its problems to communication failures with the Bank of New York. As will be demonstrated in Section 8.1 Federal Reserve and the Elimination of Regulatory Control, the Clearing process was hung up for weeks on an inability to “match”, although the matching data is reported to have been whole. This issue has never been publicly addressed in any article or speech by the Federal Reserve, and can only be identified by the ‘orders’ issued by the Federal Reserve in the aftermath of September 11. This ‘matching’ had nothing to do with the Bank of THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 189 New York’s telecommunications problems, and had everything to do with missing seller data and certificates. 4. Cantor Fitzgerald has been reported as the “holder” of $240 billion of ten year old ‘Durham/Brady Bonds’ that were due on or around September 11th. (There are no officially classified, “Brady Bonds” from the “Brady Plan” for the Russian debt, – but because of the similar purpose of these $240 Billion in bonds, they are continually referred to in the press as such.) These bonds were reported to have been put into the market by Alan Greenspan, Oliver North, and George Bush Sr. in 1991, backed by gold securities and Swiss gold bullion, backed (in full or part) by the “Durham Trust”. The interesting aspect of these accusations is that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve– a privately held, commercial group of banks – and the President of the United States are reported to have illegally created these securities, and the ONI – destroyed in the attack on the Pentagon – was hot on the trail of these securities. “Sioux City, Iowa -- July 25, 2005 TomFlocco.com -- According to leaked documents from an intelligence file obtained through a military source in the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), on or about September 12, 1991 non-performing and unauthorized gold-backed debt instruments were used to purchase ten-year "Brady" bonds. The bonds in turn were illegally employed as collateral to borrow $240 billion--120 in Japanese Yen and 120 in Deutsch Marks--exchanged for U.S. currency under false pretenses; or counterfeit and unlawful conversion of collateral against which an unlimited amount of money could be created in derivatives and debt instruments…. The illegal transactions are also linked to the murder of a U.S. Army colonel charged with overseeing approximately 175 secret CIA bank accounts, according to the officer’s wife, Mrs. V. K. Durham. During multiple interviews, Durham told TomFlocco.com that Bush 41 and Clinton administration officials visited her husband Colonel Russell Hermann several times in the months prior to and three days before his torture and murder on August 29, 1994. Durham told us that Colonel Hermann told her "Bush, Greenspan and North were trying to get me to sign off on the CI Ltd., the Central Intelligence, Ltd. Iran and Latin American contra accounts. They held about $13-17 billion in physical gold." Durham told us the $240 billion in stolen currency was obtained resulting from George H. W. Bush’s presidential abuse of power, when he authorized former Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady and former Secretary of State James Baker III to make fraudulent use of the Durham Family Trust collateral without her permission. There is evidence that Colonel Hermann’s and V. K. Durham’s signatures were forged on a Goldman-Sachs bank account certification requesting the conversions to U.S. currency. The money was never repaid since the ten-year Brady bonds--purchased before September 13, 1991 using the fraudulent collateral and gold bullion as security came due on September 12, 2001--the day after the 9.11 attacks, having allegedly been underwritten and held by the trustee, Cantor-Fitzgerald bond brokerage firm [whose offices on floors101-105 in the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) were destroyed on 9.11 along with the Brady bond evidence…. Durham called Dave Ehler, a staff-member to her congressman, Iowa Representative Steve King (R-5-IA), to tell him that Bush, Greenspan and North were in her husband’s hospital room three days before his murder and to introduce him to three separate witnesses who identified the three and described the encounters to Ehler--one who saw North in Hermann’s hospital room on a separate occasion, one who witnessed (along with Durham) Colonel Hermann’s statement regarding the Bush Sr--Greenspan--North visit to his hospital room, and one who saw the actual murder contract on Colonel Hermann’s life and told Ehler he is in possession of the transcript. Durham said the conversations with Ehler were tape recorded and moved to multiple secure locations to protect the evidence.” “Durham, 69 and living in Iowa, has also contacted her senator, Banking Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) and along with her congressman, Representative Steve King (R-5-IA), THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 190 provided both with all the evidence in this report and much more; however, Durham said both legislators were told "not to investigate" by officials at the very highest levels of government. Dave Ehler, the aide from Congressman King’s Storm Lake, Iowa office (tape-recorded by Durham) told her that "orders had come down from the top: ‘do not investigate.’" Durham told us that a Central Intelligence agent said Cantor-Fitzgerald held the 10-year Brady bonds; and her secure family trust was the owner of Bonus Commodity Contract 3392 and Certificate of Debt Number 181 of May 1, 1875 [Special Bonus Certificate No. 3392/181], originally issued by the government of Peru in 1875 and illegally used by the U.S. government as the collateral to purchase the bonds which secured the currency transfers--all of which came due in the middle of the September 11 attacks. ONI officials themselves--some of whom were probing the fraudulent 10-year debt instruments allegedly held by Cantor-Fitzgerald in the doomed North Tower--also perished along with the investigation files, all of which were curiously in the path of the 9.11 Pentagon impact.” [Cash payoffs, bonds and murder linked to White House 9/11 finance, Tom Flocco, tomflocco.com] It appears that someone in the ONI was investigating these transactions, and released the same evidentiary documents to multiple sources: “In fact, it appears that such bogus gold certificates are being used in some interesting ways by certain Wall Street and Washington types to artificially prop up the U.S. economy to cover up the fraudulent numbers…. I now have in my possession evidence, and sent it out overnight to 10 other secure sources to protect the information, that a 10-year Brady Bond deal was being worked on and closed toward in the end of 1991, or was to have matured and been due somewhere on or after September 11, 2001.… Part of the story can be found by looking into Securities and Exchange Commission v. John D'Aquisto Securities. The name of John D'Aquisto (convicted) also appears numerous times as do Merkav International and Marion Aiken (convicted), First Guilford Financial Limited, London, but domiciled in Isle of Man … along with three of its officers Steve Billand, Charles A.M. Duncan, Jeff Muller, and others related to other companies in Russia, Australia, Ireland, the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, all patterns to look for in picking up the trails of such scams. It is the "multi-jurisdiction" facet that makes these deals hard to detect, track and litigate for fraud. It is by design and intent so they can perpetrate fraud and get away with it. One of the D'Aquisto documents was from a "Bay State Trust" based in Zurich, dated 10 September 1991, and just more of a trail that needs to be fully investigated due to the contents of that letter.” [Part 4: More reasons to not investigate 9-11, Karl W. B. Schwarz] The exposure of these bonds, which lend new meaning to Alan Greenspan’s oft referred to “unconventional” monetary tools, and the testimony that their settlement date coincided with 9/11, support a theory that Cantor Fitzgerald was a specific target of the attack. It would certainly provide a compelling argument of motive for administration complicity in the attack. Having $240 Billion in bonds fail in public might cause a crisis, such as that predicted by the Russian Intelligence and the Dresdner bank. The Russians and Germans were forecasting a financial catastrophe for late August of 1991. Their ability to do so is consistent with the documentation that the bonds were made payable in Deutschmarks and Yen, and were used by George Bush Sr. to buoy (or buy) the Russian economy in early September 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian and German ability to forsee this matter is also consistent with the not widely reported ‘fake advice notices’ used to steal $220 billion from the Soviet Treasury. (See Appendix C of this Report.) Both the Russians, who received the funding, and the Germans (via the Deutschbank), who were also involved in the transaction, were in a position to understand the magnitude of the financial crisis created by the inability to settle these THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 191 bonds. (As an interesting note, at the time, Germany and Japan, whose currency was used to finance the fraudulent transactions, were considered “enemies” of the US foreign policy team. Zalmay Khalizad, who was drafting US policy statements at the time for Wolfowitz and Bush, suggested that “competition with Japan and Germany should be confined to economics; the United States should make sure it had no military rivals.” [Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann, Penguin, 2004, p211.]) 5. Cantor Fitzgerald had a track record of willingness to ignore multiple aspects of legal and financial regulations. In 1997 and 1999, Cantor Fitzgerald was found guilty in false representation of securities ownership, false documentation and related illegal activities. “The CFTC order finds that Cantor violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by aiding and abetting the fraud and registration violations of First Republic Financial Corporation, formerly known as Vancorp Financial Services (VFS), an unregistered commodity pool operator. The CFTC order finds that, although Cantor became aware that VFS falsely represented the ownership of a securities trading account VFS had opened in its own name, Cantor allowed the account to be traded in VFS' name. The account was actually owned by a commodity pool, the order finds. The order also finds that Cantor failed to determine the ownership of the VFS account, and failed to obtain the trading authority needed to allow VFS to enter trades in this account. In addition, the order finds that Cantor assisted VFS in obtaining $950,000 to which VFS was not entitled by making wire transfer payments to First Republic Securities, a wholly owned subsidiary of VFS, out of customer funds held in the account at Cantor.” [CFTC ACCEPTS SETTLEMENT OF CANTOR FITZGERALD & CO. CHARGED WITH AIDING AND ABETTING FRAUD AND REGISTRATION VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL COMMODITY LAW, Release: # 3987-97 (CFTC Docket No. 94-14), January 28, 1997] “Factual Summary: In connection with its activities as a Nasdaq market maker, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. engaged in the following activities …1. The Fraudulent Coordination of Quote Movements….2. Undisclosed Arrangements to Coordinate Quotations….3. Best Execution Violations (Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. failed, or caused the failure,to provide best execution in the handling of customer orders in one or more of the respects) ….4. Failure to Honor Quotations….5. Failure to Keep Accurate Books and Records….6. Failure to Reasonably Supervise Nasdaq Trading….7. Unlawful Profits and Other Gains….” [SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING, File No. 3-9803, January 11, 1999] These facts support the reports there were $240 billion in fraudulent securities being handled by Cantor Fitzgerald, an organization proven to have abetted similar frauds across multiple accounts. A year earlier, a group of Cantor Fitzgerald’s traders and executives participated in providing analysis to the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Council on Foreign Relations on the impact of a financial attack on the US. To do such, they would have needed to create a massive computer simulations of trades, the programs for which could easily be used to pump volumes of actual illegal trades into the real-life system. With war games being held on September 11, staff at Cantor Fitzgerald may have been running those simulations again. To anyone else, running those programs during the actual war games would seem appropriate and justified. The only variable that such a plot would require is an ability to totally disregard the SEC’s legal “settlement process,” which could only be accomplished one way: to declare a national emergency THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 192 and enact a clause in the Securities and Exchange Act which allows it to be suspended in case of a national emergency. Once the illegal trades were in the system, they would have to be settled with Federal Reserve. $240 billion in illegal transactions might be a little difficult to sweep under the carpet. Coincidentally, the attack on the World Trade Center has been the only occasion in which the emergency powers of the Securities and Exchange Act have been enacted, which allow the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to not only over-ride the formal settlement process, but virtually every control on reporting and ownership as well. If the transactions had to be swept under the carpet, September 11 was the only time in US history that it could be done. 8.1 Federal Reserve and the Elimination of Regulatory Control A review of actions taken by the Federal Reserve in the days and weeks following the attack on the World Trade Center reinforces the theory that the attack was used to coverup illegal trades with the support of the Federal Reserve. (Please note, that contrary to popular belief, the Federal Reserve is not an agency of the US Government, but a commercial affiliation of privately held banks.) “The Court of Appeals, Poole, Circuit Judge, held that federal reserve banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the Act, but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations. …Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region. The stockholding commercial banks elect two thirds of each Bank's nine member board of directors. The remaining three directors are appointed by the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board regulates the Reserve Banks, but direct supervision and control of each Bank is exercised by its board of directors.” [Lewis v. United States, 680 F.2d 1239 (1982), No. 80-5905, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit., Decided April 19, 1982, As Amended June 24, 1982.] Hence, the SEC activities following the attack on the WTC could only have happened with the approval of those who owned the Federal Reserve Banks. “According to the N.Y. Fed itself, as of June 30, 1997 the top eight shareholders were • Chase Manhatten Bank • Citibank • Morgan Guaranty Trust Company • Fleet Bank • Bankers Trust • Bank of New York • Marine Midland Bank • Summit Bank.” [Myth #5. The Federal Reserve is owned and controlled by foreigners, Edward Flaherty, Ph.D. Department of Economics College of Charleston, S.C, http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3616/flaherty5.html]. Of these eight banks, five of them were extensively involved in the 1989 Russian currency destabilization program: Chase, Citibank, Morgan, Bank of New York and Marine Midland. One of them - the Bank of NewYork – was extensively reported to be involved in the laundering of Russian accounts owned by the very individuals this report THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 193 links to the 1991 fraud. It was also one of two clearing and settlement operations which would have cleared and settled $240 billion in fraudulent notes under the relaxed rules about to be discussed. While the rouble destabilization program has never been officially recognized, the evidence for its occurrence has been documented. “The national debt rose steeply, and there was no source that could increase government revenue. The currency came under great pressure. In 1991, Prime Minister Pavlov warned that foreign forces were engineering an organised attack on the rouble. Reddaway and Glinsky point out that in the prevailing atmosphere of euphoria, he was ridiculed. But now this attack on the rouble between 1989 and 1991 is a documented matter. Authors quote from a book by an American journalist, Claire Sterling, which gives details of the senseless traffic in roubles. She described how trucks and railway cars full of rouble notes were seen in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzer-land, Italy and Poland. The Soviet embassy in Rome was actively involved in the transportation and sale of these bank notes. Sterling's book also describes a worldwide operation of currency dealers and money launderers involving several Western banks. Reddaway and Glinsky think that there must be more than profitmaking to this criminal activity. They maintain that anyone interested in the break-up of the Soviet Union would also have a keen interest in subverting the Soviet currency. Furthermore, those involved in the narcotics trade wanted to invest in Russian property, and they wanted some front-men in Russia who could launder their money.” [“Russia's decade of tragedy, A Review of The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms by Peter Reddaway and Dimitri Glinsky and Failed Crusade by Stephen F. Cohen,” Govind Talwalkar, Frontline, Volume 18 - Issue 22, Oct. 27 - Nov. 09, 2001] The cost of that effort is estimated to be between $500 billion and one trillion US dollars. “…finance capital fled Russia at an estimated $10-billion to $15-billion per year (Fidel Castro estimated it 2-to-4 times higher,14 former President Gorbachev estimates a total of $1-trillion)….” Subversive funds flowed in through the collapsed Russian borders (much of it from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and George Soros’ destabilization foundations [George Soros, “Imperial Wizard: Master Builder of the New Bribe Sector, Systematically Bilking the World,” CovertAction Quarterly (November 2002), pp. 1-7.] to organize political parties and coordinate a media to promote Adam Smith “free trade.” [WHY? The Deeper History Behind the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America, Containing and Destabilizing the Soviet Federation and Eastern Europe (3rd Edition, 2005), J.W. Smith, http://www.ied.info/books/why/contain.html#endNote19] What the public record demonstrates is that both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of New York were closely involved with the Yeltsin family as early as 1990. · Kagalovsky and Yeltsin travelled to Vienna together: “In a Moscow airport in 1990, Natasha Kagalovsky, a Bank of New York Co. executive, struck up a chance conversation with Boris Yeltsin, soon to be Russia's president. As they waited to board a flight both had booked to Vienna, she says, Mr. Yeltsin asked: "How come you don't have a bank office in Moscow?" [Natasha Kagalovsky Rose Fast, Fell Hard at Bank of New York, Ann Davis and Paul Beckett, Wall Street Journal, November 23, 1999] · Gerald Corrigan (President of the New York Federal reserve) also met “discreetly” with Boris Yeltsin before the August coup “In the summer of 1991, Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Mr. Corrigan and several other Western officials traveled to Moscow to assess the "economic reforms" required for Russian membership in the International Monetary Fund and the eventual release of billions of dollars in loans a year later. … THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 194 One evening, as Secretary Brady and Chairman Greenspan went off to dine with Mr. Gorbachev, an aide to Mr. Corrigan, who was not invited along for dinner, suggested that he meet "discreetly" with Mr. Yeltsin…. "Mr. Yeltsin deeply appreciated the courtesy of Mr. Corrigan's visit," according to one official familiar with the details of the trip. About a month later, when the attempted military coup against Mr. Gorbachev thrust Mr. Yeltsin to the forefront, the Russian president did not forget his newfound dining companion and billiard partner, Gerald Corrigan. In November 1991, the New York Fed chief began a series of "technical assistance" trips to Russia, and in January 1992 hosted a dinner for 200 bankers and other close friends in Mr. Yeltsin's honor at the New York Fed's Italian-revival building in lower Manhattan. The two nowintimate friends reportedly danced and tossed back shots of vodka until the wee hours of the morning.” Corrigan’s real assignment - the role neither he nor the Bush administration will discuss openly - is to float Moscow on a multibillion dollar tide of multilateral loans [Propping Up Russia’s Finances, Christopher Whalen, JoC Newspaper, September 29, 1992] · Gerald Corrigan has also been associated Bush progran to destabilize the Russian currency in a quiet partnership with BCCI banker Alfred Hartmann and Mark Palmer “(Soros) has been controlled for some time by a fellow called Hartmann. Hartmann was operating out of Zug, Switzerland, which is one of the banking centers, through the N.M. Rothschild Continuation Trust. Hartmann was the man who controlled the BNL and BCCI simultaneously, or coordinated it, which were not Pakistani or Gulf banks; they were British Commonwealth banks, controlled through this Rothschild intermediation. He worked for them, and still does. Now on the American side, his controller or coordinator has been Gerald Corrigan, who's going to work for him on the Russian side, and a State Department official, R. Mark Palmer, who went to work for Soros even before he fully quit his job at the State Department.”[There Is a Worldwide Crash in Progress; We Are In A Depression Already'', Lyndon Larouche, interviewed by Mel Klenetsky, August 4, 1993, Shofar FTP Archive File: people/l/larouche.lyndon/eir.080493] Soros, as it would turn out, was working with known Mossad agents Shaul Eisenberg and Marc Rich, representing to a large degree the Rothschild family interests. “The friends of Soros lost no time in capitalizing on this situation. Marc Rich began buying Russian aluminum at absurdly cheap prices, with his hard currency. Rich then dumped the aluminum onto western industrial markets last year, causing a 30% collapse in the price of the metal, as western industry had no way to compete. There was such an outflow of aluminum last year from Russia, that there were shortages of aluminum for Russian fish canneries. At the same time, Rich reportedly moved in to secure export control over the supply of most West Siberian crude oil to western markets. Rich's companies have been under investigation for fraud in Russia, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal of May 13, 1993. Another Soros silent partner who has moved in to exploit the chaos in the former Soviet Union, is Shaul Eisenberg. Eisenberg, reportedly with a letter of introduction from then-European Bank chief Jacques Attali, managed to secure an exclusive concession for textiles and other trade in Uzbekistan. When Uzbek officials confirmed defrauding of the government by Eisenberg, his concessions were summarily abrogated. The incident has reportedly caused a major loss for Israeli Mossad strategic interests throughout the Central Asian republics. “[The Secret Financial Network Behind "Wizard" George Soros , William Engdahl, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), November 1, 1996] “Soros's circle includes indicted metals and commodity speculator and fugitive Marc Rich of Zug, Switzerland and Tel Aviv; secretive Israeli arms and commodity dealer Shaul Eisenberg, and "Dirty Rafi" Eytan, both linked to the financial side of the Israeli Mossad; and, the family of Jacob Lord Rothschild. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 195 Understandably, Soros and the Rothschild interests prefer to keep their connection hidden far from public view, so as to obscure the well-connected friends Soros enjoys in the City of London, the British Foreign Office, Israel, and the U.S. financial establishment. The myth, therefore, has been created, that Soros is a lone financial investment "genius" who, through his sheer personal brilliance in detecting shifts in markets, has become one of the world's most successful speculators. According to those who have done business with him, Soros never makes a major investment move without sensitive insider information. On the board of directors of Soros's Quantum Fund N.V. is Richard Katz, a Rothschild man who is also on the board of the London N.M. Rothschild and Sons merchant bank, and the head of Rothschild Italia S.p.A. of Milan. Another Rothschild family link to Soros's Quantum Fund is Quantum board member Nils O. Taube, the partner of the London investment group St. James Place Capital, whose major partner is Lord Rothschild. London Times columnist Lord William Rees-Mogg is also on the board of Rothschild's St. James Place Capital.” “[The Secret Financial Network Behind "Wizard" George Soros , William Engdahl, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), November 1, 1996] · At a dinner party thrown by Corrigan for Yeltsin in June 1992, guests on the invitation list who have been mentioned as persons of interest in this review were: - President Bush - Nicholas F. Brady, Secretary of the Treasury - Defense Secretary Dick Cheney - Alan Greenspan, chairman, Federal Reserve - Condoleezza Rice, associate professor of political science, Stanford University. - Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser. · Ms. Natasha Kagalovsky, of the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal, was part of Gerald Corrigan’s (then President of the New York federal Reserve Bank) ‘offthe- record’ mission requested by George Bush to ‘rescue’ the Russian banking system. Corrigan made six trips to visit Yeltsin starting in September 1991, before he ‘muscled’ other large banks into bankrolling the Russian drain [see Natasha Kagalovsky Rose Fast, Fell Hard at Bank of New York, Ann Davis and Paul Beckett, Wall Street Journal, November 23, 1999] The Bank of New York would continue to be at the center of virtually every moneylaundering scandal coming out of Russia, including Alexander Konanykhine’s European Union Bank (of Antigua) and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Bank Menatep, and Nordex. Now, it would be identified as the bond clearing house to be at the center of failed communications as $240 billion in fraudulent bonds were settled under suspicious circumstances in the aftermath of September 11. The Federal Reserve would be reported by records unoffically released from the Office of Naval Investigation as having been involved in a number of secretive transactions in 1990 and 1991 that ranged between $60 and $100 billion dollars. In these transactions, the money moved through the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (London), Chase Manhattan Bank, Key Bank (Ogden) and the MidAltalntic National Bank. The Bank of New York has been able to fend off any serious investigation from Federal agencies regarding these various money-laundering schemes, but only with a tremendous amount of poltical support, and lack of outcry from the American public. As far as the public was concerned, this was Russian money – and therefore had little effect on their THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 196 lives. The exposure of the Brady/Durham bond fraud would have been too impactful for the Americanpublic to ignore. The regulations of the SEC would have resulted in an immediate exposure of this crime during settlement. Hence, the only option available to the people that pulled this fraud together was to create a national emergency which would allow the Federal Reserve board to suspend the SEC regulations, and the clearing agencies (Bank of New York and GSCC) to mask their operations. This national emergency was the attack on the World Trade Center As a result of having had a dry run at this situation only the year before during the naval war games, the management of the Federal Reserve had a precise strategy of how to deal with this situation. Within hours of the attack on the WTC: “…the Commission for the first time invoked its emergency powers under Securities Exchange Act Section 12(k) and, on Friday September 14, issued several orders and an interpretive release to ease certain regulatory restrictions temporarily. Last Friday, September 21, we extended this relief for an additional five business days.” [Testimony Concerning The State of the Nation's Financial Markets in the Wake of Recent Terrorist Attacks, Harvey L. Pitt, Chairman, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission Before the Committee on Financial Services United States House of Representatives, September 26, 2001] Section 12k – “Trading suspensions; emergency authority”- of the Securities Exchange Act, when invoked, allows the Federal Reserve to do essentially and literally whatever it thinks appropriate. “The Commission, in an emergency, may by order summarily take such action to alter, supplement, suspend, or impose requirements or restrictions with respect to any matter or action subject to regulation by the Commission or a self-regulatory organization under this title, as the Commission determines is necessary in the public interest and for the protection of investors…to maintain or restore fair and orderly securities markets (other than markets in exempted securities)” Recall, though: this national emergency was declared even thoughthe entire system remained whole, and as documented earlier, none of the trading data was lost: “…the U.S. financial system largely remained open throughout the day and thereafter. Banks and other financial intermediaries stayed open. Key wholesale and retail payments system remained operational, like other financial activities, except to the extent that telecommunications disruptions had a temporary or local effect. Even firms in the World Trade Center were able to resume business from other offices or from contingency sites within hours of the attack.” [Implications of 9/11 for the Financial Services Sector , Remarks by Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. At the Conference on Bank Structure and Competition, Chicago, Illinois, May 9, 2002] On the first day of the crisis, the SEC lifted “Rule 15c3-3 - Customer Protection-- Reserves and Custody of Securities,” which set trading rules for the following processes: - The [seller] is not permitted to substitute other securities for those subject to this agreement an therefore must keep the [buyer's] securities segregated at all times, unless in this agreement the [buyer] grants the [seller] the right to substitute other securities - Notification in the event of failure to make a required deposit. - Physical possession or control of securities. - Required Disclosure - Control of securities/Requirement to reduce securities to possession or control. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 197 In addition to suspending rules which controlled substitution, reporting, disclosure and control in the matching process, the Federal Reserve immediately injected $120Billion into the system, and kept injecting until it reached $300 Billion in incremental money supply. “Banking system balances went from $13 billion on September 10 to over $120 billion on the 13th….Federal Reserve credit extension following September 11 was unsterilized, in the sense that it resulted in a net increase in the monetary base.” [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper 03-16, December 23, 2003] The lifting of these rules, and the immediate infusion of over $120 billion in Reserve funds was inadequate to resolve what was identified as the “fail” problem: the inability to match the buyer’s funds and seller’s certificates. Hence, on the 19th of September, after lifting the constraint, the Government Securities Clearing Corporation (GSCC) sent a memo to banks encouraging them to make substitutions on “immediately maturing collateral”, which is what the Brady Bonds were. In other words, the Fed enabled participants to replace any older, allegedly illegal 10 year notes with new notes. “…collateral substitutions can and should be made with regard to immediately maturing collateral.” [Reminder of Bond Market Association Recommendations, GSCC073.01, September 19, 2001] Then, it treated the ‘fails’ as two separate groups, suggesting there was a large group of trades that required ‘special treatment’ for “other” problems. “GSCC has listed, on two new, separately re-created databases, those deliveries from members that were bought into our account last week without our ability to view those transactions. This will allow us to identify with confidence those "fails" that are in fact incorrect, as well as other problems such as erroneous deliveries made to GSCC.” [GSCC075.01, September 20, 2001] Subsequent to that ruling, the GSCC issued another memo allowing blind broker settlements. A “blind broker” is a mechanism for inter-dealer transactions that maintains the anonymity of both parties to the trade. The broker serves as the agent to the principals' transactions. “The only repo transactions entered into by blind brokers should be those done in direct furtherance of clean-up and reconciliation efforts. No new blind brokered business should be executed.” [GSCC080.01, September 25, 2001] At this point in time, the Federal Reserve and its GSCC had created a settlement environment totally void of controls and reporting – where it could substitute valid, new government securities for the mature, illegal securities, and not have to record where the bad securities came from, or where the new securities went – all because the primary broker for US securities had been eliminated. These clearing operations were being run in one of three ‘temporary’ facilities set up by the Bank of New York. (A more technical explanation of how this process was deployed is described in Appendix D,) This act alone, however was inadequate to resolve the problem, because the Federal Reserve did not have enough “takers” of the new 10 year notes which this report suspects THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 198 were substitutes for the fraudulent notes. Rather than simply having to match buy and sell orders, which was the essence of resolving the “fail” problem, it appears the Fed was doing more than just matching and balancing – it was pushing new notes on the market with a special auction. “Acute settlement problems with the on-the-run ten-year note led the U.S. Treasury to reopen the issue on October 4 and hold an unusual “snap” auction of new ten-year securities.” [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Working Paper 03-16, December 23, 2003] If the Federal Reserve had to cover-up the elimination of $240 Billion in bogus securities, they could not let the volume of capital shrink by that much in the time of a monetary crisis. They would have had to push excess liquidity into the market, and then phase it out for a soft landing, which is exactly what appears to have happened. In about two months, the money supply was back to where it was prior to 9/11. The need for an extra $300Billion in liquidity at the time of the “crisis” seems to be a bit of a mystery, and there has not been a significant effort to explain it. The immediate demand for cash (ATM machines, checking accounts etc.) never exceeded $2 Billion. The U.S. banks had already agreed amongst themselves to not force balance settlements, so the Federal Reserve ‘loans’ which were supposedly necessary to save the banking system never needed to happen. The SEC had indicated the financial companies could continue financial reporting as if any transactions from that day had never occurred. Most importantly, all the transactions pumped into the WTC financial centers were replicated in their Disaster Recovery sites, which were up and running in two days. All the original settlement data from buyers and sellers should have been there, unless someone electronically tunneled into the trading systems masquerading as a bank and unloaded bogus data, which is what Convar suggested had happened. Given security on inter-bank financial transactions, the likelihood of this borders on impossible. With the regulatory changes that followed in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the WTC, it was not the banking system that required a $300 billion monetary infusion. The $300 billion was required for something else. This report hypothesizes that the delays in structuring settlements of “fails” were caused by an absence of matching buy/sell records, because the trade data was actually provided by a program run from a war game simulation server from within the World Trade Center, and connected to the trading system. The fraudulent bonds were put up for a settlement that was not forthcoming, and in the settlement process at the Fed, were replaced with new Federal Reserve securities. Hence, the bogus bonds were replaced with legitimate U.S. debt, and the $240 Billion in bogus bonds were written off the books as the Fed’s reduction in the temporary boost in M3 required to “prevent a crisis.” The only conclusion one could reach is that if there were $240 billion in illegal securities in circulation, all due at once, one could not imagine a more opportune moment to make those securities disappear than the suspension of all regulations and the perceived justification to increase the monetary supply by at least twice that amount. The THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 199 coincidence of these two situations happening at the same time, by accident, can only be described as highly improbable. This report hypothesizes that once it was determined to support the destruction of the World Trade Center to derail investigations into Swiss and German gold accounts, the actual attack was postponed and timed to coincide with the need to resolve the fraudulent bond deal. Given that the same international banking cartel was involved in all the crimes mentioned, and that the Bush covert operations of 1991 stood as the source of all of them, it probably matters little if one or more of these crimes provided the key motivation. 8.2 The Naval Intelligence Threat There are a number of public sources of information that suggest that the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) represented a threat to the Bush administration, and the alleged Greenspan/Bush $240 Billion security fraud. The threat manifested itself in a number of different manners, through a number of individuals – suggesting that the friction between the Bush organization and the Office of Naval Intelligence was more than personal, it was institutional. Al Martin, former ONI operative testified to this friction: "The ONI already had a deep existing covert illegal structure. They had a mechanism before the CIA even existed. They had contacts in foreign intelligence services and in foreign governments that the CIA never could have hoped to obtain." "Also ONI controlled its own assets, which the CIA had to build from scratch later on. The CIA can't control any of its own assets domestically because it's against the law for it to do so, thus the ONI is obviously in a superior position. For instance, you don't see an airfield that says 'Owned by the CIA' on it in the United States. The ONI doesnt have any such restrictions because it's part of the US Navy." "ONI is where the real deep control is. It's where the real deep secrets are kept. That was what ONI always did the best. Keeping secrets. Accumulating secrets. Warehousing secrets for the purposes of control." When I asked him 'what secrets?' he (Al Martin) replied, "One thing I can tell you is the ONI was instrumental in dethroning former Mexican President Louis Portillo. Portillo got very friendly with George Bush and the CIA, and ONI had never alligned with the Bush faction. I know what people think, but that's not true. From what I can tell, it has never been alligned, but has always been hostile to that Eastern Country Club Bush Cabal and their friends in the CIA. The Bill Casey faction is the George Bush-Allen Dulles Faction." [The Man Who Knows Too Much , An Interview with Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider," Uri Dowbenko] Because of that, it is speculated that the entire ONI needed to be seriously disrupted. The attack of Flight 77 did just that, taking out not only the Navy Command Center, but a small Navy intelligence group as well. “When hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon at more than 500 mph, slamming through concrete and corridors, spewing fuel and fire, it destroyed much of the Navy Command Center. It smashed directly into the offices of the CNO-IP. …Even in the acronym-happy Pentagon, the term CNO-IP is obscure. It stands for Chief of Naval Operations Intelligence Plot. Its small, typically young staff keeps a round-the-clock watch on geopolitical developments and military movements Brilliant futures were forged in the CNO-IP. Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, later deputy CIA director, served there; so did Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). Radi, who stood the Intelligence Plot watch in his twenties, later moved to the White House Situation Room. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 200 In mid-August, …the CNO-IP was moving to renovated offices in the Navy Command Center, on the first floor of the D-Ring, on the Pentagon's west side. One hundred twenty-five Pentagon workers were killed that day. Forty-two died in the Navy Command Center. Seven served in the Intelligence Plot.” [The Last Watch, Richard Leiby, Washington Post, 1/20/2002] “As pointed out by Carol Valentine and Dick Eastman, the first floor of the western wedge of the Pentagon was occupied in part by the office of the "Chief of Naval Operations Intelligence Plot", who had moved into their new offices (early) and many were killed, as reported by the Washington Post, 1/20/2002 (quoted by Valentine, not independently confirmed by the authors.) Valentine noted that this Naval Intelligence office was responsible for breaking open the Jonathon Pollard affair, and Eastman speculated that had they survived, they might have had the responsibility to mount an independent investigation of all the events of 9-11 and its associated "intelligence failures".[anonymous internet blogger] The agency know as th “Naval Operations Intelligence Plot” was responsible for production of daily intelligence briefing and other intelligence materials for the Chief of Naval Operations, Secretary of the Navy, and other senior military and civilian officials, including the Director of the ONI. ONI was also part of the Command Center. At an organizational level, it is reported that the ONI was at odds with Bush and his primary enforcement agencies- the CIA and NSA. “Tom Heneghen, . . . who claims an intelligence network ranging from Gore to France, made several stunning claims about 9/11: --- According to Heneghen, a missle shield over Washington, DC was deactivated several weeks before 9/11, . . . in preparation for the upcoming 'wargames' that served as cover for the Bush/Pentagon coup of 9-11. The Office of Naval Intelligence, which has never been on particularly good terms with the NSA, the CIA, or its offshoots, is investigating this angle and emails on the CyberNet system that can prove this.”[9/11 Whispers: Washington Defense Shield Deactivated Due to Wargames? Liberty Think, 1/4/2005] This general friction between the groups is demonstrated by several examples. At an individual level, there were several individuals who threatened to expose the Bush administration ‘shortcomings’ – if not crimes: officers Vreeland, Russbacher, and Phillport. The case of Mr. Delmart “Mike Vreeland has been debated and disputed, with serious allegations of fraud made against him by a “number” of U.S. citizens. These allegations have been reviewed and set aside by a Canadian court as without merit. The essence of the story is that Vreeland was apprehended by Canadian authorities on his way back from Russia to the U.S. Previous to that, Vereeland had been a US agent in Iraq. Vreeland, while in jail, told Canadian authorities he was with the ONI, and documented - before September 11 - that the attack on the WTC would happen. Unfortunately, his reported ONI ‘handler’ died in the attack on the Pentagon. Vreeland himself has disappeared, and is assumed to be in hiding, after finally being released. “Sometime around August 11 or 12, Vreeland wrote a set of notes. They listed a number of potential terrorist targets including the Sears Towers, World Trade Center, White House, and Pentagon. The notes also included the phrase, "Let one happen. Stop the rest!!!" He sealed them in an envelope and handed them to his Canadian jailers.” [Down the rabbit hole with the man who says he tried to warn the world about 9/11, Sander Hicks, Guerilla News Network, Sept. 26, 2002] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 201 “Lt. Vreeland gave clues that his main contact/control was Jack Punches. From the memorial pages: U.S. Navy Capt. (Ret.) Jack Punches worked in the Pentagon as deputy head, Navy Interagency Support Branch. Punches was killed in the attack of Flight ” “I was sent (to Moscow) by the U.S. government and the ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence]. I got my orders between Sept. 4 and Sept. 7, 2000. Marc Bastien departed for Russia on Sept. 7, 2000. I had orders to meet him. Bastien was going to work at the Canadian embassy regarding diagrams and blueprints of a weapons defense system. The U.S. government had a direct influence on his mission. The name of the defense system is SSST [Stealth Satellite System Terminator]. There are five different individual and unique defensive and strike capabilities of the system. The only portion that I have publicly spoken on is one frame regarding actual current orbiting satellites, which are not at this time owned by the US government. On advice of counsel I cannot discuss the other components. This one component is a satellite system. Within the confines of the system there are multiple, deployable space/orbital EMP [Electromagnetic Pulse] missiles that are not aimed at the ground. They are targeted at everyone else's satellites. These would kill worldwide communications. The satellites of some countries that are shielded with titanium are protected from these weapons. The protected countries are Russia and China, but U.S. satellites are vulnerable and Putin has told Bush that the U.S. missile defense system doesn't work, and that Bush knows it. The reason why I went to Russia was because I needed to meet with Bastien and another individual from the Russian Ministry of Defense named Oleg. The purpose was to get the Canadian diplomat who had made contact with Oleg to get the book of designs out of the ministry's R&D. That was done. We copied the entire book. Then we took certain documents, and we changed serious portions of the defense design so the program wouldn't work. They know this now.” [FTW Interview: Delmart "Mike" Vreeland, What the CIA Doesn't Want You to Know, Michael C. Ruppert, FromTheWilderness.com] What is generally ignored by most writers is that Vreeland claimed to have documents (over 100 pages of bank transactions with 6 transactions per page, with one on Aug 11, 1989 for $100 Billion.) exposing a massive, fraudulent theft of billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury. He shared these documents with Michael C. Ruppert, who discusses them in his report Crossing the Rubicon. What is important to note is that these transactions start as early as 1989, and the ONI documents were also released to Ruppert and others by another Navy Intelligence agent. These documents suggest that the ONI was probably investigating a large money-laundering scheme, as rumored in some of the press. In reviewing these documents, it becomes clear that for the 18 months covered by these documents, Robert Hermann (later to become Vice President and the principle tax strategy architect for Enron, although the ONI documents may be referring to Robert Hermann of the National Security Agency, who worked extensively in the White House.) was working with international banking cartels to refinance third world debt in the urgent need to prevent the collapse of the US banking system. (Michael Bowe and James Dean provide an excellent overview of this period in their report: “Has the Market Solved the Sovereign-Debt Crisis?” Princeton Studies in International Finance, No. 83, August 1997.) Working with a strategy labeled “concerted market-based debt relief” Hermann, Brady, Bush and Greenspan were apparently creating securities ironically named “Exit Bonds.” “Exit bonds are new bonds issued at discount in exchange for old debt. Exit bonds, like buybacks, were rare before Brady, because of similar coordination challenges reinforced by legal clauses in syndicated loan agreements. Because exit bonds are generally either collaterized or made senior to the reminaing old debt, they can be exchanged for old debt at a fraction of its value. If the bonds are fully collateralized, for example, they are as good as cash…” [Michael Bowe and James W Dean, Has the Market Solved the Sovereign-Debt Crisis?, Princeton Studies in International Finance, No. 83, August 1997] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 202 The public record on the refinancing of Soviet debt is largely undocumented, but there is no doubt that it was being refinanced, with the secretive or “quiet” process largely under way in early 1991. Also, the individual reporting the news, and knowledgeable of the discussions, was aware that the U.S. was doing the financing. "The Soviet Union is already in a piecemeal debt rescheduling with a series of 'quiet' Western government 'refinancings' likely this year -- all in the interest of avoiding a more formal and debilitating Paris Club process," Center Board member Robinson said….Robinson added, "Under present circumstances, it only makes sense that the appropriate authorities conduct a thorough investigation of Moscow's banking activities and loan and interbank deposit portfolios before any further Western taxpayer guaranteed credits are pledged to Moscow." ["Moral Hazard ": Moscow’s Dubious Banking Operations May Make the BCCI and BNL Affairs Look Like Small Change, Center for Security Policy, July 23, 1991] During this global debt-forgiveness/restructuring process, the Bush administration would have needed to force the Durham Trust to relinquish control of its gold-collateral Peruvian debt bonds, which is what Durham claims did happen. According to the Vreeland and ONI documents, during the refinancing process, significant portions of the collaterized bonds of numerous international financiers “disappeared” for a large number of months while under control of the Bush Whitehouse, which also fits with Durham’s claims. Because of the delays in refinancing, a number of foreign countries took the Whitehouse to court to demand their collateral back. These proceeding were sealed (as have been 9/11 lawsuits against the government) from public disclosure for reasons of ‘national security.’ During this same time period, the financial markets experienced one of their rare “interest rate inversions,” where short term rates provided better yields that long term rates. Between inversion earnings and interest, investment of the “lost” collateral would have generated over $300 billion in profits during the period of their absence. What this report speculates is that two years later, these earnings and lost collateral would re-emerge as collateral and funding for the re-financing of the Russian/Soviet debt (private and government), default on which was imminent. This debt (along with that of Peru, Brazil, Mexico and a dozen other states) had to be refinanced to prevent the collapse of the American banking system. The cash generated by refinancing the Soviet debt was withheld from Gorbachev until the coup which ousted him, and only then was funneled to the Russian Menatep Bank. Menatep Bank, with its relations with Bank of New York, Nordex and the Riggs National Bank subsidiary Riggs-Valmet, would be at the core of the plundering of the Russian economy, pumping Russian, Kazak and other CIS international trade flow through the aforementioned financial conduits. The Bush administration’s attempts to minimize and ignore the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal have been documented elsewhere in this report. What is now suggested is that in attempting to protect the German and Swiss bankers, the Bush administration was protecting its own family. Jonathon Bush was a key executive director of Riggs at the time, and its Chairman, Robert L. Allbritton, was a family friend and major financial backer of the Bush family. The Russian Mafiya connection to Riggs and the Bush family is explored in Section 8.3. Vreeland’s story, attacked for its credibility by several writers, is consistent with other known facts. It is of related note that in 1999, on two occasions the American press and THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 203 Congress expressed concern about Russian EMP capabilities, suggesting that Vreeland’s claim to be collecting information in Russia about an EMP system has some merit: “Pentagon intelligence sources tell us that Russia in early April resumed testing a high-altitude weapon that fires off an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. The EMP bursts are similar to the disruption of electronics caused by a nuclear blast that can shut down everything from computers to cars. The Pentagon views the Russian EMP weapon as a serious development that may be part of Moscow's ongoing anti-satellite weapons development program. U.S. satellites are the Achilles' heel of the U.S. military's high-technology force used for sending orders to forces around the world as well as communicating with troops and organizing logistics. A recent test of a ground laser against a U.S. satellite shocked military leaders by demonstrating how vulnerable U.S. satellites are to disruption.” [The Washington Times 06/18/1999; pp A5 by Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough] "The PRC is believed to be developing space-based and ground-based anti-satellite laser weapons. Such weapons would be of exceptional value for the control of space and information. The Select Committee judges that the PRC is moving toward the deployment of such weapons." "Based on the significant level of PRC-Russian cooperation on weapons development, it is possible that the PRC will be able to use nuclear reactors to pump lasers with pulse energies high enough to destroy satellites." "In addition, Russian cooperation could help the PRC to develop an advanced radar system using lasers to track and image satellites." [The Cox Report, House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the P.R.C., Christopher Cox, Chairman, January 3, 1999] When asked about how he learned of the pending attack on the World Trade Center, Vreeland indicated he learned of the attack from notes from a US agent found in a document “sent to Vladimir Putin by K. Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son.” “When did you first learn details of the attacks that were to happen on Sept. 11? In the first week of December 2000. How did you learn of the details? One document was written in English by a U.S. agent, who had picked up a copy of a document that had been sent to V. Putin by K. Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son. This is what the translation of the doc indicates. The Iraqis knew in June 2000 that I was coming. I didn't get my orders until August. The letter said that Bastien and Vreeland would be dealt with "in a manner suitable to us." The letter specifically stated on page two, "Our American official guarantees this." [FTW Interview: Delmart "Mike" Vreeland,What the CIA Doesn't Want You to Know, Michael C. Ruppert, FromTheWilderness.com] It would be appropriate to assume that the son referenced (“K”) is actually Qusay who ran the Iraqi secret service. Qusay, as the official leader of the Iraqi military and intelligence was known to be engaged in extensive relations with the Syrians and the Syrian intelligence. It will be documented elsewhere in this report that that Syrian Intelligence had long been aware of the plans for the attack on the World Trade Center, and had actually been linked to the financing of Mohammed Atta while he was in Germany, through the former head of Syrian Intelligence. It would not be unexpected to have Qusay being informed of the attack by the Syrian intelligence, who were and still are playing both sides of the American-Iraq conflict. In providing the 100 pages of documents, Vreeland was demonstrating knowledge of an international re-financing process that has remained extensively “cloaked” from the public press, and exposed to several others by reported ONI officers. (One might suspect that a global event as momentous as refinancing several trillion in world debt would have THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 204 been authoritatively studied in economic and business journals, and at least commented on in the media news. The event happened, but there is no reported news of it!) There is nothing in his story to indicate that Vreeland is lying, and several clues in his story which suggest it to be true. It also suggests there was another agent in US intelligence that knew of the attack, and that Vreeland was sent to collect the evidence to make sure it didn’t see the light of day. In doing so, his Canadian colleague in the operation was ‘suicided’ shortly after Vreeland’s mission was completed. The allegations of Vreeland’s fraud and misconduct which are being used to discredit him are “well documented claims” but before the validity of Vreeland’s case is discounted, the reader should bear in mind the example of U.S. Navy Captain Gunther Russbacher. Russbacher is the Navy pilot who came forth and testified to Congress that George Bush Sr. did indeed go to Paris as alleged in the October Surprise/Iran-Contra plot. “In 1968, he was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence with a permanent commission…. In October 1980, he was command pilot for the aircraft used allegedly to fly George Bush to Paris.From March to July 1982.… His group met with Mossad (Israeli intelligence) people in Alicante for the final delivery of weapons to Iran. In March 1985, he was incarcerated at Segoville, TX for an escape from federal conviction resulting from 1973 where he was caught with numerous bags of bearer bonds while dressed as a U.S. Air Force major.” [Who Is this Man Who Claims He Flew Bush to Paris, Harry V. Martin , Napa Sentinel, 1991 ] Subsequent to their turning on the Bush presidents, both Vreeland and Russbacher found themselves incarcerated for numerous crimes which they and their lawyers claimed were trumped up fabrications. The point to be made is that Vreeland’s claims, if true, can only be discounted by the U.S. Government if he is locked away and made to be a fraud, just as was done with Russbacher. (It is of some note that the Canadian legal system finally released Vreeland, suggesting the claims of fraud lacked credibility.) The coincidence here is that this generally happens to anyone who turns on the Bush administration. This pattern of “setting up” and eliminating whistleblowers by the Bush administration is more thoroughly addressed, with more examples, such as LT Colonel Anthony Shaffer and four star General Kevin Byrnes in Section 12 of this report. Another loose cannon in Navy Intelligence turned out to be Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, a 22 year active duty serviceman who stepped forward and brought the Able-Danger Operation to light, after the 9/11 Commission ignored testimony from several individuals of this group’s awareness of Mohammed Atta as a known terrorist operating in the US a year before 9/11. “Navy Capt. Scott J. Phillpott, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who managed the program for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command, confirmed "Atta was identified by Able Danger by January- February of 2000."[An Incomplete Investigation: Why Did the 9/11 Commission Ignore `Able Danger'?, Louis Freeh, Wall Street Journal., November 17, 2005] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 205 More important than loose cannons like Vreeland, Russbacher, and Phillport, someone in ONI was leaking the story of the Brady (Durham) Bonds to the public, and conducting its own money-laundering investigation: “Sioux City, Iowa -- July 25, 2005 TomFlocco.com -- According to leaked documents from an intelligence file obtained through a military source in the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), on or about September 12, 1991 non-performing and unauthorized gold-backed debt instruments were used to purchase ten-year "Brady" bonds. The bonds in turn were illegally employed as collateral to borrow $240 billion--120 in Japanese Yen and 120 in Deutsch Marks--exchanged for U.S. currency under false pretenses; or counterfeit and unlawful conversion of collateral against which an unlimited amount of money could be created in derivatives and debt instruments. Moreover, Durham alleges from conversations before her husband’s murder, that any 10-year Brady bond payoff for notes due on 9-12-2001 would have led to additional evidence of trillions in stolen funds from the U.S. Treasury and the identity of the perpetrators--providing an important reason to take out Cantor-Fitzgerald offices in the North Tower and a Pentagon ONI file section on September 11. Besides the intelligence file leaked to Durham, other documents were obtained by TomFlocco.com from whistleblower Stewart Webb’s intelligence sources. Durham’s documents were delivered to the door of her home in February, 2000 by a uniformed Naval intelligence officer who told her, "the officer who asked me to bring these documents to you said you will know what to do with them," whereupon he quickly turned and left before she could see his uniform ID name tag. The same documents from the leaked file were separately compared and authenticated by another unnamed (for personal safety reasons) intelligence officer who provided identical copies to Independent Presidential Candidate Karl Schwarz, who said that agent did not know the identity of the original Naval intelligence officer who passed the intelligence file through V. K. Durham to TomFlocco.com…. ONI officials themselves--some of whom were probing the fraudulent 10-year debt instruments allegedly held by Cantor-Fitzgerald in the doomed North Tower--also perished along with the investigation files, all of which were curiously in the path of the 9.11 Pentagon impact.... Keith Johnson, the Queen’s signatory at Wachovia Bank told her about the Office of Naval Intelligence being hit at the Pentagon on September 11--that there had been an ongoing investigation of money laundering.” [Cash payoffs, bonds and murder linked to White House 9/11 finance Documents point to attack on America by White House crime families, Tom Flocco, tomflocco.com., September 4, 2005] In the public discussion of the Brady (Durham) Bonds, there has been no attempt to ascertain the reason why the ONI would be investigating the Brady Bonds. This report suggests two possible reasons why ONI could be involved in an investigation: 1) That officials in ONI determined that the maturity of the bonds represented a threat to the security of the U.S., (the level of involvement of various Intelligence operations in economic security has already been shown); and 2) the Bonds were used to invest in Russian defense companies to make their technology available to the U.S. However, the privatization of these defense firms actually put them in the control of the Russian Mafiya, which allowed the weapons to continue to be used against the U.S. by selling them to drug cartel czars, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, China and anyone else for that matter who could afford them. A final note, in the small world of all-to-many coincidences: the Office of Naval Intelligence received a new General Counsel 90 days prior to its destruction. It was an appointment by the Bush administration from the Greenberg Traurig law firm. This was Bush’s attempt to put a member of the Bush political network in control of a potentially loose cannon. (Rest assured that lawyers from firms as successful as Greenberg Traurig THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 206 do not view appointments to government agencies as income enhancing ‘rewards.’) The Greenberg Traurig law firm has played key roles in various aspects of the Bush agenda on five prior occasions: “[1] represented President Bush in the Bush-Gore 2000 Florida election vote recount, --- [2] personally represents Governor Jeb Bush, --- [3] hired son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on election day 2000--after which Justice Scalia cast one of the 5 to 4 deciding votes which placed Bush in presidency, --- [4] Miami-headquartered firm partially funded/sponsored delegation to Israel by House- Senate Armed Services Committee members and government contractors to witness and be briefed on interrogation resistance procedures and torture techniques....One of lobbyists joining them to Israel included Jack London, CEO, CACI Int'l Inc., firm implicated in outsourced Iraqi torture at Abu Ghraib prison, --- [5] firm has prominent administrative positions in Massachusetts 9/11 Fund which also involves Bush family banking house Brown Brothers Harriman, --- [6] one appointed as General Counsel of the Department of the Navy and its Office of Naval Intelligence just 90 days before the attacks.” [IN THE 9-11 NETWORK] A pro-Bush General Counsel would be able to control an amazing amount of information released by ONI, and provide an instant counter-weight to years of Naval tradition and relationships that has made the Navy a force of the highest integrity. 8.3 Collapse of the Soviet Economy and the Brady/Durham Bonds As the story of the Brady Bonds unfolds, there is an unsettling re-occurrence of references to Russia. · Russia is identified in the released ONI documents as the recipient of the funds. · Russia’s secret service was predicting a collapse of the U.S. financial system in August of 2001, a timing commensurate with the maturity of the fraudulent bonds. · Vreeland was returning from Russia with knowledge of the 9/11 attack. · In other sections of this report, the Russian Mafiya is constantly identified as having a presence in 9/11 activities via their significant presence in the Israeli Mossad. · The Russian Mafiya is shown with a connection to the last person that saw Nick Berg. · The Russian Mafiya is reported to be the last group that had contact with the individual that flew a plane into the Pirelli Building in Milan, in an event viewed as all-too-similar to the WTC tragedy. (See Appendix B). · The Russian Mafiya is noted to have threatened to use their American connections to end the investigation into Nazarbayev’s illegal activites. There are over 100 counties on this planet that could be referenced as the source of these incidents, but there is a persistent reoccurrence of “Russians” in the reports of activities related to the events of September 11, 2001. This anomaly warranted an exploration and discussion of “Russia” in general and specific terms. 8.4 Riggs Bank as an Agent for the Collapse of the Soviet Union THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 207 What the record shows is that the $240 Billion in Durham/Brady Bonds – assuming the multiple reports of their existence to be accurate – did not originally show up in the American money market, but were most likely used to re-finance private and government Russian debt and buy into key industries. It is generally thought that prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Soviet debt never exceeded $70 billion, and hence the idea that $240 billion in Brady bonds was required has been a reason for ignoring Durham’s claims. More recent research however by Pierre Verluise, indicates this debt was actually more in the range of $200 billion. “… Between 1985 and 1991, Soviet debt tripled from $22.5 billion to $70 billion. Calculating theses figures is an extremely difficult task (one which Mr. Verluise has accomplished admirably for the period under study), but the total debt is now estimated at between $80 billion and $ 200 billion.” [The New Russian Loan, by Pierre Verluise, "The New Russian Loan", review by John Laughland, in The Wall Street Journal Europe, April 26 - 27, 1996] Verluise, a French researcher, as well as the Centerfor Security Policy points out that the refinancing actually began in 1991 “Between 1991 and 1994, according to Mr. Verluise’s sources, successive rescheduling simply led to direct subsidy of Russia by the West.” [The New Russian Loan, by Pierre Verluise, "The New Russian Loan", review by John Laughland, in The Wall Street Journal Europe, April 26 - 27, 1996] This report speculates that the cash generated by refinancing that debt was with-held from Gorbachev and the Soviet system, thus helping to precipitate its collapse – a collapse initiated by US covert financial operations set in motion by George HW Bush, and executed by Lee Wanta. Upon the collapse of the Soviet system, the cash was released to Yeltsin, who then pushed it into Bank Menatep. Menatep was controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Menatep, Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky, Abramovich, Konanykhine and the Yeltsin family of soon-to-be oligarchs, were being advised by the Valmet Group, a subsidiary of the Riggs Bank which is widely recongnized as a CIA operation controlled by the Bush ‘family.’ “… (the ) Valmet Group was part of an extensive network that spread from Russia to the secretive financial system of Dubai, then on to Africa, London and the United States. Wrapped up in the network was not only Khodorkovsky's Menatep, but the founders of Rossiisky Kredit and Stephen Curtis, a former Dubai-based lawyer who via Samuelson became a consultant to Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky, setting up a legal framework for their offshore transactions. … The company's reputation was in tatters following a series of scandals in the late 1990s in which it was alleged to have been part of an extensive money-laundering network involving the Bank of New York and Menatep…” [Biography Of Mikhail Khodorkovsky from The Moscow Times, Catherine Belton, The Moscow Times, May 17, 2005] “…Valmet, a Geneva-based global trust business… agreed in early 1989 to advise Khodorkovsky's group of young businessmen. Valmet later held the key to the Group Menatep fortune, holding shares via nominee ownership schemes and organizing the transfer of vast sums of money via its network.” [Biography Of Mikhail Khodorkovsky from The Moscow Times, Catherine Belton, The Moscow Times, May 16, 2005] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 208 “…Valmet was also one of the first companies that US and Swiss investigators looked at during the Bank of New York money laundering scandal that erupted in August 1999 after more than $7bn in suspect Russian funds was found to have been funnelled through the venerable bank. It didn't help that Valmet had been moving the funds alleged to have been looted from Avisma though accounts at the bank.” [Truth and Beauty... (and Russian Finance) The Summer of our Discontent, Eric Krause, July 22, 2004] The documentation that shows the relationship of Riggs to Valmet suggests it was more than just an “investment” by Riggs, but rather a partnership vehicle between Riggs and Menatep, between the Bush family and the Yeltsin family, which provided guidance, a foundation for tax evasion, and special favors such as visas to the U.S. In the beginning, Riggs had controlling interest. Valmet, as a Riggs “investment,” would have been under the control of Jonathon Bush, brother of George Bush Sr. Valmet also would have been under the influence of J. Carter Beese, Vice Chairman and Director of Riggs, who was an executive at Alex Brown, where A.B. Krongard (Executive Director of the CIA mentored him during the period of the Federal Reserve cover-up.) “Press reports have also noted that George W. Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, heads a subsidiary of the bank. However, other significant ties between the Bush administration, federal banking regulators, and Riggs officials have never been publicly disclosed Riggs & Co. Vice Chairman and Director J. Carter Beese is a close associate of George W. Bush and the Bush family. He was a Bush Pioneer in 2000 and a leading donor to the Bush Florida recount effort. He holds a presidential appointment and has served as a confidential advisor to George W. Bush on the nomination of high-level regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1992, following more than a decade of service to the Bush family's political endeavors, George H. W. Bush appointed Beese to the post of SEC Commissioner. Beese also helped to found the Carlyle Group, a conglomerate with historical ties to the bin Laden family and George H. W. Bush. While serving as an executive at Alex. Brown, Beese was mentored closely by A. B. Krongard, appointed by George W. Bush as Executive Director of the CIA, the third highest-ranking position at the Agency.” [New Evidence in the Riggs Case: The Bush Administration's Links to the "Bank of Presidents"A Public Accountability Initiative Report, 10/15/2004] Riggs bought controlling interest of Valmet in 1988 and immediately began business contacts with Russian KGB operatives Aleksey (aka Alexei) Kondaurov and Fillipp (aka Phillip) Bobkov. (Kondaurov was also a sponsor of Col. Anton Surikov, who would later help found Farwest, which partnered with Diligence and Halliburton.) Through Valmet, Riggs engaged with the Russians and KGB as their “consultant” in 1989, and helped them set up Bank Menatep. This was during the same time period that the Russian debt was entering into the refinancing process. “Until 1994, Riggs National Bank in Washington owned 51 percent of Valmet Group, which operates through a chain of corporate entities in the Dutch Antilles, Switzerland and elsewhere ….” [The Isle of Man as an Enclave of Intrigue,Alan Cowell and Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times,September 24, 1999] “But even though Riggs' stake was reduced in 1994 when the increasingly powerful Menatep bought a 20 percent share, it retained a 5 percent stake.” [The Friends and Foes of a Rising Oilman, Catherine Belton, Moscow Times, May 27, 2005] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 209 “Until 1998, Riggs owned a share of Valmet, an Isle of Man operation that set up shell companies and accounts to hide and launder money for companies controlled by the oil mogul Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now in a Russian jail….”[Profit Laundering and Tax Evasion, Lucy Komisar, Dissent, Spring 2005] “Riggs Bank had been around for more than 160 years. It was known as the "bank of presidents" served 21 first families over the years and financed the purchase of Alaska. Since 1981 it was owned by the Texan Joe L. Allbritton and his family. Allbritton is close to the Bush family and has contributed (along with Riggs' client Saudi Prince Bandar) over $100,000 to the Bush Presidential Library. (And sshhhh!; President George Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, was the CEO of Riggs Bank's investment arm).” It is reported that Riggs-Valmet offered US citizenship to its clients, and that its Rusian criminal clients did indeed receive US citizenship. “Riggs Valmet announced in 1991 it was getting into the business of arranging for wealthy people to obtain U.S. citizenship by making large investments in the U.S.” [Joe L. Allbritton, the Riggs Chairman Wanted Washington & International Clout….” 'Bank of Presidents' Stumbles’ Glenn R Simpson, Wall Street Journal, Apr 10, 2004,] One of Riggs key clients –Alexander Knonaykhine – was apparently a beneficiary of this program, “The complaint was filed with Attorney General Valentin Roschacher in Bern; the Swiss anti-money laundering law allows such private actions….The complaint alleges that Khodorkovsky, Lebedev, and Golubovich are or were owners in Switzerland of the Swiss companies Menatep SA, Freiburg, Menatep Finances SA, Geneva and Valmet SA, Geneva. (insert: also known as Riggs-Valmet, SA)It claims that since its creation, “the Bank Menatep SA has been mixed with the affairs of members of the Russian oligarchy and criminal organizations, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexander Konanykhine. (Konanykhine got asylum in the U.S. in 1999, was ordered deported last fall to face charges in Russia, then had the order stayed and will have a new asylim hearing. American and Russian law enforcement officials believe he was in charge of moving billions of dollars out of Russia for the KGB; Konanykhin denies it.) It is also related to another mafia figure, Semyon Mogilvich, called the godfather of organized crime in Russia.” [Khodorkovsky's High Stakes Gamble, Catherine Belton, The Moscow Times, May 16, 2005] The records shows that Riggs-Valmet – and Konanykhine – were assisted in this effort to procure access to the U.S. by a company run by George Bush’s former Chief of Staff. “Concurrently, I was a business partner of the late U.S. Attorney John M. Mitchell, Chairman of Global Research International, and a principal in the firm of Murphy and Associates, Inc., founded by Admiral Daniel J. Murphy, U.S. Navy Retired and former Chief of Staff to then-Vice President Bush. … This project was brought to me by Carter Cornick, Eugene Propper and Jonathan Ginsberg of the Washington, DC. based law firm of Ginsberg, Feldman and Bress. Cornick, Propper and Ginsberg wanted my help in assisting them in accessing officials who could facilitate a favorable negotiation climate for the establishment of a bank and expedite the procurement of the passports.” [Statement of Karon von Gerhke-Thompson, Vice President, First Columbia Company, Inc.] Note: all traces of Karon Von Gerhke-Thompson and First Columbia Company had disappeard by 2004, according to Alan Block and Constance Weaver. (All Is Clouded By Desire: Global Banking, Money Laundering and International Organized Crime, 2004, p134.) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 210 More important than demonstrating the ‘partnership’ between the Bush organization and the Russian crime organization, the Riggs-Valmet/Konanykhine affair demonstrates that the Bush organization actively attempted to ‘bury’ and hide the Russian moneylaundering scheme on multiple occasions. Miss Gerhke-Thompson, upon learning Konanykhine’s intent, went to the CIA and volunteered to report his money-laundering activities. Her efforts to voluntarily report the activities of Khonankhine were brought to an abrupt end when she was “outed” to the KGB as a U.S. operative by double-agent Aldrich Ames. Khonankhine “fired” Miss Gerhke-Thompson upon being informed by the KGB that she was feeding information to the CIA. “The operation was abruptly ended in September of 1993 when Konanykhine telephoned his Washington associate Elena Cidorchuk-Heinz-Volevok from Turkey to instruct her to terminate the contract with First Columbia Company, Inc., and to cut off all further communications with us. She cited Konanykhine's decision to terminate the contract was based on his belief that I was a phoney. In April of 1994, I was advised by two CIA intelligence officers that the operation had been compromised by convicted spy Aldrich Ames. Mr. V corroborated that I had been compromised on the operation. He personally had routed the traffic on the operation to Ames who was responsible for monitoring money laundering operations at the CNC—the CIA's Counter Narcotics Center. An FBI report submitted to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed that Ames and Konanykhine were in Turkey in September of 1993 at the same time, in the same location, and at the precise time that Konanykhine telephoned his assistant from Turkey to terminate the contract with First Columbia Company, Inc.” [Statement of Karon von Gerhke-Thompson, Vice President, First Columbia Company, Inc.] The matter might have ended there, but in a subsequent report of the damage done to the US intelligence operations by Ames, the CIA illegally excluded from its report to the Congressional Oversight Committees (as mandated under the National Security Act of 1947) any mention of Miss Gerhke-Thompson’s activities. “The failure of the CIA's money-laundering investigation, she said, was the only operation compromised by Ames that was not reported to Congress as required by US law.” [White House under fire for 'covering up' Russian corruption, Julian Borger, The Guardian (UK), September 23, 1999] When Miss Gerhke-Thompson discovered that the CIA had omitted her operation from its damage assessment, she directly reported it to Congress, against great political pressure. “Since my involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency and my efforts to bring the issues of Russian money laundering operations to the attention of appropriate oversight committees, Washington has been ever a city at my throat. And my career has been dormant.” [Statement of Karon von Gerhke- Thompson, Vice President, First Columbia Company, Inc.] At this point of the inquiry, the appropriate question might be posed: why did Ames use the KGB to “protect” Konanykhine? If Ames’ Soviet handlers were protecting Konanykhine, who was clearly and publicly aligned at this time with George Bush, it suggests that Ames, his Soviet handlers, and Konanykhine were all part of larger Bush plan. It is speculated that Bush tried to keep his operation quiet by suppressing the Gerhke-Thompson incident during congressional hearings, and had pressure put on her to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 211 remain quiet. If Ames was exposed in the congressional hearings and press as protecting a pro-Bush oligarch, that alliance would expose all his other “revelations” of American agents as an effort to eliminate Soviet patriots rather than American agents. Could it be that rather than exposing pro-American KGB agents who were then executed, Ames was actually setting up for slaughter KGB agents that posed a risk to the Bush strategy? There is additional information about Ames that suggests that while he posed as a Soviet “mole” and was convicted as such, he was actually part of a larger operation to eliminate a faction of the KGB that Bush and his rogue KGB colleagues needed out of the way. This theory of rogue KGB operatives aligned with Bush certainly helps explain the large number of ex-KGB agents that were immensley rewarded for their defection from the Soviet Union, and Konanykhine’s need for over 100 visas, part of a larger 300 visa requirement: “When Frank (Carlucci ) and Dick (Armitage) left the Government, they immediately went to Moscow and opened up an office of the Blackstone Investment Group. Although it was supposed to be an investment office, it was essentially a conduit for money coming out of Washington to purchase KGB documents. In 1991, an enormous sale from the KGB files was consummated for $36 million. It always struck me as somewhat humorous that the sheer volume of documents purchased was so large that it took the entire cargo bay of a Southern Air Transport C-130, which was used to fly the stuff out of Moscow. The purchased documents were a real grab bag of what would have been very politically damaging documents, especially for Republicans in the United States - had they ever been made public. . . . It's interesting to note that the only general in the KGB who objected to the sale (now chief of the North American Desk) was the very loyal and patriotic General Alexander Karpov. Included in the deal, by the way, was a package (let's call it a travel package) wherein over 300 KGB generals and colonels were allowed to enter the United States and were provided with very comfortable homes, mostly in northern Virginia. Most KGB generals now get a check for $12,000 a month from the Agency. KGB colonels get $8,000 a month plus a panoply of favors. Most of these guys are now in the import-export business. The have offices in and around McLean, Virginia. It's also interesting to note that four former KGB generals have import-export offices in the same building in McLean where Oliver North has his office.“ [From The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider, by Al Martin] It’s also important to note two other items around Blackstone involvement in this analysis: 1) Blackstone has been accused by a former ONI operative of being involved in the theft of Russian assets, and profiteering from their involvement in Russia, and 2) Blackstone was the financial backer for Larry Silverstein’s purchase of Building 7 of the WTC six weeks before the attack. “Because of Blackstone's involvement in many high-level high-profile frauds like the Russian Bailout and the Mexican Bailout, one could assume that the company itself was a CIA "cut-out," an actual propretary of the Agency. "No, it's not," says Martin. "They're just sympathizers. They're an asset of the agency. They're not a cut-out. They're just one of the legion of financial companies, mostly domiciled in Washington or northern Virginia, which the CIA turns to, on occasion, to launder money, or for some other illegal purpose." [ The Man Who Knows Too Much , An Interview with Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider, " Uri Dowbenko] In explaining how the Russian fraud worked, Al Martin explained how Blackstone opearte in Mexico and seemingly in Russia: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 212 …. You would buy essentially worthless Mexican bonds, and you could give a Mexican company in a file drawer a face lift, and then you could get Brady Bonds in exchange for them, which were backed by the US Government." "Or, to back those up, to securitize essentially worthless Mexican corporate securities -- you could take a security that was essentially worth two or three cents on the dollar and make it suddenly worth thirty or forty cents on the dollar in the marketplace. The only thing Brady Bonds are is a collateral guarantee." "A Brady Bond is essentially a strip-down, what's called a strip or a stripped down US Treasury bond that essentially guarantees the ultimate mature capital value of a note. It does not however guarantee the interest of that note. It only guarantees the return of capital.” [ The Man Who Knows Too Much , An Interview with Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider, " Uri Dowbenko] Maybe the most puzzling and intriguing aspect of this attempted cover-up of Riggs involvement in money-laundering is the possibility that this normal CIA operation (using Gerhke-Thompson) was shut-down by Aldrich Ames who was a member of a rogue CIA operation, thus making Ames a “false” double agent. This suggests Ames was not a mole at all, but rather instructed by a ‘hidden’ superior to provide specific information to the Soviets. The official damage assessment report on Ames shows that he was clearly “protected” for years, receiving promotions his superiors thought were unwarranted, having investigations into his life-style and income delayed on multiple occasions by reassigning investigators to other projects, omissions in the investigation of his bank accounts, and disregarding other bank reports that Ames was depositing large sums of cash. While the on-and-off internal investigation which lasted four years went through only one of his bank’s records, it conveniently ignored his accounts in two other banks: the Riggs National Bank, and the Dominion Bank of Virginia, which later became the First Union National Bank of Virginia. Domion’s major bank executive would subsequently move to Riggs, and become Vice President of Administration at Riggs. Finally, it might be mentioned that one of the agents responsible for the damage assessment – Jack Armstrong - was murdered in Iraq by a group linked to the people Ames was protecting (See Section 3). If one looks hard enough, there is substantial reason to believe that Ames was operating under the direct instruction of George HW Bush, and as one of his last acts as a mole, prevented the exposure of Bush’s rogue Riggs-Valmet operation to the rest of the CIA. There is no doubt that Riggs-Valmet had set up a wide net of partnerships with elements of the KGB. The question is: did Ames really out US agents to the KGB, or was he really damaging hard-line KGB under a pretense they were double agents. A second take on the Karon von Gerhke-Thompson also suggests there were two CIAs. If Khonankhine was working with quasi-official U.S./Bush administration channels, why was it that his activities needed to be shielded from the CIA? One part of the Bush/CIA network was working with working with Khonankhine and the Yeltsin family, while another faction of the CIA was unaware of this alliance. When the “non-Bush” faction of the CIA discovered the Russian activity, the non-Bush operation was shut down by the Bush/Russian alignment faction in the CIA, working through Ames. The entire episode was shielded from congressional oversight by CIA management, until an indignant citizen (Gerhke-Thompson) took the matter directly to Congress. The outake of this information is that the Valmet-Riggs operation was ‘favored’ and ‘protected’ by elements of the Bush network. The Russian/Israeli Mafiya was directed to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 213 a company owned by Bush's former chief-of-staff for passport priveleges. When a patriotic citizen took the truth to the CIA, the operation was halted by a rogue CIA operation aligned with elements of the KGB. The existence of the investigation into Riggs-Valmet was then illegally covered-up by the CIA in their report to Congress, and the citizen’s efforts to bring this to the attention of Congress were harshly discouraged. One might conclude – just by the protection received – that the Riggs- Valmet/Menatep/Bank of New York money laundering operation was being treated as a “CIA” national security operation. There is more information that suggests Riggs- Valmet was in part, an intelligence operation. Most importantly, in Novemebr, 1898 Alton G Keel Jr left the Whitehouse to take a position in the international banking group of Riggs Bank and worked directly with Valmet’s Christian Michel. Keel had worked for Admiral John Poindexter, of the Iran/Contra scandal as Acting Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and later became Director of National Security Council. By 1992, he had left Riggs and subsequently worked for Kissinger Associates and became CEO and founding partner to Carlyle International. Keel left the operation in December 1991. It is also disclosed that Valmet was funded by contracts from the World Bank (now managed by Paul Wolfowitz, leading PNAC member and neo-conservative) to conduct what might be considered economic espionage: the touring and documentation of Russian manufacturing operations under the guise of “audits.” “As the government prepared to sell off part of its oil industry in the controversial loans for shares auctions of 1995, Samuelson and Michel were already getting a bird's-eye view of the choicest assets. Via a consulting arm of Valmet, GT Valmet, they won a contract in 1995 from the World Bank to make sure that $1.6 billion it had extended in loans was being spent properly by production units such as Yuganskneftegaz and Purneftegaz. These units, which were visited by Valmet consultants, formed the backbone of the soon-to-be-privatized oil companies Yukos and Sibneft. By that time, Valmet was also acting as a consultant to Berezovsky, the Kremlin intriguer who won close ties with the Yeltsin family. Both Khodorkovsky and Berezovsky ended up big winners in the auctions of Yukos and Sibneft, gaining controlling stakes for just over $300 million and just over $100 million, respectively.” [Biography Of Mikhail Khodorkovsky from The Moscow Times, Catherine Belton, The Moscow Times, May 17,2005] With this ‘consulting’ role of the World Bank being referenced, the reader must keep in mind that it was the British disclosure that IMF/World Bank loans were being used illegally by the the Yeltsin family that first initiated the Bank of New York moneylaundering scandal. Management of the IMF & World Bank are intimately involved in spiderweb of intrigue. There was other activity being undertaken at Valmet SA which reinforces the argument that it was a covert operations being run by George Bush Sr. If Valmet’s involvement with the Russians seemed to largely focus on acquiring the petrochemical resources of the former Soviet republics, it was also involved with another group which played a comparable strategic role in the grand strategy for the Middle East. The group would be the PKK – the Kurdistan Worker’s Party –whose support would be critical in any attempts to destabilize Iraq. If Iraq was to be “Balkanized,” with Kurdistan becoming an THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 214 entity owning the major oil assets of Northern Iraq, the PKK was the group to court. Valmet SA was used to launder the funds to the PKK “The "Kurdish Foundation Trust" and the "Mamoian (aka Mamoyan) Foundation" are the most important ones among them. These foundations, one established on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands and the other in Switzerland are claimed to launder the money the PKK earns from drug trafficking and other illegal means in order to finance MED TV. These foundations have transferred their legal and financial administration to the VALMET SA company in Switzerland to hide their relationship with the PKK. Proof is available on the fact that the supporters of the PKK are investing large amounts of money in the accounts of this company in National Westminster bank of London. …. On September 1996 and January 1998, following raids on to the studios of the television station, MED TV's accounts were seized by the authorities because they could not show the source of their income.” [ Behind Closed Doors, Sebahattin Onkibar (Turkiye), Turkish Press Review, May 20,1999 from Directorate General of Press and Information, Office of the Prime Minister of Turkey] “According to December 13, 2000, testimony by Frank Cilluffo, to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) “is heavily involved in the European drug trade, especially in Germany and France. French law enforcement estimates that the PKK smuggles 80 percent of the heroin in Paris.” Cilluffo is Deputy Director, Global Organized Crime Program Counterterrorism Task Force at Washington, D.C.'s Center for Strategic and International Studies.” [Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism Web, Michael Tremoglie, FrontPageMagazine.com, March 19, 2003] While the reference to the PKK is meant to help make credible the argument that Riggs- Valmet was a CIA covert operations, it is important to mention that the Kurdistan link to the Bush family was initially provided by the same gentleman that initiated the Iran- Contra scandal and October Surprise, other Bushmanaged operations: Israeli Mossad agent David Kimche. “The history of Kurdish-Israeli contacts is well documented. It was Israel´s Middle East man, the former Mossad official David Kimche, who established direct contacts with the Kurdish leadership back in the mid-1960s. In 1997, the London-based Al-Hayat published my interview with Kimche in which he explained that, when the contacts were made, Israel´s then Prime Minister Levi Eshkol had taken a strategic decision to establish relations with ethnic minorities in the Arab world. Kimche met with then Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, and shortly afterwards Israel began delivering aid to the Kurds. Othman, who was at the time Barzani´s trusted liaison with the outside world, confirmed Kimche´s account. He pointed out, however, that Barzani was hoping that the contacts with Israel would help him establish relations with the United States.” [Kamran Karadaghi is an Iraqi political commentator based in London. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star, http://www.rojname.com/lastnews/cache-archive/9259/] At the same time as Valmet was working covertly with the Russians and Kurds, Riggs Bank had a Vice President acting as treasurer of the US Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (Karl Mattison), demonstrating yet again Riggs involvement in Middle Eastern/Central Asian politics: “The USACC Advisory Board consisted of "only" these seven men: Dr. Henry Kissinger, James A Baker III, Lloyd Bentsen, Zibigniew Brzezinski, Dick Cheney, Brent Scowcroft, John Sununu. It is noted here that the current Vice President’s daughter, Elizabeth `Cheney-Perry`, has been named Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs for regional economic issues; she left Armitage Associates for the job. The USACC `Vice-Chairman` of the Board is James A Baker IV (Baker Botts, L.L.P.); Chairman Emeritus is T. Don Stacy (VP, Amoco); with Richard Armitage as Board President, until he resigned to become Colin Powell’s Deputy, which rounds out the US elite running the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 215 USACC. The remaining Board of Directors are a who’s who of the oil and gas multinational corporate interests of the west and specifically the United States. On the Board of Trustees or USACC the latter interests hold sway again with three primary exceptions: Senator Sam Brownback (`R-KS`) and Joseph R. Pitts (`R-PA`) (whose efforts formed the 1996 legislative backbone of the House/Senate Silk Road Strategy for Afghanistan, [Unocal, Texaco] et al) and Richard Perle (US Defense Policy Board). The Legal Counsel for USACC is Ted Jones of the Texas Law firm Baker Botts L.L.P. (James A Baker III & IV’s law firm.); Treasurer is Karl Mattison (VP, Riggs Bank, NA). It was the James A. Baker III Institute of Rice University which outlined the Cheney Strategic Energy Initiative which later became the Administration’s Strategic Energy National Security Policy. (Clearly Dick Cheney wouldn’t be interested in giving Congress the names of who he consulted on the Energy Initiative as they would amount to the remainder of the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees of USACC.)” [U.S. political objectives in the Middle East will Fail, Creating a New Cold War with China and Russia; Target is Iran not Iraq., By. Craig B Hulet] In summarizing the role of Riggs-Valmet (referred to in Russian press as ‘Rigs Valmet’), what the timeline of world events shows is that as George Bush steered the re-financing of Third World debt under the astute guidance of the soon-to-become Enron Vice President Robert Hermann. During this refinance process (according to ONI released documents), an undisclosed amount of financial collateral “disappeared” into the U.S. banking system, thus delaying the re-settlement of the Third World debt. In the meantime, George Bush’s brother Jonathon, who was in charge of “investments” for Riggs Financial Management, took controlling interest in a company called Valmet, and opened a Swiss subsidiary, which became the “financial consultants” to the KGB and future criminal oligarchs of Russia and other criminal groups. The Riggs-Valmet “consultants” helped the KGB and oligarchs create Bank Menatep, which later became a business partner with Riggs, in owning an undisputed money-laundering, tax evasion vehicle for its Russian and U.S. customers. It is speculated that the third world debt collateral was withheld long enough that the Soviet economy collapsed due to lack of capitalization, the goal of the destabilization program. The collateral funds – or part of the $300 billion plus that could have been generated in interest by the missing third world debt collateral - were then restored to Yelstin by George Bush Sr. Yeltsin then moved the collateral funds into Bank Menatep, that proceeded to use the funding with the Yeltsin oligarchs to “buy-up” Russian industry for pennies on the dollar. Through an array of financial actions, that wealth was then transferred through Nordex, Marc Rich, the Bank of New York, Riggs-Valmet (and its shell companies) and several other banks identified collectivly by Ambassador Wanta, Vreeland and the Office of Naval Intelligence, to Swiss and German banks, while nominally ‘held’ in off-shore banks. In creating the “cash” that was to fund the oligarchs’ takeover of Russian industry in 1991, a $240B jump in the M3 measure of money would have to occur if regular Federal Reserve or large bank channels were used, and there was no such jump. Having the bonds backed by “private” collateral – such as the Durham Trust or Swiss gold – the generation of the money supply did not need to settle through any bank linked to the Federal Reserve, especially if they were shopped overseas, which is what happened. They were funded via Israel and supposedly backed by gold from Switzerland, according to the released documents. Hence, the Marcos gold confiscated by George Bush (and acknowledged to exist in records from Congressional hearings as a source of funding for Iran-Contra operations) or the Russian treasury gold (theft of which was facilitated by Leo Wanta), probably served as collateral for these loans. The interesting thing to keep in THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 216 mind is that if Brady type bond payments are defaulted, the maturity value is guaranteed by US Treasury Bonds, thereby explaining the need for the Federal Reserve intervention if 2001. “The initial asset securitisation formula that converted international bank loans into dollar denominated, high yield, tradable sovereign bonds was named the Brady Programme, after the US Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady in 1989. The objective of the Brady Bond programs was to create liquidity for the giant American banks by enabling them to remove their troubled Third World sovereign loans off their books, albeit at a haircut to face value. Morever, the Brady Programmes also provided sovereign borrowers with debt relief because they reduced their interest burden, extended the payback maturities and Uncle Sam guaranteed the principal via collateralised zero coupon US Treasury bonds. The Brady Bond is therefore a blend of zero coupon US Treasury securities and Third World sovereign risk paper. This has enormous valuation implications for an investor in Brady Bonds because its value is based not just on a sovereign borrower's credit or willingness to repay but also the movement of long US Treasury bond interest rates, since zero coupon bonds are an intrinsic component of the Brady collateral. The US Treasury maintains the zero coupon collateral at an account with the New York Fed. Rolling interest rates guarantee "rolling" forward every time a coupon payment is made to bondholders. This is another quirk of a Brady Bond. If a borrower defaults, say, in year 6 of a 30-year bond, the US Treasury zero coupon collateral still provides a positive yield to maturity. Brady Bonds have fixed, step, floating rate or even hybrid coupon that payout semi-annual payments and are generally amortising. They are issued as both Bearer or Registered instruments. Certain Par and Discount Brady are even issued with warrants. Brady Programmes now cover a spectrum of nations worldwide 13 years after the landmark Mexican deal. In Latin America, Brady's exist for Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Nicaraguan, and Uruguay. Elsewhere, Poland, Bulgaria, Morocco, Jordan, Nigeria and Russia have Brady Bonds in existence. While most Brady's are dollar instruments, they are also available on occasion in the Euro, sterling, Swiss francs and the Canadian dollar. [Matein Khalid, Strategist, Capital Markets and Research, www.pressreleasenetwork.com/newsletter/nlfin_view.phtml?nl_id=40] That recognized, $240B is not an amount that can be hidden anywhere in the world with having a major impact on the financial markets – except for Russia in 1991 and 1992, where there was virtually no financial reporting during the chaos of the collapse. However incredulous this statement may seem, that is exactly what happened with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its banking system – money just “disappeared.” Prior to the collapse, $30 Billion in new German credits just disappeared from the Soviet banks into Swiss and other offshore banking entities. “…West Germany had compensated the USSR very handsomely in cash for allowing Germany to be reunited, and the cash had been embezzled. As the Russian deputy finance minister admitted in 1991, “A gigantic sum was received...from Germany--64 billion Deutsche marks [about $30 billion]--and it all slipped through our fingers.” [The IMF Behind the Scenes] As documented earlier in this report, the entire national treasury of gold was reported (in August 1991) by the Soviets to have simply disappeared. “Valued at $35 billion, Russia's gold reserves were estimated to be 100 million troy ounces - just under 3000 tonnes. Then in September 1991, a palpitating Grigory Yavlinski, the economic supremo, revealed to delegates at the Group-of-Seven industrial countries meeting in Bangkok, that a mere 240 tons were all that was left. Two months later, in November, even that had disappeared. "Not a gram of THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 217 gold remains; the vaults are empty," said Victor Geraschenko, chief of Gosbank, the Russian Central Bank.” [Gangster’s Paradise, David Guyatt, 1997] What Guyatt reports next about the disappearance of this Russian gold is critical – the gold is reported to have been used as security for a financial scam. This report contends that this Russian gold was merged with Bush’s Marcos gold to serve as collateral to fund the oligarch’s take-over of Russian industry, once the Bush/Wanta destabilization program achieved its goal of cutting off other sources of capital to the Soviet economy. “In one operation valued at $4 billion, over 300 tons were secretly shipped to Switzerland, some of it subsequently arriving in London. Unlike Britain, the Swiss authorities do not keep records of gold imports which makes it a favourite centre for disguising the point of origin - a very effective method of laundering suspicious transactions. The bullion, some sources now believe, was used as collateral in a secondary scam that set-out to vacuum-up all the available Rouble bank-notes in existence at the time and sell them at knock down prices to organised crime syndicates from around the world.” [Gangster’s Paradise, David Guyatt, 1997] In 1991 the Soviet Union was totally bankrupt. Yeltsin came to the US in August of 1991 (and again in 1992) for loans to prevent economic and social chaos in the former Soviet countries. Gorbachev met with Bush on the same subject in Helsinki on September 9. President Bush, with a failing U.S. economy and an upcoming election was not is position to publicly offer U.S. taxpayer assistance to the Soviets. The Gramm-Rudmann Act had forced congress into a public confession that it was unable to balance the budget. Hence, no representative of the US was going to officially approve loans to the collapsing Soviet economy because at that time, the U.S. budget had not been balanced. Officially receiving no ‘announced’ promises of assistance, (it was not until April 1992, that Bush and Kohl promised a meager $24 billion in loans) Yeltsin returned to Russia where he graciously announced the US would be the primary partner in the privatization of former Soviet firms, even though no funding had been publicly “provided” for this opportunity. “The first detailed statement of Russian economic policy issued by the Yeltsin-Gaidar government was addressed not to the Russian people but to the IMF in Washington. This was the “Economic Policy Memorandum” of February 27, 1992. From that point on, Russia was bound by IMF conditions and by the encroachments on national sovereignty that they implied. With this document, as Nelson and Kuzes say, “the Russian government was acknowledging the West’s leading role as a participant in Russian reform planning. The Western approach had prevailed in the Kremlin.” Because the IMF was recommending fast-track privatizations, the Russian memorandum stressed that the privatization process would be “considerably speeded up.” Gaidar’s priority was clearly to obtain foreign financial support, not domestic political backing. But even this task was not successfully fulfilled, since what Russia got in early 1992 was IMF conditions in exchange for (at least initially) no money.” [The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy, Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski, United States Institute of Peace Press, www.usip.org] Something however, must have transpired in Washington. On September 11, 1991 Bush addressed Congress and first spoke a new partnership between the U.S. and the former members of the Soviet Union. Immediately after Yeltsin’s trip to Washington, on September 14, 1991 - three days after the bonds were issued - the greatest moneylaundering machine in Russian history came into existence: Nordex and the International Foundation for Privatization and Private Investment. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 218 “On 14 September 1991, Vladimir Shcherbakov, the last First Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, formed with two other partners, one of which was the now notorious Austrian firm, Nordex GmbH, the International Foundation for Privatization and Private Investment [FPI]. FPI’s charter was legitimized by Gorbachev’s signature and approved by 13 heads of what were still constituent republics…. The CIA has determined that through Nordex, FPI seized the export earnings from Russia’s natural resource companies – oil, gas, platinum, gold, diamonds – and from industrial firms exporting items such as steel and aluminum and then stashed the hefty profits in Western bank accounts.” [The Rape of Russia, Anne Williamson, testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999] “Nordex had been founded by the Russian/Israeli Mafiya criminal Loutchansky, who after 1991 would become a key business partner with Boris Yeltsin in Russia and Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan. On December 14, 1989, when working for Adazhi (Loutchansky) went to Vienna to establish a company - Nordex GmbH, which later became the in-between in funneling raw resources from the east to the west". [The Loutchansky phenomenon, from the book "The Nazarbayevs: Sources of Prosperity" Sagyndyk Mendybaven, Nikolai Fomin, Victor Shelgunov, IAC Eurasia-Internet, 27 July 2000 ] “Nordex’s relationship with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev was oiled by various favors according to documents obtained by TIME. In early 1992, Nordex shipped a Mercedes to the President’s office in the capital of Almaty (the document doesn’t indicate who paid for the car). When Nazarbayev visited London in 1994, it paid 25,000 in public relations expenses. He company’s business dealings in Kazakhstan included a joint trading company, a gold-mining venture and, in 1995, management of one of the largest steel mills in the world: Karmet in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Grigori Loutchansky’s friend Oleg Soskovets, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, allegedly pressured a local firm that managed Karmet to bring Nordex in as its partner. The government of Kazakhstan later tore up the management contract and drew up a new one for a partnership that was to include Nordex, a subsidiary of American steel giant USX and Israel’s Eisenberg Group.” [The Russia Connection, S.C. Gwynne and Larry Gurwin, Time, July 8, 1996] (Research note-Please see the documented reference linking the Eisenburg Group to Stratesec Incorporated, formerly Securacom- the CIA front company that held a maintenance contract for equipment controlling access to the WTC-Appendix B.) Shortly after Yeltsin’s visit to the U.S., the recently created Bank Menatep - having no capital and no performing loans - all of a sudden was dispersing credit from a Central Russian government, that had reportedly no treasury, no credit and was unable to collect taxes. Naturally, there are no financial or economic records for the period because of the economic chaos. The great mystery then is, where did the funding for the new Russian privatization program come from? Funds that officially were loaned to Russia in 1992 just disappeared in the ensuing fraud, just as the previous funding had. “There is also some question about what finally happened to the foreign loans Russia received during the second half of 1992. A Russian observer has concluded that “their scale, as well as the total absence of any form of public control over their granting, objectively strengthens the point of view, according to which the reasons for seeking this loan were political and even criminal.” [The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy, Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski, United States Institute of Peace Press, www.usip.org] "In July 1994, Nordex company was granted the credit of $5 mln. The credit was granted without any collateral, purposes of the credit were not defined either. In 1995, re-crediting was made. As a result, the credit was not repaid.” [The origin of the Kazakh vestige in Swiss banks, Victor Svetin, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, March 2, 2000] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 219 Somehow, however, during the next two to three years $167 Billion in new credit was generated, and $500 Billion in exports left the country. Even Cathrine Belton - Khodorkovsky’s biographer - admits that no one is able to explain where Bank Menatep received its funding. As for the exports, it turns out they consisted largely a combination of clever money laundering arrangements constructed as gas, oil and weapons exports. (The sale of weapons by the Soviet military was similar in nature to the sales of U.S. military weaponry left behind in Vietnam after that war – a sale which is reported to have propelled Armitage and Secord into the weapons-for-heroin-for-money trade. Later, the same Russian military responsible for the sale of weapons to Columbian drug dealers and third world war lords would be linked to the Afghan heroin trade, and a strange distribution partnership with the US heroin conduits. This report speculates that the ongoing business partnership in Russia between Farhad Azima (Iran-Contra conspirator) and Victor Bout (Russian arms smuggler) is at the foundation of this distribution alliance.) It was the FPI/Nordex operation that started selling off Soviet weaponry to African states and Columbian drug barons. This is one of several links between the Yeltsin crime family and the Columbian drug cartels. “Shcherbakov even boasted about FPI’s "new approach to the problem of the property of the Western Army Groups in Eastern Germany that comes down to its joint exploitation by Russian and German businesses", an eyepopping admission since a year after the interview was published, the Russian scandal was Bonn’s claim that Soviet weaponry sales to rogue regimes originating in the Western Army Group had amounted to a $4 billion criminal take.” [The Rape of Russia, Anne Williamson, testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999] The magnitude of money generation that occurred in the newly formed states of the former Soviet Republic would not be achieved without collateral. The Russians had none and there was no one who was willing to put any collateral into what was perceived as a ‘black hole’ named Russia, at least publicly. The question remains unanswered in the press: who funded the privatization of Russian industry? Enter George HW Bush Sr. and Alan Greenspan. In 1991, the U.S. economy was in its own recession, the Congress could not balance the budget, and Alan Greenspan was balking at providing monetary stimulus to the U.S. At that time, given the domestic needs of the US economy, the American voting public would not tolerate a major multibillion dollar bailout of Russia, and the 1992 presidential race between Bush and Clinton was already under-way. Because of the ‘currency destabilization program’, there was no commercial or government group willing to back loans to the Soviet Union, except George H.W. Bush. Simultaneously, Boris Yeltsin came to the U.S. in August of 1991 with hat in hand, looking for a bailout that would prevent total anarchy in the former Soviet republics. Boris Yeltsin was turned away - at least publicly. In the background however, starting August 26, 1991 and within days of Yeltsin’s visit, the Bush money machine started sending daily cash infusions to Russia. On the basis of documents provided by the ONI to several reporters, these loans: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 220 · Funded a “joint venture” with Russia (document source: Hamilton & Hyun Investment Corp., memo to William Sommerville, August 26, 1991; Addendum 1 to Joint Venture Agreement, Contec Development Pty., 9/26/91); That partnership most probably was the International Foundation for Privatization and Private Investment: “On 14 September 1991, Vladimir Shcherbakov, the last First Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, formed with two other partners, one of which was the now notorious Austrian firm, Nordex GmbH, the International Foundation for Privatization and Private Investment [FPI]. FPI’s charter was legitimized by Gorbachev’s signature and approved by 13 heads of what were still constituent republics…. The CIA has determined that through Nordex, FPI seized the export earnings from Russia’s natural resource companies – oil, gas, platinum, gold, diamonds – and from industrial firms exporting items such as steel and aluminum and then stashed the hefty profits in Western bank accounts.” [The Rape of Russia, Anne Williamson, testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999] · Were backed by Swiss gold held in Kloten, Switzerland (document source: Robert Perry, Bay State Trust, memo to D’Acquisto and Peterson, September 10, 1991; Hamilton & Hyun Investment Corp., memo to William Sommerville, August 26, 1991); It is imporatnt to note this is where the Marcos gold hoard was stashed by President Bush. "Approximately 1,000 tons of the loot was liberated by Ferdinand Marcos before his ouster. Billions of dollars worth were shipped overseas by American intelligence agents and the Mafia. Much of the horde was cabbaged away in a high-security, subterranean storage cache buried beneath the Zurich airport." [Saudi Entrepeneur Adnan Khashoggi Linked to 9/11 Terrorists, Alex Constantine] · Consisted, in part, of payments of currency from Lehman of at least $100 million per day for an indefinite period of time (document source: Daniel International Fax of THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 221 12/16/1991) (It is of interest to note that at that time, Lehman was a subsidiary of American Express, of which Dick Ceneny’s wife, Lynn, is a board member.); · Consisted (in part) of cash funneled to Russia through the Deutschbank (document source: Hamilton & Hyun Investment Corp., memo to William Sommerville, August 26, 1991). As the clues provided by the ONI documents are detailed, one recognizes the name of a familiar organization identified with most of the illegal activity in this report - the Deutschebank. A key question becomes: did the US get involved in a joint venture with Russia? The answer is yes! – through the “Russian American Enterprise Fund” set up at the request of George Bush and Gerald Corrigan, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York In subsequent economic negotiations with the G7 heads of state, what resulted was an amazing concession by Yeltsin to the US, allowing it to be the chief architect of its privatization plan by which state industries would be ultimately owned by anonymous shell companies in off-shore banks. The amazing aspect at the time was there was no immediately apparent financial concession from the U.S. in exchange for this very significant opportunity. Palms & Co. had profiles of over 200 Russian defense enterprises which were eligible for acquisition. Funding for this privatization was arranged to come from: · Sovlink Fund (Solomon Brothers, Investment Banker, New York) · Russian Partners Fund (Paine Webber) · Russian American Enterprise Fund (Lehman Brothers Fund) · Barings Securities Fund · Defense Enterprise Fund · CS First Boston · Fidelity Investments · The World Bank · International Finance Corporation · CCF-Moscow (Credit Commerciale de France, Paris) · First Russian Investment Fund (Framlington Investment Managers, London) · All State Insurance Co. Venture Capital Department · L & A Juice Company, Los Angeles (through them Coca Cola Foods) · Russian American Investment Fund - Strobe Talbott Ambassador at Large for Russian Affairs · John I Haas Co. (for breweries revitalization and through them August Busch, Sam Adams, Sam Koch A.B. Miller) · Defense Nuclear Agency Washington D.C. (defense plant conversion) · Newstar Fund (Att&T & General Motors Pension Plans) · European Bank for Reconstruction & Development · U.S. Trade Development Agency · Overseas Private Investment Corporation · U.S. Department of Commerce "BISNIS" · Center for International Private Enterprise · U.S. Agency for International Development · European Union Technical Assistance Programme ($500 million) · Russian Venture Capital Fund of America (Palms & Company) · Ukrainian Venture Capital Fund of America (Palms & Company) · United States Interbank Currency Exchange (Palms & Company) · Russia And The Republics Equity Partners LP. (RARE) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 222 · Baltic American Enterprise Fund · Bulgarian American Enterprise Fund · Templeton Russia Fund · BEA Associates Russia Fund · Vladivostok Fund · Scudder Stevens & Clark, Inc. · Smith New Court PLC The above list was part of the official privatization program which began in the spring of 1992: “In May 1992, former Gorbachev economic adviser Grigoriy Yavlinskiy moved his think tank "Epitsentr" to the region and himself spent 100 days there formulating a systematic plan for the region's privatization program.” [Russian Defense Indusrty Conversion Investment Program, Dr. Pyotr Johannevich van de Waal, Palms, Sovetnik Pravitelstva CWA, Tovarichestvo Palmsa, Inc. ] The unofficial privatization program had begun much earlier. What is not generally reported though generally understood in Russia is that the privatization of former state owned property started long before the G7 meeting in 1992, and long before the official western loans of 1992. Privatization started with the creation of the FPI on September 14, 1991 – 3 days after the Brady Bonds were reportedly issued. “A former employee of FPI, speaking through clenched teeth, reported, "It [FPI] is not a well-known organization, but it’s one of the most wealthy and most powerful organizations in Russia," and their work was engineering commission-paying deals for money or privilege with the Kremlin, thereby organizing a pipeline of tribute typical of corrupt regimes. "I can’t say it publicly, I can’t prove my position with documents, but I know they were privatizing companies, the very best companies, before we had a privatization program." [The Rape of Russia, Anne Williamson, testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999] The unofficial privatization program was seemingly orchestrated by the new oligarchs under the guidance of the Riggs-Valmet consultants, controlled by Jonathon and George HW Bush. (One would not want to overlook the significant role of Bruce Rappaport in this major crime. Rappaport, former owner of the Bank of New York, working through his Swiss-American Bank, had been a major financier of Bush’s Iran/Contra Deals, and was now intimately connected to the Yeltsin family through Bank Menatep.) Simultaneously, during September of 1991, the laws in Russia were changed by Yeltsin to allow the immediate transfer of state resources to “foreign firms.” “In September 1991, a foreign investment law promoting the transfer of capital, technology, and knowhow went into effect. Nonresidents may acquire partial shareholdings or form wholly owned subsidiaries in Russia. Foreign firms may obtain licenses to exploit natural resources. Foreign investors can be exempted from import duties and export taxes, and there is limited relief from profits tax, varying by sector and region.” [http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Russia-Foreign-Investment.html] In this privatization of Russia over the next several years, newly created banks were provided with funding (credits) from a central source that had no visible means of generating capital, and then loaned money to key industries, being taken over by the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 223 “oligarchs.” In doing so, the Yelstsin administrators (the “Family”) took hefty profits up front. “Borovoi gave an example of how government funds are looted: If a government ministry wants funding, it must allocate up to 3 percent of the requested sum for bribes to lawmakers and officials. The lawmakers then approve the request, and the ministry must then pay up to half of the funding to the lawmakers and officials to get the money.” [Organized Crime Thriving in Russia, Barry Renfrew, AP Wire, August 31, 1999] As those companies defaulted on their loans, the banks (and not surprisingly, the Board Directors of those banks) became the primary owners of Russian industry, with significant percentages held by various off shore ‘holding companies.’ (At this point, it may be fair to speculate that the Bush family and affiliates own a share of those “holding companies,” given the role of Jonathon Bush and Valmet in the financial plundering of Russia, and Neil Bush’s ongoing relations with Russian investors.) Subsequent, “official” loans from the IMF, went to cover investment banker’s fees and bank interest “Russia’s bankers made serious money on Yeltsin’s electoral weakness by buying government bonds at distressed prices using cheap money handed over from government deposits. The lion’s share of the domestic bonds’ high yields have always been paid with IMF loans. Russia’s first representative to the World Bank, Leonid Grigoriev, explained, "Of course, the government was to return this money and that is why the yields on 3-month paper reached as much as 290 percent. The government’s paying such huge, impossible rates on treasury bills, well, it’s completely unbelievable. It had nothing to do with the market and therefore such yields can only be understood as a payback, just a different method." [The Rape of Russia, Anne Williamson, testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999] The U.S. arranged for additional funding to be provided to Russian Defense firms through a collection of banks and financial institutions. U.S. Defense firms and financial agencies started buying into former Soviet firms. The first official US program began in 1992: “The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program was initiated in FY 1992 to reduce the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction remaining in the former Soviet Union. In June 1994, DoD (Department of Defense) established the Defense Enterprise Fund to assist Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine in the privatization of defense industries and conversion of military technologies and capabilities for civilian use.” At the same time in Russia, defense firms and energy companies were being consolidated under the banner of privatization: “Military Industrial Investment Company (VPIK): Also known as the Defense Industrial Investment Company (DIIC), VPIK was organized by a combination of government and industry to aid the defense industry in adjusting to the transformation to a market economy. Its major goal is to finance complete and partial conversion of defense enterprises throughout Russia and promote the development and production of dual-use technologies. Several large defense plants, including major aerospace and communications firms are among its founding members. The most prominent members are listed below.” · Russian groups involved in this conversion were led by Viktor Chernomyrdin, and included: · The Military Industrial Stock Exchange THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 224 · The Russian Commodity-Raw Material Exchange · The Moscow Central Stock Exchange · The Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building · The Plleshakov Scientific Production Association · Khrunichev Plant · The Economic News Agency · The KAMI stock Exchange · Military Unit 57275 · The Impluse Scientific Production Association · Drzerzhinskiy Military Academy” This was the beginning of the era of the “oligarchs” - “The really good stuff - oil companies, metals plants, telecoms - was distributed to essentially seven individuals, "the oligarchs", on insider auctions whose results were agreed beforehand. Once effective control was established, directors - uncertain themselves of the durability of their claim to the newlyacquired property - chose to asset strip with impunity instead of developing their new holdings.” [The Rape of Russia, Anne Williamson, testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999] One of the chief oligarchs associated with the Yeltsin Family was Boris Berezovsky, who would later become a business partner with Neil Bush in a company called Ignite. “Berezovsky, described as “a former Kremlin kingmaker,” served as executive secretary of the CIS under former President Boris Yeltsin… Berezovsky was one of the chief oligarchs in Russia who acquired massive wealth by taking control of the Soviet Union’s state assets after the fall of communism. Berezovsky owned several banks and TV stations in Russia when he was accused of defrauding a regional government of $13 million. In 2000, he fled the country and moved to London, where he now lives under the name Platon Elenin. In fact, Berezovsky has Israeli citizenship, a fact that caused a scandal of Watergate proportions in Russia in 1996 when it was exposed by a Russian newspaper. [Israeli Oligarch’s Ill-Gotten Loot Channeled to Dubya’s Brother, Christopher Bollyn, AmericanFreePress.net, Issue #43, October 24, 2005] Neil Bush would establish another indirect link to the Yeltsin Family by his involvement with Diligence, a relationship discussed in the next section. Berezovsky brought to the Yeltsin “Family” a key relationship with the Chechen mafia, whose revolutionary counter-parts were trained in CIA funded camps in Afghanistan. “…in the conditions of Russian gangster style capitalism Berezovsky managed to take control over major Russian enterprises. This was accompanied by murders, most of them have not been exposed, writes Bernstein. Khlebnikov "reveals the important elements of closely-intertwined banking structures, industrial enterprises and Swiss holding companies, created by Berezovsky and others to snatch large shares of Russian wealth. He examines the critically important role of what he calls the Chechen mafia in ensuring the force used by criminal capitalism and shows the close contacts between Berezovsky and the leaders of the Chechen rebellion against Russian rule, notes the New York Times analyst.” [Pravda.RU ,2001-05-31] The relationship between the Yeltsin “Family” of Russian bureaucrats, the Russian/Israeli Mafiya, Loutchansky, Marc Rich, Berezovsky, Khodorkovsky, Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev, and the Chechen Mafia is a critical piece of the puzzle in understanding the willingness of both the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and the Bush Family in facilitating the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 225 events of 9/11, and the decision taken in 1998 to destroy the WTC. It is critical for three reasons: 1. It demonstrates joint motive for the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and Bush Family business partners to destroy the numerous investigative offices in the World Trade Center; 2. It demonstrates a willingness by both the Bush Family and Yeltsin Family to employ groups of ex-military professionals that can arrange for major political terrorist activities 3. It demonstrates an ongoing linkage between the Bush Family and the Yeltsin Family which has been demonstrated to fund and arrange political terrorism by Chechen Mafia for political gain in Russia. In this respect, both political Families seem to have sponsored major terrorist acts. They both publicly attributed those acts to ‘Al Qaeda’ terrorists. They both used the same intermediary Adnan Khashoggi – to arrange it them. (Documented in Section 8.6) All of these groups are linked to the same set of banks used to launder gold and other assets. They have done business with each other, and hence their illegal assets are traceable through these various accounts. Having investigators have probable cause to investigate some of these accounts put them all at risk. All pressure for investigations, all investigations, disappeared after September 11, 2001. Notes: 1. Of interesting historic note, this is the same timeframe in which President Bush, by Executive Order (rather than Congressional law) authorized the selling of US Government assets. “President Bush's Executive Order (No. 12803) on Infrastructure Privatization of April 30, 1992 cleared away federal barriers to cities and states selling or leasing existing public works infrastructure to private investors….President Bush's Executive Order on Infrastructure Privatization offers state and local government the option of selling or leasing any infrastructure enterprise that had previously received federal aid, as long as it repays the depreciated value of the federal grants. And it directs the relevant federal agencies—principally the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Highway Administration—to work with their grantees in removing obstacles, should they opt to pursue privatization.” [What Cities and States Have to Sell, Robert W. Poole, Jr., David Haarmeyer, and Lynn Scarlett, April 1992] 2. Simultaneously, Adnan Khashoggi directed his Barrick operation to file its applications for 1,144 acres of land in Nevada during March and April 1992. “Barrick filed its applications for 1,144 acres of land in March and April 1992. That summer, a pilot program for ``expedited processing'' of Nevada patents was instituted by BLM chief Delos Cy Jamison, a Republican who had been appointed to that post by President George Bush in 1989. Jamison concocted this speed-up procedure with the BLM Nevada state director, without informing his own staff. ``Bells went off in my head when I heard about it,'' a former BLM staffer told EIR. Philip M. Hocker, president of the Mineral Policy Center, an environmentalist outfit, testified to a Congressional subcommittee on March 11, 1993: ``Under a new and unpublicized `pilot project,' the BLM allowed Barrick to hire outside mineral examiners to perform the evaluation of `discovery' on Barrick's mining claims. The specialists who determined whether these claims should be patented for $5 per acre received payment for their work directly from the company THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 226 which wanted a `yes' answer. This is a flagrant conflict of interest, which BLM is not only allowing, but encouraging. Barrick is the only company to complete this process so far.'' Only Barrick got expedited treatment. Its patenting was rushed through in record speed; the BLM district manager approved the report of the outside consultant hired by Barrick the day after it was filed, in February 1993. Other companies remained stuck in the BLM backlog.” [George Bush's $10 billion giveaway to Barrick Gold, Mark Sonnenblick, Executive Intelligence Review] 3. As an interesting side note another firm that started buying into the former Soviet satellite industry was Iridium, formerly identified in this report as the satellite company operating in Iraq, with heavy ownership out of Israel and the Bin Ladin family. Might this have been the firm Vreeland was investigating? Just as significant, with the Department of Defense officially investing in Russian defense firms, might this have been the basis for ONI running its own money-laundering investigation? 4. The quiet role of Jonathon Bush through the years has been over-looked by investigators to date. It is important to recall that in addition to directing the covert activities of Valmet, he was the ‘money-man’ for the Bush family. It was Jonathon who provided campaign investors for all of the Bush candidates, and it was Jonathon who brought the initial Wall Street money to the initial George Bush Jr. companies that were to fail later. To contend that Jonathon avoided politics would be incorrect, as the record shows he officially represented his brother in 1989 during a tour of Eastern Europe and the Ukraine. (See American Dynasty, Kevin Phillips, 2004, p72.) 8.5 Ambassador Lee Wanta and the Riggs-Valmet Connection The strange case of Lee Wanta, a U.S. citizen and covert operative for almost thirty years and Somalian Ambassador to Switzerland and Canada, is a saga that serves to validate the theory that George H.W. Bush was pumping massive, illegal funding into rogue elements of the Soviet KGB, which then spawned the Russian oligarchs. Wanta has produced for the public record a large volume of bank records which he claims were authorized by George H.W. Bush in an effort to destabilize the Russian ruble. The records of the bank transfers in themselves seem meaningless. However, when one studies some of the foreign banks receiving the funding, and their subsequent loan losses to the Russian oligarchs, whose financial empires were designed under the construction of the Valmet-Riggs consultants, one finds a pattern that would indicate that money was pushed to the oligarchs for their use in buying up Russian industries. As one follows Wanta’s documents back to the U.S., one finds an elaborate pattern of cover-up. Credo (aka Kredo) Bank Classic examples of the type of ‘Russian destabilization’ driven by the Bush plan as headed by Lee Wanta are found in the bank transfer documents made public by Wanta, who was later imprisoned for his indiscretions of making public his activities. In those transfers, one finds reference to transfers from the New Republic/USA Financial Group to the Credo (aka Kredo) Bank in Moscow. The Credo Bank would fund the privatization of the Russian steel/iron/aluminum firms under the reported control of Roman Abramovich, a major oligarch in the “Yeltsin Family.” In 1996, Credo Bank was faced with failure for lack of payment from one major lender – the Western Siberian Steelworks. The downsizing at Credobank follows in the wake of serious cash flow problems brought on by the default of one of its largest creditors, Western Siberian Steelworks, which has failed to pay back a loan THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 227 of 600 billion rubles made earlier this year. [Credobank Exiting City As Assets, Deposits Fall, Richard Sleder, The St Petersburg Times,] In understanding the ownership of “Western Siberian Steelworks,”(aka ZapSib), ownership is traced to the Evraz Group S.A., supposedly controlled by Roman Abramovich (now using the name Abramov): “– Evraz Group S.A. (LSE: EVR), one of the leading vertically integrated steel production and mining businesses with operations mainly in Russia, today announces the commissioning of a double-strand slab continuous caster with annual capacity of up to 2.5 million tonnes at OAO West Siberian Iron and Steel Plant (ZapSib). This investment is in line with Evraz Group’s strategy….” [NOVOKUZNETSK, Russia RNWire] Evraz Group S.A. (“Evraz Group”) is a limited liability company registered under the laws of Luxembourg on December 31, 2004. The registered address of Evraz Group is 1, Allee Scheffer L- 2520, Luxembourg. Evraz Group’s parent is Crosland Global Limited (“CGL” or the “Parent”) which is under control of Mr. Abramov. Evraz Group was formed through a reorganisation in which 95.83% of the shares in Mastercroft Limited (“Mastercroft”), a limited liability company registered in Cyprus, directly owned by Crosland Limited (“Crosland”), the parent of CGL, were contributed into Evraz Group in April 2005. [Evraz Group S.A., Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, Year ended December 31, 2005] Unfortunately, Abramovich seems to have had a number of U.S. and Israeli “backers,” who remained unreported in this deal (just like Khodokovsky turned out to have a hidden partner with Jacob Rothschild). “The Kurbanov claim was the first to intimate publicly that Abramov may not have been the controlling shareholder he claimed. Since the December filing, the lawyers involved in the Kurbanov case have been negotiating with him for weeks, but they no longer return calls to discuss the case. Before they fell silent, one of them told The Russia Journal that she believed Abramov’s purported control shareholding in Evraz included other trusts. One which had come under Russian media scrutiny was the estate of a senior executive of the group, Andrei Sevenyuk, who was killed in an aircraft crash in September 2004. Before his death, Sevenyuk had hinted to The Russia Journal that he was in control of a sizeable stake in the company. Subsequently, uncorroborated reports suggest that his survivors accepted Abramov’s payment of $124 million for a shareholding of 4.17%, leaving what Morgan Stanley estimated as a residual 0.8% bloc of shares still in the Sevenyuk estate’s control. Moscow newspaper reports have speculated, however, that when he was alive, Sevenyuk controlled at least 15%. If true, then together, Sevenyuk and Kurbanov may have been the beneficial owners of approximately half the shares Abramov claimed for himself. Until and unless he settled with them, or with their heirs, Abramov ran the risk of trying to sell what wasn’t his. Other court claims dispute the ownership which Evraz claims in its prime assets. A claim filed in federal and local courts last November in the US state of Delaware four companies representing an Israeli and US investors had once controlled about 72% of the shares of the Kachkanarsky oreprocessing combine (GOK), an iron-ore and vanadium mine that is today Evraz’s most important source of the raw material. The claimants say that between 1999 and 2001, they were forcibly deprived of their asset. According to the plaintiffs’ complaint in Delaware’s Chancery Court, Evraz, one of the eleven listed defendants, is described as having been “owned, directly or indirectly, by [Mikhail] Chernoi, [Oleg] Deripaska, [Iskander] Makhmudov, and [Mikhail] Nekrich, and operated and managed by them, or under their direction and control.” [Abramovich Kicks a Ghost, Ft Puts Foot in Mouth, John Helmer, The Russia Journal, March 22, 2006] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 228 So the question them becomes, who put together this complex web of financial ownership and offshore holding companies, initially funded with 600 billion rubles from the Credobank? What one learns is that Abramovich was a client of Valmet and Menatep, who structured his other financial operations. The first link has emerged between the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal and a member of President Yeltsin's "family", a mysterious businessman known as a kingmaker in the Kremlin. The Times has learnt that Roman Abramovich, a tycoon, controls the trading arm of one of Russia's largest oil companies through an Isle of Man company that has figured in the Bank of New York affair. Mr Abramovich runs the Siberian oil giant Sibneft, which sells its oil through a company called Runicom. His name has emerged after speculation that Swiss investigators are looking into the role of Runicom as part of the widening investigation into the laundering of up to $15 billion of Russian money through American banks. Runicom is owned by at least two offshore companies set up by the Valmet Group, a financial services concern partly owned by Menatep, a failed Russian bank that used the Bank of New York. [Yeltsin 'Family' Tycoon Linked to Cash Scandal , James Bone, David Lister, Fiona Flick, The Times (UK), September 7, 1999] Moreover, it should be noted that Runicom was under the ownership of Valmet when it was originally controlled by Riggs, according to Alan Block and Constance Weaver, All is Clouded by Desire, p.141. Altalanos Ertekforgalmi Bank (AEB) A second financial conduit for the Wanta ‘ruble destabilization’ program was the Altalanos Ertekforgalmi Bank (AEB) in Budapest, Hangary. AEB had an evolving role in this financial scheme starting in 1990, when 50% of AEB was bought by the CEDC (Central European Development Corporation.) The CEDC is actually operated out of Singer Island, Florida, and was created in 1989 apparently for the sole purpose of procuring the AEB, as it has not done a lot else. “R. Mark Palmer, the United States Ambassador here, is resigning from the State Department to manage a new consortium of North American financiers that today announced the purchase of half interest in a Hungarian bank, the first in what was projected as a series of ambitious investments in Eastern Europe. R. Mark Palmer, the United States Ambassador here, is resigning from the State Department to manage a new consortium of North American financiers that today announced the purchase of half interest in a Hungarian bank, the first in what was projected as a series of ambitious investments in Eastern Europe. The chairman of the group, the Central European Development Corporation, is Ronald S. Lauder, a former American Ambassador to Austria … The announcement of the $10 million bank deal…will turn 50 percent of the General Banking and Trust Company, one of prewar Hungary's most venerable institutions, over to a group of high-profile businessmen, several of Hungarian descent. The deputy chairman is Andrew Sarlos, a Toronto-based real estate developer. Other major investors include Melvin Simon, the American shopping mall magnate, and Albert Reichmann, owner of Olympia & York Real Estate Company in Canada. Mr. Lauder, whose family owns the Estee Lauder Cosmetics Company, holds 50 percent of the shares.” [U.S. Envoy in Hungary Quits To Handle Investment in East, Celestine Bohlen, The New York Times, January 26, 1990] In addition to being a Bush appointee, R. Mark Palmer, it turns out appears to have been a collaborator with George Soros in his efforts to unhinge Eastern European currencies. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 229 “(Soros) has been controlled for some time by a fellow called Hartmann. Hartmann was operating out of Zug, Switzerland, which is one of the banking centers, through the N.M. Rothschild Continuation Trust. Hartmann was the man who controlled the BNL and BCCI simultaneously, or coordinated it, which were not Pakistani or Gulf banks; they were British Commonwealth banks, controlled through this Rothschild intermediation. He worked for them, and still does. Now on the American side, his controller or coordinator has been Gerald Corrigan, who's going to work for him on the Russian side, and a State Department official, R. Mark Palmer, who went to work for Soros even before he fully quit his job at the State Department.”[There Is a Worldwide Crash in Progress; We Are In A Depression Already'', Lyndon Larouche, interviewed by Mel Klenetsky, August 4, 1993, Shofar FTP Archive File: people/l/larouche.lyndon/eir.080493] “So Soros, the big derivatives speculator operating in central Europe, the man who ran the run against the pound, the run against the franc, and so forth, is a creature of this. This involved Gerald Corrigan of the New York Fed, now retiring to join Soros's Russian operation; and this involved R. Mark Palmer, a State Department official. So this is an Anglo-American operation by those interests which ran BCCI, BNL, to try to bankrupt European currencies.” [How Europe's Economic Crisis Could Become the Worst Crisis in Six Centuries, Lyndon Larouche, interviewed by Mel Klenetsky, August 18, 1993] Ronald Lauder, (heir to the $4.2 Billion Estee Lauder estate) was the major investor in the operation, apparently, and also is connected to groups previously referred to in this report. He would turn out to be a major western investor in subsequent privatization investments. Lauder became a Reagan appointee as Ambassador of Austria largely as a result of his work as New York Finance Campaign chairman for the Republican Party, and is linked closely to the Bronfman family in his role as Treasurer of the World Jewish Congress. “Ronald Lauder: heir of his mother Estée Lauder's cosmetic billions, rightist ideologue, and leading Likud contributor and funding coordinator. Ronald Lauder is treasurer of the World Jewish Congress and a Trustee of the Special Reserve Fund of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith. His Ronald S. Lauder foundation, operating in the former East Bloc, paid for the ADL to open an office in Vienna, Austria, where Lauder was U.S. Ambassador in the 1980s. One of the WJC and ADL's top priorities in Central and Eastern Europe is the protection of hedge fund operator George Soros. The Lauder Foundation works in tandem with Soros's Open Society Institute, which advocates legalization of all narcotics and support for the Columbian FARC and other narco-terrorist agencies. After serving as U.S. Ambassador to Austria in the 1980s, Lauder personally became a major investor in "privatized" Eastern European properties. Lauder was named (by Secretary of State Sir Lawrence Eagleburger, former President of Kissinger Associates), to head the Central European Development Corporation (CEDC) that was created under a Federal act to function as a kind of pig trough for those with influence around the diplomatic community. CEDC is a consortium that mingles U.S. Congress-appropriated monies with those from private businessmen. With offices in Berlin and Budapest, CEDC invests in "privatized" Eastern European businesses for a nickel on the dollar.” [A Bigger Scandal: Illegal U.S. Funding of Sharon's Likud, Anton Chaitkin, Executive Intelligence Review, January 24, 2002] As it would turn out, AEB was a bank asset which, while half owned by U.S. investors, was apparently controlled by the Yeltsin family. The bank was later was absorbed by Gazprom, which in turn was controlled by Khodorkovsky and Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, long-time aide to Boris Yeltsin. In 1996, the U.S. investors would hand over their 50% of the bank to Gazprom for an undisclosed sum. The bank would then become a moneylaundering conduit for Yeltsin family, just as Valmet SA was transferred to the Yeltsin family from Riggs bank ownership. In both cases (Valmet and AEB) the U.S. partners THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 230 ‘took the money and ran.’ This aspect of the overall strategy suggests that rather than being involved in a program to enhance democracy and capitalism, and to provide for ‘national security,’ the sole purpose, as so keenly summarized by Anne Williamson, was the financial ‘rape of Russia.’ As in Yukos Oil ownership, the ownership of Gazprom has been purposefully murky. Khordorkovsky’s role has long been hidden from the public, while most believed that Chernomyrdin was the key controller. AEB was one of their two banks, with AEB having no real assets, but serving primarily as a passthrough operation for moving funds offshore. Khordorkovsky (aided by consultants from Riggs-Valmet) was a significant architect of the financial structure from the earliest days. “All along, Mr. Khodorkovsky cultivated relationships with the powerful. As early as 1991, he had an office in the Russian government building, where he advised officials and charmed them with his quiet displays of respect. Ivan S. Silayev, Prime Minister of Russia before the Soviet Union's fall, was one of his first employers. … In a brief but crucial period in 1993, Mr. Khodorkovsky became a deputy to the energy minister, who was reorganizing Russia's oil industry into groupings that would later become companies, setting the stage for privatization. Alfred Kokh, the official responsible for running privatization, recalled that Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin frequently called him about the sale of Yukos. "I felt that Khodorkovsky influenced Chernomyrdin strongly," Mr. Kokh said.” [Russian Tycoon Moves Into Politics and Then Jail, Sabrina Tavernise and Timothy L. O'Brien, The New York Times, November 10, 2003] “According to Eric Kraus of Sovlink, another investment house, Khodorkovsky may have already been indirectly controlling a good-sized stake in Gazprom, the state gas monopoly and the largest company in Russia.” [Robber Baron, Gideon Lichfield, New Republic On Line, November 17, 2003] Just as Yukos used Menatep Bank and Valmet SA, Gazprom used AEB for its capital flight transfers. “When Gazprom bought it, AEB was a loss-maker. But within a year it was turning a profit and posted a $31 million profit in 2000. The secret of its success? AEB handles all payments for Gazprom's gas exports to Central and Eastern Europe. In the last year alone, AEB handled $2.3 billion in payments to Gazprom. Kent Moors, who has studied Russian capital flight for years as the head of the East European investment consultancy Asida, which is based in the United States, says that AEB is one of the ways Gazprom management move their cash out of Russia. "AEB is a small part of a widely distributed system of offshore companies and foreign partners, with whom the Gazprom managers shift their cash abroad or park it there," Moors said. Which may explain why the more profit AEB makes the more stakes Gazprombank sells to obscure holding companies — and to Rakhimkulov. Gazprombank has now parted with three-quarters of its original 100-percent stake in AEB. Hungary's official financial watchdog, PSZAF, said that Gazprombank in May 1997 held only half of AEB — 20 percent belonged to the Singapore-registered holding company ACMA Investments and its subsidiary Citycom. At the same time, the companies Interenergo and Intergazprom Invest, which belongs to the British Virgin Islands-registered Undall, each held a 10 percent stake. In May 1999 another 10 percent stake went to IGM Kereskedelmi, which is owned by Cubbaren Ltd., registered on the Isle of Man. Rakhimkulov has also become an AEB shareholder after Gazprombank sold him an 8.5 percent stake on Dec. 21, 2000, according to PSZAF.” [Gazprom Assets A Family Affair, Florian Hassel, Moscow Times, May 21, 2001] Most of these transfers appear to have constituted illegal transfers, which suggests why the key architects are facing prosecution and prison terms. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 231 “Often called a "state within a state," Gazprom controls a quarter of the world's natural gas reserves with eight times the energy reserves of Exxon Mobil Corp. Gazprom accounts for 7 percent of Russia's economy. It also represents the most visible symbol of the struggle to establish Western-style rules of corporate governance and investor rights a decade into Russia's experiment with capitalism. Minority shareholders complain that Gazprom insiders benefit from shady deals while the company has been stripped of valuable properties.” [A 'Crossroads' Battle in Russia: Fight for Gas Firm Seen as Test for Putin and Reform, Peter Baker, Washington Post, May 21, 2001] “Outspoken Gazprom board member and critic Boris Fyodorov, a former finance minister, said that by his estimation some "$2 billion to $3 billion disappears from Gazprom each year through corruption, nepotism and simple theft." He was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying in Washington this week that when he first demanded an independent audit of Gazprom last year, Gazprom management threatened to throw him in jail.” [Gazprom Assets A Family Affair, Florian Hassel, Moscow Times, May 21, 2001] It is important to remember that the World Trade Center was destroyed to cover up and terminate investigations in a wide array of illegal banking transactions linked to the policy and programs of George HW Bush Sr. Transactions at Altalanos Ertekforgalmi Bank (AEB) would/should have been a target for investigation, linking Bush to the Bank of New York Money Laundering scandal. Westdeutsche Landesbank Similarly, another bank that was a recipient of Wanta controlled funding - Westdeutsche Landesbank, had moneys routed to the Khodorkovsky group, and found itself with difficulty trying to collect that loan. Khodorkovsky's group urged the foreign banks to accept a three-year repayment plan, secured by oil exports rather than Yukos shares. But the two largest creditors, Daiwa Bank and West Merchant Bank (a subsidiary of Westdeutsche Landesbank), refused. [The World's Billionaires: The Oligarch Who Came in from the Cold, Paul Klebnikov, Forbes, March 18, 2002] “It began after the ruble's collapse last summer, when one of Russia's key financial institutions, Menatep, defaulted on $236 million in loans to Germany's Westdeutsche Landesbank, Daiwa Securities of Japan and Standard Bank of South Africa. The loans had been collateralized by a pledged 30 percent stake in the enormous oil company Yukos that was also controlled by Menatep's billionaire owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. But before the foreign institutions could act, Yukos — whose reserves are considered by some to be equal to Texaco's — received local court approval to bar minority investors from shareholders meetings of its key subsidiairies. Meetings were then held where the subsidiaries were transferred almost free of charge to obscure offshore companies also suspected to be part of Khodorkovsky's empire. That left the foreign banks with nothing more than shares in a holding company that suddenly had no holdings — and thus was almost worthless.” [Corporate Governance Goes Global: Riding the Rising Tide, Rob Wright, IFC Corporate Relations Unit, Impact, Summer 1999] It is also clearly reported that the Landesbank was included into the investigation of the Bank of New York activities. “Though the exact figure has not been determined, this vast sum not only lined the pockets of the new Russian kleptocracy, but also flowed into the coffers of US and European financial institutions. (The BNY case may well involve a number of major European banks. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal, THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 232 citing sources familiar with the investigation, said that Credit Suisse, Union Bank of Switzerland, Dresdner Bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank and Banque Internacionale of Luxembourg are being scrutinized for their role in the matter.)” [Bank of New York probe exposes ties between Western financiers and Russian Mafia, James Brookfield, 27 August 1999, wsws.org] Deutsch Landesbank, however was connected to a second, later investigation into the holdings of Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich. In 2001, both of these investigations were ongoing, and centered in the World Trade Center. “According to recent media reports, Russian companies allegedly controlled by Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich were responsible for laundering up to $7.2 billion in Russian "funny money" mostly through German banks over the past four years. It is not yet clear whether the scheme involved "just" tax evasion or more serious criminally related money-laundering activity. This scandal, if confirmed, involves the venerable Westdeutsche Landesbank, known as WestLB, and a slew of other German financial institutions. Outwardly, this case is reminiscent of other money-laundering schemes such as those involving the Bank of New York and Citigroup. All of them involve moving large sums of money between Caribbean offshore locations such as the British Virgin Islands or even more exotic places like Nauru and Western Samoa….. The investigation may soon be handed over to the FBI however…. Several venerable banks, including the Bank of New York and Republic Bank of New York, were at the center of a much larger scandal in the fall of 1999, in which transactions in excess of $6 billion were uncovered. The transfer originated in Russia and involved some 10,000 transactions since October 1998. The federal investigation - involving the FBI, the New York Federal Reserve Board, the New York Banking Commission and the British law enforcement and national security agencies - is still going on.” [Coming Clean, Ariel Cohen, Moscow Times, January 23, 2001] This report emphasizes that the German /Suisse banks referenced in the investigation include those very banks reported to be at the heart of the need to cover up investigations at the World Trade Center: Credit Suisse, Union Bank of Switzerland, Deutsch Bank, Dresdner Bank, and now, including Westdeutsche Landesbank. 8.6 The Yeltsin Family and the Investigations in the World Trade Center There were at least seven active investigations into the Yeltsin family when the World Trade Center – home of the U.S. major financial investigative organizations – went down. In all probability, there might have been up to fifteen or twenty investigations opened, and most of them would never see the light of day. All of these investigations are tied to accounts that would ultimately link back to the Bush family financing. 1. In 1998, Loutchansky, Marc Rich and Berezovsky (Berezovskii) – all associates of the Yeltsin family - were being investigated in conjunction with the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal that the Bush administration, (through Ashcroft) first tried to bury as insignificant – only to have it put back on the front page of the press by Swiss investigators, and then Russian investigators. (To put the Yeltsin “Family” in context, it should be noted that the crime organization named after him ousted him shortly after he lost value as anything other than a figurehead.) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 233 “It is not the Yeltsin family in a literal sense: Boris Yeltsin was "thrown out" a long time ago; it is a group that holds the real power. And Chernoi can cover its crimes and develop its business with the help of the state.” [Le Monde: French Editorial Says Russian President Putin Unable To Effect Changes, Counter Mafia, Corruption] This investigation opened inroads into accounts at Menatep Bank, Runicom, Inkombank, EuropeanUnion bank, Riggs-Valmet, Bank Rossisky-Kredit, Alpha Bank, many of which were linked to Bush operatives and the Yeltsin Family counterparts going as far back as 1991. 2. Nazarbayev and his Swiss accounts were being investigated by the Swiss for illegal activities, linked to Bush Sr. and Richard Cheney in the Griffen scandal. 3. Later Mikhail Khodorkovsky would be implicated in the Bank of New York moneylaundering scandal because of his control of Menatep Bank, but would be more closley tied to use of the Riggs-Valmet money-laundering conduit. His imprisonment for tax evasion would be portrayed in the U.S .press as “political” repression by the Putin regime, and hardly a mention of the Riggs Bank connection would be published. The Bush family remained loyal to Khodorkovsky after his arrest, with George Bush Jr. acting on his behalf. US President George W. Bush used a meeting Friday with Russian non-governmental groups to express concern over the fate of the jailed founder of Russian oil firm Yukos, participants said. "He talked about Khodorkovsky, he talked about his wife," said Maria Gaidar, head of the liberal Russian youth movement Da (Yes), who attended the meeting with Mr Bush at the residence of the US consul general in Saint Petersburg. "He said that … he was concerned" about the welfare of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, she said, referring to the Yukos founder sentenced in May 2005 to eight years in prison after conviction on tax evasion, massive fraud and embezzlement charges. [Bush 'concern' over jailed oil baron, correspondents in St Petersburg, Herald Sun (Queensland), July 15, 2006] Upon his arrest, Khodorkovsky’s secretive business arrangement with the Rothschild family was exposed, as Jacob Rothschild took over Khodorkovsky’s 26% control of Yukos. Khodorkovsky’s seat on the board of directors for Yukos went to former Halliburton executive Edgar Ortiz, a former Halliburton vice president during US Vice President Dick Cheney's time as Halliburton CEO, and as President and CEO of Halliburton, took over the relationship with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). (See Halliburton Man to Sub for Khodorkovsky, Simon Ostrovsky, Moscow Times, April 30, 2004.) 4. Yeltsin’s accounts in UBS were being investigated by the Swiss at the same as the 1998 decision to attack the World Trade Center was made. “There were the first names, the last names, and the accounts accessed at the Banca del Gottardo in Lugano and at the UBS in Geneva.” [Investigation of Yeltsin's Swiss Accounts, Milan's Corriere della Sera in Italian, 25 August 1999 (translation for personal use only) Article by Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo: "Switzerland, Credit Cards Accuse Yeltsin"] 5. Loutchansky, as shown earlier, was being investigated by the Swiss as well. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 234 “Time Magazine reporters …took up Loutchansky's offer to examine his books in July 1996. Time's report detailed deals involving PM Viktor Chernomyrdin, Moscow Mayor Yury Lyuzhkov and former Soviet Minister of Metallurgy and hometown Yeltsin crony Oleg Soskovets, scud missiles, nuclear smuggling and multimillion dollar transfers through a network of Swiss bank accounts and dummy companies set up in tax havens like the Isle of Man and Liechtenstein.” [Russia's X mysteries, Anne Williamson, WorldNetDaily.com, September 17, 1999] 6. The missing Russian treasury gold was probably under scrutiny by the FBI investigation of gold-price fixing, an investigation that would have encompassed accounts from Barrick Gold and Deutschebank. 7. The Westdeutsche Landesbank realated mney-laundering of Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich All of the investigations targeted individuals who were at some point financed by Bush Sr. and his business associates, and used government funds to fraudulently enrich various business partners and themselves. All the investigations were housed in the World Trade Center. All of these Russian/Israeli Mafiya frauds were being investigated by agencies in the WTC and had their investigative resources refocused on “Al Qaeda.” It should not be forgotten that Al Qaeda has been a documented CIA front established under George Bush Sr. when he was CIA Director, vice President and officially the chief of National Security under Reagan, and as President. As the senior US Intelligence czar for 20 years, if anyone ever ‘owned’ Al Qaeda, it was George HW Bush. “George Bush, who, as vice president, beginning in 1981, carried out Executive Order 12333, which placed all U.S. intelligence operations under Bush's personal control.” [Executive Outcomes ties lead to London and Bush, Roger Moore and Linda de Hoyos, Executive Intelligence Review January 31, 1997, pp. 42-43] All of these individuals are linked in multiple ways to the Bush and Yeltsin “Families.” The Yeltsin Family Partnership in State Sponsored Terror The Yelstin Family has on multiple occasions, demonstrated a willingness to use personally funded, private military force for political reasons. (This technically fits the definition of terrorism.) For example, and most recently, when Vladimir Putin ejected most of the oligarchs and the Yeltsin Family from their seats of political power, Berezovsky countered by threatening a coup! “…Putin has also fired Aleksandr Voloshin, his chief of staff (formally, it is Voloshin who resigned). Voloshin was one of the architects of Russia's capitalism. This completes the political clean-up: now the Putin government is entirely run by Putin men (many of whom are veterans of the old KGB, the Soviet secret police). [October 2003) Putin vs the oligarchs. TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi] “Wanted Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has gone public with his plans to seize power in Russia by force. The London-based oligarch said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station Wednesday that he had been working on the coup plan for 18 months. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 235 Berezovsky, a notorious critic of Putin’s regime, said he aimed to replace the “anti-constitutional regime” in Russia. “The regime has lost its legitimacy. Neither Putin nor the parliament are legitimate. They are anti-constitutional, because they have made a number of anti-constitutional decisions, such as replacing elected governors by appointed ones. This is absolutely against the spirit and the language of the constitution.” Today’s regime would never allow a fair election, Berezovsky added, so the only way out is a coup.” [January 26, 2006 mosnews.com] This however, is not the first time the Yeltsin Family has demonstrated a willingness to resort to political terror for its own agenda. This willingness to use terrorists for their political agenda is best understood by understanding the ‘muscle’ in the Yeltsin Family, starting with Aleksander Voloshin. “Who are the strong men of the Yeltsin "family?" (Khaydarov) Roman Abramovitch represents them. He manages their shares, for example 50 percent of Russal, based on the agreement signed with the Chernoi group in early 2000. Then, there is of course Vladimir Voloshin, head of the presidential administration under Yeltsin, and whom Putin was not able to get rid of. His story is known, starting with the scandal of the AVVA financial pyramid (created with Boris Berezovskiy). He controls the "family's" interests and takes care of anything that could harm it. If he cannot do so, he turns to Roman Abramovitch, to Oleg Deripaska, or Valentin Yumashev (former head of the presidential administration, author of Boris Yeltsin's books, and husband of the former president's daughter Tatiana Diachenko).” [Le Monde: French Editorial Says Russian President Putin Unable To Effect Changes, Counter Mafia, Corruption] “Voloshin, 47, was considered the Kremlin's "gray eminence" by many, mediating the interests of the Russian state and the country's oligarchs. Officially, Voloshin ranked third in the Russian power hierarchy, after the president and prime minister. However, Voloshin is believed to have decided many sensitive political issues on Putin's behalf, effectively making him the second most powerful political figure in the country. Voloshin became head of then-President Boris Yeltsin's administration in March 1999 on the strength of heavy lobbying from now-exiled Boris Berezovskii, with whom he worked during the 1990s to build that oligarch's vast business interests. After Putin's election as president in 2000, Voloshin opted to support his new boss and helped ease Berezovskii into exile instead of a likely prison term.….It was Voloshin who brokered deals between bureaucrats and the business world and applied the necessary influence to enforce agreements.” [Filling Russia's Voloshin Vacuum, Peter Lavelle, RFE/RL Newsline, November 03, 2003] “… the Russian Prosecutor-Generals Office announced that it had launched an inspection into the prior commercial activities of one the country’s most powerful officials, presidential chief of staff Alexander Voloshin. Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov said that the initial probe may or may not result in a criminal case. In the early 1990s, Voloshin worked with Berezovsky on the so-called "pyramid" schemes, say Russian media outlets. According to the reports, Voloshin ran several companies that were accused of embezzling millions of US dollars, but the case never led to criminal charges. Ustinov eventually backed down and said there was no criminal investigation relative to Voloshin.” [Transparency International: Putin undertakes apparent crackdown on corruption, Toni Schönfelder , Asia Times, Jan 23, 2002, Moscow] “…during the spring and summer of 1999 members of Yeltsin’s close entourage (the so-called Family) were as prepared … to violate the letter of the Russian Constitution as well as Russian law in order to prevent a transfer of power to persons they did not trust to look out for their physical well-being or their financial interests. … the Yeltsin Family were more than ready to involve Russia in a “short victorious war” as well as to destabilize Moscow and various regions of Russia to the point where the parliamentary elections of 1999 and the presidential vote of 2000 would need to be canceled or postponed for several years. As in 1994, a military conflict was in fact launched (the incursions into Dagestan), but due to unanticipated contingencies, it did not prove necessary to cancel the upcoming THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 236 elections.” [“Storm in Moscow”: A Plan of the Yeltsin “Family” to Destabilize Russia , John B. Dunlop , The Hoover Institution , October 8, 2004 ] Understanding that Aleksandr Voloshin is one of the key figures in the Yeltsin Family allows the report to define the context for the meeting in the summer of 1999, in which Adnan Khashoggi coordinated a meeting between Voloshin, the Chechen-Muslim separatist Basayev (who trained in US funded Al Qaeda camps), and a representative of the Columbia cocaine network, and a former KGB agent ‘connected’ to the CIA (Surikov). “French intelligence sources report, via the Russian press : according to these source Basayev met in summer 1999 in France with Aleksandr Voloshin, chief of staff for then- president Yeltsin (and later Putin), and Anton Surikov, a former Soviet military intelligence officer who worked with Basayev when he was leading the Abkhaz separatist movement in Georgia, with Moscow's blessing. Voloshin is claimed to have provided $10 million to Basayev in order to fund the invasion in Dagestan….. The most thorough study, by John Dunlop of the Hoover Institution, blames the plotting on three protégés of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovskii – Valentin Yumashev, Alexander Voloshin, and Roman Abramovich – who at this point were members of Yeltsin's "Family" in the Kremlin. (As for Berezovskii himself, Dunlop writes that by mid-1999 "all of his real but beginning-to-dwindle political influence was obtained through the intercession of D'yachenko” [Yeltsin's daughter] and Yumashev.") [The Global Drug Meta-Group: Drugs, Managed Violence, and the Russian 9/11, Peter Dale Scott, October 29, 2005] “In March of 2002 Interfax reported that, through his long-time business partner Badri Patarkatsishvili, Berezovskii had “supplied Chechen figures Kazbek Makhashev and Movladi Udugov with money to purchase the raid against Dagestan. According to witnesses, Berezovskii contributed 30 million rubles for the purpose.” This payment, amounting to more than $1 million, if it occurred, may have been only one of several intended to underwrite a “short victorious war” in Dagestan.” [“Storm in Moscow”: A Plan of the Yeltsin “Family” to Destabilize Russia , John B. Dunlop , The Hoover Institution , October 8, 2004 ] “The investigative weekly then went on to summarize what it had learned from French and Israeli intelligence, as well as from its own journalistic digging: “A luxurious villa in the French city of Beaulieu, located between Nice and the principality of Monaco. This villa, according to the French special services, belongs to the international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. He is an Arab from Saudi Arabia, a billionaire with a complicated reputation. According to the French special services, and also to the French press, in June of 1999 there took up residence at the villa a Venezuelan banker named Alfonso Davidovich. In the Latin American press, he is said to be responsible for laundering the funds of the Columbian left insurrection organization FARC, which carries out an armed struggle with the official authorities, supported by the narcotics business.” “It soon emerged,” Versiya continued, “that a very frequent visitor to Davidovich was a certain French businessman of Israeli-Soviet origin, a native of Sokhumi [Abkhazia], 53-year-old Yakov Kosman. “Soon,” the account continues, “the special services succeeded in establishing that Kosman and Tsveiba went to the Nice airport, where they met two men who had arrived from Paris. Judging from their documents, one of those who arrived was Sultan Sosnaliev, who in the years of the Georgian- Abkhaz war served as the minister of defense of Abkhazia. Second there emerged from the airport one more native of Sokhumi—Anton Surikov. According to rumors, during the years of the war in Abkhazia, he was subordinated to Sosnaliev and was responsible for questions of the organization of sabotage and was friendly with field commander Shamil’ Basaev, who at that time headed the Chechen battalion.” The next arrival came by sea: “According to the precise information of the French and the Israelis, on 3 July at the port of Beaulieu a private English yacht ‘Magiya’ [Magic] arrived from Malta. From it to the shore came two passengers. If one is to believe the passport information, one of the ‘Englishmen’ was a certain Turk, in the past an advisor to the Islamicist premier of Turkey, [Necmettin] Erbakan, a THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 237 rather influential figure in the Wahhabi circles of Turkey, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. From sources in the Russian special services we learned that Mekhmet is also a close friend of the not unknown Khattab.” “The second person,” the account goes on, “to the surprise of the intelligence officers, was the Chechen field commander Shamil’ Basaev.” [“Storm in Moscow”: A Plan of the Yeltsin “Family” to Destabilize Russia , John B. Dunlop , The Hoover Institution , October 8, 2004 ] Yakov Kosman would also be identified as part of the Russian/Israeli Mafiya. “Yakov Abramovich Kosman (b. 1946), resides in Nice, France. Has German and, possibly, Israeli citizenship. Involved in real estate operations and banking. Has contacts with Kosovo Albanian criminal societies in European countries. In 1997-2000 he served as financial consultant to Hashim Thaçi, the chief commander of KLA. The new president of Far West, Ltd.” [The Global Drug Meta- Group: Drugs, Managed Violence, and the Russian 9/11, Peter Dale Scott (18,734 words) October 29, 2005] Also, one needs to understand that one of Farwest’s key partners who arranged the Khashoggi villa meeting of June 199 – Anton Surikov – was an apparent American agent in the Soviet Union, and it was Surikov that mentored Basayev, who had received his initial training in CIA sponsored camps in Afghanistan. As noted earlier in this report, Surikov is also a protege of KGB leaders Alexie Kondaurov and Fillipp Bobkov, who sponsored Khordokovsky in his early days. Surikov’s other employer (IPROG) is funded by grants from Khordokovsky. (Surikov’s involvement in Farwest may help explain how Halliburton received – according to the Halliburton spokesperson – CIA clearance to use Farwest as a recruiter in Central Asia and Africa.) “Anton Surikov is well-known person…. I’ve known him since Afghanistan. … I think Anton went over to the Americans already back then…. He has a distant relative in the United States who, basically, held very high post in the CIA and was in Peshawar in the 1980s. Anton always kept this fact in secret, back in the Soviet time and later on. After all, he occupied very high positions in the Department, in the government and in the Duma. Just imagine, he worked in all these high-level jobs and nobody cared! As a matter of fact, our bosses used his connections as the informal channel of communication with the Americans. That’s why Anton could have his way. And later on it was Anton who groomed Basayev in Abkhazia as early as in 1992. Everyone knows about this. Even nowadays, last summer he called Basayev on the satellite phone in my presence. He sounded very friendly: “Shamil, dear brother, I hug you…” [Revelations of the Fugitive Kremlin Financier, recorded Vadim Andreev, Translation and comments by burtsev.ru, January 19, 2004] Basayev’s Muslim separatists later would be accused in the world press of the Moscow Dubrovka theater tragedy in November 2002, and the September 2004 Beslan school attack in which hundreds of children died. Despite the charges, there would be widespread reports in the independent press, and a documentary, based on eye-witness testimony, that these attacks were actually orchestrated by Russian secret police for the intent of fanning the flames of Russian nationalism, to the political benefit of the Yeltsin Family. These witnesses were arrested and held until they recanted their testimony. What is intriguing about these events, like the World Trade Center tragedy, is that American intelligence, in the U.S. and Russia, created Muslim terrorists, made them the “public enemy” and then blamed them for events which served their personal, political interests. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 238 The group of ex-military rogues that Voloshin worked with to orchestrate these acts of political terrorism would be the same group of Russian expatriates that would form a Swiss company called “Farwest.” In the French meeting at Khashoggi’s villa, this group was represented by Anton Surikov and Alfonso Davidovich. Farwest is mainly comprised of ex-Russian military officers closely linked to the Afghan heroin trade. The Davidovich connection is a starting point for explaining the well reported cocaine-forweapons trade between the Columbians and the Russian military. Farwest appears to be a group of ex-military professonals that provides “buyers” like the Yeltsin Family with heroin, cocaine and terrorist muscle. As one understands the service offering of a group like Farwest, it is important to see who else their customers are. Farwest has two key customers whose management shows up repeatedly in the plan to destroy the World Trade Center. Those customers are Halliburton (during the Cheney era) and a pair of companies known as Diligence and New Bridge, which share the same board members. These may well be a few of the “important politicians” that Sibel Edmonds claims are associated with the Central Asian drug and money laundering trade. “Diligence LLC (http://www.diligencellc.com/index.html) was formed by past members of the CIA and Britain's MI5 Intelligence Services. They have included experts in international law, journalism and intelligence services from post-Cold War which enables them to vet all sorts of future investment projects while providing security advice. They are related to New Bridge Strategies, sharing addresses and many of the same board members. “ “About Diligence LLC Headquartered in Washington, D.C with offices in Miami, London and Geneva, Diligence LLC specializes in the provision of timely and accurate commercial and competitive information, pre-employment vetting services, analysis, due diligence, and security services to Fortune 500 companies and leading financial institutions around the world. For more information, visit www.diligencellc.com” Here are some of the key players in Diligence/New Bridge – which shows an ongoing business involvement of the Bush Family as well as Shiek Kamal Adham and Adnan Khashoggi. · Joe Allbaugh, the deputy chairman of Diligence, resigned his post as head of FEMA on March 1, 2003, a post granted to him after serving as National Campaign Manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 election and chief of staff to then-Gov. Bush of Texas. · Neil Bush has been paid a $60,000 annual consulting fee. Neil’s role is to "help companies secure contracts in Iraq," the Financial Times reports. · Lord Powell of Bayswater (also on the Board of Barrick, with Adham and Khashoggi), representative of the Rothschild family investment firms, · Richard Burt: chairman of Diligence, was a Director of Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown fund, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. · Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith, former George H.W. Bush aids. Ed Rogers has been a lobbyist for Shiek Kamal Adham and Adnan Khoshoggi, as well as the Russian Alpha Group/Alpha Bank owned by Mikhail Friedman. · President of the company, John Howland, and principal Jamal Daniel were business partners of first brother Neil Bush · Whitley Bruner, formerly head of the CIA Baghdad station, is now director of the Iraq branch of Diligence. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 239 Again, the report demonstrates that Farwest – a Swiss company comprised of Russian/Israeli Mafiya terrorists and drug dealers – openly admits to having Halliburton and Diligence as their customers, which is mostly comprised of senior Bush apparatus operatives! What is equally as interesting is the second appearance of Lord Powell in this network of Bush apparatus companies. Powell was first identified with this group as a Board member of Barrick – and now in Diligence. Powell is a major representative of Rothschild family holding companies. In one of the more rare occasions of the Rothschild family, their role and benefit in this scenario was later revealed in the press. Essentially, Jacob Rothschild has had secret agreements with at least one of the oligarchs (Khodorkovsky), which suggests that there may be more of these "previously unknown arrangements." “LONDON (Agence France-Presse) — Control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's shares in the Russian oil giant Yukos have passed to renowned banker Jacob Rothschild, under a deal they concluded prior to Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest, the Sunday Times reported. Voting rights to the shares passed to Mr. Rothschild, 67, under a "previously unknown arrangement" designed to take effect in the event that Mr. Khodorkovsky could no longer "act as a beneficiary" of the shares, it said…. Mr. Rothschild now controls the voting rights on a stake in Yukos worth almost $13.5 billion, the newspaper said in a dispatch from Moscow. Mr. Khodorkovsky owns 4 percent of Yukos directly and 22 percent through a trust of which he is the sole beneficiary, according to Russian analysts.” [Arrested oil tycoon passed shares to banker, Washington Times, November 03, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20031102-111400-3720r.htm] Farwest, despite the reports of its ‘private military and security capabilities,’ is primarily a drug syndicate, as testified to by a Russian source with inside information: "The distribution of responsibilities in the OPS as follows. Filin, partly Likhvintsev, Davidovich, and Kosman, the four of them are at the top and excersize general leadership. Filin is responsible for the headquarters of Far West, Ltd. in Switzerland. Filin and Davidovich are responsible for purchasing cocaine in Colombia and the FLW office in Bogotá.Likhvintsev is responsible for cocaine traffic through the port of St. Petersburg and its delivery to the Azeris. Saidov is in contact with Jamaat Shariat and is responsible for purchasing Afghan heroin coming through Turkmenistan to Dagestan. He is also responsible for the port of Novorossiisk and the FWL office in the Crimea. Surikov is responsible for contacts with Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Udmurtia, Tatarstan and Bashkiria, as well as for purchasing there the Afghan heroin that comes through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. He is also responsible for the FWL office in Izhevsk 7 and for shipping of "special merchandise" (i.e.,. heroin - burtsev.ru) to the port of Novorossiisk (for this he uses the Adygei ethnic criminal group). Kosman is responsible for the transfer of the heroine, delivered to Europe from the Novorossiisk, to Kosovo Albanians in Mediterranean and for the FWL office in Kosovo. Filin, Kosman, and Davidovich are responsible for financial transactions related to drug trafficking and for laundering the proceeds in Caribbean offshores. Saidov is responsible for financial transactions and money laundering in the Gulf and for the FLW office in Dubai. Filin and Likhvintsev are in communication with their accomplices in their former directorate (GRU - burtsev.ru). Likhvintsev is in contact with their "protection" at "the top" (in the Kremlin - burtsev.ru). Butkevichius supervises the FWL office in Georgia and is responsible for the OPS communication with Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili. Surikov is responsible for receiving intelligence from the corrupted officers of secret services about the information which these services gather about the OPS and their competitors. Surikov (and Baranov) is also responsible for politics, informational campaigns in mass media (presently Filin, Saidov, and Roeva also take part in these activities) and for communication with YUKOS (through Kondaurov). Lunev is responsible for physical actions against their opponents. He is also responsible for the FWL offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their business there with KBR/Halliburton (formerly headed by Dick Cheney), hiring for them mercenaries. They closed their office in Angola. Before, Likvintsev was responsible for it. Filin and Surikov are responsible for their connections in the United States, Davidovich with THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 240 Venezuela, Saidov with Saudi Arabia, Saidov and Surikov with Turkey, Saidov with the Chechens and Hizb ut-Tahrir in Central Asia." [Alfonso Davidovich Ochoa, from the dossier compiled by burtsev.ru] With the groups links to Kondaurov and Bobkov, the claim they are linked to the drug trade is re-inforced by Bobkov’s continued involvement in the same: “The case of Filipp Bobkov, the former First Deputy Chairman of the KGB, exemplifies the role of the mobbed-up KGB networks. Bobkov was "cashiered" from the KGB for his role in the bloody KGBSpetnaz crackdown on the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in 1991. As a "private" citizen, Bobkov pursued the KGB-ordained strategy of marketing his services to Western investors, and quickly assumed control of a banking group in Moscow. Bobkov swiftly assembled a collection of KGB veterans who had been stationed in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Korea. This was the nucleus of what has become known as the "Moscow Narco-Group," which coordinates drug-running operations in Romania, Colombia, Peru, and Cuba. Its main base of operations is the Russian naval base at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam - a communist regime which is next in the queue for "joint ventures" and American foreign aid.” [Russia's Global Crime Cartel, William Norman Grigg, The New American, Vol. 12, No. 11, May 27, 1996, Copyright 2004 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated, http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1996/vo12no11/vo12no11_russian_crime.htm] If Farwest is primarily a drug operation, there are some very well placed members of the Bush apparatus dealing with them. It might be easy to conclude that this Russian Mafiya- Farwest-Diligence network is irrelevant and proves nothing regarding 9/11. With some reflection however, the implications are very significant: · It demonstrates that Adnan Khashoggi, a key participant in multiple aspects of the 9/11 motive and planning, clearly has no hesitation to facilitate operations which result in political terror and mass murder, and a documented track record of doing just that! · It demonstrates that the Bush family financial apparatus, including Dick Cheney, conducts on-going business with an organization (Farwest) that arranges contract political terror using Muslim terrorists with the same background as Al Qaeda, and is a major drug conduit! · It demonstrates that the Russian/Israeli Mafiya family (the Yeltsin Family in particular) that has reaped billions of dollars from Bush largesse since 1991 uses the same political terrorist professionals as the Bush Family! · It demonstrates that the Bush Family had other channels besides Armitage and Secord to hire Al Qaeda trained mercenaries! · It demonstrates that Sibel Edmonds could easily have translated conversations which demonstrated major U.S. political connections to drug deals and money laundering in Central Asia. The Chechnyan crime operation is linked to the Yeltsin Family, Farwest, and Diligence, and hence in many ways to the Bush political and family network. 8.7 Armageddon Two highly incredible and widely ignored stories crossed paths in three places: the World Trade Center, Russia and the Pentagon – the Derk Vreeland story and the Brady Bond THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 241 story. On the surface of those stories, as commonly presented on the Internet, there seemed to be more reason to discount them than pursue them. To a large degree, these stories appear to have been dismissed by independent 9/11 investigators, with the exception of acknowledgement by Flocco, Schwarz and Ruppert. However, an investigation pursuing the smaller details of those stories, (e.g., reading the specifics of the alleged ONI documents, attempting to validate Vreeland’s statements) suggests that these stories not only fit the world circumstances, but they provide explanations for gaps in the understanding of what really transpired on September 11, 2001. Without these stories, there would be open issues as to why the Pentagon was a target, why was September 11 the chosen date after literally years of planning, and what was behind the illegal trades that the FBI refuses to release? Equally important, this information reinforces the theory that the attack was an attempt to cover up massive money and gold laundering activity by destroying multiple investigations in the World Trade Center. It is now clear that additional investigations were being conducted by the ONI which was housed in the section of the Pentagon hit by Flight 77. It is now clear that the actual gold used to kick-off the Durham/Brady Bond scam came from Swiss accounts managed by the individual responsible for the 1991 Brady Bonds – George HW Bush. In that sense, an investigation of those accounts for any reason would have brought global visibility to a $240Billion “scam” in which the Russian Mafiya and George HW Bush, with support from major American financial houses, attempted to take over major segments of Russian industry during the privatization of the collapsing Soviet economy, a collapse largely facilitated by a Bushmanaged currency destabilization program. It sheds new light on the growing relations between the Russian Mafiya and the Bush family personal investments. Finally, it provides a basis for understanding why so many individuals have kept quiet about what they know about the truth behind 9/11. These are the people who do not have all the facts, but have enough information from their small role in attack to know the official “Al Qaeda” story does not ring true. However, these are people who personally have benefited from the tragedy, though corporate bonuses, promotions and investments. These were the World Trade Center executives invited to celebrity golf games and fishing trips on 9/11 so they need not be present when their firms went down into the rubble. “Business executives, some of whom worked in the WTC, were in Nebraska to attend a meeting at Offutt Air Force Base hosted by billionaire Warren Buffett on the morning of September 11th. The same base would be visited later that day by George W. Bush.” [http://9/11research. wtc7.net/sept11/analysis/anomalies.html] These are the bankers, accountants, the traders, consultants and executives who get to keep their jobs, bonuses and very fat paychecks and support their families while others slide into poverty, or are murdered. These are the officers and generals that use their skills to murder the very people they swore to protect from the very evil they have now become. They have traded their souls to keep their lives and comfort. They quell their consciences by convincing themselves of the lie that the people in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and on four airlines had to die to save the U.S. economy, and are THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 242 collateral damage in a final round of the “Cold War.”. They tell themselves that thousands of innocent citizens needed to die so that America could continue to fund the Russian/Israeli Mafiya in a war against an enemy that ceased to be a threat decades ago. They tell themselves that witnesses need to be murdered and wars need to happen so that ‘the chosen’ Americans can maintain their lifestyles, not because their lives are endangered by “terrorists.” They justify the misery and deaths of thousands with their own self-gratification. These are people across the globe, in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, UK and more. These are executives that feed from stolen national treasuries, burden taxpayers with debt that has no social value and steal from the poor and unfortunate so that they can drive bigger cars, own more luxurious homes, and indulge their desires. They know, yet they continue to feed this growing corruption. For them, this is ‘realpolitik.’ For them, the world is either good or evil, black or white, winners or losers. They are the absolutists rooted in dualism. For them, self-indulgence at the expense of others is winning, is good and wears a white hat! However, these are the people every major western and eastern religion has – for thousands of years – argued are evil, black and losers. It is a debate as old as mankind, and it’s parallel is the parable of Cain and Able. The only difference here is scale. It is no longer enough to steal from your neighbor and kill a person to cover it up. It is no longer enough to raid a village and burn it down to enhance your wealth. It is no longer necessary to send an army to steal the wealth of a nation. It is about ever-increasing scale. The events of the World Trade Center represent a modern morality play no different than Cain and Able, with brother killing brother to control his wealth in order to be seen more favorably in the eyes of his god, and then trying to hide the crime. As the scale grows, the world darws closer to another Armegeddon. Note: The great irony of the parallel between the WTC and the parable of Cain and Able, is that heritage of Cain is traceable to the Bush family. “…it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceedingly wicked, every one successively dying one after the other, more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies; and if any one were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his profligate behaviour, in acting unjustly, and doing injury for gain. “ [Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, A.D. 93] While most readers would respond to the aforementioned claim by suggesting that the linkage Josephus references is several thousand years distant from the current Bush family, there are some that have researched this type of linkage in depth. Suffice it to mention that the name of the son of Cain (Tubal) is traced through the ages to the Free- Masons (with 13 of 43 presidents), and accordingly to its Skull and Bones offshoots, and the Bush family. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 243 9 Bank Cartel or Oil Syndicate – A Question of Greater Motive Merriam Webster defines cartel as “a combination of independent commercial or industrial enterprises designed to limit competition or fix prices.” A syndicate is defined as “a loose association of racketeers in control of organized crime.” A syndicate can also be called a ‘cartel.’ In this investigation, there is bank cartel allegedly attempting to control gold prices, and an oil syndicate allegedly attempting to limit competition in the Central Asian region. Both of these cartels seem to have “motive” for disrupting the money laundering investigations initiated in the late 1990s, and continuing into the present. Both of these cartels had extensive contacts in the murky underworld of the Russian/Israeli Mafiya and U.S. Intelligence. They work together, and use each other’s services. The over-riding question appears to be: which cartel bears responsibility for the attack on the WTC? When the details of Central Asian covert oil operations are explored one finds the same criminals involved as in the Harken Energy, Iran Contra and BCCI scandals, the Barrick operation and the rape of the Soviet and Philippine treasuries. The Oil Cartel money laundering paths clumsily and inadvertently intersect at several places: the Deutsch Bank and the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), the Bank of New York and an interesting parallel involvement by Barrick. These banks continuously “appear” and have an active role in billion dollar deals which over time are shown to involve fraud, theft, expropriations, illegal drugs and weapons or some other illegal activity that leaves some national treasury poorer for their involvement and hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for. By facilitating and negotiating these deals, these bankers are coconspirators. (The person who drives the get-away car is just as guilty of the crime, even if that person contends he or she had no knowledge of a crime being committed, and the role of a banker’s due diligence requirements generally suggests they fully understand the crimes they are supporting.) These companies have facilitated the theft of treasuries from the Soviet Union, France, Czechoslovakia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Angola, and possibly the U.S. These banking organizations - joined with Enron On-line - have the infrastructure for both rapid global distribution and high volume capacity required to mask the flow of illegal funds, and convert them into physical assets (bearer bonds, commodity futures and gold certificates) which cannot be traced. Time and again, these same financial institutions are identified as conduits for illegal activity and actively engaging known criminals as business partners, and hence become criminals themselves. Because of their widespread criminal activity, they have been the object of numerous investigations by agencies across the world. In most of these cases, the witnesses recant, die inexplicably or are ‘suicided.’ Massive heart attacks also seem to afflict these people more frequently than the normal citizenry. However, the trail left by the flow of money cannot be erased. (Although the destruction of the WTC, the BCCI records in London warehouses, the allowed shredding of Enron records suggests that these trails can be erased with proper financing.) Additionally, the citizens of the US, France, Germany and Switzerland are comparably socially minded, and have recently passed laws to allow THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 244 investigators into those banks to help bring to an end what is commonly recognized as criminal activity. The investigators from the US agencies at the WTC may never have known how close they were getting to the criminal core of this Cartel – but the bankers and owners of those accounts would have known. 9.1 The Swiss-German Banking Connection There are a number of Swiss banks that regularly are mentioned in reports of moneylaundering and protection of stolen national assets. Amongst them, one stands out: UBS, but often mentioned as well is the Credit Suisse Bank. UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland or Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft, formerly Banque Federale or Federal Bank of Switzerland) is the long time banker to the Marcos family, Adnan Khashoggi and the Saudi Royal family, and assorted international criminals. This Swiss bank is one of several strongly attached to the German industrial and banking cartels, with a history traceable back to the Third Reich. “Deutsche had as its principal connection Credit Suisse, and also did business with the Swiss Bank Corporation and the Banque Federale (UBS). Funds transferred from Berlin for a client list approved by Bormann went into numbered accounts, and were either held there for local investment or soon shifted to neutral nations elsewhere in Europe or overseas, to be credited to the accounts of appropriate German corporate subsidiaries, or else to entirely new corporations awaiting these start-up monies that would enable them to go into business using German patents. As these new corporations prospered, they generated more money and profits, becoming important elements in the Bormann global economic scheme. Seven hundred and fifty new corporations were established in the last months of the war under the direction of Reichsleiter Bormann, using the technique perfected by Hermann Schmitz.” [Martin Bormann – Nazi in Exile, Paul Manning] UBS operated with the Deutschebank to funnel laundered Third Reich funds into many of the subsidiaries created by German industrialists at the end of the war, especially I.G. Farben and Thysssen A.G. This was done to protect assets from confiscation by the Allies. In 1978, these two banks would create UBS-DB Corporation, an American firm. It would later become Atlantic Capital Corporation (wholly owned by the Deutsche Bank), and continue to help UBS customers place investments in the U.S. UBS was one of the few banks used by the Germans during WWII to launder and hold “holocaust victim gold” as well as the stolen treasuries of Europe, including gold reserves from France and Czechoslovakia. At the time the Nazis stole the French treasury, the gold holdings of France were reported to be greater than the combined holdings of Fort Knox and the Bank of England. It is often reported that most of the Nazi gold treasury was recovered by the allies and redistributed, as per agreement, to the countries from which it had been stolen. “At the end of the war, total gold deposited at the Reichsbank amounted to RM655.4 million valued at the official price of RM2,784 per kilo. In February-March 1945, most of these stocks were transferred to the Merker’s salt mine in Thuringia. This gold was confiscated by Eisenhower’s army in April THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 245 1945. It was redistributed later to countries whose own gold stocks had been taken over by the Third Reich.” [David Marsh, The Bundesbank: The Bank that Rules Europe, Mandarin Press, 1992, p300.] In actuality, very little of the gold was ever returned, and is reported to have been kept by UBS. “In 1940, the gold reserves of the Banque de France by far exceeded the combined reserves of Fort Knox and the Bank of England. The Nazis stole the entire French reserves before the end of 1940, and much of it ended up in Swiss vaults. After WW2, the Swiss Government came visibly under pressure from the Allies and consented to various demands, including the turning over some SFR 250 mio worth of Nazi gold to the United States. According to findings by the Swiss historian Werner Rings, much of this gold was of French origin (foundry markings). Not only are the circumstances and conditions murky, but it is also still far from clear how much French gold was returned to France, how much found its way to the American reserves, and how much was turned into "Swiss gold". Interestingly, some European historians suspect that several parts of the U.S. and other Allied governments participated in the post-war disappearance of Jewish and non-Jewish assets confiscated by the Nazis.” [Observations concerning the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the World Jewish Congress et al. and the Swiss Bankers Association signed May 2 1996 in New York, by anonymous, 5/25/1996 ] “…the Kennedy Administration, in 1963, found it opportune and possible to lend a helpful hand for UBS to become Switzerland's biggest bank by almost doubling its equity overnight with confiscated Nazi assets.” [Who Wants To Sack Heidyland? Anton Keller, Secretary, Philip Wainwright, Legal Adviser Swiss Investors Protection Association, Geneva - e-mail: [email protected], 1/1/1998] After the war, the Swiss banks took elaborate measures to ‘hide’ the Nazi gold and prevent confiscation by the Allies. Although the Allies were able to seize some, the actual amount deposited by the Nazi government and German industrialists could not be ascertained. The ‘undiscovered’ gold in the banks would be the gold pursued in 1990s in international courts and world public opinion by the Jewish World Congress and Edgar Bronfman. Shortly after the war, the Swiss passed laws to ensure that they would be able to hold on to whatever the Allies did not confiscate. “The most famous case of stolen art which has occupied art historians, journalists and politicians since the 50ies is the origin of the private collection of the Swiss arms manufacturer Dieter Bührle (Oerlikon-Bührle). The Bührle dynasty has provided Germany essential weapons in both world wars. In WW2 some 80 % of all German anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition were manufactured in Switzerland [particularly by Oerlikon-Bührle], with deliveries continuing [into] 1945. For these last deliveries Germany paid with stolen art treasures, much of which collected by Feldmarschall Hermann Göring. One large and clearly identifiable Jewish collection stolen in Paris thus found its way to the Dieter Bührle collection and - due to Swiss law and practices - Mr.Bührle has been able to fend off French government-supported recovery attempts over the last 40 years. The Swiss penal code gives good title to anybody who managed to hold on to stolen art for more than 30 years. Moreover, Swiss wartime emergency legislation and postwar judgements presume good title for any asset, irrespective of criminal or non-criminal origin, acquired by Swiss citizens from Germany during the Nazi period. The only limitation seems to have been robbery committed by the Swiss acquirer himself.” [Observations concerning the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the World Jewish Congress et al. and the Swiss Bankers Association signed May 2 1996 in New York, anonymous, May 25, 1996] The next great gold bonanza to get channeled to the Swiss banks was the Marcos gold. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 246 “Gary Thompson, the newspaper's former managing editor, and journalist Steve Kanigher published copies of gold certificates from Credit Suisse, deposit records from the Union Bank of Switzerland, the correspondence of Corazon Aquino and letters to Reagan administration officials documenting witness accounts that … the CIA and Army Special Forces carted off an unknown quantity of the bullion.” [Iran-Contra Connections to the Oklahoma Bombing, gathered by Alex Constantine © 2000 Alex Constantine. All rights reserved] In both instances of the holocaust victim and Philippine gold, the Swiss banks adamantly resisted years of effort by the governments of Israel and the Philippines to have the gold returned to its rightful owners. Interestingly, UBS and other Swiss banks reversed their position on ‘not returning’ holocaust gold to family survivors in August of 1998, after several months of negotiations with Edgar Bronfman, a co-investor of Adnan Khashoggi in Barrick Gold and President of the World Jewish Congress. Surprising, the release of the holocaust gold plays a key role in understanding why the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11. The reason the Swiss banks relinquished in this, after more than 50 years of denial was not so much a result of newly defined morality, but rather the result of pressure from U.S. investigators and lawmakers on three separate fronts, and by Swiss lawmakers on a fourth front: 1. There were claims by the Philippine government that the Marcos family had secreted away $13.4 billion of the Philippine treasury. In 1991, at the end of the Marcos presidency in the Philippines, there were a number of reports that Marcos had secreted away in UBS, large quantities of the Philippine national treasury. There are reports that these funds came from multiple sources: the looted Japanese treasury, Nazi gold money-laundering, and embezzlement of US aid. The point that has not been disputed is that regardless of the source, there was “a lot” of illegal gold and money moved to Switzerland by Marcos, with the assistance of Adnan Khashoggi. George Bush Sr., as CIA director, would also be involved in helping Marcos move bullion out of the Philippines. Investigators from the Philippines starting making claims on these funds, providing proof the funds were secreted away at the UBS, but because of the banking laws of Switzerland, the bank would never confirm to the Philippine government of President Aquino that it had the missing Philippine funds. 2. The U.S. Department of Justice, representing eight U.S. nationals that had won a lawsuit against the Marcos estate for torture and deprivation of rights, was pressing for an investigation into the Swiss accounts. A number of human rights groups took on the Marcos family in US courts for violation of human rights, and won a major, billion dollar settlement against the Marcos family. Ferdinand Marcos had died in 1989, but the judgment was levied on his estate. After losing the suit, the Marcos family claimed it did not have the resources to settle the claim. That is when the Department of Justice was brought in to investigate the accounts identified in the Swiss banks as Marcos accounts. When the possibility of the estate being hidden in UBS was exposed by the efforts of the Philippine government, the Department of Justice began an investigation. 3. The search for holocaust gold was re-activated in 1996 when newly declassified documents of the Swiss government inadvertently suggested the banks were still THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 247 holding on to financial assets that belonged to holocaust victims and their families. The search erupted into a scandal in 1997, when a janitor at UBS discovered and retrieved documents being shredded that supported the claims of the holocaust victims and their families. U.S. lawmakers initiated hearings and an investigation on behalf of the U.S. families involved, which then reviewed the claims of the Philippines, as the lawmakers made a case against the Swiss banks. The product of these hearings and investigations was the Eizenstat Report and Related Issues Concerning United States and Allied Efforts to Restore Gold and their Assets Looted by Nazis During World War II, June 25, 1997, House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Financial Services. 4. The final front was new anti-money laundering regulations which took hold in Switzerland in late 1998. This new legislation put criminal penalties on bankers who knowingly supported money-laundering activities. As state local and national lawmakers from the U.S. began to lobby in favor of sanctions against the Swiss banks as a penalty for withholding the gold, Edgar Bronfman, as the new president of the World Jewish Congress, negotiated a settlement with the banks. The contention of this report, based on the circumstances and no actual proof, is that Bronfman, as a significant owner of Barrick, which was the primary beneficiary of the Khashoggi - conceived gold laundering operation and connections to the German bank cartel, went to Switzerland to establish a settlement that would stop the investigation, and prevent further disclosure of the true assets being held in accounts at UBS. This report alleges that the threat posed by the three sets of claimants was that allowing investigators into the accounts of Marcos and the transfers from the Deutschebank, the true magnitude of the holdings would be disclosed, additional transfers out of those accounts would be traced, and the whole gold laundering operation would be unraveled. Further investigation would have resulted in having the Department of Justice pursuing assets into accounts that moved gold into or through Barrick for laundering. With the exposure of more that one laundering operation, the entire operation would come undone. The inevitable question should be: If Bronfman convinced the Swiss bankers to hand over roughly $8 billion ($1.25 billion to the holocaust victims, $ 4.6 to the Philippine government, and another $2 billion to the 8 U.S. victims of the torture suit) compared to less than the $1 billion they were originally planning on paying ($185 million to the holocaust victims and $800 million to the Philippine government)- what did the UBS get in return? Was the question: could Bronfman satisfactorily bring to end investigative pressure on the Swiss banks? Did Bronfman turn to his long-time partner of twenty years -Adnan Khashoggi (whose name was attached to most of these investigations) – and ask if he could “fix” a solution? There was another complicating factor in bringing closure to the “bullion” issues. The Swiss and Deutschebank knew that resolving the Holocaust and Marcos gold disputes was not the end of the pressure on the banks. There were three more open investigations: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 248 · In 1998, Russian investigators traced a $300,000 ransom payment from the Bank of New York, which opened up the Bank of New York/Russian Mafiya bank scandal. This scandal would later be shown to be connected to the Swiss banks and the Deutsche Bank. “The plundering exemplified in the BNY case is of an immense magnitude, particularly in its relation to the size of the Russian economy. One analyst estimated that the $10 billion allegedly laundered over the past year constitutes fully 6 percent of the Russian gross domestic product, and 40 percent of the Russian federal government's budget. And this is only the sum that may have passed through one channel over one year. An article in Saturday's Financial Times of London cited a report prepared by Fitch IBCA, an international credit rating agency, that estimated a total of $136 billion was taken out of all of Russia between 1993 and 1998. Another estimate, provided in Lloyd's article for the Times, puts the total in the neighborhood of $200-500 billion. Though the exact figure has not been determined, this vast sum not only lined the pockets of the new Russian kleptocracy, but also flowed into the coffers of US and European financial institutions. (The BNY case may well involve a number of major European banks. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the investigation, said that Credit Suisse, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), Dresdner Bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank and Banque Internacionale of Luxembourg are being scrutinized for their role in the matter.)” [Bank of New York probe exposes ties between Western financiers and Russian Mafia, World Socialist Website, James Brookfield, 8/27/ 1999] It is of significant note that two primary owner-investors in two of the key banks involved in the Russian money laundering scandal were Bruce Rappaport, a Swiss- Israeli banker who was involved with Khashoggi and George Bush Sr. in the Iran- Contra, October Surprise and BCCI scandals, and Dr. Alfred Hartmann. “…what has never been identified in a single major Western press investigation was that the Rothschild group was at the heart of the vast illegal web of BCCI. The key figure was Dr. Alfred Hartmann, the managing director of the BCCI Swiss subsidiary, Banque de Commerce et de Placement SA; at the same time, he ran the Zurich Rothschild Bank AG, and sat in London as a member of the board of N.M. Rothschild and Sons, Hartmann was also a business partner of Helmut Raiser, friend of de Picciotto, and linked to Nordex. Hartmann was also chairman of the Swiss affiliate of the Italian BNL bank, which was implicated in the Bush administration illegal transfers to Iraq prior to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The Atlanta branch of BNL, with the knowledge of George Bush when he was vice president, conduited funds to Helmut Raiser's Zug, Switzerland company, Consen, for development of the CondorII missile program by Iraq, Egypt, and Argentina, during the Iran-Iraq War. Hartmann was vice-chairman of another secretive private Geneva bank, the Bank of NY-Inter-Maritime Bank, a bank whose chairman, Bruce Rappaport, was one of the illegal financial conduits for Col. Oliver North's Contra drugs-for-weapons network during the late 1980. North also used the BCCI as one of his preferred banks to hide his illegal funds.” [The Secret Financial Network Behind "Wizard" George Soros, William Engdahl, EIR Investigation Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), November 1, 1996] Another key player already linked to the Bank of New York/Russian Mafiya money laundering scandal was Jonathon Bush and his invlovement with Valmet SA, A thorough investigation into these Swiss accounts probably would have uncovered links involving Richard Cheney, and Marc Rich, amongst others, to the Nigerian and Angolan oil scandals, in which dollars flowed from the U.S. to Russia. (See Section 4.8. A relevant note on this point, it is reported that Richard Cheney’s Chief-of Staff was Scooter Libby, formerly known as Liebowitz. Prior to becoming Cheney’s singular most THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 249 powerful advisor, he was Marc Rich’s US lawyer for fifteen years, and a signer of the famous neo-conservative document which identified the need for a new “Pearl Harbor” to bring America into a new era of unilateral domination by use of force.) Additional investigations that might have exposed this network of accounts included: · In 2000, Reginald Howe introduced his GATA lawsuit, naming the Deutschebank as a key party to the gold price-fixing lawsuit, prompting an investigation by the FBI into Swiss and Deutschebank gold trading accounts. The FBI records for this investigation were co-located with records to the Giffen/Mobil Oil investigation, which may or may not be meaningful. · In the Fall of 1997, The UK courts began inquiries into claims about the Kazakhstan breach of contract claim made by Farhat Tabbah against James Giffen, which opened a Pandora’s box on illegal bribes. (See Section 4.7 for more detail.) Shortly thereafter, the investigation spilled over to Switzerland (1999), and then to the U.S. courts (2000). “In the fall of 1997, an international businessman named Farhat Tabbah filed suit in London against three American businessmen, the oil minister of Kazakhstan, and a subsidiary of the Mobil Corporation.” [The Price of Oil; What was Mobil up to in Kazakhstan and Russia? Semour M. Hersh, New Yorker (Magazine), 7/9/2001 Pp. 48-65] “Switzerland first launched investigations earlier, in 1999, during which time it froze over 12 Kazakh bank accounts, upon suspicions of money laundering. When the Kazakh government tried to lean on the Swiss to back off, the Swiss responded by sending the US Department of Justice documents from the case.” [From Angola to Kazakhstan: How to Cure Corruption in Oil Rich States, by Jonathan Reingold, 5/14/04, The Upside Down World news] “Kazhegeldin said that Swiss regulators informed the US authorities last year that "substantial amounts of money belonging to certain prominent US oil companies, including Amoco Kazakhstan Petroleum Company, Amoco Kazakhstan Inc, Mobil Oil Corp and Phillips Petroleum Kazakhstan Inc" were transferred to a Swiss bank account controlled by Kazak government advisor James Giffen between 1997 and 1998.” [Ex-Kazakhstan premier says US firms' oil fees diverted to ministers, Interview with Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Justin Cole, AFX, 17 July 2001] Only the Swiss bankers would have seen these investigations unfolding in such a way that would find them involved and potentially guilty under new Swiss laws. “In March 1998, the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC) adopted modified Guidelines concerning the prevention and combating of money laundering which came into force on 1 July 1998 (Circ. 98/1) to bring them into line with the new Money Laundering Act ” The Barrick-Bank Cartel Connection The relationship between Enron, Cheney, Bush and U.S. intelligence has already been presented. The relationship between U.S. intelligence and UBS goes back for 60 years. Since WWII, UBS, notably stands out as part of a mix of Swiss banks heavily involved with the U.S. Intelligence community, far removed from Congressional oversight: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 250 “Various Swiss banking scandals have brought to the surface the tip of the iceberg of long-standing post-WW2 links between the 3 big Swiss banks and the American intelligence community. Some of these links - notably that with the Union Bank of Switzerland - seem to have their origins in the U.S. exploitation of the cavalier treatment of Jewish pre-WW2 deposits. The outgrowth of these cancers is manifest in the BCCI affair (over-lapping directorship of Dr. Alfred Hartmann), in the SASEA affair and in the Shakarchi affair which was not only admitted, by the U.S. Embassy in Berne, as a CIA affair, but even brought down Switzerland's Minister of Justice Elisabeth Kopp. Another CIA link was amply documented in the case of Colonel North and other U.S. officials operating through the Credit Swiss which was found to have been blackmailed by the intelligence community since the fourties.” [OBSERVATIONS concerning the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the World Jewish Congress et al. and the Swiss Bankers Association signed May 2 1996 in New York , by anonymous, May 25, 1996 ] The interplay of Barrick, the Bank Cartel and the Oil Cartel crisscross in a manner that strongly suggests ongoing partnership rather than coincidence. There are three pieces of evidence that identify a linkage between the management/ownership of Barrick, the Oil Cartel and the German Bank Cartel. Like Catherine Fitts, this report finds the individuals involved in planning, executing and covering the WTC attack to be the same as those involved in Barrick and covert oil operations in Central Asia. 1. Of first note, the Houston office building that housed both Enron and Halliburton corporate headquarters was owned by Trizec Hahn. As earlier discussed, Trizec Hahn was a merger of Peter Munk’s (Barrick Gold) and the Canadian Bronfman family: “Barrick was controlled by Peter Munk, who was set up as chairman, he claimed, by Adnan Khashoggi who owned the company stock. Until recently the entire section of office buildings in downtown Houston where Enron and Halliburton (through its subsidiary, Dresser Industries) leased space was owned by TrizecHahn. The acquisition of this real estate was accomplished in a manner similar to the way Lonrho acquired Hondo--debentures, secured by stock options, not repaid. Munk had merged his company with Trizec, a company created by William Zeckendorf and a syndicate composed of Hill Erlanger of Boston and a branch of the Canadian Bronfman family.” [Follow the Yellow Brick Road: From Harvard to Enron, Part One, Linda Minor, Newsmakingnews.com, © 2002] This may seem trivial at first glance, but the CEO’s of both companies (Kenneth Lay and Dick Cheney are close associates of the Bush family, whose relationship to the founder of Barrick– Adnan Khashoggi – are extensive and stretched over at least two decades. 2. Barrick is also directly linked to UBS and the German bank cartel, through use of it’s subsidiary gold refinery: Argor-Heraeus S.A. Owership of this refinery was transferred from UBS to Commerzbank, also part of the German bank cartel in 1999. “Barrick's gold is refined to market delivery standards by MKS Finance S.A. in Switzerland and Argor-Heraeus S.A. also in Switzerland (Goldstrike production)” “1999: UBS announces the selling of its 75% position in the Argor-Heraeus SA to W.C Heraeus, Hanau, Germany, which already has a 25% stake in the UBS subsidiary. Argor-Heraeus in Mendrisio, Switzerland, operates in the precious metal processing business, mainly gold (March 11). (UBS web site)” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 251 “London--Apr 29/99--Germany's Commerzbank has acquired a 35% interest in Argor-Heraeus SA, a Swiss gold refinery with an annual refining capacity of 400 tonnes and a production capacity for cast ingots of 2.5 million per year. "The acquisition has made Commerzbank into one of the few banks worldwide which are directly involved not only in precious metals trading but also in purchasing unmarketable physical gold, thus covering the whole spectrum of preciousmetals transactions," a press release issued today said.” 3. Barrick is linked closely to the Banking Cartel through, one of the most longest members of the Advisory Board - Karl Otto Pohl, former President of the German central bank (Bundesbank) and chief officer of the International Bank of Settlements and IMF. Also on the Barrick Board was former Canadian Deutschebank executive Tye W. Burt - the former Chairman of Deutsche Bank Canada and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown Securities Canada, and Managing Director and Head of Deutsche Bank’s Global Metals and Mining Group. Burt was involved when the Canadian Deutschebank backed Khashoggi in the MJK Securities fraud. Burt left the bank shortly after the fraud was discovered. Note also, two of the initial big investors in Barrick – Khashoggi and Bronfman – used the same personal financial advisor: Mayo Shattuck of the Deutschebank Alex Brown. Mayo Shattuck was the chief assistant to Buzzy Krongard when he worked at Deutschebank Alex Brown. Both, through their executive roles at Deutschebank Alex Brown were in a position to be familiar with the Khashoggi/Marcos gold deposits at that Bank. Remember that Krongard managed the merger between Bankers Trust and Deutschebank Alex Brown, and that Banker’s Trust is the bank that received significant amounts of the Marcos gold with the assistance of Khashoggi. 4. The Deutsche Bank was identified as a major gold trading partner with Barrick in both the Blanchard and Howe law suits. 5. Enron - an energy trading company - had created a gold bullion and gold derivatives trading operation. When Enron went bankrupt, Enron On-Line was bought by UBS. A competitive market for trading energy and gold bullion was set-up by former Deutschebank executive Mayo Shattuck as new CEO at Constellation Energy, using former Enron employees. These five points suggest that if it doesn’t exist already, there exists the potential for a cozy relationship between the US oil cartel, the German Banking cartel and Barrick. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 252 10 Reunion: Iran-Contra Scandal and October Surprise It is difficult to understand the personal relationships which unite those who had motive and opportunity for the bombing of the World Trade Center, and the cover-up of their involvement, without understanding the events of the early 1980s known as the Iran- Contra scandal and the October Surprise. This section of the report is meant to provide that understanding. It is a story about how a number of individuals defied the will of the American public to provide weapons to brutal dictators, influenced the American presidential election by killing American soldiers, supported the South American drug trade, and pocketed hefty profits - all in the name of “patriotism.” There are a series of events which initiated the illicit trade of Israeli weapons sent to Iran and the Nicaraguan Contras, in exchange for CIA sponsored drug money, funneled through the BCCI over a period of years. The first of these events was a series of three meetings meant to prevent the “October Surprise” – the rumored release of 52 American hostages by the government of Iran in October, 1980 as a display of cooperation with the Carter Administration. Bush and Reagan, in their campaign against Carter, feared the an October release of the hostages would provide Carter with a burst of popularity adequate to win the election. The “October Surprise” story is one of George Bush preventing the release of hostages as means of helping ensure that he and Reagan won the election. The Iran Contra scandal began with a group of U.S. and Israeli intelligence operatives attempting to remove the Shiite Iranian government of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and replace it with a more moderate and friendly regime. The Israelis had already begun a covert program of selling weapons to Iran to counter what they believed was a more immediate threat of Iraq, but President Carter attempted to halt that program. “Late July: A clandestine meeting between American and Iranian officials takes place in Hamburg, Germany. Former CIA operative Larry Kolb, present at the meeting, says it will become one of the most "investigated, reinvestigated...misreported, misunderstood, and infamous" meetings in American foreign policy history. The purpose seems to be part of an attempt to either destabilize the radical Shi'ite government of the Ayatollah Khomeini, or to plan for a more moderate, US-friendly regime to follow Khomeini. Some of the participants include businessman and Saudi operative Adnan Khashoggi, Iranian arms dealer and SAVAK member Manucher Ghorbanifar, CIA operatives Kolb and Miles Copeland, NSC consultant and hardline neoconservative Michael Ledeen, Israeli Foreign Minister and intelligence head David Kimche, Israeli arms dealer Al Schwimmer, former Israeli military attache to Teheran Jacob Nimrodi, and Hassan Karrubi, a confidante of Iranian moderate Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. Karrubi proposes that the US, in contradiction to its arms embargo against Iran, agree to sell Iran a variety of aircraft parts and TOW missiles in return for Khomeini toning down his opposition to US influence in Iran, along with an agreement to broker the release of the four remaining American hostages in Beirut and a decrease in Iranian support of terrorism. (Hostage Benjamin Weir will later be released, apparently as a resut of the meeting.) Khashoggi says that, to avoid any trail of arms deals from the US to Iran, that the deal be brokered through Israel The Israelis initiated arms shipments to Iran as a counter to Iraq. When President Jimmy Carter ordered a halt to the Israeli weapons sales the Israelis may have set up the October Paris meeting that William Casey, Donald Gregg and George Bush allegedly attended in 1980.” [Did Bush go to Paris?, Harry V. Martin, Copyright, Napa Sentinel, 1991, Last in an Ten Part Series] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 253 President Carter did initiate a rescue attempt of the hostages, which failed when the helicopters carrying the rescue teams crashed in the desert. Later, it would be rumored that the rescue attempt was sabotaged: “Reports that have surfaced from the intelligence community indicate that the rescue attempt may have been sabotaged…” [Hostage deal, Inslaw cases connected in Congressional probe, Harry V. Martin, Copyright, Napa Sentinel 1991 ] In asking who may have sabotaged the attempt to rescue 52 American citizens, Barbara Honnegger, former Whitehouse staff in the Reagan administration suggested it was some of the same people that planned and executed the October Surprise and the Iran-Contra deals. “Honegger: ... and then of course we have Richard Secord, Oliver North and Albert Hakim. Richard Secord was one of the chief planners for the so- called failed Desert 1 rescue attempt, North was involved in that rescue attempt, in the mother ship, which was on the Turkish border awaiting the cue from Secord to fly in and rescue the hostages, and Albert Hakim was in charge of the ground operations of the rescue attempt, in particular, obtaining the trucks and other vehicles which were going to be needed. Hakim skipped town, left Tehran 24 hours before the rescue was to take place, and the reason for that, as detailed in my research documentation, was that Secord, North and Hakimhad no intention of seeing Desert 1 carry through, and so sabotaged the operation.” The sabotage of the rescue attempt, as was the October Surprise, was part of a bigger effort to prevent the re-election of Jimmy Carter and place Ronald Reagan in the Presidency. “Richard Wirthlin, the pollster for the Reagan-Bush campaign, said that if the hostages were released before the election Carter would gain a boost of 5 or 6 percentage points in the polls, or even as much as 10 percent, giving him a sure victory for that election.” [Hostage deal, Inslaw cases connected in Congressional probe, Harry V. Martin,Copyright, Napa Sentinel 1991 ] “What is also known, is that the Carter Administration, according to Gary Sick, was on the verge of obtaining the release of the hostages in October 1980, which probably would have assured his reelection. After the date that Bush allegedly went to Paris, the negotiations with the Iranians collapsed.” There were two subsequent clandestine meetings, one at L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C, and a second in Paris. During these meetings, a number of American, Israeli and Iranian officials and arms dealers negotiated and executed the prevention of an “October Surprise” release of the hostages by Iran. Harry Martin has best related the account: “The Israelis, because of their role of mediator between the United States and Iran and also as the deliverers of U.S. weapons to Iran after the conclusion of the meetings, are believed to have arranged the meetings in the first place.” “Russbacher (CIA operative and one of the pilots of the plane that took Bush to Paris) states that Bush, while in Paris, met with Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second in command to the Ayatollah and now the president of Iran, and Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian businessman who was extremely powerful. Arrangements were apparently made to pay Iran $40 million to delay the release of hostages in order to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 254 thwart President Jimmy Carter's re-election bid. The $40 million was the beginning of terms that created the Iran-Contra scandal that is now being reopened by Congress.” “A total of $40 million was transferred from a Mexican account and Bush presented a draft of the transfer to the Iranians. Within six weeks after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, covert shipments of arms were sent to Iran. When the shipments were discovered around 1985, it became known as the Iran-Contra scandal….” “Strangely enough, Bush made no public appearances during that time, three week's before the election, and has yet to prove where he was during the "missing" 21 hours. According to the pilot, Bush only stayed a few hours in Paris and was flown back to the United States. On October 21, the Iranians changed their entire negotiating position with the Carter Administration, the results of a completed deal with the Republicans.” “Right after the alleged Paris meeting, the Iranians not only backed away from negotiations with the Carter administration for the release of hostages, but they also dispersed the hostages throughout Iran to prevent a second rescue attempt, a rescue attempt that was apparently leaked to them from the Reagan campaign headquarters and probably by Richard Allen. … Moments after Ronald Reagan became President, the hostages were released. Within weeks, shipments of military equipment and spare parts were flown to Iran. Mossad agents have testified to the Iran weapons deal. The French have memos about the plan. The former President of Iran confirms the Republican-Iranian deal to delay the release of the hostages, and even former President Jimmy Carter, who had preferred to remain silent, has come forward to indicate that Gregg was a mole and was possibly responsible for the October Surprise. Gregg worked for Bush when Bush was head of the CIA.” [Did Bush go to Paris?, Harry V. Martin, Copyright, Napa Sentinel, 1991, Last in an Ten Part Series] As events unfolded over time, it was George Bush Sr. who advocated a more pro-Arab policy, which in turn, irritated the Israelis, who now had the ability to blackmail the Bush family at whim. “But once the Reagan-Bush team came to power, Bush began to push a pro-Arab position within the government, or, in essence, a pro-oil position. This irritated the Israelis and they felt the United States was beginning to betray them. Israel made a deal with the Soviet Union for closer relationships and also sought more Soviet Jews for immigration, thus keeping the Likud Party in power. Israeli agents are the ones who broke the story of the Iran-Contra scandal in a Lebanese newspaper, as retaliation against Bush. It is also the Israelis who witnessed arms deals, including the transfer of INSLAW's PROMIS software, in a Chilian meeting. The same names, Dr. Earl Brian and Donald Greggs come up in those testimonies.” [Bush Made Deal With Iranians, Pilot Says, Harry V. Martin, Copyright FreeAmerica and Harry V. Martin, 1995] “If the Paris meeting did take place, the Israeli government may have been able to blackmail the Reagan and Bush administrations. Richard Curtiss writes in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, "Whenever the Reagan administration and the hard-line Israeli governments of Menachem Begin and his successors went eyeball-to-eyeball, it was always the U.S. that blinked. The U.S. declined to press Begin on such topics as the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, the invasion of Lebanon, the occupation of West Beirut, the Sabra-Shatila massacres, and even the Reagan Plan for Middle East peace. The Reagan administration apparently was vulnerable to highly damaging Israeli blackmail, and at least some top officials of both governments knew it." He adds, "It also explains how and why the Reagan administration so easily fell into the catastrophic series of arms-for-hostages blunders, clearly instigated as well as carried out by Israel, that became known as Irangate, or the Iran-Contra scandal. The renewed arms shipments in 1985 and 1986 were initiated by reopening exactly the same channels used in 1980 and 1981 by some of the same principals on both sides." [Did Bush go to Paris?, Harry V. Martin, Copyright, Napa Sentinel, 1991, Last in an Ten Part Series] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 255 The entire Iran-Contra affair fell apart and became public when the Nicaraguan government shot down a U.S. plane carrying weapons to the Contra rebels, and captured the U.S. pilot. The discovery of these shipments - a violation of U.S. law - initiated a series of Congressional investigations and an investigation by an Independent Counsel. The meetings held to prevent an October Surprise were never mentioned, and the two pilots who flew Bush to Paris were immediately imprisoned and discredited when they sought to testify in front of Congress. A court would later find the charges against the pilots to be without support, but their testimony had been blocked. “Gunther Russbacher.. claimed to have videotape proof and sixteen witnesses to his having flown George Bush to one of the October Surprise meetings.” [The Death of my Friend and Investigator of Government Corruption Paul Wilcher, Sarah McClendon, Sarah McClendon’s Washington Report, July 4, 1993] Ari Ben-Menashe a major Israeli coordinator of these deals, would also testify that he had personally seen George HW Bush at the Paris meeting “ In June, I also testified under oath, in closed session, before the Senate Foreign Relations committee. I stated unequivocally that I had, seen Bush in Paris.” [Ari Ben-Menashe. Profits of War, Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network, Sheridan Square Press, 1992, p344.] According to Ari Ben-Menashe, a major Israeli coordinator of these deals, four of the five supply chains set up to arm Iran were never investigated, and continued to operate right through the Congressional Hearings on Iran Contra. “…Tower knew perfectly well there was an ongoing arms channel. Yet the Tower Commission made no mention of it. In February 1987, while Tower was investigating a minor part of the sales to Iran, the Joint Israel-Iran Committee, together with Robert Gates, ran the biggest ever arms supply operation to Iran. The official inquiry was better than any smokescreen we…could have dreamed up.” [Ari Ben-Menashe. Profits of War, Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network, Sheridan Square Press, 1992, p191.] There were a few indictments and convictions as a result of the Iran-Contra affair, but generally those involved were exonerated. Bush later pardoned the few lower level government officials that were indicted and convicted. Dick Cheney was one of the Congressional committee members that decided that no crimes had been committed, and Bush was not involved. Extensive reporting on this very successful operation to deceive the American public and to implement a foreign policy which can only be defined as “Bush’s personal foreign policy,” has provided some additional insights into additional aspects of the operation, which only become meaningful when considered over a greater time period. Involved in the background of Iran Contra and the October Surprise this report finds the same individuals showing up in the activities surrounding the destruction of the World Trade Center: Gaith Pharon (very heavily involved in managing the Bush family investments) and BCCI: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 256 “BCCI also served as a conduit for the Iran-Contra operation, largely through Gaith Pharon, former head of Saudi Intelligence, who operated out of Islamabad, Pakistan. The Saudis played a major role in funding the Mujahadeen and [via the request of Secord and McFarlane] the Contras.” [Iran-Contra Connections to the Oklahoma Bombing , gathered by Alex Constantine © 2000 Alex Constantine. All rights reserved] Oliver North trying to use Marcos gold to finance the Contras: “In 1985, [Oliver North] attempted to sell 44 tons of Marcos bullion, worth $465 million, on the black market. He blithely suggested skimming $5 million to finance the Nicaraguan contra war, but the deal fell through when North, true to form, stiffed the Israeli middlemen on the Marcos payroll. Tapes and documents implicating American officials in the gold transfers were withheld from the Iran-contra committee by Major General Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and William Odom, director of the NSA. "It wasn't so much the mention of gold that concerned them," say Thompson and Kanigher. "It was Marcos talking (on tape) about contributions to U.S. presidential campaigns and the use of the gold proceeds to fund illegal arms deals." [Iran-Contra Connections to the Oklahoma Bombing , by Alex Constantine © 2000 Alex Constantine. All rights reserved] Richard Armitage later becoming a consultant of Unocal; coordinating Al Qaeda in Azerbaijan and Pakistan, and dispersing cash to the Russian KGB in 1991: “Deputy Defense Secretary Richard Armitage is another Iran-contra conspirator who worked for Unocal.” [ONLINE JOURNAL™ www.onlinejournal.comSpecial Report Saudis, Enron money helped pay for US rigged election,Wayne Madsen Online Journal Contributing Writer 11/25/2004] Congressmen Cheney and Scowcraft directing committees to find Bush “not involved” in the Iran-Contra scandal, and later being incorporated into the Central Asian deals: “The Tower Commission was appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra affair, chaired by Texas Senator, John Tower. This is the same John Tower who, according to CIA man Gunthar Russbacher, was on the plane with Bush when he flew to Paris for the October Surprise meeting with the Iranians! …Also on the Tower Commission was Brent Scowcroft a Kissinger 'yes man' and an executive of Kissinger Associates; and Ed Muskie, … Muskie was himself implicated in both the October Surprise and Iran-Contra.… Bush appointed Brent Scowcroft as his National Security Advisor. The Senate refused to accept Tower's appointment (as Secretary of Defense) and he began to speak of the injustice he believed had been done to him. He died in a plane crash on April 5th, 1991. When the Senate turned down Tower, a decision Bush probably engineered, he selected Dick Cheney as defense secretary. Cheney was the senior Republican member of another committee which cleared Bush of involvement in Iran-Contra, the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran.” [ “and the truth shall set you free”, David Icke] Farhad Azima in the 1990’s not only running freight airlines in Azerbaijan and Central Asia, but having his airlines involved in moving Mujahadin merecenaries in and out of the Chechnyan conflict. A number of alleged hijackers would be connected with that conflict. Additionally, Azima would become friends and co-investor with Wally Hilliard, who would later be a financier in Huffman Aviation, where a number of 9/11 hijackers trained. Congressman Porter Goss involved with Iran-Contra activities. Goss was the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence who met with Mahmoud Ahmad, the head of Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) who sent $100,000 to Mohammed Atta. Goss is reported to have met with Ahmad both shortly before and after the 9-11 attacks. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 257 “Porter Goss was a young CIA officer assigned to JM/WAVE. Goss had, by his own accounts, been recruited to the CIA while in his third year at Yale University. His two years of military service were, in all likelihood, actually CIA assignments. In 1961, Goss was officially brought into the CIA and sent to JM/WAVE. He later would continue to participate in the anti-Castro operations, based out of CIA stations in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. Later, Goss was sent to London and then Paris, where he was involved in the infiltration of labor organizations, until he developed a near-fatal infection and was forced, officially, to retire from the spy world. In his role in JM/WAVE, Goss served with some of the CIA's most hardened Cold Warriors, including Miami Station Chief Theodore G. Shackley, later a central figure in the Iran/Contra debacle; (and) Felix Rodriguez, another leading Iran-Contra player;….” [The Coming Senate Battle: Open the Porter Goss File Part 1,Jeffrey Steinberg, Michele Steinberg and Scott Thompson, Executive Intelligence Review September 3, 2004] “According to Al Martin, in 1983 Goss was involved in Iran-Contra profiteering with Jeb and Neil Bush’s Destin Country Club development fraud – a fraud out of which he made about $3 million illegally. He then became involved with Carlos Cardoen and Swissco Management, and the fraud that Swissco Management committed, not only in Florida, but throughout the United States, in those socalled illicit 'tax-swap deals,' which Senator Bob Graham of Florida also profited in.” [Prime Suspect of the Largest Mass Murder in U.S. Nominated to Head C.I.A., Carol Brouillet, Fourth of July, 2004 ] “Chalmers is a longtime denizen of the Labyrinth. In the mid-1980s, he joined up with Chilean gunrunner Carlos Cardoen, the Financial Times reported. Cardoen was a CIA frontman used by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush I to funnel cluster bombs and other weapons secretly to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War.” [UN oil for food scandal, Global Eye, Gut Check, Chris Floyd, April 22, 2005] Bankers (Dr. Alfred Hartmann and Bruce Rappaport) and lawyers (Willard Zucker and Kenneth Bialkin) involved in financing this illegal trade and laundering money through Swiss accounts to be the same individuals who manage funds for the Bin Laden and Mahfouz families, and having corporate pilots for SICO (Saudi Investment Company) being trained at Huffman Aviation along with known 9/11 hijackers. “(Dr. Alfred) Hartmann was also chairman of the Swiss affiliate of the Italian BNL bank, which was implicated in the Bush administration illegal transfers to Iraq prior to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The Atlanta branch of BNL, with the knowledge of George Bush when he was vice president, conduited funds to Helmut Raiser's Zug, Switzerland company, Consen, for development of the CondorII missile program by Iraq, Egypt, and Argentina, during the Iran-Iraq War. Hartmann was vice-chairman of another secretive private Geneva bank, the Bank of NY-Inter-Maritime Bank, a bank whose chairman, Bruce Rappaport, was one of the illegal financial conduits for Col. Oliver North's Contra drugs-for-weapons network during the late 1980. North also used the BCCI as one of his preferred banks to hide his illegal funds.” [The Secret Financial Network Behind "Wizard" George Soros, William Engdahl , EIR Investigation Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), November 1, 1996] “Kenneth Bialkin, the attorney for Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, whose money purchased arms for Iran via the good offices of Col. Oliver North, as part of the arms-for-hostages negotiations; Willard Zucker, who ran the Lake Resources front company in Geneva, Switzerland, which laundered the Iranian arms profits to the Contras; Edmond Safra, who, with Willard Zucker, owned the corporate jets used by Oliver North and National Security Advisor Robert MacFarland in traveling to secret conferences in Iran.” [The Hour of the Time,Tape No. 480,: "ADL #7"November 10, 1994] “Charles Rochat and Baudoin Dunand—two SICO directors—liquidated some financial entities in early 2001 in partnership with Willard Zucker, one of Oliver North’s cronies in the Iran-Contra machinations. SICO trained pilots for its aviation subsidiary at tiny Huffman Aviation in Venice Florida. (Huffman was the school through which Mohamed Atta and several of the 9/11 hijackers infiltrated the United States.)” [ http://www.spitfirelist.com/f498.html] The bin Laden family: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 258 October 1980: Salem bin Laden, Osama’s eldest brother, is later described by a French secret intelligence report as one of the two closest friends of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. As such, he often performs important missions for Saudi Arabia. The French report speculates that he is somehow involved in secret Paris meetings between the US and Iranian emissaries this month. Frontline, which published the French report, notes that such meetings have never been confirmed. Rumors of these meetings have been called the October Surprise and some have speculated Bush Sr. negotiated in these meetings a delay of the release of the US hostages in Iran…(PBS Frontline, 2001).” [Paul Thompson, “The Complete 9/11 Timeline: Introduction, Credits and Links (v1.7,) October 28, 2002, from Michael C Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, 2004, p133 New Society Publishers] 10.1 Iran-Contra Syndicate The aspects of the Iran-Contra scandal and October Surprise which are relevant to the WTC tragedy is that they demonstrate the origins of over 20 years relationships between individuals that carried though the 1990s into the twenty-first century. However, it was not just a matter of excessive political fervor as was often suggested by political commentaries and editorials. Many of these same individuals would later be demonstrated to have personal business relationships with each other, and would be reported to be involved in other activities resulting in criminal charges and laws suits. Table 8 constructs an overview of individuals who are involved in activities discussed in this report, including the Harken Energy, the Marcos gold heist, the Barrick gold trading operation, the October Surprise, Iran-Contra, BCCI, Kazakhstan-gate, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan. What stands out is the continued involvement of several individuals of substantial notoriety, and a few banks: Table 8 Iran-Contra/Azerbaijan Individuals Banks Adnan Khashoggi UBS Union Bank of Switzerland George Bush Sr. & Jr . Deutschebank Richard Secord Credit Suisse Richard L Armitage BCCI ( later Indosuez) Farhad Azima Bank of New York. Richard Cheney Potomac Capital Inc. Porter Goss Khalid bin Mafhouz All the reports seem to suggest this group represents the core of an organized, criminal syndicate operating over a twenty year span, across the globe. As a syndicate, they probably had a great deal to hide, and much benefit to be gained by the destruction of evidence in the various investigative offices of the World Trade Center. In that respect however, they had no more - and maybe even less - incentive than the Russian Mafia, the Italian Mafia or the Columbian drug cartel. What all these syndicates had in common, THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 259 besides criminal activity, is their use of these banks. The Deutschebank represented a global pipeline for money, and the UBS was the primary holding tank and refinery. Other, smaller Swiss banks were under intense investigation that involved transactions from New York and the Deutschebank, and accounts that had secreted away the treasuries of many nations – but these can be best described as the criminel nouveau riche (the New World Order), skimming a small piece- “table scraps” - from the German cartel take. Prior to 1998, the Swiss banks had never had to give up the criminal proceeds of its many customers. If it hadn’t been for a negotiated ‘deal’ by Edgar Bronfman on the Marcos and Nazi gold, independent investigators would have continued to drill down into those accounts and their audit trails. That deal, however, was not enough to shut down other investigations: the GATA lawsuit and FBI investigation, Kazakhstan-gate, Angolagate, Pakistani/CIA heroin trafficking and more. The attack on the WTC diverted the attention the entirety of the world’s largest investigative bodies, and destroyed whatever working papers they may have had. Given the evidence known today, planning for the attack started in 1998 [USA Today, 6/18/2002]. The cover story offered by the leadership of a probable criminal syndicate is that Al Qaeda orchestrated this attack, when the truth is more likely that the attack was orchestrated by a bigger, more powerful cartel that could easily blackmail the US government into support and a cover-up if it needed to do that. Finally, it is worth noting that as time passes, the Bush directed oil related activity in Central Asia may turn out to be a massive replay of the Harken Energy scam, or just a remarkably co-incidental similarity. More widely recognized as a demonstration of George Bush Jr.’s inability to manage and properly report insider trading, Harken Energy is not often given credit for being the large pump and dump scheme it was. "George Bush, Sr. and James Baker and Senator Tower would heavily short Harken stock. I have a list of everybody because I was one of them but to a much smaller extent. Harken stock was trading at 7- 3/4 or 8, when George Jr, was put in charge of it. A year later, the stock was trading at 1-1/8 bid, 3/8 offer. They pumped the stock back up through a lot of bogus press releases and by using essentially worthless leases in Bahrain and essentially worthless South American oil leases and through sympathetic geologists making them appear to be really worth something and making it appear that Harken's about to make a strike when in fact it's all made up. It's all fictitious. And through carefully crafted broker releases and broker statements and press releases, you can pump the stock back up. This has happened sixteen times to my knowledge. Harken would get pumped back up from the dead, from say a buck, buck and a half, back to seven, seven and a half, then it would get dumped again. [The Man Who Knows Too Much, An Interview with Al Martin, author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" (PART 1), by Uri Dowbenko] With the success of Harken behind him, and towards the end of his Presidency, the record will show that President Bush Sr. sent trusted operatives (Secord, Armitage and Giffen) into Central Asia. They made significant inroads into bringing investment capital to the region, and building trusting relationships with the corrupt dictators that ran those countries. The record will show that key members of the Iran-Contra group controlled major information resources for this area: The Azerbaijan American Chamber of Commerce, and the Kazakhstan Oil Advisory Council. They pumped the opportunity to justify loans of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in the region from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the U.S. Export-Import Bank. This opportunity was significantly overstated by 93% to 96% according to more recent, third party estimates: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 260 “Early estimates of Caspian Sea oil reserves ranged from 115 billion to 200 billion barrels. These estimates have been rightfully viewed with scepticism as they were based on a 10 percent probability of recovery -- that is, they were considering oil that could not be recovered. Now this assessment has been severely downgraded by oil industry insiders. Speaking on April 8 in Almaty, Kazakhstan at the Eurasian Economic Summit, Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, chairman of Italy's Eni oil company, said the Caspian contains 7.8 billion barrels of oil, the Interfax news agency reported. This is confirmed by Agip’s statement in Energy Day of May 30 that the recoverable reserve potential of Kashagan is only 1.2 billion barrels. With these revisions, it is questionable whether the Caspian Sea region will ever approach the importance of the Middle East with regard to energy reserves, according to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil’s (APSO) June newsletter.” [The Forging of "Pipelineistan", Dave Allen Pfeiffer, From The Wilderness (FTW) Publications, www.copvcia.com, July 2002 ] With the price of oil being pumped to all time highs in 2005, properties in Central Asia are now being sold-off to Russian and Chinese investors. Central Asia – the world’s largest pump and dump scam! THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 261 11 Whitehouse Assassins Someone in the Whitehouse was involved in the orchestration of activity of the WTC attackers. It was not President Bush, but rather someone trying to assassinate him. In the days prior to September 11, another crime was planned that would have fundamentally changed the response to the attack on the World Trade Center. That crime was the planned assassination of George W. Bush Jr. The pre-scripted response of the Secret Service to this type of claim would be that the President is always a primary target, which is undoubtedly true. However, in the days leading up to the attack on the World Trade Center, there were a series of clues suggesting an assassination was planned, by someone with inside knowledge of the President’s routine. Four assassination scenarios were planned by someone with inside knowledge – all four failed. These scenarios are intrinsically linked to the attack of the World Trade Center: same people, same techniques, and same objectives. These scenarios do not fit with a conspiracy theory that suggests President Bush was responsible the attacks. They do suggest however, that someone with inside knowledge was responsible. 11.1 Scenario 1: Threat to the Texas Whitehouse For some unknown reason, after all the warnings from foreign and domestic intelligence agencies during the summer of 2001 that an attack on America was imminent, President Bush decided to place “special” protection around his Texas ranch in the month prior to 9-11. "Former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said she was disturbed about the implications that ‘24-hour fighter cover was placed over the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas’ during his vacation there from August 4-30, 2001." [Counterpunch, 9/18/02] It’s fair to state this is not normal procedure, because this type of protection was not in place over Washington D.C., which we know to be the case, for no other reason than the fact that the Pentagon, a few miles from the Whitehouse, was hit on September 11. It is then important to ask – what changed for the President? Why the additional protection? Was the President warned he would be the target of an air attack? The coverage was started the very day of his vacation, indicating the knowledge of the attack was received prior to that time. Which mean that the attack was planned, and discovered by intelligence agencies, prior to August 4th. This then would mean that someone would have to know when and where the President was planning vacation. Also, because the attack did not occur as warned, it might be fair to surmise that the attackers were forewarned of the defensive measures taken. 11.2 Scenarios 2 and 3: Attempts at the Colony Resort Scenario 2 occurred the morning of September 11, at 6:00 AM, the hotel at which President Bush was staying, in Sarasota, Florida. As reported in the local press, the President received a visit from a “news crew.” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 262 "At about the same time Bush was getting ready for his jog, a van carrying several Middle Eastern men pulled up to the Colony's guard station. The men said they were a television news crew with a scheduled "poolside" interview with the president. They asked for a certain Secret Service agent by name. The message was relayed to a Secret Service agent inside the resort, who hadn't heard of the agent mentioned or of plans for an interview. He told the men to contact the president's public relations office in Washington, DC, and had the van turned away." [Possible Longboat terrorist incident Is it a clue or is it a coincidence? By Shay Sullivan, City Editor, The Longboat Observer, 9/26/2001] The fascinating aspect of this forgotten news is found in another event on the other side of the world, just two days prior. Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Afghani resistance against the invading Soviets during the 1980s and then against the repressive Taliban regime that sheltered bin Laden, was assassinated by a suicide squad of two Tunisian operatives posing as journalists, using a bomb inside a video camera during an interview at his headquarters. Given the coincidence, one must assume the intent of the Florida news journalists was comparable to that of Tunisian journalists that assassinated Massoud. Scenario 3 was scheduled as a back-up plan. President Bush is reported to be a regular jogger. What is not widely known (but reported twice in the press), and is certainly commonly known amongst his staff, is that the President loves to jog on the beach, with about a four mile jog. A couple of miles up the beach from the Colony Resort, (and 4.28 miles by road) is the Holiday Inn, which was checked into by none other than Mohamed Atta – the accused organizer of the September 11 attack. "Just three nights before President George W Bush arrived at the swank Colony Resort on Longboat Key on the evening of Sept 10, 2001, Mohamed Atta was staying at a slightly-less tony hotel just two miles down the beach, the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites—Longboat Key, according to eyewitnesses who contacted the FBI in the immediate aftermath of the attack." [Bush and Atta Visit Same Resort in the Hours Leading to 9-11, Daniel Hopsicker, Venice, FL, 7/29/2002] While publicly written off to coincidence by the FBI, under scrutiny this event seems more than coincidental. The location of the hotel on the same beach would have been perfect for sniper or suicide assassination while the President was reaching the half-way mark of his normal jog. The timing of Atta’s check-in is not a coincidence either. The scheduling for the tour of schools that the President was taking was deliberately left open. “Potential’ schools on the tour were not identified until August 28, and not selected until possibly September 6th. Because the date of each school’s visit was not disclosed, Atta would need to be in place at one of the schools starting the 7th. "On August 28, 2001 we got the news that Emma Booker had finished the preliminary offerings for the Presidential visit. We knew that we were on the list for a visit, and the final selection would be in a week. We were informed that we would not know the exact date because of security reasons. We were advised to "keep the news close to home."[Kathy Williams, EEB Classroom Teacher, www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/emma/9.11.01/essay.williams.htl] Bush’s visit to Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, on September 11, 2001 had been in the planning stages since August but was only publicly announced on the morning of September 7, the same day that Attachecked into the hotel. For Atta to THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 263 know the cities on the tour, much less the hotel being stayed at, and the start date, would definitely require insider knowledge. Ignoring probabilities, there are over 150 hotels in Sarasota, with possibly five that have a location on the beach where President Bush would probably take his morning jog. Atta would have had to have known, in advance, where the President was staying. He also would have needed advance knowledge of the President’s visit to arrange travel to arrive in Sarasota on the 7th and meet a co-conspirator. He would also have needed to know the President’s itinerary for the day, to have ‘coincidentally’ sent a faux news team at 6:00 AM, precisely the time the president was waking. There is too much insight into the closely guarded plans and schedule of the President to claim all this is coincidence. · Coincidence that having previously resided in Sarasota, Atta did not stay with friends. · Coincidence Atta was on the same beach as the President. · Coincidence Atta was on the President’s probable jogging course on the beach. · Coincidence that the Presidential morning routine coincided with the news team visit. · Coincidence that the timing of Atta’s arrival in Sarasota was optimal to cover the President’s just announced tour schedule. The Secret Service was aware of an active plot to assassinate the president, and were taking extra precautions. • It is public record that the Secret Service set up surface-to air missile defense on the roof of the hotel, which is not by any means a normal practice for a presidential visit. • They dissuaded President Bush from jogging on the beach, as was his intent – instead taking him to a more secure golf club. • Once the attack on the World Trade Center had occurred and the scope of the attack was apparent, the President was swept away by the Secret Service. They were in such fear, they boarded Airforce One and took off with out air protection. "… incredibly, Air Force One took off without any military fighter protection. This defies all explanation. Recall that at 9:03 a.m., one of Bush's security people said, "We're out of here. Can you get everyone ready?" [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02] Certainly, long before Bush left the elementary school at 9:35 a.m., arrangements would have been made to get fighters to Sarasota." Maybe there is an argument that suggests that air coverage for Air Force One was not deemed necessary because acording to some, the President knew of the plans of attack in advance, and knew he was not in danger. This, however, would imply the entire Secret Service contingent was equally aware of the plans to attack the WTC, which is a difficult assumption to grant. Something transpired between the time they left the school and reached the Airport– something that heightened their need to protect the President, and created a sense of urgency that did not exist at the school. 11.3 Scenario in the Air THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 264 During this flight, the President received a message that indicated that he would be a target. This information is provided by the Whitehouse - that there may have been a plan to assassinate the president – but no subsequent information about this threat has ever been released. "White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there was "real and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were targets." [White House, 9/12/01] On September 13, New York Times columnist William Safire wrote - and Bush's political strategist Karl Rove confirmed - that there was an "inside" threat that "may have broken the secret codes (showing a knowledge of presidential procedures)." [New York Times, 9/13/01] "In the New York Times on September 13, entitled “Inside the Bunker,” Safire described a conversation with an unnamed “high White House official,” who told him, “A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the agents with the president that ‘Air Force One is next.’” Safire continued: “According to the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible.” Safire reported that this information was confirmed by Rove, who told him Bush had wanted to return to Washington but the Secret Service “informed him that the threat contained language that was evidence that the terrorists had knowledge of his procedures and whereabouts.” All four of these scenarios point to an insider’s attempt to assassinate the President. If it is accepted that the attacks of September 11 were conducted under the watchful eye and planning of elements of the Israeli Mossad, it should be fair to assume that the Whitehouse insider has connections to the Mossad. Unfortunately, these suspects are plentiful, and have been previously identified in this report: "Perle and Wolfowitz- have a well documented (both Congressional and FBI investigations) past of being known agents for the Israeli government, and have been directly responsible for the employment by US Policy making groups (Office of Special Plans OSP) of at least four other well demonstrated agents of Israel: Douglas J. Feith (Undersecretary of Defense for Policy), Lawrence Franklin (currently under investigation by the FBI as being as Israeli spy), Michael Ledeen and Dr. Stephen Brye. Lawrence Franklin works in an office overseen by Douglas J. Feith, the Defense undersecretary for policy. Feith is an influential aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Also included in this list is Dr. Rabbi Dov Zakheim, who at the time was acting as chief-financial officer for the Department of Defense." Many – if not all - of these men were in position to have the inside information required to execute these threats. As employees of the Defense Department, all one of them had to do was watch the schedule and movements of the Secret Service surface-to-air missile launcher, and they would know the whereabouts and plans of the President. This group already had won the hearts and minds of Cheney and Rumsfeld- both hypocritical cowards who would advocate war while hiding from the need to serve. The President had not yet bought into their rhetoric, and had his own agenda. By eliminating President Bush, this group would have moved forward with their own plans more expeditiously under the Presidency of Cheney. Claiming that one of these Whitehouse advisors had less than honorable intentions may be characterized by some as being ‘without foundation and unwarranted’, but in 2004, it became a matter of public record that the FBI also believed there was an Israeli mole working at the highest levels of the US Government. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 265 "The FBI believes Israel has a spy at the very highest level of the Pentagon who may have sought to influence U.S. policy on Iran and Iraq CBS News reported on Friday. …"The FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to ... roll up someone agents believe has been spying, not for an enemy, but for Israel, from within the office of the secretary of defense (Donald Rumsfeld)," the network reported." [FBI Suspects Israel Has Mole in Pentagon, Reuters, 8/27/2004] 11.4 Lessons from History The attempted assassination attempts on George Bush Jr. represent what may be the most difficult aspect of this plan to understand. There might have been plausibility to the argument that the assassination attempts were arranged by the Mossad as some sort of revenge for the betrayals of Israel by the father, or because George Bush Jr, was not totally aligned with the PNAC. A lesson from recent American history however, suggests there was another rationale. For this lesson, the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan is referenced. There is a fascinating clue buried in the volumes of 9/11 data that has a significance not mentioned by any report to date. On September 10, 2001 – the day before attack, consistent with the timing of the attempts to assassinate the President – the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was activated and called to New York. On September 11, with the top management of FEMA already gathered at the Big Sky Resort in Montana, all ten regions of FEMA were activated by an already standing meeting of the regional directors above the underground security facility built for national emergencies. [see Michael C Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, p416-417.] Big Sky Resort hosts the famous underground bunkers built by Oliver North under the direction of Vice President George Bush Sr., for the emergency “shadow government.” In the last 20 years, FEMA has been activated at a national level for other than disaster related matters four times: 1. In 1981 when President Reagan signed Presidential Director Number 54 that allowed FEMA to engage in a secret national "readiness exercise" –scheduled for the day after the attempted assassination of Reagan. This exercise was cancelled by Vice President George Bush after he became acting President. 2. In 1990 when Desert Storm was enacted; 3. In 1987 after the Rodney King verdict; and 4. In September 2001, the day before the attack on the World Trade Center and attempted assassination of George Bush. The general populace considers FEMA a benign government institution created by Congress to help state and local governments in case of an emergency. The reality, and the law behind the organization, is that FEMA is what is called into play when martial law is being considered. “As Russell R. Dynes, director of the Disaster Research Center of the University of Delaware, wrote in The World and I, "...The eye of the political storm hovered over the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA became a convenient target for criticism." Because FEMA was accused of dropping the ball in Florida, the media and Congress commenced to study this agency. What came out of the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 266 critical look was that FEMA was spending 12 times more for "black operations" than for disaster relief. It spent $1.3 billion building secret bunkers throughout the United States in anticipation of government disruption by foreign or domestic upheaval. Yet fewer than 20 members of Congress , only members with top security clearance, know of the $1.3 billion expenditure by FEMA for nonnatural disaster situations. These few Congressional leaders state that FEMA has a "black curtain" around its operations. FEMA has worked on National Security programs since 1979, and its predecessor, the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency, has secretly spent millions of dollars before being merged into FEMA by President Carter in 1979. These Presidential powers have increased with successive Crime Bills, particularly the 1991 and 1993 Crime Bills, which increase the power to suspend the rights guaranteed under the Constitution and to seize property of those suspected of being drug dealers, to individuals who participate in a public protest or demonstration. Under emergency plans already in existence, the power exists to suspend the Constitution and turn over the reigns of government to FEMA and appointing military commanders to run state and local governments. FEMA then would have the right to order the detention of anyone whom there is reasonable ground to believe...will engage in, or probably conspire with others to engage in acts of espionage or sabotage. The plan also authorized the establishment of concentration camps for detaining the accused, but no trial. … On July 5, 1987, the Miami Herald published reports on FEMA's new goals. The goal was to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent, or national opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. Lt. Col. North was the architect. National Security Directive Number 52 issued in August 1982, pertains to the "Use of National Guard Troops to Quell Disturbances." The crux of the problem is that FEMA has the power to turn the United States into a police state in time of a real crisis or a manufactured crisis. Lt. Col. North virtually established the apparatus for dictatorship. Only the criticism of the Attorney General prevented the plans from being adopted. But intelligence reports indicate that FEMA has a folder with 22 Executive Orders for the President to sign in case of an emergency. It is believed those Executive Orders contain the framework of North's concepts, delayed by criticism but never truly abandoned …under the FEMA plan, there is no contingency by which Constitutional power is restored. [FEMA - The Secret Government, By Harry V. Martin with research assistance from David Caul, Copyright: FreeAmerica and Harry V. Martin, 1995] “Reagan’s secret program set aside these constritutional and statutory requirements under some circumstances; it established its own process for creating a new American president, ignoring the hierarchy of presidential succession established by law….’It was decided that it would be easier to operate without them (Congress).’ If Congress did reconvene, then it might elect a new Speaker of the House, who would then conceivably have a rival claim to the presidency, one with greater legitimacy tha a secretary of agriculture or commerce set up as “president” under Reagan’s secret program.” [Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann, Penguin, 2004, pp 141-142.] “Executive Order 11051 gives FEMA the authority to execute all Exceutive Orders granting…powers in event of a crisis. Executive Order 11310 requires the Justice department to enforce any and all powers granted to FEMA in a crisis. Executive Order 11921 declares that when a state of emergency is declared by the president, Congress cannot review the action for six months.” [William R. Pitts, “Only Cowards Cancel Elections,” Truthout Perspective, July 14, 2004.] What seriously needs to be entertained is that FEMA was engaged with the idea that a Constitutional change of government would be required by the events of that day – March 30, 1984 (when Reagan was shot) and September 11, 2001(with assassination atempts on Bush.) If there is any doubt that this was part of the strategy, one only needs to refer to the actions of President Bush’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who on September 7, 2001, with an Executive Order, paved the way to declare martial law in Florida. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 267 “I hereby declare that a state of emergency exists in the state of Florida...The Authority to suspend the effect of any statute or rule governing the conduct of state business, and further authority to suspend the effect of any order or rule of any government entity...The authority to seize and utilize any and all real or personal property as needed to meet this emergency...The authority to order the evacuation of any or all persons from any location in the State...The authority to regulate the return of the evacuees to their home comunities...I hereby order the Adjutant General to activate the Florida National Guard for the duration of this emergency.” ~Florida Governor Jeb Bush, September 11, 2001 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed Executive Order 01-261 September 7, 2001, four days before the WTC tragedy of Sept. 11, which paves the way for a declaration of martial law in his state. The governor, in his EO, delegated to, “...the Adjutant General of the state of Florida all necessary authority....to order members of the Florida National Guard into Active Service.” Immediately after the second WTC tower fell, Governor Jeb Bush signed EO 01-262 to make Florida the first state to declare a state of emergency although his state did not experience any terrorist events that day. Governor Bush is reportedly the only governor in the U.S. outside of NY and D.C. to make a declaration of martial law in the wake of the WTC tragedy. Interestingly, Governor Bush's declaration came before authorities in New York or Washington, D.C. declared states of emergency. What is being suggested in this action is a level of treasonous, criminal intent not seen since John F Kennedy assassination or the attempt on the life of Ronald Reagan. There is no statute of limitations on murder – and some day the individuals responsible for the attack on the WTC may be prosecuted. For many reasons however, the plot by Vice President George Bush to assassinate Ronald Reagan will never be prosecuted, or even mentioned in a Congressional hearing or Grand Jury. It needs to be addressed here, if for no other reason that to convince the reader that the Iran-Contra team, re-assembled for the attack on the World Trade Center, has fulfilled the dictate of the Neoconservative ‘court philosopher’ – Michael Ledeen: “In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to 'enter into evil.' This is the chilling insight that has made Machiavelli so feared, admired and challenging... we are rotten.... It’s true that we can achieve greatness if, and only if, we are properly led” .[Michael Ledeen, from his book Universal Fascism] The historical record clearly suggests that the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by Robert Hinckley was part of a more intricate plot to control the government of the United States, leaving George Bush Sr. in charge. Interestingly, that transition from Reagan to Bush would begin the fulfillment of Barbara Bush’s desire recorded in the 1940’s, to be First lady. (see Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Penguin, 2004, p.76) To understand the events leading up to George Bush Sr.’s first attempt to control the Presidency, one needs to put Reagan’s role in perspective. He was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s, leaving much of the actual decision-making to his staff. “Ronald Reagan was 70 years old when he took office, the oldest man ever to be inaugurated as president. His mind wandered; long fits of slumber crept over his cognitive faculties. On some days he may have kept bankers' hours with his papers and briefing books and meetings in the Oval Office, but he needed a long nap most afternoons and became distraught if he could not have one. His custom was to delegate all administrative decisions to the cabinet members, to the executive departments and THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 268 agencies. Policy questions were delegated to the White House staff, who prepared the options and then guided Reagan's decisions among the pre-defined options. This was the staff that composed not just Reagan’s speeches, but the script of his entire life: for normally every word that Reagan spoke in meetings and conferences, every line down to and including "Good morning, Senator," every word was typed on three by five file cards from which the Reagan would read.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] In the months prior to the assassination attempt, Bush orchestrated a number of organizational changes that put him squarely in control of intelligence and foreign policy. “White House press secretary James Brady could say in early March, 1981: "Bush is functioning much like a co-president. George is involved in all the national security stuff because of his special background as CIA director. All the budget working groups he was there, the economic working groups, the Cabinet meetings. He is included in almost all the meetings." [Hinckley and Bush Families were close Friends, Connie Cook Smith, http://www.conniescomments.blogspot.com] During the several months prior to the assassination attempt, Vice President Bush manipulated the President into allowing him to take over from Al Haig, the key meetings used to make administrative decisions. Eight days before the attempt, Bush finalized his plan to control crisis management. “The struggle between Haig and Bush culminated towards the end of Reagan's first hundred days in office. Haig was chafing because the White House staff, meaning Baker, was denying him acess to the president…. Then, on Sunday, March 22, Haig's attention was called to an elaborate leak to reporter Martin Schram that had appeared that day in the Washington Post under the headline "White House Revamps Top Policy Roles; Bush to Head Crisis Management." Haig's attention was drawn to the following paragraphs: Partly in an effort to bring harmony to the Reagan high command, it has been decided that Vice President George Bush will be placed in charge of a new structure for national security crisis management, according to senior presidential assistants. This assignment will amount to an unprecedented role for a vice president in modern times. In the Carter administration, the crisis management structure was chaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] The key player in placing George Bush Sr. in control of the “Special Situations Group” ultimately turned out to be James Baker III (Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty, Penguin Books, 2004, pp 207-208). (This centralized control over crisis management would be recreated in May and June of 2001 by George Bush Jr, who would appoint Vice President Dick Cheney as centrally in control of all NORAD defense, FEMA, and terrorist counterintelligence activities. [see Michael C Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, pp 337 and 574.] It might also be worth noting that Cheney received the Vice Presidential nomination because of George Bush Sr., and was made CEO of Halliburton due to Bush’s family connections with the Halliburton Board, connections going back to when Bush’s father Prescott was a Director of Dresser. [see Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty, Penguin Books, 2004, pp. 93 and 420] In every respect, Dick Cheney is a creation of George Bush Sr.) A key variable in this power play was Executive Order Number 12656 - which appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers in case of national emergency. Under the old regime, while a Vice President follows President in the line of succession, the Secretary of State (Al Haig) who is next in succession controls the National Security Council. Bush changed that formula, giving himself total control of the government- “in the event of a crisis.” Under Bush’s THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 269 guidance, FEMA was structured to create three possible succession teams. Of the three teams set-up to possibly rule the US in case of a ‘transition crises,’ Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were responsible for two of them! George Bush, of course, would be in charge of the third. [see James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, Penguin, 2004, p142.] While running the government in the immediate aftermath of the assasination attempt, Bush had FEMA activated for a testing of new procedures. This “test” was to be administered by none other than Lt. Colonel Oliver North. “…Reagan signed Presidential Director Number 54 that allowed FEMA to engage in a secret national "readiness exercise" under the code name of REX 84. The exercise was to test FEMA's readiness to assume military authority in the event of a "State of Domestic National Emergency" concurrent with the launching of a direct United States military operation in Central America. The plan called for the deputation of U.S. military and National Guard units so that they could legally be used for domestic law enforcement. These units would be assigned to conduct sweeps and take into custody an estimated 400,000 undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States. The immigrants would be interned at 10 detention centers to be set up at military bases throughout the country REX 84 was so highly guarded that special metal security doors were placed on the fifth floor of the FEMA building in Washington, D.C. Even long-standing employees of the Civil Defense of the Federal Executive Department possessing the highest possible security clearances were not being allowed through the newly installed metal security doors. Only personnel wearing a special red Christian cross or crucifix lapel pin were allowed into the premises. Lt. Col. North was responsible for drawing up the emergency plan, which U.S. Attorney General William French Smith opposed vehemently. The plan called for the suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to FEMA, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and the declaration of Martial Law. The Presidential Executive Orders to support such a plan were already in place. . [FEMA - The Secret Government, Harry V. Martin with research assistance from David Caul, Copyright: FreeAmerica and Harry V. Martin, 1995] 11.5 Attempted Assassination of Reagan The exercise for”testing” the emergency preparedness plan was ironically scheduled for April 1. Two days before it was to be set in motion, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to kill President Reagan. It would be a few more hours for Bush to be able to say he was in control, because Al Haig - immediately following the assassination attempt, went to calm the public by saying on National TV: “I am in control... until the Vice President returns.” The press however, was taken aback –in that this seemed un-Constitutional. “What they don't understand is all that Constitution stuff is pushed aside once they declare National Emergencies. Then they go into FEMA and they have whole other orders of succession that have to do more with the military and the Pentagon than with any of the civilian sector.” [John Judge November 2000 Interview] Most citizens assume that as per a law passed under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the House Speaker and President Pro Tem of the Senate, in that order, are placed in the statutory line of succession ahead of the Cabinet officers. This modifies the Presidential Succession Act of 1885, which provided that after the Vice President, the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 270 line of succession would begin with the Secretary of State and would continue through the Cabinet department. While the 25th Amendment, passed in 1967 addresses the replacement of the President and Vice-President, it does not clarify subsequent order. Opinion about the correct order is not unanimous. “Next are the hardy perennial (questions). First among these is whether the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate are officers in the sense intended by article II of the Constitution. Are they therefore constitutionally eligible to succeed to the presidency? There has been a simmering controversy over this question for many years. A second question is more political or perhaps philosophical: should the officers in line to succeed the President and Vice President be elected Members of the House and Senate, as currently provided, or should we return to the Succession Act of 1886 and put appointed Cabinet officers at the top of the list?” [ 2004 PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION ACT, HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS,SECOND SESSION,OCTOBER 6, 2004; Testimony of Thomas H. Neale] Evidently, after 9/11, this interpretation of the law was so uncertain that Bush implemented the famous “shadow government” without advising those in the presidential line of succession “Key congressional leaders said yesterday the White House did not tell them that President Bush has moved a cadre of senior civilian managers to secret underground sites outside Washington to ensure that the federal government could survive a devastating terrorist attack on the nation's capital. There are two other branches of government that are central to the functioning of our democracy. I would hope the speaker and the minority leader would at least pose the question, 'What about us?' Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said he had not been informed about the role, location or even the existence of the shadow government that the administration began to deploy the morning of the Sept. 11 hijackings. An aide to House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said he similarly was unaware of the administration's move. Among Congress's GOP leadership, aides to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), second in line to succeed the president if he became incapacitated, and to Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (Miss.) said they were not sure whether they knew. Aides to Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) said he had not been told. As Senate president pro tempore, he is in line to become president after the House speaker.” [Congress Not Advised Of Shadow Government , Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, 3/2/2002] Only by understanding the tension between Bush and Haig in 1981, and the recent efforts by Bush to control decisions in the Whitehouse, does Haig’s historic statement take on its real context. Haig would press - in private – for an investigation into any possible conspiracy around the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. His request was overridden by George Bush, who now controlled the emergency security meeting. Being in the key position to control key meetings, Bush’s first actions were to cancel three activities: 1) any independent investigation into the attempted assassination, 2) a NORAD defense exercise which had mobilized the military, and 3) a FEMA exercise, which had the potential to take over the government. “Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's memoir of that afternoon reminds us of two highly relevant facts. The first is that a "NORAD [North American Air Defense Command] exercise with a simulated THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 271 incoming missile attack had been planned for the next day." Weinberger agreed with General David Jones, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that this exercise should be cancelled. [fn 12] ] [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter - XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] (Note: “Richard Bartholomew, a researcher in Texas, told me that he himself talked to Strategic Air Command bomber pilots who, like the pilots I talked to that were in the air the hour of the Kennedy assassination, told him that on March 31 they had no code books aboard.” [John Judge November 2000 Interview]) “Weinberger also recalls that the group in the Situation Room was informed by James Baker that "there had been a FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Administration] exercise scheduled for the next day on presidential succession, with the general title 'Nine Lives.' By an immediate consensus, it was agreed that exercise should also be cancelled." [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] “As Weinberger recounts the same moments: "[Attorney General Bill French Smith] then reported that all FBI reports concurred with the information I had received; that the shooting was a completely isolated incident and that the assassin, John Hinckley, with a previous record in Nashville, seemed to be a 'Bremmer' type, a reference to the attempted assassin of George Wallace." [fn 16] Those who were not watching carefully here may have missed the fact that just a few minutes after George Bush had walked into the room, he had presided over the sweeping under the rug of the decisive question regarding Hinckley and his actions: was Hinckley a part of a conspiracy, domestic or international? Not more than five hours after the attempt to kill Reagan, on the basis of the most fragmentary early reports, before Hinckley had been properly questioned, and before a full investigation had been carried out, a group of cabinet officers chaired by George Bush had ruled out a priori any conspiracy.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] In the following months, while Reagan was recovering, Bush would be granted even more power over foreign policy and intelligence operations by a ‘secret memorandum’ from the President that was signed “for the President” by NSA Advsor William C Clarke. “Bush's position as chief of all covert action and de facto head of U.S. intelligence--in a sense, the acting President--was formalized in a secret memorandum. The memo explained that `` National Security Decision Directive 3, Crisis Management, establishes the Special Situation Group (SSG), chaired by the Vice President. The SSG is charged ... with formulating plans in anticipation of crises. '' It is most astonishing that, in all of the reports, articles and books about the Iran-Contra covert actions, the existence of Bush's SSG has received no significant attention. Yet its importance in the management of those covert actions is obvious and unmistakable, as soon as an investigative light is thrown upon it. The memo in question also announced the birth of another organization, the Standing Crisis Pre-Planning Group (CPPG), which was to work as an intelligence-gathering agency for Bush and his SSG. This new subordinate group, consisting of representatives of Vice President Bush, National Security Council (NSC) staff members, the CIA, the military and the State Department, was to `` meet periodically in the White House Situation Room.... '' They were to identify areas of potential crisis and `` [p]resent ... plans and policy options to the SSG '' under Chairman Bush. And they were to provide to Bush and his assistants, `` as crises develop, alternative plans, '' `` action/options '' and `` coordinated implementation plans '' to resolve the `` crises. '' Finally, the subordinate group was to give to Chairman Bush and his assistants `` recommended security, cover, and media plans that will enhance the likelihood of successful execution. '' It was announced that the CPPG would meet for the first time on May 20, 1982, and that agencies were to `` provide the name of their CPPG representative to Oliver North, NSC staff.... '' The memo was signed `` for the President '' by Reagan's national security adviser, William P. Clark. It was declassified during the congressional Iran-Contra hearings.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin , Chapter -XVIIIIran- Contra] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 272 As a result of the closed-door meeting in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Reagan, there was no independent investigation, no grand jury, no congressional hearings. The public received whatever information the FBI fed them. (The value of this historical lesson was not lost on Bush, whose son attempted to stop every investigation into the attack on the World Trade Center, saying there was no need for an investigation, and exerted significant energy in attempting to prevent an investigation.) The world was told that Hinckley acted alone, in an attempt to win the actress Jodie Foster’s attention, as did the main character in the movie Taxi Driver. Hinckley was tried, and found innocent on a defense of insanity. It was the insanity defense that raised the vague and disturbing references in the press that he may have been some type of “Manchurian Candidate” assassin – unknowingly programmed to assassinate the President. The actual facts of the case suggest a set of circumstance far different than published for media consumption. Al Haig had very reasonable grounds to think that there may have been a conspiracy to assassinate Reagan. Recent events and events of that day suggested that the lone-gunman theory could not explain everything. First, (while unreported until much later), there was reason to believe that there had been a previous attempt to assassinate Reagan several weeks prior to March 30. “As reporters dug deeper into the alleged shooting, one asked a Secret Service contact if there had been any recent shooting incidents monitored by his agency. "The answer came back. On March 8, as a motorcade drove west on Canal Road, officers had heard a 'popping sound' from a 'steep, rocky cliff' on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. But it had been President Reagan's motorcade, not Bush's. And the noises never proved to be gunfire." [fn 9] Had there been an attempt to assassinate Reagan, or to intimidate him? In any case Senator Howard Baker, the GOP majority leader at that time, was overheard making jokes about the allegedly discredited Rumor at a weekend party, and this was duly noted in the Washinton Post of March 25.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] The prior attempt aside, there were other unreported occurrences on March 30th that could lead Haig to believe that something was suspiciously awry. “When the President was shot… he was pushed into the car by a man named Jerry Parr(sp?) that was his Secret Service guard. Jerry Parr fell on top of him and, I just saw in the ‘Reader's Digest’ where Jerry Parr was telling his "valiant story." And the limousine tore off, didn't it? Now it was ‘five minutes later’ that the ambulance arrived and they put the Secret Service man, the Washington, D.C. policeman, and Brady in the ambulance and ‘it’ roared off. Using normal time-rate/distance, who should have arrived at George Washington University Hospital first? The President should have. Well, who did? You know it's a trick question. The ambulance arrived 15 minutes before the President. When asked, "What happened?" the Secret Service simply responded, "We got lost." The Secret Service does not get lost in Washington, D.C. They don't get lost in most places of the world. And so, now the investigation starts to get a little interesting. When they take Ronald Reagan in, they can see that he... matter of fact, his heart almost stopped. And he is convulsing; there's blood on his lips. They know he's hurt... seriously. But they can find no wounds. They X-ray him ‘3 times’ and can find nothing. Finally, a nurse notices a tiny entrance wound right at the seventh rib, underneath the armpit. And a doctor takes a probe, and ... very carefully, because they couldn't see it on X-ray, the doctor is able to extract what he said was a planchet, thinner than a dime, that was one-quarter inch from Ronald Reagan's aorta.” [Excerpts from a talk given by Lt. Col. "Bo" Gritz in Mesa, Arizona on 4/4/1992] “NBC correspondent Judy Woodruff said that at least one shot was fired from the hotel, above Reagan's limousine. She later elaborated, saying a Secret Service agent had fired that shot from the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 273 hotel overhang. Could Reagan's wound have been inflicted by friendly fire? Or, more ominously, did Woodruff glimpse a bona fide "second gunman" - a la JFK in Dealey Plaza? Either way, Woodruff's account might explain how a slug managed to strike Reaganwhen his limo's bulletproof door stood between him and Hinckley. Sizing up the Hinckley-Bush nexus, conspiracy researcher John Judge has theoretically dubbed this "the shot from the Bushy knoll." According to conspiratologist Barbara Honegger, White House correspondent Sarah McClendon made the somewhat more subjective comment that Reagan's Secret Service retinue wasn't in its "usual tight formation" around Reagan in front of the Hilton. Were the Gipper's bodyguards out to throw the game?” [Hinckley: Hit Man for the Government?] “…. the Secret Service helped to set-up Reagan too. Reagan was told not to wear his vest that day -- his protective vest…. They did not call the procedure with the limousine. He should have come out the door and gone directly into the limousine. That's how he arrived. He came, the Secret Service formed two rows on either side of the back door, they opened the back door and he goes in. When you hire a limousine, they don't go to the house down the street, they come to your door. When you're the president, they'll move it six inches to make sure that it's in the right place. It was in the right place when he arrived. He got out and went in through the phalanx of the two rows of agents. He's safe into the VIP entrance. He comes out the same exit and where's the car?' It is nowhere near the door. It's 40-50 feet down the pavement. So, he's got to walk out into the open. What's supposed to happen? The Secret Service is supposed to surround him like a diamond and protect him. One guy goes forward, McCarthy, to open the door for him. The rest don't surround him. They all file out like a line of ducks off to the right and they leave Reagan walking in the open with Brady and these other guys. Then, the shooting happens. The damage that was done there once the shooting started was quite extensive. Brady was hit which literally took a large chunk of his brain and knocked him on to the ground. A black cop was nicked in the neck, a big beefy cop, and he spun and hit the ground hard by the shot. McCarthy, 160 pounds, was lifted by the shot, that hit him in the groin at the back door of the car, and thrown through the air to the front bumper of the car. He himself says that was no 22. All of the early press reports said that Hinkley was firing a 38 and that is much more consistent with these kinds of reactions. A 22 will hurt you, enter you and do damage inside you, but it's not going to knock you over. A 38 is a much larger caliber of bullet. Hinkley purchased a 38 at a pawn shop on Elm Street in Dallas -- the same street where Kennedy was assassinated…. Then the official story changes after three or four hours and Hinkleysupposedly had a 22. I went through the ABC footage and you can actually see the replacement of the 22 and the pick-up of the 38 by a Secret Service agent.” [John Judge November 2000 Interview] “That motorcycle rentinue did not leave with Reagan's limousine when he did leave. He has no escort when he goes. That is not explainable either, especially if there has just been an assassination attempt - - why he would be put out there without escort. But he does, he goes without anybody.” “This cop comes over, off of his motorcycle, spreads his arms and kind of moves back and forth in front of -- at the edge of the crowd. He's not serving any purpose but he's there and after a moment the camera pans back and you can see at his feet, this 22, as if he's dropped it. One of his hands goes in towards the center of his coat and then comes out and right after that, as the camera is panning all around, it pans right between his feet, and you can see this 22 that becomes the official weapon. There is also a weapon near Brady's head that one of the Secret Service guys drops. That's how they explain the 38, saying that it was a confusion because it was really the Secret Service guy's gun. I believe, Hinkley was firing a 38. Hinkley damaged everybody but Reagan, also put holes in the car and the building across the street. But he only had six rounds and each one of those is explained and then a seventh round has to explain the wound in Reagan. Reagan's wound is so minimal that it doesn't match either a 22 or a 38. It is described as a little thin razor line when they finally get his clothes off. They think he's having a heart attack -- actually his lung had collapsed because of the thing penetrating him. Then finally a nurse sees a little line of blood underneath his left arm pit. She determines that something has gone in but it's a little razor cut. They know what a bullet hole looks there in the emergency room at G.W.U.. They get them all the time. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 274 They do poke around until they finally find this thing in the x-ray. They try three times to get it out and finally pull it out and it is a little disc, a flattened disc, that was described as `thin as a dime' and `razoredged.' This fits the profile of these aerodynamic discs that are used by the intelligence agencies in weapons that the Church Committee showed during the time that they did their testimony. They are fired with a CO2 (carbon dioxide) cartridge, so they are relatively silent. They just make a little puff. They have an accuracy up to a great length. They can be fired out of a regular gun or even out of these little tubes with the CO2 cartridge at the back. They also can be loaded with toxins. One of the uses they had for them was making them out of plastic and filling them with shellfish toxin which goes in and makes a razor split in the skin which wouldn't be noticed during an autopsy. The xray won't pull up the plastic and the shellfish toxin, once it gets into any part of the bloodstream, will cause a heart attack within 30 seconds. Very lethal -- several milligrams of the shellfish toxin is enough of a dose. Whether this thing had a poison load in it or not, who knows? But it didn't immediately kill him so if it did have such a load, it didn't work. It didn't shoot off. It bounced off of his rib. It would have cut into his aorta but bounced on his rib and missed the aorta by a quarter of an inch and went into the lung instead. But they did finally get it out. The lung was collapsed from it but they got him stabilized.” [John Judge November 2000 Interview] In addition to these irregular, undisclosed and downplayed events, the press immediately stumbled across what was referred to by a Bush spokesperson as a “bizarre coincidence” – a relationship between the Hinckley and the Bush families, which had known each other for years. The first allegation was that Hinckley’s father was a major campaign contributor to George Bush. For some reason, the relationship was “denied.” “Later in the day Bush spokesman Peter Teeley surfaced to deny any campaign donations from the Hinckley clan to the Bushcampaign. When asked why Sharon Bush and Neil Bush had made reference to large political contributions from the Hinckleys to the Bush campaign, Teeley responded, "I don't have the vaguest idea." "We've gone through our files," said Teeley, "and we have absolutely no information that he [John W. Hinckley Sr.] or anybody in the family were contributors, supporters, anything." [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] The actual facts about the contributions and the relations between the families would turn out to be quite different, with the relationship between Bush and Hinckley to be quite substantial. “When Brady was shot, no question. Here we've got John Hinckley, Jr., Oh, by the way, is John Hinckley, Jr., just some kind of a "weirdo?" Isn't it strange that John Hinckley, Sr., is the owner of Vanderbilt Oil? And, of course, George Bush is the owner of Zapata Oil. Was it a coincidence, then, that John Hinckley, Sr., and George Bush are neighbors ‘for years’ in Houston, Texas, working together? Is it any coincidence that John Hinckley, Sr., when you go back through the FEC, the Federal Election Commission, his own record of giving maximum donations every year to Mr. Bush even when he started running for Congress…” [Excerpts from a talk given by Lt. Col. "Bo" Gritz in Mesa, Arizona on 4/4/1992] “When the Hinckley oil company, Vanderbilt Oil started to fail in the 1960s, Bush, Sr.'s, Zapata Oil financially bailed out Hinckley's company. Hinckley had been running an operation with six dead wells, but he began making several million dollars a year after the Bush bailout.” [Hinckley – Bush Family Friend - Nears Release, von A. Weist, 11/28/2003] The second allegation was that Hinckley’s brother and Bush’s brothers were not only friends, but had recently partied together and were scheduled to have dinner with each other that very day! (A parallel event in the 9/11 annals would be that George Bush Sr. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 275 was dining with the Bin Ladin family the day of the attack. This coincidence will take on even more meaning a little further into the report.) “The Rocky Mountain News article signed by Charles Roos carried Neil Bush's confirmation that if the assassination had not happened, Scott Hinckley would have been present at a dinner party at Neil Bush's home that very same night. According to Neil, Scott Hinckley had come to the home of Neil and Sharon Bush on January 23, 1981 to be present along with about 30 other guests at a surprise birthday party for Neil, who had turned 26 one day earlier. Scott Hinckley had come "through a close friend who brought him," according to this version, and this same close female friend was scheduled to come to dinner along with Scott Hinckley on that last night of March, 1981.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] A third ‘coincidence’ was the possibility that Neil Bush actually had known John Hinckley, the would-be assassin. “In 1978, Neil Bush served as campaign manager for his brother, George W. Bush, the Vice President's eldest son, who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Neil lived in Lubbock, Texas, throughout much of 1978, where John Hinckley lived from 1974 through 1980.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] A fourth coincidence, was that on the very day John Hinckley attempted to kill Reagan, three Department of Energy auditors were pressuring Hinckley’s brother Scott, with a $2 million penalty. This penalty would later disappear. “Neil Bush, a landman for Amoco Oil, told Denver reporters he had met Scott Hinckley at a surprise party at the Bush home January 23, 1981 [Nine weeks before Hinckley's brother John Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan-which would have elevated Bush Sr. to the presidency], and approximately three weeks after the U.S. Department of Energy had begun what was termed a "routine audit" of the books of the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation, the Hinckley oil company. In an incredible coincidence, on the morning of March 30 [the day of the Reagan assassination attempt by John Hinckley, Jr.], three representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy told Scott Hinckley, John Hinckley Jr.'s older brother and Vanderbilt's vice president of operations, that auditors had uncovered evidence of pricing violations on crude oil sold by the company from 1977 through 1980. The auditors announced that the federal government was considering a penalty of two million dollars. [This, on the same day that his brother John--the youngest son of Vice President Bush's close friend--attempted the assassination!] Scott Hinckley reportedly requested "several hours to come up with an explanation" of the serious overcharges. The meeting ended a little more than an hour before John Hinckly Jr. shot President Reagan.” With the subsequent revelation of these facts about the relationship between the Bush and Hinkley families, the question needs to be asked: Could the Hinckley family have been “behind” the Bush family quest for political power? Might they have sent their own son to do this deed as repayment of an obligation, and did Scott need to be pressured into silence? Also, what about these vague references as to whether John Hinckley could be some kind of Manchurian Candidate assassin, unknowingly programmed? To answer these questions, a little more about the Hinckley family needs to be understood. John’s father – Jack – in addition to being a successful oil-man, was one of two key individuals in a group known as US Ministries for World Vision, and very possibly a CIA agent in Guatemala in the period when Armitage and Secord were establishing their THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 276 credentials as weapons dealers. (Armitage worked for Erich von Marbod at that time, who according to James Mann, in the Rise of the Vulcans, “was the man to see” “if you wanted to steer arms to a foreign government.”) "Jack" Hinckley, as the gunman's father was frequently called, during the 1970's became a close associate of Robert Ainsworth, the director of US Ministries for World Vision, Inc. Jack Hinckley's profile was that of a born again Christian. Jack Hinckley and Ainsworth traveled together to the Sahel region of Africa, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Even before joining World Vision, Jack Hinckley had carried on "relief work" in Guatemala. "Jack and I became very close," Ainsworth said. "Jack was a successful businessman. On occasion he would ask us to pray for his son. It's not that Jack felt that John would do something bad, just that John had no direction, John had not found himself." World Vision is one of the notorious non-governmental organizations that function as a de facto arm of US intelligence under current arrangements. Robert Ainsworth's pedigree is impressive: he was a foreign area analyst for the US State Department; an advisor in Vietnam during the war there; and chaired an international committee involved in the negotiation of the Chemical and Bacteriological Warfare Treaty of 1973. The largest contributor to World Vision is the US State Department Agency for International Development (AID)…. Pax Christi, the Catholic human rights organization, has accused World Vision of functioning as a "Trojan horse for US foreign policy." The entire milieu is thus redolent of the US intelligence agencies. [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] World Vision was a religious ministry with “missions” in South America. It had established relations with Bob Jones, founder of the People’s Temple, which established its infamy in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978. “With his new wealth, Jones was able to travel to California and establish the first People's Temple in Ukiah, California, in 1965. Guarded by dogs, electric fences and guard towers, he set up Happy Havens Rest Home.[98] Despite a lack of trained personnel, or proper licensing, Jones drew in many people at the camp. He had elderly, prisoners, people from psychiatric institutions, and 150 foster children, often transferred to care at Happy Havens by court orders.[99] He was contacted there by Christian missionaries from World Vision, an international evangelical order that had done espionage work for the CIA in Southeast Asia.[100] He met "influential" members of the community and was befriended by Walter Heady, the head of the local chapter of the John Birch Society.[101] He used the members of his "church" to organize local voting drives for Richard Nixon's election, and worked closely with the republican party.[102] He was even appointed chairman of the county grand jury.[103]” [The Black Hole of Guyana : The Untold Story of the Jonestown Massacre , by John Judge, 1985] The American public recalls the Jonestown Massacre as the greatest single mass-suicide event of the century. With the news of the mass deaths reported in Guyana, U.S. Green Berets landed at the Jones camp to ‘police’ the area. News started to circulate of “masssuicide.” The source of the "Kool-Aid Suicide" stories was the U.S. State Department, which presented the story immediately after the "suicides" were reported as though it was the only obvious truth. A U.S. Army spokesman pronounced with complete authority, "No autopsies are needed. The cause of death is not an issue here." As usual, the facts suggested a rather different story. In The Black Hole of Guyana: The Untold Story of the Jonestown Massacre, John Judge painstakingly documents that Jonestown was a CIA operation for converting dispossessed and lonely refugees into assassins. In an operation that was falling under Congressional investigation, the evidence had to be eliminated – and nearly all the inhabitants were murdered. A few that made it back to the US were THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 277 murdered, one-by-one as they were found. However utterly unbelievable this appears, there are many independent, published first hand accounts describing this event. “To comprehend this well-financed, sinister operation, we must abandon the myth that this was a religious commune and study instead the history that led to its formation. Jonestown was an experiment, part of a 30-year program called MK-ULTRA, the CIA and military intelligence code name for mind control.[170] A close study of Senator Ervin's 1974 report, Individual Rights and the Government's Role in Behavior Modification, shows that these agencies had certain "target populations" in mind, for both individual and mass control. Blacks, women, prisoners, the elderly, the young, and inmates of psychiatric wards were selected as "potentially violent."[171] There were plans in California at the time for a Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence, expanding on the horrific work of Dr. José Delgado, Drs. Mark and Ervin, and Dr. Jolly West, experts in implantation, psychosurgery, and tranquilizers. The guinea pigs were to be drawn from the ranks of the "target populations," and taken to an isolated military missile base in California.[172] In that same period, Jones began to move his Temple members to Jonestown. The were the exact population selected for such tests.[173]” [The Black Hole of Guyana : The Untold Story of the Jonestown Massacre , by John Judge, 1985] Jonestown, after the massacre, was taken over by Jack Hinckley’s World Vision, another CIA operation! World Vision would also establish “camps” in the US: Florida, and Fort Chafey in Arkansas. (It would also open in Azerbaijan in 1994, with the Director of the operation being the wife of the US Ambassador.) “Another World Vision employee, Mark David Chapman, worked at their Haitian refugee camp in Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas. He was later to gain infamy as the assassin of John Lennon in New York City.[282] World Vision works with refugees worldwide. At the Honduran border, they are present in camps used by American CIA to recruit mercenaries against Nicaragua. They were at Sabra and Shatilla, Camps in Lebanon where fascist Phalange massacred the Palestinians.[283] Their representatives in the Cuban refugee camps on the east coast included members of the Bay of Pigs operation, CIA-financed mercenaries from Omega 7 and Alpha 66.[284] Are they being used as a worldwide cover for the recruitment and training of these killers? They are, as mentioned earlier, working to repopulate Jonestown with Laotians who served as mercenaries for our CIA.[285]” [The Black Hole of Guyana : The Untold Story of the Jonestown Massacre , by John Judge, 1985] “World Vision also took over the camp at Jonestown just after the massacre there. Mark David Chapman, (who killed John Lennon) was a member of World Vision. John Hinkley Jr. who tried to kill Ronald Reagan, was a member of World Vision.” [World Vision Christian ministry or CIA front? Posted By: EBW,Date: Saturday, 25 June 2005] “The chairman of the board for some period was John W. Hinkley Sr. The son worked at Fort Chafey at the Thai refugee camps. There were pictures of him after the Reagan shooting running in his World VisionT-shirt around the edge of the camp.” [John Judge November 2000 Interview] This portion of John Hinckley Jrs’ life was not mentioned in any official biography, or the FBI investigation documentation about Hinckley now available on the web. All of the sudden, the argument about Hinckley being a “Manchurian candidate” do not seem so far fetched. It is worth noting that Hinckley’s own notes, written both prior to the assassination attempt and while in his cell, make reference to a conspiracy. In both cases, the notes were suppressed. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 278 “Hinckley's parents' memoir refers to some notes penciled notes by Hinckley which were found during a search of his cell and which "could sound bad." These notes "described an imaginary conspiracy-- either with the political left or the political right [...] to assassinate the President." Hinckley's lawyers from Edward Bennett Williams's law firm said that the notes were too absurd to be taken seriously and they have been suppressed. [fn 21] In July 1985, the FBI was compelled to release some details of its investigation of Hinckley under the Freedom of Information Act. No explanation was offered of how it was determined that Hinckley had acted alone, and the names of all witnesses were censored. According to a wire service account, "the file made no mention of papers seized from Hinckley's prison cell at Butner, North Carolina, which reportedly made reference to a conspiracy. Those writings were ruled inadmissible by the trial judge and never made public." [fn 22] The FBI has refused to release 22 pages of documents concerning Hinckley's "associates and organizations," 22 pages about his personal finances, and 37 pages about his personality and character. The Williams and Connolly defense team argued that Hinckley was insane, controlled by his obsession with Jodie Foster. The jury accepted this version, and in July, 1982, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] The record shows that Hinkley was involved in a CIA assassination training operation run by his father, a close friend and business associate of George Bush, former CIA Director. Hinckley claimed there was a conspiracy, and those notes were suppressed, as was any other investigation. The record shows that the day after Ronald Reagan was shot, a small group of men, led by Vice President George Bush, declared that there was no conspiracy – that the culprit had been caught, and it was clear he had acted alone. As a result, there was no investigation, no grand jury, no Congressional hearings. (The value of this historical lesson was not lost on Bush Jr., who attempted to stop every investigation into the attack on the World Trade Center, saying there was no need for an investigation.) The actual facts of the case - both cases - suggest something far different. 11.6 Final Lessons The eerie parallels between the events of September 11 and the attempted Reagan assassination suggest that in both cases, the conspirators might have been using a ‘play book.’ 1. Use shooters that do not have a lot to lose: The Hinckley’s thought their son had not found himself, and was a disappointment. Osama Bin Ladin was thought to be on his deathbed. 2. Control the shooter: The CIA seems to prefer loners and unattached people for wet work because it reduces the complications of controlling any backlash. In this case, control is enhanced by using the shooter’s family. · In both cases, a member of the Bush family was with the family of the shooter as the crime came down. This may serve to remind the shooter that his family is vulnerable. · There may be a need for a quid pro quo. If the Bin Ladin family was giving up a son, maybe they felt Bush Sr. should do the same. When the attacks on Bush Jr. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 279 failed, maybe it was decided to let Osama Bin Ladin live. Maybe Bush met with Bin Ladin to save his son’s life. The Hinkley arrangement would suggest that the elder Bush is not above believing that a family may need to make great sacrifices. But as the record shows, assassinating a President is extremely difficult. 3. Remove security: Reagan was told to not wear a vest. His security detail left him exposed. On 9/11, the air defenses were down. The bomb-sniffing dogs at the World Trade Center had been removed early enough for someone to plant explosives. Air defenses failed miserably. 4. Have a back-up plan: As a shooter, Hinkley failed. The back-up shooter on the roof failed. The delay in getting him medical attention failed. The CO2 planchet failed, but ultimately all together they achieved the desired result. On 9/11, the planes failed to bring down the towers. One plane missed its target. The fires and local explosives did not bring down the tower. The explosions in the basement ultimately completed the job. 5. Control and if possible, prevent investigation by announcing you have the guilty: In both cases it was claimed immediately that the guilty parties were obvious and there was no need for an elaborate investigation. 6. Have a transition plan: In both situations, FEMA was engaged as a justification – if necessary – for keeping Congress out of the succession picture. All of these points, however, are speculation. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 280 12 Potential “Persons of Interest” This chapter sets out to identify a list of individuals who can be considered as “person of interest” in investigating the various crimes identified in this report. Those crimes include, but should not be limited to: · Conspiracy in the murder of Nick Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley. · Conspiracy in the attack of the World Trade Center and cover-up. This set of crimes includes hiring those who organized it, flew in the plane, as well as those who brought down the building with explosives. For this, the focus will be on the German/Swiss banking world, Russian/Israeli Mafiya, the re-assembled Iran- Contra/Azerbaijan gang, the President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, various officers in the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice, FEMA and NORAD. · Conspiracy to launder money and steal national treasuries. · Treason To focus on seeking out those responsible for a cover-up is to distract the world from the real crimes: the theft of the wealth of nations for personal use, and the murder of thousands of people for personal gain. 12.1 Murder of Nick Berg This report suggests Nick Berg was murdered by individuals meeting the following five criteria: · An extremely vicious person; · A member of the Israeli intelligence; · Near the Iraq prison Abu Ghraib; · Would have been aware of Nick Berg’s release from jail; · With links to the 9/11 conspirators; One individual that meets all of these criteria is Steven Stevanowicz (aka Stephanwicz, Staphanovic or Stephanowitz), an employee of Titan Corp. and a contract interrogator at Abu Ghraib. Stevanowicz was found to be directly responsible for the brutal interrogations at that prison. Titan Corp. was acting as a subcontractor to CACI in interrogation and translating. CACI, it turns out has significant links which meet two of the five criteria: links to Israeli intelligence and links to the 9/11 conspirators. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 281 It should come as no surprise that Israeli intelligence has played a key role in the Iraqi invasion and prisoner interrogation. “Israeli interrogators are working in tandem with the US-led occupation troops in detention facilities across Iraq, a senior US officer revealed Saturday, July 4. Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, the US officer at the heart of the Abu Gharib prison scandal, said she herself met an Israeli interrogator at a secret intelligence center in Baghdad [Israel Continues Interrogation Work in Iraq, Islamonline.net & News Agencies , 7/15/2004] “Seymour Hersh said that one of the Israeli aims was to gain access to detained members of the Iraqi secret intelligence unit, who reportedly specialize in Israeli affairs. Hersh further unveiled on June 22 that Israeli intelligence and military operatives were now quietly at work in northern Iraq, providing training for Kurdish commando units and running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. The report added that Mossad operatives work undercover in northern Iraq as businessmen and in some cases do not carry Israeli passports.” [Israel Continues Interrogation Work in Iraq, Islamonline.net & News Agencies, 7/15/2004] "One of Staphanovic's co-workers, Joe Ryan - who was not named in the Taguba report - now says that he underwent an "Israeli interrogation course" before going to Iraq.” [Israeli Mossad/Shin Bet Associated with Prison Torture, Robert Fisk, 5/26/2004] One of the key linkages in this Israeli involvement is CACI. CACI is linked to the 9/11 conspirators through Richard Armitage. Richard Armitage was Board member of CACI from 1999 to 2001, and a key participant in most of the activities shown to be relevant to the 9/11 attack: Iran-Contra, Azerbaijan covert operations, arms shipments to Afghanistan, the PNAC. Through the years, he has had a relationship with David Kimche of the Mossad. “So who is Richard Armitage? None other than a former board member of CACI--the private contractor that employed four interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison--interrogators who worked with the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade there.” [Richard Armitage and CACI: What's Behind the Attacks on Australia's Latham? David Palmer] Members of the Board of CACI have also been documented as having close relations with the Israeli defense organization. “Both Titan and CACI have directors with strong ties to the Israeli military establishment. The director of Titan with the largest stake in the company is Edward H. Bersoff, who received the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Washington Chapter of the American Jewish Committee in 1999. Bersoff has been an honored speaker at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, along with the likes of Sharon’s right-wing ally Binjamin Netanyahu. On January 14, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London, chairman, president, and CEO of CACI International, flew to Israel to receive the Albert Einstein Technology Award from the Jerusalem Fund. The award was presented by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Uri Lupolianski, Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish Mayor at a ceremony in the occupied city on January 14, 2004. “Titan's linguist contract with the U.S. Army” was noted as a “primary driver” behind the companies increased revenues. The only language tool Titan offers on its website is for “Levantine Arabic,” i.e. the Arabic spoken in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Last July, however, Titan Systems Corporation of Fairfax, Va., placed an ad for “native Arabic, Aramaic, Kurdish, Persian, Pashto, Turkish and Dari speakers.” Titan’s ad for interpreters required the native speakers be U.S. citizens and fluent in English. It is extremely unlikely that any native speaker of Arabic would be named “John Israel.” [Who is Behind the Abuse at Abu Ghraib? Christopher Bollyn – Rumor Mill News May 6, 2004] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 282 At least two of the CACI subcontractors at Abu Ghraib have been widely viewed as Israeli agents. “Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc., of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized interviewing techniques." Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract. Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance. Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has been a CACI employee" without providing more detail.” [The Israeli Torture Template, By Wayne Madsen, www.counterpunch.org 5/10/2004] “A Lawsuit has been filed by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of nine Iraqis against two US contractors ….: Titan Corporation of San Diego and CACI International of Arlington, VA. Employees Stephen Stephanowicz and John Israel of CACI and Adel Nakkla of Titan, all of whom are believed to have ties with Israeli intelligence.” [Will Jewish-led legal group tell the full truth as it demands prosecution of torturers? Brendan Andrews ,San Diego 6/9/2004] Key to this issue is Stefan Stephanowicz. There are several points in his known history that substantiate suspicion of him. Through CACI, he meets all five of the criteria: The pictures of what was done to the prisoners under his direction, with the internet pictures being substantially more brutal than those published in the papers, is testimony to the utter brutality of this interrogator. He has demonstrated on multiple occasions, that he is capable of the brutality required for a beheading. · Several web sites refer to the Jewish heritage of his name, making him a candidate for potential recruitment as sayanim by the Mossad when he lived in the US. · In 1999, while a member of the US Naval Reserve, he moved to Australia to work as an IT recruiter. This would suggest he established special arrangements with the US Navy Reserve to allow this happen. He moved to Adelaide, Australia, which would subsequently be mentioned as a home to scandal involving Mossad agents trying to obtain Australian passports. · The man is 6 foot, five inches tall. If one views the photographs of the Nick Berg execution, one of the participants – the one in the white head dressing, and the “too short” pant legs – has been estimated to be 6’4”. One doesn’t find a lot of Arabic men fitting that height description. The photographic evidence does not rule him out. · He was at Abu Ghraib when Berg was released, and would have known of the release. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 283 If indeed it was Stephanowicz that murdered Nick Berg, the entire “team” of six interrogators identified in the Gonzalez report should be investigated. (Remember, there were five terrorists in the beheading video, with a sixth holding the camera.) It would also be fair to bring into the indictment whoever at CACI and Titan Corp. sent them to Israel for training. That is the trail of evidence that will lead to the individuals in the Mossad that ultimately owned the Zarqawi/Stephanowicz cell. Should an investigation of Titan be undertaken, there are least two reports which suggest suspicious activity related to their work in Iraq and the US. First, Titan translators in Iraq have an exceedingly high death rate (for translators), suggesting they are “targeted.” (13 of 29 seems statistically significant given these are not combat position.) “As of early April, San Diego's Titan Corp has lost at least 13 employees - including four Americans - since the defense company began providing interpreters to the US Army in Iraq, according to published reports. Nine of the 13 killed from July through December were Iraqis, although not all of the deaths were combat-related. [Corporate Mercenaries in Iraq: Part 1: Profit comes with a price, David Isenberg, 5/20/2004] CACI had 29 employees at Abu Ghraib alone, eight interrogators, 10 screeners, nine analysts and two report writers, according to Senate testimony on the abuse case. “[http://www.rotten.com/library/crime/corporate/caci_internatonal/] The question that needs to be asked here is: Is the Mossad eliminating its own recruits as the Abu Ghraib scandal grows, just as they needed to eliminate Nick Berg? 12.2 Deutsche Bank Executives This report contends that key owners and executives of the Deutsche Bank and related cartel members (especially UBS, Bank of New York) had motive, opportunity and capability to initiate the attack on the World Trade Center. Their motives were primarily financial: · $23 billion in annual potential equity banking revenues; · Hundreds of billions of illegal gold reserves, and profits from managing those. Those revenues alone could easily reach $20 to $30 billion a year. The relationships upon which this cartel is founded go back in history to World War II, when gold stolen from treasuries and personal fortunes was transferred from the Third Reich to a group of industrialist and financiers. This group built a financial empire founded on fraud and crime, refusing to return this wealth to its rightful heirs. With the not too distant history of German banking involvement with the Third Reich, it may be tempting for some to jump to the conclusion that these bankers are somehow connected to the rumored return of that regime. Nothing could be further from the truth. The history of German Banking – if not international banking – suggests that while a few bankers may succumb to the political winds of the time, they generally remain “adaptive” and learn to coexist with the current regime. Two recent studies support this conclusion: "They (German bank elite) built strong relationships over a period of ten, twenty and even thirty years. They often shared similar convictions on issues such as class, business, and the importance of U.S.- German economic ties. In many cases, they shared business partnerships and investments as well. This THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 284 does not mean that they had a single point of view concerning Hitler, either before or after the Nazis climb to power in 1930-33. Contrary to the popular myths concerning the Dulles brothers, for example, Allen Dulles was a relatively early advocate of U.S. backing for the British in their showdown with Germany, while John Foster Dulles remained considerably more tolerant of Nazism. Others were prominent Jews who were destined to be dispossessed by the Nazis. Banker Eric Warburg was forced to sell off most of his German properties in the early 1930s, but he returned for the reconstruction after 1945. Some members of the elite did become creatures of Hitler, however, such as Dresdner Bank's Karl Lindemann, who was characterized as a "rabid Nazi" by one of the bank's senior executives. Despite their differences, these U.S.-German "reference groups" or "linkage groups," as they became known to sociologists, shared common convictions that were to them far more fundamental: the central importance of maintaining the viability of capitalism as a national and world economic system, and the key role of U.S. and German productive capacity and markets within that effort. Measured against these more basic values, the Nazis and their whole brutal apparatus were seen by much of the elite as transitory, at least during the 1920s and 1930s. From the standpoint of corporate ideology, this elite saw itself as a new generation of the so-called managerial revolution; they considered themselves to be "forward thinking" and unencumbered by the stuffy formalism of earlier times." [Christopher Simpson, The Splendid Blond Beast, Common Courage Press, 1995] "Right from the start, the NSDAP ideology was hostile to the financial sector. Financial capital, according to Nazi ideology, was more profit-earning than working capital, was disembedded from its national context and was in the service of Jewish interests. In his 1925 published pamphlet "Mein Kampf", Hitler (1925/1999: 213) wrote, "the hardest battle would have to be fought, not against hostile nations, but against international capital" which was "robbing the enterprises" (ibid: 314). Thus the strong continuity of the bank's entanglement with industrial corporations over the Nazi period and beyond was not a forgone conclusion. The relationship between different groups of industry and the NSDAP is the subject of numerous controversial debates… but there seems to be a consensus that "Hitler's assistants" were located more in the heavy-industry sector – the political commitment of Fritz Thyssen is a well-known example of this – than in the financial sector …..Nazi elite failed to make an extensive reform of the banking sector their top priority. The cartel-like banking system and the banks' ties with industrial corporations were not dissolved….the "Schutzstaffel" (SS) agitated against banks as rent seekers of the war and demanded the nationalization of the large banks. Again, the banks’ influence over industrial companies was a main point of criticism (James 1995: 390-395). Hitler refused such demands, arguing that National Socialists should not assume any responsibility towards banks……By and large, the company network remained stable in the years of the Nazi dictatorship." [Martin Höpner and Lothar Krempel, MPIfG Working Paper 03/9, The Politics of the German Company Network, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, September 2003] The three largest German banks of Deutsche Bank, Dresdner and Commerzbank did indeed control most of industrial Germany, but that did not by default make their management Nazis. Sparing them the indignity of that accusation however, should not be construed as exoneration. These banks – especially the Deutsche Bank – seem to have a consistent reputation for being involved with organized crime, and they seem to deal with virtually any organized criminal element one can name. Moreover, it is fair to observe that more than one of these gentlemen has the potential to be linked to a German version of ‘Manifest Destiny’. Some of these gentlemen have lineages that are hundreds of years old, with a familial legacy of conquest and imperialism to live up to. Such men might easily subscribe to a German version of the New World Order. Accountability for corporate institutions can best be attributed to the Board of Directors. That being said, it would be inappropriate to claim that every – or even the majority of - Board member of Dresdner, Deutsche Bank and Allianz is responsible for the actions of a few rogue executives. The key issue is going to be: how few and how powerful are these THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 285 rogue bankers? Research has suggested that the following candidates for this infamous distinction should include former Deutschebank Board members: · Michael Freiherr Truchseß von Wetzhausen - on the Board of the Deutschebank until June 2003. With a family name several hundred years old, his ancestor was a Grand Master of the Templars. His father was an SS Lieutenant at Dachau, killed by Americans troops from Brooklyn. If anyone was a candidate to represent the old school of the German Motherland – this individual has the best credentials. If revenge is considered a motive, he should become a suspect. · Dr. Diethart Breipohl. Former CFO of Allianz, this Board member of Allianz has probably served on more boards throughout Europe than any other board member from this group. This individual is clearly a ‘power.’ A partial list of his leverage is as follows: - prior to 12/1999 member of the executive committee of the alliance AG - prior to 12/1999 member of the supervisory board of the RWE AG - Member of the supervisory board of the alliance AG (2000) - Member of the supervisory board of the Rheinelektra AG (today: Lahmeyer AG) - Member of the supervisory board of the Beiersdorf Co. AG - Member of the supervisory board of the Continental AG - Member of the supervisory board of the Grundig AG - Member of the supervisory board of the metal company AG - Member of the supervisory board of the Bavarian Hypo and association bank - Mostly it is his involvement in Multigroup that puts his name on a list of suspects. Six Board Members – or former members - of the Deutsche Bank being investigated for approving tax evasion (also known as money laundering) activities should also be included as prime suspects. These gentlemen have all apparently demonstrated a willingness to allow illegal activity. "Investigators claim the bank helped clients transfer money anonymously to Switzerland and Luxembourg with the knowledge of these board members. Frankfurt's chief prosecutor, Job Tilmann, said they suspect Deutsche Bank employees not only "systematically" aided customers in such transfers, but also that Breuer and other executives were aware of the practice. "This is not about a few individual cases," Tilmann said. "The number of instances in question is so large that we're led to believe it has been part of a more widespread practice." [Deutsche Bank’s chairman faces probe into tax evasion charges,” Vanessa Fuhrmans, Financial Express, 6/18/1999] Rolf Breuer, Deutsche Bank AG Chairman; Carl von Boehm-Bezing, Deutsche Bank Board Member; Juergen Krumnow, Deutsche Bank Board Member; Tessen von Heydebreck Deutsche Bank Board Member. A descendent of William the Conqueror; Ulrich Weiss, former Deutsche Bank Board Member; and Georg Krupp, former Deutsche BankBoard Member. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 286 These eight men would not constitute the entirety of the cartel, but it does represent a list of German financial executives with questionable activities of a money laundering nature in their background. On the North American continent, it is appropriate to designate at least two former high ranking Deutsche Bank Executives: · Mayo Shattuck: former Deutsche Bank Board Director and CEO of Deutsche Bank Alex Brown who resigned on 12 September 2001, Trustee of the Bronfman family fortune and financial advisor to Adnan Khashoggi. Mayo would move on to become CEO of an energy company and soon created a company whose primary business was trading energy derivatives and power –replacing Enron in a market vacuum after it’s collapse. · Tye W. Burt - the former Chairman of Deutsche Bank Canada and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown Securities Canada, and Managing Director and Head of Deutsche Bank’s Global Metals and Mining Group., and on the Advisory Board of Barrick Gold. Additionally, Marcus and Jacob Wallenburg need to be added to this list because of their involvement with the cartel and Donald Rumsfeld. Their family roots with this cartel were long disguised, but the release of post-war national archives in both Sweden and the US changed the world’s view. “…a darker chapter is being written now about the Wallenberg family and its extensive business empire, as Sweden confronts dismaying new evidence that the country's wartime collaboration was more extensive than is widely known, and that the Wallenberg family profited from secret dealings with the Nazis. For instance, documents from World War II contain evidence that Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, Raoul's cousins, used their Enskilda Bank to help the Nazis dispose of assets seized from Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust. According to extensive documentation, the Wallenberg bank also provided illicit cover so a German company could operate in the United States - with help from a future US secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. The documents indicate that the company, Bosch, paid its fee in gold, but that the Wallenbergs insisted that the gold be used to buy Swiss securities because they feared the gold had been stolen by the Nazis.” [Family long viewed as heroic profited from Nazi deals , Walter V. Robinson, Boston Globe Staff, 07/06/97 ] “There were many other Swedish corporations that enjoyed profitable relationships with the Nazis. However, the one most cherished by the Nazis was the Enskilda bank, owned by the Wallenbergs. With good relationships with a bank the Nazis could borrow funds and launder their stolen gold. Safehaven documents revealed that the US had been tracking the pro-Nazi activities of the Wallenbergs for several years. In February 1945, Morgenthau, in a letter to Secretary of State, Edward Stettinius, charged that Enskilda was making substantial loans to the Nazis without collateral and making covert investments for German capitalists in US industries. Note that Morgenthau's letter confirms Bormann's plan to allow Nazis to invest in the United States as a means of preserving their assets. He further charged that the bank was repeatedly connected with large black market operations. In the letter Morgenthau identified Jacob Wallenberg as strongly pro-Nazi and rebuts the claim that Marcus was pro-Ally. The Wallenbergs were playing both sides,…. Marcus Wallenberg came to the United States in 1940 and attempted to purchase on behalf of German interest an American held block of German securities…. Enskilda Bank has been repeatedly connected with large block market operations in foreign currencies, including the dollars reported to have been dumped by the Germans.” [Nazi Gold , Part 5:Operation Andrew & Sweden's Neutrality “According to Hewitt's report, it was Wallenberg's opinion that the only alternatives to Hitler were Himmler, backed primarily by the Waffen SS and the Gestapo, or the Wehrmacht secret opposition cells if they could survive Gestapo harassment and rally the main body of the army before Hitler THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 287 became aware of what was going on and destroyed them.’ [Dispatch from Wartime Sweden: Reichsführer Himmler Pitches Washington, John H. Waller] The relationship between the Wallenbergs and Himmler’s industrial underworld efforts have carried into the present times, with the primary vehicles of the Wallenberg empire being ESB (the Wallenberg financial company), Investor AB (the primary holding company for Wallenberg wealth), and ABB Ltd – (the engineering company that built and sold components for nuclear armaments to North Korea.) It is from the Boards of these companies one finds the entwined relationships of the Wallenbergs with the German cartel, with Jacob Wallenberg currently having a position on the Board of Directors of the Deutschebank. Even more interesting, one finds the name of Donald Rumsfeld on two of these boards: Investor AB and ABB. (Of note: While on the Board of ABB, Rumsfeld approved the sale of equipment vital to North Korea’s nuclear capability. His recollection of this has failed, but other board members have recollected his participation.) All of these bankers had a vested interest in seeing the various investigations in World Trade Center disappear. While there were thousands of individuals who benefited from the destruction of that evidence, this group benefited the most, along with the criminals they were protecting. 12.3 Israeli “Fixers” The suspects that concocted and executed these crimes begin to emerge in the murky world of the Israeli Mossad. By historic example, the October Surprise meetings, (which were the beginning of the Iran-Contra affair, the sabotage of US rescue attempts of hostages, and the $40 million payment from George HW Bush to the Iranians to not release the hostages) were initiated by the Israelis. These Israelis (led by David Kimche) wanted to be able to continue to arm the Iranians and feed the war between Iran and Iraq. Profiteering on the side was also part of the agenda. “… in January 1986, Nimrodi, Schwimmer, and Kimche were replaced by the prime minister's counterterrorism expert, Amiram Nir. According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth, Prime Minister Peres was uncomfortable with the idea of an Israeli, especially one of his friends, making commissions on the transactions. Perhaps more pointedly, Haaretz reported that some Israeli mediators had "meddled" with the bank account in Switzerland that was used to channel money from the Iranians to the Americans and eventually to the contras (New York Times, December 1, 1987).” [Contragate and Counterterrorism: An Overview, Gregory Shank, Crime and Social Justice, Vol. 31, No. 2,2003] It is the conclusion of this report that because of the extensive involvement of Israeli intelligence agents in so many aspects of the attack on the World Trade Center, and their key connections to both the German/Swiss banks and Iran-Contra/Azerbaijan group of ‘businessmen,’ that it was they who first proposed destroying the entire World Trade Center to solve the Bank Cartel’s problem. This solution – if blamed on Muslim terrorists – would fit their national agenda of enlisting American opinion against the Palestinians, the Hezbollah and the Iraqis. There are two primary “persons of interest.” David Kimche is a 30 year veteran of the Mossad and was involved not only in the very first October Surprise meeting, but through the entire Iran-Contra scandal as well. He has THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 288 maintained a relationship with Saudi, Syrians, Iranians and his North American intelligence cohorts through Richard Secord. He is connected to Adnan Khashoggi as well. When Israelis were “recruited” for conflict in Azerbaijan, he was responsible for the recruiting. Over the years, he has developed deep relationships with the pro-Israeli movement in the US though his work with Jon Kimche. His involvement has been documented in various sections of this report. He is a major “hidden” conspirator in this crime. Today, in his leadership role of the Glocal Forum, David Kimche is in a perfect position to recruit and run sayanim in and out of third world contries on a regular basis. The other primary candidate of suspicion is Meir Dagan, the current head of the Israeli Mossad. Since Dagan’s ascent in 2002 to head of the Mossad, over 200 agents, including seven section heads, have left the agency. These ‘early retirements’ are generally attributed to a concern and disagreement over his priorities and methods. Dagan’s experience puts him in a central position for suspicion in all of the charges, ranging from directly or indirectly ordering the brutal execution of American and other hostages in Iraq, to the planning and execution of the attack on the World Trade Center. Meir Dagan, son of a Russian immigrant, started his military career in the late 1970’s, running the Sayeret Rimon. Sayeret Rimon was the first of its kind - a special forces unit which became the first “Mistaravim type unit.” Mistaravim, in Hebrew, means to ‘disguise as an Arab.’ During his eighteen months of running this unit, he deployed a host of innovative techniques for the Israeli Special Forces: · Hiring Palestinians as point men. He would use special persuasion to convince convicted and imprisoned Palestinian felons to act as fronts for his units; · capturing Palestinian freedom fighters, he would simply execute a number of them with a bullet to the head; · failing an ability to capture his targets, he would have them assassinated, quite often by car bombing; and then · Attributing his attacks and car bombing to other fictitious groups. After the first Invasion of Iraq by the US, Dagan was tasked with building the Mossad infrastructure inside of Iraq, using many of the same tactics he deployed while with the Sayeret Rimon. (This report contends that operation is still active, that Zarqawi was an agent of that group, and that it still foments civil unrest in Iraq through its traditional methods. The assault on an Iraqi jail by the British troops in Iraq to free two arrested terrorists is largely thought to be a rescue of Israeli agents before they were discovered.) He retired from the military after this assignment, but he designed and built the organization that has executed numerous competitors to the Mossad in Iraq. As the top commander of the Mossad at the time of the executions of Berg, Hensley and Armstrong – if the Mossad is responsible, then he is to be held accountable. In the late 1990s, Dagan became the Economic and Commerce Representative of Israel to Nigeria. Other than a simple notice of his holding this position, there is nothing in the press about his activities during this time. To understand the importance of his role as a chief architect of Israeli trade in Central Africa during this time, it is important to put this time and place in context. The last fifty years have been a time of great turmoil in Central THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 289 Africa. Nigeria is considered to be a relatively stable and neutral country. To the west of Nigeria are Liberia and Sierre Leone. To the southeast of Nigeria are the Congo and Angola. All four of these countries were (and still are) subject to continuous internal strife, allowing the most powerful warlord in each country the right to exploit vast mineral deposits such as oil, lumber or “conflict diamonds.” Conflict diamonds are diamonds used by ‘illegal rebel forces’ to finance their rebellions. They are thought to be mined by individuals or small independent mining companies, taking wealth from land previously assayed by larger diamond firms as barren. These diamonds are then ‘confiscated’ by rebel warlords. The truth of the matter is that at the end of the Cold War, and collapse of the Soviet Union, about $12 billion in rough uncut diamonds from government reserves, originating from Russian mines, disappeared. These stones are most likely now being laundered by trading them to various warlords in exchange for cash, weapons and mineral concessions, primarily crude oil and wood. The legal sales contracts for these raw materials are made at ridiculously low prices, with cash coming across the table and under the table. As a result, there is very little “paper” profit in these trades to be used to develop the economies of those countries. Conveniently, the middlemen placing the stones in the market are also the same agents connecting the warlords with Israeli arms merchants. Technically, it’s illegal to sell “conflict diamonds” in the De Beers dominated market. They do however show up there from time-to-time. However, an alternative channel has opened up within the last decade: Lev Leviev. Lev Leviev is a secondary candidate. Because of his involvement in blood diamonds, Angola, arms deals and a supply chain comparable to Barrick, it is speculated his accounts are involved in this tragedy. Leviev belongs to a group of rogue Israeli intelligence and military operatives who are attached to 9/11 through a false flag operation. He was born in Soviet Uzbekistan, and emigrated to Israel with his father in 1971. After a short career in the diamond industry, being one of the ‘select few 150’ authorized to buy directly from De Beers, he set out to create an alternative diamond supply chain. This personal vision of Leviev’s was conceived – coincidentally - at the end of the Cold War, about the same time the Russian criminals were looking for a way to launder $12 billion in diamonds heisted from the Russian treasury, over the next ten to twenty years. Leviev is considered to be the primary means by which the Russian diamond stockpile is being liquidated. (“Israel Tycoon Lev Leviev”, Paul Westman, 9/11/2003.) Leviev also has been reported (unconfirmed) to own a very significant share of a shipping company that illegally broke its lease with the World Trade Center and moved out seven days before the attack on September 11, 2001. [www.freerepublic.com/focus/news] That company would be Zim-American Israel Navigation, which is largely owned by the Israel Corporation (i.e., the government of Israel. Prior to that Zim was owned by Shaul Eisenburg, and the Eisenburg Group. Eisenburg was widely reported in the mainstream media as a Mossad agent, and would later be the private sector employer for David Kimche). The second largest investor in the Israel Corp. is Leumi Bank (about 20%). Leumi Bank has about four major investments, one of which is in Lev Leviev’s major companies. Less than a year after the attack, one of their ships would be impounded for attempting to ship Israeli manufactured weapons to Iran. It has not been confirmed that Lev owns a significant portion of Zim, but he is THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 290 surely well connected to it. Lev Leviev is an extremely lucky man. He is also extremely generous in his charitable contributions, and as a result, extremely well connected across the globe. Diamond laundering would have to be a bit more difficult than laundering gold, because there are not a lot of places that can be described as sources of diamonds. The ‘deal’ would probably go like this: the stones stolen from Russia are laundered into the market in exchange for contracts for legal raw materials (oil and wood). They surface on the market as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds, supposedly mined in alluvial fields and small mines throughout Africa – even though prior investigation by De Beers had found these locations barren. Leviev’s supply chain is able to re-absorb the uncut stones into any of Leviev’s twelve cutting factories, and sell them on the open market. This supply chain completely bypasses the De Beers mechanisms and controls put in place which would identify the sources of these illegal “conflict diamonds.” According to a UN Security Report, this is the Israeli “fix:” "In all three cases (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Sierre Leone), the pattern is the same. Conflict diamonds are exchanged for money, weapons and military training. These diamonds are then transported to Tel Aviv by former Israeli Air Force Pilots….In Israel, these diamonds are then cut and sold at the Ramat Gan Diamond Centre…."[Liberian Orbit, 10/1/2001] Feeding this Central African blood frenzy are numerous private military companies (PMC’s- agents formerly referred to as mercenaries) and arms merchants. A majority of these arms merchants and PMC’s involved in selling weapons, aircraft and military training to both sides of third world civil wars and warlords are Russian/Israeli. On this list are: Victor Bout (Russian/Tajikistan born, started business in Afghanistan, became an Israeli citizen), who had extensive dealings selling armaments and weapons to the Taliban. He is reported to have partnered with Farhad Azima on at least one Russian air deal. He is now running weapons into Iraq on behalf of the US government because of the dangers associated with flying in. Nevertheless, there are outstanding warrants for his arrest in multiple countries. · Israeli Arcadi Gaydamak, whose key partner at one time was Alimjar Tokhtakhounov – a leading member of the Russian mafia. His dealings with Angola are detailed in Section 4.8. He has done business with Nazarbayev. · former Mossad agents Danny Yatom and Avi Dagan, who created the PMC Strategic Consulting Group; · Moshe Levy, owner of the Lordan-Levdan, a PMC working in the Congo; · Zeev Zachrin, former Brigadier general in Israel; · Dan Gertler, owner of the Israeli firm International Diamond Industries, who has been connected with diamond purchases in exchange for weapons and training in Liberia, Sierre Leone and the Congo, working with Yair Klein THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 291 · former Israeli Col. Yair Klein (imprisoned in Sierre Leone) who has been widely reported to have provided weapons and training to Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Colombian drug cartels and Al Qaeda ; and · Simon Yelnik, Israeli arms dealer and former director of security for Zaire’s dictator Mobutu Sese Seko; · Ori Zoller, Israeli arms dealer, citizen and representative of Israeli Military Industries, as well as former member of the Israeli Special Forces and intelligence. These are just some of the people who have profited from the theft of Russian gold, diamonds and weaponry. Their names, and their company names, should appear on a wide range of accounts that cross the trail of this massive theft of national treasuries. A large part of what they do is technically legal, but history demonstrates over and over that these deals are accompanied by bribes, hidden profits and tax avoidance – and usually murder. At the same time these types of trades were occurring, supposed Al Qaeda agents were accused of trading weapons for diamonds to rebel groups in Central Africa. The story is that Al Qaeda was attempting to generate cash by selling arms received from the Americans. Of the six alleged Al Qaeda members known to have been involved in these trades, one of them - Pakistani Asfia Siddiqui, and the only prominent female figure in Al Qaeda in this investigation – was considered by US intelligence to be a “fixer” for the Al Qaeda operatives in the U.S. [“Al Qaeda bought diamonds before 9/11”, AP, 6/28/2004]. She was part of an operation that bought weapons from Bulgarian arms distributor: Nataco Holding PLC, and moved them into Liberia. Part of that shipment included 10 million rounds of ammunition from - guess who! Also linked to this purported Al Qaeda connection is Aziz Nassour, a Lebanese organized crime figure reported to have sold diamonds to Al Qaeda. His associate for this deal - named Samih Ossaily - is his cousin, another Lebanese underworld figure. Their deal, supposedly on behalf of Al Qaeda, was to bring arms to Liberia using a Moscow based air cargo company named Aviatrend. However, both Aziz and Ossaily have a prior track record of dealing of behalf of the Mossad, working with Ori Zoller and Simon Yelnik. On prior deals, Nassour’s buyers have been arrested shortly after their dealing with Nassour, while he remains free. These buyers were reported to be Hezbollah and AMAL representatives, traditional enemies of Israel. It was concluded that Nassour was a Mossad agent. Was Asfia Siddiqui really an Al Qaeda member? In the US, what the world knows of Asfia was that she was originally from Pakistan, an active – yet seemingly peaceful - advocate of the Muslim religion, an MIT neurophysiologist, lived in Boston, was married and had three children, and was abandoned by her husband. Her lawyer and family claim they have proof that she was in the US when she is reported to have been in Central Africa. Her parents and lawyer claim she is a victim of identity theft, as were twelve of the individuals accused of being 9-11 hijackers. Unfortunately, she and her children have disappeared. The questions that need to be asked to make sense of this scenario include: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 292 Was the real Asfia’s identity stolen by the Mossad, as were the identities of many of the 9-11 hijackers? · Were Nassour and Ossailly tools of the Mossad, being used by the Mossad to infiltrate the Lebanese Hezbollah? · Was the entire diamond for weapons operation an attempt by the Mossad to establish credibility for their undercover agents, which would enable them to infiltrate the Lebanese underworld and their many links to Hezbollah? · Was Asfia’s identity stolen by a Mossad agent to manage an ‘Al Qaeda/Mossad’ cell in Boston, from which two planes in the WTC attack originated? · Is it coincidence that Al Qaeda members are reported to ‘appear’ in Central Africa at the same time that Meir Dagan, the master of “Mistaravim” appears in Nigeria? The preponderance of information seems to suggest that the Central African “Al Qaeda” link is a Mossad, false flag operation. As noted in a recent report: "Strategically, Al Qaida diamond trade would be impossible without Israeli intelligence complicity….For the Sharon government, the de facto financial support of Al Qaida terror around the world, as well as Hezbollah, serves Sharon’s long-term strategy of detonating a clash of civilizations between the West and all Islam." [The Politics of Three, Paul W Rasche] Three additional arguments support this view: 1) Conservative Muslims do not take orders from women, but it is common in the Israeli armed forces; 2) Israelis are strongly motivated to “sell” to both sides of a civil war, allowing them insight into Muslim rebellions in Central Africa; and 3) the US government states that it could never prove that the actual Al Qaeda profited from conflict diamonds, and quickly dropped the investigation. (Note: this would be a fifth US investigation mentioned in this report which was stopped when it bumps into Israeli ‘players.’) This operation included the same assortment of the dark side of the Mossad: Russian Mafiya figures, Israeli secret service, and East European weapons manufacturers and distributors. This time however, there are phone records that link these false Al Qaeda elements in Africa to managing supposed Al Qaeda terrorists in Boston – a source of the attack on the World Trade Center. 12.4 “Fixers” in Florida No review of the participants in this tragedy can be complete without a commentary on the activities in southern Florida which played a significant role in the attack on the World Trade Center. At least fourteen of the hijackers were reported to have ‘studied’ in one or more of the following flight schools in southern Florida: School Management/Owner Nationality of Manager School Location Change of Ownership Huffman Flight School Rudy Dekker Netherlands Venice Airport 1999 Florida Flight Training Center Arne Kruithof Netherlands Venice Airport 1999 THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 293 Pelican Flight Training Center (Professional Aviation) Pascal Schreier and Sandra Hamouda Germany French-Tunisian Charlotte County Airport, Punta Gorda Feb 2001 What these four schools (Schreier was involved in two schools, the first of which went bankrupt within two months of Atta’s arrival) had in common was: Recent change in ownership; New ownership/management by nationals from Northern Europe; High percentage of Arabic nationality students; All three owner/managers had a personal relationship with Mohammed Atta; All spoke German; and All three were acquaintances. "It appears that Schreier, Hilliard and Dekkers were also in business together. Later, we learned that the new owners of Huffman Aviation were from the largest flight school in the Netherlands, which used to train up in Lakeland, Florida. It was near Rotterdam, the city from which Arne Kruithof hailed. Pascal Schreier was also apparently involved with Wally and Rudi’s failed aviation ventures. The true name of their flop airline, which flew as Florida Air, was Sunrise Airlines. And Pascal Schreier owned a company called Florida Sunrise with an address at the Venice Airport. It was too close for coincidence." [Welcome to Terrorland: Mohammed Atta and the 9-11 Cover-Up in Florida, Daniel Hopsicker, 2004] An analysis of the schools and people who owned and managed them suggests the whole process of preparing the Arabic hijackers was controlled at two levels: one which would create and feed the pipeline of terrorists into the US, and another that ensured that the Arab recruits would execute the given task of attacking the World Trade Center. 12.5 Huffman Flight School The Huffman Flight School garners the most media attention, for at least four reasons. First, it was the primary training school for Mohammed Atta and four of his reported ‘cell member’ colleagues from Hamburg. Second, it is also known that recruiting for the school was actively conducted by Yeslam Bin Laden, brother of Osama Bin Laden. Third, the school was responsible for training of the bin Laden family pilots for SICO, it’s Swiss investment arm, run by two former BCCI agents. Fourth, the school has an intriguing story behind its ownership. Actual financial ownership of the school has not been thoroughly documented, but the consensus appears to be that it was under the ownership of Oryx Investments, an investment holding company formed in Dubai by Adnan Khashoggi, Sheik Kamal Adham, director of Saudi intelligence (1963-79), Prince Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz (a major investor in Barrick, codenamed “Tumbleweed” by his CIA contacts) and Wallace J. Hilliard. · Wally Hilliard is a semi-retired insurance entrepreneur/multi-millionaire, and many observers – including the FBI – view him as an innocent victim in his connections to the terrorists. Unfortunately, while Wally Hilliard continues to claim he was duped, many of his business partners have well documented links to the intelligence and criminal underworlds. He also appears to have political friends that might ensure his protection from any prosecution. Wally made his first fortune by selling an insurance THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 294 company - Employers Health -that he had co-founded in Green Bay. That company was sought for purchase by the Fireman’s Fund Insurance, who’s Chairman was Myron Du Bain. Myron, it seems, was a close associate of John McCone (former CIA Director), and they held simultaneous seats on the boards of several major financial institutions, including the United California Bank. It is fair to speculate that Myron is responsible for introducing Wally to the fast paced world of weapons merchants and drug smugglers. Wally is reported in the Florida press to have been the owner of a Lear jet that was seized in Florida with 45 pounds of heroin on it, but his involvement in that crime was cleared by the DEA and FBI. He is also reported to be an avid flyer, and to have purchased between 30 and 40 jets in Florida. Evidently, these were required for creating an airline that would service the Caribbean, and his newly emerging business interests in Cuba. Significantly, he and his investment partner in Oryx, Adnan Khashoggi, have spent several years attempting to establish businesses in Cuba, and open a casino on a small island in the Caribbean. It is worth noting that on a number of these planes, he was a business partner with Mark Shubin. Shubin’s father was a KGB Colonel who was imprisoned in Russia after being caught spying for the US. Mark’s father and family were allowed to leave Russia as part of the Gary Powers (U2 Spy Plane incident) spy-for-spy trade. Mark Shubin later went on to work for the CIA as a pilot. [Welcome to Terrorland: Mohammed Atta and the 9-11 Cover-Up in Florida, Daniel Hopsicker, 2004, pp 262-264] Hilliard’s involvement in airline building, with his airplanes being used by terrorists and drug smugglers, has put him in relationships with powerful people. His business associate in many of these planes - Mark Shubin– was also involved with Ken Good in several businesses. "(Ken) Good had been one of Neil Bush’s cronies in the Silverado Savings and Loan debacle. Kenneth Good was a big part of the Silverado Savings and Loan collapse. He was in business with Neil Bush. In fact, Ken Good had been so clearly a Bush family retainer that it strained credulity to think that Shubin—and Wally Hilliard—now were not similarly connected. In 1983, Neil Bush, President George H.W. Bush’s son, and our current president’s brother, became partners in an oil venture with Ken Good and William Walters, a Denver developer. Two years later, Bush joined the board of Silverado, a Denver S&L to which Walters and Good already owed more than $100 million that was never to see the light of day again. Neil Bush received a $100,000 ‘gift’ from Good, as well as other major financial assistance. Yet he was pressing Silverado’s management— without mentioning these favors—to let Good off the hook on his debts. There was no conflict of interest. It was all just a coincidence." [Welcome to Terrorland: Mohammed Atta and the 9-11 Cover-Up in Florida, Daniel Hopsicker, 2004, pp 264-265] Wally Hilliard, besides having a reach into the Bush family through Shubin (and vice versa), was also fortunate to have his emerging airlines endorsed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, who established her national notoriety as the person who presided over the Florida vote count that resulted in the Presidency of George Bush. Mr. Hilliard: respected, connected, protected and suspected. He may be innocent, but his reported associations link him to the worlds of gambling, drugs, smuggling and financial fraud. One final note of interest: Hilliard is a significant investor in a small California defense/electronics company (Spatialight, Inc.) with Farhad Azima, another of the Iran-Contra/Azerbaijan group. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 295 Adnan Khashoggi - is first and foremost one of the world’s elite arms merchants. Referred to as a “notable member of this elite group” he was described in the Small Arms Survey of 2004 with the following words: "Some brokers with powerful political clout, like Khashoggi, are virtually ‘untouchable’ insofar as their relationships and dealings involving government officials at the highest echelons go. Any persecution of these brokers, or denunciation of their activities as illicit, could result in the incrimination of states, or the exposure of embarrassing covert activities by the governments themselves." [Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, 2004] Khashoggi has his fingerprints on so many aspects of 9/11 that he may well be “the” key conspirator. Gaining notoriety by being at the heart of the Iran-Contra ‘guns for drugs scandal’ during the Reagan administration, Khashoggi has since leveraged his notoriety to the point where he is a familiar face with film and rock stars, presidents, sultans, sheiks, kings and queens, investment bankers and of course, war lords. While most famous for his connections with the Arab banking community, he is also well established with the Deutsche Bank, most recently continuing his notoriety in the U.S. press by being sued, with Deutsche Bank Securities of Canada , for fraudulent manipulation of security prices. In the case of MJK Clearing vs Deutsche Bank Securities, Adnan Khashoggi et al., filed in December 2002, the facts presented suggest that in addition to misrepresentation by the defendants, an ‘unanticipated drop in stock prices’ on September 11, 2001 enhanced their ability to increase the payout of the purported fraud. (Business Week, May 2003.) As part of the ever increasingly tangled web of relationships, Khashoggi also had ties not only to the Deutsche Bank, but the Bronfman family as well (additional key investors in Barrick) by way of another Deutsche Bank executive: Mayo Shattuck. "Khashoggi, a trusted adviser to the Saudi royal family, is one of the "high net worth individuals" whose past investments have been handled by Mayo Shattuck, formerly head of Alex. Brown (mentioned earlier). ". In 1997, Mayo Shattuck was made Trustee of the Bronfman (mentioned earlier) family fortune. He resigned as CEO of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown on 12 September 2001, the day following the tragic events in New York City and Washington, DC--the day that has come to be known as "9-11" [David G. Guyatt, Nexus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 6, October- November 2003] His ties to the Bronfmans went well beyond Shattuck, as Khashoggi and Bronfman would become investment partners in Barrick, through Trizec Hahn (landlord to the headquarters of Halliburton and Enron, in the same building). Khashoggi was also identified as an early participant in the October Surprise meetings and subsequent Iran-Contra deals. He would later create Oryx, which funded Hoffman Aviation –the training school where many of the hijackers validated their “education” visas. After the invasion of Iraq, Adnan Khashoggi (Genesis Aviation) became a business partner with retired General William Lyon (on the Board of Kellstrom Industries, Inc., an Israeli owned company) in a venture called Wings of Democracy, an attempt to penetrate the commercial Iraq air business. Lyon is the founder of several university diploma-mill operations in California (American Commonwealth University, aka William Lyon University). These operations are directly associated THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 296 with the entry to the U.S. by two of the 9/11 hijackers in the early 1990s. Lyon is a major Republican fund raiser in Orange County, associate of Karl Rove, major financial backer of the Swift Boat Veterans, and keynote speaker at the Republican national convention. Khashoggi is also of interest due to his relationship with Yaslem Bin Laden, a known business partner of his on a limited number of investments. In this case, Yaslem admits to have recruited young Arabs from across the world for Huffman Aviation, a school owned by his former and ongoing business partner, Adnan Khashoggi. Similary, Khashoggi has banks in Azerbaijan, where he easily could have coordinated the recruitment of hijackers with the assistance of his other business associates Richard Secord and David Kimche (Mossad). · Sheik Kamal Adham The last and least mentioned investor in Oryx was Sheik Kamal Adham, director of Saudi intelligence (1963-79), brother-in-law of King Faisal and the CIA's key liaison in the Arab world, a relationship established with George HW Bush when he was Director of the CIA. "In the 1980s, the Sheik Kamal Adham and Abdul Khalil (Adham's successor as Saudi intelligence director), became officers of BCCI, and were implicated in a hostile bid for FIB, and became embroiled in the BCCI bank scandal. In a related venture, Majority shares in Capcom, a BCCI subsidiary, were held by Adham and Khalil. Capcom activities included money laundering and drug trafficking. Adham was eventually prosecuted for fraud in the BCCI case and paid a $100 million fine." [Saudi Entrepeneur Adnan Khashoggi Linked to 9/11 Terrorists, Alex Constantine] Also of interest is the report that two of the 19 reported hijackers were actually from Saudi Intelligence: "Two of the hijackers—part of the team that flew a plane into the Pentagon—had very visible connections to Saudi intelligence and the CIA. Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar were well known to the CIA and FBI. The claim that an FBI informant in San Diego who knew the men and assisted them but never mentioned any of this to his FBI handlers has another, darker explanation. A former CIA officer who worked in Saudi Arabia described what he says happened: "We had been unable to penetrate Al Qaeda. The Saudi's claimed that they had done it successfully. Both al-Hazimi and al-Mihdhar were Saudi agents. We thought they had been screened. It turned out the man responsible for recruiting them had been loyal to Osama bin Laden. The truth is bin Laden himself was a Saudi agent at one time. He successfully penetrated Saudi intelligence and created his own operation inside. The CIA relied on the Saudis vetting their own agents. It was a huge mistake. The reason the FBI was not given any information about either man is because they were Saudi assets operating with CIA knowledge in the United States." [The Real Intelligence Cover- Up: America's Unholy Alliance, Joe Trento's Column, 8/6/2003 ] It is possible that like the Israelis, the Saudis’ with interest in global gold movements decided to place two of their own team with the hijackers to ensure success of the mission. · Prince Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz was an initial investor in Barrick, and had remained primarily a investor through the 1980s and 1990s. However, two weeks before September 11, 2001, he is appointed as the new head of Saudi Intelligence. “August 31, 2001: Turki al-Faisal, head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence service for 24 years, is replaced. No explanation is given. He is replaced by Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz, his nephew and the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 297 king's brother, who has "no background in intelligence whatsoever." [AFP, 8/31/01, Seattle Times, 10/29/01, Wall Street Journal, 10/22/01] Needless to say, if one had to find the type of criminals necessary to provide the Arabic hijackers which would create the appearance of an Arabic terrorist operation, these latter three gentlemen were and are the right men to bring to the task. Finding willing terrorists, however, was probably the easier part of this operation. After all, there are reported to be thousands of these ‘terrorists’ just looking for the opportunity to strike at America. The more difficult part of this operation would be to manage and steer these terrorists, which would be the task of Mohammed Atta and his friends from northern Europe. Here is where the proclivity for being two-sided was required of a perennial middle-man. Adnan Khashoggi was that middle-man with a reputation of dealing with anyone and everyone, and being able to misrepresent the total picture. Khashoggi’s relationship with Richard Perle is well documented in the press. Adnan would have no difficulty on one hand, encouraging his friend and partner Yeslam Bin Laden, to find recruits for this mission. On the other hand, he was probably required to work into the management team of this attack three probable sayanim: Pascal Schreier, Rudy Dekkers and Arne Kruithof, and one deep cover Mossad agent - Mohammed Atta– who would have been provided to him by the Mossad. This report, with the evidence provided, will conclude that Mohammed Atta was actually a deep Mossad agent rather than an Al Qaeda operative. The circumstances and backgrounds of these flight school operators suggest that while there are no documented reports to that these men were agents of the Mossad, their similar profiles make them candidates for consideration: They show up in Florida, all at about the same time and vicinity, and at the same time that Nick Berg was settling in to Norman, Oklahoma; They all know each other; They shared the same customer base- primarily Tunisian, Moroccan and Syrian flight students; They were young, single, and athletic, and two have names well documented in Europe as Jewish (Arne Kruithof appears to be an exception to the attributes of being single and of Jewish heritage.); Dekkers, while thought to be Dutch, confided to an acquaintance in Florida that he was German, not Dutch. It seems odd that a man who runs an air flight training school knew little about flying – especially with the name “Dekkers.” Dekkers is a relatively famous name in European flight circles, with a number of individuals with that last name having gained respect as an “expert authority” in the field. It may be fair to surmise that Dekkers was a “created” identity, and he was given that name to lend credibility to his cover. One needs to ask: If someone was setting up a pipeline to train Arabic hijackers, why not set-up Arabic individuals as owner-managers? Why risk the potential THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 298 exposure? Khashoggi had set up numerous organizations and operations with Arabic management across the globe. Why was this different? A final note on the Huffman School confirms the significance of this entity as a clue in the mystery of 9/11, even though not referenced by the official government report. “Hopsicker has confirmed that within hours of the attacks, Florida Governor Jeb Bush had a military C 130 Hercules transport fly in to the Venice airport where a hastily loaded rental truck, filled with the records of Huffman Aviation …was driven into the plane. The C130 immediately took off for parts unknown.” [Michael C Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, P. 350] 12. 6 Mohammed Atta With Mohammed Atta, there are a number of circumstantial pieces of information which might lead one to believe Atta is not the person he is generally made out to be. More important, one might be persuaded by the evidence that he could be a deep cover Mossad agent. He was on very friendly, personal terms with the operating management of these training schools – including drugs, loose women and nightlife. The behaviors attributed to him during his stay in Florida are quite inconsistent with the description of him by his friends in Germany. "I think freedom and the possibility to tell your opinion openly was of great interest for him or it was of big interest for him but all these good of the western world like you told me cars, girls, motor cycles, or things like that, he was not interested in…. he didn't show any fanaticism against America…." [Liz Jackson interviews Volker Hauth, 10/18/2001] “Sure enough. We found an Associated Press story on Sept 26, 2001 headlined “SunCruz Casinos turns over documents in terrorist probe.” “SunCruz Casinos has turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers.… Names on the passenger list from a Sept. 5 cruise matched those of some of the hijackers... Two or three men linked to the Sept. 11 hijackings may have been customers on a ship that sailed from Madeira Beach on Florida's gulf coast.” Less than a week before the 9.11 attack, Atta and several other hijackers were aboard one of Abramoff’s casino boats. “ Atta seems to have a history of two personalities. Atta does not fit the profile of a suicide bomber: he is college educated, from a well-todo family in Egypt, apparently quite wealthy (according to witnesses in Florida); and not a religious fanatic, – as demonstrated by his behaviors in Florida. His friends knew him as a political activist, but not a religious fanatic. In Europe, his modus operandi that is documented by the German Intelligence was a strong anti-Semitic stance. With this factor, one might assume he was sent to Germany to work his way into neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic groups – until his assignment changed; It seems strange to mention there is no evidence that Atta actually died in the attack on the World Trade Center, but the world does not know for sure that Atta died in that attack. There is, of course his bag, left at an airport, and someone using a ticket with his name. There is however, no radio voice recording or THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 299 security video recording from the plane or Boston, or visual confirmation of the man boarding or on board. His father said the security video picture of “Mohammed Atta” at the Portland airport was not his son. This issue of identity theft has plagued identification of many of the supposed 9/11 suspects. What the world may have been presented is conveniently planted information which suggests Mohammed Atta died. The bag that has been produced as key evidence is troubling. Atta is the only individual on the flight whose bag did not make the plane. He supposedly checked two bags in Portland, so it seems fortuitously and coincidentally odd that one bag was left behind. Two simultaneous coincidences seriously challenge credibility. There is the curious aspect of his last will and testament found in the bag conveniently left behind. Foreign press describe the document as "a cross between a chilling spiritual exhortation aimed at the hijackers and an operational mission checklist." Much has been written about the will, but not in the following context. Atta supposedly wrote it in 1996 and carried it with him for five years. The world is expected to believe that after all this concern and care for his last will and testament, he deliberately took the will with him, knowing it would be destroyed, but it accidently was saved for posterity by poor baggage handling that affected only this bag on this flight. This is a significant contradiction in behavior that is best explained by a theory that the bag, and will, was planted as evidence, by undiscovered co-conspirators. There might be an official counter to this theory that the bag was a plant, by recognizing that “second copy was found in a car parked outside Boston airport, allegedly rented by Atta.” This however, raises equally disturbing questions which remain unanswered. 1. If Atta flew into Boston on the morning of September 11 as alleged, why did he leave a rental car in the parking lot at the Boston airport – overnight - where it could be discovered in advance, thus jeopardizing the entire operation. Should both pieces of “evidence” (bag and car) be viewed as plants, left by people who wanted the world to believe this was an Arabic, terrorist attack? 2. The FBI- on the basis of security videos - is convinced that on September 4, a white Mitsubishi sedan with Atta was seen “casing” the airport parking lot several times within the space of a few days. On September 10, that car is left at the airport by Atta, who then drives north to Portland, Maine, with another hijacker, and flies back to the airport where he left the car. These would seem to be the activities of an individual planning a get-away, more than anything else. How does one explain the presence of this vehicle: plant or getaway car? · The discovered bag also presents a troubling question. The bag supposedly did not get loaded on the plane because it did not arrive within the necessary ten minutes of departure, while the other one did. This means the flight from Portland on which Atta is reported to have arrived, might have landed exceptionally close to departure time of the connecting flight. Is the world THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 300 expected to believe that after years of planning this attack, the attack leader was willing to risk the mission by planning on a connecting flight being ‘on-time’? (Especially when he was within driving distance of the airport.) This however, was probably not the case, which actually makes the bag story more suspicious. American Airlines Flight 11 left at 7:59 AM, but the FBI maintain Atta was on the phone, in the Boston airport at 6:45 – meaning the bag had well over an hour and fifteen minutes to be transferred. This would throw weight to the argument the bag was a plant, put into play by someone who understood the bag handling process and had access to those portions of the airport. Remember that employees of the Israeli owned firm of Huntleigh USA, managed by former Israeli security forces, had access throughout the airport. Atta’s father, in an interview shortly after the attack, made what seemed to be astounding claims at the time. "…(he) claimed that his son had called him two days after the attack, and described it as "a normal conversation." …. Asked what country Muhammad had called from, he said, "The name of the country isn't written on the phone." Asked where Muhammad was now, he said, "Ask Mossad." [Muhammad Atta Sr is in the center of the media storm, Ashraf Khalil] This claim needs to be added to the separate contention by his father that the person captured in the video boarding the Portland flight was not his son. At this point in time, these claims seem to be more consistent with the facts than those presented by the FBI. One of the people who knew Atta best – his father - claims he was working for the Mossad. Consistent with these claims that Atta might have been a Mossad agent, there is now second theory about Atta developing in the official German circles- that Atta worked with Western Intelligence agencies: "Suspicion is growing in Hamburg, Germany that Atta maintained ties with Western intelligence agencies while in Technical School, says one former German intelligence official, pointing to Atta's participation in an elite program sponsored by the German equivalent of the Agency for International Development, an arm of the government which often harbors intelligence operatives in the U.S." [Mohamed Atta Connected To Saudi Royal Family? Daniel Hopsicker , 3/11/2002] "The only information we have connecting the three Hamburg suspects is the FBI's assertion that there is a connection," said a high-ranking (German) police source involved in the investigation…. "We have come across absolutely no evidence of our own."[Los Angeles Times, Carol J. Williams, 10/23/2001 Staff Writer] One might argue that because Atta was the most seasoned “pilot” of the group, his presence on one of the flights leaving Boston was absolutely imperative. This is probably not true. A recent disclosure based on a slow-motion analysis of the plane flying into the South Tower (Building 2) shows that in the last seconds, the plane actually levels out and veers sharply rather than continue its descent, as if it was targeting floor 78. While the analysis concludes it was targeting floor 78, please note that an airliner of that magnitude is several stories in itself, and actually struck several floors simultaneously. According to the residence charts, THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 301 there were no occupants on floors 77 and 76. These were utility floors that contained a 5,000 gallon water tank for the fire sprinkler system. This link between a plane targeting the a floor with the sprinkler system, and the earlier revelation (pages 48-49) that Sakher 'Rocky' Hammad, with forged identity documents, had been working on the Tower’s sprinkler system along with four other individuals, 6 days before the attack, provide support for another theory as to how a group of such inexperienced pilots could target these buildings with such precision. Access by sprinkler repairmen might have enabled the conspirators to plant a small transmitter which would bring the plane right to the tower. The system of choice for this would have been the CTS (Command Transmitter System) and FTS (Flight Termination System) produced by the System Planning Corporation. This system remotely controls test missiles and drones intended for destruction, and is adaptable to planes, boats and motor vehicles. Some of its key selling points for the testing of missiles, include: - “Primary operators can be located up to several hundreds of miles away from the site of …termination - “Each remote (termination) site can be individually controlled, or all (10) remote sites can be operated from a centralized location” - “The FTS is capable of 20 different zones, allowing simultaneous missions from one CTS" [System Planning Corporation] As part of another string of remarkable coincidences, a key Vice Presidential Executive of System Planning Corporation is Rabbi Dov Zakheim. "Who is Rabbi Dov S. Zakheim? Well, first of all he is a Jewish Rabbi, but not just any Jewish Rabbi. For the past three years he has worked as Chief Financial Officer of the United States Dept. of Defense at the Pentagon. Prior to that from 1985 until March 1987, Rabbi . Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources. In that capacity, he played an active role in the Department's system acquisition and strategic planning processes and he guided Department of Defense policy in a number of international economic for a. …Rabbi Zakheim also co-authored the Project for the New American Century's infamous tract, "Rebuilding America's Defenses," in which the Bush Administration's entire design for renewed global conquest was laid down a full year prior to 9-11. Rabbi Zakheim was also Corporate Vice President of System Planning Corporation. "[Ronald Brownstein, Times Staff Writer, 6/13/ 2004] If the Mossad needed a remote control device for this mission, it had a ready made advocate in Rabbi Zacheim, who co-authored the need for a new “Pearl Harbor” to justify invasions of Iraq, Syria and Iran. If the Mossad needed someone to install the system in the Towers, it had Sergei Dimtry Davidenko – that mathematician that hired the Israelis to fix the water system in the Tower 6 days before the attack. Starting in July, 1992, Atta moved from his parent’s home in Cairo to continue his education and start a new life with a German – reportedly Christian - family in Hamburg. After a year, he reportedly began to develop strong ant-Semitic feelings, and was asked to leave this home. This short period of his life is a mystery. The world has been advised of Atta’s parent’s name, the name of his neighbor in Cairo, as well as the names of his landlords, friends and colleagues in Germany and Florida. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 302 All of these people have been interviewed and identified for the public. However, the identity of this family that started him on his new life in Hamburg has been kept secret; a favor not bestowed on any of his other acquaintances. These people spent more time with him than any one else, but their identities are shielded. What inconvenient fact about this family remains to be discovered? · A fact curiously missing from the 9/11 Commission report, but identified by his girlfriend in Florida is that he spoke Hebrew. · Also curiously missing from the 9/11 Commission Report, but reported by Hopsicker, Atta was enrolled as a student at the International Officer’s School of Maxwell Airforce Base, and witnesses recall him having been introduced around at an officers' club party. “On Maxwell Air Force Base (General Charles G. Boyd, BENS): On September 17th, 2001 the Air Force confirmed, that Mohammed Atta trained at a US Air Base. "...Air Force spokesman Col. Ken McClellan said a man named Mohamed Atta -- which the FBI has identified as one of the five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11 -- had once attended the International Officer's School at Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. NOTE: McClellan later denied his own report and claimed, it was another Atta, who worked there." http://www.pressconnects.com/archive/attack/stories/091701N1.html · There seems to be a case being made that the Hamburg cell of which Atta was a member was not created by Al Qaeda, but was created by someone who then “volunteered” the cells services to Al Qaeda. This suggests a “planted” operation rather than a ‘home-grown’ operation. “As reported by Finn in his June 12 2002 Washington Post article: "After the Sept. 11 attacks, Zammar was questioned and released by German police who kept him under surveillance. German officials said they did not have enough evidence to charge Zammar, and he left Germany freely on Oct. 27, ostensibly to obtain a divorce from a Moroccan woman . . . German officials said they have confirmed that Zammar reached Morocco, but he subsequently disappeared."Thus, Zammar was no longer a German problem. As reported by Finn, "Zammar's partner and six children", who were still in Hamburg, "filed an official missing persons report with German authorities." Finn also offers another reason why Zammar was -- and should be regarded as -- one of the more key operatives in the September 11 plot: " At some point, probably in 1998 or early 1999, the Hamburg group decided to `offer themselves' to al Qaeda, [a] U.S. counterterrorism official said, describing Zammar as a central player in that process." [Securing The Plot -- The Lead-Up To 9/11] · Atta’s interests seemed to coincide with those of traditional espionage. An email list of his was reported to the FBI by one of the recipients. Upon investigation, it was reported by a recipient of one of his emails, that Atta had a number of email addresses of defense contractors: "…the email addresses of several of the names on Atta's 'terrorist e-list' appear to have been, or still are, employees of US defense contractors. One name on Atta's email list, for example, apparently worked at a Canadian company called Virtual Prototypes." [The Online Journal, Mohamed Atta Kept Terrorist E-List , Daniel Hopsicker, 4/24/2002] Virtual Prototypes Inc., would later change its name to eNGENUITY Technologies. It seems as though the type of work done at eNGENUITY was of more interest to the Israeli government, than it might be of use to a group such as Al Qaeda, which has no known space systems. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 303 "Montreal, Canada - August 4, 2004 - eNGENUITY Technologies [TSX: EGY], a leading provider of solutions for the development of high-end visualization and simulation applications, today announced that the System Missile and Space Group of the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) MLM division has purchased multiple licenses of eNGENUITY’s STAGE Scenario toolkit to build training scenarios for IAI’s Air Operations C4I Suite (AOCS), an advanced air space monitoring system.” · It is worth noting that Atta is on record as having a business partner in Florida named Hassan Erroudani, “Government records in Florida reveal that Mohamed Atta was the President of a company in Orlando with a business partner whose web of dummy shell companies appear characteristic of the type used in terrorist financing and illicit money laundering, … One day after the 9/11 Commission Report says the terrorist ringleader finished making withdrawals in Virginia Beach, VA. totaling $18,000 from a SunTrust Bank account, on April 5th, 2001 Hassan Erroudani, an Orlando man with close ties to the Moroccan Embassy in Washington D.C., filed incorporation papers with the state of Florida listing the President of KARAM LLC as “Mohamed Atta.” [Daniel Hopsicker , Mohamed Atta, Florida Entrepreneur: Terrorist Ringleader was President of Orlando, Mad Cow Morning News, June 12 2007] Where this becomes interesting is that Erroudani is publicly linked with support from the Allied Media Group, whose customers on their website include: USAF US Army FBI US Treasury Department of Justice Department of State CACI Young & Rubicam BURSON MARSTELLER Allied Media works to recruit ‘translators’ and other third world contractors for the above agencies, which is a role played by Osama Bin Ladin going back to 1979. · A closing observation would be that Atta’s long term associate during his stay in Florida claimed to be a CIA agent while operating ‘flight training schools.’ There is a lot of evidence to support that claim. “… the FBI launched a manhunt scouring the South Pacific for Wolfgang Bohringer, a German pilot fingered as one of Atta's closest associates in “Welcome to TERRORLAND,” after he resurfaced in the middle of the South Pacific recently to launch a highly-dubious enterprise on a tiny island over 1000 miles from a city of any size, where he planned to open a flight school which would only teach pilots how to fly DC3’s. Bohringer was hanging out with Mohamed Atta all over Southwest Florida in the year before 9/11 while serving as the personal pilot of fugitive financier, Victor Kozeny, the so-called “Pirate of Prague.” Kozeny ran afoul of U.S. officials after attempting to bribe his way to ownership of the state oil company in Azerbaijan. His endeavor was assisted by shady American financing, including money from AIG Insurance, whose subsidiary Coral Reinsurance, according to the Arkansas Project, was implicated during the 1980's in cocaine trafficking through Mena, Arkansas.” [Russian Mobster Tied to 9/11 In Assassination Plot in Ukraine, Daniel Hopsicker, MadCow Morning News, November 29, 2006] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 304 “Reporter Barbara Dreaver of New Zealand network TVNZ broke the story of the terror alert yesterday: "The isolated Kiribati islands are grappling with being catapulted into the world of terrorism. The man causing the alarm is Wolfgang Bohringer, who sailed into Kiribati's Fanning Island a year ago.”"It's absolutely gut wrenching frightening," says Fanning Island resident Chuck Corbett. Corbett had gotten in touch with us two months ago after reading several stories about Bohringer in the MadCowMorningNews. He is an easy-going but inquisitive American. What they learned, a Kiribati government authority told New Zealand reporter Dreaver, was that “there was maybe a little more to the proposal (to redo a landing strip and provide air service to the island) than there appeared to be.” “Then there was the cash. Lots of it,” according to New Zealand TV. "I would offer to go shopping for him," says Corbett. "He would always give me a $100 bill. Once it was seven $100 bills and they were always crisp and neat." For Corbett, who spent months with Bohringer, things did not add up. "One particular night he laid out seven passports on the table,” Corbett said. “I recall one from Ireland, from the Bahamas, one from Grenada, India, the US, Germany and one or two others. The Kiribati government is calling for the US, New Zealand and Australia to help them with security, reported New Zealand’s Barbara Dreaver. New Zealand’s ONE News spoke to an FBI Agent who confirmed that the FBI is continuing its search for the mysterious Wolfgang Bohringer, and his cash-laden yacht. They want answers to why Bohringer would set up a flight school using DC3’s on an island bordering US waters, and “are very keen to find out where he is.'” [FBI Terror Alert in South Pacific for Wolfgang Bohringer/Terror Alert suspect fingered by Mohamed Atta's American girlfriend, Daniel Hopsicker, MadCowMorningNews ,, November 16, 2006, http://www.madcowprod.com/11162006.html] When Bohringer was located, he was immediately released upon arrest. “The JTTF swiftly descended on Wolfgang Bohringer, outside Fanning Island, in the South Pacific, about 1000 miles south of Hawaii, on the 17th of November. Sources reported that the arresting officers said, “The first thing out of his mouth made him go from a ‘5’ to an ‘8’” (on a scale of importance). Allegedly, Bohringer had claimed, “You can’t arrest me, I’m working for the CIA.” It looks like Bohringer was right. The day after the arrest, The Megaphone’s JTTF sources did an about-face. With a mix of threats and attempts at persuasion, they claimed that an error had been made: Bohringer had not been arrested. It was someone else. They couldn’t say who. That identity was secret.” [Mohamed Atta's Best Friend Caught in South Pacific: “You can’t arrest me, I’m working for the CIA,” Sander Hicks, New York Megaphone, December 19, 2006, http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20061219213258655] The Atta-Bohringer connection provides an interesting linkage back to George HW Bush’s secret war against the Soviet Union in 1991. Bohringer’s extensive relationship to Viktor Kozeny is actually one of several connections to US Intelligence, the first being his claim to his arresting officers that he was a CIA operative, apparently a substantiated claim in that Bohringer was released within hours after his arrest. The other linkages are through his nominal employer, Viktor Kozeny, who appears as a front man for Western Intelligence in the early 1990s no more or less than Leo Wanta. · Kozeny received funding for his Azerbaijan bribery and money laundering efforts to purchase SOCAR, the Azerbaijan State Oil Company, from AIG. AIG has been, since WWII, a major CIA intelligence operation. History records that the OSS learned that in the 1940’s that the Nazis owned 45% of the world’s insurance companies, and used the background files from these companies to plan their espionage and bombing raids. With this lesson, when William ‘Wild Bill’ Dovovan created the CIA, part of his legacy was an extensive partnership with AIG. [see "The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men," Mark Fritz. The Los Angeles Times 2000 September 22, 200] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 305 · Kozeny’s contact at AIG was Frank Gardiner Wisner [see Capturing the Pirate of Prague, Rob Urban and David Glovin, International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, Bloomberg Markets, February 23, 2006] Frank G Wisner was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe at the end of World War II, and the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wisner] · One of Kozeny’s key promoters was Senator George Mitchell. Mitchell had served in the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps from 1954 until 1956, and later served on the Iran-Contra Senate Hearings and while challenging some of Oliver North’s assumptions about patriotism, inevitably supported the conclusions of the committee. · When Kozeny and his investment ‘partners’ were brought to US court for money laundering and bribery, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin dismissed most of the charges. [see Federal Prosecutors Hope To Revive Oil Bribery Case, Free Internet Press, 2007-08-23]. Scheindlin is the same judge that dismissed charges against Osama Awadallah, who was an associate of the two San Diego based September 11 terrorists. Her ruling prevented the FBI from collecting information on the two terrorists. · Kozeny was initially funded by loans from Alpha Bank, which is represented in the US by ex-Bush administrators Lanny Griffith and Ed Rogers of Barbour, Griffith and Rogers [Seller of Privatization Securities Is Indicted in the U.S., Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times, October 3, 2003]. Kozeny used his scam proceeds to repay Alpha Bank. It is of related note that Alpha Bank funds a fellowship for Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, which also funded Mohammed Atta’s entrance to Germany. [For The Record#573, Alfa Males—One Helluva Conspiracy Theory, Part II, Recorded on 10/15/2006.] 12.7 Atta’s Connections to Pakistani, Syrian and German Intelligence There is a significant amount of undisputed public data that clearly indicates Mohammed Atta was receiving support from the Syrian and Pakistani Intelligence organizations. Virtually every analysis of the attack on the WTC ignores this data because it does not fit theories that Al Qaeda or the Bush Oil interests were responsible. This information might suggest that Syria or Pakistan, rather than Khashoggi and the rogue Russian/Israelis controlled the operation. However, when probed for an explanation for this cooperation between the Pakistani and Syrian Intelligence groups, the only explanation that seems to be plausible points back to Khashoggi and George Bush Sr.. This is a generally ignored data point that suggests the attack on the WTC was not an Al Qaeda operation. Shortly after the attack, the Indian press released a report that the Director of the ISI (Pakistani) Intelligence (director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad) THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 306 had been responsible for wiring $100,000 to an account belonging Mohammed Atta in the weeks before September 11. “According to accounts in both The Times of India and India Today, former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad instructed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta. "A direct link between the ISI and the WTC attack could have enormous repercussions," the Times article said. "The U.S. cannot but suspect whether there were other senior Pakistani Army commanders who were in the know of things." “It added: "Evidence of a larger conspiracy could shake U.S. confidence in Pakistan's ability to participate in the anti-terrorism coalition." The Times says Ahmad lost his job only after India shared with the FBI evidence showing a link between the general and Sheikh's wiring of funds to Atta.” [Did ally Pakistan play role in 9-11? Indian intelligence finds more linksto terrorist attacks in U.S., Delhi By Paul Sperry© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com] It appears as though the Indians were using this opportunity to eliminate an enemy of the state of India (Mahmoud Ahmad), and were quite successful in doing so. By publicly releasing the information to the press (an action usually avoided as a professional courtesy) the U.S. was forced to act. The charges were never refuted. Mahmoud Ahmad was forced to retire, with no subsequent investigation, no lock-up and interrogation at Guantanamo by US Intelligence, no confiscation of bank accounts. In fact, he was treated quite similarly as the Israeli agents detained in the U.S. When trying to understand the absence of any punitive action by U.S. authorities for his role in funding the attack, one must consider his connections. Mahmud Ahmad was in the U.S., having breakfast with Senators Graham and Kyl, and Congressman Porter Goss (who would later be rewarded with being made Director of the CIA), when the attack on the World Trade Center happened. “…the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee doing on the morning of 9/11 before that first plane hit? Senator Bob Graham, Senator Jon Kyl and Congressman Porter Goss were having breakfast with Mahmud Ahmad, then Pakistani Chief of Intelligence - the same man who ordered $100,000 to be wired into hijacker Mohammed Atta’s bank account [Slick Trick, By Ellen W. Horowitz, Israel Hasbara Committee] “General Ahmad had already been reported as having breakfast in the nation's capital with Senator Bob Graham and Representative Porter Goss on the morning of September 11 (both Graham and Goss would go on to co-chair the joint Senate-House 9/11 inquiry). In fact, as early as September 9—two days before 9/11, for those who didn't notice—Karachi News had weighed in with the following observation: "ISI Chief Lt-Gen [Mahmud Ahmad's] week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council . . . What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, [General Ahmad's] predecessor, was here during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days. That this is not the first visit by [General Ahmad] in the last three months shows the urgency of the ongoing parleys." [Truth, lies, and the legend of 9/11 Part 1 of 10 parts: There's something about Omar, By Chaim Kupferberg, OnLine Journal] “… the afternoon of 9-11, as well as on September 12 and 13, Ahmad met with Richard Armitage” “... Most controversially, Goss was having a breakfast meeting in Washington with the then ISI chief Mahmoud Ahmad at the exact instant the 9/11 hijackers flew their planes into the World Trade Center. Ahmad was a Taliban supporter who was subsequently removed from his job when he continued to bat for the outlaw regime post 9/11. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 307 Some reports have suggested that Ahmad and the ISI had links to -- or foreknowledge about -- 9/11. A money transfer from Karachi to the hijackers in Florida has never been fully explored or explained. Ahmad was never called to account for this or his support to the Taliban post 9/11 even as General Musharraf moved him into the shadows. Goss himself visited Pakistan just a few days before 9/11 for talks with the then pariah military establishment of Gen. Musharraf. By Goss's own account, the visit was more Kashmir-centered.” [Times of India -AUGUST 10, 2004, GlobalFree Press http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=485] Why this individual, with clear and undeniable financial links to the attack on the WTC and a long record of U.S. support is not mentioned in the official Commission Report on 9/11, remains a significant mystery. It is however, of important note that Porter Goss – former CIA agent, and now Director of the CIA, and identified by a former-Iran-Contra conspirator as someone with responsibility for the cover-up of the Iran-Contra drug deals and subsequent media damage, was working with a documented source of hijacker funding before and after the attack on the World Trade Center. Additionally, Mahmoud Ahmad met with Richard Armitage, another Iran-Contra conspirator, whose field work with the Mujahedin spanned fifteen years or so. Once again, the link between the Iran- Contra criminals and 9-11 terrorists is demonstrated. The explanation offered for the meetings between Mahmoud and Porter, Goss and Armitage (as offered by Porter and Goss) is that Mahmoud Ahmad was in Washington to ‘turn over’ Osama Bin Ladin, who was expected to die shortly. Bin Ladin, dying, was a convenient ‘patsy.’ The FBI could have arrested him in July of 2001, but evidently had contravening orders. The CIA knew Osama was at a military hospital in Pakistan, just as they had known earlier he was in a hospital in Dubai. Rather than negotiate with Ahmad, they could have arrested Bin Ladin. He was on the FBI most wanted list. “According to the Reuters report: "At the time, bin Laden had a multi-million dollar price on his head for his suspected role in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa". So why did the hospital staff, who knew that Osama was at the American Hospital in Dubai, not claim the reward? The Figaro report points to complicity between the CIA and Osama rather than "negotiation". (see excerpt below). Consistent with several other reports, it also points to the antagonism between the FBI and the CIA. If the CIA had wanted to arrest Osama bin Laden prior to September 11, they could have done it then in Dubai (July 2001). But they would not have had a the war on terrorism pretext for waging a major military operation in the Middle East and Central Asia.” [Where was Osama bin Laden on 9/11? Bush Administration knew the Whereabouts of Osama, by Michel Chossudovsky ] “Barry Petersen, CBS Correspondent (voice-over): Everyone remembers what happened on September 11. Here`s the story of what may have happened the night before. It is a tale as twisted as the hunt for Osama bin Laden. CBS News has been told that the night before the September 11 terrorist attack, Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. He was getting medical treatment with the support of the very military that days later pledged its backing for the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan. Pakistan intelligence sources tell CBS News that bin Laden was spirited into this military hospital in Rawalpindi for kidney dialysis treatment. On that night, says this medical worker who wanted her identity protected, they moved out all the regular staff in the urology department and sent in a secret team to replace them. She says it was treatment for a very special person…. "The military had him surrounded," says this hospital employee who also wanted his identity masked, "and I saw the mysterious patient helped out of a car. Since that time," he says, "I have seen many pictures of the man. He is the man we know as Osama bin Laden. I also heard two army officers talking to each other. They were saying that Osama bin Laden had to be watched carefully and looked THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 308 after." Those who know bin Laden say he suffers from numerous ailments, back and stomach problems. Ahmed Rashid, who has written extensively on the Taliban says the military was often there to help before 9/11. Inpatient dialysis treatment tends to be longer than 24 hours in most American hospitals, which suggests that Osama would have been discharged from the Hospital on or "after" September 11. If the CBS report is accurate and Osama had indeed been admitted to the Pakistani military hospital on September 10, courtesy of America's ally, he was in all likelihood still in hospital in Rawalpindi on the 11th of September, when the attacks occurred. In all probability, his whereabouts were known to US officials on the morning of September 12, when Secretary of State Colin Powell initiated negotiations with Pakistan, with a view to arresting and extraditing bin Laden. These negotiations, led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan's military intelligence, on behalf of the government of President Pervez Musharraf, took place on the 12th and 13th of September in Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's office.” [M. Chossudovsky, Cover-up or Complicity of the Bush Administration? --The Role of Pakistan's Military Intelligence (ISI) in the September 11 Attacks, 2 November 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html] “….he did not agree on the issue of surrendering Osama bin Laden. The maximum that he agreed to was to form a court, an Islamic religious scholar's court, to try him.” [A General Turn Around, By Zahid Hussain, Newsline, 2/2003] “Looking more closely at Saeed Sheikh (who studied for some time at the Fabian Socialists' London School of Economics), on February 5, 2002 Sheikh voluntarily surrendered to Pakistani authorities who wanted to take him into custody for the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl. Sheikh reportedly was taken to Rawalpindi (where Gen. Ahmad is now living in seclusion), where Ahmad ally Gen. Mohammed Aziz Khan has lived. Khan has been with the ISI and is now head of Pakistan leader Gen. Musharraf's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Khan also hosted parties where Sheikh was frequently in attendance before October 8, 2000. The reason Sheikh was taken to Rawalpindi reportedly was so that Gen. Khan could convince Sheikh not to reveal the ISI-bin Laden connection. Gen. Khan had helped Osamabin Laden get dialysis treatment and helped the Taliban and Al Qaeda relocate in safe sanctuaries in Pakistan after the U.S. attacked the Taliban. Have you ever wondered why Sheikh was not charged for his alleged involvement in the attacks of 9- 11, and why the U.S. did not request his extradition for the murder of Daniel Pearl who was investigating the ISI-Al Qaeda connection? Could it be because Sheikh would have exposed the link between Gen. Musharraf, the ISI and bin Laden? On November 27, 2004 Gen. Musharraf's military spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, announced that they were pulling Pakistani forces who had been searching for Osama bin Laden and other members of Al Qaeda away from checkpoints and some other positions along the border with Afghanistan, and they would no longer be searching specifically for them there.” [Copyright © 2004 Cutting Edge Ministries] As for Atta’s connections to Syrian Intelligence, it is reported that Atta worked for a company in Germany that was a Syrian intelligence front: “…CIA-Syria cooperation was far more extensive, former and serving U.S. intelligence officials said. According to these sources, Syria and the CIA have a joint exploitation center based in Aleppo, plus Syria turned over to the agency all its intelligence networks in Germany as well as all of Syria's cover companies there. As a result, the agency learned that Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker Mohammed Atta once worked in Germany for a Syrian cover company, these sources said. …a former senior CIA official said.[ U.S. Syria raid killed 80, Richard Sale, UPI Intelligence Correspondent, July 21, 2003] “Tatex Trading has employed, at various times in the past 15 years, two Syrian-born German citizens… who are high on the list of Sept. 11 suspects….Investigators also say Atta himself worked for a time at Tatex…The origins of Tatex Trading itself have become of interest to investigators… Tatex investor is Mohamad Majed Said, a former head of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate…” [ The Chicago Tribune November 3, 2002] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 309 There are relatively reliable sources suggesting Atta received funding from the Syrian intelligence organization. (It is of worth to note that Syria supported the US with troops during the first Gulf War.) Finally, this report should mention that Atta may have also been funded, while in Europe, by a joint U.S.-German intelligence operation. In coming to Germany, Atta was funded with a scholarship and employed as a tutor by the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. “The organization that apparently sponsored Atta’s travels was the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (its American component is the Carl Duisberg Society)—named for one of the principal figures in the founding of I.G. Farben. “News that Mohamed Atta had been on the payroll of an elite international program known as the ‘Congress-Bundestag Program first surfaced a month after the 9/11 attack in a brief seven-line report by German newspaper Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung on 10/18/2001 under the headline ‘Atta was Tutor for Scholarship Holders… Atta had therefore been on the payroll of a joint U.S.-German government program was concealed by the newspaper through the simple expedient of neglecting to mention that the ‘Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft’ was merely a private entity set up to administer an official U.S. and German government initiative,” (For the Record, #408) Subsequent Internet reports linked the Carl Duisberg Society to administration by the U.S. Information Agency, but this had not been verified by any government documentation. Most of the funding for the U.S. program seems to come from Robert Bosh Stiftung GmbH, on whose board sits Dr. jur. Ulrich Cartellieri (Deutschebank) and Dr. jur. Peter Adolff (Allianz). Alpha Bank, represented in the US by ex-Bush administrators Lanny Griffith and Ed Rogers, also funds a fellowship for Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. [For The Record#573, Alfa Males—One Helluva Conspiracy Theory, Part II, Recorded on 10/15/2006.] The more interesting aspect of Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft is that it’s Managing Director is Bernd Schleich, the same individual who is Managing Director of InWEnt (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung. If one investigates the activites and research of InWEnt, it appears to be a commercial intelligence operation that does studies on such matters as money-laundering, weapons trades, drug smuggling, anthrax control in such places as South America, Central Asia and Africa. Atta’s involvement with Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft may be co-incidental but in light of the revelations about Syrian and Pakistani intelligence connections, Atta’s links to German and US intelligence are probably real, and not coincidental. There seems to be little dispute that Mohammed Atta was connected to both the Pakistani Intelligence and the Syrian Intelligence, and received funding from both. In both cases, when this was reported to US investigators, the investigation on those sources of funding came to a grinding halt under the argument of ‘national security.’ The government leaders of Pakistan and Syria, in the pre- and post-9/11 world, have demonstrated themselves to be supportive of US counter-terrorist efforts, and their intelligence organizations have provided some, but probably less than total disclosure. However, the rank-and-file of the intelligence and military organizations in both Syria and Pakistan demonstrate loyalties to Muslim groups that have established themselves as de facto governments in Lebanon and Afghanistan, and are far more religiously conservative than are their top government leaders. Is it possible that both Syria and Pakistan intelligence organizations were taking direction from a higher authority, working with rogue Mossad direction, while their rank-and-file were committed to more nationalistic, Islamic values? THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 310 That type of scenario is not so far removed from a similar situation in the US intelligence organizations, where a conflict exists between “professional” agents and the more “political” agents – the latter whose careers ride with political fortunes rather than tenure, merit and service. There does not appear to be any direct evidence, but pertinent history does demonstrate the ability of the Mossad, Syrian and Pakistani intelligence to work together for financial gain. The case is point is the October Surprise incident, and the subsequent Iran-Contra scandal. In those operations, Gaith Pharon, former Head of Saudi Intelligence, worked with a core team of Iranians and Israelis to support George Bush Sr.’s deception of the American public. (See Section 9: Iran-Contra and the October Surprise) Twenty years later, reports indicate that Gaith Pharon plays a dominant role in the direction of Afghan Mujahedeen through his operations in Pakistan, and has considerable influence in Syria and Saudi Arabia. “BCCI also served as a conduit for the Iran-Contra operation, largely through Gaith Pharon, former head of Saudi Intelligence, who operated out of Islamabad, Pakistan. The Saudis played a major role in funding the Mujahadeen and [via the request of Secord and McFarlane] the Contras”. [Iran-Contra Connections to the Oklahoma Bombing , gathered by Alex Constantine© 2000 Alex Constantine. All rights reserved] “Gaith Pharon … A main figure in the BCCI scandal even though he played a minor role compared to Khaled bin Mahfouz and others. Lives between Saudi Arabia and Syria. Escapes Interpol by taking his yacht to international waters. Syrian intelligence warns him ahead of time. His father was a close advisor to King Faisal and builder of Saudi politics.” [http://www.geocities.com/saudhouse_p/industry.htm] “According to the September 17, 2001 issue of the German weekly Die Zeit, Mohamed Atta, visited Syria several times between 1994 and 1999. Syrian territory was used to prepare the different attacks held against the Pentagon and New York City. Yes! when Mr Chareh Spoke about complicity he was thinking on Syria complicity in the 11th September attacks.” [Syria – Al Qaida Connection, Dr. J. R. Albani, http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/2003/May/connection/connection.html] Gaith has always been close to Adnan Khashoggi. If Khashoggi was – at a high level – directing this effort, he could easily have engaged Syrian and Pakistani Intelligence through Gaith Pharon. With their long history of working with the Bush family, engaging the Bush family to cover-up for them would not have been a problem. Engaging the Israelis for the operation would have been just as easy. Virtually all the biographical information about Atta presented by the German and US government, which documents his career as a terrorist may be perfectly accurate. Under consideration of the circumstances, however, one is forced to question whether Atta was actually an Al Qaeda agent or Israeli agent acting in a manner so as to gain the trust of the Arabic groups he was infiltrating. If Atta was a Mossad agent, as his father claimed, many of the anomalies are explained: · the comments by his father; · the possible disappearance out a back door at the Boston airport; · the interest in space technology later acquired by Israel; · his ability to speak Hebrew; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 311 · his involvement with German intelligence and US military organizations; · the cover-up of his German host family; and · his dual personality attested to by his friends on two continents. The primary investigator of all these activities and relationships has been Daniel Hopsicker, who has been reporting new details on these businesses and their owners for almost three years. Most of his focus has been on demonstrating the extensive involvement of the FBI and CIA in regional drug activities, and the total inadequacy of the 9-11 Commission report on the activities of various “persons of interest” in southern Florida. After all this time, Hopsicker still wonders how to explain all the German, Russian and ex-KGB names and faces he uncovered while investigating this story, most of which remains unreported by him for want of a reason. If one looks for an alternative explanation that suggests heavy Mossad involvement in the Florida flight schools, the link to the ex-KGB and Russian element falls is easily understood. 12.8 The Iran-Contra Re-Union Throughout this report, there have been names of individuals previously associated with treason, bank fraud, money-laundering, gun-running which all seem to find a common background in the events referred to as Iran-Contra, the October Surprise, the BCCI bank scandal, the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal. This group appears to have moved it’s base of operations to Azerbaijan, a small country whose dictator is widely recognized to be a criminal in his own right. This group includes: · Adnan Khashoggi, whose Azerbaijan banks "played a big part in the formation of terrorist camps and in the opening of laboratories for developing chemical and bacteriological weapons in Nagornyy Karabakh;’ major mover of illegal gold; major investor and founder in Barrick; major investor in Oryx – financial backer of Huffman Aviation; business partner with General William Lyon – founder of diploma mills which provided access for two hijackers. · Richard Secord, a former U.S. Air Force major general who been helping to recruit and train the Azerbaijani army as well as regional secret services in conjunction with David Kimche; · Richard Armitage, managed illegal gold funds for George HW Bush during Iran- Contra period; acting as a consultant to Halliburton and Unocal at the time, and President of the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce; demonstrated history of visits to Pakistan and the rest of Central Asia; · Farhad Azima, arms merchant with Iranian background, member of US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, assisted Richard Secord in recruiting and training mujahadin mercenaries, owned the Azerbaijani Airlines, and has a twenty year old relationship with the Bush family enterprise; significant co-investor with Wally Hilliard of Huffman Aviation in Spatialight. Inc. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 312 · Khalid bin Mahfouz, owner, with the bin Laden family and members of the Saudi royal family of the Saudi companies Delta Oil and Nimir Oil. Both are partners with Unocal in Azerbaijan; partner in multiple Bush family enterprises; participant in Barrick and Trizec Hahn; · Brent Scowcroft, Director in the Azerbaijan International Operating Company; participant in congressional hearings that let Iran-Contra participants off-the-hook. · Dick Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, lobbyist for the Azerbaijan International Operating Company on US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce; participant in Congressional hearings that let Iran-Contra participants off-the-hook. · David Kimche, Israeli Mossad agent who brought Israeli agents into Azerbaijan at the request of Secord, and worked Secord and the regional secret service organizations; participant in the October Surprise and Iran-Contra scandal; This report hypothesizes that this group conspired to provision and execute a plan to destroy the World Trade Center on behalf of the German/Swiss banking cartel. The idea for the attack most likely came from the Israelis, as did the original thinking for the October Surprise and Iran-Contra. The proposal probably came from Kimche, through Bronfman to the cartel, as the quid pro quo required to successfully negotiate a solution to the U.S. gold related investigations plaguing the Swiss banks in 1998. In exchange for a lucrative payout on the gold issue, Bronfman promised the banks protection against further investigations by various US agencies housed in the World Trade Center, which were drilling deep into accounts that might expose larger bank vulnerabilities. Bronfman’s connections with the Clinton administration brought “Buzzy’ Krongard into the CIA in 1998 to coordinate the cover. However, this would not be enough. Khashoggi was a person all parties could work with, and had demonstrated his ability to arrange financing for covert activities which could be well hidden. Khashoggi, with Bronfman, was able to arrange for additional U.S. support by engaging his former Iran-Contra colleagues. Once Khashoggi had coordinated the involvement of the Iran-Contra- Azerbaijan team, Secord probably arranged recruitment and Armitage probably managed diplomatic cover (e.g., Pakistani involvement, German involvement, Syrian involvement…) Kimche probably managed ‘insurance,’ making sure the back-up plans for destruction of the buildings held up and the designated hijackers did what they were recruited to do. As a quid pro quo for the use of Osama Bin Ladin as a fall guy, Bush Sr. probably had to allow the Saudis to attempt to kill his son. When they failed, he was required to allow Osama Bin Ladin to live. At the end of the day, this attack was going to happen whether the Bush enterprise wanted it or not, whether Bush was president or not. Bush knew that, and capitalized on it rather than prevent it. Bush knew that if the actual planners were identified by US investigators, they would take him down with them. Thus, he put in motion an elaborate cover-up which involved a “controlled” patsy – Osama Bin Laden. Once the primary plan was in motion, other plans were set in motion to capitalize on the event. The Bush administration had its plans- essentially to move its Central Asian oil agenda further, faster. The Israelis had their plans, which was to use the event to further its own security interest in the Middle East. Khashoggi made a few million on his MJK THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 313 scandal. The Bush enterprise was able to legalize investments and aid in Azerbaijan, thus enabling them to continue their standard pump and dump practice of oil stocks. Equally important, it allowed the Bush enterprise to push billions of US taxpayer dollars from Aid for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export Import Bank through the Riggs Bank, where they were taking their percentage whether the investments paid off or not. It seems as though the Bush family had been setting up its own international banking pipeline to compete with the Deutschebank. This would prove to be the Riggs Bank, with its small set of global offices providing banking services to nearly every foreign embassy in the US. “CAMBRIDGE, MA – January 1, 2005 – On December 31st, the Wall Street Journal's Glenn Simpson reported that Riggs Bank, currently under federal investigation for failure to comply with anti-money laundering laws, has longstanding ties to the CIA. Riggs is being investigated for failing to report suspicious transactions involving the accounts of Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and Teodoro Obiang, the current President of Equatorial Guinea. The relationship was significant enough that top Riggs executives received U.S. government security clearances; Simpson also noted that both Pinochet and Prince Bandar have worked with the CIA in the past. However, the nature of the bank's relationship with the CIA is largely unknown.” [The Public Accountability Initiative] “On July 21st, following the revelation that Riggs had also aided dictator Augusto Pinochet in hiding money looted from the Chilean national treasury, Bush stated, "It's important for the facts to be en la mesa, as we say, on the table...Riggs Bank is being fully investigated, and they'll be investigated in a very open way." Press reports have also noted that George W. Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, heads a subsidiary of the bank. However, other significant ties between the Bush administration, federal banking regulators, and Riggs officials have never been publicly disclosed Riggs & Co. Vice Chairman and Director J. Carter Beese is a close associate of George W. Bush and the Bush family. He was a Bush Pioneer in 2000 and a leading donor to the Bush Florida recount effort. He holds a presidential appointment and has served as a confidential advisor to George W. Bush on the nomination of high-level regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1992, following more than a decade of service to the Bush family's political endeavors, George H. W. Bush appointed Beese to the post of SEC Commissioner. Beese also helped to found the Carlyle Group, a conglomerate with historical ties to the bin Laden family and George H. W. Bush. While serving as an executive at Alex. Brown, Beese was mentored closely by A. B. Krongard, appointed by George W. Bush as Executive Director of the CIA, the third highest-ranking position at the Agency.” [New Evidence in the Riggs Case: The Bush Administration's Links to the "Bank of Presidents"A Public Accountability Initiative Report, 10/15/2004] “Beginning in administration of George H.W. Bush, Riggs forged an unorthodox financial relationship with the Department of Treasury. As a major contractor, Riggs provides data processing, account management and software development services for the Federal government. Through a partnership with the Treasury Department's Financial Management Service, Riggs manages the Federal government's financial flow and reconciles its accounts. The bank has collected an estimated $3 million per year in fees from the Federal government for the service and beat out many larger banks to win the account.” [New Evidence in the Riggs Case: The Bush Administration's Links to the "Bank of Presidents" A Public Accountability Initiative Report, 10/15/2004] “Under the Bush Administration, Riggs has also been a major recipient of Federal assistance through the Eximbank. Over the past four years, Riggs has received Federal-backed financing for export transactions to nations such as Bulgaria, Venezuela, Nigeria and Brazil.39.”[New Evidence in the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 314 Riggs Case: The Bush Administration's Links to the "Bank of Presidents" A Public Accountability Initiative Report, 10/15/2004] The Bush family enterprises have never been about the oil – it’s always been about the money, and as their old family friend Richard Secord has noted: “Nobody makes money unless there’s a boogeyman.” THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 315 13 Cover-up: Credibility of the American Press and Government For most Americans, the findings of this report raise the question of credibility. Whom should one believe: the government? the American press? the sources in this report? When it comes to trusting the government sources regarding the matters covered in this report, the only published opinion survey on the substance of this report found that nearly half of the American public does not find the official government story credible! From Zogby International, the official polling agency for Reuters in the US, one learns “… half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5. The poll is the first of its kind conducted in America that surveys attitudes regarding US government complicity in the 9/11 tragedy. Despite the acute legal and political implications of this accusation, nearly 30% of registered Republicans and over 38% of those who described themselves as "very conservative" supported the claim.” [ Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed” To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York’s Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals http://www.zogby.com ,Released: August 30, 2004] Similarly, Time Magazine reported in December 2005 that 48% of Americans believe President Bush deliberately misled the American public to build his case for invading Iraq. [The New Rules of Engagement, Michael Ware, Time, December 12, 2005, p.38] With this type of public support (or lack there-of), challenging the credibility of the US Government official story should not be interpreted as an unpatriotic act, although it will be. The credibility of this report, challenging the credibility of the official US government position, does generate some concern. It might be very easy to dismiss the findings in this report by arguing that the independent, free press has not reported on these findings, therefore they must not be true. Actually, the free press has done its job, but it appears that when it comes to matters of organized crime, the free press has been reduced to a handful of courageous individuals who have suffered much to bring Americans the truth. Without them, this report could not exist. This report attempts to recognize those reporters by using their words directly, rather than burying the recognition in a footnote. To assist the reader is assessing the issue of credibility and reliability of an independent, free press, this section presents three arguments and supportive evidence which demonstrates that the level of control of ‘the media’ by an ‘organized crime’ syndicate is both insidious and pervasive: 1. Through control of various positions in the government and through close relations with owners of the press, the Bush political and family network is able to bury news it believes will expose their crimes; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 316 2. Any individual who challenges the Bush syndicate as a witness, reporter, or whistleblower, or resists pressure to publish the news as preferred by the Bush network, is definitely risking their career, their life and the lives of their family. This is particularly true in the case of news reporters. As a result, the Bush political and family network suppresses the news through “terrorism” ranging from intimidation to murder, to mass murder. At least nine investigative reporters have been murdered while following up on the Bush syndicate. 3. In addition to suppressing the news through fear and influence, there is a large propaganda effort which is used to feed the media “controlled’ news. Using these tactics, the Bush network provided cover-up for those responsible for 9/11. The phrase “Bush network” or “Bush syndicate” can only be understood in historic context. In July of 1980, CIA agents began discussions with the Iranians and Israelis which would ultimately evolve into what was known as the Iran-Contra Scandal. The Senior member of that group was Vice Presidential candidate George Bush, former Director of the CIA and the primary decision-maker of that clandestine group. That same group of individuals would grow to include many others involved in the cover-up of those meetings, and subsequent arms-for-drugs deals. Because of Bush’s senior position with that group, which ultimately allowed him to become President, this group is referred to by this report as a “Bush syndicate.” Bush would later use his Presidential powers to protect this group from prosecution, and pardon those he could not protect. The “Bush network” is a reference to a group of business and political associates who trade money and favors, leaving the ‘wet work’ to the “syndicate.” Many of those same individuals in both groups would work for his son, George Bush Jr., ten years later. The Bush “family” includes the syndicate, the network, and the actual family members. It includes a wide range of international money-movers and fraudsters who have been involved in moneylaundering, bank fraud, tax evasion and other assorted criminal activities. The Bush family justifies these crimes in the name of “patriotism.” Just as Al Capone viewed himself as a “public benefactor” and sought to keep America “whole, safe, and unspoiled” from the foreign menace – the Bush family has somehow distorted its criminal history as patriotic endeavor. This will not surprise those who follow the workings of Bush’s henchmen: “His Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, likes to quote Al Capone: "You will get more with a kind word and a gun than you will with a kind word alone." 13.1 Control of the Media There are some stories that are so “big,” one wonders how the American press can ignore them while the rest of world is receiving reports. One such story, for illustrative purposes is the following: “Today, on Democracy Now!, the U.S. broadcast premiere of a documentary film called “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death.” The film provides eyewitness testimony that U.S. troops were complicit in the massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners during the Afghan War. It tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military’s Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 317 According to eyewitnesses, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. Eyewitnesses say when the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open wounds. Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave. The film has sent shockwaves around the world. It has been broadcast on national television in Britain, Germany, Italy and Australia. It has been screened by the European parliament. It has outraged human rights groups and international human rights lawyers. They are calling for investigation into whether U.S. Special Forces are guilty of war crimes. But most Americans have never heard of the film. That’s because not one corporate media outlet in the U.S. will touch it. It has never before been broadcast in this country.” [Convoy of Death. Why have US television stations refused to broadcast this documentary? News You Won’t Find on CNN, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3267.htm] Never the less, these stories are never quite picked up by the US major media. Nor are the stories about murdered reporters and investigators who chase the Iran-Contra criminals. Nor are the hundreds of odd coincidences that overwhelm the 9-11 Commission Report, but are totally ignored in the mainstream media. One begins to ask, where is the coverage of these stories? This chapter attempts to explain why that coverage is lacking. The story begins when Bush Sr. ran the CIA as its Director, and later as unofficial acting President under Reagan, and then as President himself. These tours allowed George Bush Sr. almost 25 years of opportunity to put in place a major propaganda machine which has allowed him and his son to control, create, falsify, distort and bury the news. This gave him 25 years to perfect a strategy initiated by Averill Harriman who owned Time Magazine, or CIA Director William Casey being the controlling stockholder in ABC. Hence, this report needs to document a two front strategy by the Bush family to manage the news: cover-up and propaganda. 13.2 Systemic Fear After investigating these crimes across thousands of news stories and websites, it becomes clear that there is a pattern of intimidation which silences those who would attempt to expose the Bush family, and there are dozens of examples of this. There are six levels of escalation in this systematic use of fear: · Level 1: When individuals report information that conflicts with the “officially sanctioned” story or even portrays a negative image of the Bush administration, its policies or personalities, these individuals are instructed and coached to drop the matter or ignore it. Sometimes, Level One may result in warnings be issued before a possible witness contemplates coming forward, as in the air traffic controllers on 9/11. “One air traffic controller from another Northeast sector revealed to a 9-11 widow that FBI threats were made of both a personal and career nature: "You are ordered never to speak about what you saw on your screen during the attacks; and if you do, things will not go well for you THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 318 and your family." [Missile & remote control systems added to small jets before 9-11; same parts found at Pentagon, Tom Flocco, TomFlocco.com, 5/26/2005] · Level 2: If they are conscientious, and press the matter with their supervisors they are warned there will be repercussions for officially pursuing the matter, such as career limitations. (Examples: Dan Rather, James Norman, formerly Senior Editor of Forbes Magazine and now with Media Bypass Magazine, New York Firefighters, LA Police Department, district immigration adjudications officer Mary Schneider, Karon von Gerhke-Thompson, witness in the Riggs- Valmet money laundering scandal). The following example is of interest because it not only shows how the government distorts information, but then turns on those who expose the distortion! “The scandal: The Department of Justice completely botched the nation's first post-9/11 terrorism trial, as seen when the convictions of three Detroit men allegedly linked to al-Qaida were overturned in September 2004. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft had claimed their June 2003 sentencing sent "a clear message" that the government would "detect, disrupt and dismantle the activities of terrorist cells." The problem: The DOJ's lead prosecutor in the case, Richard Convertino, withheld key information from the defense and distorted supposed pieces of evidence - like a Las Vegas vacation video purported to be a surveillance tape. But that's not the half of it. Convertino says he was unfairly scapegoated because he testified before the Senate, against DOJ wishes, about terrorist financing. Justice's reconsideration of the case began soon thereafter. Convertino has since sued the DOJ, which has also placed him under investigation.” [The Scandal Sheet , Peter Dizikes, Salon.com, January 18, 2005 ] · Level 3: If they continue to press the matter they are ‘set-up’ for criminal or procedural infractions, investigated, and then lose their security clearances, are suspended, or fired. They are then often slandered by others in the media. (Examples: Mike German, Sibel Edmonds, General Kevin Byrnes, LT Colonel Anthony Shaffer, LA Police Department for the Contra investigations, Richard Brenneke, Gary Webb.) · Level 4: If the matter is serious enough to cause broad exposure, the Attorney General’s office issues a restraining court order on them to cease and desist in the interest of National Security (no further explanation by the government is required) and threatened with jail if they talk about it further. (examples: Sibel Edmonds, John O’Neill, U.S. Navy Captain Gunther Russbacher, 3 un-named FBI agents currently under gag order in their suit against the US Government) · Level 5: The person persists and is sent to jail to be silenced. (examples: Fritz Walser, U.S. Navy Captain Gunther Russbacher, Richard Brenneke, Michael Riconosciuto, Derk Vreeland, Kenneth Ford Jr., Lee Wanta) · Level 6: This level can be jumped to at any point in time, and is reserved for serious and extremely damaging threats. At this level, people experience beatings, suicide (window jumps and a bullet in the head are popular), airplane crashes and other forms of fatal occurrences such as going out in a boat by yourself and drowning. There are at least nineteen clearly documented examples of such terror. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 319 An internet search on any or all of these nineteen individuals will more than substantiate this claim. All of these individuals were witnesses, prosecutors, investigators or reporters on crimes related to the Iran-Contra/September 11 group of criminals. Examples: 1. Emilia DiSanto, chief Congressional investigator looking into the Abramoff scandal 2. Jonathan Moyle, reporter 3. Darlene Novinger, FBI 4. Brad Doucette, 20 year veteran FBI 5. John Millis, Executive Director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, his report has not been released 6. Nasser Beydoun, a witness at the Cardoen trial, was murdered in Brazil in June 1995. 7. Katherine Smith, witness in 9/11 8. Darrell MacIntyre, US Attorney’s office 9. Jim Hatfield, reporter/author 10. Mark Lombardi, researcher/reporter 11. Daniel Casolaro, reporter covering the Iran-Contra link to South American drugs - the manuscript of the book Casalaro was working on has never been found. 12. Steve Kangas, reporter/author 13. Gary Webb, reporter/author 14. Brian Downing Quig – investigative journalist 15. Lawrence Ng, reporter 16. Colonel Russell Hermann, CIA bank account and Brady Bond administrator 17. Lori Kaye Klausutis, former congressional staff aide 18. Col. Ted Westhusing, Military Investigator in Iraq 19. Marc Bastien, co-operative with OSI Agent Derk Vreeland The classic Level 6 ‘hit’ is the serial murder of ten people to cover at least two murders. The Washington Beltway Sniper murders of Linda Franklin and James D. Martin (of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Meteorological Center, Camp Springs, Maryland) should clearly be reviewed further: Franklin, for possible connections to the Riggs Bank/Pinochet money laundering scandal, and Martin, for whatever satellite research he was working on. This ‘hit’ was not the random serial murder it was perceived as. John Muhammad, the Beltway Sniper, was trained as a sniper by U.S. Army Sergeant Ali Mohammed, who in turn was a former Egyptian Army officer. Ali Mohammed left the US Army Special Forces in 1989 after a three-year enlistment and was arrested by U.S. authorities after the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, supposedly as an Al Qaeda operative. Franklin was FBI analyst responsible for electronic monitoring of bank transfers working for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, just before the Riggs Bank/Pinochet money laundering scandal broke, a scandal in which Pinochet was illegally trafficking weapons with Carlos Cardoen to Iran i.e., part of the Iran-Contra connection. Cardoen was also a business partner of Porter Goss, who met with Mahmoud THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 320 Ahmad before and after the 9/11 attack. Mahmoud provided Atta with $100,000 shortly before the attack on the World Trade Center. The Riggs Bank has been found by government auditors on several occasions to be negligent of money laundering, but with Jonathon Bush (George Bush’s uncle) on the Board of Directors, it has escaped any real penalties. In looking at the other victims of the Beltway Sniper, it was of note that James Martin worked for a known NSA/CIA cover operation. Internet investigation of his occupation produces a real dark hole, which for a well-publicized murder victim suggests purposeful cover-up.) Another amazing example of the ability of this group to execute multiple hits, is found in the story of five potential witnesses of the attack on 9/11. As evidence mounts that the plane that hit the Pentagon was an A-3 specially outfitted at a non-military airfield, the search for witnesses turned up this amazing coincidence: "Only the Raytheon executives and the Air Force would have known which team installed a particular system on the A-3 and who was involved in the operation," said Schwarz. Coincidentally, five key Raytheon executives died on 9-11: Stanley Hall--Director of Electronic warfare program management (American 77), Peter Gay--VP of Electronic Systems on special assignment at the El Segundo, CA division office where the Global Hawk UAV remote control system is made (American 11), Kenneth Waldie--Senior Quality Control Engineer for Electronic Systems (American 11), David Kovalcin-- Senior Mechanical Engineer for Electronic Systems (American 11), and Herbert Homer--Corporate Executive working with the Department of Defense (United 175). Curiously, the five Raytheon executives chose three of the four doomed jets and all happened to fly on September 11. [Missile & remote control systems added to small jets before 9-11; same parts found at Pentagon, Tom Flocco, TomFlocco.com, 5/26/2005] In reflecting on these deaths, the high rate of “reporters” on the list supports the argument that the American media is being controlled through fear. Statistics suggests that having nine people on this list who were all involved with investigating the same set of Iran- Contra criminals, is virtually impossible: “Examining the male U.S suicide rate for recent years (http://www.suicidology.org/stats2001) we can extrapolate a conservative estimate of 17 male suicides per 100,000 people, or 0.017%. The odds of 3 specific (all male?) biographers committing suicide would be the cube of 17/100000, or 4.913 x 10^- 12...about 5 chances in one trillion. (That's over 300,000 times LESS likely than drawing a Royal Flush in 5 card stud poker with no wild cards.)” [http://www.bcrevolution.ca] If at three suicides the odds are impossible, how then can one ignore ten “suicides.” The murder does not stop with this list of nineteen though! It is not just reporters being eliminated, but other potential loose lipped participants, prosecutors and witnesses as well, with a list of murder victims potentially as high as 400 or more: “Navy Lt. Commander Alexander Martin was, in effect, the chief accountant for the Reagan/Bush drug operations run by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, through an obscure arm of the White House National Security Council called the National Programs Office. In a radio interview with talk show host Tom Valentine last July, Martin spoke not only of drugs and money, but death. "Out of roughly 5,000 of us who were originally involved in Iran-Contra, approximately 400, since 1986, have committed suicide, died accidentally or died of natural causes. In over half those deaths, official death certificates were never issued. In 187 circumstances, the bodies were cremated before the families were notified. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 321 "Martin then said he was lying low.” [The Still Before the Storm, James Norman, Media Bypass magazine, December 1995] “The Manhattan D.A. who closed the American branch (of the BCCI) announced that 16 witnesses had died in the course of investigating the bank's entanglements in covert operations of the CIA, arms smuggling to Iraq, money laundering and child prostitution.” [The False Memory Hoax, Alex Constantine, Copyright © January, 1996] “There's a lot about BCCI that outsiders will never know. Once the investigations started, there were seven fires in the fireproof London warehouses where BCCI stored records. In one of them, four firemen were killed.” [BCCI: The Case that Kerry Cracked, Lucy Komisar] “From October 30th to Christmas eve there were four attempts to kill, me and our friend William Smith, who everyone thinks is a high ranking Naval Intelligence officer. During that same time over fifty CIA operatives, their wives and families were killed in an attempt by the Robert Gates faction of the CIA to cover its tracks before Clinton's team came to power. After the last attempt on my life, my husband's SEAL team arranged safe passage for me to Vienna, Austria, where I stayed until Robert Gates was removed as Director of the CIA.” [Correspondence from Rayelan Allan Russbacher, February 1993, http://crashrecovery.org/wackenhut/wackenhut3.pdf] “The witnesses were quite fearful about several recent "suicides, car wrecks--mysterious deaths-- directly related to the aviation experts" working on the systems that were installed on the A-3’s at Fort Collins-Loveland--having breached the government-blocked information flow at great personal risk, according to Schwarz--but providing more evidence for a New York 9/11 investigation.” [Missile & remote control systems added to small jets before 9-11; same parts found at Pentagon, Tom Flocco, TomFlocco.com, 5/26/2005] As a result of these tactics, and others to be described later in this section, the conclusion is well made by the BBC reporter, Greg Palast (a former US reporter who moved to the UK to maintain his professional integrity and ability to report.) “On my BBC television show, Newsnight, an American journalist confessed that, since the 9/11 attacks, US reporters are simply too afraid to ask the uncomfortable questions that could kill careers: "It's an obscene comparison, but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck," Dan Rather said. Without his makeup, Rather looked drawn, old and defeated in confessing that he too had given in. "It's that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often." [Greg Palast Interview by Bruce David, Hustler, On-line] The same terror tactics are now being applied to foreign journalists as well: “US was for the first time listed among the top 10 (ranking 6th in the world's leading jailers of journalists), the Committee to Protect Journalists has said…. US detention centers in Iraq were holding four journalists, while the US Naval Base at Guantanamo held one.” [US among top 10 nations jailing scribes, Dharam Shourie,Rediff, December 14, 2005] “American troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing bullets into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and children. Ali Fadhil, who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young journalist of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning. He was released hours later. Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated. The troops told Dr Fadhil that they were looking for an Iraqi insurgent THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 322 and seized video tapes he had shot for the programme. These have not yet been returned.” [U.S. troops seize (UK) Channel 4/Guardian journalist, by Brian Boyko, The Guardian, January 9, 2006] “The British government has threatened newspapers with prosecution [Guardian Unlimited] under the Official Secrets Act if it releases the memo where Bush claimed to want to bomb Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The Daily Kos reports that the two Brits who leaked the memo to newspapers are already being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.” [Bombing Al Jazeera Story Update, http://brianboyko.com/category/iraq-war/] These tactics have silenced the ‘witnesses’ who would challenge the Bush organization over the past 25 years. Never the less, investigations are sometimes spurred by organizations, groups and individuals not under the influence of the US government. For instance: - the Kazakhstan-Mobil Oil bribery case was initiated in British courts; - the Russian money-laundering scandal was opened first by the Russians, closed by the US Attorney General without a scandal, and then re-opened by the Swiss who discovered the problem to be far more massive than US investigators reported; - the French legal system is in the process of bringing Richard Cheney and Halliburton to task for the Nigerian oil scandals. (The US investigation of Cheney for violation of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was mentioned in one US story by the Boston Globe;) - the Marcos gold/Swiss bank scandal would have died had it not been for a Swiss janitor; - the Iran-Contra scandal was actually pushed into the media by the Israelis, who felt betrayed by George Bush Sr; - the Valerie Plame (forged Iraq WMD evidence) scandal was initiated by a “blogger.” To deal with these emergent scandals, the Bush organization has, over the years developed an effective system for “killing” bad news, as well as its bearers, and managing the flow of negative information that manages to surface to the public attention through minor news channels. This system includes several means to control the information made available to the American citizenry: 1. Control of the legal and investigative systems (FBI, DEA, CIA, Congressional Hearings, Independent Commissions), 2. Control of the major media through the three “F’s: fool’em, feed’em and force’m.” Here is the real terrorist threat. People who make a living reporting the news and investigating crime are pretty much aware of what happens when a member of their profession pursues investigation of these crimes: they know of these deaths and career terminations, and live their lives in fear of those consequences. To avoid those consequences, nearly all reporters and investigators generally stop at Level 1 or Level 2, and the investigation is dropped. The group behavioral phenomenon is that of the fable of “the emperor has no clothes!” The crowd of reporters remains quiet as a group, except THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 323 for a little boy who shouts out the truth. In the fable, the boy is rewarded by the king, but in today’s reality, he gets a 38 magnum bullet in the head for his honesty. 13.3 Fool’em: Control of the legal and investigative systems. Through political appointments to key positions in the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, and Customs as well as other ‘secretive’ intelligence agencies, decisions to pursue or not pursue investigations are controlled. There are at least eighteen “intelligence agencies” in the US Government. Most of them and other “investigative” groups such as the FBI, DEA etc. came to fear the CIA in the period after George Bush Sr.’s control. All investigations deferred to the CIA and “national security.” Now, after twenty-five years, the Bush family controls them all through the Department of Homeland Security. In the future, the legacy of Herbert Hoover as a blackmailer and political bully will pale in comparison to the legacy of the Bush dynasty. Here are thirteen examples, documented here or elsewhere in this report, which demonstrate the ability and willingness of the administration to interfere with and control investigations with which the Bush administrations have been identified: - As demonstrated with the Convar investigation of illegal electronic trades in the World Trade Center. This information, which clearly identified some of the criminals, was never acted on or published by the FBI. “Henschel said the companies in the United States were working together with the FBI… to piece together what happened on September 11 and that he was confident the destination of the dubious transactions would one day be tracked down. ``We have been quite surprised that so many of the hard drives were in good enough shape to retrieve the data,'' he said.``The contamination rate is high. The fine dust that was everywhere in the area got pressed under high pressure into the drives. But we've still been able to retrieve 100 percent of the data on most of the drives we've received. ``We're helping them find out what happened to the computers on September 11 as quickly as possible. I'm sure that one day they will know what happened to the money…” [ German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals. Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters, 12/16/2001] - As demonstrated in the James Griffen/Mobil Oil bribery incident, the Attorney General’s office under John Ashcroft was able to keep Nazarbayev’s and George Bush Sr.’s names out of the trial proceedings. - As demonstrated in the Bank of New York money laundering scandal, the US Attorney General’s office was able to resolve the case of multi-billion dollar money laundering with a two-week jail sentence for a bank clerk. The Swiss investigators re-opened the case, after it was discovered the transactions were significantly underestimated by U.S. investigators. “A source familiar with the grand jury investigations… said Ashcroft has quietly moved… to exert control over the New York grand jury from Washington and to exercise “unusual” influence over the Washington investigations. FTW has also received multiple reports that several highranking career prosecutors in both New York and Washington have raised serious objections to Ashcroft’s actions and his failure to publicly recluse himself in these cases. [The Elephant in the Living Room – Part I, Michael C. Ruppert © Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, 3/ 26/2002] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 324 - As demonstrated by the FBI prematurely dropping the investigation of the forged Niger documents which provided Bush’s “proof” of Iraq’s nuclear arsenal. - As demonstrated by the investigations into the Marcos gold, where individuals responsible for letting the world know the gold actually still existed, contrary to the claims of the Swiss banks, were imprisoned until they recanted: “Upon Cosandey's orders, Jacobi and his informers Fritz Walser and Tony Silano were arrested and charged with economic espionage on July 10, 1991 in Munich, Germany. Walser was an informer who knew a banker who had penetrated the banks' computer systems, Chavez said. Walser's contacts also reportedly confirmed the existence of 1,241 tons of Marcos gold deposits at UBS under account number 7257. It was the same account passed on to the government by Adoracion Edralin Lopez, a Marcos relative, Chavez said. He said the discovered Marcos accounts were later transferred in the name of the late dictator's Swiss lawyer Bruno de Preux and his son, Cyril. Switzerland sought Jacobi's extradition from Germany but lost in a German court, which decided that the charge against him was "politically motivated." (Fritz) Walser would later claim everything he revealed had been a hoax, in exchange for his freedom. His revised statement was later used by Swiss authorities to claim that the $13.4-billion Credit Suisse account under "I. Arenetta" and the 7257 accounts were a hoax.” [Recovering the Marcos Wealth Show Us the Money, By Marites N. Sison ] - As demonstrated in control that allows individuals to be “protected” from investigative queries, as are Adnan Khashoggi, Richard Armitage and Farhad Azima: “Former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, who was appointed presidential investigator for POW/MIA affairs, came upon the same information, and was warned by former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci to stop pursuing the connections to Armitage. As he sadly explained to a group of POW/MIA families in 1987: "I have been instructed to cease and desist."[1125] [Iran-Contra Connections to the Oklahoma Bombing, gathered by Alex Constantine© 2000 Alex Constantine. All rights reserved] “Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi is charged by the State of New York in aiding and abetting former Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos in hiding billions from her country after she and husband Ferdinand Marcos were forced to flee the island nation. The charges are brought by New York Attorney General Rudolph Giuliani, who apparently has a personal score to settle with Khashoggi after Khashoggi defeated Giuliani's client John Tumpane in a business lawsuit. After a long and heated court battle, during which time Khashoggi was forced to stay in New York City under house arrest, the jury acquits Khashoggi of all charges. According to a former Army intelligence officer, Giuliani gets the indictments filed after months of effort by threatening George Bush that if he doesn't stop blocking the indictment, that he will call a press conference and complain that the White House is interfering with the criminal justice system merely to protect Bush's friend Khashoggi. (Larry Kolb).” [http://www.iraqtimeline.com/1990.html] “According to statements from a former Justice Department prosecutor to the Houston Post at that time, he was ordered to "back off" on his investigation into Indian Springs Bank shareholder Azima because "Azima had CIA connections and a 'get-out-of-jail-free card.'" [The Inside Story of John Lear, Bill Cooper and "The Greatest Cover-Up in Human History," An Affidavit by Lars C. Hansson, July 18, 1991] - As demonstrated in the control of post 9/11 terrorist investigations by FBI agents: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 325 “WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation mishandled a Florida terror investigation, falsified documents in the case in an effort to cover repeated missteps and retaliated against an agent who first complained about the problems, Justice Department investigators have concluded….The agent who first alerted the F.B.I. to problems in the case, a veteran undercover operative named Mike German, was "retaliated against" by his boss, who was angered by the agent's complaints and stopped using him for prestigious assignments in training new undercover agents, the draft report concluded. Mr. German's case first became public last year, as he emerged as the latest in a string of whistle-blowers at the bureau who said they had been punished and effectively silenced for voicing concerns about the handling of terror investigations and other matters since Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. German's case dates to 2002, when the F.B.I. division in Tampa opened a terror investigation into a lead that laundered proceeds, possibly connected to a drug outfit, might be used to finance terrorists overseas. …...the inspector general found that the F.B.I. had "mishandled and mismanaged" the investigation, partly through the failure to document important developments for months at a time. The report also found that supervisors were aware of problems in the case but did not take prompt action to correct them.” [Report Finds Cover-Up in an F.B.I. Terror Case, Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, December 4, 2005] - As demonstrated in the unwillingness to prosecute BCCI: “The influential Chairman of the Banking Commission in the U.S. House of Representatives, Henry Gonzales, chided the Bush and Reagan administrations for refusing to prosecute the BCCI. In addition the Dept. of Justice repeatedly declined to co-operate in the Congressional investigations into the BCCI scandal and the closely linked scandal of the "Banco Nazional del Lavoro" (BNL). This bank had made billions of dollars from loans that Bush had granted the Iraqi government shortly before the Gulf War. Gonzales had said that the Bush administration had had a Department of Justice which he thought "the most corrupt, most unbelievably corrupt Department of justice that I have ever experienced during my 32 years in Congress". [George Soros and the Rothschilds Connection, Jan Von Helsing ("Secret Societies and their Power in the 20th Century")] - As demonstrated in Bush’s determination to regularly eliminate special investigators from investigations of his political colleagues – eliminating special investigators on the same case twice! “WASHINGTON — A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.” [ LA Times, Aug 8, 2005] “The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.” [SF Chronicle, Jan 27, 2006] - As demonstrated by George Bush Sr’s. willingness to blatantly interfere with a criminal investigation: “May-June 1989 - Trial of executives of Sunrise Savings and Loan in Florida which collapsed in 1985 with bailout costs to the American taxpayer of $680 MILLION dollars. The Miami Herald, a Knight-Ridder newspaper covered every day of the trial. Yet when one witness testified that thenvice President George Bush had interferred in the investigation of Sunrise in 1984, a year before it collapsed, the Miami Herald somehow missed this story. The Bush-appointed Federal attorney in Miami never investigated this testimony, nor did he make an attempt to indict the man for THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 326 perjury, whose testimony, by the way, was corroborated by another ex-Sunrise employee.” [http://www.pd.com/~franklin/MN1.html] - As demonstrated in the control of Congressional hearings that simply refuses to listen to qualified whistleblowers: The following is a press release issued by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition regarding the silence of the top congressional representatives on intelligence committees about ex- NSA officer Russ Tice's unheard charges: On December 22, 2005, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) made public the request by a former NSA intelligence analyst and action officer to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while he was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) and with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). NSWBC urged the congress to hold hearings and let Mr. Tice testify. Today, more than four months after Mr. Tice’s letters were sent to the chairs of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees and publicized in the media, he has yet to receive a response and be given an opportunity to lawfully disclose his first-hand account of criminal acts conducted by the National Security Agency. [Congressional Chairmen on intelligence won't hear out NSA whistleblower, RAW STORY, April 26, 2006 ] - As demonstrated by planting false information in the press in the original exposure of the Iran/Contra operation: “WASHINGTON-- Nicaraguan rebels falsely assumed responsibility for an arms-laden plane downed over Nicaragua in 1986 in an effort to shield then-Vice President George Bush from the controversy that soon blossomed into the Iran-Contra scandal, a senior Contra official said in early May 1989. According to the Contra official, who requested anonymity but has direct knowledge of the events, a Contra spokesman, Bosco Matamoros [official FDN representative in Washington, D.C.], was ordered by [FDN Political Director] Adolfo Calero to claim ownership of the downed aircraft, even though the plane belonged to Oliver North's secret Contra supply network.... Calero called (Matamoros) and said, `` Take responsibility for the Hasenfus plane because we need to take the heat off the vice president, '' the Contra source said.... The senior Contra official said that shortly after Calero talked to Matamoros, Matamoros called a reporter for the New York Times and `` leaked '' the bogus claim of responsibility. The Times ran a story about the claim on its front page.” [Official: Contras Lied to Protect VP Bush, Alfonso Chardy, Knight-Ridder Newspapers] - As demonstrated by putting the same individual in charge of major investigations of crimes linked to the Bush group. In this case, Robert S. Mueller (U.S. Attorney and FBI Director) has been the chief investigator and prosecutor over the BCCI scandal, the Iran-Contra criminal investigation, the Noriega-CIA drug connections, and finally, the 9/11 investigation. His protégé, Leslie Caldwell, was responsible for the Arthur Anderson investigation, and later the Enron investigation. “In the 1980s, Mueller was third in command in the FBI under George Terwilliger. Mueller apparently put in a lot of overtime working to keep the Iran-Contra scheme under wraps, and then, once things got sticky for Reagan, helped the Dept. of Justice's Domestic Criminal Section Chief Dave Margolis and International Criminal Section Chief Mark Richards limit liability for Reagan, and then Bush, Sr. According to political watchdog Al Martin, Mueller personally handled damage containment for Bush Sr. during Bush's potentially scandalous dealings with Jordanian coffee merchant Mansour Barbouti. Barbouti was involved in the illegal exportation of chemicals used in chemical weapons to both Iraq and Iran.” [Scapegoat! How Bush Nearly Ruined the FBI, Cheryl Seal, Democrats.com] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 327 “In the case of Noriega and Gotti, they were silenced through the capable tools of the American justice system. And overseeing the prosecutions - Noriega, Gotti, and BCCI - happened to be a man who would, years later, be entrusted with overseeing the investigation into the causes of 9/11 - Robert Mueller III. ”[Backdrop - Detecting The Puppet Masters, Part 6 of Truth, Lies, and The Legend of 9/11: Truth Lies Legend] Other items warranting mention are: · four probable violations of SEC regulations by George Bush Jr. while with Harken which have been overlooked, · closing down of criminal investigations into Jeb Bush’s partners Camilo Padreda and Miguel Recarey, · Bush Sr’s., destruction of SEC records of Zapata Oil, · Interference with bank regulators during the Riggs money-laundering investigation, where Jonathon Bush is a director. The Bush family has three generations of experience in circumventing investigation into their financial conduct. They have appointed six of the Supreme Court Justices, and given major federal appointments to two of the Justice’s children, after having been given the Presidential office by Supreme Court dictate. 13.4 Feed’em: Control, Fabricate and Falsify Evidence The American press corps has recently been stripped of its ability to conduct any serious investigative reporting, an observation reported only in the foreign press (BBC and Guardian.) What is being experienced is not only a failure of the press to step up to professional standards of investigative reporting, but an additional willingness to let investigative government agencies conduct less than thorough investigations, and be satisfied to reports the “results” of aborted government investigations. “… political courage is especially rare. Reporters in Washington are kept in line by the standard threat: annoy us, and your stories dry up. In normal times this matters less, because there may be enough dissidents to produce alternative information. But the Bush White House's sophisticated news management has given them control. One official who has worked in administrations of both colours explained: "The Republicans regard themselves as patrician gatekeepers of the news. They say 'If you're really good, we'll give you information and if you're really, really good, we'll give you more information.' The Democrats thought; 'My God, there are all those reporters out there! We better talk to them!'"[Bushwhacked, Matthew Engel, Guardian, January 13, 2003] In addition to the examples listed above, here are several more examples of where the American press seemed all-to-willing to accept less than factual reporting by US Government agencies. - As demonstrated by professional testimony regarding the Osama Bin Ladin videotapes, these tapes do not say what the government translators reported; - The ‘weapons of mass destruction evidence” which was used to justify an invasion of Iraq: “WASHINGTON — The FBI has reopened an inquiry into one of the most intriguing aspects of the pre-Iraq war intelligence fiasco: how the Bush administration came to rely on forged documents linking Iraq to nuclear weapons materials as part of its justification for the invasion. The documents inspired intense U.S. interest in the buildup to the war — and they THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 328 led the CIA to send a former ambassador to the African nation of Niger to investigate whether Iraq had sought the materials there. The ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, found little evidence to support such a claim, and the documents were later deemed to have been forged. But President Bush referred to the claim in his 2003 State of the Union address in making the case for the invasion. Bush's speech, Wilson's trip and the role Wilson's wife played in sending him have created a political storm that still envelops the White House. The documents in question included letters on Niger government letterhead and purported contracts showing sales of uranium to Iraq. They were provided in 2002 to an Italian magazine, which turned them over to the U.S. Embassy in Rome. The FBI's decision to reopen the investigation reverses the agency's announcement last month that it had finished a two-year inquiry and concluded that the forgeries were part of a moneymaking scheme — and not an effort to manipulate U.S. foreign policy. Those findings concerned some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee after published reports that the FBI had not interviewed a former Italian spy named Rocco Martino, who was identified as the original source of the documents. The committee had requested the initial investigation.” [FBI Is Taking Another Look at Forged Prewar Intelligence, Peter Wallsten, Tom Hamburger and Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times, December 3, 2005] - The Bush administration’s actions to prevent the facts around 9/11 from being exposed have been documented in other parts of this report. This behavior however, is not isolated, and reflects a broader pattern of lies and deception. Other examples of falsification of evidence can include the following three stories: “U.S. congressional leaders who have been touting Iraq's new "free press" as a sign of progress in the troubled country are upset at the Pentagon's admission last week that it has been paying for "good news" stories written by the military and placed in Iraqi media by a Washington-based public relations firm. In a briefing for the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican John Warner of Virginia, the military acknowledged that news articles written by U.S. troops had been placed as paid advertisements in the Iraqi news media, and not always properly identified. Warner told reporters after receiving a briefing from officials at the Pentagon that senior commanders in Iraq were trying to get to the bottom of a program that apparently also paid monthly stipends to friendly Iraqi journalists.” [The Bad News Is That the Good News Is Fake, William Fisher, Inter Press Service News Agency December 6, 2005] “When a CIA briefer did not provide him with the answers he desired, Cheney reportedly demanded that she be replaced. Congressman Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said in July 2003 that he knew of at least three intelligence analysts who felt pressured to warp their findings.” [The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney, John Nichols, The New Press, 2004, p212.] “Cheney got on well with the king (Fahd) and his minions, who would not learn until sometime later that the defense secretary and his aides had deceived them – displaying doctored satellite photos to suggest that an Iraqi invasion force had moved to the border in preparation for an invasion of Saudi Arabia.” [The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney, John Nichols, The New Press, 2004, p114.] For those who might need evidence that this ‘fabrication’ also happens in the US as well as outside of it’s borders, this report suggests an Internet search on the Jeff Gannon (aka Guckert) affair, of a Whitehouse “plant” in the Press Corps, or the discovery that the Bush administration paid consultants to write favorable news coverage. The falsification of news is actually quite easy though. The ‘inside’ view of the news media is that in nearly all cases, the media does little “investigative” analysis any more THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 329 “….in fact as (Dan) Rather explained it to me: the networks are really dependent upon press releases from the State Department about going to press conferences, and they need that, what’s called target footage - pictures from the smart bombs that go tick-tick-tick, boom! And all those cool pictures are what keeps stations like CNN alive, and their advertising alive. So, what you have to do is, we have to understand that we’re talking about a press corps which has stopped reporting, and what they’re doing is just repeating; they take a press release, they rewrite it, they stand up in front of the camera and they say… “This is Jo Schmo in front of the White House, and the president just said …” That’s not reporting, that’s not getting the story.” [Greg Palast Interview, Bruce David, Hustler, On-line] Another example of this fabrication and control is the 9-11 Truth Movement, which masquerades as data collection point for “conspiracy” information. This organization is actually funded by a business partner of Adnan Khashoggi. Any conclusions drawn on the purpose of that arrangement are left to the reader. “Khashoggi’s henchman Ramy El-Batrawi, currently under indictment with Big K for looting over $120 million from a bankrupt company called GenesisIntermedia, the company that owns the marketing rights to the creative output of Mars & Venus snake oil salesman John Gray. Gray is also the man who funded the disinformation campaign calling itself the 9.11 Truth movement.” [FAA Stonewalls Release of DC9 ‘Cocaine One’ Records: Homeland Security Inc Scandal Off And Running , Daniel Hopsicker, Mad Cow Morning News, June 22 2006] If the “press” no longer presents the fair and balanced reporting the American populace assumes it to provide, an understanding of how that condition came to be is warranted. The following section provides that understanding. 13.5 Media Control - the Facts When people think of “controlling the media” they envision an Orwellian nightmare, where a faceless bureaucracy has taken control of all the media. This section contends that ‘media control’ is defined as the significant influence of five or six key individuals who can intervene not only around key events, but can create an atmosphere of fear that intimidates the reporters into compliance and biased reporting in the major media outlets. Using this definition, the report will provide information which demonstrates that a few key individuals in the US have that ability, have exerted their influence on news organizations, and have controlled the news in favor of the Bush family. This, combined with the physical intimidation of independent reporters by a group of murderous thugs which supports the Bush family, suggests that “media control” is far more pervasive than generally perceived. It is that influence that has prevented critical public analysis of the events of 9/11 by the media, and prevented analyses such as this report from being publicly discussed in the mainstream media. First, it is important to understand that the US media is not an industry of multiple independent news outlets from which the truth will spring. The public record clearly demonstrates substantial consolidation of the media under five corporations. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 330 “In 2004, Bagdikian's revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows that only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.” The amount of stock required to control such an organization is relatively small, much smaller than normally thought required to “control” a corporation: “Billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, the world's fifth richest man (as listed by Forbes magazine), now owns 5.46% of the voting shares of NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch's media empire that includes Fox News Channel. The business media—including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the rest— portray this as an act of the Prince's friendship with Murdoch, and an effort to help the media mogul fight off a hostile takeover attempt by John Malone's Liberty Media, which has acquired 18%. That is second only to Murdoch's 30% share. Fidelity Management and Research comes in third at 5.8%. To the casual observer, 5.46% may be small change. Not so. There is potential clout in that 5.46%, especially since it is ostensibly meant to bail Murdoch out of a jam. Moreover, in most of my years at CBS, there was never any doubt that the "big boss" was the legendary William S. Paley. And his stake in what was then the nation's largest media company (the "Tiffany network") was a mere 8%. The rest included banks, insurance companies and others whose interests were not "hands on" and would not challenge Paley's supremacy.” The analysis suggests a very credible position that five individuals with significant stock could significantly control America’s major media outlets. If the loyalty of five such individuals was somehow ‘procured’ – it might produce significant control and significant manipulation of the media. Further evidence suggests that is exactly what has happened. In fact, theories of their “collusion” parallel those theories of the Bilderberg group: “A quiet gathering of the media's top elites to discuss mergers, with a keynote address by the head of the CIA, escaped mention in the mainstream press. Each year, at the posh ranch of investment banker THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 331 Herbert Allen Jr., the world's media elites meet to discuss strategy, possible mergers and editorial policy. It can only be called a media version of Bilderberg as government, corporate and media officials are meeting in secret, behind the usual wall of security. "Of all the people in the Bush Administration, perhaps no one was of more interest to the public last week than CIA Director George J. Tenet," Rick Ellis wrote (http://www.allyourtv.com, July 16, 2003. "As the center of a whirlwind of controversy over claims that the agency had made mistakenly allowed President Bush to assert Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger, Tenet was being sought by everyone from Dateline to Senate Intelligence Subcommittee. He was talking last week, but it wasn't to the public. He was in Sun Valley, Idaho, giving a private intelligence briefing to participants of the private (Allen & Company, Inc.) Media conference. "The annual gathering includes nearly every major player of the world's media, technology and entertainment industries, and it's a reminder of just how insular, isolated and powerful the world's media owners are from the billions who consume their products. Organized by investment banker Herbert Allen, the get-together is a summer camp for Citizen Kane's, a place where the rich and powerful are able to meet over picnic lunches and fishing streams as they help determine what you'll be watching for the next few years," Ellis wrote. [SourceWatch: a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, http://www. sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Herbert_Allen] (Author’s note: It was the 2002 media meeting at Herbert Allen’s ranch at which the Russian Khodorkovsky, key owner of Menatep Bank, met with Lord JacobRothschild. Shortly after that meeting, Khodorkovsky handed over to Rothschild his proxy rights to a 26% controlling interest in Yukos in an attempt to secure his holdings from reclamation by the Russian government, who contends that he illegally acquired control of the largest oil company in Russia. It is reported that shortly after this meeting Khodorkovsky met with Vice President Dick Cheney for private talks. Section 8 of this report describes how these players are linked to the destruction of the World Trade Center and the Bush family.) The breadth of control of these five organizations is demonstrated in Table 8. In dealing with these five groups - one at a time - one needs to understand the payoff promised to the industry CEOs by George Bush (and delivered afterwards) prior to his election. “Shortly after George W. Bush declared his candidacy for president in June of 1999, General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch was contacted by Bush political advisor Karl Rove. Welch later informed associates that Rove told him a Bush administration would initiate comprehensive deregulation of the broadcast industry. Rove guaranteed that deregulation would be implemented in a way that would create phenomenal profits for conglomerates with significant media holdings, like GE. Rove forcefully argued that General Electric and the other media giants had a compelling financial interest to see Bush become president.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October 23, 2001] The impact of this campaign promise was clearly felt on the election, and subsequent new reporting. The major networks, led by their respective CEOs and Chairmen, led Americans to the conclusion the George Bush should be their President. What Americans experienced in the media, as a result of promise of corporate deregulation, were stories heavily favoring Bush, illegal calling of the election on TV to influence a vote, and a cover-up of the independent Florida voting audit result which was intended to prove that Bush had won legitimately. “A study produced by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Princeton Survey Research Associates examined 1,149 stories from 17 news publications, programs and websites. The research revealed that there were almost twice as many positive stories about Bush as there were about Gore. Even more important than this blatant pro-Bush bias, the study found that the coverage de-emphasized the philosophical differences between the candidates. This was critical, because public opinion polls showed that the voters agreed with Gore on the issues. By robbing Gore of his greatest advantage, the THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 332 media organizations were Bush’s greatest allies.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October 23, 2001] The piece of information that makes the Project for Excellence study so intriguing is that Bush was being identified in more positive stories than Gore, even when the press corp in general is consistently more liberal than conservative. "I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are." "Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left," said co-author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public policy scholar. …Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS' "Evening News," The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal. Only Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter. [Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist, Meg Sullivan, December 14, 2005] The only valid explanation of a liberal press favoring Bush is ‘pressure’ from management, a conclusion that other research appears to validate. That same inexplicable behavior was experienced again shortly after the election, when eight major newspapers abandoned their pledge to the American public: “On January 9, 2001, eight media organizations announced their intention to form the Consortium that would examine and classify the votes in the Florida presidential election. The eight news organizations were The New York Times, The Washington Post, Dow Jones and Company (The Wall Street Journal), the Associated Press, The Tribune Company (The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, among others), The Palm Beach Post, The St. Petersburg Times, and CNN (which later dropped out). The Consortium sought to gain credibility for the integrity of its recount by hiring the not-for-profit National Opinion Research Center to perform the actual ballot handling tasks and to compile the relevant information. NORC was assigned to provide the raw data to each of the members of the Consortium. It would then be up to the individual media outlets to decide how they would interpret and report the data to the American people. ….As for what will happen next, the executive said, “Once the dominant pro-Gore trend became apparent, the Consortium was never going to release the results; the pressure from the big money boys was too great. Terrorism just provided a better excuse for withholding the information than the ‘technical difficulties’ stalling tactic that was otherwise going to be used. The Consortium is determined to make sure that the original results of their recount will never see the light of day.” [The Media Cover-Up of the Gore Victory Part One: Reliable Source Reveals the Cover-Up, David Podvin, Carolyn Kay] The media en masse again would support Bush when the first a major piece of news critical of Bush was made available, and the major media companies pretended the news did not exist. “L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks’ news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned.” [When Might Turns Right - Golly GE, Why Big Media is Pro-Bush, Nikki Finke, LA Weekly, October 1 - 7, 2004] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 333 President Bush’s courtship of the media did not stop with pre-election promises. Subsequent actions directly provided billions of dollars of benefits at the expense of the taxpayers: “Six days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bush FCC appointee Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell) announced a ruling that affected corporations having licenses to operate 130 UHF TV stations broadcasting on certain frequencies. The FCC gave the media companies approval to sell those taxpayer-owned licenses and keep the tens of billions of dollars that will be generated by the sales.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October 23, 2001] One-at-a-time, the dynamics of influence and fear were experienced in the American media: NBC With General Electric being almost as large of a news organization as the next four largest combined, the role of its CEO Jack Welch is extremely insightful. “The crucial step that Welch took was to make it well known throughout NBC News that the standard for the promotion of journalists would be the same as it was for every other employee in the corporation: outstanding contribution to the financial well being of General Electric. The journalists who had their paychecks signed by Welch knew that favorable coverage of George W. Bush would be considered an outstanding contribution to the financial well being of General Electric….Welch’s successful behind-the-scenes campaign to influence media coverage in a way that would get Bush into the White House has not been visible to the public, with one exception. On election night, according to an eyewitness, Welch was so angry that his own NBC News team would not call the race for Bush that he personally went to the studio from which Tom Brokaw was anchoring the coverage. Welch quietly watched the broadcast for a few minutes. Two people who were present claim that, when Brokaw and Tim Russert did not take the hint that their boss had come into the newsroom because he wanted something from them, he explicitly announced that he wanted them to call the election for Bush. They did. As a result, Bush entered the Florida recount phase with the tremendous advantage of having already been declared the winner.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October 23, 2001] From additonal sources: “During a March 12 interview with C-SPAN president and chief executive officer Brian Lamb, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann said: "There are people I know in the hierarchy of NBC, the company, and GE [General Electric Co., NBC's parent corporation], the company, who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all. ... There are people who I work for who would prefer, who would sleep much easier at night if this never happened." [Olbermann: There are execs at NBC "who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all, Mar 13, 2006, http://mediamatters.org/items/200603130006] “CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin said Thursday she was referring to her time spent at MSNBC when she said she felt pressure not to report stories critical of the Bush administration during the time leading up to the Iraq war…. During her CNN appearance, Yellin said the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives to make sure the war was presented "in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings….The charges against MSNBC aren't new, however. A prime-time show with Phil Donahue received consistent pressure to present panels tilted in favor of the war, said Jeff Cohen, that program's former senior producer. Donahue's show was on for less than a year before being cancelled less than a month before THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 334 the war began" [CNN reporter talks of pressure to be patriotic, David Bauder, Associated Press, May 29, 2008] CBS “Millions of Americans supported Bush because they believed he would promote family values; Karmazin threw the support of CBS News behind Bush on the basis that family values were a campaign mirage, and that Bush had no intention of implementing them into public policy. While Bush has been president, Stern has continued to shout the same vulgarities and peddle the same sleaze over the air, but the intense pressure that was applied by the FCC during the Democratic era has not continued during the “family values” administration.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October 23, 2001] A classic example of CBS killing a story that reflected poorly on the Bush administration comes from Greg Palast: “….five months before the election, Katherine Harris, acting under orders from Jeb Bush, knocked 57,000 voters off the rolls. They were suspected of being evildoers and felons and, therefore, not allowed to vote in Florida. Here's the news: Of the 57,000 people, 97% were innocent of crimes, but they were guilty of being black. Half of them were African-American or Hispanic-in other words, Democratic voters. Was the state guessing who the people of color were? In Florida, it's like South Africa; they list your race right on your registration. There was no guessing. These people not only lost their vote, but lost their president. BBC figures Gore lost 22,000 votes this way, but you didn't read that in the U.S. press. You didn't read in the U.S. press that they say they're going to allow the voters back on in 2003. That means that they were screwed for the election of 2002 as well. I ran the story of the theft of the election on the BBC. Then a hotshot with CBS News calls me and says, "Oh, that's a great story, can we have a piece of it? We want something new." I said, "Yeah, I got something for you: Jeb Bush's office, the governor of Florida, is involved in knocking off the voters too, not just Katherine Harris, and there's a letter dated September 18, 2000, which directs county-election officials to deliberately violate the law and not register a bunch of people who are Democrats. These are people who committed crimes in other states. Jeb can't legally stop them from voting, but he did anyway. And he knows that these people are Democrats, because there's something about going to jail that turns people [into] Democrats, about 93% [of ex-cons vote Democrat.] (Interviewer): So, people who were either black or who had previously gone to jail were just automatically eliminated? PALAST: Right. Jeb sent out the letter anyway, September 18, 2000, despite two court orders saying he couldn't do that. I had an insider in his office, some poor woman, shaking, saying, "I gotta read you this letter." She knew about the court orders. Okay, so I said, to CBS, "That's a story." CBS News didn't run the story-one night, two nights. I said, "What happened?" They said, "It didn't stand up." I said, "How do you know the story didn't stand up?" "Well, we called Jeb Bush's office, and they said, 'We didn't do it.'…: In fact, just so you know, the NAACP took my information, sued Katherine Harris and the State of Florida; and they won. And you haven’t seen that reported in the American press: they won. Turns out, by the way, it wasn’t 57,000 people; 94,000 people were targeted to have their names illegally removed. And the State of Florida said, “You got us.” Katherine Harris has faced up to it, even though you don’t see it in the papers.” [Greg Palast Interview by Bruce David, Hustler, On-line] Time Warner and CNN In 1994, Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Seagram company acquired a 14.5% stake in Time Warner, and has been a controlling player ever since. The role of Edgar Bronfman in the larger illicit laundering scandal has been amply detailed throughout this report. Here is the same individual being one of the key media influencers in the US. Here is at least one example of their deliberate squelching of the news to support a cover-up. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 335 “Further investigation and probing of several other CNN sources closely connected with the production of the Asner segment on Showbiz Tonight reported that high-level members of CNN management advised the producers of the show to "kill it. " This statement was clearly made to stifle any further coverage of 9/11…”.[CNN Fears 9/11 Truth - Cancels Ed Asner's Appearance, Infowars.com, March 28, 2006] Disney and ABC Disney and ABC appears to be another example, very similar to NBC and CBS, where the corporate profit motive determined the content of the “message” to the American public. “The attitude at ABC was an extension of the personality of Disney Chairman Michael Eisner. Eisner does not like those who make waves, as the host of Politically Incorrect recently learned. After Bill Maher said that it was cowardly of America to fight battles by launching missiles from a safe distance, Eisner went out of his way to very publicly slap Maher down. This episode provided outsiders with a rare glimpse inside the corporate culture of … do not rock the boat or you’re in trouble. “Eisner will always stand up for principle, no matter what the cost,” says a former Disney executive, “as long as that principle involves increasing his personal compensation.” As a result, the candidate who held out the prospect of fabulous wealth for the broadcast industry got favorable coverage from ABC News. In fact, Bush received better coverage than Gore from the entire mainstream media.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October 23, 2001] It was Disney under Eisner that attempted to bury a film by Michael Moore that was critical of the Bush family, suggesting collusion with the Saudi Royal family. “Mr. Moore’s agent, Ari Emanuel, said that Michael D. Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor. “Michael Eisner asked me not to sell this movie to Harvey Weinstein; that doesn’t mean I listened to him,” Mr. Emanuel said. “He definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation and that’s why he didn’t want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn’t want a Disney company involved.” But that was then and this is now. Disney has turned most of ABC’s extensive radio network and owned-and-operated stations into a 24/7 orgy of right-wing talk. Disney’s chief lobbyist, Preston Padden, is not only one of Washington, D.C.’s most infamous Republican lobbyists, but he used to work for Rupert Murdoch. And Padden was set to use all of his considerable influence in Congress and the White House on Disney’s behalf if that big bad Goliath, Comcast, really tried to gobble up the Mouse House. As a result, no one thought it just coincidental when W pleaded just days after 9/11 for Americans “to return to the kind of lives we were leading before [that], especially air travel. Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America’s great destination spots. Go down to Disney World in Florida; take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed.” It was as close to a White House commercial for Disney as any corporation could dare hope. Then Bush followed that up weeks later with a PR visit to Orlando, Florida, where the Magic Kingdom had suffered a 25 percent drop in ticket sales, where a national photo showed the theme park’s deserted entrance. And since then, in addition to the usual tax breaks from W’s brother, Jeb, Disney World has benefited from special security measures, including extra protection and a federally declared “no flyover zone.” [When Might Turns Right - Golly GE, Why Big Media is Pro-Bush , Nikki Finke, LA Weekly, October 1 - 7, 2004] Behind all this, and what is rarely disclosed, is that in 1985, the largest shareholder in the owner of ABC, at the time being Capital Cities, was CIA Director Wiliam Casey. This THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 336 effectively put the CIA in control of ABC news. [see Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold, Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, Verso, 2005, p.188 ] News Corporation and FOX The role of Murdoch’s FOX news as a mouthpiece for the Bush family is legendary. If nothing else, having George Bush’s cousin as the Senior News Editor at FOX should be an insightful tip. “As Slate reports, Murdoch "put George W. Bush cousin John Ellis in charge of [Fox's] Election Night vote-counting operation: Ellis made Fox the first network to declare Bush the victor" even as the New Yorker reported that Ellis spent the evening discussing the election with George W. and Jeb Bush. After the election, Fox bragged that it attracted 6.8 million viewers on Election Night, meaning Ellis was in a key position to tilt the election for President Bush.” [Slate, 11/22/00; New Yorker, 11/20/00] Similarly, having former Republican Party advisor Roger Ailes as a Fox News Director is another insight to the FOX predisposition. [Michael C Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, p. 263.] “Ailes, 48, is the legendary dark prince of political advertising, the Republican consultant who helped engineer Richard Nixon's resurrection in 1968 and who scripted Ronald Reagan's second-debate comeback against Walter Mondale in 1984. This time Ailes has been the unseen hand behind Bush's best moments: the "Pierre" put-down of former Delaware Governor Pete du Pont in a debate last October, the hard-hitting anti-Dole advertising in February's New Hampshire primary, and the on-air pummeling of CBS's Dan Rather last January…. Ailes' involvement has been crucial to Bush's candidacy. When Bush arrived in New Hampshire reeling from a third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Ailes labored all night over the television ad that quashed Robert Dole's insurgent campaign. Known as the "Senator Straddle" commercial, the blunt spot asserted that Dole had waffled on tax hikes, oil-import fees and arms control.” [The Man Behind the Message: If anyone can build a better candidate, it is Roger Ailes, Richard Stengel, Time Magazine, August 22, 1988] But there is more. “Murdoch's media empire still has close ties with the Bush family. The relationship was recently put under the spotlight when it was revealed that Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes, a former Republican party strategist, secretly acted as an advisor to the president in the days after the September 11 terrorist strikes.” [US media dig deep for politicians, Annie Lawson, Guardian, April 7, 2003] “Discussions with former Fox News employees on several levels claim they were ordered to carry propaganda, discredit and skew news against Democrats, meld news and commentary and negatively caricature Mr Bush's presidential opponent, John Kerry, all under the network's slogans of ‘Fair and Balanced’, and ‘We Report, You Decide’.”[The Advertiser, Stan James, October 16, 2004] “When he decided to create his own U.S. radio and television network, Fox, he was confronted by an American law no broadcaster had ever circumvented, though many had tried. The law requires that no foreign entity may own more than 24.9 percent of a U.S. radio or television station. Murdoch changed his citizenship from Australian to United States, but that gesture was not enough. He still failed to comply with the broadcast law that requires the broadcaster's parent corporation to be based within the United States. Murdoch refused to move the company because he had special tax advantages in Australia. Instead, he used his new American power base of four newspapers and two magazines as THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 337 levers for his legendary political behind-the-scenes navigating to obtain special favors. It was a shock to other foreign firms, which had attempted but never succeeded in entering U.S. broadcasting, when Murdoch was granted the first waiver of that United States-only ownership law that had ever been granted. It still has never been granted to anyone else.” “While the media can’t avoid talking about the Abramoff Scandal, they can—and do—blow smoke and spread confusion and misinformation. A most popular example is the false claim that Democrats as well Republicans took money from Abramoff. In fact, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees between 2001 and 2004, and nothing to Democrats. Indeed, TV pundits themselves have closer ties to Abamoff. In March, 2003, Hollywood Reporter online reported that “Fox News Channel’s Tony Snow is master of ceremonies, and Fox’s Brit Hume and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews are aboard” for an event whose “purpose is to raise about $300,000 for the Capital Athletic Foundation.” The Capital Athletic Foundation is one of Abramoff’s various slush fund fronts. Ostensibly devoted to “needy and deserving” sportsmanship programs, the Washington Post discovered that though it collected nearly $6 million in its first four years of operation, “less than one percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths.” The fundraiser was cancelled because of the invasion of Iraq. But the Beltway newsmen’s involvement raises serious questions about their objectivity and distance from the subject of scandal. No one is saying they are dirty. But neither can they be considered objective in reporting about a widespread scandal that they themselves have gotten entangled in, however innocently. And yet, they are among the leading voices telling America how to think about it.” [Abramoff Scandal Threatens GOP But Media Runs Interference, Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor, Harbor Independent News, January 2006] Clear Channel “Global radio giant Clear Channel recently reignited concerns about companies that control mainstream media and snuggle up to political parties, following its controversial sponsorship of prowar rallies in the US. The media group, which controls 1,225 radio stations across the US and is the world's largest radio empire, also attracted scathing criticism for dropping the Dixie Chicks from its network playlist after its lead singer publicly declared her opposition to the war. The company's founder, Lowry Mays, ensured the majority of the $503,910 donations made in 2001- 02 landed in the Republican party's coffers. But his company's links with the Bush family run deeper. Media watchdog takebackthemedia.com this week published the elaborate web of connections that further align Clear Channel with the Bush family. Mays, who took advantage of radio deregulation and transformed Clear Channel into a global multimedia player, is associated with the president through the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO). Mays sits on the governing board, alongside Clear Channel vice-chairman Thomas Hicks, whose family is believed to have contributed over $500,000 to Bush campaigns over the years. Hicks, a long-time friend and supporter of President Bush, heads the UTIMCO board but his position was recently embroiled in controversy when it emerged he awarded UTIMCO-funded contracts to firms politically associated with the Bush dynasty. Hicks also bought the Texas Rangers baseball team from Bush for $250 million in 1998, three times the amount that Bush and his partners had originally paid.” [US media dig deep for politicians, Annie Lawson, Guardian, April 7, 2003] Bertelsmann The fifth largest Media Empire belongs to the Mohn family of Germany, which appears to maintain relative silence in American politics. However, a deep probe into the ownership suggests the significant but subtle influence of the Bush syndicate partners. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 338 “If one drives southwest from Hanover, Germany, and is careful to remain on Berliner Strasse for about 125 kilometers, one will come to Gutersloh, a pleasant town of sculptured tulip gardens, highspired churches, and tree-lined streams and lakes. It is a town of thirty-six thousand that lists as an honorary citizen, among others, Reinhard Mohn. This is the ancestral home of the Mohn family, who happen to own the privately owned firm of Bertelsmann A.G., the fifth largest media corporation in the United States and, among other things, the largest printer of English-language books in the world. …Like the other members of the Big Five that dominate the American media world, Bertelsmann's list of media companies is lengthy. It requires nine typed pages. Thirty percent of its holdings are in the United States, bringing from this source alone $63 billion annually. Most of Bertelsmanns eighty-two book subsidiaries were once freestanding, independent publishing houses, some of them household words not so many years ago Alfred Knopf, Pantheon, Random House, Ballantine, Bantam, Crown, Doubleday, and Modem Library. Its magazine groups include familiar names like Family Circle and Parents (joint ventures). The twenty different record labels issued by Bertelsmann include RCA, RCA Victor, and Windham Hill. Like others in the Big Five, Bertelsmann has shared enterprises with its "competitors," including a 50-50 ownership with Disney of a German TV operation, Super RTL. With all its power, Bertelsmann is haunted by a ghost....With the advent of Hitler and Nazism in the 1930s and the aftermath horrors of the Holocaust in World War 11, questions were asked how the company had emerged from the war ready to resume its growth around the world. To queries like "What did you do under Hitler?" the Bertelsmann official answer was, in effect, "We suffered for our anti-Nazism." Postwar records seemed to confirm this because in 1944 there was a temporary closure of the Bertelsmann plant in Gutersloh. But as postwar German archives became available, Gennan sociologist Hersch Fischler discovered that, during the war, Bertelsmann had, in fact, been the largest publisher under Hitler. Among its 19 million books, it had large contracts from the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, including anti-Semitic tracts supporting Hitler's insistence that Germans needed to take over central and western Europe. One book echoed Hitler's propaganda claim. Bertelsmann's anti-Semitic tracts were standard literature for Hitler's Brown Shirts.” [The New Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian, Beacon Press, 2004] While the Bertelsmann Media giant is owned mostly by the quiet Mohn family of Germany, they have cast their lot with a familiar global financial powerhouse: Group Bruxells Lambert, largely controlled by Andre Desmarais. The reader will recall that Desmarais was identified as a board member of Barrick Gold, along with George Bush Sr., Adnan Khashoggi, the Bronfmann family and a host of German/Swiss bank cartel members. Desmarais had himself placed on the Board of BertelsmannAG, suggesting another media company controlled by one of the extended Bush syndicate. “In February 2001, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, one of Belgium’s top 10 companies and 25 percent owned by Power Corp., acquired control of BertelsmannAG. Andre Desmarais, President and Chief Executive Officer of Power Corp., was named to the BAG board. As it turns out, the publishing company controlled by Canada’s powerful Desmarais family has a less than honourary history. Indeed, during the days of the Third Reich, BertelsmannAG was the biggest publisher of Nazi texts, with production more prolific than the National Socialist Party’s own printing business. The Nazi chapter of BertelsmannAG began in 1933, but was only documented and disclosed by a historian Saul Friedlander in 1999. Bertelsmann published the nefarious, The Christmas Book for Hitler Youth. The publishing empire which employs some 80,000 workers in 51 countries, posted an overall cash flow of $18.3-billion in 2002. Originally run by the Heinrich Mohn family, the company donated money to the SS and to various ecology Save-the-Earth factions of the Nazi movement.” [Canada's global connections, Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com, December, 15, 2004.] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 339 Additionally, another Barrick Board member – Otto Pohl – is also a director of Bertelsmann. 13.6 Final Steps in Ending a Free Press The Bush syndicate has figured out how to control the traditional press. The internet, however, remains free. This report is an example of how the Internet allows information to be shared that has been buried by a controlled press. Freedom, however, threatens this syndicate. Hence, in 2005, Representatives of the Bush syndicate went to court to try to limit political expression on the internet. “The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is currently under court order to consider extending regulation and restriction of political speech outlined by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA, also known as McCain-Feingold). The court order was the result of a lawsuit filed by advocates of regulated speech, including the architects of BCRA, Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold. Users of the Internet, such as online publications and blogs, so far have enjoyed a broad exemption from the speech restrictions favored by reformers. But the court-ordered rule-making by the FEC could change that….. FEC Commissioner Brad Smith: I think because anything they can't control scares them. And I think that as they are zealots, they are perpetually afraid somebody, somewhere is going to spend some money to influence politics and they think that that is a bad thing. They don't say that, of course. They say they are still very concerned about First Amendment rights and citizens participating in politics and so on. But if you are really looking at what their record is, if you look at what they do, if you look at what they testify before the commission about, what they are afraid of is that people would be participating in politics and in ways that they cannot control. So while there is no demonstrative threat yet, it's just a possibility that this could be a threat that has led them to swing into action.” [An End To 'Everybody's Press? Nick Schulz, www.techcentralstation.com, June 13, 2005] Summary The current methods ofterror, propaganda and media control all suggest that the country is being controlled by something other than the democratic process. If one adds to that a massive amount of research that indicates last two presidential elections were tampered with in the polls of numerous states, the path the U.S. is being steered to take is a dark one indeed. The next section of this report suggests that the Bush administration and the Neoconservative movement it uses as its front are really more like a totalitarian movement, than a party in the democratic process. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 340 Who Owns the Media Parent General Electric $100.5 billion Time Warner $26.8 billion The Walt Disney Co. $23 billion Viacom $18.9 billion News Corporation $13 billion Networks NBC includes programming, news and more than 13 TV and radio stations TURNER BROADCASTING includes sports teams, programming, production, retail, book publishing and multimedia WB Television Network ABC includes ABC Radio, ABC Video and ABC Network News CBS includes stations, CBS Radio, CBS Telenoticias and CBS Network News UPN includes programming and TV stations (50%) FOX includes programming and stations Cable Interests Owns 25-50% of the following:A & E (with Disney and Hearst) American Movie Classics (25%) Biography Channel (with Disney and Hearst) Bravo (50%) Bravo International CNBC Court TV (with Time Warner) Fox Sports Net History Channel (with Disney and Hearst) Independent Film Channel MSG Network MSNBC (50%) National Geographic Worldwide News Sport Prime Prism (with Rainbow, a subsidiary of Cablevision, and Liberty Media, a subsidiary of TCI) Romance Classics Sports Channel HBO (75%) Cinemax HBO Direct Broadcast Court TV (33% with GE) TBS Superstation Turner Classic Movies TNT Cartoon Network Comedy Central (37.5% with Viacom) Sega Channel OVATION (50%) Women's Information Television (WIN) (partial) TVKO (75%) 4 regional all-news channels CNN CNN/SI (with Sports Illustrated) CNNfn (financial network) CNNRadio Headline News Sportsouth CNN International CNN Airport Network Disney Channel Disney Television (58 hours/week syndicated programming) Toon Disney Touchstone Television A&E (37.5% with Hearst and GE) Lifetime Network (50%) ESPN (80% with Hearst) ESPN2 (80% with Hearst) ESPN Classic (80% with Hearst) ESPN West (80% with Hearst) ESPNews (80% with Hearst) Buena Vista Television Biography Channel (with GE and Hearst) History Channel (37.5% with Hearst and GE) Classic Sports Network E! (35%) Nickelodeon MTV M2: Music Television VH1 Showtime Nick at Nite's TVLand Paramount Networks Comedy Central (50% with Time Warner) TNN: The Nashville Network Movie Channel FLIX All News Channel (50%) Sundance Channel (45%) Midwest Sports Channel CBS Telenoticias (30%) Home Team Sports (66% with News Corporation) Fox Family Channel (50%) Fox News Channel fx (50% with TCI's Liberty Media) fxM (50% with TCI's Liberty Media) Fox Sports Net (25% with TCI, GE and Cablevision) The National Geographic Channel (50%) FIT TV Partnership Regional networks, including TV Guide Channel and Fox Sports New York Other Major Players: AT&T (TCI) - Recently acquired by AT&T, TCI's hold on cable, internet and local phone services contributed to $7.6 billion in 1997 revenues. TCI is the second-largest US cable television system provider, and it has 10% ownership of Time-Warner/Turner. The company owns all or part of USA Network, Sci-Fi Network, E!, Court TV, Starz! and Starz! 2, Black Entertainment Television, BET on Jazz, BET Movies/Starz! 3, CNN, TNT, Headline News, Prime Sports Channel, The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, QVC, Q2, Fox Sports Net, The Travel Channel, Prevue Channel, Animal Planet, The Box, Telemundo, International Channel, Encore, MSG Network, Action Pay-per-view, and the Home Shopping Network. Sony - Sony's main media interests, earning $9 billion in 1997 sales, are in film and television production, movie theaters and music. Universal (Seagram) - In addition to Universal Studios, with its production facilities and theme parks, the company owns the USA and Sci-Fi cable networks. Source: Who Controls the Media? Professor John Lye - Last Updated (Friday, 08 October 2004), also National Organization of Women THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 341 14 Policy and Philosophy: Democracy and Patriotism as Coverups for Terror and Greed The political movement founded by George H.W. Bush has a history of being tainted by allegations of criminal misconduct, most of which has never been proven in a court of law. Voters are often reminded that the allegations around Iran-Contra, cocaine dealings, savings and loan frauds, bank fraud and money laundering, and violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act have never been proven in court of law. Voters are never reminded that investigations into these crimes have been stopped or corrupted; witnesses have been bribed, intimidated and murdered, and evidence has been suppressed under the guise of ‘national security.’ If the record was one such that there had been only one whispered allegation or possibly two – there might be a reasonable position in giving the accused the benefit of the doubt, which the U.S. legal system does. However, over the past twenty years, those individuals intimately linked to the Bush family success have been accused over-and-over again of felony crimes, only to escape prosecution and punishment because of the Bush apparatus political influence. Their public accusers have been slandered, ruined, imprisoned and murdered. The news of these crimes is selectively ignored under the guidance of a few media oligarchs who are indebted to - and in fear of - the Bush machine. In so many ways, the alleged crimes and behavior patterns of the Bush family are such as to suggest they trumpet the coming of a new totalitarian order – the “new world order” first mentioned in a speech to Congress by George H.W. Bush on September 11, 1991. The movement, however, began much earlier, in 1975, when Bush came to power as CIA Director under President Gerald Ford. It was at that time that his future war cabinet “eviscerated” Kissinger’s policies of détente and balance of power, and by eliminating Kissinger, sought to take the United States down a path of global domination by eliminating the policy of “balance” of power. “The report, delivered at the end of 1976, presented an analysis of Soviet motivations profoundly different from the one U.S. intelligence had been offering. The team (appointed by Bush, including Wolfowitz) concluded it was possible to interpret the available intelligence data as showing that the Soviet Union was striving for military superiority over the United States and that it viewed détente as a means of achieving that goal. “All evidence points to an undeviating Soviet Commitment to what is euphemistically called the “worldwide triumph of socialism,’ but in fact connotes global Soviet hegemony” the report said. It criticized the CIA for relying too much on satellites and other technology and for failing to give enough weight to what the Soviet leaders were saying.” …The evisceration of Henry Kissinger and détente represented a turning point for America’s relations with the world….Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz all played key roles in these changes…”.[Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann, Penguin, 2004, p74.] The new policy which strives for world hegemony was founded in the thinking of the Bush advisors who would later proclaim themselves the “Vulcans” in the late 1980s (after the Roman god of fire and volcanoes, maker of iron, arms and armor), and later became leaders of the Neoconservative movement of the late 1990s. Their policy of world domination, initially expressed in 1976, is reported by numerous resources, to be THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 342 encompassed in such phrases as “global hegemony,” “permanent superiority,” and “perpetual war.” “Already in 1992, toward the end of the first Bush White House, then Undersecretary of Defense Wolfowitz and Secretary of Defense Cheney came up with a bold new plan to rethink U.S. military policy, which was circulated in the top-secret Defense Policy Guidance report. So disturbing was this report that a Pentagon official, who believed this strategy debate should be carried out in the public domain, leaked it. Indeed, it was described by some as nothing less than a plan for the U.S. to “rule the world,” without acting through the U.N. and by using pre-emptive attacks on potential threats (Armstrong Armstrong, David 2002 “Dick Cheney’s Song of America: Drafting a Plan for Global Dominance.” Harper’s (October): 76-83; Johnson, Chalmers 2004 The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 20-25). … Although this plan was quickly rejected after its leak, it resurfaced in a new form in 1997, with the founding of the Project for a New American Century by Irving Kristol’s son, William. As William Kristol and Robert Kagan had already argued in Foreign Affairs in 1996, America now has an opportunity to exercise a “benevolent hegemony” over the world while promoting democracy and free markets – an opportunity it would be foolish to let slip away.” (“Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy.” William Kristol and Robert Kagan ,Foreign Affairs July/August 1996) http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19960701faessay4210/william-kristol-robert- kagan/toward-a-neoreaganite- foreign-policy.html). [America, Left Behind: Bush, the Neoconservatives, and Evangelical Christian Fiction, Hugh B. Urban, Journal of Religion & Society, Volume 8 (2006), ISSN 1522-5658 ] “Inside the Pentagon, Wolfowitz had delegated the job of coming up with the new Defense Planning Guidance to (Scooter) Libby, his protégé and top assistant …. Libby in turn, assigned the task of writing the new strategy to (Zalmay) Khalilzad…. Khalilzad’s draft suggested that the competition with Japan and Germany should be confined to economics; the United States should make sure it had no military rivals…. Libby wanted to shift the emphasis subtly. The point shouldn’t be to block rival powers, but rather for the United States to become so militarily strong, so overwhelmingly that no country would dream of ever becoming a rival. America should build up its military lead to such an extent that other countries would be dissuaded from even starting to compete with the United States. The costs would be too high….Thus the United States would be the world’s lone superpower not just today or ten years from now but permanently….This Pentagon strategy for permanent American military superiority was issued under Cheney’s name, and Cheney played the key role in making the document public.” [Rise of the Vulcans - The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann, Penguin, 2004, pp209-213.] “Against the looming threat of peace and prosperity, Dick Cheney assured that in the words of Gore Vidal, the decades to come would be defined by “perpetual war.” Cheney was as fervently anti- Communist as the next right-winger, but when the Communist-led governments ceased to pose even the slightest challenge to the United States or its allies, the secretary of defense jettisoned the rationale for the cold war while maintaining the form and substance of the struggle.” [The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney, John Nichols, The New Press, 2004, p104.] The Neoconservative movement however was more than an expression of government policy. It became - it evolved into - an ideology of faith, as shown by its advocates. “As Halper and Clarke suggest, [The Faith Factor, Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, Time, June 21, 2004, p.30] the Neoconservative persuasion can perhaps best be characterized by three features: first, “a belief deriving from religious conviction that the human condition is defined as a choice between good and evil and that the true measure of political character is found in the willingness by the former to confront the latter;” second, “an assertion that the fundamental determinant of the relationship between states rests on military power and the willingness to use it….” [America, Left Behind: Bush, the Neoconservatives, and Evangelical Christian Fiction, Hugh B. Urban, Journal of Religion & Society, Volume 8 (2006), ISSN 1522-5658 ] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 343 “As Kristol argues, strong religious faith and a belief in the transcendent basis of moral law is crucial to the health of the country and the strength of the economy: “The three pillars of modern conservatism are religion, nationalism, and economic growth. Of these, religion is easily the most important, because it is the only power that . . . can shape people’s characters and regulate their motivation”. The loss of a strong moral and religious compass, in turn, has led to the intense crisis that modern liberal America faces, which he described as a “steady decline in our democratic values, sinking to new levels of vulgarity.” [America, Left Behind : Bush, the Neoconservatives, and Evangelical Christian Fiction, Hugh B. Urban, Journal of Religion & Society, Volume 8 (2006), ISSN 1522-5658 ] The Neoconservative movement as expressed by its apostles, promised the fulfillment of a “Utopian” vision with apocalyptic connotations – the ultimate, Utopian destiny of human kind. “…the Neoconservative “persuasion” has attracted a wide range of powerful figures, from Bush cabinet members like Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, to intellectuals like Franci Fukuyama. Indeed, one of the most important texts for Neoconservative ideology is Fukuyama’s widely-read work, The End of History and the Last Man, which posits that American government and free market capitalism represent the final stage of human development with few flaws (cf. Burbach and Tarbell: 83).” [America, Left Behind: Bush, the Neoconservatives, and Evangelical Christian Fiction, Hugh B. Urban, Journal of Religion & Society, Volume 8 (2006), ISSN 1522-5658 ] Clearly, the Neoconservative movement was and is more than expression of guidance for American foreign policy. William Kristol and Michael Ledeen, as the Nietschean Zarathustras of the Neoconservative movement, both advocate a disdain for all that has preceded them with the proclamation that “history begins today” and that the future of humanity is best determined by the global hegemony of their interpretation of “good versus evil” based on their Judaeo-Christian Old Testament culture. Their interpretation of what that culture demands is one that rationalizes a conscious choice and the practice of evil, hatred, suffering, and arrogance in pursuit of their “Utopian vision.” The philosophical rationalization of evil and hatred has resulted in a US foreign policy which blatantly deploys unjustified war, murder, rape, torture, theft, fraud, lying, forgery and bribery under the immunity of patriotism and national security and under the façade of promoting democracy. The Vulcan/Neoconservative ideology of world hegemony can be interpreted as ‘patriotic’ or impassioned love of country – but it is also a reflection of a deeper, unnerving psyche. That psyche is best described by Hannah Arendt, whose classic study of German and Russian totalitarianism provides insight to the many similarities between the Neoconservative movement and those movements that gave birth to the totalitarian phenomenon. “The struggle for total domination of the total population of the earth… is inherent in the totalitarian regimes themselves…Totalitarianism in power uses the state administration for its long-range goal of world conquest and for the direction of the branches of the movement; it establishes the secret police as the executors and guardians of its domestic experiment in constantly transforming reality into fiction; and it finally erects concentration camps as special laboratories to carry through its experiment in total domination.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, pp. 392] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 344 “To be sure, totalitarian dictators do not consciously embark upon the road to insanity….they consider the country where they happened to seize power only the temporary headquarters of the international movement on the road to conquest, that they reckon victories and defeats in terms of centuries or millennia , and that global interests always overrule the local interests of their own territory.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, p411.] The Weltanschauung and ideology of the Neoconservative movement is not inherently totalitarian, and a desire for global domination does not automatically qualify the movement as Totalitarian. Unfortunately, it is but one of many characteristics that the Neoconservative movement has in common with the horrors of the mid-Twentieth Century dictators now known as Totalitarian. If one highlights the characteristics of ‘Totalitarian” regimes, the parallels between those abominations and the neoconservative movement become clear. Here are nine more similarities between Bush’ Neoconservative cabal, and the totalitarian regimes of Germany and the Soviet Union. 1. The movement considers itself above the law. “…the fundamental difference between the totalitarian and all other concepts of law comes to light. Totalitarian policy does not replace one set of laws with another, does not establish its own consensus iuris, does not create by one revolution, a new form of legality. Its defiance of all, even its own positive laws implies that it believes it can do without any consensus iuris whatever, and still not resign itself to the tyrannical state of lawlessness, arbitrariness and fear.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, p462.] Time and again, in protecting his business partners from criminal investigation and pardoning them from crimes against the state, Bush has maintained that patriotism is more important than the law, and that he as President, was above it. ‘President Bush December 24 granted pardons to former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five other individuals for their conduct related to the Iran-Contra affair. Bush said Weinberger -- who had been scheduled to go on trial in Washington January 5 on charges related to Iran-Contra -- was a "true American patriot," who had served with "distinction" in a series of public positions since the late 1960s. "I am pardoning him not just out of compassion or to spare a 75-year-old patriot the torment of lengthy and costly legal proceedings, but to make it possible for him to receive the honor he deserves for his extraordinary service to our country," Bush said in a proclamation granting executive clemency. The president also pardoned five other persons who already had pleaded guilty or had been indicted or convicted in connection with the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages investigation. They were Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs; former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane; and Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, and Clair George, all former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. Explaining those pardons, Bush said the "common denominator of their motivation -- whether their actions were right or wrong -- was patriotism." [Bush Pardons Weinberger, Five Others Ties to Iran- Contra, Dian McDonald; USIA White House Correspondent Washington, December 24, 1992] Similarly, his son George W. Bush, has taken this interpretation of the law to a new level, creating for himself interpretations of the law that allow him to suspend any law, in secret, at his discretion. ‘When the New York Times revealed that George W. Bush had ordered the National Security Agency to wiretap the foreign calls of American citizens without seeking court permission, as is indisputably THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 345 required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed by Congress in 1978, he faced a decision. Would he deny the practice, or would he admit it? He admitted it. But instead of expressing regret, he took full ownership of the deed, stating that his order had been entirely justified, that he had in fact renewed it thirty times, that he would continue to renew it and--going even more boldly on the offensive--that those who had made his law-breaking known had committed a "shameful act." As justification, he offered two arguments, one derisory, the other deeply alarming. The derisory one was that Congress, by authorizing him to use force after September 11, had authorized him to suspend FISA, although that law is unmentioned in the resolution. Thus has Bush informed the members of a supposedly co-equal branch of government of what, unbeknownst to themselves, they were thinking when they cast their vote. The alarming argument is that as Commander in Chief he possesses "inherent" authority to suspend laws in wartime. But if he can suspend FISA at his whim and in secret, then what law can he not suspend? What need is there, for example, to pass or not pass the Patriot Act if any or all of its provisions can be secretly exceeded by the President? Bush's choice marks a watershed in the evolution of his Administration…. The Administration of George W. Bush is not a dictatorship, but it does manifest the characteristics of one in embryonic form. Until recently, these were developing and growing in the twilight world of secrecy. Even within the executive branch itself, Bush seemed to govern outside the normally constituted channels of the Cabinet and to rely on what Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff has called a "cabal." Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill reported the same thing. Cabinet meetings were for show. Real decisions were made elsewhere, out of sight. Another White House official, John DiIulio, has commented that there was "a complete lack of a policy apparatus" in the White House. "What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm." As in many Communist states, a highly centralized party, in this case the Republican Party, was beginning to forge a parallel apparatus at the heart of government, a semi-hidden state-within-a-state, by which the real decisions were made.’ [The Hidden State Steps Forward, Jonathan Schell, The Nation, December 22, 2005] “… in the United States, this president (George HW Bush ) and Congress seem hell bent on defying the popular will. The American people, in poll after poll and survey after survey, are revealed to be opposed to the direction of the war in Iraq, illegal immigration, amnesty, a guest-worker program, the outsourcing of jobs and certainly the outsourcing of our security. It has become increasingly clear over the last several years that the least represented constituency in either Congress or the White House is the middle class, working men and women who are the foundation of our country.” [Dobbs: President, Congress Defying People's Will, Lou Dobbs, CNN, March 31, 2006] “I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.” George Bush Jr. [Michael C Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, p. 480.] 2. The movement is founded on terror. ‘Terror becomes total when it becomes independent of all opposition; it rules supreme when nobody any longer stands in its way. If lawfulness is the essence of non-tyrannical government and lawlessness is the essence of tyranny, then terror is the essence of totalitarian domination.’ [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, p.464.] The Neoconservative movement, under the Bush family, has engaged in total terror, including murder, conspiracy with organized crime, drug-running, torture, secret camps. ‘He has presided over a system of torture and sought to legitimize it by specious definitions of the word. He has asserted a wholesale right to lock up American citizens and others indefinitely without any legal showing or the right to see a lawyer or anyone else. He has kidnapped people in foreign countries and sent them to other countries, where they were tortured. In rationalizing these and other acts, his officials have laid claim to the unlimited, uncheckable and unreviewable powers he has THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 346 asserted in the wiretapping case. He has tried to drop a thick shroud of secrecy over these and other actions.’ [The Hidden State Steps Forward, Jonathan Schell, The Nation, December 22, 2005] 3. The success of the movement is founded on apathy in the voting populace. ‘Totalitarian movements are possible wherever there are masses who for one reason or another have acquired the appetitive for political organization. Masses are not held together by a consciousness of common interest and they lack that specific class articulateness which is expressed in determined, limited, and obtainable goals. The term masses applies only where we deal with people who either because of their sheer numbers, or indifference, or a combination of both, cannot be integrated into any organization based on common interest, into political parties or municipal governments or professional organizations or trade unions. Potentially, they exist in every country and form the majority of those large numbers of neutral, politically indifferent people who never join a party and hardly ever go to the polls.’ [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968] 4. The movement is funded not so much by the willing populace, but rather by stealing the resources of subjugated territories “Like a foreign conqueror, the totalitarian dictator regards the natural and industrial riches of each country, including his own, as a source of loot and a means of preparing the next step of aggressive expansion. Since this economy of systematic spoliation is carried out for the sake of the movement and not of the nation, no people and no territory, as the potential beneficiary, can possible set a saturation point to the process. The totalitarian dictator is like a foreign conqueror who comes from nowhere, and his looting is likely to benefit nobody.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, p. 417] The Bush movement has been propelled into history by “dark ops” across the globe, funded by the initial theft of the World War II Asian treasuries recovered by Ferdinand Marcos, and subsidized by criminal profits from weapons for drugs for cash. The involvement of the Bush apparatus in facilitating this trade between crime organizations, terrorist organizations and mainstream political parties is seen in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Albania, Columbia, Nicaragua, to mention the obvious examples. Using these funds, they have destabilized these same areas for the sake of controlling oil, while their Russian/Israeli Mafiya partners reap the gold and diamond mineral wealth. 5. The movement began with a benign front. “The world…usually gets its first glimpse of a totalitarian movement through its front organizations. The sympathizers, who are to all appearance still innocuous fellow-citizens in a non-totalitarian society, can hardly be called single minded fanatics; through them, the movements make their fantastic lies more generally acceptable, can spread their propaganda in milder, more respectable forms….” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968] (367) For Americans, the first glimpses of this new movement came from the “Project for a New American Century” and “American Enterprise Institute.” These are the public fronts. The non-public, secretive fronts are not so obvious, and are described under Arendt’s totalitarian characteristic – new levels of secrecy. 6. The movement defines new levels of militancy and secrecy. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 347 “Another advantage of the totalitarian pattern is that it can be repeated indefinitely and keeps the organization in a state of fluidity which permits it constantly to insert new layers, and define new degrees of militancy.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968] 368 “Real power begins where secrecy begins.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968] 403 For Arendt, militancy and secrecy were state or party sponsored. In this report, the evidence has shown the emergence and use of private military armies by the Bush administration and business partners in pursuit of their goals, as aligned through their party allegiances. Such organizations have names which hide the fact that their sole business is selling war and murder, packaged as “security.” · Diligence · FarWest · CACI · Strategic Consulting Group · Titan Inc. · Stratesec There is however another layer of militancy, where organizations are fronts for illegal intelligence operations, free of Congressional or Parliamentary oversight. These are organizations where public leaders can deploy stolen public treasuries for the purposes of advancing their personal business interests. They come under such innocent names as · International Republican Institute (not affiliated with the Republican Party) · World Vision · Wings of Democracy · US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce · Office of Special Plans · Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung · Azerbaijan International Operating Company · American Commonwealth University These organization and corporations are only a few of the “fronts” deployed by this movement’s members. 7. It is a movement that masks its realities with lies. “A mixture of gullibility and cynicism is prevalent in all ranks of totalitarian movements, and the higher the rank, the more cynicism weighs down gullibility. The essential conviction shared by all ranks, from fellow-traveler to leader, is that politics is a game of cheating and that the first commandment of the movement: “The Fuehrer is always right,” is as necessary for the purpose of world politics, i.e.., world-wide cheating, as the rules of military discipline are for the purpose of war …. The result of this system is that the gullibility of sympathizers makes lies credible to the outside world, while at the same time the graduated cynicism of membership and elite formation eliminates the danger that the leader will ever be forced by the weight of his own propaganda to make good his own THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 348 statements and feigned respectability. It has been one of the chief handicaps of the outside world in dealing with totalitarian systems that it ignored this system and therefore trusted that on one hand, the very enormity of totalitarian lies would be their undoing and that, on the other, it would be possible to take the Leader at his word and force him, regardless of his original intentions, to make it good. The totalitarian system, unfortunately, is foolproof against such normal consequences; its ingeniousness rests precisely on the elimination of the reality which either unmasks the liar or forces him to live up to his pretense.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, p.384.] In their proclaimed battle of good versus evil, Neoconservatives claim – as did Hitler and Stalin –that they stand for democracy and patriotism, and all the goodness those conditions bring. What they leave behind in the Philippines, Albania, Chechnya, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Angola, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq and other places is a new tyranny, the only difference is that the new tyrannies pay tribute to the “new world order:” the friends and corporations aligned with the Neoconservative movement and Bush family. What they leave behind in the U.S. is equally tragic. Their ‘patriotic’ contribution to the nation is found in the subtle theft of untold hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars via · Treasury backed loans from The World Bank, the IMF, and the Inter-American Development Bank, which end up in Swiss an other off-shore accounts; · A fee on all cash transactions of the U.S. Treasury. In their outsourcing of the various federal functions, every dollar going into and out of the Treasury would flow through the Riggs Bank, in Washington D.C., of which Jonathon Bush is a Director, and former Vice Chairman and Director J. Carter Beese became a founder of the Carlyle Group and an SEC Commissioner. When attention was focused on the Bank for its unwillingness to clamp down on illegal moneylaundering, the bank changed its name. · Secret, uncompetitive bid contracts for hundreds of billions of dollars that produce no substantial value, and where even the results of government audits which report fraud are disregarded. 8. It is a movement that finds alliances with organized crime, brutal warlords, and drugrunners. “…there is no doubt that the elite and the mob notwithstanding, there is no doubt that the elite was pleased whenever the underworld frightened respectable society into accepting it on an equal footing. The members of the elite did not object at all to paying a price, the destruction of civilization, for the fun of seeing how those who had been excluded unjustly in the past forced their way in. They were not particularly outraged at the monstrous forgeries in historiography of which all totalitarian regimes are guilty and which announce themselves clearly enough in totalitarian propaganda.” [The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, Harvest Book, 1968, p 332.] Is there a better example of this than the Board of Diligence, with all its connection to the Neoconservative movement, dealing on a regular basis with a front for the Chechen Mafiya and other mercenaries, whose targets are children and sleeping families? 9. It is a movement that openly admits that intolerance, evil and hatred are acceptable behaviors. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 349 “Leo Strauss is one of the icons of the modern conservative movement. His influence today is particularly strong among conservatives working on issues of public policy, including foreign affairs. His intellectual heirs include William Kristol…William Bennet, Fukyama and Harvey Mansfield, as well as quite a few officials in the Pentagon and National Security community….One core idea in Strauss’s work was a denunciation of the spirit of moral tolerance….[Rise of the Vulcans- The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, James Mann, Penguin, 2004, p26.] “The defense of the country is one of those extreme situation in which a leader is justified in committing evil.” [Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, Michael Ledeen, 2000, pp 117] “…in order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to ‘enter into evil.’ ” [Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, Michael Ledeen, 2000, pp 90] There should be no ambiguity as to what the Neoconservative/Bush movement represents. 10. It is an organization that openly justifies the murder of innocent civilians to promote their personal definitions of public policy According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization — the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)" — will carry out secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces. In other words — and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan — the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people — your family, your friends, your lovers, you — in order to further their geopolitical ambitions. [Into the Dark: The Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks, Chris Floyd, CounterPunch, November 1, 2002] These were the people that had no difficulty in ordering the deaths of thousands of innocents on September 11, 2001. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 350 15 Epilogue The murder of Nick Berg by Mossad agents posing as Muslim terrorists was meant to accomplish three goals: · Eliminate any potential smoking gun which could implicate rogue Mossad agents and their employers in the bombing of the World Trade Center; · Send a message to the US intelligence world, that “trespassing” on their turf was still punishable by death. Just as the Israelis deliberately murdered 34 U.S. sailors on the USS Liberty in 1967 for conducting surveillance on Israel, so did they murder Nick Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley; and · Continue the pretense that Muslim terrorists are a threat to American citizens, so as to encourage the American public to support the Israeli ambition in the Middle East and support US assaults on Iraq and Iran. In trying to understand why the primary intelligence agency of a supposed U.S. ally would help destroy the World Trade Center, and try to assassinate President Bush, darker secrets were uncovered. It appears that contrary to what the U.S. Government (under the guidance of George W. Bush) has convinced the public, Muslim terrorists did attack the World Trade Center, but not for the purpose of jihad. These Muslim terrorists most likely were contract operatives working under the guidance of the Mossad and rogue U.S. intelligence operatives. Their objective was to bring to an end numerous U.S. investigations into secret Swiss bank accounts and Deutschebank transactions which would have exposed numerous criminal activities by the Russian Mafiya and the George HW Bush Sr. intelligence operations going back as far as 1991. Those investigations would have exposed: · illegal theft of national treasuries of Russia and the Philippines; · the use of heroin sales proceeds to fund covert intelligence operations in Central Asia (mostly in Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Georgia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, etc.); · illegal bribes to various Central Asian oligarchs from major corporate financial contributors to the Bush campaigns, as well as directly from George Bush Sr.; and · illegal gold and money laundering operations; and · Fraudulent Brady Bonds issued to Russian criminal oligarchs. These are the types of illegal activities that Sibel Edmonds identified as having been covered-up by a “National Security” block and Attorney General gag order imposed on her, and the activities independently confirmed by research of intelligence leaked to the public domain. Like the Iran Contra scandal of the 1980’s, George Bush Sr. used a wide array of illegal activities to fund intelligence operations for a foreign policy he deemed THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 351 appropriate, and decided to pursue without Congressional confirmation, and in violation of the law. That foreign policy translated into illegal activities to take over the Central Asian and Russian oil and gas fields of the former Soviet Union through use of privately funded armies and financial fraud – just as he had illegally funded covert activities to promote foreign policy in Iran and Nicaragua. Illegal activities also included his payoffs to Russian oligarchs with 10 year Brady Bonds to ensure the collapse of the former Soviet Union. However much one may agree with those ‘foreign policy’ objectives, the activities undertaken at Bush’s order were illegal, and ultimately needed to be covered-up by the destruction of the World Trade Center, and the senseless murder of thousands of innocents. All of these illegal activities were threatened with exposure by various investigations in to Swiss accounts by U.S. federal agencies, and possibly the New York State Tax department. The accounts that were attracting the most investigative evidence were the Khashoggi accounts, which were used to hide proceeds from the transfer of the Philippine treasury stolen by Ferdinand Marcos, with the assistance of George Bush Sr. Khashoggi’s accounts were linked, through his Azerbaijani banks, to illegal funding of mercenaries in Central Asia, and probably the Afghan heroin trade, as well his connections to arranging terrorist events for the Russians. However, the Russian accounts were rapidly drawing attention as well. There were other investigations that threatened to expose a network of illegal funding, as well as illegal profiteering. These included investigations into 1. The Deutschebank and Barrick gold trades investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the GATA lawsuit (This investigation would have exposed the gold laundering operations used by the German bank cartel to launder Russian Mafiya and Philippine gold); 2. The Swiss accounts of Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev, which led to the Giffen- Williams-Mobil Oil money laundering scandal (There is evidence that the Russian Mafiya associates of Nazarbayev threatened to bring an end to the investigation); 3. The Swiss accounts of various Russian oligarchs related to the Bank of New York/Riggs-valmet /Russian Mafiya money laundering scandal and the illegal Brady Bonds of September 12, 1991; 4. The Export-Import Loans to Halliburton that probably funded illegal activities in Angola, Georgia, and Kazakhstan; and 5. The Swiss accounts which held World War II holocaust gold, which would have been audited as a result of the GATA investigation. A potentially bigger time-bomb than any of these investigations would be the exposure of the September 11, 1991 Brady Bonds. Although a decision to destroy the World Trade Center was made in late 1998, the execution of the attack had to be delayed until September 11, 2001 because the cover-up of the ten year Brady Bond fraud could only be done in conjunction with these bonds being re-financed on maturity. By declaring a national emergency with the attack on the World Trade Center, Alan Greenspan - one of THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 352 the co-initiators of the bonds with George Bush Sr. and Oliver North – allowed for the refinancing of the fraudulent bonds during the activities that followed September 11. To ensure the destruction of the FBI and other investigative agency offices in the various buildings of the World Trade Center, these rogue Mossad agents planted explosives throughout Buildings 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7, during the blackout weekend prior to the attack. This cover-up also required manipulating Muslim fanatics into creating a diversion which would cover-up the explosions. To accomplish this, the rogue, Russian based Mossad used the traditional Mossad to create and manipulate a false flag operation. Nick Berg was part of this operation. The FBI was hot on his trail, and he needed to be silenced. With the involvement of Israelis, Russian Mafiya and German and Swiss bank executives, it was easy for the intelligence agencies of these countries to discover the plot, and send warnings to the US government. Top leaders in the Bush administration were already aware. Prior knowledge of this attack was leveraged by a group of bureaucrats and military professionals, and possibly the President himself (but more likely his father, the former President), who had pre-inauguration plans to launch attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, using the attack as a “Pearl Harbor” justification. Their plan was to use the incident to further their personal agendas in American foreign policy: the enrichment of US oil interests, and the security of Israel through the destruction of its enemies in Palestine, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. In this hypothetical explanation of events, there may be error in some of the conclusions. There is however, no error in the pattern of evidence that shows, over and over again, that the two main groups involved in the destruction of the World Trade Center were the Mossad and the Bush intelligence apparatus, with assistance from the Syrian, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence operations, as well as a commercial German intelligence operation. These groups, using Deutschebank and Swiss bankers as co-conspirators, have been funding illegal, covert activities for years and using these same Muslim fanatics as their contract agents throughout Central Asia, Asia, and Africa. The criminals responsible for these crimes are probably quite easy to find (with the right resources), and easy to convict – if on no other grounds than tax evasion or violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (It is another co-incidence that the plane that hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center hit the office of the New York State Tax investigators.) However, it is immensely inexpedient to find the real criminals. Finding the actual criminals would mean the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were unwarranted. If the true criminals were brought to justice, it could easily bring down the administration of President Bush, and begin an unraveling of the controls being implemented by invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. To do so might seriously undermine the credibility of the U.S. administration, and most likely put its officials at risk in international courts. It would disrupt the massive money laundering capabilities of the Deutschebank and probably some U.S. banks (which unfortunately, would only force THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 353 criminals to another channel.) It might even provide cause for the ousting of the hawkish Israeli government, and breathe new life into the Palestinian Peace process. On the other hand, it might bring to an end thirty five years of global conflict instigated by the Bush family sense of “patriotism and duty.” It would be unrealistic to expect any branch of the U.S. Government to seriously pursue this investigation. The systemic terror that is inflicted on government agents that want to become whistleblowers has been reported on extensively, with at least twenty murders attributed to the crime family associated with the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It has also become convenient for corporate owners of the media conglomerates to not hold the administration accountable. There is no serious investigative analysis of events and activities that challenge these criminals and at least one key investigation by FOX was prevented from airing. It has been all too easy forget questions such as “who benefited from the trades the day the World Trade Center was attacked?” The press has been first been intimidated into silence by the accusation of being anti-patriotic. If that type of intimidation does not silence critics, there are more aggressive types of intimidation. “Bad luck and accidents” seem to plague members of the press that displease the government: lost assignments, lost jobs, even lost lives. (For instance, one of the very few victims of the post 9-11 anthrax attack was the editor of a newspaper who only two months before had published what some considered embarrassing pictures of the Bush daughters. No periodical has touched the story since.) Those few who find the courage to speak up are legally gagged with court orders on the pretext of National Security. It is no wonder that the mainstream media does not explore the implications of these peripheral news items. There have been too many unanswered questions surrounding the events addressed in this report, and there have been too many questions that have not been asked. There has been a tendency for writers to ignore facts that did not fit neatly into their explanation. When a person starts looking at the pieces of information, especially those generally ignored because they are “peripheral, inconsequential, coincidental, and just plain inconvenient,” the answers become clear. The answers do not lead to terrorists and oil conspiracies – it’s about the money. All of the September 11th crimes were justified, in some twisted manner, as being the “right thing to do” for stock-holders, country, family, citizens or self. Deep down, however, it is all too apparent that it was always just about the money. Is this report proof? No. Is it possible that it happened like this? Yes. Did it happen this way? To answer this last question, it can be said that this explanation offers a more complete, inclusive interpretation of the events than explanations offered by the Bush administration, the 9/11 Commission or multiple conspiracy theorists. As citizens, Americans must ask themselves – because the rest of the world has already concluded this – is America under President Bush guilty of some of the same practices as numerous third world and European dictators? Are Americans guilty of attempting to destroy a culture because they disagree with their values and covet what the Muslims own? Will Americans tell lies to the world and hide the murder and torture of thousands? Will Americans illegally imprison citizens because it serves government needs, rather than because of something they have done? Will Americans sanction ‘death squads?’ THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 354 Will Americans intimidate with threats those who seek to report the truth? Are Americans turning a blind eye to these activities as did the world during the 1930s and 1940s? Will Americans allow their country to be controlled by the real terrorists? This report does not answer those questions, but it does document and explain the reasons why Americans are in the predicament of answering them. Every American must answer the questions for himself or herself. How one lives with this answer is a personal choice, a personal responsibility, and the legacy left to their children. From the Hagakure: To tell others that It is a rumor Will not do. When your own heart asks, How will you respond? Gosen waka shu THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 355 Appendix A: Banking Links with US Intelligence When investigating this series of events that ties together terrorists, spies and bankers, there is a need to define the context of these relationships. There is a more than cozy relationship that exists between the intelligence community and the banking industry. One only needs to look at the background of a number of US intelligence executives to identify this very compelling pattern of career advancement. That pattern suggests that after intelligence executives serve their time managing millions or billions of dollars of funds for which he cannot be held accountable (in the US, the annual intelligence budget is over $40 Billion) – they are rewarded by being promoted to the lofty air of financial executive. In exchange for that reward, they bring a range of ‘relationships’ to the bank which historically have proven financially lucrative. (One might safely assume they are not being hired for their acumen and experience as financial geniuses.) In a more than unique turnabout, the Deutsche Bank eversed the process and placed a banking executive (A.B. Krongard) as an Executive Director of the CIA! (This was Mr. Tenet’s gift to the Mossad.) This is the world this article must explore – the marriage of intelligence organizations, banks, and illegal money. The world where banks make money off the ‘dark side’ of the economy: money laundering, bankrolling wars and revolutions, hiding the import and export of weapons and munitions, managing large, ill-gotten slush funds etc. The fact that the US banking industry has bought into this model is obvious. Examples include: Table 2 Examples of Intelligence – Banking Linkage Name CIA Connection Financial Connection Bill Casey CIA Director Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission David Doherty General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange George Herbert Walker Bush CIA Director consultant to the Carlyle Group, joint investments with the bin Laden family, executive committee chair of First International Bancshares (FIB) A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown and former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust. John A McCone CIA Director Director of United California Bank, Western Bankcorporation; Pacific Mutual Life Insurance John Deutch CIA Director the board at Citigroup Nora Slatkin CIA Executive Director sits on Citibank's board THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 356 Robert "Bud" McFarlane CIA Director Board of Directors of American Equity Investors (AEI) William Colby CIA Director General Counsel of the Nugan Hand Bank, unlisted counsel to Household Bank Mitch Rogovin CIA Legal Counsel Board of Directors of American Equity Investors (AEI) George Clairmont and Howard Hebert CIA officials Board of Directors of American Equity Investors (AEI) Bobby Inman CIA Director and ONI Board of Directors, Federal Reserve, Dallas Maurice "Hank" Greenburg floated as a possible CIA Director in 1995 CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third largest capital investment pool in the world This model also applies to the non US intelligence agencies. The European model, however is a bit different. Because of the sophisticated nature of interlocking corporate directorships in Europe, European intelligence agents are retired into industry, IT consulting and business consulting career slots rather than banking. On both sides of the ocean, banking has a ‘dark side’ which engages ex-intelligence agents who forge a link that converts illegal funds into respectability. On the US side, the offshoot of these practices are such scandals as the Iran Contra scandal and the Nugan-Hand banking scandal. On the European side, one finds such scandals as the BCCI-Vatican Bank scandal, the theft of Czech gold reserves, the disappearance of Soviet gold reserves and the laundering of Marcos gold from the Philippines. The thread that runs through these scandals is gold and money laundering– which brings this article to a major connection to the destruction of the World Trade Center, and a second compelling link to the German banking industry. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 357 Appendix B: Stratesec Stratesec Incorporated, formerly Securacom, Incorporated, has been subjected to a great deal of attention because of its contract to provide security and access control services to the World Trade Center. The attention is provided only by ‘conspiracy theorists’ primarily because of one of it’s Board Of Directors members is Marvin Bush, brother of President George Bush and son of George Bush Sr. The official 9/11 Commission totally ignored this security operation, but any investigation which hypothesizes that explosives were placed in the building cannot ignore it. In reviewing the information available, the company appears to be nothing more than an intelligence agency ‘front’ which operates as a courier for special visitors and other items requiring undisclosed transit. To accomplish this, they operate as a maintenance organization for security access control at major airports, financial centers and federal government groups which have investigative/intelligence capabilities. They are permitted secured, unquestioned access through airports and other buildings using this cover. Their only significant asset is a plane. The conclusion that it is an intelligence agency front company is suggested by the following clues: 1. The primary owner of the company is Wirt D. Walker, III, who also is chief owner and CEO of Aviation General. “The Group's principal activities are carried out through two subsidiaries: Commander Aircraft Company and Strategic Jet Services, Incorporated. Commander Aircraft Company manufactures, markets and provides support services for its line of single engine and high performance commander aircraft. It also provides consulting, brokerage and refurbishment services for all types of pistonpowered aircraft through its Aviation Services division. Strategic Jet Services provides consulting, brokerage, sales and refurbishment services for jet aircraft. The Group markets its aircraft through factory direct sales and marketing organization.” What is of note of these subsidiaries is that Commander Aircraft manufactures and provides training aircraft and flight simulators to flight training schools. Two schools that did business with Wirt’s company are a flight school in Florida investigated for training a 9/11 hijacker, and another in Egypt – where Mohammed Atta initially received his flight training, before he went to Germany. “Aviation General, formerly Commander Aircraft, brokered the sale of airplanes to the National Civil Aviation Training Organization (NCATO), located in Giza, Egypt, the hometown of lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. NCATO is the only civilian pilot training school in Egypt. NCATO has a training agreement with Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach, Florida, the flight school that was investigated by the FBI for possibly training at least one of the 9/11 hijackers.” [[MARVIN BUSH EMPLOYEE'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH – Connections to 9/11?, Wayne Madsen] 2. When one begins to investigate Strategic Jet Services, one finds a company that refurbished and sells used military aircraft, and had a President with a resume any intelligence operator could envy: THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 358 “Dan Cretsinger is a graduate of the College of the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Academy in Oklahoma. He has over 25 years experience in the aviation industry. Mr. Cretsinger has held supervisory / management positions with the Federal Aviation Administration, the United States Air Force, Beechcraft, Cessna, Sandar Corporation and was President of Strategic Jet Services….Mr. Cretsinger was lead negotiator for Aerolineas Argentina Airlines during their $465 million merger with Iberia Airlines of Spain. His expertise ranges from airline fleet analysis and acquisition to route planning and structuring for domestic and international airlines. A few of his clients include TelMex - Mexico City, Doyle Wilson Homes-Austin, TX, The Eisenberg Group-Tel Aviv,[author’s note: In the 1980s the Eisenberg Group acquired control of the Israel Corp. Subsequently many of the original investors withdrew, leaving the chairmanship to Eisenberg. By 1998 The Israel Corp. had investments in more than 100 businesses, including the Israeli shipping company that moved out of the WTC several weeks before the attack. The Eisenburg Group was also involved as a partner with Nordex in its dealings with Nazarbayev.] Dent Wizards-Sarasota, FL, Hallmark Cards-Quincy, IL, Tarom Airlines-Romania, Trans World Airlines, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aero Peru, and Aeroflot Airlines- Moscow. Mr. Cretsinger, who is a member of Who's Who Worldwide, was awarded the "1994/95 Who's Who Registry of Business Leaders". Additionally, Mr. Cretsinger is a rated commercial jet pilot with over 5,000 flight hours. He is a single and multi-engine flight instructor with Instrument and Jet type ratings and a Certified Aircraft Appraiser in good standing with the National Organization of Certified Aircraft Appraisers. Currently, Mr. Cretsinger specializes in certified Aircraft Appraisals from Piper Cubs to Boeing Executive Jets. “ [National Organization of Certified Aircraft Appraisers] 3. The company Aviation General, was apparently acquired from James Bath. “Marvin Bush and Wirt Walker appear to have taken over the Saudi real estate investment and aircraft brokerage business once run out of Texas by Houston-based James Bath in association with Salem bin Laden, the late brother of Osama bin Laden, and Khalid bin Mahfouz.” James Bath, who served in the National Guard with George Bush Jr., and was described as having a similar ‘excused’ absence from service attendance as George, is thought to have worked (with George Bush Jr.) as a CIA pilot during the period of absence, under the Direction of then Director of the CIA, George Bush Sr. George Jr., is known to have flown aircraft at one point for a private Alaskan air freight company that was later reputed to run arms to African nations. 4. Another Board Member of Stratesec is retired Lt. General James Alan Abrahamson, who is in regular business contact with former CIA director James Woolsey “Lieutenant General James Alan Abrahamson, chairman of StratCom International, Inc. and former director of the Star Wars programme initiated during the Reagan administration, … is in partnership (http://www.benadorassociates.com/ijaz.php) with Mansoor Ijaz, the "founder and chairman of Crescent Investment Management LLC, a New York investment partnership between Ijaz, Lt. Gen. James Alan Abrahamson (USAF Ret), former director of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, and Turkey's Global Group. Former CIA Director, R. James Woolsey, Jr. serves as vice chairman of Crescent's Board of Governors...." [From SourceWatch] There are too many links to intelligence operations for this to not be an intelligence front company. If that is true, the key question is: was Stratesec involved in the attack on the World Trade Center by providing access to the building to those who may have planted explosives. The evidence is very sketchy, but there is one key event that cannot go without mention. Shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center, a Swiss pilot (Luigi THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 359 Fasulo) crashed a Rockwell Commander plane (built by Aviation General), into the Pirelli building in the financial district of Milan, Italy. Interestingly, two floors above where the plain crashed into the building, the 27th floor crashed down onto the 26th, in a manner similar to the way the 23rd floor of the North Tower in the WTC came down. There is nothing in any news report suggesting that the crash caused structural damage, and there were no interviews allowed with the building inhabitants. Also, as in the WTC attack, there has been virtually no public discussion of what the ‘target’ was, other than it being the Regional Lombardy center, which regulated the economic and financial affairs of the wealthiest state in Italy. There is the extremely interesting side note that suggests the owner of the aircraft (and supposedly it’s pilot, although the head was never found) was a distributor for Aviation General, who then moved into the finance industry, as do many CIA operatives. (See Appendix A). Equally important, the owner of the aircraft was involved in the global air freight business, which would create another coincidence linking the Milan tower attack to Stratesec. “The paper identified the pilot as Luigi Fasulo, who made a fortune in the airplane business then lost it all after becoming a self-styled investor…..La Repubblica said Fasulo had made his money with planes, owning a small company that rented out and sold aircraft. His fortunes failed when he switched focus and become a self-styled banker and financier, the paper said without giving sources.” [Agence-France Press, Original link: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020419/1/2o9ix.html] “One of Fasulo's companies — Playmatic SA — was listed in the 2002 Swiss company directory as being bankrupt. A sign attached to Fasulo's mailbox in the lobby of the modest apartment building in Lugano where he lived indicated another company, Eurotex Corp. Panama. There was also an address for a third firm, Avioservizi SA of Chiasso, which also was listed in the 2002 directory.” [USAToday, Friends of Milan crash pilot deny son's suicide claim, 04/20/2002] Avioservizi is an Italian air freight and forwarder with connections to: Israele Ashdod, Haifa Cipro Limassol, Famagusta Giordania Aqaba Tunisia Radès Mauritius Port Louis Madagascar Tamatave India Chennai, Mumbay Cina Shanghai Hong Kong Hong Kong Thailandia Bangkok USA (New York, Los Angeles) Also, one finds the ever present connection to Russian. “EuroTex - THE EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER is an international non-profit making association, established in 1999 under the Belgian law, and devoted to the transfer of knowledge, innovation and technology between countries of the Western, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 360 of Independent States, to the mutual benefit of all countries involved: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The name EuroTex stands for the word European and for the Russian word Òåõíîëîãèÿ (Technology)”. Fasulo was reputedly killed by the Russian mafia, with his death made to look like a suicide. The Italian government did its best to portray the attack as an accident, when most facts clearly indicate it was not. This report will not explore those facts, other than to suggest that Fasulo was not an innocent Swiss businessman who accidentally crashed into the financial regulation center of Lombardy. Most likely, Fasulo was an American intelligence agent who needed to destroy some investigation in the Pirelli building. He was connected to Aviation General in a business manner, and dealt with global freight movements out of the Italian financial district. Both occupations lend credence to his being an agent as well. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 361 Appendix C: World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt There are two major lost treasures in the world today: the Golden Lily treasure and the lost Soviet Treasury. The recently announced and forthcoming Khordokorvsky moneylaundering trial is the tip of the iceberg of the hunt for the Soviet Treasury, and a lot of people are being murdered in the quiet hope that this investigation and trial passes without any public revelation as to where that treasure resides. Originally having an estimated value between $200 billion and $500 billion in 1991, this treasure would be worth well over a trillion dollars today.[1] The core of this trial will be an investigation into the financial dealings of Khordokorvsky and his dealings going as far back as 1989, when he - sponsored by Aleksey Kondaurov and Phillip Bobkov of the KGB[2] – began his alleged theft of the Soviet Treasury with the help of a small financial consulting firm known as Riggs-Valmet[3], who helped craft his financial strategy and tactics (as well as those of oligarch Roman Abramovich.) Thus began an operation that became and remains one of the most closely guarded secrets of both the KGB/FSB and the CIA, with neither willing to admit involvement or “knowledge.” To maintain that secret, those with knowledge of the whereabouts of the funds or the nature of the transactions have committed suicide, or have been poisoned, or shot, died in a helicopter crash, or simply threatened into silence. Even more intriguing, this money laundering may well be at the core of one of the world’s most infamous cover-ups. The trial is viewed quite differently by the various stakeholders. From the official US point of view, the trial represents an authoritarian leader’s attempt to turn back the clock and eliminate the democratic reforms realized in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in September 1991. From the Russian citizen’s point of view, the trial is an attempt to find justice for deliberate actions that were directly responsible for causing the deaths, wiping out life savings, jobs, pensions and destroying the lives of millions of Russians.[4] From the official Russian point of view, it is an attempt to bring back under control of the Russian bureaucracy, billions of dollars of industrial assets that were stolen by Western investors. There is a fourth group of stakeholders – the men behind these crimes. They consist of a group of financiers and government agents who are responsible for inestimable pain and suffering in Russia, and destroyed the only real chance that Russia and the US ever had to create a lasting peace. For this group of stakeholders, murder is their safeguard. At least six individuals who represented a threat to expose information about the thefts have met violent or suspicious deaths: Alexander Litvenenko was poisoned in the ultimate media murder, with a dose of radioactive poison worth $24 to 35 million dollars. Litvenenko, whose original assignment with the FSB was to investigate corruption, was in regular contact with the oligarchs that had been party to those transactions now being questioned, and had passed documents to Leonid Nevzlin just shortly before he was murdered. [5] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 362 Andrei Kozlov, First Deputy Head of Russia’s Central Bank was shot, along with his family when he got too close to the answers. “…in 1991-92, 400 billion rubles were embezzled from the Russian Central Bank…. when the Central Bank became object of an unprecedented criminal attack known as the fake advice notes fraud…. MP Nikolai Leonov, speaking on TV, directly stated that Kozlov’s death was directly connected with fake advice notes, Head of the Russian Audit Chamber Sergey Stepashin said the same. I think they are right. Andrei Kozlov was really occupied with investigation of causes of those events” [6] Stephen Curtis was one of the original Valmet-Riggs consultants, and after Khorodkovsk’s arrest, had gone to the authorities and was prepared to testify. Shortly thereafter, he died, in what an inquest determined to be an accident. Mr. Curtis had received threatening telephone calls and was under surveillance for two years before his helicopter crashed during a routine flight from Bournemouth International Airport in Dorset in March 2004. Shortly before the crash, Mr. Curtis told family members that if something happened to him, it wouldn’t be an accident. [7] Nikolai Kruchina Central Committee treasurer, one of the “reported” two individuals who knew where the stolen treasury went to, committed suicide by jumping out a window after the first August 1991 coup. Andrei Sevenyuk had been going public with his involvement with Roman Abramovich, who gained control of the Siberian oil giant Sibneft, and was a beneficiary holder of Abramovich’s shares. He died in a helicopter crash in September of 2004. His death and involvement is of interest because of his key role with Abramovich, who is not only linked to Riggs-Valmet, but also received funding from the Kredo (aka Credo) Bank, identified by Leo Wanta as a participant in his Bush sanctioned activities to destabilize the Russian currency.[8] Yuri Golubev, a founder of Yukos, an acting President of Group Menatep and a very close advisor of Khodorkovsky was found dead in January, 2007, with no explanation. By themselves, these incidents and the trial and investigation they are related to would have little interest for the average US citizen. The plot however becomes more intriguing when one learns that after all these years of investigation, little is yet known about where the 400 billion roubles went, and that given the ‘official’ conversion rate of 1.8 roubles/dollar at which most of these roubles disappeared, the US dollar equivalent was $222 Billion. [9] The $222 Billion was lifted from the Soviet Treasury by way of fraudulent “advice notes.” This trick is well explained by Novoye Vremya in Newtimes.RU, September 2006 (which was closed within a couple months of publishing this article). The essence of the fraud was to place fraudulent notes in a remote, regional bank and then withdraw the funds immediately from the Moscow Central Bank. When the Central Bank went to collect on the notes, the fraudulent notes, and any electronic traces of them had been erased. Hence, in order to perpetrate the fraud, the criminals initially involved in this theft required $220 Billion in fake notes to place with the regional banks. This number will THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 363 register quickly with those who have followed the $240 Billion Durham/ Brady Bond allegations from exactly the same timeframe. According to the allegations of Mrs. V.K. Durham, (who claims her husband - Russell Hermann - was a financial manager for the CIA,) then-President George W. Bush fraudulently created $240 Billion of bonds using a trust created by her husband in her name. The bonds authorized by Bush were never found. However, according to information leaked from the US Office of Naval Investigations (ONI), and Mrs. Durham – these ten year, fraudulent bonds ended up mostly in the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald where they matured on or about September 11, 2001. [10] It is only a coincidence, of course, that the offices of the ONI in the Pentagon and Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center took direct hits from the hijacked airliners on the day those bonds would have matured. It is also only coincidental that the offices of the US Federal agencies that were involved in investigating the related Russian moneylaundering scandal (US Customs, FBI, SEC, IMF, Export-Import Bank) were also destroyed, and that immediately thereafter, President HW Bush terminated the investigation of the Bank of New York’s involvement in the scandal. Unfortunately, the coincidences do not stop there. · Building 6 of the World Trade Center (hardly remembered by anyone), which was home to the US inter-agency task force on money-laundering, according to video footage, was cratered by an explosion from the inside before the two Towers aside it collapsed onto it. Only a mushroom like cloud appears in the news video but subsequent photos show a huge crater in the center of the building prior to being buried by the collapsing towers. · Mr. Delmart “Mike” Vreeland, who warned prison officials of the September 11 attack from inside a Canadian prison, was an ONI agent. His supervisor was killed in the attack on the Pentagon. · There were several reports of thousands of fraudulent transactions being ‘pushed through computers’ during the attack. While bloggers gravitate to comments about the infamous “put options,” the stock market had not opened yet, and did not open that day. The fraudulent trades on September 11 had to be in bonds, which started trading at 7:00am that day. · The activities of the Federal Reserve’s Government Securities Clearing Corporation in the weeks that followed the attacked suspended all controls on bond settlements for fifteen days in such a manner as to allow blind trades and collateral substitutions. If fraudulent bonds needed to be ‘removed’ from the system, those fifteen days were the only time is US history it could have been accomplished. · The Federal Reserve temporarily pumped $300 billion of excess liquidity into the bond market in the weeks after the attack. The tactical banking safeguards introduced the day of the attack should have eliminated the need for the excess monetary supply. Well over $240 Billion in bonds were withdrawn by the Federal Reserve in the aftermath of September 11. The Russian treasure hunt threatens to expose more than just the dark cold war secret that the US was responsible for over an estimated 3 million deaths by facilitating the theft of THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 364 the Soviet Treasury, and possibly involved in the murder of another three thousand by attempting to cover up the source of the fraudulent bonds. The investigation of the theft of the Soviet Treasury would open lines of inquiry into the roles of the two western banks extensively involved: the Bank of New York (founded by the Dulles Brothers) and Riggs-Valmet (a well established CIA cover for financial operations, with an extensive role for Jonathon Bush, brother of George W. Bush.) The investigation could conceivably attempt to discover how 3000 tonnes of Russian gold were laundered.[11] There are persistent rumors that this gold played a role in the Russian bank note scam.[12] More than likely this would lead to another investigation buried in the rubble of September 11. This FBI investigation (related to a lawsuit claiming the US banks were illegally selling US gold stock to fix the price of gold) was stored in the hardened FBI storage facility on the 23rd floor of the North Tower. There are a surprising number of personal accounts (available on the internet) of what happened that day on the 23rd floor, all of which indirectly support Dick Eastman’s original claim that the facility was deliberately targeted by explosives to destroy the evidence in it. After 9/11, the FBI investigation into gold price-fixing allegations was dropped so that agents could be focused on pursuing terrorists. The original lawsuit by Reginald H. Howe in 2000 was not allowed to proceed by the court. A subsequent lawsuit by Donald W Doyle (CEO of Blanchard & Company) [13] (amended to address the courts instructions to Howe), focused on a company call Barrick Gold, and accused it of working with banks to ‘fix’ gold prices. This lawsuit was settled out of court in 2006 and the agreement sealed. Three efforts (a reported FBI investigation and two law suits) to make public the role of Barrick in the gold trades of the 1990s have been squelched or sealed. A new investigation by the Russians may shed new light on the subject. What is left behind is another troubling set of coincidences. The group that played key roles in the creation and direction of Barrick has a number of inter-locking relationships with individuals associated with the theft of the Soviet Treasury. Moreover, this same group has a publicly reported track record of money-laundering connections. Adnan Khashoggi, an original co founder of Barrick, has been linked by the French intelligence, the press and the Heritage Foundation to a Swiss ‘security’ company comprised of ex-KGB and Russian military. This company – Far West – was co founded by Col. Anton Surikov (aka Suirokov), an associate of Alexei Kondaurov, who continues to fund Surikov through IPROG. Kondaurov was one of Khordokorvsky’s original KGB sponsors, and played executive roles in Menatep and Yukos. Shiek Kamal Adham, another original co founder of Barrick who - like Khashoggi - is linked to various money-laundering scandals: the BCCI scandal, the Vatican Bank scandal, and the Iran-Contra scandal. Shiek Adham and Khashoggi are reported by Daniel Hopsicker to have been co-investors in Oryx Investments with Wally Hilliard. Oryx reportedly financed the aviation company that ‘trained’ the September 11 hijackers. Shiek Adham retained Ed Rogers (former George W. Bush assistant, vice Chairman of Diligence, and of the Washington lobbying firm of Barbour Griffith and Rogers) as his personal lobbyist. Diligence also is reported to be a customer of Far West. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 365 George W Bush, temporarily on the ‘Advisory” board of Barrick, gave Barrick credibility in the international market by providing Barrick with an estimated $10 Billion of gold reserves. At the same time that Bush pardoned the convicted Iran-Contra conspirators, he authorized a procedural change in Federal law which allowed Barrick (a company started with funding from Khashoggi and Shiek Kamal Adham) to claim $10 billion in un-mined reserves in Nevada, for the meager cost of $10,000. It is speculated this process needed to be expedited because it was anticipated the Clinton administration would not approve transaction without sizeable royalty requirements. Not often reported, Barrick claims it paid $63 million for the company that owned those rights, although the details of that investment are not known. Even at that rate, $63 million for $10 billion in assets seems like a suspicious arrangement. Lord Robert Powell, who sits on the Boards of Diligence and Barrick, and represents the Rothschild interests. Rothschild came up as the surprising trustee of Khordokorvsky’s shares in Yukos when Khordokorvsky was sent to jail, and was originally identified as an interested party in financing Khordokorvsky in 1989. [14]The strange connection between the four board members of Barrick, the management of Diligence and the crime group that operates under the corporate umbrella of Far West is disturbing in that Far West is accused by several researchers as being involved in the “Russian 9/11” and at the same time, they work closely with investors who benefited ‘significantly’ from the destruction of the World Trade Center. Edgar Bronfmann and the Bronfmann family (at one time major holders of Barrick stock) have an interesting legacy of investing in money laundering operations. "In Chicago, is a branch of a huge Canadian octopus, the Bank of Montreal, owned by the … Bronfman family. … Their branch in Chicago, Harris Bank, has for some time been THE heavy weight in foreign currency trading, handling and exchanging most every type of money instrument. Several years ago Harris Bank merged with a known reputed money laundry, Household Bank, with units of Household International, headquartered in the Chicago-area. Household is the successor and alter ego to Nugan Han Bank that operated in California, Australia, Manila, Saudi, London, and a few other places. The General Counsel of Nugan Hand was William Colby, former Director of Central Intelligence. Former Generals and Admirals, close to CIA, operated Nugan Hand's worldwide offices.” [15] Barrick, as a corporation has a “partnership” with Nelson Gold, noted in the Barrick annual report. Nelson Gold is a subsidiary of Nelson Resources – run by the son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan. George HW Bush kept Nazarbayev’s name out of another money-laundering investigation – the investigation of James Griffen. Griffen was sent to Kazakhstan by the George W Bush Whitehouse, and Griffen’s lawyers contend his actions were protected because he acted as an agent of the US government . The files for that investigation were also coincidently stored on the 23rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. A Russian investigation into the whereabouts of the stolen Soviet Treasury could certainly move beyond the fraudulent advice notes and the Soviet gold and could open a can of worms in addition to the Bank of New York scandal, the well concealed Riggs- Valmet operation and the Barrick operation. Other potential embarrassments include THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 366 Menatep’s partnerships with Global Asset Management, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and AIG Capital Partners, which are reported to be financial allies of the Bush family interests. [16] Two additional embarrassments for the Bush legacy would be the media exposure of the Leo Wanta ‘rouble destabilization’ program, news of which has been pretty well contained to the blogger community. While Wanta himself has said little, the released documents reference several Central Asian banks used by him for his officially sanctioned ‘ruble destabilization program.’ One path for the Russian investigation to pursue Wanta is the Altalanos Ertekforgalmi Bank (AEB) in Budapest, Hungary. AEB had an evolving role in the financial rape of the Soviet Union starting in 1990, when 50% of AEB was bought by the CEDC (Central European Development Corporation.) The CEDC is actually operated out of Singer Island, Florida, and was created in 1989 apparently for the sole purpose of procuring the AEB, as it apparently has not done a lot else of public record. CEDC was managed by former US Ambassador to Hungary, R. Mark Palmer. (In addition to being a Bush appointee, R. Mark Palmer, it turns out appears to have been a collaborator with George Soros in his efforts to unhinge Eastern European currencies, working through the N.M. Rothschild Continuation Trust.) AEB initially server as a tool for the Wanta rouble destabilization program, and is identified in his public records. As it would turn out, AEB was a bank asset which, while half owned by U.S. investors, was apparently controlled by the Yeltsin family. The bank was later was absorbed by Gazprom, which in turn was controlled by Khodorkovsky and Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, long-time aide to Boris Yeltsin. In 1996, the U.S. investors would hand over their 50% of the bank to Gazprom for an undisclosed sum. The bank would then become a money laundering conduit for Yeltsin family, just as Valmet SA was transferred to the Yeltsin family from Riggs bank ownership. In both cases (Valmet and AEB) the U.S. partners ‘took the money and ran.’ Similarly, another bank which was a recipient of Wanta controlled funding intended to destabilize the rouble was Westdeutsche Landesbank. The bank is reported to have loaned moneys to the Khodorkovsky group, and found itself with difficulty trying to collect that loan. Investigation into these transactions were linked to the Bank of New York scandal, derailed by George HW Bush. [17] A public investigation into the money-laundering that surrounded the theft of the Soviet Treasury has been studiously avoided in the West. Yeltsin’s control of Russia prevented any serious investigation by the Russians, but Putin’s takeover changed all that. Putin is going after Yeltsin’s cronies and their Western backers. At this point, it can be argued that the deaths referenced in this article should be attributed to the West rather than Putin. Putin is trying to regain the lost treasury, and he would seem to need the information these men had more so than not. It would appear that the West has much to lose if the ultimate destination of the stolen treasury is found, and anything that obfuscates the money trail works to the advantage of the Western investors. If that same group of investors has somehow played a role in the destruction of the World Trade Center to cover up US investigations related to the theft of the Soviet Treasury, one suspects additional murders would be no moral barrier. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 367 Notes 1. “Eight metric tons of platinum, 60 metric tons of gold, hoards of diamonds and an estimated $15 billion to $50 billion in cash were, according to reformist lawmakers probing KGB crimes, only a small part of state property stolen under secret Communist Party Central Committee decrees and transferred to unknown hands by the KGB's espionage branch between 1989 and 1991…Less than $2.5 billion of the $300 to $500 billion Dollar siphoned out of Russia from 1991 to 1997 has returned to be invested in Russia.” Statement of Richard L Palmer, President of Cachet International, Inc. on the Infiltration of the Western Financial System By Elements of Russian Organized Crime Before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services on September 21, 1999 http://financialservices.house.gov/banking/92199pal.htm 2. Catherine Belton, Khodorkovsky's High Stakes Gamble, The Moscow Times, May 16, 2005. 3. For those readers unfamiliar with the history of Riggs-Valmet “Christian Michel, a founder of Valmet, a Geneva-based global trust business, which agreed in early 1989 to advise Khodorkovsky's group of young businessmen. Valmet later held the key to the Group Menatep fortune, holding shares via nominee ownership schemes and organizing the transfer of vast sums of money via its network.” Catherine Belton, Khodorkovsky's High Stakes Gamble, The Moscow Times, May 16, 2005. Abramovich’s connection to Riggs-Valmet is found in: Yeltsin 'Family' Tycoon Linked to Cash Scandal , James Bone, David Lister, Fiona Flick, The Times (UK), September 7, 1999. 4. “Healthcare financing and payment of pensions drastically decreased, a crisis happened to the financial system; all savings of the population “burned” in inflation. Life span decreased. Thus, if we sum up, the theft of the Central Bank in its economic consequences was comparable to a nuclear aggression against our country.” From: “President of information protection company: “The West is not very highly concerned with the threat of cyber terrorism,” Anatoly Klepov, www.regnum.ru/english/749825.html, December 14, 2006. “Some 70 percent of Russians now live below or just above the poverty level, and capital investment (the source of future prosperity) is only 10 percent of what it was a decade ago. In addition, basic social statistics reveal a "catastrophe of historic proportions," as Nicholas Eberstadt documented in the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review, a venue that's not likely to wax nostalgic for the USSR. Eberstadt, extrapolating from World Health Organization estimates, argues that more than 3 million "excess deaths"--people who died who wouldn't have, according to old demographic patterns--occurred between 1992 and 1998. With deaths exceeding births, the population is shrinking annually, something rarely seen unless there is war or famine.” (Robbing Russia , THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 368 http://www.thenation.com/doc/19991004/editors2, September 16, 1999 (October 4, 1999 issue) 5. “Murdered Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko passed documents to former Yukos CEO in Israel months before his death – report,” November 25, 2006, 9:10 AM (GMT+02:00) 6. “The West is not very highly concerned with the threat of cyber terrorism,” REGNUM News Agency, December 15, 2006, http://www.regnum.ru/english/749825.html 7. “Focusing on Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Leadership of Group MENATEP”, October 27, 2005, http://www.supportmbk.com/update/11-03-2005_briefing.cfm 8. “Abramovich Kicks a Ghost, Ft Puts Foot in Mouth, John Helmer,” The Russia Journal, March 22, 2006 9. A lot of analysts like to use unofficial market rates of approximately 50 to 100 roubles per dollar, but prior to the collapse, official transactions happened at the official rate of 1.8. “new rouble exchange rate (90 roubles, in place of the existing 1.8 roubles)” “The Banking System: Teething Troubles,” Novoye Vremya, Newtimes.RU, September 2006, http://www.newtimes.ru/eng/detail.asp?art_id=691. A second source for the 1.8 rubles per dollar rate: “Scientific - industrial union of Volsky in his concern " Simako" used a special arrangement in the party. They received large financial grants, converted roubles into foreign currency at the rate of 1,8 roubles per dollar. ["New Russian" capitalists and the gold of the Communistic Party of the USSR, 2001, #19 Discreditable materials, http://www.russiamonitor.org/en/main.asp?menu_id=1_a_786_19] 10. Cash payoffs, bonds and murder linked to White House 9/11 finance, Tom Flocco, tomflocco.com; also see “Part 4: More reasons to not investigate 9-11”, Karl W. B. Schwarz 11. The key point is that in 2006, there appears to be no clear understanding of where the treasury went. “There is no comprehensive understanding on the country today on what happened in Russia then….The reality is, in 1991-92 a cyber war broke up in Russia. Management of national strategic financial resources was partially taken under control by criminal subjects, but we are still unable to define it clearly, whether it was crime or, maybe, some external forces stood behind them and tried to destabilize the situation in Russia. For some time, they had managed to take under control vast financial flows of Russia’s National Bank.” President of information protection company: “The West is not very highly concerned with the threat of cyber terrorism,” Anatoly Klepov, www.regnum.ru/english/749825.html, December 14, 2006 12. Russian gold as part of bank note scam. "In one operation valued at $4 billion, over 300 tons were secretly shipped to Switzerland, some of it subsequently arriving in London. Unlike Britain, the Swiss authorities do not keep records of gold imports which makes it a favourite centre for disguising the point of origin - a very effective method of laundering suspicious transactions. The bullion, some sources now believe, was used as collateral in a secondary scam that set-out to vacuum-up all the available Rouble bank-notes in existence at the time and sell them at knock down prices to organised crime syndicates from around the world." Gangster’s Paradise, David Guyatt, 1997; "Valued at $35 billion, Russia's gold THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 369 reserves were estimated to be 100 million troy ounces - just under 3000 tonnes. Then in September 1991, a palpitating Grigory Yavlinski, the economic supremo, revealed to delegates at the Group-of-Seven industrial countries meeting in Bangkok, that a mere 240 tons were all that was left. Two months later, in November, even that had disappeared. "Not a gram of gold remains; the vaults are empty," said Victor Geraschenko, chief of Gosbank, the Russian Central Bank." Gangster’s Paradise, David Guyatt, 1997 13. "GATA consultant Reginald H. Howe brought a similar federal lawsuit in Boston in 2000. It was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds in 2002. Since then GATA has documented and publicized evidence of manipulation of the gold market by Barrick, Morgan Chase, other bullion banks, and the U.S. government." Class- Action Suit Seeks Damages For Gold Investors from Barrick and J.P. Morgan Chase, Business Wire, 11/27/2004 14. Arrested oil tycoon passed shares to banker, Washington Times, November 03, 2003, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20031102-111400-3720r.htm 15. "Clinton's Money Laundry, Sherman H. Skolnick, June 13, 1999 16. “According to PBS in 2003, Khodorkovskii's firm Menatep shared business interests with the western investment firms Global Asset Management, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and AIG Capital Partners.”[The Global Drug Meta-Group: Drugs, Managed Violence, and the Russian 9/11, Peter Dale Scott (18,734 words) 10/29/05 17. Corporate Governance Goes Global: Riding the Rising Tide, Rob Wright, IFC Corporate Relations Unit, Impact, Summer 1999; The World's Billionaires: The Oligarch Who Came in from the Cold, Paul Klebnikov, Forbes, March 18, 2002; Bank of New York probe exposes ties between Western financiers and Russian Mafia, James Brookfield, 27 August 1999, wsws.org THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 370 Appendix D: The Federal Reserve and the Three Card Monte On of the most common scams on the streets of America is a set up of three card Monte. The intricacies of the scam are legion, but essentially, the dealer’s sleight of hand which fools the ‘mark’ is covered by a rapid rotation of the three cards. It was the rapid rotation of the securities settlement fails in the aftermath of September 11th that appears to have allowed the Bank of New York and the Federal Reserve to engage in a securities refinancing that scammed the American taxpayer by $240 billion. A review of the explanations for actions of the Federal Reserve after September 11 exposes an amazingly complex web of analysis and speculation. These reports published by the Federal Reserve argue that the Federal Reserve’s actions increasing the monetary supply by over $300 billion were justified to overcome operational difficulties in the financial sector. While impressive as the reports are, what is noted by the casual reader is that all of the Federal Reserve analysis is speculative and suggestive, using phraseology such as “may have,” “likely,” “presumably,” or “should have.” There are few - if any - definitive statements about root cause and the appropriateness of the response. The general perspective of the industry is captured in such comments as: “The destructive force of the attacks themselves caused severe disruptions to the U.S. banking system, particularly in banks’ abilities to send payments. The physical disruptions caused by the attacks included outages of telephone switching equipment in Lower Manhattan’s financial district, impaired records processing and communications systems at individual banks, the evacuation of buildings that were the sites for the payments operations of large banks, and the suspended delivery of checks by air couriers.” [Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p. 59] “Following September 11, open market operations were aimed at satisfying the financing needs of the severely disrupted government securities dealer community, leaving to the discount window the task of elastically providing balances to satisfy demand at the target rate. The huge additions of funds following September 11 were therefore a by-product of operating procedures designed to target the overnight funds rate.[3]” [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, November 17, 2003 printed in Journal of Monetary Economics, Volume 51, Issue 5, July 2004, Pages 935-965] “Fails rose initially because of the destruction of trade records and communication facilities. They remained high because the method typically used to avert or remedy a fail—borrowing a security through a special collateral repurchase agreement—proved as costly as failing to deliver the security.” [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 35.] Reading statements like this are suggestive that there were massive, wide spread disruptions in the system. These were the conditions that “led policymakers to depart so significantly from previous debt management practices.” [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 371 Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p1.] While the facts presented by the Federal Reserve analyst’s reports are true, as presented they tend to distort what really happened in the aftermath of the attack. In truth, while the analysts reported disruptions at over 800 banks, a deeper look at the reports indicated that only “a few’ were seriously disrupted. The order of magnitude of disruption at any bank has never quantified, with the exception of one. Even that statement however, detracts from the data which suggest that the disruptions were essentially concentrated in one bank – the Bank of New York. (The same Bank of New York was being investigated for money laundering charges in relation to the economic pillaging by Russian by criminal oligarchs who benefited from the illegal securities purportedly being laundered in the aftermath of September 11th.) This is because while the Fed was reporting outstanding account balances over $100 billion per day (while not identifying the banks involved), the Wall Street Journal reported: “At one point during the week after September 11, BoNY publicly reported to be overdue on $100 billion in payments. (Beckett, Paul, and Jathon Sapsford, Rebuilding Wall Street: How Wall Street's Nervous System Caused Pain, Wall Street Journal, September 21,2001)” reported in [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, November 17, 2003 p.6.] The Deutschebank which sat inside the World Trade Center reported no such account balance increase, and JP Morgan, the other of only two clearing banks which uses the same traders and communications hub, reported no such increase in its account balance. Understanding what was happening at the BoNY becomes critical to understanding the securities settlement issues: “GSCC and several dealers could not verify what came into and what left their custodial accounts at BoNY, they could not advise BoNY of securities they expected to receive, and they could not give BoNY instructions for delivering securities. Additionally, GSCC was unable to verify the movement of funds into and out of its account at BoNY (GSCC Important Notice GSCC068.01).” [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 46.] In a world of coincidence The Bank of New York (which had over 8000 employees in its downtown location), lost three employees that day. One of those three employees was a man who was in the best position to explain how the attacks would have impacted BoNY. His name was Michael Diaz-Piedra III, a former West Point graduate and son of a Cuban exile. Michael was the Vice-President of Disaster Recovery Planning for the Bank of New York. In the aftermath of September 11, he was reported as being an employee of Bank of America, or holding another position at the BoNY. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 372 Finally, with respect to the Bank of New York operations and the level of disruption experienced on September 11th, an important element needs to be highlighted. Disruptions to the financial system were attributed to the loss of the communications hub in downtown Manhattan. The hub was decimated when the WTC collapsed onto it. However, the BoNY Funding Transfer operations, which reportedly could not communicate with the Fed, were located in Utica, New York, and had none of its communication abilities impaired. Moreover, the four BoNY back-up datacenters were all located within 46 miles of Manhattan, and could and did deliver data on tape regularly to the Fed via courier. In a reported setting of half truths and speculation made to appear as facts, review of the reports of the financial aftermath of September 11th suggest: · The disruptions to the U.S. financial system were not as widespread as the reports from the Federal Reserve would have the public believe, but that the public had to be made to perceive a widespread need for declaring a national financial THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 373 emergency, suspending key provisions of the Federal Reserve Act and driving the ‘ten-year special rate’ to almost zero. · Certain key unknown figures in the Federal Reserve may have ‘conspired’ with key unknown figures at the Bank of New York to create a situation where $240 billion in illegal securities created in 1991 as part of an official covert operation to overthrow the Soviet Union, could be cleared without publicly acknowledging their existence. · These securities, originally managed by Cantor Fitzgerald, were cleared and settled in the aftermath of September 11th through the BoNY. The $100 billion account balance bubble reported by the Wall Street Journal as being experienced in the BoNY was tip of a three day operation, when these securities were moved from off-balance-sheet to the balance sheet. (The off-balance-sheet process is described by banking advisor to the US Presidents Earl Cocke, who admitted under sworn testimony to managing Project Hammer funds – the suspected source of these illegal securities.) · By reducing the ‘ten-year special rate’ to almost zero, the Fed structurally increased the number of refinancing (Repo) settlement fails. Under the umbrella of this artificially created statistical bump of fails, the high level of fails due to the laundering of the $240 billion was able to be processed unnoticed. · The cover for this bubble is found in the footnotes to the BoNY annual and quarterly reports, which report that the BoNY took over $330 billion of commercial securities business from U.S. Trust between June and October of 2001, although the assets under control of U.S. Trust in 2000 were reported by two sources as $80 or $86 billion. [Charles Schwab Shells Out for U.S. Trust, Nick Paumgarten, The New York Observer, January 23, 2000; Schwab to Pay $2.73 Billion For U.S. Trust, New York Times, Patrick McGeehan, January 14, 2000] Federal Reserve Management of the Aftermath of September 11 There were two key disruptions reported in the financial markets: 1) Excessive account balances in a few banks reportedly contributing to an increase in the account balance in a wide array of banks which required a massive infusion of credit to stabilize the Federal Reserve system. These accumulations started appearing on September 12th and ran through the 18th,. They resulted in the addition of $300 billion to the US monetary supply, which initiated the on-set of the sub-prime market. 2) A reported excessive number of fails in securities settling requiring the lifting of controls on settlements. There were two reasons reported for these fails: · Missing trade data due to loss of communications and data; · Refinancing (Repo) settlements had lost any financial incentive to avoid fails because the special rate for 10 year notes was dropped to almost zero. The first wave of fails is attributed to the BoNY situation. “In the absence of complete information on deliveries into and out of its account at BoNY on September 11, and as a result of its assumption of settlement fails on the starting legs of blindTHE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 374 brokered RPs, GSCC recorded (after the close of business on September 11) $266 billion in transactions that apparently failed to settle.… Continuing connectivity problems prevented GSCC from giving BoNY delivery instructions after the close of business on September 11 and prevented it from acquiring information on activity in its account at BoNY during the day on September 12. Consequently, GSCC recorded $440 billion in settlement fails as of the close of business on September 12.” [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 46.] Excessive Balances Increasing the Supply of Money On over-riding consideration in the Fed’s management of the aftermath of September 11th was the concentration in account balances at the Federal Reserve. “It is clear that the concentration in account balances at the Federal Reserve—rising more than fourteen-fold from its normal levels on the days following the terrorist attacks—was a most unusual event…. If a large proportion of the balances in the banking system concentrate in one bank’s account, then other banks will face, all else being equal, higher costs of making payments, or alternatively may face liquidity constraints on their borrowing, which could preclude their submission of further payments.” [Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, November 2002, p65. ] It may seem a small detail, but note the qualifying statement: “all else being equal.” An alternative explanation could be to move off-balance sheet liabilities to the balance sheet and claim the offsetting claims are in the ruble of the World Trade Center. Chart taken from [Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, November 2002, p.64.] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 375 A key consideration is the pre-9/11 daily average for this balance: “For commercial banks, these balances consist of either required reserve balances, excess reserve balances, or service-related balances.3 These balances and service-related balances for August 2001 averaged $14.65 billion per day.4 (Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, November 2002, p.60.) This makes the actual surges due to the attack show a net impact of $352 billion on the account balance over the remainder of the week . Federal Reserve Balance adjusted for normal daily average to reflect true impact of attack. Reported Balance (Billions) Adjusted Balance Due to Attack (Billions of Dollars) September 12 44 29 September 13 104 89 September 14 121 106 September 15 111 96 September 16 46 31 What appears to be the case is that the Federal Reserve imbalances reported on three consecutive days in the aftermath were largely concentrated at the Bank of New York, which is reported to represent over 90% of the imbalance, suggesting the Bank had been the recipient of massive fund transfers, and unable to send out transfers. “At one point during the week after September 11, BoNY publicly reported to be overdue on $100 billion in payments. (Beckett, Paul, and Jathon Sapsford, Rebuilding Wall Street: How Wall Street's Nervous System Caused Pain,Wall Street Journal, September 21,2001)” reported in [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, November 17, 2003 p.6.] This supposedly was due to major communication and system failures. “The crucial government bond processing, for example, had a system in which a second computer was receiving and processing all the data going into the main computer, making it ready to pick up at a moment's notice…. As it turned out, though, even the expensive backup system was unable to get the government bond business up and running smoothly. That is largely because of problems maintaining the communications links that receive information on trades from its customers and report their positions back to them. ''In many cases our backup sites were dealing with our customers' backup sites,'' Mr. Renyi said. And though the bank had established communications lines in advance connecting these various backup centers, they often were of low capacity and typically had not been fully tested and debugged. Even a week after the attack, the Bank of New York was having trouble with some crucial communications links, like its connection to the Government Securities Clearing Corporation, a central part of the government bond market. On several days that week, the bank had to drive computer tapes with its trades to G.S.C.C. offices.” [Wall St. Lifeline Shakes Off Dust, and Critics; Disruptions Put Bank of New York to the Test , Saul Hansell with Riva D. Atlas, New York Times, October 6, 2001] “On September 11, we were able to continue processing, as our funds transfer business unit is in Utica, New York, until the telecommunications lines went down later in the day in lower Manhattan. After THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 376 that, excess liquidity quickly built up because we were unable to process all securities and cash transactions in a normal manner. The increase in the balance sheet went away very quickly, however, as we returned to normal processing by Friday and handled the backlog over the weekend.” [ Emerging Stronger from 9/11/01: An Interview with Todd Gibbons, RMA (Risk Management Association) Journal, The, Dec, 2001] In fact, none of the BoNY’s systems failed or went non-operational. “Bank executives argue that some of the criticism has taken on some aspects of urban legend, especially the notion that the bank was in disarray because the main backup for its computer center in Lower Manhattan was at another location in Lower Manhattan. The bank says that all of its several computer centers in Manhattan were always set to revert to centers outside the city in case of emergency, and they did on Sept. 11.” [Wall St. Lifeline Shakes Off Dust, and Critics; Disruptions Put Bank of New York to the Test , Saul Hansell with Riva D. Atlas, New York Times, October 6, 2001] Even more to the point, the Bank’s Fund Transfer operations are located in Utica New York, and its communication systems remained untouched. Where the inconsistent reporting gets interesting is that Todd Gibbons of the BoNY reported an “increase” in the volume of securities on September 11. “The contingency site muse be able not only to accommodate normal business loads, it must be able to accommodate extreme business surges, such as we saw in the first day in the equities market. Our contingency plans had included the ability to handle a great amount of excess capacity; and we were able to handle the increase in volumes….” [ Emerging Stronger from 9/11/01: An Interview with Todd Gibbons, RMA (Risk Management Association) Journal, The, Dec, 2001] However, the overall volumes for the day were 25% less than normal and one third of the volume or $400 billion came in after normal business hours in very few transactions. As seen in the chart below, overall transactions for the day were seemingly down even more significantly than volume, but the transactions that came in after closing were extremely large, averaging in size in packages of $35million or more. This would be consistent with a hypothesis that $240 billion of securities were being pushed surreptitiously into the money supply. Additionally, the conflicting information from the BoNY and Fed suggest the activity in the bank was different that that being reported to the public. “August 2001, the value of Fedwire funds transfers averaged more than $1.6 trillion per day, while banks held about $15 billion on account.11 ….The value of funds sent on September 11 was $1.2 trillion, about three-fourths of the average for the benchmark period. However, unlike volume, the value of funds sent had returned to normal levels on the twelfth and was then at elevated levels for the next seven business days.” [Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, November 2002, p.61] THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 377 [Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, November 2002, p65. ] The Federal Reserve, without providing the detail required to substantiate it’s claims, would have the public believe that there were widespread liquidity issues, when in fact the issues were very concentrated primarily, if not singularly, in the BoNY, which has been the subject of an ongoing major money-laundering investigation for many years. These account balance issues resulted in the defacto expansion of the monetary supply, details of which are no longer reported by the Federal Reserve. The reported cause of this market malfunction is seemingly suspect. By comparison, the Deutschebank which sat inside the World Trade Center reported no such account balance increase, and JP Morgan, the other of two clearing banks which uses the same traders and communications hub reported no such increase in account balance. Additionally, while problems were being documented between the BoNY and GCSS, no other institution had those problems. “…it is worth noting that settlements occurred at the major large-value private sector settlement systems (the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and the Clearing House Inter-bank Payments System [CHIPS]) on the eleventh and subsequent days.” [Liquidity Effects of the Events of September 11, 2001, James J. McAndrews and Simon M. Potter, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, November 2002, p64. ] There is every reason to believe activities in the BoNY in the aftermath of September 11th are worthy of suspicion. The Fails THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 378 In the aftermath of September 11th, the analysts at the Fed attributed the security settlement failures to two causes: · the initial inability to match up trades with correspondent data, and · the use of ‘strategic’ fails by brokers in the aftermath, when the special rate on securities was so low that there was no incentive to avoid the refinancing fail. This reduction in the special rate was attributed to operations to increase liquidity in response to excess balance issue discussed in the section above. One key Federal Reserve researcher summarized it accordingly: “Fails rose initially because of the destruction of trade records and communication facilities. They remained high because the method typically used to avert or remedy a fail—borrowing a security through a special collateral repurchase agreement—proved as costly as failing to deliver the security. The U.S. Treasury responded to the fails problem by reopening the on-the-run ten-year note. The increased supply made borrowing the note more attractive than failing.” [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 35.] The standard remedy for a fail—borrowing a security through a special collateral repurchase agreement— fell apart when the Fed dropped the special rate to nearly zero. “The Desk “had to accept the vast majority of propositions – even those offered at rates well below the new 3 percent target level – in order to arrange RPs of sufficient size.” (Markets Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York 2002, p. 24) On Wednesday, the Desk accepted all propositions submitted, the lowest of which was ¾ percent: see Table 2. The effective federal funds rate sank to 1¼ percent on Tuesday and below that on Wednesday” [Payment System Disruptions and the Federal Reserve Following September 11, 2001, Jeffrey M. Lacker, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, USA, November 17, 2003 p.18.] “The incentive of a seller to borrow securities to avoid or cure a fail declines with the specials rate for the security. When the specials rate is near zero, a seller has little to gain lending money (at nearly no interest) to borrow the needed securities.13 This suggests that market participants may have little incentive to break daisy chains and round robins when the specials rate for a security is near zero. This aspect of the market is important to understanding the fails problem after September 11…. the specials rate for a security will be driven to its lower limit more frequently when the fed funds rate, and hence the general collateral rate, is lower. This follows because the gross compensation earned by a lender of securities at any given specials rate is the difference between the general collateral rate and the specials rate.” [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 44-45.] As shown in the following chart, the specials rate dropped by 200 -300 basis points, creating a disincentive to resolve short term, repo fails and creating a statistical flurry of fails. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 379 [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 41.] The response of the Fed in bringing a new issue to the market at this time seems to have inadvertently (an assumption which should be challenged) been the source of continued lower “special rates” on the ten year note, and exacerbated the fail problem through the end of the year. In the extended condition of a high level of settlement fails, it would require little effort to ‘statistically hide’ the settlement of the remaining $240 billion that may not have been cleared in the immediate aftermath. The three week lull of fails in October could easily represent the 30 day short term refinancing of the debt. As the debt came back to the market for permanent refinancing, a shortage of investors would result in more fails. THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 380 [When the Back Office Moved to the Front Burner: Settlement Fails in the Treasury Market after 9/11, Michael J. Fleming and Kenneth D. Garbade, FRBNY Economic Policy Review / November 2002, p 43.] The critical perspective here is that in making the original paper on $240 Billion in illegitimate notes disappear in the rubble of the World Trade Center, it would be implausible to refinance them in a few days without the financial world taking note. Notes could conceivably be refinanced for 30 days in the repo market Summary There is a contention that at the core of the September 11th attack, someone was planning to cover the 1991 issuance of $240 billion in illegal securities used to finance the collapse the Soviet Union. The facts surrounding the financial aftermath of September 11 suggest this is not only possible, but that reports describing the aftermath have deliberately been misleading. · The US dollar money supply was significantly increased in the aftermath of 9/11; · The bank at the core of the illegal money laundering by ex-Soviet criminals was the source of the increased money supply (BoNY); · The generally disseminated rationale for BoNY’s operational problems seems to have affected no other bank in a similar manner or magnitude and is inconsistent with reports on the BoNY operations in the aftermath; THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT |
Tarpley |
BARACK H. OBAMA THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY Webster Griffin Tarpley 2008 BARACK H. OBAMA: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY Copyright © Webster Griffin Tarpley, 2008 All Rights Reserved Published by Progressive Press P.O. Box 126, Joshua Tree, Calif. 92252, www.ProgressivePress.com Length: 264,000 words. Typeset left-justified in 11 pt. Times New Roman, for optimum value and ease of reading. Classification: Nonfiction, Politics, Biography ISBN: 0-930852-91-5. EAN: 978-0-930852-91-7 DIGITAL ADVANCE REVIEW EDITION September 2008 Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tarpley, Webster Griffin Barack H. Obama: the unauthorized biography / Webster Griffin Tarpley ISBN-13: 978-0-930852-91-7 (Digital), 978-0-930852-81-8 (Offset edition) 1. Obama, Barack. 2. Presidential candidates – United States. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: OBAMA FROM THE FORD FOUNDATION TO THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION..............................................................................................................................4 CHAPTER I: OBAMA’S ROOTS IN POLYGAMY AND THE FORD FOUNDATION..............12 CHAPTER II: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND RECRUITMENT BY ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI ..............................................................................................................................37 CHAPTER III: FOUNDATION-FUNDED RACISM IN CHICAGO: JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND MICHELLE .................................................................................................................................91 CHAPTER IV: APPRENTICESHIP WITH FOUNDATION-FUNDED TERRORISTS: AYERS AND DOHRN............................................................................................................................134 CHAPTER V: OBAMA’S HEART OF DARKNESS: REZKO, AUCHI, ALSAMMARAE, AND CHICAGO GRAFT....................................................................................................................182 CHAPTER VI: GRABBING A SENATE SEAT WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS TRILATERAL FRIENDS..........................................................................................................215 CHAPTER VII: THE HOPE POPE AND HIS TRILATERAL MONEY MACHINE..................265 CHAPTER VIII: “OUR SOULS ARE BROKEN” – “FEEL, DON’T THINK! BE VISCERAL!” – MICHELLE OBAMA, POSTMODERN FASCIST IDEOLOGUE.............................................287 CHAPTER IX: OBAMA’S TRIUMPH OF THE WILL: THE 2008 PRIMARIES .....................309 CHAPTER X: OBAMA: A LOOMING WORLD TRAGEDY ...................................................369 CHAPTER XI: OBAMA AS SOCIAL FASCIST.......................................................................393 APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................................415 NOTES ......................................................................................................................................426 INTRODUCTION: OBAMA FROM THE FORD FOUNDATION TO THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION You know, I’ve come to the conclusion that poverty is closer to the root of the problem than color. – Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 This book marks my first foray into the field of presidential candidate biography since the publication of my George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992). I have been impelled to return to the business of presidential candidate biography by a profound sense of alarm and national emergency, because of the threat to the American people and to the future survival of the world posed by the Trilateral Commission puppet and Manchurian candidate, Barack Hussein Obama. During the early months of 2008, I issued a series of articles which analyzed the dynamics of Obama’s postmodern coup d’état from the standpoint of comparing the Illinois Messiah’s lemming legions and Kool-Aid cult fanatic following with the incipient and inchoate fascist movement which coalesced around the young Benito Mussolini between 1919 and 1922, in a period of crisis similar to the one we are traversing today. These articles were supplemented by a theoretical introduction restating the basic characteristics of a fascist mass movement, and also by an extended comparison between Obama’s campaign platform and the record in office of Jimmy Carter, who is the most recent example of a puppet president controlled by the Trilateral-Rockefeller banking elite. I also benefited from valuable contributions from my friends Bruce Marshall and Jonathan Mowat. The resulting book was entitled Obama the Postmodern Coup: the Making of a Manchurian Candidate, and was offered to the public for the first time on Monday, April 7, 2008, thanks to the superlative efforts of the eminent publisher John Leonard of Progressive Press in California. Our original intention had been to include a biography of the mystery candidate Barack Hussein Obama, but in the end we decided that it was better to issue a first volume well in advance of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. Now, a few months later, we are delivering a second installment in the continuing process of exposing and unmasking the enigmatic Messiah Obama. We ask for the reader’s indulgence for the fact that this book had to be assembled in haste, but we are confident that it contains the concepts necessary to understanding the threat posed by Obama, from the standpoint of elementary class consciousness. THE ONLY STUDY BASED ON AN EXPLICIT CLASS ANALYSIS OF ELITISTS VS. WORKING PEOPLE The 2008 campaign has been remarkable for having had the great merit of focusing attention on the issue of class, elitism, and oligarchy, with Obama furnishing the obvious villain on the elitist side. This book is a product of the anti-oligarchical or American school of historical writing. The analysis is conducted from the standpoint of the New Deal tradition. Class consciousness as used here means first of all the method exemplified by Plato in his Republic, above all awareness of the abuses of the one (tyranny), the few (oligarchy), and the many (mob rule or ochlocracy). Our world is generally a world of oligarchy, which is now threatening to pass through an interlude of mob rule and then into tyranny. This book is also based on the class analysis of Machiavelli’s Discourses, which is infinitely superior to that of Marx. In Machiavelli’s terms, the Obama campaign is a project of the nobility (gentiluomini) and the urban bankers (ottimati or patrizi, in Britain as well as the US) to mobilize the city mob, especially excitable youth (plebe) against the middle class (popolo), under extreme crisis conditions. This book is also founded on the experience of the Introduction: Obama from the Ford Foundation to the Trilateral Commission 5 Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal as the most recent successful historical model in how to organize the American people to deal with a world economic depression. A critical unauthorized biography of Senator Barack Hussein Obama is all the more urgent today because nothing competent in this line has been forthcoming so far. Back in 1991, when I began writing the unauthorized biography of George Bush the elder, I found that the biographical literature about the candidate was rather limited. There was a campaign biography from 1980, a campaign biography from 1988, and some biographical essays for 1992. These had all been generated from Bush family documents and printouts. There were also a limited number of critical studies, which were either very brief, incomplete, or useless for other reasons. Another biography of Bush the Elder which appeared after the election turned out to be just another cover-up. But all in all, the biographical literature was relatively limited, and there were no real autobiographies, memoirs or books written by the candidate. With Obama, the picture is radically different. Obama is a word-monger. The candidate himself claims to be the author of not one but two books, although it is clear that he has had much help from the ghost-writing staff of the Trilateral-Bilderberg combine. The first is a long autobiographical memoir entitled Dreams from My Father, which Obama sent into the world back in 1995. This book documents Obama’s obsession with the polygamous Kenyan father who showed no interest in him, with race and racism, and above all with himself. It is a document which already suggests that the author is not just a racist, but also a deeply troubled existentialist megalomaniac, since it is surely a rare man who writes his own autobiography before he has reached the age of 35, when he still has accomplished absolutely nothing. This is the book which we define as Obama’s postmodern Mein Kampf. Obama is also the author of a more conventional catalog of campaignoriented political positions The Audacity of Hope, with its title drawn from one of the ranting sermons of Obama’s racist guru and hatemeister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. 1995: DREAMS FROM MY FATHER – OBAMA’S POSTMODERN MEIN KAMPF The first time I heard Obama speak, the first words that passed through my mind were, “slippery as an eel.” This is the main problem with the things that Obama himself has written, as well as with his campaign in general. Both books written by Obama make it their primary business to deceive the reader, for obvious purposes of political gain. Dreams is designed to mislead about the candidate himself, while The Audacity of Hope seeks to muddy the waters concerning his political ideas and policies. Far too often the audacity of hope that we are promised turns out to be nothing more than the mendacity of dope, on the part of a candidate whose mental impairment owing to narcotics abuse during his college years is certainly comparable to that of the notorious George W. Bush — as we can see in Obama’s striking inability to speak coherently in the absence of the glass plates of a Teleprompter sitting in front of his nose. The Audacity of Hope has been described by the reactionary Ann Coulter as Obama’s dime-store Mein Kampf. This is accurate in at least one way, since both books deal with the quest for racial identity and the need to overcome the various barriers to the assertion of that identity. Well before Miss Coulter had come on the scene, I had published an article on the Internet referring to Obama’s postmodern Mein Kampf, which represents a more exact description of Obama’s actual ideology and world outlook, which is that of an existentialist reader of the Third World pro-terrorist ideologue, Frantz Fanon. Obama’s book is also an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Alex Haley’s Roots. Obama’s memoir may thus be described as Roots lite, but with the identity trip being carried out by a Fanon-style existentialist. 6 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography THE MENDACITY OF DOPE But the books by Obama himself are only the beginning of the cloud of obfuscation and deception which envelops the Perfect Master. There are easily two dozen biographical studies of the Illinois Senator, and they are almost without exception characterized by fawning adulation, adolescent hero worship, and messianic hagiography. They add up to so many versions of the Life and Miracles of St. Barack the Good. I have found it easy to dispense with the vast majority of these meretricious and venal little books. One or two exceptions do stand out: there is, for example, Shelby Steele, a kind of black neocon, who makes many intelligent observations about Obama’s character. Then there are the hard-line neocon critics of Obama. Some of them have managed to perform an important public service by forcing the odious figures of the gangster Tony Rezko, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the terrorist William Ayers, and the terrorist Bernardine Dohrn — all of whom belong to Obama’s immediate social circle — into the public eye in the face of hysterical opposition by NBC, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the other assorted media whores for Obama. But, for any task of analysis more complicated than the straight exposing and outing of Obama’s rogues’ gallery of personal friends and associates, the neocon methods break down and often lapse into absurdity. The biggest absurdities are that Obama is really a Moslem, or else that Obama is really a Marxist AND Communist. We state emphatically here at the outset: Obama is a creature and puppet of finance capital and of the Wall Street bankers and investment bankers, as represented by the Trilateral Commission, Bilderberger Group, Council on Foreign Relations, Skull and Bones Society, Ford Foundation, and Chicago School of Friedmanite economics. The family business which Obama inherited from his mother (a Ford Foundation anthropologist and counterinsurgency operative who also worked for the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development) was to work for foundations. And this is what Obama has done in his life, working at various times for or with the Gamaliel Foundation, the Woods Fund, the Joyce Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, and other foundations and entities which notoriously look to the Ford Foundation for guidance and leadership. Obama is best described as a foundation-bred counterinsurgent, that is to say an operative in the service of the US financier ruling class whose task it is to wreck and abort any positive outcomes that might be forthcoming from the political ferment which is shaking the globe, and above all from the deep political upsurge which is clearly at hand in this country. Obama claims to be a uniter, but the simplest empirical survey will show that he is the most explosive divider seen in this country in decades, since he has succeeded in splitting both the Democratic Party and the US population in general according to the classic fault lines of white against black, black against Hispanic, black against Asian, black against Jewish, men against women, old against young, rich against poor. Having seen Obama accomplish all of this in less than a year and a half on the campaign trail, we can confidently predict that an Obama presidency would in all probability put the United States well on its way to civil war. Giving Obama and his financier controllers the White House would represent an act of national suicide for this country, with the most catastrophic implications for the world as a whole. This analysis is corroborated by the fact that Obama, alone among all the protagonists of the 2008 presidential contest, possesses either a postmodern fascist mass movement, or a very plausible facsimile thereof. These are the lemming legions who are not supporting a program of measures that the government might take, but who are hysterically loyal to and obsessed with Obama as a fantasy figure and charismatic savior – in other words, as an emerging fascist leader. As those who lived through Italy in 1922 and Germany in 1933 remind us in the writings they have left behind, there is simply no comparison between a normal, corrupt, bourgeois parliamentary regime and a fascist seizure of power. These Introduction: Obama from the Ford Foundation to the Trilateral Commission 7 are qualitatively distinct, and set Obama apart from all of his competitors in a way that we can only ignore at our own very great peril. The only way to conduct a satisfactory analysis of the Obama agitation is to use a class standpoint, rather than a racial criterion or an outlook based on gender. Obama is an operative for the finance oligarchs. The Democratic Party bureaucracy is supporting Obama and opposing Senator Clinton because this is the decree of Wall Street, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberger group, the Ford Foundation, Skull and Bones, the Chicago School, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other ruling class institutions. The Democratic Party bosses like Howard Dean and Donna Brazile are not supporting Obama because they care about what happens to black voters. The Democratic Party has proved repeatedly that it cares nothing whatever about the fate of black voters. At the same time, it is very naïve to assume that the explanation for the slander campaign of the controlled corporate media against Hillary Clinton is that the media whores for Obama are motivated by misogyny and hatred of women. That may be a factor in individual cases, but the main reason the controlled media are vilifying Senator Clinton is that they have been ordered by their Wall Street paymasters to do so. The main issues in this contest are class issues, and not racial or gender issues. Blue-collar working-class voters are not generally opposed to Obama because of race, but rather because they can sense in his elitism and condescension that he is a candidate loyal solely to the dictates of the financiers. The phalanx of right-wing radio commentators who call themselves conservatives is attempting to portray Obama as an ultraliberal, “the most liberal senator in the Democratic Party,” according to a study produced by National Journal. This is a very weak, tired, unconvincing way to deal with Obama, and it is ultimately a loser. This is not very scary, and to do justice to the horrifying reality of the Obama threat, it ought to be very scary indeed. To say that Obama is a liberal, as Rush Limbaugh incessantly does, is to say that he is just more of the same, from the same tired old playbook of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. If Obama is just the latest liberal and there is nothing new under the sun, then ho-hum. This approach fatally underestimates how radically different and how extremely dangerous Obama really is. Sean Hannity does a little better with his mantra of “Stop the radical.” But it soon turns out that this means radical liberal, which is also not going to launch a thousand ships against Obama. The first instinct of most right-wingers is to look at Obama’s middle name of Hussein, and perhaps at his Moslem father and step-father and at his time in school in Indonesia, and announce that Obama is a Moslem. But this will hardly do. Obama’s father and step- father were united not by the Koran, but rather by their shared devotion to Johnny Walker, which increased as they got older. And if Obama himself were a secularized Moslem, so what? Voters have a right to know Obama’s religious history in full detail, but there is no religious test for office. But Obama is something very sinister indeed. Obama himself is either an atheist, or much more likely a Satanist of the apostate Jeremiah Wright-James Cone-black liberation theology school, a Christian heresy which places racist hatred instead of charity at the center of its edifice of faith. Wright is ultimately the high priest of a death cult. Obama is, more precisely, an existentialist fascist made of equal parts 1969 Weatherman race war theory and Frantz Fanon’s cult of violent Third World rebellion. This is what low-income blue collar voters in West Virginia have understood far better than all the effete snobs who profess postmodernism at Harvard. The other approach is to paint Obama as a Marxist and communist, in the Cold War McCarthyite tradition. Here is an article by Dana Milbank, a decadent member of Skull and Bones who frequents the Keith Olberman Grand Guignol propaganda show on MSNBC-Obamavision, also known as the Brzezinski network. Milbank is a cynical cataloguer of the politically grotesque. The following is 8 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Milbank’s satire of a group of aging and rabid neocons who gathered recently in a Washington café to review the evidence that Obama was a communist, a Marxist, and a subversive. This group, assembled by America’s Survival Inc., met in the basement of Ebenezer Coffee House at Second and F streets NE. Milbank writes: Here are some things we can look forward to learning about Barack Obama: that he was mentored in high school by a member of the Soviet-controlled Communist Party; that he launched his Illinois state Senate campaign in the home of a terrorist and a killer; that while serving as a state senator, he was a member of a socialist front group; that his affiliations are so dodgy that he would have trouble getting a government security clearance; that there is reason to doubt his “loyalty to the United States.” “We believe that any public figure with links to foreign and hostile interests should be asked to explain those associations,” the organizer, Cliff Kincaid, told about two dozen conservatives and a few reporters. “In the case of Obama, a relatively new figure on the national scene, we submit the facts suggest that he would have serious difficulty getting a security clearance in the United States government. An FBI background check was once used to examine one’s character, loyalty to the United States, and associations.” “He’s a member of an organization [that is] openly a front for two socialist groups,” reported another participant, Trevor Loudon. “Obama was raised and educated in a very Marxist-rich environment, which often would limit his worldview,” reported a third, Max Friedman. But the star of the show was the ancient Herbert Romerstein, who once plied his trade for the Un-American Activities committee. “We decided to start going back and seeing what things influenced him even before he was born,” Romerstein announced without a trace of irony, before tying Obama to the Communist Party of the 1930s in Hawaii and Soviet spies on the island. “This is the atmosphere that young Barack Obama grew up in.” The smoking gun? Obama’s “mentor” during his teens, according to Kincaid, was “a key member of a Sovietcontrolled network that was sponsored by Moscow and active in Hawaii.” “The Weather Underground terrorists,” Romerstein added, “were instrumental in getting him into office in the first place.” “It’s clear that the communists and the socialists are backing him,” Kincaid confirmed. It was beginning to sound like a UFO convention. But the panelists took it seriously, firing questions back at the audience. “Was Barack Obama working for Bill Ayers?” Kincaid wondered aloud. Romerstein demanded: “How come for 20 years he sat in the pews and listened to a raving anti-American racist? How did he bring his two young children to this church to hear Wright rave on?” The evidence was compelling enough for participant Friedman. For him, the Rosetta Stone was Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, who Friedman alleged was the protégé of a man with “a Communist Party-front record” in Chicago. “The more I look at this, I’m seeing there are a lot of red-diaper babies around here,” he deduced. “By putting these pieces of the puzzle together, I’m beginning to see something much bigger.” (Dana Milbank, “Obama as You’ve Never Known Him!” Washington Post, May 23, 2008.) This treatment shows how easy it is for a lightweight elitist scribbler like Milbank to satirize these neocon critics of Milbank’s Perfect Master. Even a superficial flack like Milbank has no trouble making these poor neocons look like relics from the hated and notorious House Un- American Activities Committee who are daring to pollute the sublime dream of today’s golden youth. Obama has only the vaguest echoes of his mother’s vague devotion to old Karl Marx (the British agent whose case officer was David Urquhart of the British Foreign Office). Obama is most emphatically a product of the foundations and their cult of social manipulation and political subversion, but always in the service of a social order centered on Wall Street. Obama is himself an Introduction: Obama from the Ford Foundation to the Trilateral Commission 9 operative of finance capital at the highest level. If his hardware comes from the Ford Foundation where his mother was employed, Obama’s software comes from the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberger group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the RAND Corporation, Skull and Bones, the Chicago school of economics – in other words, the highest levels of the Anglo-American financier oligarchy. If Mussolini started off as an agent of the British and French embassies and of certain Venetian financiers, and Hitler began his career as an agent for German military intelligence, Obama’s pedigree is the complex of institutions we have just stated. Obama is connected to Wall Street by a million adamantine threads. Obama’s main controller, guru, adviser, and handler is none other than Zbigniew Brzezinski, the man who ran the catastrophic Trilateral administration of Jimmy Carter thirty years ago. Such is the reality of Obama as he emerges from these pages. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND IS INDISPENSABLE In order to understand Obama and the congeries of foundation-funded racist and terrorist provocateurs and international gangsters who represent his immediate social circle, some significant historical background is indispensable. Obama’s mother worked for the Ford Foundation, and Obama has worked for foundations like the Gamaliel, the Joyce, the Woods, and the Annenberg Chicago Challenge all his life. But what do foundations do? Emphatically, they do not practice good works of charity; they deal in cynical social and political manipulation in the service of the ruling class. So it is necessary to explain the strategic doctrine which has governed the activities of the US foundation community since the 1960s, especially in the framework of Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, which privatized the US intelligence community into front companies, law firms, and especially foundations. The public now knows that Obama attended Jeremiah Wright’s church, where the incendiary doctrine of black liberation theology, a school atypical of the black church, is proclaimed. But where do Wright and his sidekicks Otis Moss III and Dwight Hopkins come from? Are they an authentic and spontaneous expression of the black church, or are they controlled assets deployed in a cynical divide-and-conquer strategy by foundations and divinity schools that represent the most parasitical interests in Wall Street? The historical approach is the only way to clarify these issues. Obama claims to be an apostle of bipartisan cooperation and the transcendence of legislative wrangling and haggling. His background in this regard is real, but it is not what the public thinks. Obama is a product of the infamous Illinois bipartisan Combine, a joint venture by the Illinois Republican and Democratic Parties to savagely loot the people of that state. Obama’s godfathers include not just corrupt machine pols like Mayor Daley and Governor Blagojevich, but also the Levantine gangsters and underworld figures Rezko, Auchi, and Alsammarae, all part of what the FBI has been probing under the heading of Operation Board Games. Obama’s bosom buddy Rezko is now a convicted felon, having been found guilty on June 5, 2008 on 16 of 24 counts in Chicago federal court, including for scheming to get kickbacks out of money-management firms wanting state business, and a contractor who wanted to build a hospital in northern Illinois. Auchi and Alsammarae are also convicted felons. Obama’s long history in graft and corruption make him the most corrupt and dirtiest presidential candidate in many decades. Americans have now been told that the 1960s Weatherman terrorist bombers and provocateurs (and foundation operatives) Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn have sponsored Obama’s career as a foundation asset and later as a holder of elective office. But what were the Weathermen? And, were Ayers and Dohrn honest revolutionaries who chose terrorism, or were they intelligence community operatives sent in to destroy the student movement and peace movement by taking over Students for 10 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography a Democratic Society (SDS) in the wake of the New York City teachers’ strike, and then scuttling SDS from within, in a matter of months? Only historical background can clarify the question of how Obama’s penchant for associating with known criminals makes him the most radical subversive ever to get this close to the presidency. The public is being urged to regard Obama as a politician of phenomenal organizational ability because of his ability to game the absurd rules of the Democratic Party. But what if Obama had been a protected asset of Zbigniew Brzezinski and the Trilateral Commission since about 1981- 1983, and a man whose entire career has been fostered and promoted by the Trilateral-Bilderberger Wall Street group? What if Obama’s campaign ran on Rockefeller-Soros Trilateral cash, with the backing of the matchless Trilateral network of media whores and agents of influence? Here again, adequate historical background is necessary. The last time that the Trilateral Commission fielded a relatively unknown puppet with the goal of seizing power through an insurgency based on surprise, the result was the catastrophic presidency of Jimmy Carter, who turned foreign affairs over to Brzezinski, while placing economic policy in the hands of Trilateral agent Paul Adolph Volcker, who destroyed what was left of the US industrial economy. Today Obama is attempting to profile himself as something of an economic populist. Only an appeal to history can show how today’s Trilateral puppet Obama will go beyond yesterday’s Trilateral puppet Carter, this time imposing austerity in the name of third world solidarity, sacrifice in the name of global warming, and perhaps even reparations for racism. As with Carter, the beneficiaries will be the Rockefeller-Soros Wall Street interests. Obama promises hope and change, but his campaign bears uncanny similarities to the early days of Italian fascism in 1919-1922. Only historical background can show the many parallels between Obama and the young Mussolini. This book is not an invitation to contemplation. It is a call to mobilize. At this writing, we are at the half-way point in a postmodern fascist coup in the United States. There is still time to prevent this coup from succeeding. In January 1933, just before Hitler seized power, people in Germany were as careworn and overwhelmed and overstressed as many Americans feel today. A combination of bankers and corporate chiefs had decided they needed more than a dictator; they needed a dictator with his own private army of street fighters, the storm troopers. The Social Democrats (the SPD) were a huge mass party backed up by trade unions, sports clubs, women’s groups, and their own self-defense corps, but they dithered and dawdled and talked about a general strike, and never did anything. The communists (the KPD) were also a large mass party, with a big organization of unemployed workers, and their own self-defense corps of armed veterans. But the communists were convinced that they had been living under fascism for a long time, and that the Social Democrats were really social fascists and therefore even worse than Hitler. So nobody called a general strike to stop Hitler when this would have been possible. Many of the SPD and KPD leaders who refused to mobilize against the National Socialist seizure of power soon had to flee the country when their parties were outlawed and their members expelled from the parliament by the Nazis. Many of those who stayed behind were either assassinated in the streets, or died in concentration camps. Perhaps we can learn something from this chilling example of the importance of mobilizing while mobilization is still possible. If this book attracts some readers, the Obama campaign will inevitably attempt to vilify me as a racist. I therefore state formally that I am not a racist, but just the opposite. I am convinced that race is a mystification with no scientific basis whatsoever. Politics and government based on race are Introduction: Obama from the Ford Foundation to the Trilateral Commission 11 sure to fail. My own standpoint is the universality of the human personality, with all persons being ontologically equal. I lived the first years of my life in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a town which, thanks in part to a large population of abolitionists living there, had largely achieved racial integration in the decades following the Civil War. I lived on the same street where W.E.B. DuBois had grown up by the Housatonic River and close to the integrated school he attended c.1870.1 I later lived in Flushing, New York, a part of north Queens which had been the site of the first formal demand for religious tolerance in North America – the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657. In the 1950s, this community was thoroughly integrated down to my Cub Scout troop, where the den mother was Mrs. Andrew Jenkins, a black lady and the mother of one of my friends. Flushing was so tolerant that, around the time of the New York World’s Fair of 1964, it began to attract residents from the Far East, and now hosts a large Chinese community. So I reject any charge of racism. At the same time, I reject the absurd taboos which the bankrupt ideologues of foundation-style multiculturalism and political correctness are seeking to impose, since these are forms of insidious class prejudice against the working people of all races in this country. In many ways, this book continues the critique of foundation-based multiculturalism from a New Deal standpoint which was offered by the late Arthur M. Schlesinger in his The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. Those who actually read this book will be able to evaluate my argument that racism in the United States today is very largely the product of a deliberate and cynical divide-andconquer policy carried forward above all by the foundations and by the oligarchs and elitists who control them – that is to say, by precisely those groups who have created Obama. We need a return to the New Deal and a Marshall Plan for the cities, not another fruitless discussion about race of the kind proposed by Obama. To finish off racism, we will need full employment, something which has hardly been seen in this country since 1945. Full employment is also the key to solving most of the problems associated with the flows of immigrants from Latin America and Asia, since a return to economic progress will immediately create a labor shortage that will put these issues in the proper perspective. To obtain an economic recovery for the benefit of all the people from the present Bush world economic depression, we will need updated versions of New Deal programs, and on the way to getting them we will need to break the power of the foundations, who will attempt to maintain the fragmentation and subjection of the US population by every means at their disposal. This book, it is hoped, will represent a step towards exposing the destructive elitist manipulation of society by the foundations and the sinister intentions of the leading foundation operative on the scene today, Obama. CHAPTER I: OBAMA’S ROOTS IN POLYGAMY AND THE FORD FOUNDATION How can I refuse the best education? – Barack Hussein Obama Senior For many Americans, Barack Hussein Obama is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Never in recent American history has a candidate so little known approached the presidency. The only recent comparison is offered by Jimmy Carter, and Carter — who had served as governor of Georgia for four years — was an open book in comparison to Obama. After Carter had entered the White House, voters were shocked to realize that they had elected a mystery man — they had bought a pig in a poke. George W. Bush was another little-known candidate: he too talked about being a uniter and not a divider, promised a foreign policy based on humility, and pledged to govern in the spirit of compassionate conservatism. Here too, the reality turned out to be much different. Back in 1991, I realized that even though George H. W. Bush had been occupying the White House for a number of years, there was no critical and unauthorized biography of him. I therefore set out to write such a critical biography, which still stands today as the only non-apologetic study of his life. My present task is to offer readers a chance to get to know Obama before they make the irrevocable decision to grant him state power in the midst of one of the most severe crises this country has ever known. As we have suggested elsewhere in this book, one way to parse the speeches and promises of presidential candidates is to examine their advisers, handlers, and controllers, since many of these will make their way into the cabinet and into the White House palace guard. Another important method is to examine the candidate’s financial backers, and we will do so. A third approach is to bear in mind the famous dictum that biography is destiny — meaning that the life experience of any individual is bound to exert a profound influence on the way that person will tend to use the powers of a public office. It is mainly this third approach which we will implement in this section, seeking to assemble what is known about the life of Obama with a view to extracting clues about what kind of a president he might be. The guiding principle of the present treatment is that when a politician is seeking to get his hands anywhere near the famous button which can be used to launch worldwide thermonuclear war, when that politician is in effect demanding life-and-death power over American voters and their families, then there are no limits to the public’s right to know anything and everything about all facets of that politician’s life, without exclusions of any sort. For a presidential candidate, there is and can be no private sphere. Everything is fair game. Researchers are not only allowed to delve into the candidate’s background in every conceivable way — they are imperatively obligated to do so. BARRY WHO? Obama presents unprecedented difficulties for the presidential biographer. His clever handlers, controllers, and managers seem to have understood very well that a candidate with a resume, a voting record, and a history of past performance can very easily find that these things become liabilities when they are scrutinized by the opposition research of political adversaries, or simply by journalists in general. Any record at all is apt to become grist for the opponent’s attack machine. Obama appears to have been advised by Senator Daschle that it is better not to stay in the Senate very long before running for president, since every vote that a Senator makes can represent a policy I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 13 commitment which is going to offend some group or stratum in the voting public. Ironically, it turns out that in politics, the best resume is often no resume at all. Obama represents this approach in an extreme form. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, who with her usual cynicism has rushed to join media swoon for the Illinois Senator, has called Obama “the 46-year-old virgin.” The columnist Spengler of the Asia Times observes that “We know less about Senator Obama than about any prospective president in American history. His uplifting rhetoric is empty, as Hillary Clinton helplessly protests. His career bears no trace of his own character, not an article for the Harvard Law Review he edited, or a single piece of legislation. He appears to be an empty vessel filled with the wishful thinking of those around him.” (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) Obama’s halfsister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a schoolteacher from Hawaii, says cryptically, “He’s a very cool customer.” The candidate himself admits: “I am an imperfect vessel for your hopes and dreams.” (Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) Indeed, Obama would appear to stand for nothing, with no principles, no commitments, no loyalties, and no real program. In spite of this, Obama did not spring fully armed from the head of Zbigniew Brzezinski, nor did he rise from the foam of the ocean. He does have a past, and it is to this past and its lessons that we now turn. So little is known about the life of Obama that wild rumors have proliferated about who he really is. Is he a devout Moslem? Is he an Iranian agent? Is he a Marxist crypto-revolutionary? The conclusion of the present study is that he is none of these. Obama is certainly an ambitious and ruthless demagogue who can be counted on to be wholly unscrupulous in his pursuit and exercise of power. He is the creature of those intelligence circles which we may describe as the foundationfunded Left CIA. Obama is the wholly-controlled puppet of these circles. He has been chosen for his current task first of all because of his uncanny anthropologist’s ability to size up and profile his interlocutors for the purpose of duping them all and manipulating them the more efficiently. He brings to his political campaign the detachment of an anthropologist doing field work: he treats American voters as mere ethnographic material, mere grist for his power machine. Obama is at heart a cosmopolitan, meaning that he would seek to float above the various constituent groups of the US population in the same way that the supernational and cosmopolitan Prince Metternich sought to float above the subject nationalities of the Austrian Empire until he was forced to flee to London in 1848. Obama’s connection to the American people is as tenuous as that of such figures as the German Nesselrode, the Greek Kapodistrias, and the Sardinian Pozzo di Borgo, when they all found themselves working for the Foreign Ministry of the supernational Russian Empire. Obama is also reminiscent of those Coptic Christians like the Boutros-Ghali family whom the British habitually chose as top-level civil servants during their protectorate over Egypt. Imperial regimes have often chosen to govern large populations through ethnic minorities, and an Obama administration would give the United States a taste of this kind of rule for the first time. THE MAKING OF A MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Underneath Obama’s cool and aristocratic detachment, however, there lurks a deep resentment against the broad strata of the American people. It is not a hatred of Wall Street bankers, of CIA assassins, of war criminals, nor of mercenaries who kill people in countries far away. It must unavoidably be described as a hatred of the American people themselves, and it is therefore a sentiment which any responsible person must strongly condemn. Despite his evasive denials, Obama has a real elective cultural affinity for the “God damn America” outlook expressed by his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Based on the research embodied in this study, we can confidently predict that a future Obama administration would impose austerity, sacrifice, and 14 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography foreign wars on the American people with a wanton cruelty which has not been seen so far, not even under Bush the younger. It is because of their accumulated anti-American animus that Obama and his wife have been selected by the circles of the Trilateral Commission for their current attempts to carry out a postmodern coup d’état, leading in turn to what we must designate as postmodern fascism. Obama is a disciple neither of Mohammed nor of Marx. He comes rather from the school of Frantz Fanon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His relation to Rousseau is especially close: both the Rousseau of the noble savage who is the patron saint of modern anthropology, and the Rousseau of the collective will, who is the guiding spirit of modern totalitarian liberalism. Obama’s world is the left wing of the US intelligence community as it emerged in the wake of President Reagan’s Executive Order 12333 of 1982. It is a world composed of the Ford Foundation and other foundations specialized in social engineering, social manipulation, social control, and political counterinsurgency against possible challenges to the system of oligarchical financier domination of national affairs. It is a world populated by former Weatherman terrorists, black cultural nationalists, radical Palestinians on the CIA payroll, and left liberal ideologues financed by the foundations or even by the defense budget. It is the world of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Soros Foundation, and the veterans of the Jimmy Carter Administration. BIRTH AND FAMILY Many sources allege that Barack Hussein Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. But even this most basic fact of Obama’s existence is highly controversial, and as this book goes to press, is a contested issue in the courageous law suit of Philadelphia lawyer Philip J. Berg, who asserts that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States, and accordingly cannot be considered qualified for the presidency.2 His father, Barack Obama, Senior was a member of the Luo tribe or people from Nyanza Province, Kenya, in East Africa. His mother was Stanley [sic] Ann Dunham, an American woman who would later became an anthropologist and a consultant for the World Bank. Obama’s parents met when they were both students at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. When Barack Obama was only two years old, his father abandoned his wife and young son in Hawaii and went to Harvard University, where he obtained a doctorate in economics, and later returned to Kenya to become a government official. Barack Obama would see his father only once more in his life. Barack Obama is listed as the author of two books: Dreams from My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance (1995), and The Audacity of Hope (2006). From the first of these works, a number of themes emerge. First of all, Obama is obsessed with himself. His books do not really represent programs or promises concerning things that he wants to do for the American public, or to improve the state of the world. They are concerned above all with his own mental states, yearnings, desires, and confusions. Secondly, Obama is obsessed with the trauma of having been abandoned by his father at the age of two, and with the vicissitudes of having grown up as a fatherless boy with all the problematic syndromes this may imply. He was also later abandoned by his mother. Thirdly, Obama is obsessed with his African roots; he may at times portray himself as being multicultural, but his real center of gravity is his Afrocentrism. He is thus a radical subjectivist, and a postmodernist. His thoroughgoing postmodernism means that he espouses a method of thought which no American president has thus far represented. These are important things to bear in mind I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 15 as we proceed. Since Obama accords so much importance to his own African background, it is legitimate to follow him back to his grandfather. GRANDFATHER OBAMA FROM KENYA: UNCLE TOM OF BRITISH COLONIALISM Obama’s grandfather was named Hussein Onyango Obama, who was born about 1895 in Kandu province, Kenya, and died in 1979. He practiced traditional polygamy and had at least three wives: Helima, who was childless; Akumu, who was the mother of Sarah Obama and Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.; and Auma Obama. He also claimed to have married a woman in Burma when he lived there as the servant of a British officer during World War II. Grandfather Obama belonged to the Luo tribe. For those who may be scandalized by the idea that the candidate belongs to a tribe, we can establish this fact by referring to Obama’s own writings. In Dreams from My Father, Obama travels to Kenya. Here he meets a vendor, an old woman, who tries to make him pay the tourist price for a necklace. One of Obama’s relatives intervenes to help him avoid paying the inflated price reserved for foreigners. The dialogue goes like this: ‘“She says that you look like an American to her.” “Tell her I’m Luo,” I said, beating my chest!”’ (Dreams 310) So Obama, based on his own memoir, has a strong sense of tribal identity. The Luo or Lwo people are a Nilotic group from the eastern Sudan whose language (sometimes called Dholuo) belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Luo are one of the most numerous ethnic groups of East Africa, and specialize in agriculture, livestock raising, and fishing. Their demographic center of gravity is the northeastern shore of Lake Victoria. They currently inhabit areas of five nations, including the southern Sudan, northern Uganda, eastern Congo, western Kenya, and part of Tanzania. The Luos are tall and thin Nilotic peoples of haughty and aristocratic bearing, like the Tutsis. Folklore attributes to the taller Nilotics like Tutsis and Luos the desire to dominate the shorter Hutu and Kikuyu peoples. Michelle Obama, in the initial transcripts of her infamous “whitey” tape of July 2004, reportedly takes a strong position in favor of the Tutsi, which is the very essence of the overall line of Anglo-American imperialism in this part of Africa, which has always been to support the Tutsi against the Hutu. Some famous Luos include the Kenyan politician Tom Mboya (assassinated by a Kikuyu in 1959), former Uganda president Milton Obote, and the infamous butcher Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a new dark ages terrorist rebel group which operates in Uganda. The traditional ideological profile of the Luo is that they are clever but sometimes lethargic, and addicted to show-boating. The Luo are currently receiving US-UK imperialist support against the majority Kikuyu people in the tribal-ethnic power struggle unleashed inside Kenya. The Luo represent one of the micro-nationalities which Zbigniew Brzezinski intends to liberate in the course of his “dignity” campaign against the nation-state. The advantages for the imperialists of backing the Luo are obvious: if an independent Kurdish state would carve Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, a Luo state would carve Sudan, Uganda, Congo, Kenya, and Tanzania. OBAMA’S LUO TRIBE: SMART, LAZY, SHOWBOATERS What kind of people are these Luo? Modern Americans have an idea of the ideology or mentality of the French, Germans, Italians, Russians, Chinese, and so forth, but what are Luos like? A standard work on Luo mentality is A.B.C. Ocholla-Ayayo’s Traditional Ideology and Ethics Among the Southern Luo (Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1976). Ochollo- Ayayo is a Luo writing a profile of the mentality and culture of his own people. Since Obama has 16 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography spoken about his grandmother as a “typical white person,” we may perhaps be allowed here to use this same method of sampling to make some generalizations about the Luo. Let us use the first Luo we meet, in this case Ochollo-Ayayo himself, as a typical Luo person, and factor in the analysis he provides as well as critical reactions to his work, some of them also from Luos. In this way we may get at least a few insights into Luo ideology and mentality. The overall profile of the Luo is that they are clever, lazy, and love showboating. Ochollo-Ayayo goes further, writing about “virtue boasting,” which comes complete with virtue songs and virtue names or praise names. The Luo cultivate witchcraft and sorcery, although they have increasingly turned in recent decades to independent churches. The Luo have been studied for the practice of geophagy (dirt eating) among children. In a review of Hans-Egil Hauge’s Luo Religion and Folklore (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1974), Ocholla-Ayayo lectures Hauge about using the wrong terminology in a discussion of polygamy among the Luo: “Rather than saying that the Luo are polygamous, it would have been more accurate to say that they practice polygyny [meaning, they have multiple wives at the same time]. The word ‘polygamy’ is ambiguous. It is also inaccurate that ‘by counting the number of huts one can tell from a distance how many wives a man has,’” since some huts do not correspond to wives, but may be used for other purposes, such as sleeping quarters for children. Ocholla-Ayayo, who taught at Khartoum in the Sudan, is so pedantic that he berates Hauge, who published his book in 1974, for not citing a book that Ocholla-Ayayo published two years later, in 1976. Much of this review is devoted to a discussion of the evil spirits (jachien), and especially the jajuok otieno, the night-runner or evil spirit who comes to steal cattle. This is an issue treated in Obama’s Dreams. E.E. Evans-Pritchard, the famous British intelligence figure and professor of sociology at Oxford, did field work among the Luo in 1936, and produced articles like “Marriage Customs of the Luo of Kenya” and “Ghostly Vengeance of the Kenya Luo,” Man 133 (1950). Evil spirits are often those of grandparents who afflict grandchildren because these latter have failed to carry out their filial duties. The night-runners become a large issue in Obama’s memoir (Dreams 435 and passim). Ocholla-Ayayo’s work is a “brittle inventory” of Luo norms, discussing questions like pastoralism, the role of cattle and their value, kinship, polygamy/polygyny, and the premises of Luo reasoning. Ocholla-Ayayo’s critics tell us more than he does. These reviewers are themselves anthropologists who deal in academic jargon, but they cannot suppress bursts of annoyance and resentment at the author because of his pedantic, pompous, lecturing and hectoring method. One reviewer writes that while the data presented by Ocholla-Ayayo are worthwhile, “the mannered and often incoherent fashion in which they are presented is likely to alienate even the most welldisposed of readers.” (Elizabeth Hopkins, ASA Review of Books 5 [1979], 216) This same reviewer finds this Luo writer’s “belabored pronouncements” to be “verging at times on the tautological.” There is also a tedious parade of erudition which the reviewer finds insufferable: “One must also lament Ocholla-Ayayo’s determination to validate the monograph to the scholarly community. The consequence is an accretion of self-conscious citations in which a hagiography as diverse as Galatians, David Hume, and Adam Smith is invoked, as well as a multitude of modern philosophers, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and jurists. Frequent and gratuitous references to university mentors also prove regrettably intrusive and distracting.” This reviewer concludes that the “fragmented, a temporal presentation of the material and the author’s failure to explore the behavioral as well as the normative dimensions of traditional Luo ideology seriously undermine its value for the general reader.” The lack of historical analysis is a key defect. I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 17 Obama’s grandfather is described as a strange, hard, autocratic and cruel man. (Dreams from My Father 397, 406) “It is said of him that he had ants up his anus, because he could not sit still…. he was very serious always. He was always curious about other people’s business, which is how he learned to be a herbalist.” (Dreams 397) He was very fastidious and compulsively clean. Grandfather Obama lived at the time that the British colonialists first arrived in Kenya. Grandfather Obama was one of the first to imitate the practices of the British: at one point he went away for some months, and came back wearing European trousers, shirts, and shoes. Kandu province is located in the interior of Kenya, closer to Lake Victoria than to the Indian Ocean. When the British arrived in Kandu they began setting up a colonial administration with a district commissioner. The Kenyans “called this man Bwana Ogalo, which meant “the Oppressor” … he surrounded himself with Luos who wore clothes like the white man to serve as his agents and tax collectors.” (Dreams 399) One of those who went to work for the British during this time was grandfather Obama, who “had learned to read and write, and understood the white man system of paper records and land titles. This made him useful to the white man, and during the war [World War I] he was put in charge of road crews. Eventually he was sent to Tanganyika, where he stayed for several years.” (Dreams 400) When grandfather Obama returned to Kandu, he staked his claim to a plot of land, but he soon departed for Nairobi, where he again went to work for the British. Obama’s grandfather worked in Nairobi as a butler and cook for the British. He “was popular with employers and worked in the estates of some of the most important white men, even Lord Delamere.” (Dreams 401) Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere, was the undisputed political boss of the British colony of Kenya from about 1900 until his death in 1931; he was known as the Kenyan equivalent of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, meaning that he was the dominant political personality of the colony. He had huge estates in the Rift valley. According to Wikipedia, “It is believed that on one of these Somaliland hunting trips, Delamere coined the term “white hunter” – the term which came to describe the professional safari hunter in colonial East Africa.” The relation with Lord Delamere is the first sign of anything extraordinary in the entire Obama clan. If Obama seizes the presidency, it will be due in some measure to the fact that his grandfather chose to go to work for the leading British imperialist politician in that part of the world. Using his earnings, grandfather Obama was able to buy land and cattle in Kandu. He was very strict about his property, and emerges as an obsessive-compulsive personality. He was also choleric and violent, and was known for harshly beating his wives and any men who offended him. He was often involved in shouting matches with his British employers, and once beat one of them with a cane; he was fortunate to get off with a fine and a warning. He was so violent to his wife Akumu that she tried repeatedly to get away from him, and finally deserted him for good, leaving behind the young child who would become Barack Obama’s father. A BATMAN IN THE BRITISH ARMY During World War II, grandfather Obama accompanied the British Army captain who was his employer as cook and servant. He was attached to a British regiment and was stationed in Burma, Ceylon, Arabia, and Europe. When he returned to Kandu, he was economically well-off. When he was almost 50, he decided to move to Alego, the family’s ancestral home. At that time Alego was bush country, but grandfather Obama’s ability as a farmer allowed him to build up a successful farming business. Grandfather Obama seems all in all to have had a Hobbesian temperament; he is quoted as saying: “The African is thick. For him to do anything, he needs to be beaten.” (Dreams 407) Grandfather Obama appears to have started his life as a follower of traditional animist or totemic religion. What Grandfather Obama “respected was strength — discipline…this is also why 18 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography he rejected the Christian religion…For a brief time, he converted [to Christianity], and even changed his name to Johnson. But he could not understand such ideas as mercy towards your enemies, or that this man Jesus could wash away a man’s sins. To [him] this was foolish sentiment, something to comfort women. And so he converted to Islam — he thought its practices conform more closely to his beliefs,” Barack is told by his grandmother. (Dreams 407) According to some accounts, he had been exposed to Islam during some time spent in Zanzibar. It was upon converting to Islam that Grandfather Obama took the name Hussein, which lives on as the middle name of his grandson, the current presidential candidate. Much of what we learn about Grandfather Obama comes from Sarah, his third wife; this is the person Obama calls his grandmother. She is not, however, a blood relative. Sarah Obama describes herself as a devout lifelong Muslim: “I am a strong believer of the Islamic faith,” she has told interviewers. Until his first visit to Kenya in the 1990s, candidate Obama had known very little about his grandfather. The one thing he did know was that his grandfather had opposed his father’s decision to marry the white woman Stanley Ann Dunham in Hawaii around 1960. Around this one incident, the future candidate Obama has built an image of his grandfather as a proud Afrocentric race patriot. Barack Hussein Obama, as the thorough postmodernist that he is, attempts in his writings to derive his sense of personal identity not so much from his own achievements as an individual as from his family and ethnic group. In Dreams from My Father, he tells of his bitter disappointment with the reality of his grandfather’s life: “I knew that, as I had been listening to the story of our grandfather’s youth, I, too, had felt betrayed. My image of Onyango, faint as it was, had always been of an autocratic man — a cruel man, perhaps. But I had also imagined him an independent man, a man of his people, opposed to white rule. There was no real basis for this image, I now realized — only the letter he had written to Gramps saying that he didn’t want his son marrying white. That, and his Muslim faith, which in my mind had become linked with the Nation of Islam back in the states. What Granny had told us scrambled that image completely, causing ugly words to flash across my mind. Uncle Tom. Collaborator. House n****r.” (Dreams 406) FATHER: BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA SENIOR, “DRUNKEN LECHER” Of all of Grandfather Obama’s wives, it was Akumu who asserted herself the most, constantly contradicting her husband and arguing with him. Because of this, Akumu was frequently beaten, and made several attempts to run away. She disappeared for the last time when Barack Obama Senior was nine years old. She went back to her family, found a new husband, and went away with him to what was then called Tanganyika. Obama Senior was therefore raised by Sarah, another of Grandfather Obama’s wives. Several weeks after Akumu had fled from her harsh life with Grandfather Obama, Obama Senior and his elder sister attempted to rejoin their mother. For almost two weeks they trudged along the primitive roads of rural Kenya, sleeping in the fields and begging for food. They were both starving when a passerby took them in and sent for Grandfather Obama. This was their last attempt to find their mother, Akumu. Obama Senior was profoundly traumatized by losing his mother at the age of nine; he “could not forgive his abandonment, and acted as if Akumu didn’t exist. He told everyone that I [Grandmother Sarah] was his mother, and although he would send Akumu money when he became a man, to the end of his life he would always act coldly towards her.... Barack [Senior] was wild and stubborn like Akumu.” (Dreams 413) Barack Obama Senior is described as highly intelligent and quick to learn, but also very mischievous. After Senior’s first day at the Mission school in the village, he told grandfather I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 19 Obama that he did not want to attend school because he already knew everything that was being taught, and the teacher was a woman. Grandfather Obama shared this contempt for women, so Senior was sent to a school 6 miles away where the teacher was a man. Only after this male teacher beat him repeatedly did Senior learn to accept a woman teacher. Senior was often a truant, not attending school for weeks on end, but mastering the entire subject matter just before the final exams and coming in first in the class. During World War II, many Kenyans were inducted into the British Army. When they returned home, they began to support the cause of independence from colonial rule. Grandfather Obama agreed with the demand for independence, but he refused to become associated with the independence movements. He argued that Africans could never defeat British troops. “How can the African defeat the white man,” he told Senior, “when he cannot even make his own bicycle? ... That is why the black man will always lose.” (Dreams 417) Despite his refusal to join the independence movement, Grandfather Obama was arrested by the British and held in a concentration camp for more than six months because one of his personal enemies, an employee of the British district commissioner, had settled a score by placing his name on the list of dangerous subversives. When he finally returned home, his health was broken. OBAMA SENIOR EXPELLED FROM PREP SCHOOL FOR HANKY-PANKY Obama Senior had taken the entrance examination for the Maseno Mission School, an elite college preparatory institution which very few Africans were allowed to attend. He was admitted to this school and seemed to have a great future ahead of him, but he soon encountered disciplinary problems. He insisted on violating the rules by bringing girls into his dormitory. He and his friends stole chickens and yams from nearby farms because the dormitory food was not to their liking. At first the teachers were indulgent because Senior was such a good student, but he was caught one too many times and was expelled. When he returned home he was severely beaten by Grandfather Obama, who forced him to go to Mombasa and take a job in the office of an Arab merchant. He quarreled with the Arab and had to take a job that paid much less. He worked for a time as a goatherd. This is the origin of BHO’s claim to be a son of a goatherd. Eventually Senior moved to Nairobi and found work as a clerk for the British railway authority. He attended a pro-independence meeting, and was arrested and jailed for a few days by the British. During this time Senior married his first wife, Kezia, and soon had two children, Roy and Auma. At this time he was employed as an office boy by an Arab merchant named Suleiman. Up to now we have been forced to rely on candidate Obama’s own account of these events. From this point on, we can begin to supplement this with other sources. A more detailed view of Senior and Kezia’s early years is provided by some British journalists: ‘At 18, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (Senior) married a girl called Kezia from the local village. It was Kezia who remained his one true love and to whom he always returned. She was a 16-year-old schoolgirl while Senior, two years older, had just got his first proper job as an office clerk in Nairobi. Senior convinced Kezia to elope with him to Nairobi. Her father, a local driver, was furious. Kezia said: “He did not like Obama. My father and brothers came to Nairobi to bring me back. They said I had to go back to school. When I wouldn’t, they said they would never speak to me again. Barack was also worried about what his father (Grandfather Obama) would think because I was so young, but he gave us his approval. He sent my mother and father 14 cows for my dowry.” Kezia and Barack Sr. set up home in Jericho, a section of Nairobi created for government employees, and began a family. First son Roy was born in March 1958.’ (London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) 20 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography In contrast to the media swoon of total adulation and uncritical acceptance of Obama here in the United States, the British Daily Mail stresses that much of the account given in Dreams from My Father is disingenuous and untrue. They comment: “Indeed, by offering up a conveniently plotted account of his personal history in this way, he might even have made a pre-emptive strike on those sure to pose the awkward questions that inevitably face a serious contender for the White House. Yet an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed that, for all Mr Obama’s reputation for straight talking and the compelling narrative of his recollections, they are largely myth.” (London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) Senior’s life began to change when he encountered two American women missionary teachers. They helped him to sign up for a correspondence course leading to a secondary school certificate. He took the equivalency test at the US Embassy, and passed. He then applied to numerous universities in the United States, and in 1958 won a scholarship at the University of Hawaii. Senior, then aged twenty-three, left as soon as possible for Hawaii, deserting his pregnant wife and son, who took refuge with Grandmother Sarah. Thus, when Senior married Stanley Ann Dunham, he was a bigamist from the point of view of US law. These years represented an acute phase of the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. At about this time, the Soviets created the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow as a special institution for the education and indoctrination of African students. The Soviets sought actively to recruit the future leaders of African countries and bring them to Moscow for a free university education in the hopes that they would remain sympathetic to the Soviet cause during the rest of their careers. We must assume that a few were also recruited by the KGB. The United States intelligence agencies carried out similar operations on a somewhat more decentralized basis for the recruitment of young prospective African leaders as agents of US influence. The recruitment of Obama Senior by the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa could very well have occurred within the framework of such a US effort. In fact, we are told that Obama Senior and Stanley Ann Dunham met for the first time in a Russian class. Some commentators have concluded from that that candidate Obama’s mother was a Soviet or communist sympathizer. There is probably some truth in that thesis. But Obama Senior may have been studying Russian as part of a US-backed program aimed at making him at the very least a US sympathizer in Kenyan society, and perhaps something more. At any rate, it is quite possible that the spirit of the CIA hovered over candidate Obama’s parents at the time of their wedding, if there was one. The marriage of Obama Senior with Ann Dunham must be regarded as highly unusual at a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in many U.S. states. There was, however, a high statistical correlation between interracial marriage and proximity to the Communist Party. OBAMA SENIOR: AN ABUSIVE POLYGAMIST AND EGOMANIAC The Daily Mail account stresses that even though the image of Senior presented in candidate Obama’s first book is hardly sympathetic, it is nevertheless an attempt to present this unattractive individual in the best possible light: “We have discovered that his father was not just a deeply flawed individual but an abusive bigamist and an egomaniac, whose life was ruined not by racism or corruption but his own weaknesses. And, devastatingly, the testimony has come from Mr Obama’s own relatives and family friends. Relatives say he was already a slick womaniser and, once in Honolulu, he promptly persuaded a fellow student called Ann - a naive 18-year-old white girl - to marry him. Barack Junior was born in August, 1961.” (Sharon Churcher, “A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN’T said about his father,” London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 21 Part of candidate Obama’s technique in composing his reminiscences of his fugitive father is unquestionably to project backward into the world of almost half a century ago the categories of race, Afrocentrism, and multiculturalism which were not in fact operative in those days in the ways that the current candidate suggests. As the British series points out, ‘“Mr Obama Junior claims that racism on both sides of the family destroyed the marriage between his mother and father. In his book, [candidate Obama] says that Ann’s mother, who went by the nickname Tut, did not want a black son-in-law, and Obama Senior’s father didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman. In fact Ann divorced her husband after she discovered his bigamous double life. She remarried and moved to Indonesia with young Barack and her new husband, an oil company manager. Obama Senior was forced to return to Kenya, where he fathered two more children by Kezia. He was eventually hired as a top civil servant in the fledgling government of Jomo Kenyatta - and married yet again. Now prosperous with a flashy car and good salary, his third wife was an American-born teacher called Ruth, whom he had met at Harvard while still legally married to both Kezia and Ann, and who followed him to Africa. A relative of Mr Obama says: “We told him [Barack] how his father would still go to Kezia and it was during these visits that she became pregnant with two more children. He also had two children with Ruth.” It is alleged that Ruth finally left him after he repeatedly flew into whisky-fuelled rages, beating her brutally. Friends say drinking blighted his life - he lost both his legs while driving under the influence and also lost his job. However, this was no bar to his womanising: he sired a son, his eighth child, by yet another woman and continued to come home drunk. He was about to marry her when he finally died in yet another drunken crash when Obama was 21.”’ (Sharon Churcher, “A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN’T said about his father,” London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) The eyewitness accounts of Obama’s first trip to Kenya assembled by the Daily Mail suggest that candidate Obama was filled with shock and consternation when he realized that his fantasy picture of his absentee father did not correspond to anything real: ‘Mr Obama’s 40-year-old cousin Said Hussein Obama told The Mail on Sunday: “Clearly, Barack has been very deeply affected by what he has learned about his father, who was my father’s older brother. You have to remember that his father was an African and in Africa, polygamy is part of life. We have assured Barack that his father was a loving person but at times it must be difficult for him to reconcile this with his father’s drinking and simultaneous marriages.” Said adds: “His father was a human being and as such you can’t say that he was 100 per cent perfect. My cousin found it difficult when he came here to learn of his half-brothers and sisters born to four different mothers. But just as Africans find the Western world strange so Americans coming here will find Africa strange.”’ (Sharon Churcher, “A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN’T said about his father,” London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) For years, candidate Obama had attempted to interpret the little he knew about his father’s life in terms coherent with popular radical books like Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. In reality Obama Senior might have been a sad and deluded drunk out of Eugene O’Neill: ‘Far from being an inspiration, the father whom Mr Obama was coming to know seemed like a total stranger. In his book, he attempts to put the best face on it. His father, he writes, lost his civil service job after campaigning against corrupt African politicians who had “taken the place of the white colonials.” One of Obama Senior’s former drinking partners was Kenyan writer Philip Ochieng. Ochieng says, however, that his friend’s downfall was his weak character. Although charming, generous and extraordinarily clever, Obama Senior was also imperious, cruel and given to boasting about his brain and his wealth, he said. “He was excessively fond of Scotch. He had fallen into the habit of 22 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography going home drunk every night. His boasting proved his undoing and left him without a job, plunged him into prolonged poverty and dangerously wounded his ego.” Ochieng recalls how, after sitting up all night drinking Black Label whisky at Nairobi’s famous Stanley Hotel, Obama Senior would fly into rages if Ruth asked where he had been. Ochieng remonstrated with his friend, saying: “You bring a woman from far away and you reduce her to pulp. That is not our way.” But it was to no avail. Ruth sued for divorce after her husband administered brutal beatings. In fact he was a menace to life, said Ochieng. “He had many extremely serious accidents. Both his legs had to be amputated. They were replaced with crude false limbs made from iron. He was just like Mr Toad [from The Wind In The Willows], very arrogant on the road, especially when he had whisky inside. I was not surprised when I learned how he died.”’ (Sharon Churcher, “A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN’T said about his father,” London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) The Daily Mail was able to track down Obama Senior’s third wife. ‘Ruth refused to comment on the abuse charges when we tracked her down to the Kenyan school where she now works. She said: “I was married to Barack’s father for seven years so, yes, you could say Barack is my stepson. Barack’s father was a very difficult man. Although I was married to him the longest of any of his wives he wasn’t an easy person to be around.” Mr Obama has acknowledged that his father grappled with a drinking problem. But with a gift for words that makes Mrs Clinton’s utterances seem stiff and stale, he has turned it into another component of the myth. Drink, he says, like drugs is one of “the traps that seem laid in a black man’s soul.”’ (Sharon Churcher, “A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN’T said about his father,” London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) This other American wife is named Ruth Nidesand. The son she had with Obama Senior, who is therefore Obama’s half-brother, has been located by the British press in China. We read: ‘Barack Obama’s half-brother has been helping to promote cheap Chinese exports in a low-profile business career while the Democratic senator has been winning worldwide fame in his race for the White House. He has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid public attention and his family links remain unknown to most of his acquaintances in Shenzhen, a border boomtown in southern China where he has lived since 2002. Mark Ndesandjo is the son of Barack Obama’s late father and his third wife, an American woman named Ruth Nidesand who runs the up-market Maduri kindergarten in Nairobi.3 Obama, however, refers to him simply as “my brother” and says he was the only uncontested heir after their father, a Kenyan, died in a car crash in 1982.’ (Sunday Times, July 27, 2008) As for the rest of Obama’s eight to ten siblings: ‘The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obaa living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi. Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate's half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender. "No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month." According to Italy's Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world. Vanity Fair also noted that he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael. He told the magazine: "I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist." Embarrassed by his penury, he said that he does not does not mention his famous half-brother in conversation. "If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 23 I am ashamed," he said. For ten years George Obama lived rough. However he now hopes to try to sort his life out by starting a course at a local technical college. He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi.’ (Daily Telegraph, August 21, 2008) Obama has often paraded his devotion to the poor, to the “least of these” in Gospel terms. But although Obama talks a good game of charity, it appears that he has never given a penny to this wretched man who lives in poverty and despair made more acute by the contrast with his half-brother, the glittering international celebrity. If Obama’s black African brother gets no charity from Barky and Michelle, what can the American people expect except snake-like cruelty? The Daily Mail account of Obama Senior in Kenya concludes with the finding that candidate Obama has been permanently traumatized by his discovery as an adult in his mid-30s of the sordid details of his father’s actual biography. These details are worthy of attention, since psychological dramas, reaction formations, and related forms of psychological vulnerability have often been used in the recent past by the various White House palace guards to manipulate and control elected presidents. We must therefore pay special attention to the Daily Mail’s conclusion that: ‘Family members and acquaintances believe that the real cloud over Mr Obama’s life has been the discovery that his father was far from the romantic figure that his mother tried to portray. A family friend said: “He is haunted by his father’s failures. He grew up thinking of his father as a brilliant intellectual and pioneer of African independence only to learn that in Western terms he was basically a drunken lecher.” This ugly truth, say friends, has made Mr Obama ruthlessly determined to use every weapon that he has to succeed, including the glossily edited version of his father’s story. “At the end of the day Barack wants the story to help his political cause, so perhaps he couldn’t afford to be too honest,” said Ochieng. Significantly, it was only four years after his father’s death that Mr Obama travelled to his father’s ancestral Kenyan village. There he learned the full story of his father’s life and met some of his relatives. One of his half-sisters, Auma, is now a council worker in southern England, but some of his other relatives are still living in huts in the village, without plumbing or electricity, farming a few scrawny goats and chicken and growing fruit and maize. They speak the tribal Luo language and depend on handouts from family members who have emigrated to the UK and the United States for their few luxuries, notably the transistor radios that they use to follow Mr Obama’s rocketing political fortunes. He has positioned himself as a devout Christian (having found God, he says, after years as an atheist) ….”’ (Sharon Churcher, “A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN’T said about his father,” London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) Candidate Obama writes in Dreams of My Father, “Someone once said that every man is trying to either live up to his father’s expectations or make up for his father’s mistakes, and I suppose that may explain my particular malady.” Candidate Obama may therefore be aware to some degree of the psychological drama which he exhibits. But this still leaves important questions: Has he ever grown up? Does he have the psychological strength necessary for independent and autonomous action, as mandated by the constitutional powers of the president enumerated in the U.S. Constitution? Due in large part to the adulation and propitiation of Obama by the controlled corporate media, these life-and-death questions are far from having been answered. MATERNAL GRANDFATHER, STANLEY DUNHAM, KANSAS ATHEIST Obama’s maternal grandparents came from Wichita, Kansas. His grandfather, Stanley Dunham, the person he calls Gramps, had worked on oil rigs during the great depression of the 1930s. Stanley 24 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Dunham had far less social standing than Madelyn Dunham, who came from a somewhat better family; this class divide between a worker and petty bougeoise caused tension during their marriage. According to one account, Madelyn Dunham’s family had been slaveholders: “one of Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 Census in Nelson County, Kentucky. The same records show that one of Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.” (Wikipedia) “When World War II came, Stanley enlisted in the Army. Madelyn became a Rosiethe- Riveter at Boeing Co.’s B-29 production plant in Wichita. And Stanley Ann Dunham arrived in late November 1942. (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) After the war, Stanley went to college with the help of the G.I. Bill, and bought a house with a subsidized loan from the Federal Housing Program. Stanley and Madelyn Dunham would eventually live in 13 different places. Stanley Armour Dunham is described by Obama as something of a freethinker or bohemian, presumably meaning that he dabbled in atheism, which was considered something radical in the early 1960s. He inclined toward the Unitarian Universalist point of view of religious syncretism, and was proud that his church was able to draw on the sacred texts of five great world religions.4 He was friendly with several Jews, Obama tells us, and liked to listen to Nat King Cole. (Dreams 17) Grandfather Stanley was sympathetic to black issues and causes; Obama tells us that he had suffered some insults himself because “he looked like a ‘wop.’” (Dreams 21) Later on, as we will see, he took Barack Obama with him when he went to visit a group of black communists in Hawaii around 1970. Stanley Dunham died in 1992. MADELYN “TOOT” DUNHAM – GRANDMOTHER Madelyn Dunham is called Tutu or Toot or Tut in Obama’s reminiscence and in other accounts; this is the word for grandparent in the Hawaiian language. (Dreams 7) Interestingly, the Obama campaign has refused to facilitate interviews by interested journalists with Madelyn Dunham: “the Obama campaign declined to make Madelyn Dunham, 84, available.” (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) For some reason, the Obama campaign has been very reluctant to allow Madelyn Dunham to interact with the press. Do they think that a white grandmother would cause resentment among blacks, or is there something that they are hiding? Madelyn Dunham is now well-known as the grandmother whom Obama threw under the bus in his desperate maneuvering in the wake of the explosion of the Jeremiah Wright “God damn America” scandal in mid-March 2008. MOTHER: STANLEY ANN DUNHAM, PRO-COMMUNIST ANTHROPOLOGIST Obama’s mother was unquestionably the greatest single influence on his formative years. Her legal name was indeed Stanley Ann Dunham. She was named Stanley by her father because he had wanted very much to have a son. This incongruous gesture recalls the predicament of “A Boy Named Sue” in the humorous song by Johnny Cash. Obama makes some attempt in his reminiscences to portray his mother as a bland Eisenhower-era middle American from Kansas, but this once again represents typical disingenuous window-dressing. Obama’s attempt to spin his mother into something she was not has even been noted in the normally deferential Chicago Tribune account: ‘Implicit in [Obama’s portrayal of his mother] is this message: If you have any lingering questions or doubts about the Hawaiian-born presidential candidate with a funny name, just remember that Mom hails from America’s good earth. That’s the log cabin story, or his version of Bill Clinton’s “Man from Hope.” That presentation, though, glosses over Stanley Ann Dunham’s formative years, spent not on the Great Plains but more than 1,800 miles away on a small island in I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 25 the Pacific Northwest. Obama visited the Seattle area last October, and in a speech to a Democratic Party rally at Bellevue Community College, he mentioned that his mother attended Mercer Island High School before moving on to Hawaii. In Dreams, Obama wrote that the family moved to Seattle “long enough for my mother to finish high school.”’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) In reality, Ann Dunham started out as something of a bluestocking, a nonconformist and radical who was profoundly ill-at-ease with the superficial normalcy of the Eisenhower years. She was a left liberal, a feminist and a parlor atheist. The Dunham family moved to the Seattle area in the mid- 1950s, and it was there that Ann Dunham attended Mercer Island High School, where not just the existentialists Sartre and Kierkegaard, but even “The Communist Manifesto” were in the curriculum. Coming as she did from a heterodox and nonconformist family, it is not surprising to find Ann Dunham described as having been both a communist sympathizer and a liberal. Obama thus qualifies in some sense as a red diaper baby. Madelyn and Stanley, originally Methodist and Baptist respectively, along with their daughter joined the East Shore Unitarian Church in nearby Bellevue, Washington. ‘“In the 1950s, this was sometimes known as ‘the little Red church on the hill,” said Peter Luton, the church’s senior minister, referring to the effects of McCarthyism. Skepticism, the kind that Stanley embraced and passed on to his daughter, was welcomed here.’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) Ann Dunham actively embraced the cause of skepticism and freethinking. ‘“She touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she’d read about and could argue,” said Maxine Box, who was Dunham’s best friend in high school. “She was always challenging and arguing and comparing. She was already thinking about things that the rest of us hadn’t.”’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) Ann Dunham also showed a lively interest in international politics, quite possibly with a tendency to sympathize with the Moscow line: ‘“If you were concerned about something going wrong in the world, Stanley would know about it first,” said Chip Wall, who described her as “a fellow traveler. . . . We were liberals before we knew what liberals were.”’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) “Fellow traveler” is a term used during the McCarthy era to describe a communist sympathizer. The “fellow traveler” issue became prominent at Mercer Island High School when Ann was studying there, thanks to one of the anti-Communist witch hunts of the House Committee on Un- American Activities, the infamous HUAC. ‘In 1955, the chairman of the Mercer Island school board, John Stenhouse, testified before the House Un-American Activities Subcommittee that he had been a member of the Communist Party. At Mercer High School, two teachers — Val Foubert and Jim Wichterman — generated regular parental thunderstorms by teaching their students to challenge societal norms and question all manner of authority. Foubert, who died recently, taught English. His texts were cutting edge: “Atlas Shrugged,” “The Organization Man,” “The Hidden Persuaders,” “1984” and the acerbic writings of H.L. Mencken.’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) As we can see, there is nothing communist about these texts, which are variously libertarian, British intelligence, foundation-funded, and simple muckraking, but Foubert and Wichterman must have loomed as a new Lenin-Trotsky or Stalin-Mao duo in the provincial imaginations of the local parents. ‘Wichterman taught philosophy. The hallway between the two classes was known as “anarchy alley,” and students pondered the challenging notions of Wichterman’s teachings, including such philosophers as Sartre and Kierkegaard. He also touched the societal third rail of the 1950s: He questioned the existence of God. And he didn’t stop there.’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) With Stanley always looking for better opportunities, the family moved to Hawaii. Ann Dunham “began classes at the University of Hawaii in 1960, and shortly after that…had fallen in love with a 26 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography grad student. He was black, from Kenya and named Obama.” (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) Ann married Obama Senior when she was 18 years old. They met in a Russian language class, which may or may not indicate sympathy for Soviet communism (it could have indicated a desire to join the intelligence community): each one could have been there for many reasons, including training by a US intelligence agency. One person who knew Barack Obama Senior and Ann Dunham and their social set in those days is the Democratic Congressman Neil Abercrombie, who has recalled that ‘while Obama was impatient and energized, Stanley Ann, whom Abercrombie described as “the original feminist,” was endlessly patient but quietly passionate in her arguments. She was the only woman in the group.’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) Those who had known Ann Dunham as an independent woman not interested in marriage and children were surprised by her sudden decision to marry Obama Senior. ‘“I just couldn’t imagine her life changing so quickly,” said [one such friend], thinking about her independent-minded friend who had disdained marriage and motherhood.’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) Evidently the irresistible appeal of a husband from the third world had eclipsed Ann’s feminism. Ironically, the third world turned out not to be the repository of unalloyed goodness which a disciple of Rousseau would have expected. The original feminist Ann Dunham would soon find herself the victim not just of a bigamist but of a polygamist who would abandon her and her infant son without a second thought. Barack Obama today bears the mental scars of this experience. Grandfather Onyango, back in Kenya, was fiercely opposed to Obama Senior’s marriage. He wrote the Dunhams a ‘“long, nasty letter saying that he didn’t approve of the marriage.” This former house servant for the British colonialists “didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman.” His main argument was that this American girl would never agree to return to Kenya and live under conditions of polygamy. Onyango wrote: “How can you marry this white woman when you have responsibilities at home? Will this woman return with you and live as a Luo woman? Will she accept that you already have a wife and children? I have not heard of white people understanding such things. Their women are jealous and used to being pampered. But if I am wrong in this matter, let the girl’s father come to my hut and discuss the situation properly. But this is the affair of elders, not children.”’ (Dreams 422) Ann Dunham may have felt compelled to get married because she was already pregnant. As we read in one journalistic account; ‘Six months after they wed, another letter arrived in Kenya, announcing the birth of Barack Hussein Obama, born Aug. 4, 1961. Despite her husband’s continued anger, Sarah Obama said in a recent interview, she “was so happy to have a grandchild in the U.S.”’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) There is also some question about the documentation and thus of the legality of the marriage of Obama Senior to Ann Dunham. This wedding may not have been properly documented, as Obama himself tells us. “How and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I have never quite had the courage to explore,” Obama writes in Dreams. In other words, this may have been a common law marriage.5 The implication is that presidential candidate Barack Obama may be an illegitimate child born outside of wedlock, or, in plain English, a bastard.6 A FEMINIST DOORMAT FOR A POLYGAMIST The later Congressman Neil Abercrombie sensed at the beginning that this marriage was not destined to last. Obama Senior was self-absorbed and self-centered, and evidently regarded the marriage as a mere temporary convenience for the time of his stay in Hawaii: ‘Obama was one of the most ambitious, self-focused men he had ever met. After Obama was accepted to study at I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 27 Harvard, Stanley Ann disappeared from the University of Hawaii student gatherings, but she did not accompany her husband to Harvard. Abercrombie said he rarely saw her after that. “I know he loved Ann,” Abercrombie said, but “I think he didn’t want the impediment of being responsible for a family. He expected great things of himself and he was going off to achieve them.”’ (Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2007) In 1963, Obama Senior abandoned his wife and infant son in order to enter a doctoral program in economics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His decision can only be characterized as cruelly egotistical and irresponsible. Obama Senior had received two fellowships. One was to pursue a doctorate in economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City. This fellowship was generous enough so as to permit both Ann and baby Barack to accompany him to New York. The Harvard fellowship was smaller, reportedly not sufficient to support Ann and her baby. Obama Senior callously argued that he had no choice but to accept the Harvard fellowship. As Ann Dunham later told her son Barack: ‘“He received two scholarships, one in New York, which paid enough to support all three of us. Harvard had just agreed to pay tuition. ‘How can I refuse the best education?’ he told me. That’s all he could think about, proving that he was the best.”’ (Dreams 126) Naturally, Obama Senior and/or Ann could have supplemented the fellowship with a part-time or full-time job if the main goal had been to keep the family together. Once it was clear that Obama Senior was determined to abandon his family, Ann could have sued him for divorce and child support payments, since Obama Senior’s polygamous outlook had no standing under US law. Instead of acting to assert the best interests of her infant child, Ann Dunham chose supinely to let herself be abused and mistreated by Obama Senior, who thus emerges as a monster of egomania. Ann was apparently so deluded by her relativistic and Rousseauvian ideological categories that she was unable to fight for her son’s future. Barack Obama glosses over Obama Senior’s abandonment of his mother in detached prose in the passive voice: “A separation occurred, and he returned to Africa to fulfill his promise to the continent.” (Dreams 10) Obsessed with his racialist ideology, Obama chooses not to recognize that his mother was treated as a doormat, and was too weak to assert herself against the outrageous actions of Obama Senior. Perhaps Obama’s contempt for women is rooted in his mother’s craven willingness to capitulate to the selfishness of Obama Senior. For Ann Dunham, Rousseau was much more powerful than feminism when it really mattered. When Obama was about to visit Senior in Kenya for the first time, poor Ann Dunham told Obama: I hope you don’t feel resentful towards him…It wasn’t your father’s fault that he left, you know. I divorced him.” (Dreams 125) This account is at variance with the fact of abandonment, and shows that even after many years, Ann refused to accept the reality of the outrageous treatment she had received, and of her own failure to fight for her son. It is worth noting in passing that Obama qualifies as a fatherless young boy who was also abandoned by his mother before the age of 10. This pattern produces a psychological profile full of debilitating psychological complexes, including the obsessive quest for an ersatz or substitute father, and the need to be assured of one’s own personal worth by a series of sexual partners, be they male or female. The last president to exhibit this pattern was William Jefferson Blythe III, the posthumous son better known as Bill Clinton, whose father was killed in an automobile accident before he was born. For some time after that, young Bill Clinton lived with his grandparents while his mother allegedly worked as a nurse in another city. Bill Clinton’s case of this syndrome was complicated by the fact that his stepfather, Roger Clinton, was an alcoholic who physically abused 28 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the future president’s mother. Bill Clinton’s need to obtain the validation of his ego from the wellknown parade of women requires no further comment. Bill Clinton’s philandering clearly resulted from a lack of ego strength: no matter how much he achieved in life, he always needed to be assured of his personal worth by a parade of women, one of whom turned out to be Miss Lewinsky. However, there is already evidence that before all is said and done, it will become evident that Bill Clinton has done a much better job of controlling his own compulsive urges than Obama has, since there is evidence that the Illinois Senator has veered recklessly into the world of bisexuality. As the columnist Spengler of the Asia Times points out, Michelle Obama – who often sounds like a feminist when she is talking about her own immediate concerns – shows no indignation about the tragic spousal abuse which Ann was willing to undergo: ‘Michelle Obama speaks with greater warmth of her mother-in-law than of her husband. “She was kind of a dreamer, his mother,” Michelle Obama was quoted in the January 25 Boston Globe. “She wanted the world to be open to her and her children. And as a result of her naivete, sometimes they lived on food stamps, because sometimes dreams don’t pay the rent. But as a result of her naivete, Barack got to see the world like most of us don’t in this country.” How strong the ideological motivation must be of a mother to raise her children on thin fare in pursuit of a political agenda. “Naivete” is a euphemism for Ann Dunham’s motivation… Many Americans harbor leftist views, but not many marry into them, twice.’ (Asia Times, February 26, 2008) Indeed: what kind of left liberal feminist is going to accept abandonment by a man whom she knew to be at least a bigamist? ANN DUNHAM, FORD FOUNDATION OPERATIVE: THE MICROLOAN RACKET Ann Dunham became famous posthumously when Time Magazine placed a picture of her with Barry (Obama) as a toddler – complete with halo – on the cover of its April 21, 2008 issue – in a forlorn attempt to humanize the recently bittergated Obama just before the Pennsylvania primary. The overall intent here is to whitewash this quasi-Marxist, Rousseauvian leftist anthropologist into a sort of middle American humanitarian – an attempt so transparent that Time began receiving letters impugning its journalistic integrity. Nevertheless, we do learn more about Ann’s later career as Ford Foundation operative. Her specialty was the cynical financier racket known as microloans or microcredits – tiny sums of money lent at substantial interest rates to tiny third world entrepreneurs, with the classic case being the purchase of a cell phone to provide phone service to some rural village – all in lieu of real communications and transportation infrastructure which the finance oligarchs at the World Bank and the regional lending agencies had no intention of financing. Microloans represented the World Bank’s notion of small is beautiful “appropriate technology” – meaning that if you are a backward country, then backward, third-rate technology is all you will get, so you had better take it with gratitude. Microloans also served to tether the third world masses to the mentality of finance capital, familiarizing them with notions of interest rates, the deadlines for installment payments, and all the dreary apparatus of usury. This entire cynical enterprise reached a paroxysm a decade after Ann Dunham’s death, when Muhammad Yunus of the Bangladeshi Grameen Bank won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in pioneering micro-credits. By this time, the micro-credit was widespread, with a 2004 report showing that some 3,200 micro-credit institutions were reaching more than 92 million clients, mainly in the poorest countries of the underdeveloped world. It was an exercise in loan sharking and predatory lending to the most desperate people in the world, the most defenseless victims of economic globalization. When Yunus won his Nobel, he was widely praised: “Muhammad Yunus is a revolutionary in the best sense of the word,” said Sam Daley-Harris, director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign in Washington, I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 29 D.C. He was in fact a counter-revolutionary in the service of rapacious finance capital, and this was a good description of the mature Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama’s mother. As for Ann, she no doubt kept telling herself that she was doing something very radical. The adulatory Time account tells us that after her divorce from her Indonesian second husband Lolo Sotero or Soetero, Ann ‘took a big job as the program officer for women and employment at the Ford Foundation, and she spoke up forcefully at staff meetings. Unlike many other expats, she had spent a lot of time with villagers, learning their priorities and problems, with a special focus on women’s work. “She was influenced by hanging out in the Javanese marketplace,” [her acquaintance] Zurbuchen says, “where she would see women with heavy baskets on their backs who got up at 3 in the morning to walk to the market and sell their produce.” Ann thought the Ford Foundation should get closer to the people and further from the government, just as she had.’ In other words, her programs would subvert the existing government by pretending to take the side of the oppressed masses – just what Soros and the other Wall Street jackals would have desired. Ann’s ‘home became a gathering spot for the powerful and the marginalized: politicians, filmmakers, musicians and labor organizers. “She had, compared with other foundation colleagues, a much more eclectic circle,” Zurbuchen says. “She brought unlikely conversation partners together.”’ These eclectic and bohemian tastes live on in Barry. Time goes on: ‘Ann’s most lasting professional legacy was to help build the microfinance program in Indonesia, which she did from 1988 to ‘92— before the practice of granting tiny loans to credit-poor entrepreneurs was an established success story. Her anthropological research into how real people worked helped inform the policies set by the Bank Rakyat Indonesia, says Patten, an economist who worked there. “I would say her work had a lot to do with the success of the program,” he says. Today Indonesia’s microfinance program is No. 1 in the world in terms of savers, with 31 million members, according to Microfinance Information Exchange Inc., a microfinance-tracking outfit. […] Every so often, Ann would leave Indonesia to live in Hawaii—or New York or even, in the mid-1980s, Pakistan, for a microfinance job.’ (Amanda Ripley, “Raising Obama,” Time, April 21, 2008) As for Barack Obama, his thoughts were elsewhere; he writes that in these years of living in the ethnically diverse atmosphere of Hawaii, “I was too young to know that I needed a race.” (Dreams 27) A strange attitude for a candidate who now poses as being virtually trans-racial and even post-racial. LOLO SOETERO AND INDONESIA: COSMOPOLITANISM AND ANTI-AMERICANISM Obama’s mother Ann then remarried; her second husband was Lolo Soetero Mangunharjo, a student from Indonesia who was also studying at the University of Hawaii. Lolo Soetero later became an official of the Director General’s office in the TNI Topography division of the Indonesian Army, and still later worked as an oil company executive in Indonesia. Soetero was studying in Hawaii under a program sponsored by the Indonesian government. At first the Indonesian government was that of Sukarno, who had led the independence struggle against Dutch colonialism in the 1940s. Sukarno, along with Nkrumah of Ghana, Nasser of Egypt, Tito of Yugoslavia, and Nehru of India had founded the non-aligned movement at the Bandung conference of 1955. This movement was made up of Third World developing countries who refused to subordinate themselves permanently to the United States or the Soviet Union, but who tried to constitute a third way in world affairs during the Cold War era. In 1965, the CIA supported the Indonesian coup d’état of General Suharto, who overthrew the Sukarno regime and initiated a bloody reign of terror which lasted for several years and which 30 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography included the massacre of several hundred thousand Indonesian communists, leftists, and supporters of Sukarno. In 1967, when Soetero’s Indonesian passport was revoked because of political unrest in Indonesia, Ann Dunham and Barack, who was then in first grade, accompanied him back to Jakarta. It appears that Lolo Soetero was called back to Indonesia because as a student he was automatically considered a politically unreliable supporter of the now ousted Sukarno regime. As soon as he returned to Indonesia, Soetero was interrogated by the authorities and then was drafted into the Indonesian army, spending at least a year in military service in New Guinea. Obama lived with his mother and stepfather in Jakarta between 1968 and 1973. Obama attended local schools in Jakarta from ages 6 to 10, where classes were taught in Indonesian. When he was in third grade he wrote an essay saying that he wanted to become president, although he was not sure of what country. ANN DUNHAM: RAGE AGAINST THE UGLY AMERICAN During the time that Lolo was employed in the government relations office of an American oil company, Ann was massively exposed to The Ugly American. Obama tells us: “sometimes I would overhear him and my mother arguing in their bedroom, usually about her refusal to attend his company dinner parties, where American businessmen from Texas and Louisiana would slap Lolo’s back and boast about the palms they had greased to obtain the new offshore drilling rights, while their wives would complain to my mother about the quality of the Indonesian help. He would ask her how it would look for him to go alone, and remind her that these were her own people, and my mother’s voice would rise to almost a shout. They are not my people.” Obama describes his mother during this phase: “in a land where fatalism remained a necessary tool for enduring hardship, where ultimate truths were kept separate from day-to-day realities, she was a lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier for New Deal, Peace Corps, position-paper liberalism.” (Dreams 47, 50) SENIOR AND LOLO: FAITHFUL TO JOHNNY WALKER, NOT THE KORAN The two third-world men Ann Dunham had chosen to marry had a few things in common: both were nominal Moslems whose devotion to Johnny Walter Black Label scotch whiskey was greater than their devotion to the Koran. Her marriage to Lolo Soetero also ended in divorce, but she remained in Indonesia until her life was almost over; she died in 1995. One witness to Ann Dunham’s life during these years was one of her later professors; this was “Alice Dewey, a granddaughter of the philosopher John Dewey and an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii, who was the chairman of Ann Dunham’s Ph.D. thesis committee and became a close friend over many years.” Alice Dewey told a reporter that ‘Dunham “divorced happily” from Soetero—who died in 1987 of complications from a liver ailment—in part because “he gradually became more and more like a Westerner and she became more and more like a Javanese.” Obama told me he could only laugh at the false press accounts that portray Soetero as some kind of radical Muslim who had sent him to an Islamic school. “I mean, you know, his big thing was Johnny Walker Black, Andy Williams records,” Obama said. “I still remember ‘Moon River.’ He’d be playing it, sipping, and playing tennis at the country club. That was his whole thing. I think their expectations diverged fairly rapidly.” (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) Ann Dunham, we see, had gone native in Indonesia. The commonality between the two men she married was Islam according to some, but the deeper commonality would appear to have been Johnny Walker, in which they both indulged heavily. After Ann Dunham’s divorce from Lolo Soetero, she went back to live in Hawaii, where she began the graduate study of anthropology. But she then returned to Indonesia to carry out her I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 31 anthropological field work. At this point, Barack Obama, aged about 9, was left with his grandparents. Abandonment by his father was now thus followed by prolonged separation from his mother, leading to unpredictable psychological consequences. If Larry Sinclair’s allegations are accurate, Barack Obama is a closet bisexual, and the resulting potential for the blackmailing of a possible future president is an issue which voters will obviously need to consider very carefully before putting such a person into the White House.7 Alice Dewey further described Obama’s mother as ‘the most hardworking person I maybe ever have met. And did it without seeming to. She was cheerful, down to earth. She absolutely was the kind of person you wanted on your side in any situation, from a barroom brawl to an academic argument, and she was always there for the little guy, particularly the little woman.” For most of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, she shuttled between Hawaii and Indonesia, doing academic research and paying the bills by teaching English or working for nonprofit organizations such as the Ford Foundation.’ (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) The Ford Foundation looms large over Obama’s life: it was his mother’s employer, and later the decisive influence over his church in Chicago. ANN DUNHAM’S LATER YEARS: FORD FOUNDATION, US AID, WORLD BANK OPERATIVE Some journalistic accounts have correctly stressed that Ann Dunham in the latter part of her career became a much more important person than is commonly recognized. One reason that she has been underestimated is undoubtedly the attempt by the Obama campaign to make the candidate’s mother appear as bland and conventional as possible. But she was in fact an international civil servant who played a key role in developing the notion of microloans, one of the main tokenist World Bank strategies for parrying the demand for real Third World economic and infrastructural development under the reign of globalization. As Kim Chipman of Bloomberg writes, ‘Barack Obama’s mother was most at home a world away from her Midwest roots, trekking the old Silk Road or arranging small loans for weavers in Indonesia. “I’m so tired of seeing her described as just a white woman from Kansas,” says Bronwen Solyom, 63, who first met Ann Dunham in the 1970s when they were graduate students in anthropology at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. “She was much more than that.”’ Ann Dunham was also known for her later work as an anthropologist and social activist for Ford Foundation counter-insurgency projects in Indonesia under the reactionary Suharto regime. Chipman notes, ‘Terance Bigalke, who worked with Dunham at the Ford Foundation in Jakarta, says she also fostered social activism in her children through her work on behalf of the world’s poor. “She had such a strong concern for people who were in difficult circumstances economically,” says Bigalke, 59. That concern led her to study the underground economy of Jakarta street vendors.’ Ann Dunham’s interest in anthropology had begun in Indonesia, Chipman found. Her first months in Indonesia “sparked a lifelong passion that later led Dunham to return to Hawaii for graduate studies in anthropology and an 800-page Ph.D. thesis on Indonesian blacksmithing. Her interest in the local culture was aroused almost immediately, when she started teaching English to Indonesians.” In effect, whatever her subjective intentions, Ann Dunham profiled the Indonesian population for the United States Agency for International Development (US AID), the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, all key institutions for dollar imperialism. Chipman shows that Ann Dunham’s interest in anthropology was closely linked to her contributions to imperialist strategy: ‘Friends say Dunham found her calling through her work, which evolved from studying batik and ironwork to obtaining microfinancing for craftspeople, 32 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography especially women, in rural areas of developing countries. “She was a scholar who was one of the first to see about microbanking,” Abercrombie says. In 1986, Dunham did a one-year development project in Pakistan. That year, mother and daughter took a two-week journey along the old Silk Route to China. Dunham’s work for the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan was followed by stints at People’s Bank of Indonesia and Women’s World Banking in New York. She also did consulting work for the World Bank and US AID. “She was getting to pretty high-powered positions, working in world organizations as an expert, but she always liked the people at the bottom.”’ Naturally, any anthropologist doing field work needs to feel or feign a sympathetic interest in people being interviewed, the ethnographic material of the study. This does not mean that the sentiments are always genuine, but the anthropologist will be more effective if they are. According to the Time magazine cover-up cover story in April 2008, Dunham became an important official of the Ford Foundation with special responsibility for women’s and gender issues. Her own track record in serving as a doormat for her first husband, the imperious Obama Senior, would hardly qualify her as a feminist. Dunham’s subjective devotion to third world people was by all indications sincere. ‘In her 40s, Dunham talked about adopting a baby. “She loved kids, and we were taking too long making her a grandmother,” says Maya, noting that her mother never got to meet any of her grandchildren. After seeing a news report about the offspring of children in Korea born to African-American soldiers, she decided that would be the perfect addition to her multiethnic family, Dewey says. Dunham was “very specific about what she wanted,”’ Maya says. Instead, Dunham found herself battling both ovarian and uterine cancer. Until her death, she displayed the unflappable temperament that she passed on to Obama, Dewey says. “She took it in stride,” she says. “She didn’t fuss about it.”’ (Kim Chipman, “Obama Drive Gets Inspiration From His White Mom Born in Kansas,” Bloomberg, February 11, 2008) Obama’s mother thus evokes a stoic or quietist quality which we have seen in her passivity when she was abandoned by her first husband. If, as candidate Obama categorically states in his own book, Ann Dunham represented the decisive influence on his formative years, what can we conclude to be the content of that influence? We have followed Ann Dunham from her youth as a provincial atheist and radical left liberal, through her subsequent phases as a communist sympathizer, Third World enthusiast, anti-racist, anthropologist, and to her final stage as a consultant to the Ford Foundation, US AID, and the World Bank. Is there an invariant to this process? Ann Dunham was certainly concerned about the problems of global poverty and economic underdevelopment, but she appears to have been incapable of understanding which institutions were responsible for holding back mankind’s economic progress. Worse, she ended up by going to work for precisely those institutions. Who then, in her mind, was responsible for underdevelopment? The acerbic but perceptive commentator Spengler of the Asia Times believes that he has discovered the ruling passion of both Ann Dunham and her son Barack Obama, and that this ruling passion is radical anti-Americanism. Spengler’s perspective is doubtless tinged with the cultural and historical pessimism of Mitteleuropa, but his findings nevertheless compel careful attention. Spengler starts by noting that Soetero had been sponsored as a graduate student by one of the most radical of all Third World governments…. When Ann Dunham chose to follow Lolo Soetero to Indonesia in 1967, she brought the six-year-old Barack into the kitchen of anti-colonialist outrage, immediately following one of the worst episodes of civil violence in post-war history. Dunham’s experience in Indonesia provided the material for a doctoral dissertation celebrating the hardiness of local I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 33 cultures against the encroaching metropolis. It was entitled, “Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: surviving against all odds. In this respect Dunham remained within the mainstream of her discipline. Anthropology broke into popular awareness with Margaret Mead’s long-discredited Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), which offered a falsified ideal of sexual liberation in the South Pacific as an alternative to the supposedly repressive West. Mead’s work was one of the founding documents of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and anthropology faculties stood at the left-wing fringe of American universities.’ (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) It might be more accurate to call this left-wing fringe the postmodern fringe. The specific brand of leftism in play here is once again Rousseau’s doctrine of the noble savage, which unquestionably provides the foundation for the anthropology of the entire 20th century. Rousseau’s argument was that the original sin of human civilization had been to develop beyond the most primitive stage of Paleolithic hunting, gathering, and foraging. The fall from grace occurred with the introduction of village life, metallurgy, and most of all the state, with accompanying notions of property. Rousseau, who had lived in Venice as a secretary to the French ambassador, asserted that it was civilization itself which made human individuals evil and corrupt. The healing of civilization therefore required a return to the reign of the noble savage — meaning in practice the retrogression of civilization back to the old stone age. Margaret Mead’s fake scholarship about the sexual mores of the South Sea Islanders represented a part of this effort to put civilization into reverse gear. Various modern day thinkers, from radical environmentalists to neocon theoreticians like Leo Strauss have also endorsed this notion of turning back the clock of civilized progress: it is a very, very reactionary notion, and would of course imply genocide on an unimaginable scale if ever attempted. Spengler goes on to note: “Barack Obama received at least some instruction in the Islamic faith of his father and went with him to the mosque, but the importance of this experience is vastly overstated by conservative commentators who seek to portray Obama as a Muslim of sorts. Radical anti-Americanism, rather than Islam, was the reigning faith in the Dunham household. In the Muslim world of the 1960s, nationalism rather than radical Islam was the ideology of choice among the enraged. Radical Islam did not emerge as a major political force until the nationalism of a Gamal Abdel Nasser or a Sukarno failed.” It might be more accurate to state that radical Islam was one of several ideological counteroffensives launched by Anglo-American imperialism during the 1950s in order to undercut the vast appeal of Nasser, Sukarno, and the other militant nonaligned leaders. OBAMA: AN ANTHROPOLOGIST PROFILING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AS ETHNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL Spengler comes to the following chilling conclusion: “Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother’s milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States.” (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) 34 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography It is in this context that we should interpret the following comment from Ann Dunham’s former anthropology professor, Alice Dewey. ‘“It’s too bad she’s not here,” Alice Dewey says. “She’d be saying, with a little chuckle, ‘Here’s one of our own’ and ‘He’s going to show them.’” (Kim Chipman, “Obama Drive Gets Inspiration From His White Mom Born in Kansas,” Bloomberg, February 11, 2008) This raises the question of a possible future president who would be animated by a resentment of or even hatred towards the American people, or at least towards the blue-collar or white lower middle-class sectors of the American people, the ones most frequently accused by wealthy elitists of harboring racial prejudice. Obama may indeed harbor such feelings of hatred or resentment. It does no good to object that Obama does not propose an explicit program of using austerity and sacrifice (as demanded by the Trilateral financier oligarchy) as a means for punishing blue-collar American and the white working poor for their alleged racist crimes; Obama is much too slick an operator to make any such admissions. If anything, it is Jeremiah Wright who has already made the admissions for him. Obama approaches his task of campaigning with the cynical and manipulative detachment of an anthropologist carrying out field work among some old stone age people, like the Yanomami Indians: he is treating the American people as ethnographic material in the great Trilateral experiment of depression crisis management, and the results will be horrifying. “HE’S GOING TO SHOW THEM” Precisely what is it, we must ask, that Obama is going to show the American people if he should succeed in taking power? Will he proceed to act out the deeply felt resentments of his mother against American society? Will he exact revenge for the racial slights and humiliations which he believes he has undergone? It was during his time in Indonesia that young Barack Obama underwent a dramatic experience which helped to establish the primacy of race and racial identity in his thinking. (Dreams 51 ff.) He was at the time nine years old, and his mother was working at the US Embassy in Jakarta. While sitting in an office waiting for his mother, young Obama was looking through some issues of Life magazine. Here he found an article which he says he experienced as an “ambush attack.” The article described the plight of a black man who had decided to use a harsh chemical treatment in order to lighten the color of his skin. Obama says he was horrified to see a picture of the man, whose skin had been flayed off by the chemicals, leaving him scarred and disfigured. ‘“I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,” Obama later wrote. According to a recent magazine article, Obama’s account cannot be taken at face value because ‘no such photo exists, according to historians at [Life] magazine. No such photos, no such article. When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, “It might have been in Ebony or it might have been ... who knows what it was?” (At the request of the Chicago Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.) In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact that some people might treat him differently in part because of the color of his skin.’ (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) Perhaps Obama is bending the facts in order to document what he considers to be his own growth in personal awareness from a relative indifference to racial matters to race and racial identity as a central concern, which he obviously believed by 1995 — perhaps under the influence of such race theoreticians as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright — to represent a superior level of awareness. Obama’s mother Ann Dunham died in 1995 of ovarian cancer, a few months after the publication of Dreams from My Father. I. Obama’s Roots in Polygamy and the Ford Foundation 35 OBAMA AND ISLAM Because Obama’s biological father and stepfather were both at least nominally Moslems, and because Obama attended Moslem schools for at least part of the time that he lived in Indonesia, a controversy has arisen due to the accusation by right-wing commentators that Obama remains a crypto-Moslem. In an attempt to answer this drumbeat, on January 24, 2007, the Obama campaign released the following statement: “To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago.” But this seemed to dodge the issue of Obama’s attendance at the Moslem schools in Indonesia. On March 14th, 2007, the Obama campaign offered this statement to correct their previous statement: “Obama has never been a practicing Muslim.” The statement added that as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood Islamic center during his stay in Jakarta. In his book Dreams from My Father, Obama talks of studying the Quran and describes the public school as “a Muslim school.” (See Dreams) The testimony of Obama’s half-sister is also relevant: “My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim,” said Maya Soetoro-Ng, Mr. Obama’s younger half sister. But Mr. Obama attended a Catholic school and then a Muslim public school….” (New York Times, April 30, 2007) Tine Hahiyary was one of Obama’s teachers and the principal of the school he attended in Indonesia from 1971 through 1989, and has testified that Obama attended Islamic religious training during his time at the school. His teacher was named Maimunah and she resided in the Puncak area, the Cianjur Regency. “I remembered that he had studied mengaji” (or mengagi, meaning rote recitation of the Quran), Tine reported.8 Obama himself writes that “In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies.” (See Dreams) A blogger from Jakarta has written more recently that ‘The actual usage of the word ‘mengaji’ in Indonesian and Malaysian societies means the study of learning to recite the Quran in the Arabic language rather than the native tongue. ‘Mengagi’ is a word and a term that is accorded the highest value and status in the mindset of fundamentalist societies here in Southeast Asia. To put it quite simply, ‘mengaji classes’ are not something that a non-practicing or so-called moderate Muslim family would ever send their child to. To put this in a Christian context, this is something above and beyond simply enrolling your child in Sunday school classes. The fact that Obama had attended mengaji classes is well-known in Indonesia and has left many there wondering just when Obama is going to come out of the closet.” In another internet report posted in 2007, Obama’s classmate Rony Amiris, now a manager of the Bank Mandiri in Jakarta, describes him as being a devout Muslim. “Barry was previously quite religious in Islam,” Amiris recalled. “We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house. If he was wearing a sarong he looked funny,” added Rony. In 2007, Emirsyah Satar, CEO of Garuda Indonesia, stated in an internet interview: “He [Obama] was often in the prayer room wearing a sarong, at that time.”9 A blogger calling himself American Expat in Southeast Asia, who says he has lived in Indonesia for some 20 years, has written on laotze.blogspot.com that “Barack Hussein Obama might have convinced some Americans that he is no longer a Muslim, but so far he has not convinced many in the world’s most populous Muslim country who still see him as a Muslim and a crusader for Islam and world peace. Barack Hussein Obama’s race, his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, his sympathy to Islam and Muslims worldwide and his Muslim heritage receive Indonesian media coverage. There is no mention of his apostasy.”10 Mussolini, as part of his propaganda towards the Moslems of North Africa and the Middle East, described himself once as holding a Bible in one hand and a Koran in the other. Napoleon did the 36 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography same. Hitler appealed to Moslems living under British rule from Egypt to Afghanistan by dropping hints that he was either sympathetic to Islam or else actually a Moslem, and many Moslems were either flattered by these references or actually believed them. Mussolini and Hitler were in reality atheists. OBAMA’S SIBLINGS: NINE CHANCES FOR A NEW BILLY CARTER OR NEIL BUSH The siblings of sitting presidents have often been a source of corruption and scandal. Dwight Eisenhower was lucky in that his brother Milton was eminently respectable and served as the president of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. But Richard Nixon had much trouble with his brother Donald. Bill Clinton was embarrassed by his brother Roger, and this has also been the lot of Hillary Clinton in regard to her brother Hugh. George Bush the elder harvested negative publicity from the cooperation of his brother Prescott Bush Jr. with Japanese organized crime figures. A famous presidential brother implicated in criminal or unethical activity was Billy Carter, who accepted large bribes from the government of Libya. Most damaging of all to the taxpayers has been Neil Bush, the younger brother of the current tenant of the White House, whose role in the bankruptcy of Silverado Savings and Loan cost the Resolution Trust Corporation upwards of $3 billion. Neil Bush was also scheduled to meet with Scott Hinckley, the elder brother of purported lone assassin John Hinckley Jr., on the day after John Hinckley opened fire on President Reagan. (See Tarpley, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, 1992) But all of this pales in comparison with the nepotism, graft and corruption we are likely to witness in an Obama presidency. Obama has an estimated total of 9 siblings, all half brothers and half sisters. One who has appeared in his campaign is Maya Sotero-Ng, a daughter of Ann Dunham and Lolo Soetero. The offspring of Barack Hussein Obama Senior are thought to number eight in all, by three mothers in addition to Ann Dunham. CHAPTER II: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND RECRUITMENT BY ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI … the intelligence community has deposited provocateurs in at least some of our schools so that the conditions necessary for learning have been, through the ensuing turmoil, destroyed. – Vincent J. Salandria, 1971. Obama was fortunate enough to enjoy some very special educational opportunities. These opportunities were not due to any special intellectual ability or capacity for hard work on the part of our future candidate. They were rather due to the fact that his mother by now had become an important operative for the Ford Foundation, and the foundation community takes care of its own because of the obvious advantages of recruiting from households in which the oligarchical, multicultural, and postmodern values of the foundation world are assumed as axiomatic. Obama’s mother and grandparents clearly did everything they could to advance his upward mobility through schooling, and this paid off when he was accepted into the most exclusive prep school in Hawaii. Because of Obama’s much-advertised racial identity, there can also be no doubt that preferential admissions for minorities based on affirmative action must also have played a significant role. Obama is therefore not the product of a meritocracy or a career open to talents; he is rather the fruit of special treatment meted out under the aegis of minority quotas favored by the foundation world as the keystone of their strategy for keeping the American people so fragmented as to perpetuate oligarchical financier rule. If we need to generalize about Obama, we can say that his hardware was provided by the Ford Foundation and its various lesser foundation satellites, while his software was added later through his association with the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberger Group in the person of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the evil genius of the Jimmy Carter administration of 1977- 1981. To these phases of Obama’s story we now turn. ELITIST PREPPY AT THE PUNAHOU SCHOOL OF HAWAII When Obama was ten years old, his mother Ann sent him back to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents so he could attend the prestigious Punahou School, an elite and exclusive prep school whose alumni also include America Online founder Steve Case: ‘“Ann saw first of all that he was so bright that he needed to come and really be challenged by a good school,” says Benji Bennington, 73, the retired curator of the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii. Dunham also hoped that “maybe he’d meet a few blacks while here, because he was not meeting them in Jakarta.” The family was reunited about a year later when Dunham separated from Soetero and returned to Honolulu for graduate school.’ “He was very much the patriarch as a young person,” says sister Maya. “Our mother was incredibly strong but also incredibly sensitive. She would cry easily. He was always protective of her.” When Dunham moved back to Jakarta for her anthropology field work, Barack saw his mother and half-sister only for Christmas and summer break.’ (Kim Chipman, Bloomberg, op. cit.) Obama entered the fifth grade at Punahou and stayed there until he graduated from high school with honors in 1979. He reports that he was one of three black students at the school, although there were many Asians and Pacific islanders. Obama’s Dreams from My Father provides incidents of Obama’s feeling of racial humiliation while attending this school and chronicles his embrace of a specific black or African-American racial identity as a matter of his own deliberate and conscious choice. This path of development may be compared with Hitler’s discovery of his own Germanic 38 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography racial identity which forms an important part of Mein Kampf. There is, however, some question as to whether Obama’s account of his repeated racial mortification by racist or thoughtless whites is accurate, or whether it represents a fictitious construct designed to bolster his credibility for his later career in Chicago as a black identity politician. Obama was on the basketball team at Punahou and seems to have enjoyed some prestige. Some accounts report that, while he was a student in the late 1970s, he carved his name in the pavement outside the cafeteria of Punahou School. These graffiti reportedly read: “King Obama.” Here begins Obama’s intense, consuming preoccupation with race, the great central issue of his subsequent life, in spite of what he now says. He learns about the imperative of race from a black friend named Ray: “Our rage at the white world needed no object, he seemed to be telling me, no independent confirmation; it could be switched on and off at our pleasure.” (Dreams 81) Obama experiences this assumption of a racial identity as a narrowing and constriction of the spirit of his own personality which he is nonetheless driven to accept: “following this maddening logic, the only thing you could choose as your own was withdrawal into a smaller and smaller coil of rage, until being black meant only the knowledge of your own powerlessness, of your own defeat. And the final irony: should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that too, a name that could cage you just as good. Paranoid. Militant. Violent. N****r.” (Dreams 85) During one phase, Obama became intensely preoccupied with the literary expression of his own situation as found in the works of such writers as James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, W.E.B. DuBois, and Malcolm X. All but the last of this number, he judged, had been consumed by anguish, doubt, and self-contempt. Almost all of them had “eventually succumbed to its corrosive force,” and these had ended up as “exhausted, bitter men, the devil at their heels.” (Dreams 86) Malcolm X, Obama found, was better and stronger: “even as I imagined myself following Malcolm’s call, one line in the book stayed with me. He spoke of a wish he’d once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged. I know that, for Malcolm, that wish would never be incidental.” (Dreams 86) The Daily Mail stresses Obama’s later account of racial humiliation at Punahou: ‘…while there, says Mr Obama, he was tortured by fellow pupils – who let out monkey hoots – and turned into a disenchanted teenage rebel, experimenting with cocaine and marijuana. Even his grandparents were troubled by dark skin, he says in his book, recalling how once his grandmother complained about being pestered by a beggar. “You know why she’s so scared?” he recalls his grandfather saying. “She told me the fella was black.” Mr Obama says his soaring ‘dream’ of a better America grew out of his ‘hurt and pain.’ This is the incident Obama referred to later in his Philadelphia speech on racism of March 2008, after the first phase of the Jeremiah Wright scandal had exploded. The British reporters doubt that this was the real story: ‘“Friends, however, remember his time at school rather differently. He was a spoiled high-achiever, they recall, who seemed as fond of his grandparents as they were of him. He affectionately signed a school photo of himself to them, using their pet names, Tut and Gramps. The caption says: “Thanks... for all the good times.” He worked on the school’s literary magazine and wore a white suit, of the style popular with New York writers like Tom Wolf at the time. One of his former classmates, Alan Lum, said: “Hawaii is such a melting pot that it didn’t occur to me when we were growing up that he might have problems about being one of the few African-Americans at the school. Us kids didn’t see colour. He was easy-going and well-liked.” Lon Wysard, who also attended the academy, said the budding politician was in fact II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 39 idolised for his keen sportsmanship. “He was the star basketball player and always had a ball in his hand wherever he was,” Wysard recalled.’ (London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) OBAMA AS EXISTENTIALIST POET One of Obama’s classmates and friends during this time was Keith “Ray” Kakugawa, who later observed that “Barry’s biggest struggles then were missing his parents. His biggest struggles were his feelings of abandonment.” Ray later went deeply into the drug culture and served three years in prison because of illegal narcotics, emerging as homeless in the spring of 2007. A window into the mentality of the youthful Obama is available in the form of a short poem he wrote during these years, and which is quoted by Purdum in Vanity Fair. Purdum reports that Obama ‘immersed himself in the writings of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Malcolm X, only to find the same anguish, the same self-doubt, a self-contempt that neither irony nor intellect seemed able to deflect,” as he did in this poem for the school literary magazine, Ka Wai Ola: I saw an old, forgotten man On an old, forgotten road. Staggering and numb under the glare of the Spotlight. His eyes, so dull and grey, Slide from right to left, to right, Looking for his life, misplaced in a Shallow, muddy gutter long ago. I am found, instead. Seeking a hiding place, the night seals us together. A transient spark lights his face, and in my honor, He pulls out forgotten dignity from under his flaking coat, And walks a straight line along the crooked world. When I mentioned the poem to Obama, he at first had no memory of it. After I read it to him, he said, “That’s not bad. I wrote that in high school? You know, it sounds in spirit that it’s talking a little bit about my grandfather.”’ (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) Based on this evidence, Obama was most likely a typical teenage existentialist, preoccupied above all with his own feeling states, self-doubt, and pessimism. It is curious that he cannot remember a statement as personal as this, even when shown it years later. Is Obama’s memory still intact? And if not, why not? A whole range of possibilities, from drug abuse to early onset Alzheimer’s to simple prevarication need to be considered. HAWAII CPUSA CELL: FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS During Obama’s high school years in Hawaii, he came into close contact with an older black man whom he described in his memoir as Frank. This turns out to be one Frank Marshall Davis, a devoted long-term member of the Communist Party of the United States. Marshall had moved to Honolulu from Kansas in 1948; according to the pro-communist history Professor Gerald Horne of the University of Houston, Davis made the move “at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson,” the well-known black singer and actor who was also a CPUSA member. Both Davis and Robeson were from Chicago, and this may have something to do with Obama’s later decision to move there. ‘As Horne describes it, Davis “befriended” a “Euro-American family” that had “migrated to Honolulu from Kansas and a young woman from this family eventually had a child with a young student from Kenya East Africa who goes by the name of Barack Obama, who 40 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago.” (Cliff Kincaid, “Obama’s Communist Mentor,” Accuracy in Media, February 18, 2008) Obama’s association with a prominent Communist furnished the basis for the charge made against Obama by Allen Keyes during the Senate campaign of 2004 that he was a “hard-core academic Marxist.” Frank Marshall Davis was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Obama was almost like a son to Davis, listening to his poetry and hanging on each word of his advice. Davis, along with some other older black men, appear to have constituted a sort of CPUSA cell or sleeper cell in Hawaii. Obama was taken to visit them in his early teens by his grandfather, Stanley Dunham. Davis was a part of this now-informal group. Frank Marshall Davis was mentioned in the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii as a CPUSA member. The House Un- American Activities Committee (HUAC) accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations. The identification of Obama’s “Frank” as Frank Marshall Davis is confirmed by Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand libertarian activist, researcher and blogger in a posting of March 2007. Obama writes that he knew “a poet named Frank” who was a purveyor of “hard-earned knowledge,” and advice. Frank had had “some modest notoriety once,” and was “a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago...,” Frank was now “pushing eighty.” Obama was impressed that “Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self” gave him advice before he left Hawaii for Occidental College in 1979, when Obama was 18. Davis has been seen by some critics as a precursor to Maya Angelou and Alice Walker. There is at least one book-length study of Davis entitled Black Moods: Collected Poems of Frank Marshall Davis by John Edgar Tidwell, a professor at the University of Kansas. In his review of Tidwell’s study published in the summer/fall 2003 issue of African-American Review, James A. Miller of George Washington University comments: “In Davis’s case, his political commitments led him to join the American Communist Party during the middle of World War II – even though he never publicly admitted his Party membership.” Tidwell is an expert on the life and writings of Davis. The decrepit intellectual periphery of the CPUSA has been notably stirred up by Obama’s candidacy, doubtless in part because of Davis. Professor Horne, who is a contributing editor of the Communist Party journal Political Affairs, mentioned the Obama-David connection in March 2007 at the Communist Party USA archives at the Tamiment Library at New York University; Horne’s talk was entitled “Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party.” Davis also figures prominently in The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African-American Poetry, 1930-1946 by James Edward Smethurst, associate professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Here Davis appears as a black writer who remained loyal to the CPUSA even after Stalin’s infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact with Hitler, at a time when other black intellectuals like Richard Wright broke with the CPUSA line. For Frank Marshall Davis, communism was the god that did not fail. But what was Frank’s understanding of communism? Obama writes in Dreams from My Father that he saw “Frank” only a few days before he left Hawaii for college, and that Davis seemed just as radical as ever. Davis called college “an advanced degree in compromise” and warned Obama not to forget his “people” and not to “start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that s**t.” Davis also complained about foot problems, the result of “trying to force African feet into European shoes,” Obama wrote. Horne gloated that the Obama-Davis connection will emerge as a theme of wide study in the near future. Horne says that Obama’s giving credit to Davis will be important in history. “At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack’s memoir and II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 41 instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis’ equally affecting memoir, Living the Blues and when that day comes, I’m sure a future student will not only examine critically the Frankenstein monsters that US imperialism created in order to subdue Communist parties but will also be moved to come to this historic and wonderful archive in order to gain insight on what has befallen this complex and intriguing planet on which we reside,” he said. Dr. Kathryn Takara, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa agrees that Davis is the “Frank” in Obama’s book. Takara wrote her dissertation on Davis and interviewed him frequently between 1972 and 1987, before Davis died. Takara concludes that Davis demonstrated “an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world.” For her, Davis was a “socialist realist.” Davis had been urged by Paul Robeson and Harry Bridges, the pro-CPUSA head of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), to become a columnist for the Honolulu Record where he could work to advance the communist cause. Takara sums up Davis’s program at that time as “freedom, radicalism, solidarity, labor unions, due process, peace, affirmative action, civil rights, Negro History week, and true Democracy to fight imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. He urged coalition politics.” COMMUNIST PARTY USA: OBAMA IS MARX’S OLD MOLE OF REVOLUTION To advance this ideological Walpurgisnacht to an even more monstrous level, the CPUSA organ, People’s World Weekly, recently published a letter from CPUSA supporter Frank Chapman gloating over Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucuses. Chapman commented: “Obama’s victory was more than a progressive move; it was a dialectical leap ushering in a qualitatively new era of struggle. … Marx once compared revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface. This is the old revolutionary ‘mole,’ not only showing his traces on the surface but also breaking through.” (Cliff Kincaid, “Obama’s Communist Mentor,” Accuracy in Media, February 18, 2008) The CPUSA has formally endorsed Obama for the presidency. Obama may well have learned a lot more from Davis than dialectical materialism. There are indications scattered across the internet that Davis was bisexual. Officially he was married to Helen Canfield David of Chicago, reportedly a woman of some social standing.11 If Obama’s mentor of those years in fact had homosexual proclivities, this would be significant in explaining the later bisexual features of Obama’s life. Shortly before leaving Hawaii to go to Occidental College, Obama experiences one of his many racial epiphanies when he learns that his grandmother Toot has been frightened in the street by a black man whom she suspects of being a mugger. Obama recounts that when he heard of this incident, “the words were like a fist in my stomach, and I wobbled to regain my composure. In my steadiest voice, I told [Gramps] that such an attitude bothered me, too, but assured him that Toot’s fears would pass and that we should give her a ride in the meantime. […] after they left, I sat on the edge of my bed and thought about my grandparents. They had sacrificed again and again for me. They had poured all their lingering hopes into my success. Never had they given me reason to doubt their love; I doubted if they ever would. And yet I knew that men who might easily have been my brothers could still inspire their rawest fears.” (Dreams 89) When it comes to matters of race, we have already learned that Obama is jumpy as an eyeball, and here his racial hypersensitivity is displayed once again. In recent years, we have had many illustrious representatives of the American black community come forward to acknowledge that they, too, are sometimes uneasy when they are approached by aggressive black panhandlers in the streets. 42 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Obama, by contrast, continues to be so obsessed with this trifling incident that he included it in his notorious Philadelphia speech on race of March 18, 2008, where he compared the fears of a woman in late middle age with the violent invectives of the foundation-funded racist provocateur Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to matters of race, Obama clearly loses all sense of reality and proportions, and there is no reason to assume that anything whatsoever has changed in this regard. “FRANK” – MARXIST OR GAY EXISTENTIALIST? If Frank Marshall David had been a thorough Marxist, that would already have been bad enough. Karl Marx, as I have shown in Surviving the Cataclysm, was in most respects a kept ideologue of British intelligence, sponsored by David Urquhardt of the British Foreign Office, with a mission of fomenting destabilization by pitting workers against industrialists in continental Europe, and with a secondary task of whipping up sentiment against Russia. Like Mazzini the ultra-nationalist and Bakunin the hyper-anarchist, Marx the apostle of plebeian revolution was a prong of an ideological deployment by British intelligence to divide and conquer the main rivals of the British Empire. In an age when the oppressive dominion of the British Empire, then at the apogee of its power, was the leading reactionary political fact in the world, Marx chose to ignore that fact almost completely, and focus almost entirely on the opportunities for conflict that were emerging during the process of industrialization in the countries the British did not yet completely control. Marx, in other words, had a permanent blind spot when it came to the mixture of Whig Venetian party aristocrats and financiers who populated the City of London, and this blind spot lives on in his followers today. Still, Marx as a serious charlatan does reject Malthus, and does admit that economic science must face the problem of social reproduction, something that cruder charlatans like Malthus and Adam Smith are not willing to address. There is every reason to believe that Frank Marshal Davis imbibed the major negative aspects of Marx without absorbing the minor positive ones. “Frank” was almost certainly a member of the Communist Party USA. But the quality of his assimilation of Marxism is quite another matter. The level of Marxist theoretical development in the CPUSA was notoriously very low. The lack of theory in the old CPUSA was one of the factors that made it so easy for the FBI to infiltrate it to the point of becoming a majority. Especially when it came to recruiting in the black community, the CPUSA was infamously opportunistic, always ready to jettison dialectical materialism when it appeared possible to recruit some new members on the basis of resistance to white racism. Based on what he says, Frank is not interested in proletarian internationalism in the struggle against world imperialism. He thinks that white people cannot understand his experiences as an oppressed black man. He rejects the unity of world history. Frank has nothing to do with Marxism. He is already a black cultural nationalist, with hardly a veneer of Marxist phraseology. Frank is more of an existentialist than a Marxist himself. Immediately after the incident just reported, Obama narrates that he went to visit Frank Marshall Davis. From Davis, Obama received quantities of whiskey accompanied by a lecture on the incommunicability of race-based experience to persons on the other side of the color line, namely Obama’s grandparents, the “white folk.” Frank tells Obama that his grandfather is basically a good man but that the black experience for Gramps is a book sealed with seven seals: “He can’t know me,” says the communist Frank, “not the way I know him. Maybe some of these Hawaiians can, or the Indians on the reservation. They’ve seen their fathers humiliated. Their mothers desecrated. But your grandfather will never know what that feels like.” (Dreams 90) Frank concludes: “what I’m trying to tell you is, your grandma’s right to be scared. She’s at least as right as Stanley is. She understands that black people have a reason to hate. That’s just how it is. For your sake, I wish it were otherwise. But it’s not. So you might as well get used to it.” (Dreams 91) II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 43 OBAMA AS RACE-BASED EXISTENTIALIST: “UTTERLY ALONE” By all indications, this is the experience which made Obama not only a confirmed racialist ideologue, but also a thoroughgoing existentialist in the tradition of Heidegger and Jaspers. Obama recounts the moment thus: “The earth shook under my feet, ready to crack open at any moment. I stopped, trying to steady myself and knew for the first time that I was utterly alone.” (Dreams 91) This experience is of vital importance for understanding the mentality of the adult Obama. If Obama had been taught Marxism by Frank Marshall Davis, he would at this point say that he had decided to submerge his own existence in the greater reality of the march of class struggle through history. But he does not say that he is part of the vanguard of millions of workers. He says rather that he is absolutely, metaphysically alone. The finding here is that Obama was by this point a convinced existentialist, and that Obama’s embrace of existentialism, the point of view which pervades so much of Dreams, gave him the prerequisites for becoming a full-fledged disciple of Frantz Fanon, an implacable enemy of Western civilization, proto-fascist, an apostle of purgative violence in the Sorel-Mussolini tradition. Obama spent years wallowing in existentialist self-pity. Obama’s eager embrace of the existentialist world outlook provided some of the indispensable preconditions for his current career as a mob orator. It has equipped him to write his speeches out of a bag of alienation, despair, and absolute metaphysical loneliness, appealing with some semblance of pathos to the desire of his target audiences for community, hope, and change. At the same time, however, Obama’s existentialism has provided him with his own personal path to fascism. Many American readers may be surprised at the idea that existentialism is somehow connected to fascism, or can serve as an immediate prelude to fascism. This is probably because of the popular identification in this country of existentialism with such French writers as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, both of whom were at pains to make a show of having supported the resistance against the Nazi occupation of their country. Later research has raised doubts about how much Sartre ever did to oppose the Nazis. Sartre was a disciple of Heidegger who took part for a while in a literary group with anti-occupation overtones, but this group, called Socialisme et liberté, “soon dissolved and Sartre decided to write, instead of being involved in active resistance. He then wrote Being and Nothingness, The Flies and No Exit, none of which was censored by the Germans, and also contributed to both legal and illegal literary magazines….the French philosopher and resistant Vladimir Jankelevitch criticized Sartre’s lack of political commitment during the German occupation, and interpreted his further struggles for liberty as an attempt to redeem himself.” (Wikipedia) (Obama clearly knows the French existentialists.) We must remember that Sartre and Camus represent lesser gods in the international existentialist pantheon which is actually presided over by Martin Heidegger. Heidegger was a full throated, cardcarrying member of the National Socialist party who delivered a public paean to Hitler in the form of his inaugural address as rector of the University of Freiburg. It is in this speech that Heidegger made the comment that the decision in favor of National Socialism had already been made by the youngest part of the German nation, thereby validating the fascist myth that it is youth and youth alone who are the arbiters of the political destinies of great nations — an absurd fiction which echoes through the empty vessels of the Obama lemming legions. In Obama, we see the intimate epistemological and ethical proximity of existentialism and fascism which is exemplified by Heidegger, the world’s leading existentialist thinker and a Nazi at the same time. 44 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography EXISTENTIALISM AS ANTECHAMBER TO FASCISM The Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georg Lukacs has provided the most detailed study of the ideological precursors of fascism and National Socialism in his 1952 book Die Zerstörung der Vernunft (The Destruction of Reason). Lukacs’ summary of the existentialists Heidegger and Jaspers, both much touted by US and British philosophy departments, may give us some insights into Obama’s mentality today. Lukacs sums up: “The philosophy of Jaspers as well as that of Heidegger concludes without any achievements but nevertheless with extremely important social consequences. Heidegger and Jaspers take extremely individualistic, petty bourgeois-aristocratic relativism and irrationalism to their most extreme consequences. They end up in the ice age, at the North Pole, in a world which has become empty, a senseless chaos, nothingness as the surroundings of humanity; and their despair about themselves, about their incorrigible loneliness is the inner content of their philosophy. […] Through this, the general mood of despair in broad layers of the German bourgeoisie and above all of the intelligentsia was exacerbated, while possible tendencies towards protest were discouraged, and the aggressive reactionaries received through this a significant assistance.” (Lukacs 457) If fascism was able to educate wide sectors of the German intelligentsia into a more than benevolent neutrality, no small amount of the credit was due to the philosophy of Heidegger and Jaspers.” In the same way that existentialism helped to open the door for fascism in central Europe, we can see that existentialism served as a kind of prelude to further fascist developments in Obama’s own mental life. Lukacs is especially interested in the role of despair in fascist ideology, both before and after 1945. Lukacs writes: “The mere word ‘despair’ as content of this ideology is not enough to explain it, because we have seen that Heidegger’s despair was actually a direct preparation for Hitlerism. […] We are dealing here with something different with something greater and something more concrete. It is not just general despair about all human activity; just despair has led thinkers from Schopenhauer to Heidegger into the reactionary camp or at least into collaboration with the reactionaries. [Post-1945 existentialists] are not only in despair about things in general; their doubts and their despair are directed above all against those glad tidings which they are supposed to be proclaiming, namely the defense of the ‘free world,’” understood as the Anglo-American sphere of world power.” (Lukacs 704) For Lukacs, the pre-1945 fascists displayed cynical nihilism, while the post-1945 fascists have been characterized by cynical hypocrisy. This is a shoe that may well fit Obama. We are arguing, in other words, that Obama’s embrace of the philosophy of academic postmodernism has constituted an important stage in his development towards fascism. The postmodernism of which we speak has of course been the dominant intellectual outlook among most college and university faculties since about the 1970s. Intellectually speaking, it is a thin and unappetizing gruel, suitable for crabbed little people operating in a phase of imperialist decline. The starting point of postmodernism is the despair, disorientation, demoralization, and defeatism which emerged from the collapse of the positive social movements of the 1960s. From its very beginning, postmodernism has been much more interested in race and gender than in class. Postmodernism is an unsavory stew of existentialism, structuralism, deconstructionism, anthropological relativism, and Malthusianism, all thrown together in the cauldron of historical pessimism and cultural pessimism. The aspect of relativism has been especially important for the rejection and destruction of classical culture with its indispensable notions of human reason, human freedom, human greatness, and the heroic sense of the world historical individual. Instead, the drawings of patients in mental institutions are placed on the same plane as the works of Leonardo and Rafael, and Athens and Florence are compared unfavorably to hunting and gathering societies II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 45 where cannibalism and infanticide proliferate. Postmodernism is the creed of the morally insane. A thoroughgoing postmodernist (or “postie”) must axiomatically reject any notion of objective reality; postmodernism when challenged beats a hasty retreat into a dream world of myth, metaphor, and archetype. Postmodernism gets its philosophical underpinnings most of all from Nietzsche and the other exponents of what the academics like to call “Continental philosophy,” so as to avoid talking about the strong fascist overtones of many of these thinkers. The latent fascist potentialities of present day academic postmodernism are immense, and have only been waiting behind masks of cynicism and apathy for the appearance of an appropriate demagogue to mobilize them into the obvious forms of frenetic sociopathic activism. FRANK WARNS OBAMA HE IS ABOUT TO BE RECRUITED Before leaving for Occidental College, Obama visits Frank one last time to get his advice, somewhat on the model of Laertes going to Polonius in Hamlet. Frank tells Obama that college represents “an advanced degree in compromise.” Frank explains that Obama has to understand the “real price of admission.” The real price is “leaving your race at the door. Leaving your people behind. Understand something, boy. You’re not going to college to get educated. You’re going there to get trained. They’ll train you to want what you don’t need. They’ll train you to manipulate words so they don’t mean anything anymore. They’ll train you to forget what it is that you already know. They’ll train you so good, you’ll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that s**t. They’ll give you a corner office and invite you to fancy dinners, and tell you you’re a credit to your race. Until you want to actually start running things and then they’ll yank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well paid n****r, but you’re a n****r just the same.” (Dreams 97) This is one of the most illuminating passages in Obama’s personal memoir. He is in effect confessing to the reader what is about to happen to him at Occidental College and above all with his encounter with Zbigniew Brzezinski at Columbia University: to become a wholly-owned asset and career sponsored by the networks of the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberger group, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Obama describes a process of training and indoctrination so thorough that it needs to be described as brainwashing. The personal identity of the individual is largely erased, resulting in a kind of automaton or zombie. Obama has now passed beyond the stage of brainwashing into the phase of spouting slogans to get ahead. He knows that what awaits him is a phase of nominal authority masking the reality of his role of abject puppet and stooge of his masters. This chapter might be subtitled “The Confessions of St. Barack,” since he gives us a thumbnail sketch of his life, past, present, and future. This extraordinary revelation of the real nature and basis of Obama’s career is of course a potential source of immense embarrassment, so it must have taken a compulsive urge to impel Obama to include it in the published text. This elementary lack of prudence illustrates another aspect of Obama’s existentialism and fatalism: powerful, sincere emotions acquire for the existentialist a validity and justification which cannot be questioned, no matter how irrational and sociopathic those sincere emotions may be. OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE: BONG HITS FOR FANON Obama has conceded that he had made “some bad decisions” as a teenager involving drugs and drinking; this admission was made in a talk to high school students in New Hampshire in November 2007. The adulatory Vanity Fair profile attempts to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear by congratulating Obama on his frankness in admitting his systematic drug use. Here we read: “Mr. 46 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Obama’s admissions are rare for a politician (his book, Dreams from My Father, was written before he ran for office.) They briefly became a campaign issue in December when an adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama’s chief Democratic rival, suggested that his history with drugs would make him vulnerable to Republican attacks if he became his party’s nominee. Mr. Obama, of Illinois, has never quantified his illicit drug use or provided many details. He wrote about his two years at Occidental, a predominantly white liberal arts college, as a gradual but profound awakening from a slumber of indifference that gave rise to his activism there and his fears that drugs could lead him to addiction or apathy, as they had for many other black men.” It was doubtful that the GOP’s Karl Rove attack machine would be so charitable with Obama. Occidental black students self-segregated themselves; Obama writes that they were “like a tribe.” (Dreams 98) They attempted to enforce conformity on students they considered non-white. Obama recounts the story of Joyce, a smart young multiracial woman. Joyce complains that it is “black people who always have to make everything racial. They’re the ones making me choose. They’re the ones who are telling me that I can’t be who I am.” (Dreams 99) Obama comments that “Only white culture had individuals.” (Dreams 100) His obsession with race and identity remains constant throughout. OBAMA’S “I DIDN’T INJECT’ MOMENT At Occidental College near Los Angeles, Obama began to experiment intensively with illegal narcotics. He claims that he dabbled with marijuana and cocaine, but stopped short of shooting up heroin. Obama himself writes: “I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though – Mickey, my potential initiator, had been just a little too eager for me to go through with that.” (Dreams 93) Obama says he was confronted with “the needle and the tubing” and then got cold feet (while standing in a meat freezer in a deli) and backed out. He had been on his way to the life of an addict, like his friend Ray: “Junkie. Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man.” (Dreams 93) So Obama was on the verge of heroin but did not inject, a familiar refrain. As a freshman at Occidental, Obama had an international circle of friends — “a real eclectic sort of group,” recalled Vinai Thummalapally from Hyderabad, India. Obama became especially friendly with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, two wealthy Pakistanis. Thummalapally also recalls a French student, plus black and white Americans. One of these was Jon K. Mitchell, who later played bass for country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Mitchell says he remembers that Obama wore puka shell necklaces all the time, even though they were not in style, and that “we let it slide because he spent a lot of time growing up in Hawaii.”) (Adam Goldman and Robert Tanner, “Old friends recall Obama’s years in LA, NY,” AP via Newsday, May 15, 2008) Later, these friendships would make it possible for Obama to visit Pakistan in 1981. At that time Obama traveled to Pakistan and spent “about three weeks” with Hamid, and staying in Karachi with Chandoo’s family, said Bill Burton, Obama’s press secretary. “He was clearly shocked by the economic disparity he saw in Pakistan. He couldn’t get over the sight of rural peasants bowing to the wealthy landowners they worked for as they passed,” commented Margot Mifflin, who has a bit part in Obama’s memoir. Obama often claims that the fact he has traveled abroad makes him better able to understand international relations; his trip to Pakistan appears to have prepared him above all to make his outrageous demand for the unilateral US bombing of Pakistan, with all the inevitable slaughter, in search of “al Qaeda.” There is also some suggestion that Obama may have been visiting gay friends on this trip. II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 47 Obama tells us that it was at Occidental College that he came under the influence of Frantz Fanon. Obama writes: “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Frantz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy.” (Dreams 100) Here is the aspiring president wandering through the post-modernist proto-fascist rubble field. He is overwhelmingly other-directed, obsessed with his image in the eyes of others. The name that stands out is that of Frantz Fanon, probably the biggest intellectual influence on the young Obama. BEFORE POL POT AND KHOMEINI, THERE WAS FANON Fanon (1925-1961) was a French-speaking psychiatrist born on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. Like Rousseau before him, Fanon was promoted and made famous by Venetian cultural operatives, notably by Umberto Campagnolo of the enormously influential Société Européenne de Culture, one of the most important international think tanks of the time between 1945 and 1975. It was the Venetian foundation operative Campagnolo who first brought Fanon to Europe and made him a celebrity. The preface to the first edition of Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth in Paris in 1961 was written by the French existentialist pope, Jean-Paul Sartre. Fanon attempted to identify himself with the merging anti-colonial revolutions of the third world and joined the Algerian FLN, but he always remained a European existentialist decadent in methodological terms, and not a denizen of a third world rice paddy or favela. Fanon, a disciple of Merleau-Ponty, was always a hater of science, technology, and human progress, since he always thought of technology as something imposed by the European colonial masters which had to be rejected as part of liberation from the colonial yoke. This made Fanon a direct precursor of the New Dark Ages faction which emerged during the 1970s in the form of such figures as Pol Pot of Cambodia, the “Islamo-marxists” Ali Shariati and Bani- Sadr of Iran, and other declared enemies of western civilization. The problem was the aspirations of the third world peoples to a better life could never be fulfilled without the large scale realization of science and technology. Fanon was accordingly a thinker who appealed to degenerate third world oligarchies, anxious to get independence but equally determined to prevent the masses from gaining upward mobility through the social effects of industrialization, which this school tried to define as ethnocide because it wiped out the backward and primitive dead-end cultures festering in the backwaters of the planet. The other leading idea of Fanon was the necessity of violence, which he exalted in direct contradiction to Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Fanon was evidently under the spell of Georges Sorel, the theoretician of purgative violence who was so important for the young Mussolini. The combination of anti-science demagogy couched in hyper-revolutionary third world terms, plus a demand for violence which easily shaded over into terrorism, made Fanon’s writings a key tool for the left wings of US, British and French intelligence during the phase of decolonization in the 1960s and 1970s. Fanon was also important for the European terrorists of the Italian Red Brigades and the German Baader-Meinhof group. Fanon, much more than Marx, must be seen as one of the permanent keys to Obama’s thinking. Obama turns out to be an ultra-left existentialist, with Fanonist-Sorelian fascist overtones. Fanon expresses the utopian desire to eliminate all the problems inherited from European colonialism by bringing an entirely new world, a utopia, into being. As so often happens, the chosen tool to abolish the historical past is “absolute violence.” (Fanon citations are from The Wretched of the Earth, chapter VI, conclusion, transl. Dominic Tweedie) Violence purifies, and it is only 48 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography through violence that the dichotomy of white and black can be transcended. “Violence,” says Fanon, “is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.” Fanon also posed as an ideologue of world revolution, opining: “In guerrilla war the struggle no longer concerns the place where you are, but the places where you are going. Each fighter carries his warring country between his toes.” And again: “The national bourgeoisie will be greatly helped on its way toward decadence by the Western bourgeoisies, who come to it as tourists avid for the exotic, for big game hunting, and for casinos. The national bourgeoisie organizes centers of rest and relaxation and pleasure resorts to meet the wishes of the Western bourgeoisie. Such activity is given the name of tourism, and for the occasion will be built up as a national industry.” At the center of the belief structure of the mature Fanon is the total rejection of European civilization on racial grounds: “We must leave our dreams and abandon our old beliefs and friendships of the time before life began. Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry. Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience. Look at them today swaying between atomic and spiritual disintegration. And yet it may be said that Europe has been successful in as much as everything that she has attempted has succeeded. Europe undertook the leadership of the world with ardour, cynicism and violence. Look at how the shadow of her palaces stretches out ever farther! Every one of her movements has burst the bounds of space and thought. Europe has declined all humility and all modesty; but she has also set her face against all solicitude and all tenderness. She has only shown herself parsimonious and niggardly where men are concerned; it is only men that she has killed and devoured. So, my brothers, how is it that we do not understand that we have better things to do than to follow that same Europe? Come, then, comrades, the European game has finally ended; we must find something different. We today can do everything, so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed by the desire to catch up with Europe. Let us decide not to imitate Europe; let us combine our muscles and our brains in a new direction. Let us try to create the whole man, whom Europe has been incapable of bringing to triumphant birth.” FANON: THE UNITED STATES IS A MONSTER In Fanon’s world picture, the only thing worse than Europe is the United States. Fanon’s condemnation of the United States should be carefully read, since it is here that we find the roots of Obama’s hatred of the country he chose to be his own: “Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions. Comrades, have we not other work to do than to create a third Europe? The West saw itself as a spiritual adventure. It is in the name of the spirit, in the name of the spirit of Europe, that Europe has made her encroachments, that she has justified her crimes and legitimized the slavery in which she holds four-fifths of humanity.” Fanon also makes clear that European workers have become integrated into European capitalist society; contrary to Marxist theory, they have sold out. Nothing positive can be expected from these workers, since they are just as corrupt as the other Europeans. Fanon thinks that race is everything, that class is nothing, and that race war, the more violent the better, will be the answer. Here we see the germ of the anti-working class hatred which was common to Fanon, to the Ayers-Dohrn Weatherman terrorist faction of SDS, and which lives on in the statements of the Obama campaign II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 49 today: “Yes, the European spirit has strange roots. All European thought has unfolded in places which were increasingly more deserted and more encircled by precipices; and thus it was that the custom grew up in those places of very seldom meeting man. A permanent dialogue with oneself and an increasingly obscene narcissism never ceased to prepare the way for a half delirious state, where intellectual work became suffering and the reality was not at all that of a living man, working and creating himself, but rather words, different combinations of words, and the tensions springing from the meanings contained in words. Yet some Europeans were found to urge the European workers to shatter this narcissism and to break with this un-reality. But in general the workers of Europe have not replied to these calls; for the workers believe, too, that they are part of the prodigious adventure of the European spirit.” Working class voters are right to identify in Obama a class enemy, since that is exactly what he is. The utopian theme of the New Man, the radical reform of human nature itself, and the overcoming of alienation are all utopian themes which play a central role in fascist movements, as we will show in more detail in the final chapter of this book. Fanon argues strongly for a utopian approach of this type, which depends on rejecting western civilization: “The Third World today faces Europe like a colossal mass whose aim should be to try to resolve the problems to which Europe has not been able to find the answers. If we wish to live up to our peoples’ expectations, we must seek the response elsewhere than in Europe. Moreover, if we wish to reply to the expectations of the people of Europe, it is no good sending them back a reflection, even an ideal reflection, of their society and their thought with which from time to time they feel immeasurably sickened. For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man.”12 Just to make sure that the point about violence was thoroughly understood by Fanon’s gullible young readers, the premier French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre in 1961 contributed the following preface to the edition of Fanon which Obama is likely to have read: “… read Fanon; for he shows clearly that this irrepressible violence is neither sound and fury, nor the resurrection of savage instincts, nor even the effect of resentment: it is man re-creating himself. I think we understood this truth at one time, but we have forgotten it — that no gentleness can efface the marks of violence; only violence itself can destroy them. The native cures himself of colonial neurosis by thrusting out the settler through force of arms. When his rage boils over, he rediscovers his lost innocence and he comes to know himself in that he himself creates his self. Far removed from his war, we consider it as a triumph of barbarism; but of its own volition it achieves, slowly but surely, the emancipation of the rebel, for bit by bit it destroys in him and around him the colonial gloom. Once begun, it is a war that gives no quarter. You may fear or be feared; that is to say, abandon yourself to the disassociations of a sham existence or conquer your birthright of unity. When the peasant takes a gun in his hands, the old myths grow dim and the prohibitions are one by one forgotten. The rebel’s weapon is the proof of his humanity. For in the first days of the revolt you must kill: to shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, to destroy an oppressor and the man he oppresses at the same time: there remain a dead man, and a free man; the survivor, for the first time, feels a national soil under his foot.” The decadent French intellectual embraces Fanon most of all because of his call for violence, thus unerringly singling out the sickest part of Fanon’s work. OBAMA’S NICOTINE ADDICTION BEGINS Obama apparently started smoking when he was at Occidental College. In his fawning cult biography of Obama, author David Mendell writes about Obama’s life as a “secret smoker” and how he “went to great lengths to conceal the habit.” Jeff Stier has analyzed the degree to which 50 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Obama’s quarter century of smoking may have impacted his health: the conclusion is that Obama may well have more health problems than John McCain. Stier writes: “So how long and how much did Sen. Obama smoke? The information has not been officially released, and the campaign has not returned calls or emails posing this question. But he smoked a lot over his life. He admits to having smoked up to ten cigarettes a day, but usually closer to five or six. Most people underestimate how much they smoke, but let’s take him at his word. Let’s also assume he really did quit when he said he did, in February 2007 (although he admits to having fallen off the wagon). That’s about twentysix years, given that we know he was smoking by the time he was a freshman at Occidental College. That’s more than 55,000 — maybe 70,000 cigarettes! Has this aspect of Sen. Obama’s ability to serve really been explored? Just because he’s young, looks great, and exercises doesn’t mean he’s healthy. Recall Jim Fixx. An overweight smoker when he turned his life around at thirty-five, Fixx became the icon of fitness. He quit smoking and started running. Then he died in 1984 at age fiftythree — while running. Sen. Obama, while not overweight, smoked a lot longer than Jim Fixx did. And while the stresses of running may have contributed to Fixx’s death, it was his years of smoking, not his running, that caused the plaque to build up in his arteries. Doctors say the stress of being president may in fact exceed the stress of running. And it’s an unhealthier kind of stress. The public deserves to know how long and how much Sen. Obama really smoked. Does he have other risk factors for heart disease? Compared to whites, for instance, African-Americans are more likely to die of a stroke, according to the American Heart Association. This, in fact, is probably the only time race is a legitimate question to raise this campaign season — and just one of several health question on voters’ minds.” (Jeff Stier, Obama’s Health, April 19, 2008) McCain, we see, may be in better health than Obama, despite appearances. Smoking is subject to an ineffable taboo in the rich elitist, affluent suburbanite, academic, and global warming circles which provide Obama’s base of support, so he has striven to hide his horrible dirty vice from public view. Pictures showing Obama smoking have been greeted with unalloyed horror by Obama’s backers. However, the candidate has confessed that he has gone back to puffing his coffin nails as a result of the stress of the campaign trail. One reporter who penetrated Obama’s terrible secret, despite his evasive action, was the perceptive Jake Tapper, who exposed the issue in April 2008: ‘As any close friend or family member can attest, I have an unusually keen sense of smell and immediately I smelled cigarette smoke on Obama. Frankly, he reeked of cigarettes. Obama ran off before I could ask him if he’d just snuck a smoke, so I called his campaign. They denied it. He’d quit months before, in February [2007], they insisted. He chewed nicorette. But I knew what I’d smelled and I asked his campaign to double-check and to ask him if he’d had a cigarette. They reported back that he had told them he hadn’t had a cigarette since he quit. And maybe that was true. Maybe I imagined the cigarette smoke. My olfactory nerve somehow misfired. Except….last night on MSNBC’s Hardball, Obama admitted that his attempt to wean himself from the vile tobacco weed had not been entirely successful. “I fell off the wagon a couple times during the course of it, and then was able to get back on,” he said. “But it is a struggle like everything else.”’ (Jake Tapper, “Obama is Smokin’,” abcnews.com, April 3, 2008) Because of the importance of the presidency, it is imperative that all candidates release their medical records, including the results of any mental health treatments and of any and all HIV testing. THE LOST YEARS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: OBAMA’S WALL OF SECRECY Obama’s years at Columbia University between 1981 and 1983 constitute the greatest single mystery of his life. From the point of view of all available biographical material published and in II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 51 the public domain, these are quite simply Obama’s lost years. Dreams from My Father, as we have seen, is a book prodigal with details about Obama’s drug use — a question that may have a serious potential to damage his political career. By contrast Obama’s attendance at Columbia University, a member of the prestigious Ivy League, ought to be a selling point and indeed a point of honor for our candidate. Instead, any attempts to establish the relevant facts about Obama’s years at Columbia runs up against a brick wall of silence, evasion, and prevarication. The result is a gaping hole in Obama’s autobiographical narrative, a serious lacuna precisely where this inveterate showboater would normally be showcasing his academic achievements. It is in part one, chapter 6 of Dreams that Obama covers up these years at Columbia. There is almost nothing about his activity as a student, or about his mental life. The Associated Press ran up against the same wall: “The Obama campaign declined to discuss Obama’s time at Columbia and his friendships in general. It won’t, for example, release his transcript or name his friends. It did, however, list five locations where Obama lived during his four years here: three on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and two in Brooklyn — one in Park Slope, the other in Brooklyn Heights. His memoir mentions two others on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.” (Adam Goldman and Robert Tanner, “Old friends recall Obama’s years in LA, NY,” AP via Newsday, May 15, 2008) The biographical surveys of Obama published by the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune are equally incapable of providing any details about Obama’s time on the Columbia campus. As Janny Scott of the New York Times reported, ‘Senator Obama, an Illinois Democrat now seeking the presidency, suggests in his book that his years in New York were a pivotal period: He ran three miles a day, buckled down to work and “stopped getting high,” which he says he had started doing in high school. Yet he declined repeated requests to talk about his New York years, release his Columbia transcript or identify even a single fellow student, co-worker, roommate or friend from those years. “He doesn’t remember the names of a lot of people in his life,” said Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman. Mr. Obama has, of course, done plenty of remembering. His 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, weighs in at more than 450 pages. But he also exercised his writer’s prerogative to decide what to include or leave out. Now, as he presents himself to voters, a look at his years in New York — other people’s accounts and his own — suggests not only what he was like back then but how he chooses to be seen now.’ Why so secretive when he could be showboating, according to his preferred custom? Or, are we dealing with some form of mental impairment? In an article by the insufferable British snob and Obama partisan Richard Wolffe (know to the few viewers of the Olberman propaganda show, Newsweek magazine attempted to convinced its readers that Obama is some kind of Christian. This required grotesque contortions, which need not concern us here. Wolffe reflects the same cone of silence encountered by other researchers into Obama’s lost years at Columbia, about which he reports virtually no facts and few lies: Obama, alleges Wolffe, ‘enrolled at Columbia in part to get far away from his past; he'd gone to high school in Hawaii and had just spent two years "enjoying myself," as he puts it, at Occidental College in Los Angeles. In New York City, "I lived an ascetic existence," Obama told Newsweek in an interview on his campaign plane last week. "I did a lot of spiritual exploration. I withdrew from the world in a fairly deliberate way." He fasted. Often, he'd go days without speaking to another person. For company, he had books. There was Saint Augustine, the fourth-century North African bishop who wrote the West's first spiritual memoir and built the theological foundations of the Christian Church. There was Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher and father of existentialism. There was Graham Greene, the Roman Catholic Englishman whose short novels are full of compromise, ambivalence and pain. Obama meditated on these men and argued with them in 52 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography his mind.’ Notice that the racist-terrorist-Luddite Fanon, the writer who influenced Obama the most, has disappeared. He is now replaced by Nietzsche, the classic protofascist philodoxer of the nineteenth century. The top Nazi ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg rightly claimed Nietzsche along with Richard Wagner, the antisemite Lagarde and the racist Houston Stewart Chamberlain as a precursor of the Nazi movement. As we argue elsewhere, it is most likely through existentialism, of which Nietzsche was a precursor, that Obama developed as a social fascist. (“Finding His Faith,” Newsweek, July 12, 2008, http://www.newsweek.com/id/145971) Obama’s acolytes at the reactionary Chicago Tribune found even less about Obama’s Columbia years than the swooning liberals at the New York Times. Obama spent just two years at Occidental. He said in a recent interview that he had begun to weary of the parties and fretted about a lackadaisical approach to his studies. He grew more introspective and serious. His mother’s warnings were beginning to take hold. Seeking a fresh start, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City. Classmates and teachers from those days remember him as studious and serious, someone who hit the library in his off hours instead of the bars. “If I had to give one adjective to describe him, it is mature,” said William Araiza, who took an international politics class with Obama. “He was our age, but seemed older because of his poise.” (Maurice Possley, “Activism Blossomed in College,” Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2007) That’s it. Nothing more. No Dink Stover at Yale, no This Side of Paradise. Before you know it, Obama has left Columbia and is out in the big world: “After his graduation from Columbia University in 1983, he worked briefly for a New York financial consultant and then a consumer organization.” Bob Secter and John McCormick, “Portrait of a Pragmatist,” Chicago Tribune, March 30, 2007) Some postings on the Internet have alleged that Obama is seeking to hide a phase of flamboyant homosexuality during his years at Morningside Heights. This may be so. However, the principal thesis argued here, based on very strong circumstantial evidence, is that Obama is seeking to conceal the central event of his entire personal story: his recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski as a long-term controlled political asset and sponsored career of the Rockefellercontrolled Trilateral Commission. OBAMA AND ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI AT COLUMBIA, 1981-1983 Brzezinski during these years was fresh from having directed the National Security Council during Jimmy Carter’s sole term in office. As we have seen elsewhere in this book, it was in precisely this period of the early 1980s that Brzezinski, Samuel Huntington, and other long-term Trilateral planners were reflecting on the results of the Carter regime, while looking forward to wrecking and frustrating a general political upsurge in the United States (known in Huntington’s parlance as a creedal passion period) which they could already see on the horizon, and which they located at that time in the years between 2010 and 2030. It is safe to assume that Brzezinski and Huntington were also concerned with recruiting young political talent which they could develop, groom, indoctrinate, and brainwash for various purposes, including that of political candidate, over the coming decades. Brzezinski and Huntington, in short, were looking for political assets which they might employ during a quarter century perspective which was the framework for their future activity. Because of the strong Ford Foundation pedigree of Obama’s mother, young Barack would have been an obvious choice as a subject to be interviewed and vetted. The contention here is that Obama was recruited in the context of this effort, and that since then, his career has been fostered and sponsored by the circles of the Trilateral Commission. II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 53 Zbigniew Brzezinski during these years was working as the boss of the Institute for Communist Affairs at Columbia — a notorious anti-Soviet think tank and propaganda center. What little we know about Obama includes that he was a politics major with a specialty in international relations who wrote his senior thesis on the topic of Soviet nuclear disarmament. This, needless to say, is a topic which has Zbigniew Brzezinski written all over it. If Senator Obama wishes to refute the contention that he has been a member of the Brzezinski Trilateral stable of politicians and other operatives since approximately 1981-1983, he is invited to offer documentation to that end. For his part, Zbigniew Brzezinski understood quite soon in his career that his Dr. Strangelove television persona was a decided political liability in this country. It has been forgotten today, but at the time he left office at the end of the Carter administration, Brzezinski was by all odds the most hated member of a very unpopular administration. In fact, it would seem that Brzezinski ranks down to this day as the most hated government official serving in Democratic administrations since the departure from the White House of Lyndon B. Johnson in January 1969. Any doubts about this profound unpopularity had been clarified when Brzezinski was loudly booed by the delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. Since those times, Brzezinski has been extraordinarily gun shy when it comes to publicity or to stating in public what he actually thinks and intends. Brzezinski, in other words, has learned that he must conceal his own political operations, lest they be disrupted by hostile scrutiny. Obama has represented one of these long-term, concealed Brzezinski operations. Obama’s presence at Columbia remains shrouded in mystery. According to published reports, many of his classmates don’t remember Obama. According to one account, he does not appear in the yearbook of his graduating class. In response to inquiries made by journalists during 2007, Columbia University was unwilling or unable to find a picture of him during his years at that university. Obama has attempted to conceal his years at Columbia with the usual cloak of complaints about the alleged racism of the place: ‘Mr Obama was later admitted to read politics and international relations at New York’s prestigious Columbia University where, his book claims, “no matter how many times the administration tried to paint them over, the walls remained scratched with blunt correspondence (about) n****rs.” But one of his classmates, Joe Zwicker, 45, now a lawyer in Boston, said yesterday: “That surprises me. Columbia was a pretty tolerant place. There were African-American students in my classes and I never saw any evidence of racism at all.”’ (London Daily Mail, January 27, 2007) Nevertheless, Obama does reveal in veiled terms that coming to Columbia was a great watershed in his life: ‘“There was a fundamental rupture in my life between Occidental and Columbia, where I just became more serious,” Obama said.’ (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) It was Brzezinski’s intervention that made the difference, we believe. And: is Obama suggesting that this was when he turned away from illegal drugs? He never says so specifically, leaving a plethora of questions. In a September 5, 2008 interview with Matt Welch, the Libertarian Party candidate for vice president Wayne Allyn Root, a member of Obama’s Columbia class of 1983, reports that he never met or heard of anybody called Obama, and has not been able to find anyone who can among his fellow alumni. Root majored in the same department where Obama claims to have majored. Here is an excerpt from this revealing exchange: “Wayne Allyn Root: I think the most dangerous thing you should know about Barack Obama is I don’t know a single person at Columbia that knows him, and they all know me. I don’t have a classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at Columbia. Ever! Matt Welch: So tell us what we should know about Barack 54 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Welch: Yeah, but you were like selling, you know, Amway in college or something, weren’t you? Root: Is that what you think of me! And the best damned Amway salesman ever! Welch: No, I’m sure that you were an outgoing young man, I’m just guessing. Root: I am! That’s my point. Where was Obama? He wasn’t an outgoing young man, no one ever heard of him. Tim Cavanaugh: Maybe he was a late bloomer. Root: Maybe. Or maybe he was involved in some sort of black radical politics. Welch: Ooooooooooh. Root: Maybe he was too busy smoking pot in his dorm room to ever show up for class. I don’t know what he was doing! Welch: Wait, you weren’t smoking pot in your dorm room? Root: No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t. But I don’t hold that against anybody, but I wasn’t.... Nobody recalls him. I’m not exaggerating, I’m not kidding. Welch: Were you the exact same class? Root: Class of ‘83 political science, pre-law Columbia University. You don’t get more exact than that. Never met him in my life, don’t know anyone who ever met him. At the class reunion, our 20th reunion five years ago, 20th reunion, who was asked to be the speaker of the class? Me. No one ever heard of Barack! Who was he, and five years ago, nobody even knew who he was. Other guy: Did he even show up to the reunion? Root: I don’t know! I didn’t know him. I don’t think anybody knew him. But I know that the guy who writes the class notes, who’s kind of the, as we say in New York, the macha who knows everybody, has yet to find a person, a human who ever met him. Is that not strange? It’s very strange. Welch: That’s peculiar! Do you have any theories?”13 In spite of his intent to deceive and dissemble, Obama has lavished praise on Zbigniew, as for example in his first foreign policy speech in Iowa in 2007, when he called in Zbiggy to introduce him. On this occasion, Obama paid homage to the Polish revanchist in effusive terms: “Brzezinski is someone I have learned an immense amount from,” and “one of our most outstanding scholars and thinkers.” The New York Times account of this critical and decisive phase in Obama’s life stresses the obsessive secrecy with which the Obamakins attempt to shroud this entire phase. Barack Obama does not say much about his years in New York City. The time he spent as an undergraduate at Columbia College and then working in Manhattan in the early 1980s surfaces only fleetingly in his memoir. In the book, he casts himself as a solitary wanderer in the metropolis, the outsider searching for a way to “make myself of some use.” He tells of underheated sublets, a night spent in an alley, a dead neighbor on the landing. From their fire escape, he and an unnamed roommate watch “white people from the better neighborhoods” bring their dogs to defecate on the block. He takes a job in an unidentified “consulting house to multinational corporations,” where he is “a spy behind enemy lines,” startled to find himself with a secretary, a suit and money in the bank. He barely mentions Columbia, training ground for the elite, where he transferred in his junior year, majoring in political science and international relations and writing his thesis on Soviet II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 55 nuclear disarmament. He dismisses in one sentence his first community organizing job — work he went on to do in Chicago — though a former supervisor remembers him as “a star performer.” […] In a long profile of Mr. Obama in a Columbia alumni magazine in 2005, in which his Columbia years occupied just two paragraphs, he called that time “an intense period of study.” “I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk,” he was quoted as saying. He said he was somewhat involved with the Black Student Organization and anti-apartheid activities, although in recent interviews, several prominent student leaders said they did not remember his playing a role. (Janny Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York Years Often Differs From What Others Say,” New York Times, October 30, 2007) One person who did remember Mr. Obama was Michael L. Baron, who taught a senior seminar on international politics and American policy. Mr. Baron, now president of an electronics company in Florida, said he was Mr. Obama’s adviser on the senior thesis for that course. Mr. Baron, who later wrote Mr. Obama a recommendation for Harvard Law School, gave him an A in the course. Columbia was a hotbed for discussion of foreign policy, Mr. Baron said. The faculty included Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser, and Zalmay Khalilzad, now the American ambassador to the United Nations. Half of the eight students in the seminar were outstanding, and Mr. Obama was among them, Mr. Baron said. One of Obama’s friends at Columbia was his roommate Sadik or Siddiqi, who is described as “a short, well-built Pakistani” who smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine and liked to party. Obama’s campaign adamantly refused to identify “Sadik,” but the Associated Press located him in Seattle, where he raises money for a community theater. When Obama arrived in New York, he already knew Siddiqi — a friend of Chandoo’s and Hamid’s from Karachi who had visited Los Angeles. Looking back, Siddiqi acknowledges that he and Obama were an odd couple. Siddiqi would mock Obama’s idealism — he just wanted to make a lot of money and buy things, while Obama wanted to help the poor. “At that age, I thought he was a saint and a square, and he took himself too seriously,” Siddiqi said. “I would ask him why he was so serious. He was genuinely concerned with the plight of the poor. He’d give me lectures, which I found very boring. He must have found me very irritating.” Siddiqi offered the most expansive account of Obama as a young man. “We were both very lost. We were both alienated, although he might not put it that way. He arrived disheveled and without a place to stay,” said Siddiqi, who at the time worked as a waiter and as a salesman at a boutique…. The apartment was “a slum of a place” in a drug-ridden neighborhood filled with gunshots, he said. “It wasn’t a comfortable existence. We were slumming it.” What little furniture they had was found on the street, and guests would have to hold their dinner plates in their laps. …’ Obama commented: ‘“For about two years there, I was just painfully alone and really not focused on anything, except maybe thinking a lot.” In his memoir, Obama recalls fasting on Sunday; Siddiqi says Obama was a follower of comedian-activist Dick Gregory’s vegetarian diet. “I think self-deprivation was his schtick, denying himself pleasure, good food and all of that.” But it wasn’t exactly an ascetic life. There was plenty of time for reading (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, V.S. Naipaul) and listening to music (Van Morrison, the Ohio Players, Bob Dylan). The two, along with others, went out for nights on the town. “He wasn’t entirely a hermit,” Siddiqi said. Siddiqi said his female friends thought Obama was “a hunk.” “We were always competing,” he said. “You know how it is. You go to a bar and you try hitting on the girls. He had a lot more success. I wouldn’t outcompete him in picking up girls, that’s for sure.” Obama was a tolerant roommate. Siddiqi’s mother, who had never been around a black man, came to visit and she was rude; Obama was nothing but polite. Siddiqi himself could be intemperate — he called Obama an Uncle Tom, but “he was really patient. I’m surprised he suffered me.” Finally, their relationship started to fray. “I was partying all 56 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the time. I was disrupting his studies,” Siddiqi said. Obama moved out.’ (Adam Goldman and Robert Tanner, “Old friends recall Obama’s years in LA, NY,” AP via Newsday, May 15, 2008) TRILATERAL COMMISSION POST-CARTER PERSPECTIVE, 1981-1983 During these years, Trilateral leaders Brzezinski and Samuel Huntington were pondering the future transformation of the United States into a bureaucratic-authoritarian or totalitarian state. In his book American Politics, Huntington developed a perspective for the future based on conflict between increasingly authoritarian and ultimately totalitarian state control, on the one hand, and an underlying American value system and world-outlook – which he calls the “American Creed” – on the other. In Huntington’s view, there was no doubt that the regime would become more oppressive: “An increasingly sophisticated economy and active involvement in world affairs seem likely to create stronger needs for hierarchy, bureaucracy, centralization of power, expertise, big government specifically, and big organizations generally.” (p. 228) This is a kind of shorthand for what most experts could identify as the fascist corporate state. The problem Huntington saw was the American Creed, based on liberty, equality, individualism, and democracy and rooted in “seventeenth-century Protestant moralism and eighteenth-century liberal rationalism.” (p. 229) Huntington predicted in 1981 that the conflict between individualistic values and the centralized regime may explode early in the coming century, specifically between 2010 and 2030, in a period of ferment and dislocation like the late 1960s: “If the periodicity of the past prevails, a major sustained creedal passion period will occur in the second and third decades of the twenty-first century.” At this time, he argued, “the oscillations among the responses could intensify in such a way as to threaten to destroy both ideals and institutions.” (p. 232) Such a process would be acted out as follows: “Lacking any concept of the state, lacking for most of its history both the centralized authority and the bureaucratic apparatus of the European state, the American polity has historically been a weak polity. It was designed to be so, and the traditional inheritance and social environment combined for years to support the framers’ intentions. In the twentieth century, foreign threats and domestic economic and social needs have generated pressures to develop stronger, more authoritative decision-making and decision-implementing institutions. Yet the continued presence of deeply felt moralistic sentiments among major groups in American society could continue to ensure weak and divided government, devoid of authority and unable to deal satisfactorily with the economic, social and foreign challenges confronting the nation. Intensification of this conflict between history and progress could give rise to increasing frustration and increasingly violent oscillations between moralism and cynicism. American moralism ensures that government will never be truly efficacious; the realities of power ensure that government will never be truly democratic. This situation could lead to a two-phase dialectic involving intensified efforts to reform government, followed by intensified frustration when those efforts produce not progress in a liberal-democratic direction, but obstacles to meeting perceived functional needs. The weakening of government in an effort to reform it could lead eventually to strong demands for the replacement of the weakened and ineffective institutions by more authoritarian structures more effectively designed to meet historical needs. Given the perversity of reform, moralistic extremism in the pursuit of liberal democracy could generate a strong tide toward authoritarian efficiency.” (p. 232) Huntington then quotes Plato’s celebrated passage on the way that the “culmination of liberty in democracy is precisely what prepares the way for the cruelest extreme of servitude under a despot.” II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 57 The message is clear: sooner or later, all roads lead to Behemoth. (Tarpley, Project Democracy, [Washington: EIR, 1987]) Trilateral fascination with a totalitarian transformation in this country did not start after Carter, but began well before he came on the scene. A good example is Brzezinski’s own book, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era (1970), where the Polish revanchist conjured up the glittering image of a “technetronic era,” whereby a more controlled society would gradually emerge, dominated by an oligarchical elite unrestrained by traditional values. Brzezinski predicted that “Power will gravitate into the hands of those who control information” (Brzezinski 1), adding that surveillance and data mining will foster “tendencies through the next several decades toward a technocratic era, a dictatorship leaving even less room for political procedures as we know them” (Brzezinski 12). Information Technology would become the key to mass social control: “Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control.” (Brzezinski 252) These are remarks which ought to remind fatuous left liberals, who have been deluded by Zbig’s re-invention of himself in an anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war mode, that they are dealing here with one very sinister totalitarian elitist. HYPOTHESIS: A QUARTER CENTURY OF TRILATERAL INDOCTRINATION The inevitable corollary of the Brzezinski-Huntington analysis as developed in the post-Carter era is the need to prepare political operatives to intervene in the creedal passion period or general political upsurge which was expected to emerge around 2010. This would suggest that Brzezinski, Huntington, and other Trilateral operatives were keeping their eyes open for suitable political talent which they could identify, recruit, and begin grooming for use a quarter-century in the future. To those for whom such a protracted process might seem to be fantastic and conspiratorial, let it be pointed out that the career timescale involved hardly differs from the typical career of a military officer, a bank executive, or a top-flight academic. To those who are accustomed to living from one paycheck to the next, a 25-year perspective may seem like extraordinary foresight. To those accustomed to viewing the world from the apex of huge organizations, it looks like something rather routine and prosaic. The hypothesis advocated here is therefore that Obama has been a protected and controlled asset of the Trilateral Commission since his time at Columbia University between 1981 and 1983. Since the moment of his recruitment, Obama’s career has been promoted, fostered, preferred, and otherwise protected by the Trilateral financier network. DEVAL PATRICK: BRZEZINSKI’S SPARE OBAMA The interchangeability of Obama and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is important because the two of them remind us of the procedures used by the Trilateral managers the last time they installed a puppet president – Jimmy Carter. As Zbigniew Brzezinski tells us with startling brutality in his memoir entitled Power and Principle, the Trilaterals did not put all their eggs in one basket when it came to grooming a puppet for the 1976 election. Their favored choice was that messianic peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia who in fact won the presidency. But they always retained a fallback option as well. As Brzezinski relates, this was another southern Democratic Governor, Reubin Askew of Florida. If Carter had overdosed, suffered a nervous breakdown, or 58 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography been indicted, Askew would have been rushed into the breach to take his place. Since the spare candidate or fallback option needed had to be a relatively prominent public figure, it is virtually impossible to conceal the fact that an understudy is waiting in the wings. The existence of Patrick as Obama’s virtual twin is therefore of critical importance for the argument that Obama is in fact a Manchurian candidate created and controlled by the Trilateral commission and its allies. The parallels are indeed striking, starting with the fact that both Obama and Patrick are fatherless boys who are therefore susceptible to seeing a powerful institution or authority figure as an ersatz father. Patrick was born on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, into an African-American family living on welfare in a two-bedroom slum apartment. In 1959, his father Laurdine “Pat” Patrick, a member of jazz musician Sun Ra’s band, deserted Deval, his mother, and his sister in order to pursue his music career in New York City, where he had fathered a daughter by another woman. Deval’s relationship with his father, like Obama’s, was a lamentable one. Deval was in middle school when he was picked up by a foundation called A Better Chance, a national non-profit organization for identifying, recruiting, co-opting, and developing leaders among smart black students. Thanks to this foundation backing, Deval was able to attend the exclusive, costly, and elite Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts – a local prep school equivalent to Obama’s Punahou School in Hawaii. Patrick graduated from Milton Academy in 1974, and from Harvard College in 1978. At Harvard, Patrick was co-opted into the ultra-elitist Fly Club, Harvard’s answer to Yale’s Skull and Bones secret society. He then spent a year working for the United Nations in Africa. In 1979, Patrick enrolled in Harvard Law School. While in law school, Patrick was elected president of the Legal Aid Bureau; Obama would top that by becoming the editor of the law review. Patrick got his first job defending poor families in Middlesex County, Massachusetts – similar to Obama’s apprenticeship as a community organizing counter-insurgency operative. Patrick’s wife, like Obama’s, is an upwardly mobile member of the black affirmative-action overclass. OBAMA DISCREDITED IN MASSACHUSETTS, NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND Patrick spoiled Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island (where the television comes from Boston) for Obama’s future chances by his blatant nepotism and greedy rapacity in office. He spent $11,000 on drapery for the governor’s state house suite, changed the governor’s car from a Crown Victoria to a Cadillac, and hired a chief of staff for his wife at an annual salary of almost $75,000. He commandeered a state helicopter for his private use. Patrick lavished all this on himself while demanding austerity and service cuts for the people, as Obama is also sure to do. Patrick was also remarkably corrupt: he placed a call to Citigroup Executive Committee chair Robert Rubin on behalf of the financially beleaguered mortgage company Ameriquest, a subsidiary of ACC Capital Holdings, of which Patrick is a former board member. Patrick later attempted to lie his way out of this predicament with the absurd claim that he was calling not as governor but as a private citizen. When this ploy failed, the skewered Patrick plaintively confessed: “I appreciate that I should not have made the call. I regret the mistake.” Patrick, like Jeremiah Wright, was a devotee of the blowback theory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a hallmark of left CIA sponsorship. On the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 events on September 11, 2007, Patrick declaimed: “It was a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States. But it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other and to learn to love each other. It seems to me that lesson of that morning is something that we must carry with us every day.” In II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 59 another telling incident, one of Patrick’s aides (a certain Carl Stanley McGee) was arrested in Florida in December 2007 for the sexual assault of a 15-year old boy in a Florida hotel. Early in Patrick’s term, only 48 percent of Massachusetts voters approved of the way he was handling the job, while 33 percent disapproved — a relatively high number for a governor’s honeymoon period, said Andrew E. Smith, director of The Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire. 44 percent said Massachusetts is headed in the right direction, while 56 percent said the state is off course. (Boston Globe, April 8, 2007) BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION Obama’s first job after leaving Columbia was with Business International Corporation (BIC), a private intelligence company which provided information and know-how to US companies seeking to do business overseas. Obama worked as a consultant and financial journalist. So far as is known, Business International Corporation was never identified as a CIA front company, but it had the telltale earmarks of one. Its business of journalism and reporting, ferreting out information about conditions in foreign countries was a perfect cover story for spying of all sorts. Business International went out of existence when it was acquired the London Economist Intelligence Unit, an operation that notoriously moved in the orbit of British intelligence. Once again, Obama covers up whatever may have happened in reality by throwing up a smokescreen of racial conflict. This time it was the first temptation of St. Barack by the devil (“white” society, as always). Dan Armstrong, who knew Obama when he was working at BIC, has stressed that Obama’s account of the firm and his job there is far from accurate: ‘Mr. Armstrong’s description of the firm, and those of other co-workers, differs at least in emphasis from Mr. Obama’s. It was a small newsletter-publishing and research firm, with about 250 employees worldwide, that helped companies with foreign operations (they could be called multinationals) understand overseas markets, they said. Far from a bastion of corporate conformity, they said, it was informal and staffed by young people making modest wages. Employees called it “high school with ashtrays.” Mr. Obama was a researcher and writer for a reference service called Financing Foreign Operations. He also wrote for a newsletter, Business International Money Report. […] “It was not working for General Foods or Chase Manhattan, that’s for sure,” said Louis Celi, a vice president at the company, which was later taken over by the Economist Intelligence Unit. “And it was not a consulting firm by any stretch of the imagination. I remember the first time I interviewed someone from Morgan Stanley and I got cheese on my tie because I thought my tie was a napkin.”’ (Janny Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York Years Often Differs From What Others Say,” New York Times, October 30, 2007) Armstrong’s view is that Obama has distorted what went on at BIC to make himself look good, specifically by concocting a moment in which he turns away from the corrupt fleshpots of whitey’s world. THE TEMPTATIONS OF ST. BARACK Obama writes the following about his career at BIC in Dreams: “Eventually a consulting house to multinational corporations agreed to hire me as a research assistant. Like a spy behind enemy lines, I arrived every day at my mid-Manhattan office and sat at my computer terminal, checking the Reuters machine that blinked bright emerald messages from across the globe. As far as I could tell I was the only black man in the company, a source of shame for me but a source of considerable pride for the company’s secretarial pool.” Armstrong refutes most of these points, noting that there were other black people working there at the time, and noting: 60 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography … after reading his autobiography, I have to say that Barack engages in some serious exaggeration when he describes a job that he held in the mid-1980s. I know because I sat down the hall from him, in the same department, and worked closely with his boss. I can’t say I was particularly close to Barack – he was reserved and distant towards all of his co-workers – but I was probably as close to him as anyone. I certainly know what he did there, and it bears only a loose resemblance to what he wrote in his book. First, it wasn’t a consulting house; it was a small company that published newsletters on international business. Like most newsletter publishers, it was a bit of a sweatshop. I’m sure we all wished that we were high-priced consultants to multinational corporations. But we also enjoyed coming in at ten, wearing jeans to work, flirting with our co-workers, partying when we stayed late, and bonding over the low salaries and heavy workload. Barack worked on one of the company’s reference publications. Each month customers got a new set of pages on business conditions in a particular country, punched to fit into a three-ring binder. Barack’s job was to get copy from the country correspondents and edit it so that it fit into a standard outline. There was probably some research involved as well, since correspondents usually don’t send exactly what you ask for, and you can’t always decipher their copy. But essentially the job was copyediting. It’s also not true that Barack was the only black man in the company. He was the only black professional man. Fred was an African-American who worked in the mailroom with his son. My boss and I used to join them on Friday afternoons to drink beer behind the stacks of office supplies. That’s not the kind of thing that Barack would do. Like I said, he was somewhat aloof. Out of these mundane facts, Obama (or more likely his ghostwriters) construct a modern morality play to burnish the credentials of an ambitious young proto-pol: “…as the months passed, I felt the idea of becoming an organizer slipping away from me. The company promoted me to the position of financial writer. I had my own office, my own secretary; money in the bank. Sometimes, coming out of an interview with Japanese financiers or German bond traders, I would catch my reflection in the elevator doors—see myself in a suit and tie, a briefcase in my hand—and for a split second I would imagine myself as a captain of industry, barking out orders, closing the deal, before I remembered who it was that I had told myself I wanted to be and felt pangs of guilt for my lack of resolve.” (Dreams) Armstrong notes ironically: “If Barack was promoted, his new job responsibilities were more of the same – rewriting other people’s copy. As far as I know, he always had a small office, and the idea that he had a secretary is laughable. Only the company president had a secretary. Barack never left the office, never wore a tie, and had neither reason nor opportunity to interview Japanese financiers or German bond traders.” Obama wants the reader to believe that he was saved from a life of corporate ambition by a telephone call from his African, Kenyan sister, who wanted to tell him that their brother (or half-brother) David had been killed in a motorcycle accident: “Then one day, as I sat down at my computer to write an article on interest-rate swaps, something unexpected happened. Auma called. I had never met this half sister; we had written only intermittently …a few months after Auma called, I turned in my resignation at the consulting firm and began looking in earnest for an organizing job.” (Dreams) Armstrong points out that what Obama “means here is that he got copy from a correspondent who didn’t understand interest rate swaps, and he was trying to make sense out of it.” PORTRAIT OF THE CANDIDATE AS A YOUNG MEGALOMANIAC In Armstrong’s view, the entire story of this turning point in the life of the selfless young community organizer was a tissue of lies: “All of Barack’s embellishment serves a larger narrative II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 61 purpose: to retell the story of the Christ’s temptation. The young, idealistic, would-be community organizer gets a nice suit, joins a consulting house, starts hanging out with investment bankers, and barely escapes moving into the big mansion with the white folks. Luckily, an angel calls, awakens his conscience, and helps him choose instead to fight for the people. I’m disappointed. Barack’s story may be true, but many of the facts are not. His larger narrative purpose requires him to embellish his role. I don’t buy it. Just as I can’t be inspired by Steve Jobs now that I know how dishonest he is, I can’t listen uncritically to Barack Obama now that I know he’s willing to bend the facts to his purpose.” Dan Armstrong, “Barack Obama Embellishes His Resume,” http://analyzethis.net/blog/index.php Here appears an aspect of Obama’s life which has since become notorious – the identification of his undistinguished self with Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God. If Armstrong is right about this parable of the temptations, Obama really does believe that he is the Savior, and has thought this for almost fifteen years at minimum. Some choose to mimic Christ, some choose to mimic Napoleon, but the common denominator is megalomania, the most succinct summary of Obama’s mentality – and, ironically, one that puts him in the same psychopathological class with his apparent polar opposite, George W. Bush, who is also a megalomaniac, as Dr. Justin Frank has pointed out. There was another dangerous temptation lurking in Obama’s life. Obama had expressed his scorn for those he called “half-breeds” who preferred white people to blacks. After college, he lived with a white woman, but then decided to push her away when he realized that he would have to assimilate into her (“white”) world, and not vice versa. He later married Michelle, the upwardly mobile black woman lawyer. Obama’s choices were based on very solid political reasoning: if he had come forward to run for the presidency with a white woman for his consort, he would have been politically doomed by the resentment of black women, many of whom would have interpreted this choice as a confirmation of racial stereotypes held by black males against them, stereotypes concretely expressed in preference for white women. A white wife would have been political suicide. When the Greenwich Village poetaster LeRoi Jones wanted to become the black nationalist organizer Amiri Baraka, it was imperative that he jettison his white wife, who would have been a fatal impediment for his planned activity in the service of the Prudential Insurance Company – provoking clashes with poor Italians in the streets of Newark, New Jersey as part of a counterinsurgency scheme. NADERITE PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP, NEW YORK CITY After BIC, Obama moved on for a stint at Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Group in New York City, a nonprofit group which billed itself as promoting “consumer, environmental and government reform.” According to Janny Scott, Obama “became a full-time organizer at City College in Harlem, paid slightly less than $10,000 a year to mobilize student volunteers.” Nader’s groups attempt to carry out feasible reforms in the areas of health, safety, and consumer issues, all under the banner of “good government” – the eternal slogan of reform Democrats and upscale suburbanites who are horrified by the venality of politics among poor people and the underclass. Obama’s specific assignment was the one he has tried and failed to carry out in 2008: to take projects that were designed to appeal to affluent suburbanites and sell them to people much lower on the socioeconomic scale. His job was an exercise in condescending Malthusian elitism: ‘Mr. Obama says he spent three months “trying to convince minority students at City College about the importance of recycling” — a description that surprised some former colleagues. They said that more “bread-and-butter issues” like mass transit, higher education, tuition and financial aid were 62 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography more likely the emphasis at City College. “You needed somebody — and here was where Barack was a star — who could make the case to students across the political spectrum,” said Eileen Hershenov, who oversaw Mr. Obama’s work for Nypirg. The job required winning over students on the political left, who would normally disdain a group inspired by Ralph Nader as insufficiently radical, as well as students on the right and those who were not active at all.”’ (Janny Scott, “Obama’s Account of New York Years Often Differs From What Others Say,” New York Times, October 30, 2007) Obama failed then, and he is failing again this time in his quest to market elitist issues among those with urgent economic needs. GAMALIEL FOUNDATION, CHICAGO: ALINSKYITE COUNTERINSURGENCY Obama embarked on what he says, even now, was the hardest work of his life: the three and a half years of community organizing in the impoverished neighborhoods of Chicago’s far South Side. His job: to work with the Developing Communities Project, a church-based effort that aimed to organize low-income residents to improve local conditions. … his friend Valerie Jarrett, former chairman of the Chicago Stock Exchange, told me. Obama himself described the years in Chicago to me as the time when he “finally and fully grew up.” (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) Obama loves to boast that he served for some years as a community organizer. The problem for most people is that they have very little concrete notion what this might mean. This needs a few words of explanation. The Developing Communities Project was an operation of the Gamaliel Foundation, the temple of the organizing methods associated with Saul Alinsky, who had been preaching community organizing since the World War II era. The Gamaliel Foundation was also a satellite of the Ford Foundation, the flagship US foundation devoted to preventing the emergence of any social-political challenge to the dominance of Wall Street financiers over the crumbling US society. Money for Obama also came from the Woods Fund, a foundation created by the reactionary Woods family, who owned coal mines that provided the coal for Commonwealth Edison, where the dominant figure was Thomas Ayers, the father of Obama’s terrorist friend, foundation operative Bill Ayers. The best term for Saul Alinsky was that he was a counter-insurgent, quite independent of his personal understanding of the matter. Alinsky’s community organizing specified that people ought to be organized locally and on the basis of the lowest common denominator, generally some petty local grievance, although sometimes based on poverty, but only if it were understood as a purely local issue. Alinsky was obsessed with everything that was fragmented, parochial, localistic, balkanized, sub-divided neighborhood by neighborhood, precinct by precinct, block by block. In his dream world, one local group of Hungarian steelworkers would fight to get a sewer fixed. A few hundred yards away, a black community group would fight the city government to get a public library. Nearby a group of women would be demanding a daycare facility. A men’s club would struggle to clean up the public park. None of these groups would be in any contact with any others. They would not act politically, would not support candidates; they would only exert pressure on corporations, governments, and so forth. Each of these tiny groups would be fragmented and impotent and helpless in a real emergency, like a depression, a war, or a police state. Above all, they would never be able to advance an alternative to Wall Street domination, which was so far beyond the local purview that it never came up – and yet, this was always the heart of the matter. It was more likely that a black local group would fight a white one, with unemployed or parents fighting the teachers’ union, or some other futile clash. Sometimes Alinsky’s methods won some trifling local concession, but often the yield II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 63 was nil. The more common outcome was that the local organizers became demoralized by a long series of defeats, and drifted off into boredom, despair, and de-politicization. This is in fact the outcome that appears to have crowned the career of Barack Obama as a community organizer in Chicago in the 1990s; after three years of futility, Obama was canny enough to depart the scene in favor of the Harvard Law School, another stepping stone in his glittering political career. Obama went to Chicago in 1985. He worked as a community organizer among low-income residents in Chicago’s Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the city’s South Side. The Developing Communities Project (DCP) counter-insurgency effort was funded by the Gamaliel Foundation, which was heavily funded by the flagship Ford Foundation. DCP purported to offer job training and college prep on Chicago’s South Side. The real problems of blacks on the South Side of Chicago were the soaring unemployment and imprisonment among the area’s mostly black workers – issues that Obama never addressed. The Gamaliel Foundation’s own website informs the public that “the Gamaliel Foundation receives grants from the Bauman Family Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Institute, and others.” (www.gamaliel.org) Obama has thus been a Ford Foundation-Soros asset going back more than twenty years. The Developing Communities Project (DCP) was associated with the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) in Chicago. Both the CCRC and the DCP were built on the Alinsky model of community agitation, wherein paid organizers learned how to “rub raw the sores of discontent,” as Alinsky put it. The element of manipulation is clear enough, even in the abstract theory. One of Obama’s early mentors in the Alinsky method was Mike Kruglik, presumably the Marty Kaufman (or part of that composite character) that Obama writes about in Dreams. Kruglik later told the New Republic that Obama “was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation, who could engage a room full of recruiting targets in a rapid-fire Socratic dialogue, nudging them to admit that they were not living up to their own standards. As with the panhandler, he could be aggressive and confrontational. With probing, sometimes personal questions, he would pinpoint the source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better.” Alinsky had told his agitators to bring people to the “realization” that they are indeed miserable, that their misery is the fault of unresponsive governments or greedy corporations. (This is already absurd, since it is the economic breakdown crisis itself that radicalizes those who experience it. The task of an organizer is to develop strategy and programs to allow a popular movement to challenge the financier elite at the highest level – state power, not petty community control or local control, where defeat is always guaranteed.) The task of the agitator is then to help them to bond together to demand what they deserve, and to agitate so energetically that governments and corporations will see “self-interest” in granting the demands of the local agitators. Obama had a four-year education in these crude Alinsky methods, which he often says was the best education he ever got anywhere – in profiling and manipulation, since these are the essence of the Alinsky divide-and-conquer method of counterinsurgency. PREVARICATION IN THE HOOD Obama paints a moderately flattering picture of himself as a community organizer in Dreams. But even here, he has faced charges of embroidering and embellishing his record to make himself look good. The criticism comes from the long-time local activist Hazel Johnson, who has disputed the account of events at Altgeld Gardens that Obama put into his book, and which he has repeated at 64 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography innumerable political appearances over the years. The local CBS affiliate in Chicago went to the Altgeld neighborhood and found that ‘some say Illinois Senator Barack Obama gave himself a little too much credit for his work as a community organizer. Obama’s past work in the troubled Altgeld Gardens housing project is a staple of his presidential stump speeches, and a significant part of his first book. …at least one resident who worked with Obama back then is unhappy with the senator’s recollection. Hazel Johnson and her daughter Cheryl are disputing some parts of the version of events Obama tells. They do not, however, dispute that he worked hard at Altgeld Gardens and say they are supporting his presidential campaign. But, Johnson says in his book, Dreams from My Father, and in campaign stump speeches, Obama gets some things wrong about the months he spent working in Altgeld Gardens in the 1980s. She and her daughter Cheryl produced a document, for example, showing Obama’s 1987 salary as an organizer in the development to be $25,000 – not the $13,000 he often talks about. There is a very simple explanation for that, Obama’s aides say. He did indeed make $25, 000 in 1987, but he was initially hired in 1985 at a salary of $13,000. And, they claim, Obama didn’t work cleaning up asbestos at Altgeld, but fiberglass, another environmental hazard. They also dispute his version of an incident in which Obama claimed Altgeld Gardens residents beat on the car of a government official they were unhappy with. “I think he portrayed us as barbaric that we ran behind CHA officials beating on the car, and that didn’t take place, because I was in that particular meeting” Cheryl Johnson said.’ Perhaps Obama thinks that the masses are after all a great beast. Interestingly, the one community source who came forward to endorse Obama’s version of events is a person who was currently on the payroll of the Gamaliel Foundation, and who can thus be located in the larger orbit of the Ford Foundation. This was the Jesuit priest Greg Golluzzo. ‘“I discussed every item of this,” said Greg Golluzzo of the Gamaliel Foundation. … Johnson says that since all of this has come up, she thinks Obama should go talk to her.’(Mike Flannery, “Altgeld Gardens Resident Who Worked With Senator in 1980s Says He Is Exaggerating His Role,” Cbsnews.com, 2007) Obama has not returned to Altgeld to answer the criticisms of Hazel Johnson. When Obama’s fellow foundation operative Gerald Kellman summed up Obama’s years of work, he recognized that it had all been a big failure: “It is clear that the benefit of those years to Mr. Obama dwarfs what he accomplished. Mr. Kellman said that Mr. Obama had built the organization’s following among needy residents and black ministers, but “on issues, we made very little progress, nothing that would change poverty on the South Side of Chicago.”14 So Obama was a failure as a community organizer. His other big project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, was also a failure in improving education in Chicago, as we will see. HILLARY REJECTED ALINSKY; OBAMA EMBRACED HIM Other commentators have tried to show that Obama is still using Alinsky methods in the running of his presidential campaign. One right-wing observer writes: “Obama also appears to have mastered the playbook used by…the legendary amoral guru of left wing activism, Saul Alinsky….” (Kyle-Anne Shiver, Obama’s Alinsky Jujitsu, American Thinker, February 25, 2008) In fact, rightwing writers on the Clinton-Obama contest have attempted to equate the outlooks of these two candidates based on the bare fact that they both came into contact with the Alinskyite counterinsurgency doctrine. The big difference is that Obama looked at the Alinskyite school of organizing, and decided to join it. Hillary looked at Alinsky in considerable depth, found it totally inadequate, and turned away. Hillary’s views are found in her senior thesis from Wellesley College which, contrary to popular belief, is readily available to the public. Hillary saw an Alinsky who tried to escape ideological II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 65 categories: ‘“Alinsky, cringing at the use of labels, ruefully admitted that he might be called an existentialist,” she found. [We already know what that can mean.] Rodham tried to probe his moral relativism — particular ends, Alinsky maintained, often justify the means — but Alinsky would only concede that “idealism can parallel self-interest.” Hillary tentatively accepted Alinsky’s contention that the problem of the poor isn’t so much a lack of money as a lack of power, as well as his skeptical view of federal anti-poverty programs as ineffective. (Alinsky took the facile view, shared by the GOP, that Johnson’s War on Poverty was a “prize piece of political pornography,” even though he collected funds from the Office of Economic Opportunity.) It is clear that Alinsky wanted everything to come out of the do-it-yourself bag of the local community organizer, a kind of nomadic left-wing anarchist who viewed the state as an adversary. Organizing in the Democratic Party was too broad, and might develop into an actual challenge to the ruling class, the very thing that Alinsky’s owners were using him to head off. Hillary conceded what was obvious: “A cycle of dependency has been created,” she wrote, “which ensnares its victims into resignation and apathy.” Hillary advanced a “perspective” or critique of Alinsky’s methods, citing especially scholars who claimed that Alinsky’s small gains actually delayed attainment of bigger goals for the poor and minorities. Hillary noted the “few material gains” that Alinsky’s methods were capable of obtaining, such as forcing Kodak to hire blacks in Rochester, New York, or delaying the University of Chicago’s expansion into the Woodlawn neighborhood, the very Hyde Park community later represented by Barack and policed by Michelle. Hillary attributed part of Alinsky’s failure to shifting demography and the diminishing role of neighborhoods in American life. She also showed that many projects depended completely on the presence of Alinsky personally – hardly a recipe for empowering others: “One of the primary problems of the Alinsky model is that the removal of Alinsky dramatically alters its composition,” she wrote; “Alinsky is a born organizer who is not easily duplicated, but, in addition to his skill, he is a man of exceptional charm.” Hillary’s final verdict was that the Alinsky school of micro-organizing could never work in a mass society; the Alinsky “power/conflict model is rendered inapplicable by existing social conflicts” — over-arching national issues such as racial tension and segregation, prosperity and economic depression. Alinsky never had any success in forming an effective national movement, she said, suggesting the futility of “the anachronistic nature of small autonomous conflict.” Alinsky sometimes threatened small-scale disruptions to extort temporary, local concessions. Hillary concluded that the mini-conflict approach to large-scale power is limited. “Alinsky’s conclusion that the ‘ventilation’ of hostilities is healthy in certain situations is valid, but across-the-board ‘social catharsis’ cannot be prescribed,” she wrote. Hillary brought Alinsky to Wellesley in January 1969 to speak at a private dinner for a dozen students; he expressed dissatisfaction with New Left protesters such as the Students for a Democratic Society. Rodham closed her thesis with the obligatory flourish by saying that she reserved a place for Alinsky in the pantheon of social justice activists next to Martin Luther King, Walt Whitman, and perennial socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs. She also ironically suggested that Alinsky was a part of the establishment: “In spite of his being featured in the Sunday New York Times,” she wrote, “and living a comfortable, expenses-paid life, he considers himself a revolutionary. In a very important way he is. If the ideals Alinsky espouses were actualized, the result would be social revolution. Ironically, this is not a disjunctive projection if considered in the tradition of Western democratic theory. In the first chapter it was pointed out that Alinsky is regarded by many as the proponent of a dangerous socio/political philosophy. As such, he has been feared — because each embraced the most radical of political faiths — democracy.”’ (Bill Dedman, 66 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography “Reading Hillary Clinton’s Hidden Thesis,” MSNBC, May. 9, 2007) Alinsky offered Hillary a job as a community organizer, which she had the good sense to refuse. Obama later accepted just such a job from the Gamaliel Foundation after Alinsky’s death.15 OBAMA’S ROOTS TRIP TO KENYA After quitting his job as a community organizer, Obama decided to make his obligatory pilgrimage to Kenya, where he had never been. By this time his father was deceased. He traveled by way of London. A conversation about political and economic conditions in Africa with a young Englishman in the airplane gives Obama another chance to reflect on his favorite obsession, race. Here he found yet another opportunity to reflect on his “own uneasy status: a Westerner not entirely at home in the West, an African on his way to a land full of strangers.” (Dreams 310) He has an opportunity to travel around Europe for three weeks in a grand tour that most American middle class families of whatever race were already unable to provide for their children, or for themselves in retirement. Obama tells us that he visited London, Paris, Madrid, and Rome, and then concluded that it was all a terrible mistake: …by the end of the first week I realized that I’d made a mistake. It wasn’t that Europe wasn’t beautiful; everything was just as I’d imagined it. It just wasn’t mine. I felt as if I were living out someone else’s romance; the incompleteness of my own history stood between me and the sites I saw like a hard pane of glass. I began to suspect that my European stop was just one more means of delay, one more attempt to avoid coming to terms with the Old Man. Stripped of language, stripped of work and routine – stripped even of the racial obsessions to which I’d become accustomed and which I had taken (perversely) as a sign of my own maturation – I had been forced to look inside myself and had found only a great emptiness there. (Dreams 301- 302) Obama, we see, was a convinced existentialist. OBAMA AND THE DECLINE OF THE WEST Here Obama’s racist psychopathology is displayed in the sharpest relief. Had he already been imbibing Wright’s hate-mongering theories about the Italian garlic noses and the inferiority of the Irish? Europe represents a huge chunk of the historical experience of humanity as a whole, but Obama’s racist obsession leads him to conclude that it does not belong to him – despite the obvious facts that the language, institutions, science, technology, and all the related components of his life derive from European models. Obama rejects what he sees, and clings to the empty abstraction of Afrocentrism, albeit tinged with a heavy dose of existentialism. If he had gone to China, Obama would not have pondered that the majority of the man-days lived by humanity have probably been Chinese; he would have rejected China too, on the same explicitly racist grounds. Obama explicitly rejects the unity and wholeness of human history. He imagines that history is made up of a series of self-contained and hermetically sealed races, and that no race exercises any influence over the internal life of another race. With this, historical reality goes out the window, and is sure to be replaced by racist myths. Obama turns out to be close to the pre-fascist pessimist Oswald Spengler, the 1920s theoretician of the Decline of the West, who also thought of each Kultur as being axiomatically independent of and untouched by all the others, with each one living out its own appointed life span. Obama’s contemptuous dismissal of Europe obliges us to label him as a fanatic and an incurable racist. II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 67 Obama’s maître à penser Jeremiah Wright has mocked and derided European classical music in general and Georg Friedrich Handel in particular. The common ground between Obama and Wright, which some have suspected even as others indignantly denied it, turns out to be quite substantial. Turning away from Europe, Obama was confronted with the pervasive polygamy of his own father, his own tribe, and his own Kenyan ancestors. Obama’s 40-year-old cousin Said Hussein Obama later recalled, “My cousin found it difficult when he came here to learn his six half-brothers and sisters were born to four different mothers.” In reality, the number of Obama Senior’s offspring may be even greater, as we have already seen. “The person who made me proudest of all,” Obama added in his memoir, “was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam, and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol.” (Dreams 441) This Abongo “Roy” Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who now contends that the black man must “liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture.” In other words, Roy has also embraced Fanon. Roy has called on his younger half-brother to embrace his African heritage. (Dreams 441) Roy’s role, if any, in the violent tribal conflict which has been convulsing Kenya in 2007-2008 is not known. HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: ANOTHER WALL OF SECRECY, 1988-1991 Obama then entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he was elected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, and received a first wave of positive publicity in the New York Times. Obama graduated from Harvard Law magna cum laude in 1991. Obama’s professors were aware that he was slippery: “He then and now is very hard to pin down,” said Kenneth Mack, then a classmate and now a professor at the law school. Becoming the first black president of the law review was a highly political process, and not only an academic or technical one. Winning the position was a matter of political finesse, and clearly of some successful manipulation. “He was able to work with conservatives as well as liberals,” says Obama’s friend Michael Froman, who is currently an executive at Citigroup. Obama’s greatest fan appears to have been Professor Laurence Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb Professor at Harvard University. Tribe taught Obama and employed him as a research assistant. He remembers him as a “brilliant, personable, and obviously unique” person. Tribe said that Obama’s theoretical perspective on applying modern physics to law was “very impressive.” Obama never talks about this theory, but it reeks of the unbridled relativism that can make of the Constitution whatever one wants. Tribe is of course a darling of the liberal media who later argued Al Gore’s Florida case before the Supreme Court in December 2000. Tribe says that Obama was one of his two best students ever, and adds: “He had a very powerful ability to synthesize diverse sources of information.” (Wallace Wood, Rolling Stone) Obama is alleged to have contributed to Tribe’s bizarre 1989 article in the Harvard Law Review entitled “The Curvature of Constitutional Space: What Lawyers Can Learn From Modern Physics.” This is a 39-page treatise which argues that constitutional jurisprudence should be revised in a way which recalls the process by which Einstein’s theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics. On the surface, Tribe and Obama were arguing against the absurd and suffocating “original intent” method of the right-wing reactionary Federalist Society. But their arguments would also open the door to boundless arbitrary caprice and abuse by removing any notion of natural law from the method of construing the Constitution. Obama is thus capable of rejecting the manacles of original intent for a Cole Porter doctrine of “anything goes” in legal positivism, which would open the door 68 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography to fascist innovation in a way that even “original intent” has not been able to do. Once again, we are looking here at the transition from reaction to fascism. OGLETREE AND REPARATIONS Another significant mentor for Obama was the black Professor Charles Ogletree, who is one of the leading proponents of reparations for slavery. Reparations are a favorite tactic of the foundations and the counter-insurgency community in general, since this ploy holds out the promise of a whole new cycle of futile and self-defeating racial conflict in the United States, thus safeguarding financier rule for another historical epoch. It is especially absurd in the light of the growing numbers of Latinos, Asians, and other more recent immigrants who have no connection whatsoever to slavery and Jim Crow. The serious approach would be a class-based approach, with working people of all ethnic and racial groups forming a united front to extract from Wall Street the necessary means for social and economic renewal in housing, health care, jobs, education, mass transit, and related areas. This is exactly what the reparations issue is designed to prevent. When Wright went to the National Press Club, the only specific demand he made was for an apology for slavery. It is widely assumed that such an apology, while fully justified in itself, would be seized on by the foundation-funded affirmative action black overclass to demand reparations, of which the black overclass would receive the lion’s share, while the inner-city ghetto would sink ever deeper into despair and poverty. “This matter is growing in significance rather than declining,” Ogletree recently commented. “It has more vigor and vitality in the 21st century than it’s had in the history of the reparations movement.” Professor Ogletree was an advisor to Obama during his 2004 Senate candidacy and serves as an advisor to him now. (AP, July 9, 2006) It is therefore quite possible that, in addition to a global warming tax and a third world solidarity tax, a future Obama regime might try to impose a slavery reparations tax. Under the likely conditions of economic breakdown in this country such an attempt, whatever the abstract balance of equities, might well lead to the worst of all possible outcomes, civil war. We will have more to say about Obama’s secret agenda for reparations later in this study. Evelyn Pringle, who has delved into the labyrinth of Chicago corruption in which Obama wallowed for so many years, has found that the mafioso and underworld figure Antoin Rezko, Obama’s prime moneybags for much of his earlier career, came into contact with Obama while he was still in law school and tried to hire him immediately as a mouth-piece for Rezko’s underworld empire: in the arguments at the spring 2008 Rezko trial, it was revealed that he ‘“met Barack Obama when he was in Harvard Law School and tried to hire him” to be the lawyer for his development company.’ A well-informed expert on Chicago political corruption, Pringle shows that Rezko and Obama go way back together: ‘Obama says he met Rezko, when he got a call right out of the blue from David Brint, after he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, wanting to know if he would be interested in being a developer for Rezko’s real estate company, Rezmar. Because they read that he was interested in community development work, Obama says, Rezko and his two partners, Mahru and Brint, met with him to discuss the job. “I said no, but I remained friendly with all three of them,” Obama said in the Chicago Tribune on November 1, 2006. In fact, Obama told the Tribune that Rezko “might have raised $50,000 to $75,000” for one campaign alone in his failed run for Congress in 2000.’ (Evelyn Pringle, op-ed news) In Obama’s life, there are too many of these coincidences; we can feel the mysterious action of the Trilateral invisible hand. As for Obama and Rezko, they go back to 1991 or earlier. II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 69 OBAMA’S WORLD: THE FOUNDATIONS We have already seen Obama in his role as a community organizer for the Gamaliel foundation. We must stress that Obama’s role as a foundation operative begins here, but certainly does not end when he goes off to law school. No indeed: the vocation of being a foundation operative constitutes Obama’s family business. His mother was a Ford Foundation operative, and most of the jobs Obama has ever held were with foundations. When it came time for Obama to start going to church, he unfailingly chose a congregation where Ford Foundation race theory is projected onto the plane of heaven and eternity in the form of the provocateur religion of Black liberation theology. Before we go any further with Obama’s own story, it will be useful to offer an overview of the strategic orientation of US foundation operations during this timeframe. Foundations represent an extremely important part of the social control mechanisms which prevail today in the United States. The foundations are all the more effective in their chosen work of social control, engineering and political manipulation because many people are simply unaware of the immense scale of their operations, even though every broadcast on public television or National Public Radio is always accompanied by a litany of the foundations which have financed that program. One way to understand the pervasive influence of foundations is to say that they are as omnipresent in this country today as the CIA and the FBI were during the Cold War. This is partly because many intelligence community operations of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s have morphed into foundations under the auspices of President Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, which privatized many of the existing spook activities. Many naïve people still think of foundations as being humanitarian or charitable institutions concerned with education, health, and the improvement of the human condition. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like Henry Ford himself, the Pew family and many other oligarchical plans whose family fortunes have been transformed into foundations harbored fascist sympathies during the 1920s and 1930s. Today, they are overwhelmingly multicultural, politically correct, Malthusian, and neo-Luddite in their ideology. They hate science and technology because these are seen as avenues of upward social mobility for the lower orders, and as a threat to continued financier domination. Perhaps more than any other agency, the foundations have engaged in the strangulation and perversion of the American spirit over these past four decades in particular. The late Christopher Lasch, in his classic study The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (New York: Norton, 1995), notes the important role of class prejudice in forming elite attitudes in this country today. He describes how well-to-do liberals, when confronted with resistance to their ideas of social engineering, “betray the venomous hatred that lies not far beneath the smiling face of upper-middle-class benevolence,” and turn on those who “just don’t get it.” (Lasch, 28) The result is an academic culture which appears to be contemptuous of the human potential of vast strata of the American population. This is the kind of mentality which we can see in Obama’s infamous San Francisco “Bittergate” rant. This is a condensed version of the elitist and left authoritarian mental world of the pro-oligarchical foundation bureaucrats. In order to understand Obama’s mentality and the decisions he might make as the head of the future regime, we are therefore obliged to review some critical points about the recent historical record of the Ford Foundation and its satellites. Most discussions of Obama’s career as what he calls a “community organizer” are crippled by a total lack of historical background on the Ford Foundation and its satellites, and further by any comprehension of the goals of foundation-funded social engineering. Because Obama is so totally a product of the Ford Foundation and the foundation world of which it is the center, we will have to 70 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography repeat several times in this volume that the main purpose of these foundations by the latter half of the 20th century was to exercise social control, so as to perpetuate the uncontested political domination of Wall Street financial interests over the legitimate aspirations of the various ethnic groups, economic strata, and other components of the American population. The watchword of the Ford Foundation is Divide and Conquer. The goal of its projects is always to play one group in the population against some other group so as to create conflict, strife, and division, so that the Wall Street interests can emerge unscathed and triumph. The individual foundation grant officers involved in this process may well be motivated by some hallucination of Marxism, multiculturalism, or political correctness, but it is not these values which the foundations finally serve: their goal is to disrupt and abort the emergence of anything approaching a politically conscious united front of the American people capable of demanding radical economic reforms, and especially to ward off a revival of the New Deal, new political formations based on economic populism, a Marshall Plan for the cities, including the urban ethnic minority populations, and so forth. POVERTY PIMPS FOR THE FOUNDATIONS When Obama says that he was a community organizer, it would be far more accurate to say that he was a poverty pimp for the Ford Foundation network, a paid race-monger whose job it was to organize politically naïve and desperate groups on the south side of Chicago into corporatist, deadend, fragmented, parochial projects from which they would derive little or no benefit, and the goal of which was simply to use up enough of their lives in futility until they dropped out altogether in despair. The only exception to this was the use of these community control or local control or community action advocacy projects as political pawns against certain state and local political factions, or as battering rams against other groups of working people, above all trade unions made up of municipal employees, especially teachers. This is where Obama learned to support “merit pay” as a weapon against teachers’ unions. In order to understand the foundation world, it is necessary to recall that these foundations generally represent the family fortunes of industrialists and businessmen of the 19th and early 20th centuries – the robber barons – which have been placed into tax-free status as charitable trusts, all the while perpetuating the urge for power of their founders. The foundations represent family fortunes or fondi which have attained a kind of oligarchical immortality by transcending the mere biological existence of the individuals and families who created them, and becoming permanent institutions destined to endure indefinitely. These foundations once upon a time had to maintain some credibility by funding hospitals, universities, libraries, scientific research, and other projects which often had genuine social utility. Shortly after the Second World War, there began a trend towards social engineering and social action on the part of the foundations. The leader in this was the Ford Foundation, which, because it was the largest and wealthiest of the US foundations quickly became the flagship and opinion leader for the other foundations. Foundation officers represent the very essence of the financier oligarch mentality, and one result of this is that they generally all do the same thing at the same time in their respective fields of specialization. Because of this, control over the Ford Foundation represents a social control mechanism of great strength, which has been a decisive force in shaping the decline of US society and national life, especially over the last 40 years. Dean Rusk had served Averill Harriman and Dean Acheson during the Truman administration, and then became president of the Rockefeller Foundation in the late 1950s; he ‘once described II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 71 Ford’s influence on other foundations: What the “fat boy in the canoe does,” he said, “makes a difference to everybody else.” And Ford’s influence was never stronger than after it adopted the cause of social change. Waldemar Nielsen’s monumental studies of foundations, published in 1972 and 1985, only strengthened the Ford effect, for Nielsen celebrated activist philanthropy and berated those foundations that had not yet converted to the cause. “As a result,” recalls Richard Larry, president of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, “a number of foundations said: ‘If this is what the foundation world is doing and what the experts say is important, we should move in that direction, too.’” The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, for example, funded the National Welfare Rights Organization—at the same time that the organization was demonstrating against Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. The Carnegie Corporation pumped nearly $20 million into various leftwing advocacy groups during the 1970s.’ (Heather Mac Donald, “The Billions of Dollars That Made Things Worse,” City Journal, Autumn 1996) AGGRESSIVE FOUNDATION ACTIVISM OF THE LATE 1960S In the second half of the 1960s, the social ferment generated by defeat in Vietnam, the student movement, the antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, and the gathering economic decline of the country spurred the foundations into action. With unerring oligarchical class instinct, they could see the grave danger that might be represented for financier domination by the possible fusion in a united front of the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the labor movement, and the student movement. Their answer to this was to promote and fund organizational forms that were so narrow, so fragmented, and so parochial, that they prevented the necessary cooperation among these movements, thus blocking them from attaining most of their principal goals. Alan Pifer was the head of the Carnegie Foundation in 1968; in his annual report for that year, Pifer exhorts his comrades [sic] in the foundation world to help shake up “sterile institutional forms and procedures left over from the past” by supporting “aggressive new community organizations which . . . the comfortable stratum of American life would consider disturbing and perhaps even dangerous.” No longer content to provide mainstream knowledge dispassionately, America’s most prestigious philanthropies now aspired to revolutionize what they believed to be a deeply flawed American society. […] Foundation-funded minority advocates fought for racial separatism and a vast system of quotas—and American society remains perpetually riven by the issue of race. On most campuses today, a foundation-endowed multicultural circus has driven out the very idea of a common culture, deriding it as a relic of American imperialism. Foundation-backed advocates for various “victim” groups use the courts to bend government policy to their will, thwarting the democratic process. […] The net effect is not a more just but a more divided and contentious American society. (Heather Mac Donald, “The Billions of Dollars That Made Things Worse,” City Journal, Autumn 1996) Right-wing commentators like the one just cited are generally incapable of analyzing the real motivations for what the foundations do; they usually attribute the catastrophic results of foundation social engineering to some misguided instincts to do good. Nothing could be further from the truth: the goal of the foundations is to maintain the brutal regime of finance capital, and this presupposes that there be no national coalition capable of expressing a national interest in contradiction to the dictates of the Wall Street financiers. The rightwingers are therefore forced to make up fantastic stories of how Marxists have crept in to the temples of finance capital by the dark of the moon, so as to advance their work of revolution. In reality incendiary race baiting and pseudo-revolutionary and hyper-revolutionary rhetoric are most often the stock in trade of the foundation-funded political operative, who gets paid good money to inflame the mutual animosities and resentments of groups 72 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography that ought to be uniting against Wall Street, rather than squabbling with each other for some petty and futile local concession. Barack Hussein Obama is precisely one of these foundation-funded political operatives or poverty pimps. The Ford Foundation became more aggressive in its social engineering and more radical in its methods in order to ward off the threat which was latently present in the political upsurge of the late 1960s: ‘From its start, Ford aimed to be different, eschewing medical research and public health in favor of social issues such as First Amendment restrictions and undemocratic concentrations of power, economic problems, world peace, and social science. […] But by the early 1960s, the trustees started clamoring for a more radical vision; according to Richard Magat, a Ford employee, they demanded “action-oriented rather than research-oriented” programs that would “test the outer edges of advocacy and citizen participation.”’ (Heather Mac Donald) FORD FOUNDATION COMMUNITY ACTION AND THE 1960s GHETTO RIOTS The beginnings of the local control-community control-poverty pimp apparatus of domestic social engineering and counterinsurgency goes back to the Ford Foundation’s Gray Areas Project of the 1960s, which was spearheaded by an obscure and highly influential Ford Foundation operative named Paul Ylvisaker. ‘The first such “action-oriented” program, the Gray Areas Project, was a turning point in foundation history and—because it was a prime mover of the ill-starred War on Poverty—a turning point in American history as well. Its creator, Paul Ylvisaker, an energetic social theorist from Harvard and subsequent icon for the liberal foundation community, had concluded that the problems of newly migrated urban blacks and Puerto Ricans could not be solved by the “old and fixed ways of doing things.” Because existing private and public institutions were unresponsive, he argued, the new poverty populations needed a totally new institution—the “community action agency”—to coordinate legal, health, and welfare services and to give voice to the poor. According to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan… Ford “proposed nothing less than institutional change in the operation and control of American cities . . . . [Ford] invented a new level of American government: the inner-city community action agency.” Ylvisaker proceeded to establish such agencies in Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, and Oakland.’ (Heather Mac Donald) The initial phase of Ford Foundation intervention into the black inner-city ghetto under the rubric of the Gray Areas strategy helped to fuel the Watts, Detroit, and Newark riots of 1965-67. The community action projects that were begun in these years did not deliver what they promised, but did set the stage for the futile and self-defeating violence of “Burn, baby, burn,” which was considered fashionable in the radical chic salons of the day. “Unfortunately, because it was so intent on persuading the federal government to adopt the program, Ford ignored reports that the community action agencies were failures,” according to historian Alice O’Connor. Reincarnated as federal Community Action Programs (CAPs), Ford’s urban cadres soon began tearing up cities. Militancy became the mark of merit for federal funders, according to Senator Moynihan. In Newark, the director of the local CAP urged blacks to arm themselves before the 1967 riots; leaflets calling for a demonstration were run off on the CAP’s mimeograph machine. The federal government funneled community action money to Chicago gangs—posing as neighborhood organizers—who then continued to terrorize their neighbors. The Syracuse, New York CAP published a remedial reading manual that declared: “No ends are accomplished without the use of force. . . . Squeamishness about force is the mark not of idealistic, but moonstruck morals.” Syracuse CAP employees applied $7 million of their $8 million federal grant to their own salaries.’ (Heather Mac Donald) McGeorge Bundy should have been arrested for inciting to riot, II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 73 since that is exactly what he was doing. The political benefits of the resulting backlash would of course be harvested by demagogues like Nixon and Agnew. THE 1968 NEW YORK CITY TEACHERS’ STRIKE AS A TURNING POINT A much-neglected turning point of recent American history was unquestionably the disastrous events associated with the New York City teachers’ strike of 1968. These events have almost been forgotten, one suspects, because no foundation is eager to dredge them up. Contemporary observers, however, were clear that they had lived through a deliberately provoked catastrophe: ‘One of the most polarizing events in our recent history was the Ocean Hill-Brownsville dispute over decentralization and community control which led to the New York teachers’ strike of 1968. Martin Mayer said of this strike: “The New York teachers’ strike of 1968 seems to me the worst disaster my native city has experienced in my lifetime.” McGeorge Bundy’s Ford Foundation’s experiment caused New York City to shut down its educational system. That city became polarized: new - black militant radicals against old - left radicals, black trade unionists against anti-union black-power advocates, black against Jew, black against white, striker against non-striker, and ACLU civil libertarians against seekers of due process.’ (“The Promotion of Domestic Discord,” Vincent J. Salandria, October 23, 1971)16 MCGEORGE BUNDY: FROM VIETNAM STRATEGIC HAMLETS TO COMMUNITY CONTROL In order to fragment, divide, and frustrate the ongoing political upsurge, the organizational forms which the Ford Foundation was using its fabulous wealth to create had to be as narrow, fragmented,apolitical, exclusive, and petty as possible. “Community Action Programs were a calculated means of keeping control. To deliver a particular point of view, foot soldiers got busy. Militants and Black Power were a joke! The Ford Foundation, through its president, McGeorge McBundy, was one step ahead and positioned to penetrate the movement. In promising to help achieve full domestic equality, they played a vanguard role and become the most important organization manipulating the militant black movement.” (Pulling No Punches, October 28, 2007) McGeorge Bundy was a Skull and Bones graduate of Yale, a protégé of Dean Acheson, and the director of the National Security Council under President Kennedy who bears one of the heaviest individual burdens of responsibility for unleashing the genocidal Vietnam War. Bundy had left government in 1966, and would stay on as boss of the Ford Foundation until 1979. For much of this time, Bundy was considered to be the informal spokesman for the US Eastern Anglophile banking establishment, otherwise known as the financier oligarchy or ruling class. Accurate accounts of Bundy’s activities are very hard to come by, because no foundation has been willing to pay for an in-depth analysis of how foundation-funded social engineering is destroying this country. Bundy was, in short, a butcher, but he was also a sophisticated ruling-class political operative. Bundy was a slightly younger colleague of the generation of self-styled “wise men” who had reorganized the Anglo-American world empire in the wake of World War II. Bundy was a dyed-inthe- wool, hereditary, silver-spoon oligarch, who was conscious of representing one of the most powerful and aggressive centers of imperialist social engineering. ‘David Halberstam was correct to quote one of McGeorge Bundy’s colleagues as stating that Bundy “... is a very special type, an elitist, part of a certain breed of men whose continuity is to themselves, a line to each other and not the country.”’ (Vincent J. Salandria, “The Promotion of Domestic Discord,” an address at the 74 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography conference of the New England Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, October 23, 1971) Bundy was determined to ram through the Ford Foundation counterinsurgency strategy, whatever the cost to New York City and its people: as one student of these events observes, ‘McGeorge Bundy was not a man given to self-doubt. (He once cut off discussion at a foundation meeting by announcing to a group of program officers: “Look, I’m settled about this. Let’s not talk about it any more. I may be wrong, but I’m not in doubt.”) And if he had second thoughts about the path down which he was taking the foundation, he did not express them at the time. Indeed, his speeches and writings in that period showed a confident determination to continue working with black militants.’ (“McGeorge Bundy: How the Establishment’s Man Tackled America’s Problem with Race,” Tamar Jacoby) 17 GONZALEZ: FORD FOUNDATION “REVERSE RACISM” AMONG LATINOS Bundy started by revamping the grant priorities inside the Ford Foundation to focus on black oppression, as well as the parallel problems of other ethnic minorities. It is important to note that racial oppression was never defined by the Ford Foundation in broad-based economic terms, such as the need for modern housing, new urban mass transit, top-flight medical care, high-tech jobs with union wages, a quality college education for all ghetto youth, and other reforms which would have necessitated a domestic Marshall Plan costing hundreds of billions of dollars. This was something which the oligarchs had no intention of paying for. Rather, the Ford Foundation claimed that the oppression of the black community was a matter of white racist attitudes, as reflected in institutional arrangements which prevented black self-determination, community control, and self-esteem. In this case, the oligarchs could claim that white blue-collar workers were the real culprits, since they were the ones who came into the most intensive daily contact with oppressed blacks. “Bundy reallocated Ford’s resources from education to minority rights, which in 1960 had accounted for 2.5 percent of Ford’s giving but by 1970 would soar to 40 percent.” The same methods were also applied to Hispanics and Latinos in programs that were the precursors of the lunatic provocateur propaganda of groups like Atzlan, which makes the absurd demand that many American states be restored to Mexico. The only purpose of such raving delirium is to provide grist for the right-wing xenophobic radio talk show hosts and other ideologues, who can use this transparent posturing as “proof” in the minds of their gullible listeners of a nefarious Mexican plot to subvert the United States. Under Bundy’s leadership, Ford created a host of new advocacy groups, such as the Mexican- American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (a prime mover behind bilingual education) and the Native American Rights Fund, that still wreak havoc on public policy today. Ford’s support for a radical Hispanic youth group in San Antonio led even liberal congressman Henry B. Gonzalez to charge that Ford had fostered the “emergence of reverse racism in Texas.” (Heather Mac Donald) Congressman Gonzalez, a real fighter who later pioneered in the effort to impeach George Bush the elder, complained that the Ford Foundation had promoted racism among his people, Mexican- Americans. He related how the Ford Foundation made a grant of $630,000 to the Southwest Council for LaRaza. He said: The Ford Foundation wanted to create new leadership, and in fact the new leaders it has created daily proclaim that existing leadership is no good ... ... the president of MAYO, ... likes to threaten to ‘kill’ what he terms ‘gringos’ if all else fails ... ... I II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 75 must come to the sad conclusion that, rather than fostering brotherhood, the foundation has supported the spewings of hate, and rather than creating a new political unit, it has destroyed what little there was ...’ (Salandria) We will see later on that the methods of the Ford Foundation in regard to the subversion and manipulation of the American Indian movement for financier and provocation purposes are virtually identical to the approach employed towards black and Hispanic target populations. THE FORD FOUNDATION VS. MARTIN LUTHER KING Martin Luther King was perceived by the Ford Foundation as a very serious threat, because of the inclusive united-front methods by which he proposed to merge the struggles of the black community with those of labor and the antiwar movement. The oligarchical class instinct of the Ford Foundation therefore dictated that ultra-radical racist provocateurs be thrown into the fray who would condemn Dr. King as a collaborationist Uncle Tom who was out of touch with younger firebrand radicals. The general heading for these Ford Foundation provocateurs was the Black Power movement or the pork chop cultural nationalists, who were always notoriously eager for their foundation checks. In a sense, in this, Ford was only following up on its own early initiative: the foundation’s Gray Areas program, working in six inner cities in the early 1960s, had pioneered the idea of helping the ghetto help itself. But in 1964 the War on Poverty had taken the notion one step further, urging “maximum feasible participation” by the poor as a virtue in itself - calling on ghetto people not just to help run local services but teaching them to organize politically so that they could bargain with the government. As the idea gained credence, the emphasis of many antipoverty programs shifted away from health care and education and job-training to teaching “leadership” and in effect telling “Whitey” off. Some people at the foundation were troubled by this new development. But they were largely unable to resist the growing pressure for any and all kinds of participatory programs. And it wasn’t long before Ford found itself paying for street gangs and avowed Black Power leaders. (Tamar Jacoby) And again, the decision to fund the most incendiary lunatic agitators was a very conscious one, since their outrageous statements could be used to fuel the backlash of the white middle class against the militants and their demands. FORD’S MCKISSICK, ANTI-MARTIN LUTHER KING Thanks to the sheer power of its multi-billion-dollar endowment, the Ford Foundation was able to create a new fad for shameless, race-baiting provocateurs on the national scene. H. Rap Brown became infamous for his favorite slogan that “violence is as American as cherry pie.” Rap also issued ominous threats, including his classic “If America don’t come around, we’re gonna’ burn it down.” This was the age of “burn, baby, burn,” while reactionary Republican strategists around Nixon and others thanked heaven for their extraordinary good fortune. A good example of the Ford Foundation sponsorship for the most extreme black power militants as a countergang to Martin Luther King was the grant allocation in Cleveland, Ohio: Among the most controversial of these grants went to the Cleveland chapter of CORE [Congress of Racial Equality]. Like even the most moderate civil-rights organizations, CORE had been drifting leftward through the 1960s. Its integrationist national director James Farmer 76 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography had been replaced in 1966 by the younger and angrier Floyd McKissick, who along with Carmichael was among the first proponents of Black Power. Outflanked on the left by SNCC [Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee] and even tougher ghetto leaders advocating violence and a separate black nation, McKissick felt under strong pressure to prove his militancy. He began to talk of “revolution” and to forge links with black Muslims; he explicitly repudiated the phrase “civil rights,” replacing its appeal to morality with bristling talk of racebased “power.” Before long, his escalating racial rhetoric had driven most white members out of CORE. By 1967, SNCC had actually expelled whites, and in July CORE deleted the word “multiracial” from its constitution. With this, it dropped all pretense that it was pursuing integration or the hope of progress based on racial harmony. None of this apparently bothered the Ford Foundation, which announced two weeks later - even as the Newark ghetto erupted in riots - that it was giving $175,000 to CORE’s Cleveland chapter. Bundy explained at a press conference that his board had considered the grant “with particular care.” (In fact among some 16 trustees, only Henry Ford himself had expressed any doubts.) What’s more, said Bundy, “neither Mr. McKissick nor I suppose that this grant requires the two of us - or our organizations - to agree on all public questions.” The foundation had chosen Cleveland because it had been particularly hard hit by riots the past summer; Ford’s theory was that CORE might channel the ghetto’s grievances in a more constructive way, averting further violence in the streets. The money was earmarked for voter registration and the training of community workers who were then to help other blacks articulate their needs.’ (Tamar Jacoby, “McGeorge Bundy: How the Establishment’s Man Tackled America’s Problem with Race,” http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1303/ Jacoby/Jacoby.html) Bundy the patrician had made McKissick the minority plebeian into his mercenary as part of an incipient war on the part of the financiers against the majority of the American people in the form of the white middle class and lower middle class. Rational spokesmen for the black community were horrified by the kinds of reckless and irresponsible agitation which the Ford Foundation was creating: ‘In Cleveland, ‘A black city councilman who opposed the program said the youths were being taught “race hatred” and that they had been heard telling younger children that “we are going to get guns and take over.” Yet Ford continued to defend the grant: “I see it,” said a foundation consultant, “as a flowering of what Black Power could be.” In August 1968, the program was renewed, with explicit instructions to include local gang leaders.’ (Tamar Jacoby) The Ford Foundation was not making mistakes; it was rather acting with diabolical effectiveness to pursue its oligarchical class agenda. BUNDY AND MAYOR LINDSAY ATTACK THE NEW YORK SCHOOLS, 1968 At this time, the mayor of New York City was a liberal Republican bankers’ boy named John V. Lindsay. Lindsay was expected by Wall Street to maintain full payment on the municipal bonds of the city, no matter what the consequences might be for schools, hospitals, transportation infrastructure and so forth. The bankruptcy of New York City which would explode in 1974-75 was now on the horizon, so it was time for the finance oligarchs to take preemptive action to divide, disrupt, and abort any potential for a united front of New Yorkers against their outrageous and exorbitant demands, which would later be carried out by the infamous Municipal Assistance Corporation or Big Mac, directed by the austerity fanatic and future Obama backer Felix Rohatyn. Bundy was able to convince Lindsay that a counterinsurgency project based on black community II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 77 control of the public schools would offer vast potential for mobilizing the black ghetto against the largely Jewish teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers or UFT. The result was a sinister triumph of foundation-funded social engineering and political manipulation. The idea was to give the newly created community control apparatus the right to hire and fire teachers, in flagrant violation of the legally binding contract the UFT had fought so hard to obtain from the city only a few years before. Bundy was no doubt gleeful as he contemplated the potential for busting a union in the short run, using duped black parents, egged on by foundationfunded poverty pimps: The most notorious Bundy endeavor, the school decentralization experiment in the Ocean Hill- Brownsville section of Brooklyn, changed the course of liberalism by fracturing the black- Jewish civil rights coalition and souring race relations in New York for years afterward. Bundy had led a mayoral panel under John Lindsay that recommended giving “community control” over local public school districts to parents. The panel’s report, written by a Ford staffer, claimed that New York’s huge centralized school system was not sufficiently accountable to minority populations. Black and Puerto Rican children could not learn or even behave, the report maintained, unless their parents were granted “meaningful participation” in their education. Translation: parents should hire and fire local teachers and school administrators. (Heather Mac Donald) Bundy launched the program with characteristic energy and dispatch. The very month he arrived in New York, he secured the board’s formal blessing to make race the top priority. Then he got down to studying the issue in earnest. He read everything he could get his hands on and spared no effort to get to know “Negro leaders.” He reached out to individuals and heads of organizations, meeting them individually and in small groups. There were Sunday lunches at his home and dinner meetings at the elite, all-male Century Club. The Century round-tables became a kind of an institution in themselves: a dozen or more black and white men, from government, social work and academia, would gather on the club’s musty top floor and take turns around the table, each speaking his piece, then removing their jackets and arguing late into the night.’ (Tamar Jacoby) ‘The Bundy Report on decentralization contains one inexcusable folly – inexcusable because ... Bundy ... recognized it as folly ... that communities can ‘unite’ around the issue of education. In fact, communities inevitably divide about the issue of education.’ (Salandria) If this was folly on the part of Bundy, it was very willful folly. Later Obama would repeat the same divisive tactics as head of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. RACIST RHODY MCCOY, FORD OPERATIVE AND ROLE MODEL FOR OBAMA The success of the community control gambit for purposes of counterinsurgency and political manipulation depended in large part on the personal qualities of the boss of the new experimental community control school district. As could be expected, the Ford Foundation selected for this post the most incendiary and outrageous racist provocateur in sight: Ford chose as the head of its $1.4 million decentralization experiment in three Brooklyn school districts a longtime white-hater, Rhody McCoy, who dreamed of creating an all-black school system, right up through college, within the public schools. McCoy was a moderate, however, compared to the people he tapped as deputies. Although the school board blocked his appointment of a militant under indictment for conspiracy to murder, he did manage to hire Les 78 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Campbell, the radical head of the Afro-American Teachers Association, who organized his school’s most violent students into an anti-Semitic combat force. According to education scholar Diane Ravitch, McCoy had an understanding with racist thug Sonny Carson that Carson’s “bodyguards” would intimidate white teachers until McCoy would diplomatically call them off.’ (Heather Mac Donald) Since the majority of the New York City teachers were Jewish leftists with radical New Deal backgrounds, the most scurrilous anti-Semitic baiting was prescribed for all the Ford Foundation operatives who wished to advance their careers: Ford’s experimental school districts soon exploded with anti-Semitic black rage, as militants argued that black and Puerto Rican children failed because Jewish teachers were waging “mental genocide” on them. The day after Martin Luther King’s assassination, students at a junior high school rampaged through the halls beating up white teachers, having been urged by Les Campbell to “[s]end [whitey] to the graveyard” if he “taps you on the shoulder.” …white teachers at one school found an anti-Semitic screed in their mailboxes, calling Jews “Blood-sucking Exploiters and Murderers” and alleging that “the So-Called Liberal Jewish Friend . . . is Really Our Enemy and He is Responsible For the Serious Educational Retardation of Our Black Children.” McCoy refused to denounce the pamphlet or the anti-Semitism behind it. Nor did Ford publicly denounce such tactics—or take responsibility after the fact. McGeorge Bundy later sniffed self-righteously: “If private foundations cannot assist experiments, their unique role will be impaired, to the detriment of American society.” But if the experiment goes awry, the foundation can saunter off, leaving the community to pick up the pieces. (Heather Mac Donald) Another commentator noted, “Not the least of the political questions left dangling at the end of the tragedy of the teachers’ strikes is the best way to make tax-exempt foundations responsible for the consequences of their actions.” (Salandria) In reality, American society would be best served by a policy of taxing these oligarchical parasites out of existence, and returning their ill-gotten loot to the public treasury. FORD OPERATIVES PROVOKE THE TEACHERS TO STRIKE With the start of the new school year in September 1968, the great Ford Foundation experiment in community control and social engineering exploded into chaos, a chaos which engulfed New York City as a whole. Everything the skeptics predicted – and more – came to pass in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, one of the three experimental districts funded by Ford. Within weeks of the foundation’s $59,000 grant, the militant activists who made up the board in this forsaken Brooklyn ghetto found themselves at odds with some dozen allegedly “incompetent” teachers charged by the board with being disloyal to the decentralization experiment. (The board was largely black, the teachers were white – and even a black judge who later investigated the dispute could find little cause, apart from race, for the board’s dissatisfaction.) In May 1968, the offending teachers were asked to leave their posts, and when the union rallied to their defense, the local board went to war against the union. The union struck; the board resisted — by hiring several hundred irregular teachers and organizing people from the ghetto to demonstrate at the schools. Then, throughout the fall of 1968, the Ocean Hill-Brownsville schools were the scene of daily violence. (Tamar Jacoby) II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 79 Every institution in the city quickly chose sides between the teachers union and the black community control apparatus, splitting New York into two opposed camps. It is this kind of ominous precedent which allows us to predict that an Obama presidency carried on with these same foundation methods of social engineering will bring civil war in the United States as a whole much nearer. In the fall of 1968, a typical day brought out pickets and counter-pickets, shouting at each other across wooden police horses, threatening each other and inciting schoolchildren. Both sides organized rallies at City Hall; both spread hateful and largely racial innuendo. Black anti-Semitism (many of the teachers were Jewish) vied in fury with whites’ race-charged fear and anger, and the cumulative venom spiraled out of control. The eight schools in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district were at the center of the storm – and many white teachers there reported they feared for their lives. But the striking union gave as good as it got, spreading bitterness throughout the city by shutting down the entire school system and causing more than 1 million students to miss nearly 40 days of the fall term. By November, when the strike was settled, integration – and race relations in general – had been set back 20 years or more. (Tamar Jacoby) Naomi Levine described how the Ford Foundation under McGeorge Bundy used Ocean Hill- Brownsville to deliberately provoke a confrontation: Why did the Ocean Hill governing board order the “termination of employment” of the nineteen teachers and administrators in Ocean Hill in such a peremptory manner and at a time when the State Legislature was considering various proposals that would have enacted into law many of the Bundy report recommendations? Why did the union react so strongly? […] The conclusion is inescapable that the Ocean Hill governing board wanted a confrontation with the Board of Education in order to fix its powers and responsibilities once and for all, and that it created the situation to provoke such confrontation. (Salandria, “The Promotion of Public Discord,” http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/lofiversion/index.php/t7653.html ) Significant parts of the community control experiment were rolled back, but by then the vast damage had already been done. There was even a backlash against the high-handed and elitist approach of the Ford Foundation, but this fell far short of wiping out this poisonous and malignant institution: In the end, state education authorities approved a much watered-down version of the Bundy panel proposals. But Ford was made to pay dearly for its activist involvement. Conservative journalists and congressmen riding the backlash of the late 1960s seized on the foundation’s involvement in both Ocean Hill and Cleveland. These were only two small grants, a few hundred thousand dollars of the many millions Ford had spent on race relations – for education, voter registration, housing integration and poverty research. But that did not stop critics like Texas congressman Wright Patman, who suggested apocalyptically on the House floor that “the Ford Foundation [had] a grandiose design to bring vast political, economic and social changes to the nation in the 1970s.” Thanks largely to his efforts, in 1969 Congress passed legislation that significantly restricted all foundation giving (not just Ford’s) with excise taxes and federal oversight. (Tamar Jacoby) Wright Patman was that rarity, a genuine populist fighter against the Federal Reserve and the financier elite in general. The events around the New York City teachers’ strike of 1968 partially destroyed the government of the City of New York in a manner from which it has never really recovered. It also 80 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography set the stage for the personal ruin of Mayor Lindsay, who had in effect turned over large parts of the city to unelected and unaccountable Ford Foundation mindbenders. Here is an account of these events from the point of view of City Hall which appeared in the New York Times obituary for Mayor Lindsay in 2000: Lindsay initiatives… were widely viewed as special concessions to black New Yorkers… In 1968, Mr. Lindsay responded to black parents’ demands for more control and more black teachers in their neighborhood schools by putting into effect, on an experimental basis, a school decentralization plan in several black areas of the city, including Ocean Hill-Brownsville, in Brooklyn. Studies were cited that said integration was sputtering in New York, that schools had a poor record educating black children, that it was psychologically harmful for blacks to attend schools with mostly white teachers and administrators. The Ford Foundation, among others, had urged the city to pursue decentralization, and the Legislature had agreed to finance the plan. Challenging a white, largely Jewish school bureaucracy, whose authority was to be pared by decentralization, Rhody McCoy, the administrator of Ocean Hill-Brownsville, transferred 13 teachers and 6 administrators, most of them Jewish, out of his district. In effect, he dismissed them without pedagogic reasons, and it was said that their real offense was to oppose decentralization. The action was denounced as illegal by the United Federation of Teachers, which called a strike that closed 85 percent of the city’s 900 schools for 55 days, putting a million children out of classrooms and disrupting thousands of families. The strike’s bitterness was horrendous, with threats of violence and diatribes laced with racism and anti-Semitism; Mr. Lindsay denounced the slurs and ugly conduct as intolerable. The strike ended when the state suspended Mr. McCoy and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville board on grounds that it had violated valid union contracts by transferring the teachers and administrators without cause. Later, the Legislature fashioned a compromise, decentralizing city schools into 32 districts and giving locally elected boards power to run their elementary and junior high schools, but adopting strong protections for teachers’ jobs. But the episode left a legacy of tensions between blacks and Jews that went on for years, and Mr. Lindsay called it his greatest regret. The last six months of 1968 were “the worst of my public life,” Mr. Lindsay later said. The schools were shut down, the police were engaged in a slowdown, firefighters were threatening job actions, sanitation workers had struck for two weeks and the city was awash in garbage, and racial and religious tensions were breaking to the surface. The depth of feeling against Mr. Lindsay in the boroughs outside Manhattan was not widely understood beyond New York. But it became apparent to the nation after a Feb. 9, 1969, blizzard buried the city in 15 inches of snow. While major arteries were plowed quickly, side streets in Queens were buried for days, and homeowners greeted the visiting mayor with boos, jeers and curses. The scenes, captured on national television, conveyed a message that the mayor of New York was indifferent to the middle class. (New York Times, Dec. 21, 2000) In other words, Lindsay was widely seen as an arrogant elitist full of contempt for blue-collar and middle-class New Yorkers; these harbingers of a possible Obama regime in Washington are too obvious to require any further commentary. II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 81 A CLASSIC PATRICIAN-PLEBEIAN ALLIANCE TO CRUSH THE MIDDLE CLASS In Machiavelli’s Discourses, the perspicacious Florentine secretary points out that one of the most dangerous political alliances that can come to dominate a state is one between the wealthy patricians and the poorest inhabitants of the city. This seems to have been exactly what McGeorge Bundy was aiming at, and the results were and continue to be catastrophic based on any rational conception of American national interest. As Vincent Salandria, an intelligent lawyer, observed several years after the dust began to settle, A new political alliance is being forged in this country between the super-rich and the superpoor – especially the alienated and activist members of minority groups. The Ford Foundation, under the aggressive leadership of McGeorge Bundy, is providing the major thrust for this power bloc ... This is a dangerous game but it doesn’t seem to worry those members of the “Eastern Establishment” who are involved. They’re sure that no matter what happens they’ll still be on top. Salandria saw that the scope of the social manipulation being attempted by the Ford Foundation was so vast that it implied nothing less than a foundation coup to impose a new oligarchical political order in the United States: The Ford Foundation’s support of provocateurs and revolutionaries throughout the nation is raising numerous eyebrows. Many believe Bundy, former coordinator of intelligence for President Kennedy, is fostering a new political alliance. Its effect, at the moment, appears to be the destruction of the American constitutional system. The Foundation seems to be bypassing the legally constituted federal bureaucracy, Congress and state and local governments in order to build a movement of revolutionary proletarians.’ (Salandria, “The Promotion of Public Discord.”) It was clear that the teachers and the black parents were essentially fighting each other for a share of a pie of economic concessions that was rapidly shrinking because of the incipient economic decline and deindustrialization of the United States. These two groups would have had everything to gain by forming an alliance to extract urgently needed concessions from the Wall Street banks. As Salandria puts it, I feel that McGeorge Bundy’s social engineering experiments with ethnics are designed to cause this country to unravel under a systematic program of polarization. Where the foundations leave off, the government agencies directly involve themselves in provocateur attempts to splinter this nation. […] Coleman McCarthy has very wisely shown the evil and cynicism behind the approach used by McGeorge Bundy. He points out the only legitimate function that the intellectual should play in dealing with ethnics and racism is to: ... explain that the blacks and white working class are actually in the same urban fix together. Instead of letting them fight each other for useless inner-city leftovers, the intellectuals could act as a referee, creating a black-white coalition based on hard, mutual needs, not any sentimental notions of integration. (Salandria) It was also very clear that the Ford Foundation continues to regard the black community as second-class citizens who had to be maintained as wards and clients of the foundation community. Edith Kermit Roosevelt describes this process: The operations in New York City of the Ford Foundation typically illustrate the ruthless tactics used by the foundation’s self-described ‘elite’ 82 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography in their drive for political power. One of the Ford Foundation’s goals has been to fundamentally change the direction and control of New York City’s public-school system. City educational institutions provide the Ford Foundation with a vehicle in their drive to control minority and ethnic groups in urban areas through dollars distributed to key personnel who will be beholden to them. (Salandria) A DISASTROUS WATERSHED IN AMERICAN HISTORY Salandria, who was a leftist, typifies the rage of Italian, Jewish, Irish, Polish, and other New Yorkers who had witnessed the rape of the city by a group of leftist elitists in the pay of the Ford Foundation. He reflects: But let us not be so outraged as to lose our bearings. Yes, admittedly I have difficulty at times in maintaining my poise. This is especially true when I hear that McGeorge Bundy, the greatnephew of A. Lawrence Lowell, one of the murderers of my Italian brothers, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, through Ford Foundation grants will provide aid aimed at increasing minority opportunities in higher education. How ironic that the Ford Foundation which has polluted the urban school systems with its provocateur activities and thereby foreclosed educational opportunities for so many ethnic children, seeks to parade as the ethnics’ friend by buying off scholars of ethnic backgrounds! (Vincent J. Salandria, “The Promotion of Domestic Discord,” an address at the conference of the New England Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, October 23, 1971) The aftermath of the strike was marked by a rapid rightward shift by many of the white ethnic groups. In fact, the emergence of the neoconservative or neocon movement is unthinkable without the backlash generated by the foundation operatives through these events. There were of course many other causes, but this strike was the one which more than any other turned the nation’s largest city into a raging political and social battlefield, where reason and reconciliation were inevitably the first casualties. Every left-wing organization in New York City had to take a position on one side or the other of the teachers’ strike. The Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society split into two factions over this issue. The anarchist, proto-fascist “action faction” of spoiled suburbanite youth under Weatherman co-founder Mark Rudd enthusiastically supported the Ford Foundation racist provocateurs, and were eager to bust the union. Rudd was reportedly already on the foundation payroll as a provocateur. This group quickly joined forces with the SDS national office clique around Bernardine Dohrn, and became the terrorist-fascist Weatherman tendency. Obama’s affinity for the Weather Underground bombers Ayers and Dohrn accordingly has deep roots, since these figures represent the most militant and aggressive anti-working class figures from that degraded sector of the self-styled left who chose to support and uphold the fiendish strategy of the Ford Foundation and the US intelligence community to divide and conquer on racial lines. The Weathermen gave precious left cover to McGeorge Bundy, and it is no accident that they find themselves today at the side of Obama, a second-generation racist provocateur for the foundations. The Weathermen were the most violent of those who wanted radical politics to follow the line dictated by the oligarchical foundations. So it is not surprising to find Ayers and Dohrn as darlings and grant recipients of the foundations today, even as they act as the core of Obama’s support network. The pro-labor part of the Columbia SDS chapter was the part already known as the Labor Committee, and soon expanded to other cities as the New York-Philadelphia Labor Committees, and then as the National Caucus of Labor Committees; the present author was a member of the II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 83 Cornell University branch in Ithaca, New York, starting in September 1968. The issues of those days are still central today, despite Obama’s attempt to push them out of public view. The methods used by McGeorge Bundy in New York City in 1968 to exacerbate racial conflict are essentially identical to the underlying approach of the Annenberg Chicago Challenge of the 1990s, which was organized through a consortium of foundations by the Weatherman terrorist bomber Bill Ayers, who had suddenly become respectable as a professor of education and foundation operative. Ayers recruited Obama to be the chairman of the board of this Annenberg Chicago challenge, and this was unquestionably one of the biggest steps up the career ladder for our young Messiah. The centerpiece of the Annenberg Chicago challenge was the decentralization of the school system through the creation of local school councils (LSCs), with the same kind of community control and local control illusions which had been peddled by Bundy. In this case, the effect was less explosive than in New York City, because during the 1990s a much larger percentage of the Chicago teachers’ union was black. Nevertheless, the existence of the local school councils allowed the Chicago banking community through its political operatives like Ayers and Obama to play desperate black parents against the teachers union, against municipal agencies, and against the mayor, if that were required. This is why the New York example of 1968 is so indispensable in understanding what the goals of Obama’s operations actually were. BUNDY DICTATES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TO THE SUPREME COURT The crowning achievement of McGeorge Bundy’s career was doubtless his success in engineering a majority on the United States Supreme Court in favor of affirmative action programs by which token numbers of organic black intellectuals and community leaders would be co-opted into the elite career tracks of the prevailing finance oligarch institutions, while leaving the vast majority of the black ghetto in a situation of worsening poverty and despair. Bundy thus scored his last, and perhaps most significant, achievement in the realm of race relations – his role in the Supreme Court’s Bakke decision endorsing the use of racial criteria in university admissions. Bundy’s contribution was an article in The Atlantic making the case for affirmative action. It was, even for Bundy, an unusually subtle and brilliant argument – but if that was all it was, it would hardly matter today. What made it important was its impact on one particular reader: Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who provided a crucial fifth vote in favor of the use of racial criteria. His short opinion on the case was so close to Bundy’s piece that it all but quoted him. “Precisely because it is not yet ‘racially neutral’ to be black in America,” Bundy wrote, “a racially neutral standard will not lead to equal opportunity.” Thus, he concluded. “To get past racism, we must here take account of race.” Blackmun borrowed the phrase almost verbatim, and it has stood for [many] years as the nation’s primary rationale for affirmative action. For better of worse, it encoded the key idea of the late 60s - that racial progress can come only through racial consciousness - at the center of American law. The distilled essence of Bundy’s thinking on “the Negro question,” it remains a telling emblem of all that he did to encourage black consciousness and race-based strategies. (Tamar Jacoby) With the Bakke decision, which was argued under the Carter regime, we come to the world of racial quotas, set-asides, and preferential treatment in such areas as college admissions. Far from favoring a relaxation of racial tensions and an improved climate of national unity, these methods have kept racial issues and racial stereotypes alive, as part of a cynical divide-and-conquer strategy. Clinton sponsored an extensive debate about race, and today we have Obama announcing that yet 84 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography another racial conversation is needed. Instead, the view here is that what is needed is political education based on class, poverty, exclusion, and economic decline. How can the government determine race? Will we use light meters? Will we measure skulls, as in phrenology? Will we demand family trees? These ideas must be rejected. What we can determine is if someone is in poverty, and those are the people we must urgently assist into modern, productive employment. Today, 30 years later we are in a position to see the real shape of the river as we observe the characteristic human types which this system has created. Notable among these are Barack Hussein Obama and Michelle Obama, who both assume the hypocritical stance of victims of racial discrimination, when in fact the only discrimination they have known has all been in their favor, and against the competition. Even as they amass luxury automobiles, significant wealth, mink coats, and their legendary mansion, they must parade themselves as people who repeatedly rejected the materialistic allure of the corporate world for a life of ascetic dedication and personal sacrifice in the service of high principle. They also know that at least two-thirds of the black community for which they claim to speak does not benefit, but demonstrably suffers, from this system. Because of the obvious psychological stress between their rapacious greed, and their public pose of altruism in the service of the black community, their troubled consciences require special care, and it is this care which Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Otis Moss, and Dwight Hopkins have been funded by the foundations to provide. Today Obama is running as the affirmative action candidate for president, demanding and getting unprecedented and unheard of special treatment from the hacks of the Democratic National Committee in the form of delegates from the state of Michigan, where he deliberately took his own name off the ballot to avoid humiliating defeat while saving resources. Obama demands the Democratic nomination despite the fact that Senator Clinton won the popular vote or raw vote. All this will provide yet another lesson that affirmative action perpetuates racial conflict, condemns the poor to a life of despair, and promotes a parasitic overclass of race-mongers notable for their personal mediocrity and incompetence. THE RACIST WORLD VIEW OF THE FOUNDATIONS Let there be no confusion that racial problems in the United States have proven to be so intractable precisely because they have been continuously exacerbated by never-ending campaigns of foundation-funded social engineering. Today, the full-blown liberal foundation worldview looks like this: First, white racism is the cause of black and Hispanic social problems. In 1982, for example, Carnegie’s Alan Pifer absurdly accused the country of tolerating a return to “legalized segregation of the races.” The same note still sounds in Rockefeller president Peter C. Goldmark Jr.’s assertion, in his 1995 annual report, that we “urgently need . . . a national conversation about race . . . to talk with candor about the implications of personal and institutional racism.” Second, Americans discriminate widely on the basis not just of race but also of gender, “sexual orientation,” class, and ethnicity. As a consequence, victim groups need financial support to fight the pettymindedness of the majority. Third, Americans are a selfish lot. Without the creation of courtenforced entitlement, the poor will be abused and ignored. Without continuous litigation, government will be unresponsive to social needs. Students in foundation-funded ethnic studies courses learn that Western culture (whose transmission is any university’s principal reason for existence) is the source of untold evil rather than of the “rights” they so vociferously claim. […] Liberal foundations are straining to block popular efforts to change the country’s discriminatory racial quota system.’ (Heather Mac Donald) II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 85 The dead hand of foundation grant officers has also helped to throttle the creative arts in this country by imposing their bankrupt and artificial notions of diversity and multiculturalism. These can be seen for example in the world of drama, where The large foundations now practice what Robert Brustein, director of the American Repertory Theater, calls “coercive philanthropy,” forcing arts institutions to conform to the foundations’ vision of a multicultural paradise—one that, above all else, builds minority self-esteem.’ (Heather Mac Donald) During the 1990s, it sometimes seemed that the counterinsurgency and social manipulation efforts of the foundations have been so successful as to turn the United States into a political graveyard. As Heather Mac Donald of the neocon Manhattan Institute comments, the impulse toward the activism that over the past 30 years has led the great liberal foundations to do much more harm than good remains overwhelming. In a pathetic statement of aimlessness, the president of a once great foundation recently called up a former Ford poverty fighter to ask plaintively where all the social movements had gone.’ (Heather Mac Donald) 1980s COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS AND COLLABORATIVES: OBAMA’S BACKGROUND By the time Barack Hussein Obama arrived on the foundations scene in the mid-1980s, the original community action/community control/local control counterinsurgency strategy of the foundation community had somewhat evolved into community development corporations. These CDCs were first of all a reflection of the fact that economic conditions had become much more desperate as a result of rampant economic misrule under the Reagan regime. The trade union movement in its traditional form had now been largely broken. The CDCs were basically apolitical, in that they presuppose that any attempt to change the policies of the government in Washington was hopeless, and that the most that could be attempted was to make the slide into deindustrialization and poverty a little more comfortable. The CDCs were also corporatist in the strict sense borrowed from the Mussolini fascist corporate state: as an organizational form, they brought together workers, bankers, foundation bureaucrats, and government officials in an attempt to cajole corporate interests into creating a few jobs in poverty-stricken and blighted neighborhoods. Alternatively, they sought some minor reform such as measures to reduce asbestos or lead poisoning in schools and public buildings. This is precisely the strategy which Barack Hussein Obama was implementing for the Gamaliel foundation, a satellite of the Ford Foundation, in the Altgeld neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Obama was therefore a second-generation poverty pimp carrying out an overtly corporatist political plan designed to maintain the control of bankers and financiers over the city of Chicago in just the same way that McGeorge Bundy had done this in New York. Ford never exactly repudiated community control – or Black Power. Nor did it give up entirely on Bundy’s paradoxical idea that the best way to spur integration was to bolster separate black institutions and strengthen black identities. Yet Bundy and his officers quietly retreated to a far safer form of black institution-building – investment and grants for ghetto-based enterprises known as “community development corporations.” […] The theory is simple: Ford - and the government and private lenders - funnel money to a local nonprofit “board” that builds up the neighborhood and tries to attract business. These businesses create jobs, while the “corporation” – acting as a kind of local government – provides an array of social services. In the past 20 86 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography years, Ford has spent some $200 million on what it now estimates to be 2000 CDCs. The difference between today’s CDC and the community activism of the 1960s is small but critical: participation is still the key word, but the emphasis is on substantive participation – community involvement in a particular activity like rehabilitating local housing – rather than on participation for participation’s sake. Success is hard to measure. Few of these “corporations” could exist without outside support: yet to Ford and to the communities that host them, they represent an important kind of “self-help.” And that, for the moment, is still the most urgent priority – with the goal of integration still deferred indefinitely. (Tamar Jacoby) This is the kind of thing Obama is talking about when he claims that he was trying to organize a community to bring back jobs that had been lost when a steel mill shut down. The way to create jobs is to organize politically and expand the New Deal policies which have been proven effective in creating high technology jobs at union wages. Instead, Obama offered an exercise in futility leading to no tangible gains and the burnout of most of his main cadre, which was the plan. These community development corporations were also termed “collaboratives.” Once again, the scale of organization is always minuscule, the dominant ideology localist in the extreme, and the chances of any success asymptotically approaching zero. The collaboratives also include an attempt to wipe out prevailing moral values in the target population, which reminds us of Obama’s infamous San Francisco “Bittergate” tirade, in which he criticized rural populations facing high unemployment for their devotion to religion, gun ownership, ethnic pride, and the resistance to economic globalization. This is the mental world of the foundation-funded social engineer and political manipulator in unalloyed form. One analyst notes that The so-called “collaboratives” movement in community development is emblematic of the 30- year-long foundation assault on the bourgeois virtues that once kept communities and families intact. The idea behind this movement, which grows out of the failed community action programs of the 1960s, is that a group of “community stakeholders,” assembled and funded by a foundation, becomes a “collaborative” to develop and implement a plan for community revitalization. That plan should be “comprehensive” and should “integrate” separate government services, favorite foundation mantras. To the extent this means anything, it sounds innocuous enough, and sometimes is. But as with the foundations’ choice of community groups in the 1960s, the rhetoric of “community” and local empowerment is often profoundly hypocritical. (Heather Mac Donald) This is the world of local, small-scale corporatism, with communitarian overtones – this is truly Obama’s world. “PATRONAGE TROUGHS FOR POLITICAL OPPORTUNISTS” Here is another example of the same foundation social control strategy based on community development corporations as it has been implemented over the past decades in Miami, Florida, in the wake of a serious urban riot a quarter of a century ago. We quote it at length because it is important for the reader to understand as clearly as possible what cynical manipulation lurks behind the benevolent-sounding job description of “community organizer” in Obama’s constantly touted resume: If you haven’t had a couple of bloody, terrifying urban riots down the street from your corporate headquarters, the experiences of Knight-Ridder’s CEO, James K. Batten, 53, can help you capture the feeling, and lead you to one of our first “heroes.” After Miami’s lacerating Liberty City riot of 1980, Batten helped mobilize the business community. Says he: “Suddenly II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 87 there was a surge of conscience among businessmen — some of it sparked by idealism and concern for humankind, and some of it by pragmatism and self-interest. Nineteen-eighty left a sense of foreboding about what Miami really was and where it was headed. Even the most cynical recognized that no one wants to vacation in a war zone.” In the aftermath, officials from a newly formed Ford Foundation-backed outfit called LISC, for Local Initiatives Support Corp., came to Liberty City in search of struggling community development organizations to help. They found none, but they did discover Otis Pitts, an educated native of Liberty City with a varied background as a military policeman, railroad cook, and Miami city cop. After his police partner was killed by his side on a call in Liberty City, he took up youth counseling work and was running a successful agency in Liberty City when LISC found him. LISC and Pitts set up something called the Tacolcy Economic Development Corp., to which LISC provided money for plans and such, plus a small loan and expertise to get additional financing for rebuilding a looted supermarket on a pivotal corner. LISC acted as a facilitator, but the project was essentially on Pitts’s shoulders, and it had to make commercial sense. It took off when he persuaded Winn-Dixie Stores to come in as anchor tenant, after the original tenant refused to return. “I learned quickly that a deal is finite,” he recalls now. “You can’t put too many risks on one deal. As soon as something like this gets started, all the aspirations and demands of the community come together. We were under pressure to hire minority employees, to build with minority contractors, even to help start a minority grocery chain. Well, if you just keep piling up the risks like that with unrealistic expectations, the deal will collapse.” So, says Pitts, he became single-minded. “The major objective,” he says, “was to build a damn shopping center to provide quality goods and services at competitive prices in a safe and decent environment” — basically the economic cornerstone of any community. At that, he did bring in mostly black subcontractors and workers. Today, Pitts’s crisply appointed offices are located in Edison Plaza, which is just what he describes. Its success has attracted a McDonald’s to an opposite corner, and Pitts has gone on to other victories. His most recent accomplishment is the 121-unit, eight-story Edison Towers apartment house for low-income tenants, a beautifully appointed, exquisitely maintained private residence with excellent security smack in the middle of Liberty City. Financed with LISC help and mostly private funds, Edison Towers is a model of how community development corporations get the job done. The financing included a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, plus loans from the foundation, LISC, Dade County, Southeast Bank, and Equitable, as well as a $1.6 million grant from a developer called Swire Properties. […] LISC — basically a creation of the Ford Foundation — is far in front of the curve on business involvement with poverty. With tax credits as a partial inducement, it has assembled more than $200 million from some 500 corporations and foundations and leveraged over $1 billion of direct investment in more than 500 community development corporations across the country. In the South Bronx alone, LISC has invested upwards of $5 million in some 36 development projects. “We make it an attractive proposition for a corporation or foundation to work through us,” says LISC President Paul S. Grogan. “They may want to attack these problems, but they don’t have the capacity themselves to evaluate the opportunities, or to make judgments about these community organizations. They don’t know the landscape. There’s still sort of a stereotype of unscrupulous neighborhood organizations that don’t do anything but take the money.” LISC officials admit that many community development corporations aren’t as successful as Pitts’s or Rivero’s, but all of them counter the “poverty pimp” images from the 1970s. “We’re able to provide the opportunity recognition and the screening, and that’s been crucial to us,” says Grogan. The lesson we can learn from LISC: “There’s an appetite and an interest on everybody’s part if you can make something happen in a businesslike way, and that 88 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography says something about the directions for the future.” (John Huey, “How We Can Win the War on Poverty,” Fortune, April 10, 1989) “POVERTY PIMPS, POVERTY-CRATS, POVERTICIANS, BUREAUCRAT-POLITICIANS” The same patterns can be observed in the history of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, a group which billed itself as having been established in 1977 to advance the interests of the Puerto Rican community. In 1981, the NPRC received about 90% of its funding in the form of a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. By 1991, 50% of the funding came from corporate grants, while 30% came from foundations, with the Ford Foundation leading the pack. The Puerto Rican community generated numbers of militant leaders, but these were so extreme that they had little or no impact on elections. Leaders who were moderate enough to be able to run for office posed other crippling problems: these moderate leaders were more concerned with good government goals than with poverty issues. These leaders, variously referred to as “bureaucrat-politicians,” “poverty-crats,” “poverticians,” and “poverty pimps,” were intensely focused on the acquisition of power. But instead of using it to improve the economic condition of Puerto Ricans, they invested it in shoring up their organizations. At times they did this under the guise that the quality of life for Puerto Ricans depended on the resources they controlled, while in effect securing “nothing more than patronage troughs for political opportunists.”’ (José E. Cruz, “Unfulfilled Promise: Puerto Rican Politics and Poverty,” Centro Journal XV:1 2003) Back during the Cold War, retired spies wrote books with titles like I Led Three Lives. An honest autobiography by a foundation operative like Obama might thus have a title along these lines: “I WAS A POVERTY PIMP FOR THE FOUNDATIONS” The role of poverty pimp within the framework of foundation-funded strategies for mass political and social manipulation, with a view to keeping the American people in a state of apathy, fragmentation, passivity, and oppression, is a very exact characterization of what Obama did during his years as a “community organizer.” To talk about poverty pimps is of course politically incorrect in the extreme, but it is the only way to convey the social reality of what we are dealing with in the case of Obama. For further background, we read in Wikipedia: Poverty pimp or “professional poverty pimp” is a sarcastic label used to convey the opinion that an individual or group is benefiting unduly by acting as an intermediary on behalf of the poor, the disadvantaged or other some other “victimized” groups. Those who use this appellation suggest that those so labeled profit unduly from the misfortune of others, and therefore do not really wish the societal problems that they appear to work on so assiduously be eliminated permanently, as it is not in their own interest for this to happen. The most frequent targets of this accusation are those receiving government funding or that solicit private charity to work on issues on behalf of various disadvantaged individuals or groups, but who never seem to be able to show any amelioration of the problems experienced by their target population. This self-serving cynicism, in feeding off the plight of a group of desperate dupes who are turned into a salable political commodity, is the essence of Obama’s career. II: Columbia University and Recruitment by Zbigniew Brzezinski 89 SOCIAL ENGINEERING THROUGH ENDLESS LITIGATION There is one further aspect of foundation activity which should be mentioned, since it bears on the activities of Barack Hussein Obama, Michelle Obama, and their close friend Bernardine Dohrn in their professional careers as lawyers. Bernardine Dohrn in particular received a large grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to undertake the institutional reform of the juvenile justice and Family Court systems in Chicago. The veteran terrorist bombthrower Dohrn was supposed to do this through a special institute she controlled at Northwestern University. This MacArthur grant to the aging terrorist pasionaria is coherent with another dimension of foundation strategy, which is to pervert the courts into tools of social engineering and political manipulation. Heather MacDonald writes: Public interest litigation and advocacy embodies the foundations’ longstanding goal of producing “social change” by controlling government policy. Foundations bankroll public interest law groups that seek to establish in court rights that democratically elected legislatures have rejected. Foundations thus help sustain judicial activism by supporting one side of the symbiotic relationship between activist judges and social-change-seeking lawyers. Foundations have used litigation to create and expand the iron trap of bilingual education; they have funded the perversion of the Voting Rights Act into a costly instrument of apartheid; and they lie behind the transformation of due-process rights into an impediment to, rather than a guarantor of, justice. Foundation support for such socially disruptive litigation makes a mockery of the statutory prohibition on lobbying, since foundations can effect policy changes in the courts, under the officially approved banner of “public interest litigation,” that are every bit as dramatic as those that could be achieved in the legislature. ANN DUNHAM’S LONG MARCH THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS In the world of the foundations, the only ones who really know what they are doing are the finance oligarchs and elitists at the top. The McGeorge Bundy types are the only ones who are getting their money’s worth. The local people, the black parents, are dupes who are being used by the financiers as a battering ram to maintain Wall Street’s control of society. Many of the community control operatives and many of the middle and lower level foundation personnel are dupes. They are often dupes who think they are fooling the foundation bosses. Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, the disillusioned late Marxist who went to work for the Ford Foundation, was in all probability a person who thought that she was tricking the McGeorge Bundy types by carrying out programs and projects which she imagined were very radical and very anti-capitalist, according to her somewhat diluted Marxist criteria. She might have thought that she was burrowing from within the institutions to help advance the revolution. By about 1970, there were many radicals who embarked on this same type of long march through the institutions, as the popular phrase of the time described it. What these radicals could not see was that their smattering of Marxism had in reality done little more than make them into useful idiots for the aristocratic financier types, just as Marx himself had ultimately served the British Empire. McGeorge Bundy doubtless understood all this when he gave all that money to the raving firebrand Floyd McKissick so as to create an artificial opposition to Dr. King. Bundy doubtless knew that Rhody McCoy probably saw himself as a black revolutionary. It was precisely this dimension of self-delusion that made people like this into such useful idiots. Henry Ford II obviously lacked this level of sophistication, and was genuinely shocked at what the Ford Foundation staff had become: a nest of failed radicals and subversives marching through the 90 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography institutions. Henry Ford II did not understand that these were exactly the people needed for effective counter-insurgency and divide-and-conquer operations: credible left cover operatives. As Heather MacDonald relates, Many foundations had turned against the system that had made them possible, as Henry Ford II recognized when he quit the Ford Foundation board in disgust in 1977. “In effect,” he wrote in his resignation letter, “the foundation is a creature of capitalism, a statement that, I’m sure, would be shocking to many professional staff people in the field of philanthropy. It is hard to discern recognition of this fact in anything the foundation does. It is even more difficult to find an understanding of this in many of the institutions, particularly the universities, that are the beneficiaries of the foundation’s grant programs.” Did Ford exaggerate? Not according to Robert Schrank, a Ford program officer during the 1970s and early 1980s. Schrank, a former Communist, recalls the “secret anti-capitalist orientation” of his fellow program officers. “People were influenced by the horror stories we Marxists had put out about the capitalist system,” he says; “it became their guidance.” This is the world of Obama’s mother, a weak, disillusioned late Marxist working for the Ford Foundation. In the case of her son, the magnetic power of Marxism had declined precipitously, and his outlook was based on race in Fanon’s sense, not class. This combination suffices to make Obama the most radical subversive ever to seriously contend for the US presidency. CHAPTER III: FOUNDATION-FUNDED RACISM IN CHICAGO: JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND MICHELLE White folks’ greed runs a world in need. – Jeremiah Wright, “The Audacity of Hope” sermon “What we need is the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.” – James Cone. Well, my pastor is certainly someone who I have an enormous amount of respect for. I have a number of friends who are ministers. Reverend Meeks is a close friend and colleague of mine in the state Senate. Father Michael Pfleger is a dear friend, and somebody I interact with closely. – Obama to Cathleen Falsani, 2004.18 The Obama campaign is very fond of pointing to the great personal sacrifice made by their candidate after leaving Harvard Law School. They stress that with his prestigious law degree, Obama could have written his own ticket to any number of lucrative positions in Wall Street, the corporate world, or the top law firms. But this type of propaganda ignores the fact that Obama’s career was now being guided, fostered, assisted, and directed by the networks of the Trilateral Commission and its banking allies. Obama was now a young man who was destined for great things thanks to these super-rich and powerful backers. Again and again we will see the marvelous process by which obstacles are removed from Obama’s path, and adversaries are eliminated, even as wonderful and unprecedented opportunities open up for him as if by magic. It was clear to Obama’s Trilateral case officers that a career solely played out in the elitist world of board rooms and country clubs would not be sufficient to provide him with a left cover required should candidacy for political office be part of his future, as they fully intended that it would. Therefore, Obama had to be sheep-dipped in the world of community organizing during the 1980s to develop his ability to manipulate and con the people he met in the streets. Now, he needed an entrée into the left-leaning Chicago Democratic political machine, where radical black nationalists and veterans of the Weatherman terrorist group were well represented. Obama needed to burnish his resume with activities that would reinforce his image and credentials as a true progressive, while banishing any suggestion that he was in fact an agent of finance capital. ‘Interestingly, after his first year in law school Obama returned in the summer of 1989 to work as a summer associate at the prestigious Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin. This in and of itself is a bit unusual. Very few top tier law students work for big law firms during their first summer. The big law firms discourage it because if you work for them in the first summer you are likely to work for a second firm the following year and then the firms have to compete to get you. So, why or how did Obama - at that point not yet the prominent first black president of the Harvard Law Review (that would happen the following year) - end up at Sidley? Sidley had been longtime outside counsel to Commonwealth Edison. The senior Sidley partner who was Comm Ed’s key outside counsel, Howard Trienens, was a member of the board of trustees of Northwestern alongside Tom Ayers (and Sidley partner Newton Minow, too). It turns out that Bernardine Dohrn worked at Sidley also. She was hired there in the late 80s, because of the intervention of her fatherin- law Tom Ayers, even though she was (and is) not a member of any state bar. Dohrn was not admitted in either NY or Illinois because of her past jail time for refusing to testify about the murderous 1981 Brinks robbery in which her former Weather Underground (now recast as the “Revolutionary Armed Task Force”) “comrades,” including Kathy Boudin (biological mother of Chesa Boudin, who was raised by Ayers and Dohrn) participated. She was finally paroled after serving 22 years of a plea-bargained single 20-to-life sentence for her role in the robbery where a 92 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography guard was shot and killed and two police officers were killed. … Trienens recently explained his unusual decision to hire Dohrn, who had never practiced law and had graduated from law school (before going on her bombing spree 17 years before in 1967) to The Chicago Tribune saying, “[W]e sometimes hire friends.” I can only speculate, but it is possible that Tom Ayers introduced Obama to Sidley. That might have happened if Obama had met up with Bill and Tom and John Ayers prior to attending law school when Obama’s DCP group was supporting the reform act passed in 1988. Or it might have been Dohrn who introduced Obama to the law firm. Dohrn’s CV indicates that she left Sidley sometime in 1988 for public interest work prior to starting a position at Northwestern (again, hired there by some accounts because of the influence of Tom Ayers and his Sidley counsel Howard Trienens). Obama and Dohrn would likely not have been at the firm at the same time, although if Obama and Dohrn met before Obama left to attend Harvard Law School, she might have discussed the firm with him and introduced him to lawyers there. My best guess, though, is that it would have been Tom Ayers who introduced Obama to Sidley and that would have helped him get the attention of someone like Newton Minow. And that would have come in very handy later in Obama’s career as Kaufman suggests. (Recently I heard from Nell Minow, daughter of Newton Minow, who tells me her sister Martha, a Harvard law professor, had Obama as a student at HLS and that she called her father to tell him about Obama. While Nell contends on the basis of this anecdote that her family met and supported Obama before he met Bill Ayers, she was unable to provide me any evidence of when in fact Obama met Ayers, either Bill or Tom.) In any case the summer of 1989 was eventful for Obama as he did meet his future wife, Michelle, there, already a lawyer and working as a Sidley associate. Michelle was Obama’s first supervisor or mentor there. Obama went back to Harvard in the fall of 1989 where, of course, he became president of the law review in the spring of 1990. After graduation in 1991 he went back to Chicago to run a voter registration campaign (which would turn out to be an important step in his career).’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) AFTER LAW SCHOOL: BUILDING A RESUME FOR A POLITICAL CAREER After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to work as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, an unsavory enterprise to which we will return later… He became a modest adjunct lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, while helping to organize a voter registration drive during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Abner Mikva, a five-term congressman from Illinois who was at that time Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, tried to recruit Obama as his law clerk, a position that might have been a stepping stone to clerking on the Supreme Court, but Obama declined the offer. David B. Wilkins, the Kirkland and Ellis professor of law, said he advised Obama in 1991 to become a Supreme Court Clerk. “Obama knew there was honor in pursuing that post,” Wilkins said, but Obama quickly added that it was not for him. “He said that he wanted to write a book about his life and his father, go back to Chicago, get back into the community, and run for office there. He knew exactly what he wanted and went about getting it done,” Wilkins said. More accurately, Obama’s Trilateral case officers knew what the next steps for their young protégé and asset needed to be. “He could have gone to the most opulent of law firms,” said David Axelrod, the Chicago machine hack who is now Obama’s campaign boss gushed. “After Harvard, Obama could have done anything he wanted.” Axelrod’s specialty has long been to help black candidates get white votes with a utopian litany of messianic platitudes; he also got Deval Patrick elected as Governor of Massachusetts. Obama served as an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996. During this time, he says he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 93 voting rights cases. His part-time adjunct work in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School lasted from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. THE MACHINE PICKS OBAMA TO LEAD PROJECT VOTE, 1992 Obama was now on his way to becoming a Chicago machine pol, but his drooling acolytes seek to portray his choices as reflecting a self-denial worthy of a holy ascetic. One writes: “When Obama returned to Chicago, he turned down big-money firms to take a job with a small civil rights practice, filing housing discrimination suits on behalf of low-income residents and teaching constitutional law on the side. He had thought he might enter politics since before he left for law school, and eventually he did, winning a seat in the state Senate at the age of thirty-seven.”(Wallace Wood, Rolling Stone) Obama, clearly not acting alone, but rather helped along by his Trilateral mother ship and by the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine, now became a leader of Illinois Project Vote, which claimed to have registered 150,000 new voters for the 1992 election. Estimates of those registered vary; another acolyte relates: “In 1992, he served as executive director of Illinois Project Vote! a voterregistration drive that added an estimated 125,000 black voters to the rolls and was credited with helping elect Carol Moseley Braun to the U.S. Senate.” (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) The real goal of all this may have been the modernization of the traditional Cook County vote fraud machine, which has helped so many cadavers send in absentee ballots over recent years. This activity would become one of Obama’s main talking points in his advertisements for himself when he was running for state senate a few years later. Obama, with characteristic megalomania, seems to think that Project Vote was the reason Bill Clinton won the 1992 election. Therefore, when Clinton endorsed Obama’s opponent Bobby Rush in the Perfect Master’s losing 2000 congressional race, Obama felt betrayed, and his grudge against the Clintons came to the fore in the venom of the 2008 primaries. OBAMA: A “VACUOUS OPPORTUNIST” The political scientist Adolph Green of the University of Pennsylvania came into contact with Obama around this time, and later wrote: I’ve never been an Obama supporter. I’ve known him since the very beginning of his political career, which was his campaign for the seat in my state senate district in Chicago. He struck me then as a vacuous opportunist, a good performer with an ear for how to make white liberals like him. I argued at the time that his fundamental political center of gravity, beneath an empty rhetoric of hope and change and new directions, is neoliberal. (“Obama No,” The Progressive, May 17, 2008) And there were other layers beneath that. Obama published his autobiography in 1995; this was Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. During his presidential bid, he would get another wave of adoring publicity when he won a Grammy for the audio version of this book. What kind of a person writes an autobiography before he is 40? Surely one that is self-centered or self-absorbed, or possibly selfobsessed. Such an autobiographer might well be a megalomaniac, with delusions of grandeur on the scale of Nero. 94 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND THE THEOLOGY OF HATE But if Obama was a megalomaniac, we was not the only megalomaniac on the south side of Chicago. There was also the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the central figure of an affluent congregation that called itself the Trinity United Church of Christ. Even before going to Kenya, Obama had come into contact with Jeremiah Wright. Obama had often been questioned about his religious faith during his years as a community organizer. During this time Obama, who said he “was not raised in a religious household,” was asked by pastors and church ladies, “Where do you go to Church, young man?” (Dreams) The guess here is that he was not a Moslem during those years, but rather an existentialist like his idol Frantz Fanon, and therefore most likely an atheist on the model of Nietzsche and Heidegger. Obama now realized that membership in a church was a political necessity. He chose Wright’s church not merely because it was very large, very influential, and very wealthy, but also because it professed black liberation theology, which Obama certainly would have known by that time to be the brand preferred by his backers in the foundation world, of which the Ford Foundation was the flagship. Another name for Wright’s church might have been the Foundation Church of the Counter-insurgency, since those were the doctrines that were taught there. It was a church based on Afrocentrism, on black nationalism, and on the rejection of western civilization. Ironically, it was also a church frequented by some of the most successful practitioners of affirmative action, meaning the small minority of the black community who had benefited immensely from quotas, set-asides, and racial preferences, while the majority of the black inner-city ghetto sank deeper and deeper into poverty and despair. Indeed, Wright’s doctrines were designed to soothe the consciences of the upwardly mobile black overclass even as they were co-opted into the financier power structure of the city. Obama experienced some friction with Wright at their first meeting: ‘“Some people say that the church is too upwardly mobile.” It was in fact the richest black congregation in Chicago. Wright shot back: “That’s a lot of bull. People who talk that mess reflect their own confusion. They’ve bought into the whole business of class that keeps us from working together.”’ (Dreams 283) Wright means that racial unity is everything, and socioeconomic class is nothing. With this, the essence of Wright’s method is exposed: he is a follower of the proto-fascist German sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz, whose main work was Der Rassenkampf (The Racial Struggle, 1909). Gumplowicz was a product of the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose nationalities policy is one of the models for the Ford Foundation’s current doctrines of multi-culturalism. Gumplowicz taught that the main clash in human society was the racial one, and not class struggle – not Plato’s authentic class struggle, and not Marx’s fake version either. It is a tune repeated by many a reactionary, irrationalist, and obscurantist. Here are some impressions of Trinity United and of Wright personally: ‘The Trinity United Church of Christ, the church that Barack Obama attends in Chicago, is at once vast and unprepossessing, a big structure a couple of blocks from the projects, in the long open sore of a ghetto on the city’s far South Side. The church is a leftover vision from the Sixties of what a black nationalist future might look like. There’s the testifying fervor of the black church, the Afrocentric Bible readings, even the odd dashiki. And there is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a sprawling, profane bear of a preacher, a kind of black ministerial institution, with his own radio shows and guest preaching gigs across the country. Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday…. This is as openly radical a background as any significant American political figure has ever emerged from, as much Malcolm X as Martin Luther King Jr. Wright is not an incidental figure in Obama’s life, or his politics. The senator “affirmed” his Christian faith in this church; he uses Wright as a “sounding board” to “make sure I’m not losing myself in the hype and hoopla.” Both the title of Obama’s III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 95 second book, The Audacity of Hope, and the theme for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 come from Wright’s sermons. “If you want to understand where Barack gets his feeling and rhetoric from,” says the Rev. Jim Wallis, a leader of the religious left, “just look at Jeremiah Wright.”’ (Wallace Wood, Rolling Stone) Indeed. JEREMIAH WRIGHT’S GREATEST HITS Wright was a racist provocateur operating in the orbit of the Ford Foundation and other counterinsurgency institutions. He was a guardian of a social order dominated by financiers and bankers. But he did this with radical black nationalist or Afrocentric cover, which guaranteed support from guilt-ridden white liberals. Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. became the Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) on March 1, 1972. The church motto is “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian,” which was a phrase coined by his predecessor, the Reverend Dr. Reuben Sheares, and was officially adopted by Wright. Trinity goes on to say: “Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain ‘true to our native land,’ the mother continent, the cradle of civilization…. “Trinity has a non-negotiable commitment to Africa, is committed to the historical education of African people in diaspora and committed to liberation, restoration, and economic parity.” Some have seen here a claim to Afrocentric racial superiority, which could only be grounded in irrationalist mysticism. Trinity United Church of Christ claims to be founded upon the “Black Value System,” written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. Trinity supports the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics, Trinity says, must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts: 1. Commitment to God 2. Commitment to the Black Community 3. Commitment to the Black Family 4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education 5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence 6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic 7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect 8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness” 9. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the Black Community 10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions 11. Pledge allegiance to all Black leadership who espouse and embrace the Black Value System 12. Personal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System. Wright was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He did not attend the largely black high school in his neighborhood, but instead took an exam which he passed to be able to attend an elite citywide high school which was largely white. This is an instance of Wright’s failure to practice the racial solidarity which he preaches when his own advantage is concretely at stake. Morton A. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, happened to have attended the same public 96 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography high school from which Wright graduated. Klein noted that Wright had chosen a highly competitive college prep program in a school which was largely white: It happens that, as a Philadelphian, I attended Central High School – the same public school Jeremiah Wright attended from 1955 to 1959. He could have gone to an integrated neighborhood school, but he chose to go to Central, a virtually all-white school. Central is the second-oldest public high school in the country, which attracts the most serious academic students in the city. The school then was about 80 percent Jewish and 95 percent white. The African-American students, like all the others, were there on merit. Generally speaking, we came from lower/middle class backgrounds. Many of our parents had not received a formal education, and we tended to live in row houses.” (Morton A. Klein, “Obama’s pastor: Product of privilege, not poverty,” World Net Daily, March 25, 2008) Wright’s choice of an affluent white neighborhood for his retirement was a clear violation of the ban on middle class values contained in his church program. But it did represent a return to Wright’s origins. After high school, Wright entered Virginia Union University. After three and a half years at Virginia Union, Pastor Wright left and entered the United States Marine Corps. He transferred from the USMC into the United States Navy where he served as a cardiopulmonary technician, assisting President Lyndon B. Johnson during the heart attack he suffered in office. After six years in the service, Pastor Wright transferred to Howard University where he completed his undergraduate studies and received his first Master’s Degree. His second Master’s Degree was from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His Doctorate was received from the United Theological Seminary, the noted smithy of synthetic religions near Columbia on Morningside Heights, under Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor. In addition to Pastor Wright’s four earned degrees, he has been the recipient of eight honorary doctorates. Some vintage Wright: “Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college,” he intones. “Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run! We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means! We are selfish, self-centered egotists who are arrogant and ignorant and betray our church and do not try to make the kingdom that Jesus talked about a reality. And — and — and in light of these 10 facts, God has got to be sick of this s**t” Some reports include an additional peroration, in the classical style recommended by Cicero and Quintilian: “And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS S**T!” (Wallace Wood, Rolling Stone, Kyle-Anne Shiver) When some authentic representatives of the historical black church were allowed on television to respond to Wright’s claims that he represented them, at least one of them offered the criticism that many black families would not want to stay in a church where “the pastor was cussing.” Wright did more: in one scene from his tapes, he began ranting that “Some argue that blacks should vote for Clinton “because her husband was good to us,” he continued. “That’s not true,” he thundered. “He did the same thing to us that he did to Monica Lewinsky.” He turned around and humped his own altar to emphasize that Bill Clinton had been “riding dirty” with Miss Lewinsky. III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 97 OBAMA HELPED FUND WRIGHT’S MICROPHONE Obama did not just listen to this tripe; he financed it and made it possible financially. In 2006, the Obamas gave $22,500 to Wright’s church, and this represented the vast majority of their charitable contributions. Wright’s church was foundation-funded: for example, in 2001 the Woods Fund, where Obama was a board member, awarded a $6,000 grant to Trinity United. They were paying for an agitational machine disguised as a church. Wright, for his part, needed the money to buy his new Porsche. Worldly asceticism was not a part of the Protestant ethic as interpreted by Wright. He rejected middleclassness in favor of upperclassness, or, more simply, elitism. Obama has described Wright as his spiritual mentor and his sounding board. A key phrase from one of Wright’s sermons is the “audacity of hope,” which Obama has affixed as the title of his compendium of observations on his own presidential campaign. Wright is a great admirer of Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, and traveled with Farrakhan to visit with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. Farrakhan has gotten his picture on the cover of Wright’s parish magazine several times, sometimes in the company of Obama. Wright’s church gave Farrakhan the “Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer” Award at the 2007 Trumpet Gala at the United Church of Christ. According to some reports, Wright himself was for a time a member of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen noted that the Trinity United house organ had once named Louis Farrakhan as its person of the year, praising the Nation of Islam leader. Cohen called on Obama to denounce such praise of Farrakhan, known for statements deemed anti-Semitic. In his January 15, 2008 Washington Post column, Richard Cohen wrote: “Every year, [Trumpet] makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said ‘truly epitomized greatness.’ That man is Louis Farrakhan.” Farrakhan was a hero to some, but for others who looked at him from the left, he fell far short of what was needed. There was for example Farrakhan’s address to the Million Man March of 1995, when titanic efforts had been marshaled by ordinary black men to demonstrate for the survival of the black family. Farrakhan was the main speaker. He had no legislative program to outline to mobilize and sustain the efforts of the black men who had come so far at such expense to hear him. Instead, he launched into a raving tirade about numerology, babbling about the number of steps leading to various buildings in Washington, or their height as measured in feet. It was an appalling performance. He finished up with a kind of pledge by those present, but there was no mention of a political party or something concrete to express so much need and so much energy. Not surprisingly, the momentum generated by the Million Man March quickly dissipated. Farrakhan had proven once and for all that he was no political leader. He had not been able to point to the next step, to the next link in the chain of meaningful political action. Many wondered what Farrakhan was about after all, with his idiotic and self-destructive anti- Semitic outbursts. There had been a time after that fabled trip to Libya when he had seemed to suggest that he had become a kind of paymaster for Qaddafi. Some claimed that he had had a role in the assassination of Malcolm X, who had been a rival of sorts to him for the NOI succession. Did Farrakhan have connections to the US intelligence community? If he did, then everything would begin to fall into place, including his indirect association to Obama. Farrakhan has endorsed Obama for the presidency, saying that the Illinois senator “is the hope of the entire world, that America will change and be made better.” It was Farrakhan who had been quoted saying, “White people are potential humans — they haven’t evolved yet.” Was Farrakhan a provocateur for the FBI? When the spotlight was trained on this matter, Obama has run away in the other direction. 98 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography In the week ending March 14, 2008, the American public came to know the intemperate rhetorical outbursts of this Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ which Obama and his family had by then been attending for some 20 years. It turned out that videotapes and audiotapes of Reverend Wright’s incendiary sermons had long been available for public sale, but that the controlled corporate media, had pooh-poohed any attempt to dig beneath their favorite candidate’s messianic-utopian veneer, had not paid any attention to this mass of damning material until the Obama candidacy had begun to falter after his loss of the Ohio and Texas primaries. Until this time, only a limited number of taped sermons had been presented on television, although some had been widely available on the Internet. During the critical week in question, Brian Ross of ABC news was one of the first to present extensive excerpts from Reverend Wright’s ranting performances. He was quickly followed by Hannity, O’Reilly, and Greta Van Susteren, and then by CNN, followed by the diehard Obama hysterics at MSNBC. On March 14 2008, a media firestorm swirled around the increasingly daemonic figure of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, prompting Obama to drop the ranting Reverend from a committee of spiritual advisers to his campaign. WRIGHT: “GOD DAMN AMERICA” The culmination of Wright’s doctrine was this: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people.” “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003) “God damn Wall Street” would have been above reproach. “God damn Bush” would have gotten applause on any street. “God damn the CIA” would have been warmly received in many quarters. But “God damn America,” is the subjunctive form of a wish that God visit evil upon the American people, and that is quite another matter. “God damn” is considered a form of blasphemy since it amounts to giving orders to God, telling God to hate. It shows that Wright was not a Christian at all, but a purveyor of hate. If Obama says he got to Christ through Wright, then he never got there, since Wright’s religion was a satanic cover story for Mammon and Pluto. In this case, Obama never got to Christianity at all, and may well be a Satanist himself. WRIGHT’S LEFT CIA BLOWBACK THEORY OF 9/11 Wright raved on and on: “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sept. 16, 2001)19 This is the CIA’s favorite blowback theory, most famously embraced by the ex-Weatherman bomb expert and sometime professor at the University of Colorado Ward Churchill. Churchill called the 9/11 victims “little Eichmanns,” and argued that those who did not embrace the official myth of 9/11 complete with the 19 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Ramzi Binalshib were in fact racists who were seeking to deny that the Arabs were after all capable of great things. Ward Churchill taught the pseudo-revolutionary provocateur group the Weathermen how to make bombs and fire weapons, according to a Fox News report citing the Jan. 18, 1987 issue of the Denver Post. The revelation is among many reported since Churchill prompted a national furor with publicity over an essay he wrote entitled “Some People III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 99 Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens.” (“9-11 professor trained terrorists: Radical group Weathermen assisted by Ward Churchill, World Net Daily, February 11, 2005) The parallels to Wright are evident. An entire left CIA, foundation-funded domestic intelligence and counterinsurgency network was primed to spout the “chickens coming home to roost” line right after 9/11. This blowback theory had broad appeal to morally insane leftists who wanted to see 9/11 as the just punishment and retribution for US imperialist crimes. The problem was that 9/11 had been a cynical provocation staged and manufactured by the CIA and the rest of the US intelligence community to start a unilateral version of the war of civilizations.20 Blowback was the most insidious defense of the official 9/11 story. In honor of his role, blowback advocate Ward Churchill had been awarded the Arlen Spector Award for 2005. Named in honor of the originator of the “magic bullet” theory of the Kennedy assassination, the Arlen Spector Award goes yearly to the person who offers the most imaginative and demagogic defense of an official big lie. This jest had been mine, but the point was no jest. The newspaper of record, as usual, attempts to obfuscate this issue: ‘On that Sunday after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Mr. Wright also said the attacks were a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later he wrote that the attacks had proved that “people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.” “The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification,” Obama said in a recent interview. He was not at Trinity the day Mr. Wright delivered his remarks shortly after the attacks, Mr. Obama said, but “it sounds like he was trying to be provocative. … Reverend Wright is a child of the 60s, and he often expresses himself in that language of concern with institutional racism and the struggles the African-American community has gone through,” Mr. Obama said. “He analyzes public events in the context of race. I tend to look at them through the context of social justice and inequality.”’ (“A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith,” New York Times, April 30, 2007) Like Wright, Deval Patrick, and Weatherman veteran Ward Churchill, Obama embraced the blowback theory of 9/11. Here are Obama’s remarks right after 9/11, which are worth citing because they show his complete alignment with the left wing of the US intelligence establishment: Even as I hope for some measure of peace and comfort to the bereaved families, I must also hope that we as a nation draw some measure of wisdom from this tragedy. Certain immediate lessons are clear, and we must act upon those lessons decisively. We need to step up security at our airports. We must reexamine the effectiveness of our intelligence networks. And we must be resolute in identifying the perpetrators of these heinous acts and dismantling their organizations of destruction. We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair. We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to 100 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe—children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and within our own shores.21 This is terrorism as a purely spontaneous sociological phenomenon, the direct reaction to economic issues, without the intervention of intelligence agencies. I have provided an exhaustive refutation of this point of view in my 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA (2005 ff.) WRIGHT: “I’M A BAD MAMMA JAMMA!” Even the left liberals at the New Yorker were uneasy with some of Wright’s more incendiary positions, no doubt because they represented a threat that the Perfect Master might be unmasked: Wright, who drives a Porsche and references Bernie Mac and Terry McMillan in his unorthodox sermons (“Take what God gave you and say, ‘In your face, mediocrity, I’m a bad mamma jamma!’”)…. Wright preached. Wright espouses a theology that seeks to reconcile African- American Christianity with, as he has written, “the raw data of our racist existence in this strange land.” The historical accuracy of that claim is incontestable. But his message is more confrontational than may be palatable to some white voters. In his book Africans Who Shaped Our Faith —an extended refutation of the Western Christianity that gave rise to “the European Jesus . . . the blesser of the slave trade, the defender of racism and apartheid”—he says, “In this country, racism is as natural as motherhood, apple pie, and the fourth of July. Many black people have been deluded into thinking that our BMWs, Lexuses, Porsches, Benzes, titles, heavily mortgaged condos and living environments can influence people who are fundamentally immoral.” In portraying America as “a Eurocentric wasteland of lily-white lies and outright distortions,” Wright promulgates a theory of congenital separatism that is deeply at odds with Obama’s professed belief in the possibilities of unity and change. (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) Obama had warned Wright to stay away from his pseudo-Lincolnesque announcement of his campaign in early 2007, but that had not been enough for the egomaniac Wright, it seemed. Asked about the incident almost a year before the Wright scandal blew up in grand style, the Obama campaign stated: ‘“Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church.” In March 2007, Wright commented in an interview that his own family and some close associates were angry about the canceled address, for which they blamed Obama’s campaign advisers, but that the situation was “not irreparable.” The haughty and vindictive Wright added menacingly: “Several things need to happen to fix it.” When asked if he and Mr. Wright had settled this quarrel, Obama said: “Those are conversations between me and my pastor.” “If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Mr. Wright said with a shrug. “I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.”’ (“A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith,” New York Times, April 30, 2007) Wright, in his moments of lucidity, was aware of himself as a violently controversial figure. Wright told The New York Times in a March 6, 2007 interview: “When his [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli,” with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to visit Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, “a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.” Note that for Wright, all political categories are racial and racist categories. Nevertheless, in a March 2008 campaign appearance, Sen. Obama said, “I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial.” This argued for very poor judgment indeed, since Wright was about to become a huge obstacle to Obama’s presidential power grab. III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 101 The ranting sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright established beyond doubt that he is a purveyor of racial hatred, and that this hatemongering was a constant, habitual, and structural feature of his pulpit oratory. If Obama were as conciliatory and irenic as he claims to be, why does he associate with such a person? Why not quit this church and find another one more consonant with traditional Christianity? Instead, we find that Reverend Jeremiah Wright officiated at Obama’s wedding, at the christenings of his two daughters, and that the title of Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope, the book we have referred to as the postmodern Mein Kampf, is a direct citation from one of Reverend Wright’s incendiary sermons. BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY: THE CONE-HEADS In a spring 2007 television interview with Hannity, Reverend Wright stated that he is an exponent of Black liberation theology, with special reference to the works of theologians like James Cone and Dwight Hopkins. These writers, Reverend Wright argued, are the sources of the black and Afrocentric Christianity which is taught in his church. James Cone is a professor at the Union Theological Seminary, located near Columbia University in New York City. Union Theological Seminary is for all practical purposes a factory for new and improved synthetic religions, structured according to the needs of the oligarchical financier elite to manipulate, dominate, and control various target populations. Cone, the founder of black liberation theology, concocted a synthetic religion combining porkchop black nationalism, third-world pseudo-Marxism, and primitive Christianity. He describes his own handiwork as “a theology which confronts white society as the racist anti-Christ.” In a war against “white values,” black pastors, like Wright, must reject “white seminaries with their middleclass white ideas about God, Christ and the church.” (Rich Lowry, “The Real Rev. Wright,” realclearpolitics.com, April 29, 2008) “What I write is urged out of my blood,” writes Cone. A religion of blood means a religion of blood consciousness and race, taking us back to National Socialism. We are close to Fichte’s Volksgeist and Mazzini’s idea that the races are the real actors of history. We are also close to Michelle Obama’s advice to her husband to be visceral, to feel and not to think, which will be discussed below. Cone gives up any notion of supernatural religion and makes religion derive from a contingent historical experience when he writes: “To put it simply, Black Theology knows no authority more binding than the experience of oppression itself. This alone must be the ultimate authority in religious matters.” Whites are presented as “madmen sick with their own self-concept.” Cone lays particular stress on his contention that Jesus Christ was black: “The ‘raceless’ American Christ has a light skin, wavy brown hair, and sometimes - wonder of wonders - blue eyes. For whites to find him with big lips and kinky hair is as offensive as it was for the Pharisees to find him partying with tax-collectors. But whether whites want to hear it or not, Christ is black, baby, with all of the features which are so detestable to white society.” (In Christianity, by contrast, God is a spirit, and the issue of skin color does not arise.) In Cone’s theology, eternal salvation is equated with black people rising up against their white oppressors. As a coherent gnostic, Cone re-interprets the notions of eternity and paradise as rewards that can and should be obtained in this world. CONE: “IF GOD IS NOT FOR US AND AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE, THEN HE IS A MURDERER” Cone went much further, attempting to transform Christ from the universal living God to a kind of totemic or animistic tribal god suitable to lead a raiding party in a race war: 102 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” And again: “In the New Testament, Jesus is not for all, but for the oppressed, the poor and unwanted of society, and against oppressors ... Either God is for black people in their fight for liberation and against the white oppressors, or he is not.” (See William R. Jones, “Divine Racism: The Unacknowledged Threshold Issue for Black Theology,” in African-American Religious Thought: An Anthology, ed. Cornel West and Eddie Glaube [Westminster John Knox Press]; cited by Spengler, “The peculiar theology of black liberation,” Asia Times). Christianity allows and indeed requires class distinctions, with a preferential bias in favor of the poor and the destitute, as expressed in the imperative to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the sick and prisoners, and bury the dead. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. But the apostles are commanded to preach the gospel to all nations, without exception, and St. Paul is adamant that there can be no difference between Jew and Greek, Jew and Gentile, Syrian, or Samaritan. What Cone is preaching here is a new synthetic religion which can only be described as satanic, since it is most explicitly based on hatred. If Obama claims that he reached Christianity thanks to Reverend Wright, we can only conclude that he never became a Christian, since as a disciple of Cone, Wright himself could never be classified as a Christian. What Cone has elaborated is a religion of hatred which is the opposite of Christianity. DISTURBING PRECEDENTS FOR ETHNIC RELIGION Cone’s work calls to mind the outlook of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the racist and antisemitic friend of the German Emperor William II and later a supporter of Hitler. Chamberlain was an Englishman who chose to become a German; he was a relative of Sir Neville Chamberlain, who appeased Hitler at Munich in an attempt to turn him east against Russia. Chamberlain was one of only four persons whom the National Socialists acknowledged as their ideological forebears: the three others were the composer Richard Wagner, the anti-semite Lagarde, and the philodoxer Nietzsche; Chamberlain was the only one who did not come from the German-speaking area of central Europe. Chamberlain’s argument was that the Germanic master race was the bearer and originator of all civilization and culture and admirable in all things save one: it did not have its own ethnic religion, and was saddled with an alien Christianity, a religion which Chamberlain rejected for racist reasons since so many of the main figures were Jews, and also because of doctrines like charity, which were incompatible with the way of the Germanic warrior. Chamberlain called for the creation of a specifically and exclusively Germanic ethnic religion, he called this “eine arteignene Religion” or “eine artmäßige Religion.” Cone’s work can be most clearly understood if we view him as a new Houston Stewart Chamberlain, attempting to create a new and synthetic ethnic religion in the service of the oligarchical foundation community, with the same kind of reactionary and anti-human intent which animated Chamberlain. Cone’s talk of killing God also puts him in a class with another proto-Nazi, Nietzsche. In modern America, the intent of all this is a transparent strategy of divide and conquer, splitting the population into more or less fictitious subject nationalities, each with its own ethnic III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 103 idol, thus guaranteeing that no united front against the preponderance of the financiers can ever emerge. What is the extent of Cone’s influence? Apologists for Obama have argued that two-thirds of black preachers in America sound like Wright, but empirical studies suggest that the real figure is far less, perhaps one-third at the very most. C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya carried out a ten-year statistical study of the black church in America, published as The Black Church in the African-American Experience (1990). One of the questions asked in this study dealt with black liberation theology: “In our urban questionnaire we asked the pastors of 1,531 urban churches, ‘Have you been influenced by any of the authors and thinkers of black liberation theology?’“ It turned out that only 34.9 percent of urban black clergy said they had been influenced by black liberation theologians, as opposed to 65.1 percent who said they had not. Lincoln and Mamiya found a class divide in this regard, with more affluent and educated congregations more likely to be influenced by black liberation theology. Pastors with a high school and lower educational background said that they were minimally influenced by liberation theology, while those with a college education had the most positive views of the movement. The majority of the less educated pastors had neither heard of the movement nor of the names of theologians associated with it. Among clergy familiar with the movement, James Cone had the highest name recognition. (Ron Rhodes, “Black Theology, Black Power, and the Black Experience”) The implication is clear: black liberation theology is in fact an ideology of the black overclass. FORD OPERATIVES AT TRINITY UNITED Dwight N. Hopkins, the other named mentioned by Wright, is a professor of theology at the University of Chicago and an ordained American Baptist minister. He teaches at the Rockefellerfunded, right-wing elitist University of Chicago, and also teaches at Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ, where his students expect to be treated as his university students. During the Reverend Wright crisis of the Obama campaign, Hopkins acted more and more as a spokesman for Wright’s church in numerous cable television interviews. Hopkins is the “Communications Coordinator for the International Association of Black Religions and Spiritualities, a Ford Foundation sponsored global project,” as we learn from the Trinity United web site. Hopkins is thus an operative of the notorious Ford Foundation, a flagship institution of the US financier oligarchy. He is also an official of Obama’s church, and the dominant figure of Wright’s Center for African Biblical Studies. Wright says of Hopkins: “His work covers what has transpired over the past 30 years in the area of black theology. The developments he covers are a ‘must’ for Generation X-ers” – including, therefore, Obama. Hopkins’ standpoint is that of a “theological interpretation of black power.” It is the attempt to project the privileges and psychological defenses of the black overclass into the heaven of theology, and must thus be classed as a blasphemous abuse of religion for venal and demagogic goals. In his notorious performance at the National Press Club in April 2008, Wright attempted to camouflage the fact of a new synthetic religion entirely separate from Christianity behind a smoke screen of relativism. Wright’s relativism means that all alternatives are axiomatically equal, no matter what their quality or what their consequences for human survival might be. Wright’s universe recalls Hegel’s description of Schelling in the preface to his Phenomenology of Mind — a night in which everything looks the same: “The prophetic theology of the black church in our day is preached to set African-Americans and all other Americans free from the misconceived notion that different means deficient. Being different does not mean one is deficient. It simply means one is different, like snowflakes, like the diversity that God loves. Black music is different from European 104 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography and European music. It is not deficient. It is just different. Black worship is different from European and European-American worship. It is not deficient. It is just different. Black preaching is different from European and European-American preaching. It is not deficient. It is just different. It is not bombastic. It is not controversial. It’s different.” Using this boundless relativism, Wright can level good and evil, charity and hatred. He can and did mock the “garlic-nosed” Italians, the Irish, and the music of Georg Friedrich Handel. Wright was a great hater of Europe. As well as being the purveyor of a wholly fantastic and utopian vision of Africa and its history, Wright was an obscurantist of the first magnitude. Obama alleged that he had come to Christianity through Wright, but it was clear that Wright was light years distant from Christianity. Wright was a worshipper of Ford Foundation grants, a racist provocateur and merchant of hatred working to preserve Wall Street’s domination over American society. The only religion that Obama could have learned at Wright’s knee was hate-based Satanism, concocted in the service of Mammon, Pluto, and all the other gods of wealth. To make matters worse, there is no proof that Obama was ever baptized. Chicago-based journalist, broadcaster and critic Andy Martin, when asked about Obama’s baptism, wrote, “I have never been able to obtain any evidence that he was baptized, although I asked for those records.” A body of doctrine which claims to be a religion, as distinct from a political ideology, must deal with an eternal truth growing out of the ontological situation of God and humanity in the world. Religion is not the distillation of anybody’s specific predicament or historical experience. Cone wants to celebrate the triumph of postmodern “cultures” over any notions of what is universal and eternal. God is either an eternal spirit with no color at all, or is nothing. There cannot be a white god nor a black god nor a Russian god nor a Chinese god – there can be only one universal God, unless we wish to regress to polytheism or totemism. As soon as we have a separate god for every skin color, religion is out the window, replaced by a kind of deus ex machina useful mainly for propaganda purposes. If we have a black god who wants to rise up against whites, we should not be surprised if another god appears who recommends white supremacy, soon followed by another god who supports Serbia against Albania, still another one who is mainly concerned with global warming, and yet another one who wants more tax cuts for the rich. God is not a figment of a political perspective nor of a strategy for health and wealth. But Cone’s god appears to be precisely something of this order – the embodiment of an ideology of accumulation of wealth under conditions of affirmative action, in late US-UK imperialism. FORD FOUNDATION THEOLOGY Where does this pseudo-theology come from? Since the 1960s, the Ford Foundation has been a leading agency for funding black cultural nationalism and separatism (sometimes referred to as “pork chop cultural nationalism”) as a strategy for divide-and-conquer counterinsurgency in the black ghetto and among economically disadvantaged inner-city populations more generally. In these efforts, the watchwords of the Ford Foundation have been community control, local control, and self-management. The goal is always to fragment, divide, and Balkanize the oppressed subject populations according to every conceivable fault line of ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, sexual preference, age, gender, and any other splinter factor that the social engineers can devise. In this way, a general political challenge to the rule of the financiers will never emerge. Martin Luther King, by contrast, was opposed to racial quotas during his entire career, and this view was shared by both Robert Kennedy and by the black civil rights advocate Bayard Rustin. Rustin wrote that “any preferential approach postulated on racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual lines III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 105 will only disrupt a multicultural society and lead to backlash. However, special treatment can be provided to those who have been exploited or denied opportunities if solutions are predicated on class lines, precisely because all religious, ethnic, and religious groups have a depressed class who would benefit.” The class-based strategy is one that would tend to unite all of the present squabbling and contending oppressed groupings of American society in a united front against their common oppressor, as in the Wall Street financier class and their minions. The Ford Foundation, the left CIA, and the domestic counterinsurgency apparatus have always been mobilized to head off precisely this possibility. Racial quotas were introduced by President Richard Nixon and his secretary of labor George Schultz, who used a quota system called the Philadelphia plan to pit black unemployed against white construction workers, to the detriment of both and to the greater glory of the bosses. Support for racial quotas came from such black activists as Ford Foundation operative Floyd McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality, CIA provocateur Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the famous FBI provocateur H. Rap Brown, and James Forman. All of these figures performed the precious service of giving black nationalist radical and left cover to what was inherently a divide-and-conquer strategy invented by the ruling class for the purpose of playing one group in the population off against another. Racial preferences and quotas boiled down to a system of somewhat enhanced tokenism, having as an additional purpose the recruitment of the most active and intelligent elements of the oppressed groups as privileged tools of the ruling class, whose characteristic outlook and methods they assimilate and internalize to a large degree as their own. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IMPOSED BY NIXON AND SHULTZ Most left liberals naively assume that affirmative action is the only conceivable approach to the race problem, despite the fact that it has failed over 40 years to improve the poverty of the black inner city. Most people do not know that affirmative action was born as a counterinsurgency strategy devised by none other than Richard Milhous Nixon and his retainers, most notably the current boss of the neocon establishment, George Shultz. Here are some considerations which I advanced a decade ago in my Surviving the Cataclysm. Michael Lind correctly notes that post-1968 multiculturalism represents a demagogic and successful form of tokenism applied as a counterinsurgency strategy; for Lind, “identity politics is merely America’s version of the oldest oligarchic trick in the book: divide and rule.” (Lind, The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution, 141) The atrophy of class analysis in modern America is partly the fault of the 1960s New Left, which was much more interested in race and gender than in class. The New Left was interested in community control for the black community, which happened to be the main domestic counterinsurgency tactic of the Sargent Shriver Office of Economic Opportunity and the Ford Foundation. This is the classic divide-and-conquer approach to ethnic groups which has been assumed by imperial ruling classes from time immemorial, from the Ottoman milliyet-bachi (or ethnark) system to the British Raj in India to the Soviet autonomous republics set up by Stalin. MARSHALL PLAN FOR THE CITIES, OR RACIAL QUOTAS? The basic problems of black ghetto victims by 1970 (or 1997) were in reality largely economic — jobs, wages, health care, education, mass transit, housing, and related issues. The same was true of the black rural poor. To even begin to address these problems would have required a domestic Marshall Plan, a second New Deal on a vast scale. The post-1957 stagnation of productive 106 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography employment and industrial investment would have had to be reversed. Such an approach would necessarily have treated the disadvantaged layers of all ethnic groups, and would have required very substantial investments and other expenditures. The US financial elite, fixated on its new runaway shop opportunities in the globaloney economy, was not interested in such a domestic Marshall Plan. The finance oligarchs also had reason to fear a multiracial coalition from below, which had been attempted during the Detroit mass strikes of the 1930s and 1940s, as documented in the section “Black and White, Unite” of Maurice Zeitlin’s Talking Union. These mass strikes had forced the finance oligarchs to accept the existence of unions. A program of domestic counterinsurgency based on racial tokenism and “shucks” for the oppressed ethnic groups now seemed far more attractive to them. The basic mentality involved is subtly hinted at by Albert Blumrosen, who as a 1970 functionary of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission helped to lay the groundwork for the current system. Blumrosen wrote in his book on Black Employment and the Law: “If discrimination is narrowly defined, for example, by requiring an evil intent to injure minorities, then it will be difficult to prove that it exists. If it does not exist, then the plight of racial and ethnic minorities must be attributable to some more generalized failures in society, in the fields of basic education, housing, family relations, and the like. The search for efforts to improve the condition of minorities must then focus in these general and difficult areas, and the answers can come only gradually as basic institutions, attitudes, customs and practices are changed.” This same outlook had been expressed a little earlier by George Shultz. Over the years Shultz has been Secretary of Labor, of the Treasury, and of State, and is said to have a Princeton tiger tattooed on his posterior. During Nixon’s first term, Shultz revived the so-called Philadelphia Plan, a system of racial quotas for hiring in the then largely white construction trades which had been developed by Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz of the Johnson administration. John Ehrlichman of Nixon’s palace guard later commented in his memoirs that Tricky Dick “thought that Secretary of Labor George Shultz had shown great style constructing a political dilemma for the labor union leaders and civil rights groups....Before long, the AFL-CIO and the NAACP were locked in combat over the passionate issues of the day.” (Ehrlichman, 228-229) Later, the McGovern group in the Democratic Party would inscribe racial and gender quotas on their own banner so prominently that Nixon in 1972 could get away with attacking McGovern as “the quota candidate.” The Democratic Party and the unions should at this point have adopted a plank calling for expanded production and productive jobs for all Americans, rather than accept the logic of quotas, which amount to quarreling over the distribution of the shrinking pie. The decline of the Democratic Party and of the labor movement over the reactionary quarter century after 1970 is the result of the failure to advocate economic expansion, and not quotas, during Nixon’s first term. Quotas and associated practices like school busing have become lightning rods for white backlash and resentment, which in turn made possible the successful Republican southern strategy in the Electoral College and the long night of Reagan, Bush, and Gingrich. 22 NIXON- SHULTZ PHILADELPHIA PLAN PLAYS BLACKS AGAINST UNIONS According to one account, in a meeting with Republican Congressional leaders “Nixon emphasized the importance of exploiting the Philadelphia Plan to split the Democratic constituency and drive a wedge between the civil rights groups and organized labor.” [Hugh Davis Graham, The Civil Rights Era (New York: Oxford, 1990)] Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin told a 1969 AFL-CIO gathering that Nixon’s successful playing off of black groups against the unions was “a source of tremendous satisfaction to powerful enemies of the labor movement.” To underline the consensus in the ruling elite, the blue-ribbon commission chaired by former Illinois Governor Otto Kerner III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 107 which studied the causes of the ghetto riots of the mid-1960s concluded that “white racism” was the cause of black discontent and of the race problem in America — white racism alone, and not slums, low wages, wretched schools, nonexistent health care, and unemployment. The Kerner Commission report was the voice of the white and inept US ruling elite scapegoating white workers and the white middle class for its own sorry record. Originally, racial quotas and affirmative action were supposed to represent redress for past discrimination. After a decade or two, that was transformed into the need to enhance diversity among a series of artificial, bureaucratically defined “cultures,” including African-Americans, Asians and Pacific islanders, Hispanics, Native Americans, and whites as the five official variants. Race quotas, preferences, set-asides, offsets and the rest of the dismal apparatus of multiculturalism amount to a sophisticated and insidious counterinsurgency strategy which fosters the co-opting of talented black, Hispanic and other organic leaders into an artificial stratum of clients of the ruling elite. Multiculturalism, it must be stressed again, has not led to economic development or to broad-front improvement in the condition of any ethnic group. Multiculturalism is tokenism. Black and Hispanic ghetto victims have not been helped by this approach. Multiculturalism has delivered material advantages for the few, and has betrayed the hopes of the many. In the world of education, the irrationalist attempt to justify quotas and discrimination has debased the quality of intellectual and cultural life, which cannot escape the fact that the hopes of the majority of all ethnic origins have been betrayed. Barack and Michelle Obama are examples of the greedy opportunists who have been the winners under affirmative action. SALVING THE BAD CONSCIENCE OF THE BLACK OVERCLASS Forty years later, these policies have resulted in the creation of a black overclass made up to some degree of the beneficiaries of affirmative action, racial quotas, set-asides, preferential treatment in government contracts at all levels for minority-owned businesses, and the like. This black overclass likes to portray itself as the authentic representatives of the black community as a whole, but in reality it looks down on the black underclass caught in the cycle of ghetto inner-city poverty as if it were a completely separate group. More accurately, the affirmative-action portion of the black overclass regards the oppressed black underclass as a useful political commodity which can be exploited for the purposes of obtaining more concessions from the white establishment — concessions which should flow into the pockets of the black overclass, and never reach the sidewalks of the inner-city ghetto. The black overclass thus combines a militant black nationalist or black empowerment ideology with extreme forms of economic individualism, rent-seeking, and personal aggrandizement of all kinds. It is a cynical exercise in duplicity, and is at least one of the contributing factors for a situation in which the inner-city black ghetto is getting poorer, while the income gap between the black overclass and the black underclass is also rapidly expanding. What then is the psychological consequence of such a situation for the individual member of the black overclass? The black overclass is rapidly accumulating mansions, BMWs, mink coats, diamond jewelry, and the other apparatus of conspicuous consumption. The black ghetto victim, by contrast, is sinking deeper and deeper into abject poverty. In the face of the situation, however, the black overclass continues to demand additional privileges for itself, while continuing to neglect the urgent material needs of the vast majority of the black community. The kind of black liberation theology purveyed by Dwight Hopkins, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and the Trinity United Church of Christ provides a kind of answer to the resulting psychological tensions. The more BMWs you have in your garage and the more mink coats you have in your closet, the more vehemently you must complain about the Atlantic slave trade, apartheid and the Sharpeville 108 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography massacre, the Tuskegee experiment, and similar atrocities, often quite real but all far from your own privileged existence. The more Ivy League degrees you have on your wall, the louder you must chant, “God damn America!” The more government contracts you have obtained, the more you must profess the blowback theory of 9/11, citing the 3,000 deaths of innocent people as God’s punishment for the racist crimes of US imperialism. All these points represent nothing but the characteristic outlook of the foundations. The religion preached by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the theologian Dwight Hopkins at the Trinity United Church of Christ is demonstrably not Christianity, but rather a gnostic-synthetic ersatz belief structure which has been whipped up and concocted for the special emotional needs of a narrow segment of the black overclass under conditions of affirmative action in the late Anglo-American imperialist development. To be more concise, Reverend Wright’s church is a foundation-funded cult. It teaches an ethnocentric, synthetic religion. Some in the black community offered criticisms of Wright; here is one from Jonetta Rose Barras, a well-known radio commentator in the Washington DC area, who was confused about Obama, but not about that fact that Wright was at least obsolete: I’ve known preachers like the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., former pastor to Sen. Barack Obama. Like many of them, he no doubt sees his congregation as full of victims, and thinks that his words will inspire them to rise out of their victimhood. I understand that. Once upon a time, I saw myself as a victim, too, destined to march in place. In the 1970s and ‘80s, as a clenched-fist-pumping black nationalist with my head wrapped in an elaborate gele, I reflected that self-concept in my speech. My words were as fiery as the Rev. Wright’s. And more than a few times, I, too, damned America, loudly, for its treatment of blacks. But I turned away from such rhetoric. Is it time that Wright and other ministers do, too? But just as spirituals eventually lost their relevance and potency as an organizing tool against discrimination — even as they retained their historical importance in the African-American cultural narrative — so, I believe, has Wright-speak lost its place. It’s harmful and ultimately can’t provide healing. And it’s outdated in the 21st century. I came to this realization gradually. As I expanded my associations and experiences — organizing in places such as San Francisco, Providence, R.I., Patterson, N.J. and Northeast Washington, meeting caring Hispanics, Asians and whites — I came to know that we are all more alike than different. I saw that our dreams sat inside each other. All of us wanted a better America, not so much for ourselves as for our children, and their children. Achieving this meant that we had to get beyond our past segregated lives and work together, inspiring the best in ourselves — not the bitterness and the biases. […]And today, there is an entire generation of young people who know nothing of segregation, who see one another as individuals, not as symbols of a dark past. They do not look into white faces and see, as I once did, a burning cross, a white sheet and a vicious dog on a police officer’s leash. This is the coalition pushing for a new America. (Jonetta Rose Barras, “He’s Preaching to a Choir I’ve Left,” Washington Post, March 23, 2008) DOROTHY TILLMAN, OBAMA ALLY: “AMERICA OWES US” GRAFT Another of Obama’s Chicago political cronies is Dorothy Tillman, an alderwoman of the city. Tillman’s specialty is to try to extort payments from banks and corporations which reportedly go to herself and her clients, based on the accusation that the bank or company in question participated in slavery. Tillman has been quoted as saying her goal is to “repair the damage of 400 years” of slavery. “America owes us,” she says. (Chicago Sun-Times, March 26, 2007) Again, this is not the demand for broad-based economic development programs for the black underclass. It is often an attempt to extort cash payments to specific individuals to make a public relations problem go away, III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 109 leaving the black ghetto in its current predicament. Alderman Tillman’s record must be read in connection with her track record for corruption: ‘Obama had endorsed …Dorothy Tillman, calling her “a very early supporter of my campaign.” Tillman was then under fire for her stewardship of the scandal-plagued Harold Washington Cultural Center, where contracts benefited members of her family. Obama rejected the notion that such endorsements conflict with his promotion of ethics reform in government.’ (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) Reverend Wright argued in his sermon on Christmas Day 2007 that resistance against the Obama presidential candidacy was predicated on the fact that Obama did not “fit the mold.” “He ain’t white!” exclaimed the Reverend. A half truth at best, since Obama is half white. “He ain’t rich!” Manifestly false, since the Obamas reported a 2005 income of about $1.6 million, with Michelle pulling down $325,000 as gatekeeper to push black ghetto victims out of the University of Chicago Hospital, plus $101,083 in 2006 for serving on the board of the wage-gouging, union-busting Tree House (a Walmart supplier). Obama got almost $70,000 per year as a mere lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, a very good deal for a mere adjunct. They live in a mansion with a wine cellar containing a thousand bottles of the finest vintage wine – as many bottles of wine as Imelda Marcos had pairs of shoes. By mid-2008, it was estimated that the Obamas were worth about $7 million overall. They were rich by anybody’s measure. “He ain’t privileged!” Another lie, as Michelle’s Princeton and Harvard degrees, made possible by affirmative action, sufficiently document. In a cynical attempt at deceiving voters, Obama has tried to pretend that sermons with incendiary contents were the exception rather than the rule at Trinity United. This is obviously disingenuous. Obama was not just listening to Reverend Wright, he was also subsidizing the oratory of hatred with his generous financial contributions to the church. Obama was helping to pay for Reverend Wright’s microphone! Hatred was obviously Reverend Wright’s weekly stock in trade. Did Obama ever walk out of a sermon? Did he ever tell Reverend Wright to tone it down — before he began running for president at the end of 2006? Did he ever threaten to quit the congregation? Evidently, he did not. By mid-March 2008, the Reverend Wright affair had placed Obama in a bind. Would he remain a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ under Reverend Wright’s hand-picked successor, reportedly a worthy disciple in his apostolate of hatred? If he did, you could be sure that Reverend Wright’s taped outbursts would continue to knock him off message. If he tried to cut his losses by exiting from the congregation, he could be sure that an entire phalanx of Reverend Wright’s coreligionists of the black theology school would condemn him as a sellout who was capitulating under the pressure of the white man. All Obama could do was to attempt to paper over the entire question with his mellifluous and ambiguous rhetoric of reconciliation, which was sounding increasingly hollow in this new context. Even when he later pretended to repudiate Wright, it was done with qualifiers – he said that his relationship with Wright had changed, not that it was over. He also remained an active member of Trinity United, which now passed under the leadership of Ford Foundation grantee Otis Moss III. Obama left Trinity United only when the primaries were over and he was beginning his hard right turn. THE CASE OF FATHER PFLEGER, RENEGADE THEOLIB PRIEST The new Otis Moss regime brought new problems for Obama. On Easter Sunday, Moss preached that Wright had been subjected to a crucifixion, thus returning to the rhetorical tropes of victimization and persecution so favored by affirmative-action race-mongers when they get into 110 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography trouble. Moss also had a policy of inviting incendiary racist provocateurs to join him during divine services at Trinity United. One of these firebrands was a certain Father Michael Pfleger, a fiery liberal social activist of the liberation theology school and a white reverend at an African-American church, St. Sabina’s Catholic Church on the South Side of Chicago. Pfleger, an expert in racial pandering, is a longtime friend and associate of Obama, having known him since the Perfect Master was a community activist poverty pimp. In September, the Obama campaign had brought Pfleger to Iowa to host one of several interfaith forums for the campaign. So here we have yet another close personal friend of Obama over more than two decades who turns out to be a race-baiting provocateur. Pfleger’s appearance at the post-Wright Trinity United was introduced by Rev. Otis Moss personally with much praise for the visiting priest. Pfleger then launched into a tirade about the importance of taking on “white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head.” This goes back directly to the classic Weatherman line of “white skin privilege” still embraced by Dohrn and Ayers. Pfleger then turned his attention to those who have the temerity to oppose the ascendancy of the Perfect Master: “Rev. Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on,” Pfleger raved from the pulpit. “I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine! I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate.’ And then out of nowhere came, ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama,’ and she said, ‘Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!’ Pfleger then mocks Hillary weeping, much to delight of the crowd, many of whom stand up and applaud. “She wasn’t the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying!” Pfleger says to laughter. The tape, which shows only this one controversial part of Pfleger’s “sermon,” then cuts to Moss thanking Pfleger: “We thank God for the message, we thank God for the messenger, we thank God for Father Michael Pfleger,” Moss says.’ (Aaron Klein, World Net Daily, June 1, 2008) PFLEGER: “AMERICA IS THE GREATEST SIN AGAINST GOD” “Racism is still America’s greatest addiction,” Pfleger says. “I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God.” There seems to be a mixed reaction to that from the pews. But Pfleger explains: “If the greatest command is to love, than the sin against love must be the greatest sin against God who IS love and who calls us to love one another. So that this greatest sin against God, racism, it’s as natural as the air we breathe.” (Taylor Marsh, June 1, 2008) The New York Times recently reported that Father Pfleger had “long worked with South Side political leaders to reduce crime and improve the community” — so being a racist provocateur is only a sideline. “But he has drawn fire from some quarters for defending the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and inviting him to speak at his church.” (Jake Tapper, “Priest and Obama Ally Mocks Clinton’s Tears from Obama’s Church’s Pulpit,” ABC New, May 29, 2008) There could now be absolutely no doubt that Obama’s church represents an incendiary beacon and clearing house of racist provocation, is the atmosphere of race-baiting and scurrilous insults which Obama chose and embraced, not just for himself but for his entire family. Obama long remained a member of this cesspool of hatred, thus guaranteeing that the entire issue will live on all the way to the November election. ‘Sen. Barack Obama’s chief political strategist sits on the finance committee of the Chicago church led by controversial pastor Michael Pfleger, who claimed in a sermon last weekend Sen. Hillary Clinton cried in public because she thought being white entitled her to the Democratic presidential nomination.’ (Aaron Klein, World Net Daily, June 1, 2008) III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 111 WRIGHT’S $1.6 MILLION MANSION IN A RICH WHITE GATED COMMUNITY Wright himself was apparently taken underground by the Obama campaign, who did not want this racist provocateur doing any media interviews. Speculation was rife on right-wing talk radio that the racist reverend had been sequestered by Axelrod, and that he now slept with the fishes. In reality, he was ensconced at a luxury resort hotel in the Caribbean. Then it became known that Wright was about to move into a newly constructed $1.6 million mansion in the Chicago suburbs in a gated community where the black population was less than 2%. He was reported to enjoy a $10 million line of credit provided by Trinity United. His Porsche was in the garage. Wright was not an ascetic. Wright is also a highly political reverend, who gets around to the Gamaliel Foundation’s schedule of conferences. On June 21-22, 2007, for example, Gamaliel held its “African-American Leadership Conference” in Pittsburgh under the theme of “Uniting for Power.” The keynote speaker was none other than Jeremiah Wright. At this conference, Reverend John C. Welch of Pittsburgh made a thinly veiled call to mobilize politically for Obama: “I hope that when you leave you will also have a plan for your cities so that collectively we can make sure that this country will undergo an unprecedented cosmetic surgery in the 2008 presidential election,” said Welch. Welch was right: an Obama presidency, as is argued in this book, would constitute nothing more than a cosmetic makeover or facelift for a moribund empire. The goal needs to be to turn away from the path of empire and return to the ways of the constitutional republic. But Obama is too much of a puppet to be able to contemplate that route. When Otis Moss III, who replaced Wright at Trinity United, took advantage of the national attention focused on Trinity United to devote his Easter Sunday sermon to defending Wright from what he termed a “crucifixion.” The point was that the affirmative action beneficiary needed above all things to cultivate the metaphysical pose of the eternal victim – in order to get more grants. One was reminded of a right-wing reactionary who had benefited from affirmative action (even if he proposed to remove it for others). This was Clarence Thomas, who told his 1992 Senate confirmation hearings that he had been the victim of a “high-tech lynching.” Otis Moss III had gone to college at Morehouse College thanks to a grant from the Ford Foundation. NATIONAL SOCIALISM: THE CYNICAL USES OF IDENTITY POLITICS The activities of the Ford Foundation and the other foundations for which it serves as a flagship do not represent the first time that racial issues have been cynically used for the pursuit of political ends. The leader of the National Socialist movement will always be associated with the most virulent exploitation of crackpot race doctrines which furnished the staples of his demagogy. But it is also interesting to note that even this greatest racist of the 20th century was fully aware that the concept of race was a fraud and a sham. Here is Hitler in an unguarded moment speaking to Hermann Rauschning, the leader of the Nazi movement in Gdansk or Danzig, sometime in the autumn 1934: The conception of the nation has become meaningless. The conditions of the time compelled me to begin on the basis of that conception. But I realized from the first that it could have only transient validity. The ‘nation’ is a political expedient of democracy and liberalism. We have to get rid of this false conception and set in its place the conception of race, which has not yet been politically used up. The new order cannot be conceived in terms of national boundaries of the peoples with an historic past, but in terms of race which transcends those boundaries. All 112 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the adjustments and corrections of frontiers, and in regions of colonization, are a plowing of the sands… I know perfectly well, just as well as all these tremendously clever intellectuals, that in the scientific sense there is no such thing as race. But you, as a farmer and cattle breeder, cannot get your breeding successfully achieved without the conception of race. And I as a politician need a conception which enables the order which has hitherto existed on historic bases to be abolished and an entirely new anti-historic order enforced and given an intellectual basis. Understand what I mean… I have to liberate the world from dependence on its historic past. Nations are the outward and visible forms of our history. So I have to fuse these nations into a higher order if I want to get rid of the chaos of an historic past which has become an absurdity. And for this purpose the conception of race serves me well. It disposes of the old order and makes possible new associations. France carried her great revolution beyond her borders with the conception of the nation. With the conception of race, National Socialism will carry its revolution abroad and remake the world. (Hermann Rauschning, Voice of Destruction [New York: Putnam, 1940], 231-232) It is worth underlining that a racist outlook and the outlook of the modern state are antithetical. The US financier elites may have found that playing the race card has functioned as an effective form of counterinsurgency over the last four decades, but they also need to recognize that the politically correct and multicultural cult of racial diversity is a highly corrosive factor weakening the American state and polity. OBAMA’S RACE SPEECH: A HYPOCRITE WITH A TELEPROMPTER Obama’s speech on race, delivered with much fanfare in Philadelphia on March 18 in response to the initial explosion of the Jeremiah Wright controversy, was a microcosm of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of his presidential campaign. Prior to any content, the setting and method deserve attention. Obama as a candidate is as controlled and scripted as, say, Elizabeth Dole most of the time. He avoids answering questions and does not like unstructured repartee or give and take. His typical formats often offer no opportunity for questions and answers, only soaring rhetoric and platitudes. He is no debater; he is a pontificator. His favorite approach is the Nuremberg rally, with the speech read off the glass panes of a teleprompter to his left and right, an apparatus not noticed by so many of his fawning disciples and dupes. This was the method used in his Iowa victory speech, and this was the method in Philadelphia. Obama appeared with his head thrown back, literally looking down his nose at the audience: he was literally talking down to them. The tone was self-righteous, lecturing, even hectoring. His approach was condescending, patronizing, belittling his audience. Voters have complained that Obama simply lacks any credible credentials for talking down to them in this way. Obama had been caught consorting with the racist provocateur, Jeremiah Wright. But he did not apologize. He turned the actual moral situation on its head by portraying Wright as a reflection of American racism, and blaming the American people and their inveterate racism. This method of blaming the public for one’s own blunders and incompetence has been a staple of the Trilateral political faction going back to Carter’s infamous malaise speech of July 1979. Obama has never sincerely apologized for anything. Those who were shocked in 2004 when Bush was unable to think of any error or mistake that he had made should be more concerned about Obama, who also lacks the moral courage to admit a mistake or a failing. The sole exceptions are his attempt to get off the hook for shady and unethical transactions that may have crossed the line into actual felonies: thus, his stock line for responding to questions about his smelly house-flipping deal with underworld kingpin Tony Rezko is to say that this was a “boneheaded” mistake. In the case of Wright, Obama III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 113 had been imbibing racist hatred in the pews for 20 years, and exposing his wife and children to the foul-mouthed tirades of the raving reverend. But he never apologized, never uttered a self-critical word. Obama is like Bush: structurally incapable of self-criticism. This may in turn be rooted in the mental defect we find in both of them: megalomania. A plausible defense for Obama would have gone like this: “I ask the American people to forgive me for my terrible political opportunism. I came to Chicago and needed to build a political base. Wright was a popular preacher, and he had a following among the upwardly mobile black opinion leaders I wanted to meet and to cultivate. He also had a program of church social work which gave him a veneer of credibility among poorer blacks. I joined the church and brought my wife and children there. We sat through the “God damn America” two-minute hate tirades and gave Wright as much as we could afford, over twenty-five grand last year, to get his support and endorsement. He was mobilizing his national network of black liberation theology ministers for me, and nobody else could do that for me. Wright drives a Porsche and is about to move into a $1.6 million house, so he always wanted money. But now Wright has become a colossal political liability, so I am dumping him. I condemn him and repudiate him, I am quitting his church, and I will never speak to him again as long as I live. I will never give him another penny as long as I live, and neither will anyone in my family. I will not allow him anywhere near the White House, and I will not steer government patronage money his way. This is a clean break, irrevocable and unalterable. No more Jeremiah Wright. I sincerely apologize to the American people and ask for their forgiveness. I am guilty of political opportunism, and I will work to win redemption. God bless America.” This would have been the best possible damage control in regard to Wright, but Obama was structurally incapable of giving a speech like this, even if he had not meant it and fully intended to keep Wright in a secret priest hole in the White House to serve as his confessor and spiritual director for all four years and beyond. This would have involved the three steps of penitence – the contrition of the heart, the confession of the mouth, and the restitution and satisfaction of works. Obama could never be a penitent. Instead, Obama reached back to the Carter malaise speech of July 1979.23 From this speech Obama abstracted the characteristic method of a Trilateral-Ford puppet who is caught in malfeasance: blame the American people, especially the working class. Backed by a row of American flags, with his head thrown back (partly in arrogance and partly to facilitate reading off the glass plates of the teleprompter) Obama attempted to turn reality on its head, and especially to turn the tables on the critics of Wright. He tried to contort himself from a sleazy Chicago wardheeling pol who had been caught in the company of a widely hated extremist, to a moralistic social critic sagaciously diagnosing the pathologies of the American body politic. The words flickered across the glass plates of the teleprompter and out of Obama’s yap, rife with Harvardian modulations. Obama morphed from the defendant that he was into the divine state prosecutor of the judgment day, reading the American people the list of their sins, original, mortal, and venal: racism, racism, racism. It turned out that Reverend Wright was not a satanic huckster projecting the Ford Foundation’s divide-and-conquer strategy of financier oligarch domination into the realm of pseudo-Christian theology, oh no. Reverend Wright was a microcosm who reflected the conflicts of American society, and the chief of these was once again racism. Wright’s specific comments could always be rejected, but Wright could not be rejected, because he had become part and parcel of Obama’s hardwon race identity, his völkische Identität. And Wright was not the only one to be tainted by racism: there was also Obama’s grandmother Toot, who had once been frightened by a potential mugger 114 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography who had happened to be black. Obama droned on mercilessly, reading the words off his trusty glass plates. At the end, it turned out that the country needed a new dialogue about race. Not about foreclosures that were hitting the black community harder than any other sector of the population. Not about mass layoffs, that were hitting blacks hardest, since they were the last hired and the first fired in such industries as remained. Not about food price inflation, which was undermining the living standards of blacks along with everyone else. Not about the black high school dropout rate, nor the incarceration rate of young black men. Not about banking panic. Not even about soaring college tuition costs. Just about race, understood as an attitude, as an autonomous force in history, divorced from its material basis, and divorced from any class analysis that might account for social tensions in some other way. OBAMA: NO SPECIFIC PROPOSALS TO HELP THE BLACK UNDERCLASS It was worth noting that Obama labored very hard to create the appearance of a campaign that studiously avoided all racial issues, at least as far as the candidate himself was concerned. He had not proposed anything to help Harlem, Anacostia, Watts-South Central, or the Cabrini Greens. Up to this point, Obama had made zero proposals specifically designed to help poor inner city blacks, nor did he make any such proposals now. The Obama campaign ethos was on the surface postracial, trans-racial, globalized. But beneath the surface, the Obama campaign was a brutal racist slander machine, capable of generating the absurd myth that Bill Clinton was a racist (a myth which Sean Wilentz has dismantled and exposed). This was a trick which the political thug David Axelrod had learned in Chicago, where he had sometimes managed the campaigns of black candidates who wanted to attract the votes of upper-middle class white voters. The trick was to project an image of trans-racial and post-racial beatitude on the part of the candidate, but to have surrogates and campaign spokespersons ruthlessly slime the opponent as a racist any time he dared to raise the most minute criticism. The classic stance of the Obama campaign was, in a nutshell, that if you dare criticize our man, you are revealing yourself as a racist. It was a masterpiece of self-righteous duplicity. Needless to say, the controlled corporate media and their media whores swooned in ecstasy. Obama’s speech joined the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address among the foundational documents of the United States, raved quite a few. It should be printed by the million and made required reading in every school, raved others. For the left liberals, the speech had the unique merit of expressing their own class-based race-dominated world view through the mouth of someone who claimed to be black, but using the jargon of the academic oligarch. The left liberals crowed that Obama had turned the tables on his critics and opponents, and that the Reverend Wright issue had now been successfully neutralized; no longer would the South Side Savonarola be a millstone around the neck of the Perfect Master as he strove towards the seizure of power. Ordinary working people, American voters, had other ideas. The racist provocations of Wright were a permanent guarantee that Obama could not be elected president in the normal way, that is, without the destruction of his competition by Gestapo methods through the FBI and Department of Justice, in the way that Governor Spitzer had been taken down. The danger was that Obama had so many ogres and monsters in his left CIA-Ford Foundation base of support and in his past in general that, if he were at the top of the Democratic ticket, he would drag the entire party down to defeat with him. Obama had no coat-tails. He had reverse coat-tails; he was a burden for Democratic candidates down the ticket. The burden was composed of Jeremiah Wright the racist provocateur, III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 115 Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn the Weatherman terrorist bombers and butchers, Tony Rezko and Auchi the gangsters, Michelle Obama the fascist ideologue, and most of all of Obama’s own secret persona as the Marx-Fanon-Rousseau anthropologist and theoretician of bitterness. This was a crushing, intolerable, unsustainable burden for any Democratic candidate who wanted to win an election anywhere other than Berkeley, Big Sur, Jackson Hole, Hyde Park, the Upper West Side, or Takoma Park. MICHELLE ROBINSON, QUOTA QUEEN AND ETERNAL VICTIM Obama’s future wife Michelle now enters our narrative as Michelle Robinson. She was born into what she always claims was a working-class family of modest means from the South Side of Chicago in 1964. She graduated from Whitney Young High School in Chicago in 1981 and majored in sociology at Princeton University, graduating cum laude with the Class of 1985. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. Michelle needs very much for the public to believe that she came from a very humble background. Why should this be so? It is because Michelle’s stance is metaphysically that of the eternal victim. Part of this pose must be related to bad conscience, assuming that she has a conscience. She has been the recipient of privileged treatment. She constantly repeats that her Scholastic Aptitude Test scores were not good enough to get into Princeton. But she was admitted, with a scholarship. The only explanation is that she benefited from a preferential racial quota. Michelle is thus in reality what Lani Guinier was called in the press 15 years ago: she is a Quota Queen. She then went to Harvard Law School. In the meantime, the black underclass has been left to its own devices in festering inner-city ghettos. How does this brutal class reality impact the mentality of someone like Michelle? She needs to reject class, and embrace race with a vengeance. Above all, she must assume the pose of a victim, of a person with an overwhelming grievance. This sense of victimhood is an indispensable component in the mentality of fascism. The Italians and Germans of the 1920s and 1930s felt that they had been treated very badly, humiliated, betrayed, stabbed in the back, and the fruits of their sacrifices mutilated. Michelle Obama has this basic prerequisite to be a fascist ideologue; as we will see, she has realized that potential. Michelle Obama’s illusory account of a grim and disadvantaged youth on the edge of poverty has not withstood examination. The distinguished University of Pennsylvania political scientist Adolph Reed has pointed out the essential inaccuracy of what has been alleged about Michelle by her backers. Reed observes: The Obama campaign has even put out a misleading bio of Michelle Obama, representing her as having grown up in poverty on the South Side, when, in fact, her parents were city workers, and her father was a Daley machine precinct captain. This fabrication, along with those embroideries of the candidate’s own biography, may be standard fare, the typical log cabin narrative. However, in Obama’s case, the license taken not only underscores Obama’s more complex relationship to insider politics in Daley’s Chicago; it also underscores how much this campaign depends on selling an image rather than substance. (Adolph Reed, “Obama No,” The Progressive, May 17, 2008) NEWTON MINOW OF SIDLEY, AUSTIN, FRIEND OF BARKY Barry encountered Michelle for the first time thanks to the efforts a top establishment fixer, the venerable Newton Minow, who still wraps himself in the banner of Camelot. Minow has been one 116 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography of Obama’s key backers. Minow is still widely known today for belaboring the obvious: it was Minow who popularized the phrase “vast wasteland” for American broadcast television in 1961, when he was the head of the Federal Communications Commission under Kennedy. Minow spoke as an elitist, perhaps preparing the way for the foundation-funded PBS system, a Rockefeller idea which expresses the view of the foundation oligarchy. Now in advanced age, Minow can be seen as a patriarch of the Chicago oligarchy, a leading grandee of the Chicago establishment. Minow may be one of the case officers working Obama on behalf of the Trilaterals, Bilderbergers, and the banking establishment in general. Minow’s political judgment is very much open to question: he was a prominent backer of Adlai E. Stevenson, the liberal Illinois governor and supercilious elitist who lost the presidency to Eisenhower not once but twice, in 1952 and 1956 as well. Minow’s fortunes improved when he battened on to the Kennedy bandwagon. We read in a recent account: At 81, sitting in his law office at Sidley Austin, in the Loop, above a stretch of street christened Honorary Newton N. Minow Way, Minow is talking about the young man his daughter Martha, a professor at Harvard Law School, recommended for a summer associate’s job two decades ago. At Minow’s firm Obama fell in love with a young lawyer, Michelle Robinson, who would become his wife. “I adored Jack Kennedy,” Minow explains, “and I saw the 21st-century version of Jack Kennedy in my mind. He is astonishing. I think the fundamental point is the country wants a different kind of politics.” He adds, “I also believe the race issue and the gender issue are yesterday, particularly with young people.” One-upping Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s famous summary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s gifts, Minow, a former Supreme Court clerk, says, “I believe as the country sees Barack, gets to know him, they will see the same thing I see: really a combination of a first-class mind and a first-class temperament, all in the same person.” (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) For our present purposes, the point is that Barry met Michelle thanks to the mediation of old Newt Minow in the Sidley Austin law firm one summer. MICHELLE OBAMA REVEALED Sharon Churcher, writing for the right-wing London paper The Daily Mail, provides a penetrating look at Michelle Obama as she really is as a person and as a life story. The emphasis is on Michelle’s attempt to deceive the public, always for the purpose of painting herself as a victim. Churcher observes that Michelle’s pitch is far from sophisticated, playing heavily on her humble beginnings and traditional values: “I was raised in a working-class family on the south Side of Chicago. That’s how I identify myself, a working-class girl,” she has told the voters, time after time. It helps that she cuts a fine figure on the stump, tall and slender with a hair ‘flip’ reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy. And it does no harm that, while Barack, 46, comes from mixed Kenyan and white parentage, Michelle, 44, is authentically African-American, giving the Obamas an unmatched breadth of appeal. Last week it seemed the mask had slipped when, speaking unscripted for once, a sharper, less emollient Michelle emerged. “For the first time in my adult life I feel really proud of my country,” she said, an apparent lack of patriotism immediately seized on by her Republican opponents. When The Mail on Sunday went back to the gritty district of Chicago where Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was raised, we found a rather different picture from the one so single-mindedly promoted by Camp Obama. Instead of the one-room tenement that now appears in most accounts of her upbringing, we found a well-kept neighbourhood of red-brick Arts and Craft-style houses which have long been home to respectable black families.’ (Sharon III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 117 Churcher, “Mrs O.: The truth about Michelle Obama’s ‘working class’ credentials, London Daily Mail, February 23, 2008) So Michelle was from a very comfortable family, after all. In fact, some of Michelle’s early advantages came from her father’s status as a ward heeler for the Chicago Democratic machine, long associated with the Daley family: “Michelle was from a middle-class family,” confirmed one of her long-time friends, Angela Acree. “She came from a regular family. They had a nice home. It wasn’t a mansion, but it was just fine. It was a decent neighbourhood.” The Robinsons grew up on the upper floor of a house built in the Twenties. Number 7436 South Euclid Avenue - a classical reference to the Greek mathematician which found an appropriate echo in Michelle’s subsequent respect for traditional learning - even has a small garden, shaded by a large elm tree, and an ornate stone bench. The South Side of Chicago has long had its share of gang-infested housing ‘projects’ but with the University of Chicago hospital close by, there were plenty of white professionals in the area as well as hard-working families in the Robinsons’ own image. No one could pretend they were rich and it is true that her father, Frasier Robinson, spent some time as a maintenance worker for Chicago’s Department of Water Management. However, he was a good deal more than the labourer that many seem to imagine. Indeed, according to family friends, Michelle’s father was a volunteer organiser for the city’s Democratic Party, a by-word for machine politics in America, and his loyalty was rewarded with a well-paid engineering job at Chicago’s water plant. Even before overtime, he earned $42,686 – 25 per cent more than High School teachers at the time. Michelle’s mother stayed at home and devoted her energies to her and her older brother Craig. Marian Robinson nurtured great ambitions for both her children, along with the traditional values which are now serving Michelle so well. Television was all but banned in favour of homework, debates about the issues of the day and improving games of chess. Bright and determined, Michelle was awarded a place at one of Chicago’s first ‘magnet’ schools, which offered special programmes for gifted children. By the time she was 13, she was taking a college-level biology course. Even as a child, she was not to be underestimated, says Craig, now 45, who works as the head basketball coach at high-flying Brown University. There was no doubt who was in charge. “We had this game where we set up two rooms and played ‘Office’,” he recalled. “She was the secretary, and I was the boss. But she did everything. It was her game, and I kind of had nothing to do. My sister is a poor sport. She didn’t like to lose.” She rarely did. Michelle beat huge competition to win a place studying sociology at Princeton, one of America’s most venerable and expensive universities. Once she had arrived amid the fauxgothic precincts, however, she found herself surrounded by spoilt white students from wealthy families. She, in contrast, was obliged to take out loans to pay her way and this rankled, as she revealed in a 1985 thesis. (Sharon Churcher, “Mrs O.: The truth about Michelle Obama’s ‘working class’ credentials, London Daily Mail, February 23, 2008) 118 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography This is the domineering Michelle Obama we have come to know; a supermarket tabloid story claims that she controls everything that husband Barack does. MICHELLE OBAMA AND CHERIE BLAIR: VULGAR, GRASPING ARRIVISTES The British author compares Michelle to Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The suggestion is that Michelle is the same kind of grasping, greedy, striving, socialclimbing, vulgar arriviste or nouveau riche which the British public had learned to hold in contempt. Turning to Michelle’s thesis, she writes: The document …betrays an angry, campaigning brand of politics which in no way fits with the mild-mannered advocate of common sense now winning hearts and minds from coast to coast… There are those who, in any case, suggest that her ideological roots have always remained rather shallow and that, for the most part of her life, politics have been overshadowed by the straightforward business of ‘getting on’. Even at university, Michelle was well aware that there was more to life than politics, admitting in that same thesis that a ‘high-paying position’ could prove more attractive than a life of placards and late-night meetings. It was little surprise to those who knew her at the time that it was commerce not campaigning that claimed her when she graduated with a law degree from Harvard, taking a post with Sidley Austin, an eminent Chicago law firm. Her specialist area was not human rights or family law, but the lucrative detail of copyright and trademark cases. An acquaintance of Obama’s family compares her with another political wife, another lawyer as it happens, with a keen interest in making money. “Michelle is very much like Cherie Blair. She is a middle-class girl who has discovered that money is nice and doesn’t see that as a contradiction with having radical beliefs,” he said. Chicago’s veteran political consultant and pundit Joe Novak agrees, saying: “She [Michelle] is now motivated more by personal gain than by social consciousness. She saw her opportunities, and she took them.” (Sharon Churcher, “Mrs O.: The truth about Michelle Obama’s ‘working class’ credentials, London Daily Mail, February 23, 2008) Sharon Churcher focuses on the affluent, opulent life style now affected by the arriviste Michelle, who is now thoroughly addicted to the finer things in life: The rewards have been significant. Despite the image she projects on the Newsweek cover, Michelle owns an impressive collection of diamond jewelry, designer outfits and £400-a-pair Jimmy Choo shoes. When she is wooing working-class voters, however, she favours austere black skirts and white blouses. “Our lives are so close to normal, if there is such a thing when you’re running for president,” she declared during a campaign stop in Delaware, shortly before her husband’s latest victories were announced. “When I’m off the road, I’m going to Target to get the toilet paper.” She did not bother to mention, however, that the paper, like the rest of the family shopping, is taken to an £825,000 three-storey [c. $1.6 million] red-brick Georgian revival mansion, set amid beautifully manicured lawns in one of Chicago’s most affluent districts. III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 119 Even the house became a source of controversy when it emerged that the wife of a Chicago slum landlord, Tony Rezko, helped them buy land to enlarge its grounds. More contentious still was Michelle’s appointment as the £150,000-a-year vice-president of external affairs at the University of Chicago hospital in 2005. It came only two months after Barack was sworn in as a U.S. senator, and was attacked by critics as a blatant attempt by the hospital’s hierarchy to curry favour with her husband, in an era when some politicians want to rein in the vast profits of America’s medical system. They questioned why the wife of a committed Democrat would work for a hospital that has been accused of ruthless greed. Michelle’s image was further tarnished in May 2006, when it was revealed that the centre - despite earning some £50 million a year – had refused to treat a man who could not afford to pay his bill. He died. All of which has led some political veterans to accuse Michelle of the very lack of compassion and moral scruples that her husband has lambasted in his Republican rivals for the White House. (Sharon Churcher, “Mrs O.: The truth about Michelle Obama’s ‘working class’ credentials, London Daily Mail, February 23, 2008) Michelle is thus a gatekeeper against the black community, and her activity has already claimed victims.24 Some sources reached by Sharon Churcher have been able to draw the necessary conclusions about Michelle Obama’s substandard moral and political qualities. Unlike Hillary Clinton, they point out, neither Obama has endorsed far-reaching healthcare reforms. Michelle also is under attack for joining the board of a food company where she allegedly took part in a 2005 decision to close a pickle and relish plant in La Junta, Colorado, putting 150 mostly Hispanic labourers out of work. The small town was devastated. “It totally amazed me when they closed it,” said La Junta mayor Don Rizzuto, who had believed that Michelle and her husband were “the champions of the little guy.” In their most recently publicised tax returns, for 2005, the Obamas earned £800,000. This included royalties from the senator’s autobiography Dreams from My Father, and his £82,600 Senate salary. Under a three-book deal which he subsequently signed, he stands to earn at least £1 million. To Joe Novak, this only goes to prove that Michelle is distorting reality when she attempts to depict herself as a champion of the masses. “For the past year (she and Barack) have jetted around the country with Oprah Winfrey and Robert De Niro, enjoying penthouse parties and living the high life,” he said. Perhaps, when she contrasts her current red-carpet lifestyle with the unassuming world of South Euclid Avenue, she genuinely may think that her childhood was impoverished. And the one thing that is certain about the incredible Mrs O. is that she never intends to have to live that way again.’ (Sharon Churcher, “Mrs O.: The truth about Michelle Obama’s ‘working class’ credentials, London Daily Mail, February 23, 2008) Barack Obama has the mental structures of a fatherless boy, and he knows it. “The truth is that none of the men in my life were that successful or that stable,” [Michelle] Obama told me. “They made an awful lot of mistakes.” (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) Later, when it came time to marry Michelle, he hesitated; Barack had a more bohemian attitude toward romance. “We would 120 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography have this running debate throughout our relationship about whether marriage was necessary,” Obama told me. “It was sort of a bone of contention, because I was, like, ‘Look, buddy, I’m not one of these who’ll just hang out forever.’ You know, that’s just not who I am. He was, like”—she broke into a wishy-washy voice — ‘Marriage, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s really how you feel.’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, right.’” (Jim Geraghty, “The Campaign Spot,” March 5, 2008) At Obama’s wedding, his new brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, who had been an athlete at Princeton, pulled him aside and inquired about his plans. Obama ‘“…said, ‘I think I’d like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,” recalls Robinson, who assumed Obama meant he’d like to run for city alderman. “He said no — at some point he’d like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, ‘Possibly even run for President at some point.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, but don’t say that to my Aunt Gracie.’ I was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him.”’25 Obama did not tell his brother in law that his self and his career were controlled assets of the Trilateral Commission, his sponsors. MICHELLE OBAMA AS A CREATURE OF THE CORRUPT DALEY MACHINE Michelle had made her way in the world as an asset of the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine, the Daley family machine. She was in her own way a ward heeler and wheel horse for Daley’s city hall apparatus, with one key contact being Valerie Jarrett, a political fixer on the make. ‘Obama went straight from Princeton to Harvard Law School. After graduating, she became a junior associate, specializing in intellectual property law, at the Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin. She worked there for three years, eventually becoming, as she says in her stump speech, disenchanted with “corporate America.” Valerie Jarrett hired her as an assistant to the mayor, Richard Daley. “In the planning department, part of her job was to help businesses solve problems,” Jarrett told me. Sort of like a one-woman 311? “No, a 911,” Jarrett responded. “She made problems go away just that fast.” In 1993, she was appointed the founding director of the Chicago office of a public-service program called Public Allies, which places young adults from diverse backgrounds in paid internships with nonprofit organizations. An early appearance in the Chicago Tribune was in an article about Gen X-ers. Obama told the reporter, “I wear jeans, and I’m the director.” Michelle and Barack met at Sidley & Austin, when she was assigned to advise him during a summer job. Michelle’s co-workers warned her that the summer associate was cute. “I figured that they were just impressed with any black man with a suit and a job,” she later told Barack.’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) We see that Michelle, too, has a record of serving the foundations. Among other things, Michelle embodies the fascist potential of generation X, which is an echo of the Lost Generation born between 1885 and 1905 – the generation that gave the world Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin even as it founded fascism. THE BLACK OVERCLASS RAGE OF MICHELLE OBAMA Reporters, even the drooling acolyte types, have observed that inordinate rage of the wealthy elitist lawyer Michelle Obama. Early in 2008, she said that she wanted to assault and maim former President Clinton: ‘In Wisconsin, I asked her if she was offended by Bill Clinton’s use of the phrase “fairy tale” to describe her husband’s characterization of his position on the Iraq War. At first, Obama responded with a curt “No.” But, after a few seconds, she affected a funny voice. “I want to rip his eyes out!” she said, clawing at the air with her fingernails. One of her advisers gave her a III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 121 nervous look. “Kidding!” Obama said. “See, this is what gets me into trouble.”’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) For Michelle, Bill was obviously a monster. Michelle is famous for her diagnosis that America is a mean country, which appeared for the first time in the New Yorker: ‘Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Fortyfour!”’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) It is of course true that the US standard of living has been cut by about two thirds over the last four decades, so Michelle is doubtless correct in that abstract sense. It is the part about “cynics, sloths, and complacents” that needs examination. If you want to attack the causes for the immiseration of America, then you should get busy attacking Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and their political puppets. But Michelle does not do this at all. She attacks the supposed moral inferiority of the American people, while letting Wall Street off the hook along with all the other power centers. The decline of the country becomes a matter of purely individual responsibility, setting the stage, one senses, for a demand of austerity and sacrifice so as to make expiation. Spengler of the Asia Times argues that the real nature of Obama’s emotional makeup can be seen most readily by looking at Michelle. Obama has learned to dissemble, but could not hide the criteria that he used when choosing a wife. Michelle is a bubbling cauldron of racial hatred, and this pot has boiled over from time to time during the campaign. This is the most important evidence that Obama himself is also a compulsive hater. Obama, says Spengler, tries to hide this, but Michelle Obama is a living witness. Her February 18 comment that she felt proud of her country for the first time caused a minor scandal, and was hastily qualified. But she meant it, and more. The video footage of her remarks shows eyes hooded with rage as she declares: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment.” The desperation, frustration and disappointment visible on Michelle Obama’s face are not new to the candidate’s wife; as Steve Sailer, Rod Dreher and other commentators have noted, they were the theme of her undergraduate thesis, on the subject of “blackness” at Princeton University. No matter what the good intentions of Princeton, which founded her fortunes as a well-paid corporate lawyer, she wrote, “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.” (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) OBAMA BITCH-SLAPPED IN PUBLIC BY MICHELLE Michelle has also been prodigal in her public abuse of Obama – a jarring note which was extremely incongruous during the earlier, more seraphic phase of Obama’s campaign, before the scandals and dossiers began to emerge. For the cynical central European Spengler, an experienced man of the world, this is an index of Michelle’s vast power. Spengler observes: 122 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Never underestimate the influence of a wife who bitch-slaps her husband in public. Early in Obama’s campaign, Michelle Obama could not restrain herself from belittling the senator. “I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There’s Barack Obama the phenomenon. He’s an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right? And then there’s the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy’s a little less impressive,” she told a fundraiser in February 2007. “For some reason this guy still can’t manage to put the butter up when he makes toast, secure the bread so that it doesn’t get stale, and his five-year-old is still better at making the bed than he is.” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd reported at the time, “She added that the TV version of Barack Obama sounded really interesting and that she’d like to meet him sometime.” Her handlers have convinced her to be more tactful since then. “Frustration” and “disappointment” have dogged Michelle Obama these past 20 years, despite her US$300,000 a year salary and corporate board memberships…. Obama’s choice of wife is a failsafe indicator of his own sentiments. Spouses do not necessarily share their likes, but they must have their hatreds in common. Obama imbibed this hatred with his mother’s milk.’ (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) MICHELLE OBAMA: THE THESIS OF SELF-ABSORPTION In 1985, in order to graduate from Princeton with her AB in sociology, Michelle had to submit a senior thesis, which was entitled “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.” It is filed under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson. It is 96 pages long, and reposes in the Mudd Library on campus. This thesis attracted much attention when it was “temporarily withdrawn” from Princeton’s library until after the November 2008 election. Some extracts had appeared previously in the Newark Star Ledger. Because of Obama’s standard vapid rhetoric about hope, change, and the new politics, the attempt to suppress Michelle’s thesis appeared at once as a cynical act of stonewalling. Michelle looked very much like the super-secretive George Bush. Jonah Goldberg reported on National Review Online, “A reader in the know informs me that Michelle Obama’s thesis ... is unavailable until Nov. 5, 2008, at the Princeton library. I wonder why.” “Why a restricted thesis?” chimed in Louis Lapides on his site, Thinking Outside the Blog. “Is the concern based on what’s in the thesis? Will Michelle Obama appear to be too black for white America or not black enough for black America?” Princeton librarians were so pestered by those wanting to see the infamous thesis that they started reading their refusal from a script. Princeton media officers joined in the stonewall claiming it is “not unusual” for a thesis to be restricted and refusing to discuss “the academic work of alumni.” The embarrassment for Obama became so great that he decided to release the thesis to the Politico, which is controlled by the reactionary Allbritton interests.26 The thesis deals mainly with Michelle’s own cahier de doléances of racist slights and her racebased world outlook. “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘blackness’ than ever before,” she states in the introduction. “I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second.” “I feel” is her pole star and compass as she goes through life. She is an extreme example of the radical subjectivist world view of late AngloIII: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 123 American imperialism. She offers no analysis of conditions in the ghetto, or ideas for recovery, reconstruction, and reform. Her axiomatic standpoint is her own greedy and infantile ego. At that point in her life, Michelle thought that her future career after Princeton would bring her towards “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.” “In defining the concept of identification or the ability to identify with the black community,” Michelle elaborates, “I based my definition on the premise that there is a distinctive black culture very different from white culture.” This is of course the central tenet of the pork-chop nationalist position. It is not a scientific analysis of culture. It is rather a rhetorical strategy and political pose for extracting more and better concessions from the affirmative action system, which has left two thirds to three quarters of the black community in poverty for the last 40 years, since the system was put in place by Nixon and George Shultz, his Secretary of Labor. MICHELLE SHOCKED TO FIND WEALTHY SNOBS AT PRINCETON! For this affirmative action method to work, it is indispensable that grievances be kept alive and at the center of attention; if one is to be a beneficiary, one must always be a victim. Michelle writes, with dubious orthography: “Predominately white universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the white students comprising the bulk of their enrollments.” Warming to the victimhood that this analysis offers, she goes on to complain that Princeton in 1985 had only five black tenured professors on its faculty. The Afro-American studies program “is one of the smallest and most understaffed departments in the university.” There was only one campus group “designed specifically for the intellectual and social interests of blacks and other third world students.” Today her pose is that she is a typical home girl of the south side Chicago ‘hood; before that, she was from the third world, as we see here. The stance is determined by the object she is seeking at that moment. She strove mightily to get into Princeton, but she now finds the place “infamous for being racially the most conservative of the Ivy League universities.” If she had wanted to avoid wealthy snobs, why then did she choose Princeton in the first place? Was she a complete fool? If she wanted third-world students, she could have headed for a dozen ultraleft campuses. What Michelle is evidently seeking here is the pose of going to Princeton and scorning the place at the same time, the better to enhance her status as a person who has secured the invidious best, but rejected it as not good enough. At this time Michelle was interested in the work of sociologists James Conyers and Walter Wallace, who delved into white-black community relations. These two discussed the “integration of black official(s) into various aspects of politics” and notes “problems which face these black officials who must persuade the white community that they are above issues of race and that they are representing all people and not just black people,” instead of seeking to build up “two separate social structures.” This is the delicate question of how to make the transition from the affirmative action black nationalist stance necessary to secure grants and set-asides, to the more inclusive posture that would be necessary to run for office in any constituency not dominated by blacks. Michelle had no solution for this problem then; the solution has been supplied by Axelrod, who discovered that messianic platitudes and vapid utopian sloganeering about non-partisanship, hope, and change would allow this shift to be carried out while duping the gullible and guilt-ridden white liberals, who, after all, were eager to be fooled. Michelle mailed out an 18-question survey to a sample of 400 black Princeton graduates, asking them to estimate the amount of time and “comfort” level spent interacting with blacks and whites 124 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography before they went to Princeton, while they were on campus, and after graduation. Michelle also asked about their religious beliefs, living arrangements, careers, role models, economic status, and attitudes towards the black underclass. She asked the respondents to specify whether they agreed more with a “separationist and/or pluralist” viewpoint or an “integrationist and/or assimilationist” ideology. About 90 alumni sent back the questionnaires, yielding a response rate of about 22 percent. Michelle wrote that she was disappointed with the answers, since they indicated a weakening of the race-based or Völkische Identität of the black Princetonians surveyed. Michelle complained: “I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility...” (Politico.com, February 23, 2008)27 With this, Michelle had discovered that social reality was not in conformity with the race-based view of life she had assumed as part of her quest for upward mobility under conditions of affirmative action. Even her small sample suggested that race was an empty construct, that racial solidarity could not function as the organizing principle of life, and that racialist or racist thinking was above all alien to lived social reality. She was not pleased. Concerning the abysmal quality of her work in the strict academic sense, the less said the better. Michelle Obama is thus revealed to have been a self-absorbed, self-centered, self-obsessed, selfserving, and self-righteous undergraduate. We can perhaps detect here an egomania or megalomania which is evidently the psychological basis of her marriage with Obama: they both imagine themselves as the centers of the world. The questionnaire was of course a mere formality, serving to mask Michelle’s intense preoccupation with her own radically subjective feeling states. She was interesting in delving into herself, and the forms she sent out and compiled were but a fig leaf in that obsessively introspective process. She lacks any sense of reality, since she forgets that she is in a position where she is envied by the vast majority of college youth; she needs to portray herself as a victim of something, be it slights real or imagined. She also has no gratitude for the special privileges that have been given her through no merit of her own. Michelle Obama’s odious personality may well emerge as a telling argument in any future debate about the viability of affirmative action as against color-blind, class-based programs that recognize class, poverty, and exclusion, and no longer racial discrimination, as the critical problem of US society. Michelle will become the poster child for abolishing quotas, preferences, set asides, and the entire affirmative action apparatus. The argument will be that no system which has produced such a person deserves to be perpetuated, while 60% or 70% of black America remains in the despair of the inner city ghetto. Michelle can thus safely be said to constitute a huge vulnerability among the many huge vulnerabilities of the Obama campaign. If we look back to Jimmy Carter, we can perhaps see how dangerous a person like Michelle can become when she is unleashed on the national stage, as she necessarily will be. MICHELLE OBAMA: HATING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Speaking at a rally in Wisconsin on February 18, 2008 Michelle delivered the lines which have made her infamous: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” This was an element in her standard stump tirade on several subsequent occasions, leaving no doubt that she really meant it and meant to say it. If nothing else, it was a catastrophic failure of deception and III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 125 concealment: Michelle cannot contain her own assiduously cultivated rage, even when the expression of that rage becomes destructive to her and a threat to her consuming ambition. National pride and national honor are not a bad thing. Honor, in fact, is the one ything that humans cannot live without. Like everything else, much depends on how it is used. The American New Deal state created by Franklin D. Roosevelt with the help of the sit-down strikers and the trade union organizers represented the most advanced form of human organization ever seen. The New Deal state battled the Great Depression, defeated Hitler, Tojo, Mussolini, and fascism, kept the UK and USSR on their feet through Lend-Lease, contained and frustrated Stalin and Mao, unlocked the secrets of the atom, and put humans on the moon. Abraham Lincoln was the greatest man of the nineteenth century, and, together with Russia and Prussia, saved the world from the uncontested universal despotism of the British Empire under Lord Palmerston. There was a dark side – generally the handiwork of the finance oligarchs, north and south, yet there was much to be proud of. But not for the racist Michelle Obama, partly because Michelle is also a postmodernist and multiculturalist. Postmodernism holds that any conception of human greatness is an illusion, an obscene distortion of human pettiness, fecklessness, and mediocrity. Nobody is a hero to a postmodernist – not because there are no heroes and heroines, but because the postmodernist is too crabbed, deformed, and envious to admit the category of human greatness in any form. Michelle has a perfect right to her wretched opinions, but she has no right to take them to the White House and make it into the bordello of world history. Why does the super-privileged wealthy elitist Michelle hate the United States and the American people? Partly, one thinks, because she forgets the largesse and holds fast to the memory of the adversities. On February 29, 2008 Michelle visited Zanesville, Ohio, where she greeted some local women at a local day care center. Michelle launched into sententious nostrums sharply contradicted by her own greedy, rapacious, and social-climbing lifestyle: “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women, not mentioning that she works for the ultra-reactionary, Rockefeller-founded University of Chicago, and sits on the boards of jobdestroying corporations. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” During this same appearance, Michelle demonstrated how out-of-touch she is, by bemoaning the amount of money she has to spend on piano, dance, and other lessons for her two daughters. The sum she cited came to nearly one-third of the median household income in Zanesville, which was $37,192 in 2004, which is below both the Ohio and national averages. Just 12.2 percent of adults in that county have a bachelor’s degree or higher, also well below the state and national averages. About 20 percent don’t have a high school degree. Michelle was a multi-millionairess; she was indeed out of touch. And she wanted to stay that way. She expects the group of women, whom she could buy many times over, to sympathize with her. ‘“Everywhere I go, no matter what, the women in the audience, their first question for me is, ‘How on earth are you managing it, how are you keeping it all together?’” she pontificated to the women of modest means in Zanesville.28 One of Michelle’s favorite themes is that she had had to take out student loans to get through Princeton and Harvard. She complains about how long it has taken her and Barry to pay off these loans. She talks about how it has taken them years and years, well into middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” Michelle laments. “Barack and 126 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography I were in that position. The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two bestselling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” Michelle typically says, adding that “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.” Michelle talks a good rap about hard times in America, but she makes it all turn on what has to be done for her personally, not for the voters; For Michelle, the axiomatic point of view is always but always herself: ‘Her frame of reference can seem narrow. When she talks about wanting “my girls to travel the world with pride” and the decline of America “over my lifetime,” you wonder why her default pronoun is singular if the message is meant to be concern for others and inclusiveness.’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) For obvious demagogic reasons, Michelle also fails to distinguish between the relative stabilization of falling real wages under Clinton, and the precipitous decline that resumed under Bush the younger: ‘In Cheraw, Obama belittled the idea that the Clinton years were ones of opportunity and prosperity: “The life that I’m talking about that most people are living has gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl. . . . So if you want to pretend like there was some point over the last couple of decades when your lives were easy, I want to meet you!”’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) MICHELLE OBAMA: BOUNCER FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO HOSPITAL Michelle’s job is that of a bouncer or gatekeeper for the University of Chicago Hospital, which is located close to the edge of the black ghetto. The problem faced by the University of Chicago managers is that too many sick and dying indigent black people come to their emergency room in a desperate attempt to get some kind of treatment. Michelle’s job is to push these poverty-stricken black people back into the ghetto to die in nondescript waiting rooms in poorly-equipped doctors’ offices or dingy substandard clinics there. Her qualifications of this job were that she had to be black, and she had to be cruel, with no hint of the racial solidarity that she has hypocritically paraded in public for most of her life. Michelle has made out like a bandit in this cruel and inhuman line of work. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where her title is vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004 (just before Barry was installed in the Senate), to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. This does not include the honoraria Michelle takes in from serving on corporate boards. 29 Michelle’s rapidly expanding personal income has raised more than eyebrows: ‘“Mrs. Obama is extremely overpaid,” one citizen wrote in a letter to the editor of the Tribune, after the paper published a story questioning the timing of the award. “Now, what is the real reason behind such an inflated salary?” Her bosses at the University of Chicago Hospitals vigorously defended the raise, pointing out that it put her salary on a par with that of other vice-presidents at the hospital. (As it happens, Obama has spent most of her life working within the two institutions for which she most frequently claims a populist disdain: government and the health-care system.)’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) Michelle’s role in excluding indigent patients from the University of Chicago Hospital where she works has also drawn attention from congressional investigators. One such instance: ‘The ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee is seeking information from the non-profit University of Chicago Medical Center about jobs held by Sen. Barack Obama's wife and one of his best friends,’ reported Joe Stephens of the III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 127 Washington Post. ‘Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on Friday sent the center a letter saying he was "troubled" by recent news reports about the hospital's efforts to steer patients with non-urgent complaints away from the center' emergency room to local clinics. Michelle Obama was a key figure behind the initiative. The letter, which Grassley released to the public September 2, 2008, does not directly mention the Democratic presidential nominee, his wife or his campaign. Grassley also asked for financial data, board minutes and other documents related to hiring, job promotion, business contracting and care for the poor.’ ‘For years, Grassley has argued that non-profit hospitals should spend more resources on the poor and be more financially accountable, in return for the millions of dollars they keep each year as a result of their tax-exempt status. Grassley has periodically demanded financial data from selected hospitals and issued reports detailing perceived shortcomings. He has also chaired a Senate hearing on the topic.’ Grassley also wanted information on the hospital’s conflict of interest policy, and also wanted to probe hiring practices, evidently including the public relations contract which went to Obama spinmeister David Axelrod, and a computer contract that was awarded to Obama moneybags Robert Blackwell. (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/09/sen_grassley_seeks_university.html ) Here is how the hospital itself advertised a fall 2005 community forum, complete with free dinner, chaired by Michelle Obama: ‘Michelle Obama, vice president for community affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, will serve as moderator. The South Side Health Collaborative is a partnership, supported by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which is devoted to improving access to quality healthcare for the uninsured, underserved, and special needs populations. The Collaborative pulls together 13 Federally Qualified Health Clinics, two social service organizations, private physicians, and the University of Chicago Hospitals. Its goal is to help patients find a medical home, enabling them to build a lasting relationship with a primary care physician in their neighborhoods. Since the program began in January 2005, members of the Collaborative have interviewed more than 12,000 patients who came to the emergency room at the University of Chicago Hospitals for care because they did not have a regular physician. They have helped more than 1,000 patients connect with a primary care provider, often making an appointment for follow-up care before the patient leaves the ER.’ (http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2005/20051108- collaborative.html) The big question was of course whether Barky’s political clout as a newly minted US Senator had been used to procure the federal grant for Michelle’s exclusion operation, raising Obama’s signature problems of dirty politics, influence peddling, and graft. The dividing line between the elite and the mass in modern America comes down to one question: do you have servants? Bush did, and the Obamas emphatically do. As the New Yorker reported, “The Obamas employ a full-time housekeeper, and Michelle tries to see a personal trainer four times a week,” but they claim that they do not also have a nanny. In 2005, “the Obamas moved to a $1.65-million Georgian Revival mansion in Hyde Park, which features a thousand-bottle wine cellar and bookcases made of Honduran mahogany.” TYPICAL PARVENU STYLE The Obamas, in short, are typical parvenu arrivistes, and they revel in it: ‘The Obamas are fixtures of Chicago’s philanthro-social scene: there they are, waving from a silver Mustang at the annual Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic; there’s Michelle delivering remarks at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Seventy-second Central Regional Conference; there she is arriving at the Black Creativity Gala with a shopping bag full of “Obama for Senator” buttons. Cindy Moelis recalls being shocked, after agreeing to host Obama’s baby shower, that the guest list included fifty people. “Hmmm,” Michael Sneed, the Sun-Times columnist, reported in 2006. “Sneed hears rumbles a mink coat reportedly belonging to Michelle Obama, wife of Sen. Barack Obama, may have gone missing following the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s birthday bash at the South Shore Cultural Center.”’(New Yorker, March 11, 2008) 128 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Is Michelle being criticized unfairly? ‘Some observers have detected in Obama an air of entitlement. Her defenders attribute these charges of arrogance to racist fears about uppity black women. While it’s a stretch to call the suggestion that Obama projects an air of self-satisfaction bigoted, it may at least reflect a culture gap: last April, after Maureen Dowd wrote a column criticizing Obama for undermining her husband’s mystique, a blog riposte, circulated widely on the Internet, was titled “The White Lady Just Doesn’t Get It.” The sentiment—that America was in a mess, and Mrs. Obama was not happy about it—was not a new one, but her unfortunate formulation instantly drew charges that she was unpatriotic. Bill O’Reilly spawned his own scandalette, remarking, “I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels.” Victor Maltsev, of Rego Park, wrote to the Post, “Obama wants to be our next first lady? Watch out, America!” Cindy McCain seized the opportunity to draw a sniffy contrast between the Obamas and her and her war-hero husband, telling a cheering crowd, “I don’t know about you—if you heard those words earlier—I’m very proud of my country.”’ (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) Michelle embodies the condescending, patronizing attitude of the entire Obama operation: it is a mission to the benighted denizens of Middle America, viewed as ethnographic material. Michelle has to ask for votes, and she finds that this is beneath her new-found opulence and social prestige: ‘Perhaps Obama’s high-handedness is preëmptive, her way of “claiming a seat at the table”—as she is fond of calling enfranchisement in the power-brokering structure—rather than waiting to be offered one. It’s as though she figures she might as well say that she and her husband are all that before someone can say that they aren’t. And there’s a sort of strategic genius to her presentation of campaigning as grinding work that takes her away from her family, rather than a glorious tour of the world’s greatest country that she would be thrilled to be undertaking even if she didn’t have to. She frequently tells her audiences, “I don’t care where I am, the first question is ‘How are you managing it all? How are you holding up?’ “The effect, of course, is to set up an expectation of tribute, like those hairdressers who display all their gifts in the days leading up to Christmas. By loudly voicing her distaste for retail politicking, Obama makes people feel as though, by showing up, she were doing them a favor.” (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) Michelle may well be more devoted to Jeremiah Wright than Barry is. At a recent campaign stop, her exordium went as follows: “You all got up bright and early just for me?” she asked the mostly elderly, almost all-black crowd. “Yes!” they roared. Obama continued, “On behalf of my church home and my pastor, Reverend Wright, I bring greetings.” After warming up the crowd, Obama launched into her stump speech, a forty-five-minute monologue that she composed herself and delivers without notes. (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) The New Yorker, a bastion of pro-Obama devotion, provides some clues to the ultimate sources of Michelle’s rage, hatred, and hauteur. She is tormented by feelings of inferiority, low self-worth and self-esteem, and the sense of impending doom. One is reminded of Napoleon’s mother, who kept repeating “longo mai,” meaning, in her Corsican dialect: Let’s hope all this lasts. People like this generally try to sock away a stash of money in case it doesn’t last, and Michelle will likely be no exception. When the New Yorker began asking about this obvious internal stress, Michelle replied: “What minority communities go through still represents the challenges, the legacies, of oppression and racism. You know, when you have cultures who feel like second-class citizens at some level . . . there’s this natural feeling within the community that we’re not good enough . . . we can’t be as smart as or as prepared—and it’s that internal struggle that is always the III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 129 battle.” She talked about her first trip to Africa—Barack took her to Kenya to meet his father’s family—and the realization that, as much as white society fails to account for the African- American experience, so does any conception of pan-blackness. In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama perceives a vulnerability in his wife, one so closely guarded that even her brother professed to me never to have noticed it. There was “a glimmer that danced across her round, dark eyes whenever I looked at her,” he writes, “the slightest hint of uncertainty, as if, deep inside, she knew how fragile things really were, and that if she ever let go, even for a moment, all her plans might quickly unravel.” (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) Napoleon’s mother again. Could Michelle be a candidate for a nervous breakdown, or else for uncontrollable transports of rage – likely to be couched in racist terms – out on the campaign trail? We may be close to finding out. OBAMA JOINS MINER, BARNHILL, AND GALLAND, REZKO’S LAWYERS Obama went to work for the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill, and Galland. The firm presents itself on its current web site in these terms: “Miner, Barnhill, & Galland was founded in 1971 and today consists of fourteen lawyers in two offices. Ten lawyers are resident in the Chicago Office and four lawyers office [sic] in Madison, Wisconsin. The firm has acquired a national reputation in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development work. In addition to its practice in these areas, the firm represents a broad range of individual and corporate clients, providing a wide variety of legal services.” On the surface it was a mix of socially conscious left-ofcenter causes, therefore, with a good dose of lucrative corporate work, meshing well with Obama’s neoliberal camouflage profile. But note the “economic development work,” since here lies the rub. According to at least one account, Obama already knew that he wanted to get elected in the Hyde Park neighborhood, a region of great sensitivity to the University of Chicago, and thus to the Rockefeller family and to the US intelligence community in general: When Judson H. Miner invited a third-year Harvard Law School student named Barack Obama to lunch at the Thai Star Cafe in Chicago before his 1991 graduation, Mr. Miner thought he was recruiting the 29-year-old to work for his boutique civil rights law firm. Instead, Mr. Obama recruited him. Mr. Obama made it clear that he was less interested in a job than in learning the political lay of the land from a man who had served at the right hand of the city’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. Mr. Miner, who had helped with the historic 1983 election of Mr. Washington and served as his corporation counsel, proved a willing tutor. The confident younger man “cross-examined” Mr. Miner about how Mr. Washington had managed to emerge from an election riven by bigotry to form a governing coalition in which he “got along with all these different types of folks,” Mr. Miner recalled. “During the course of our talking, it came out that people who knew he was having lunch with me were trying to convince him that this was the worst place for him to go. He shared this with me — he was amused,” Mr. Miner said, laughing. “This isn’t where you land if you want to curry favor with the Democratic power structure.” It was, however, exactly where an aspiring politician might land if he happened to want to run for office from Hyde Park, a neighborhood with a long history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the city’s legendary Democratic machine. Mr. Obama chose to put 130 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography down roots in the neighborhood after graduating law school and marrying Michelle Robinson, a Chicago native and fellow lawyer. […] Mr. Miner was “enormously helpful” in introducing Mr. Obama to the liberal coalition of blacks and whites that had helped elect Mr. Washington, said Valerie Jarrett, a longtime friend and close adviser. “It brought in a whole new circle of people.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) At this critical point in his career, Obama once again seemed to have a guardian angel or familiar spirit hovering overhead, this time in the form of Thomas Ayers, the august father of Barky’s terrorist friend Bill Ayers, the aging Weatherman of whom we will have much to recount. The solicitude of Thomas Ayers and his family, including Bernardine Dohrn, for Obama’s upward mobility, we stress again, is part of a pattern of foundation and intelligence community intervention in favor of Obama which started when his mother joined the Ford Foundation, and which became intense during the years when Obama and Zbigniew Brzezinski were at Columbia in 1981-1983. Steve Diamond suggested how Obama was hired: The partner who hired him was Judson Miner. Miner was a well-known left wing lawyer in Chicago who had been counsel to the progressive black mayor in the 80s, Harold Washington. But Miner possibly also had ties to the Ayers family. He was law school classmates with Bernardine Dohrn at the University of Chicago (both Class of 1967). He formed a lawyers group against the war after graduation and organized a left wing alternative to the local Chicago bar association.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Obama also taught in an adjunct teaching position at the University of Chicago, and he has consistently tried to upgrade this into the claim that he was a law “professor,” a title to which he never had any right. If he were to go to Germany, he could be prosecuted for Titelmißbrauch, the abusive faking of academic titles. On March 27, 2007 Obama told a fundraiser, “I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution.” But Obama is an imposter. He has never been a professor, except in the most generic sense. Obama has been a “Senior Lecturer (on leave of absence)” at the University of Chicago Law School, which is controlled by his backers and controllers. He has taught courses in Constitutional Law III: Equal Protection and Substantive Due Process, Current Issues in Racism and the Law, and Voting Rights and the Democratic Process. THE CHICAGO CESSPOOL OF CORRUPTION: OBAMA’S HEART OF DARKNESS But there was much more than meets the eye at the modest Chicago left-wing law firm now called Davis, Miner, and Barnhill law firm. Evelyn Pringle has gone back to the time after Obama’s graduation from Harvard Law School, when he was hired by what then was Miner, Barnhill, and Galland. Even at that time, Allison Davis was the dominant personality at the firm. And the secret of Miner, Barnhill, and Galland was that it was Tony Rezko’s law firm: After turning down the surprise job offer from Rezko, Obama expects voters to believe that he just happened to get hired at the small 12-attorney Davis law firm, which just happened to represent Rezmar in development deals. And then a couple years later, Rezko’s companies just happened to appear on the very first contributions made to the “Friends of Obama” committee to launch his political career as a state senator.’ (Evelyn Pringle, op-ed news)30 III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 131 Another Chicago analyst reminds us that it was Rezko who made Allison Davis a big man through his patronage: Rezko got Allison S. Davis appointed to the Illinois State Board of Investment, in control of billions in state retirement funds. Although Davis has not been charged with wrongdoing, the feds are reportedly pressing a probe of that agency. Davis is currently the president of that State Board. Barack Obama was a Harvard Law student in 1990 when he interviewed for a job with Tony Rezko’s slum-redevelopment firm. He didn’t go directly into the Rezko company. But in 1993 Obama was hired by Allison S. Davis, whose law firm (Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland) represented Rezko’s operations over the years, while Rezko raised cash for Obama’s electoral campaigns. Davis became Rezko’s personal financial partner in slum-redevelopment deals, which were then backed by State Senator Obama. (John Desiderio, Working Life, January 27, 2008) “Operation Board Games” is the code name for the prosecution of Rezko, joined potentially by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and other Democratic and Republican pols, ward-heelers, and fixers. One of the central points of this probe is the Davis, Miner, and Barnhill law firm, where Obama was employed. Pringle outlines the case as follows: The investigation dubbed “Operation Board Games,” into the influence peddling within the cesspool of corruption that encompasses Illinois politicians from both major parties, has developed into multiple subplots, many of which feature Barack Obama. They also give the details of Obama’s involvement in a slumlord business largely operating out of the Chicagobased Davis, Miner & Barnhill law firm, which hired Obama in 1993, with his boss, Allison Davis, reaping in the profits with Rezko’s development company, Rezmar. [Pringle’s] “Board Games for Slumlord” article gives in-depth details of the federal investigation along with the names of people who are listed as “Co-Schemers” and “Individuals” in the indictments issued thus far. Therefore for the most part, this article will refer to all the scams collectively as what prosecutors refer to as “pay-to-play” schemes. The Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland law firm, where Obama worked for nearly a decade, served as a hub for a slew of slumlord deals, many that benefited the firm’s founder, Allison Davis, and Obama’s claims that he knew nothing about the inner workings of this small firm, represent an insult to the intelligence of the American public…. Allison Davis, Obama’s boss at the law firm, is also listed in legal documents as playing a part in setting up a major extortion attempt in the Board Games case. (Pringle, oped news) A recent expose published in the Boston Globe also points directly to Obama’s choice of law firms to work for not as a selfless gesture of idealistic commitment, but rather as an entrée into the sleazy world of Chicago graft: Allison Davis, Obama’s former law firm boss, dabbled in development for years while he worked primarily as a lawyer. He participated in the development of Grove Parc Plaza. And in 1996, Davis left his law firm to pursue a full-time career as an affordable housing developer, fueled by the subsidies from the Daley administration and aided, on occasion, by Obama himself. Over roughly the past decade, Davis’s companies have received more than $100 million in subsidies to renovate and build more than 1,500 apartments in Chicago, according to a Chicago Sun-Times tally. In several cases, Davis partnered with Tony Rezko. In 1998 the two men created a limited partnership to build an apartment building for seniors on Chicago’s South Side. Obama wrote letters on state Senate stationery supporting city and state loans for the project. In 2000 Davis asked the nonprofit Woods Fund of Chicago for a $1 million investment 132 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography in a new development partnership, Neighborhood Rejuvenation Partners. Obama, a member of the board, voted in favor, helping Davis secure the investment. (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) OBAMA: THE MOST CORRUPT SINCE HARDING? OR SINCE GRANT? It was a form of corruption which siphoned off immense quantities of public resources in order to slake the greed of a very small group of insiders, wheel horses, and fixers. In Pringle’s evaluation, Barack Obama has a long history of working with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and governors of Illinois, including the current Governor Rod Blagojevich, in doling out government funding for housing development in Chicago. His history is hardly a model of success, except for the hundreds of millions in profits made by the chosen few slumlords. Less than a year ago, in the April 26, 2007, Chicago Sun-Times, Fran Spielman reported that Chicago aldermen were accusing the Daley administration “of being asleep at the switch while low-income housing projects developed by the now-indicted Tony Rezko collapsed into disrepair…The spigot of loans, grants and tax credits should have been cut off when the first of 30 taxpayer-supported Rezko buildings in Chicago fell into disrepair, the aldermen said,” according to the report.’ Obama’s resume is notoriously thin, but it already contains an ample dossier of graft, corruption, and malfeasance in office. Obama’s corruption, starting with the beginning of his law practice in Chicago, also has implications for the future of US housing policy for lower income groups, sure to be a key item in the wake of the mortgage crisis, and the collapse of the housing industry as it had existed since the Carter years. According to Pringle, there are already signs that Obama wants to bring the discredited, scandalous, and failed Chicago model to Washington, where he can launch a new phase of gangsters and racketeers of the Rezko-Auchi stripe feeding at the public trough. Pringle foresees that Obama now wants to bring this dog and pony show to Washington. I can see it now. His former boss, Allison Davis, at the Davis, Miner & Barnhill law firm, that served as a hub for Rezko’s thriving slumlord business for a decade before Davis quit and became partners with Rezko, will be appointed to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Davis and his partners, which include his sons Jared and Cullen, have received more than $100 million in taxpayer subsidies to build and rehab apartments and homes over the past 10 years and have made at least $4 million in development fees, according to the Times. “Davis has gotten deal after deal from the mayor, helping to make Davis one of the city’s top developers,” Tim Novak noted in the November 7, 2007 Sun-Times. There’s already a plan in place to guarantee that the Chicago model of “community development” is carried out in the White House. In his “Plan to Fight Poverty in America,” Obama says, “we should create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to develop affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods.” The Plan will create a “White House Office of Urban Policy” to develop a strategy for metropolitan America, and Obama will appoint a Director of Urban Policy who will report directly to him, as president, to “coordinate all federal urban programs,” the Plan states. Mayor Daley will probably be hired for this gig. The Plan explains that Obama will task his new Director “to work across federal agencies and with community and business leaders to identify and address the unique economic development barriers of every major metropolitan area in the country.” (Pringle, oped news) The last big scandal at HUD goes back to the tenure of “Silent Sam” Pierce, an African- American who was appointed by Reagan. In this case, HUD official Deborah Gore Dean, a cousin III: Foundation-Funded Racism: Jeremiah Wright and Michelle 133 of later Vice President Al Gore, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the federal government, plus perjury, and did some jail time. Sam Pierce was manifestly involved in mismanagement, abuse and political favoritism, but an independent counsel was unable to get the goods on him. This gives us the merest inkling of what an Obama administration may have in store. It may prove to be the most corrupt administration since Warren Gamaliel Harding, almost a century ago. Obama will doubtless seek to portray any abuses as the inevitable by-products of his valiant attempt to redress the balance of minority oppression. Indeed, his legal colleagues appear to be consummate masters in the gaming of the system of quotas, set-asides, preferences, and other mechanisms of discrimination which have grown up under the aeges of the post-Nixon affirmative action policies. As Pringle points out, An example of the Chicago version of a minority-owned business is DV Urban Realty Partners, where Allison Davis, who is amillionaire many times over, owns 51%, and Robert Vanecko, Mayor Daley’s nephew, owns 49%. First of all, “Barack Obama you are no Robert Kennedy,” and we’re still asking the question because the careers of politicians like Obama are funded by a political mafia which has turned helping the poor into a cottage industry. Cursory review of Illinois campaign records shows Allison Davis and his family members giving close to $16,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign. The Sun-Times reports that Davis has donated more than $400,000 to dozens of political campaigns, and the top beneficiaries include Mayor Daley, Blagojevich and Obama.” (Pringle, op-ed news) It was also thanks to the Davis, Miner & Barnhill law firm that Obama was able to forge an additional set of links with the Chicago foundation community, starting with the Woods Fund. Pringle shows that Obama began serving on the board of Woods Fund, a Chicago charity foundation, in 1993, the same year he was hired by Davis’ law firm. In 2000, Davis went to the foundation to help fund his plans to build low income housing. Obama voted to invest $1 million with Neighborhood Rejuvenation Partners, a $17 million partnership that Davis still operates, according to a report by Novak in the November 29, 2007 Sun-Times. [Daley hack Martin] Nesbitt is also vice president of the Pritzker Realty Group, where he procures new real estate investment opportunities, retail investments and developments for the Pritzker Group….’ This is Martin Nesbitt, a top official of the Chicago Housing Authority, where the slogan on the logo reads “Change” – no doubt to comfort Rezko’s victims.31 A quick trip to the Huffington Post site showed tens of thousands of dollars donated to Obama from people with the last name Pritzker in the Chicago area,’ with many from the Pritzker clan. Penny Pritzker, whose family controls Hyatt Hotels, is the National Finance Chair for the Obama campaign, and presides over Obama’s equivalents of the Bush Pioneers or Rangers. The party label may change, but the plutocracy remains. As for Nesbitt, he has been showing up in television profiles of Obama as a distinguished commentator on issues like Barky’s anguish when he was forced to part company with Jeremiah Wright, and so forth; Nesbitt is never asked about shady dealings in Chicago. CHAPTER IV: APPRENTICESHIP WITH FOUNDATIONFUNDED TERRORISTS: AYERS AND DOHRN “We must be alert to the CIA agents who would promote the polarization of our society. We must examine the evidence which indicates that fake revolutionaries, who are inciting insurrection in our cities, have had their pockets and minds stuffed by the CIA.” – Vincent Salandria, 1971. “How could we have done the FBI’s work better for them?” –Mark Rudd, Weatherman leader. “You don’t have to be a cop to do a cop’s work.” – Ward Churchill, ex-Weatherman “God, what a great country. It makes me want to puke.” – Bill Ayers, Weather Underground Public opinion is now broadly aware of the close personal relationship and friendly affinity which has existed for two decades between the candidate Obama and the rehabilitated but unrepentant and defiant Weatherman terrorist bombers, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. As David Axelrod told the Politico, “Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school … They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.”32 Ayers has written about his involvement with the group’s bombings of the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the U.S. Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972. Obama’s quest for elective office started in 1995 with a fund-raising meeting held at the home of Ayers and Dohrn. A $200 campaign contribution from Ayers is listed on April 2, 2001 by the “Friends of Barack Obama” campaign fund. The two appeared speaking together at several public events, including a 1997 University of Chicago panel entitled, “Should a child ever be called a ‘super predator?’” and another panel for the University of Illinois in April 2002, entitled, “Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?” Ayers and Obama are friends. Ayers was the key man in giving Obama his first big visible and public break in the foundation world, his job as the chairman of the board of the Annenberg Chicago Challenge. The basic facts of the meeting at the Ayers-Dohrn abode are these: ‘In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well-known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they’re better known nationally as two of the most notorious — and unrepentant — figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement. Now, as Obama runs for president, what two guests recall as an unremarkable gathering on the road to a minor elected office stands as a symbol of how swiftly he has risen from a man in the Hyde Park left to one closing in fast on the Democratic nomination for president. “I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,” said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. “[Palmer] identified [Obama] as her successor.” Obama and Palmer “were both there,” he said. Obama’s connections to Ayers and Dohrn have been noted in some fleeting news coverage in the past. But the visit by Obama to their home — part of a campaign courtship — reflects more extensive interaction than has been previously reported.’33 The period between 1991 and 1995 is the time when Obama assembles his network with its various components – the politically connected lawyer Allison Davis, the mafioso slumlord Tony Rezko, and the terrorists turned education operatives in the service of the foundations, Bill Ayers IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 135 and Bernardine Dohrn. It is a group redolent of the foundations and thus of the left wing of the intelligence community, and it will remain in place around Obama until the present day. Obama was now preparing for his first run at elective political office. To do this, he needed a base of activists, supporters, and donors. Obama’s pedigree will be clearly exhibited by the method by which he chose to go about addressing this task. As we have already seen, Obama can be considered as a product of the Ford Foundation and its associated satellite foundations. Obama’s mother worked directly for the Ford Foundation. Obama himself worked for the Gamaliel Foundation, a satellite of the Ford mother ship. This is his time as a “community organizer.” Obama’s church was fully stocked with theologians whose careers had been promoted by the Ford Foundation. Thus, we may say that Obama’s hardware configuration was largely due to the efforts of the Ford Foundation and its satellites. The software, as we have stressed, came largely from Zbigniew Brzezinski and his associates in the Trilateral Commission-Bilderberger-New York Council on Foreign Relations orbit, who had been training and indoctrinating Obama for almost one and a half decades at this point. Since many traditional functions of the US intelligence community had been privatized into the world of front companies and especially the foundations and nongovernmental organizations, we can for purposes of brevity and clarity label the matrix of Obama’s software as the left wing of the intelligence community, or the left CIA. This is the network to which Obama quite naturally and indeed inevitably turned when the time came for him to run for the Illinois State Senate. Over time, intelligence networks cannot be hidden, since the same persons often appear in radically different roles. This means that their momentarily announced loyalties and purposes were spurious and fictitious: what counted all along was their loyalty to the intelligence network to which they belong. Obama wanted to represent that part of Southside Chicago which is called Hyde Park, a neighborhood which is split between the comfortable homes of professors at the University of Chicago on the one hand, and a brutal and impoverished black inner-city ghetto on the other. Hyde Park is a neighborhood split by fault lines of racial tension. The political importance of the University of Chicago for the US intelligence community can hardly be overestimated. The University of Chicago’s troubled frontier with the black ghetto has been something of a concern to the US ruling financier oligarchy for some time, since relations there have been so bad that the university might have to move away, a colossally expensive project. A whole cottage industry of academic-grade poverty pimps and foundation operatives has grown up to provide border guards for the line of demarcation between the university and the ghetto. Those who succeed as border guards and gatekeepers along this line are marked for preferment; the striving Obama power couple are one example. Another is Danielle Allen, who (like Bernardine Dohrn) has been the recipient of the largesse of the MacArthur Foundation – in Allen’s case via a coveted genius grant, which is a program used to promote philistine mediocrities to help dumb down the academic world, according to the general program of the foundations. Allen has just become UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey – she is the first black fellow of that elite think tank, where the arch-oligarchical operative Bernard Lewis (a key apostle of the Iraq war) also resides. Lately, Allen has been going on the radio, voicing shrill indignation over internet attacks on the Redeemer. A recent puff piece on the postmodern Allen stresses her role as a gatekeeper active in ‘the University of Chicago’s surrounding Hyde Park neighborhood, where town and gown have a long history of … “interracial distrust.”’ Allen, the article goes on to say, learned in Hyde Park that ‘it was impossible to ignore the poor and often violent world not far from campus. Hyde Park today is a racially mixed, mostly middle-class neighborhood, but you don’t 136 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography have to walk far to find real urban blight. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, as the South Side of Chicago was getting poorer and blacker, the university administration grew increasingly concerned that parents would refuse to send their children to such a place. There were rumors that the university was considering moving its campus out of Hyde Park. Instead, it launched an aggressive policy of urban renewal, relying heavily on draconian eminent domain laws that said that if a private developer owned 60 percent of a block, it could claim the remaining 40 percent through eminent domain. Those losing their houses were mostly black, while the university was mostly white. One consequence of this was a feeling of bitterness and suspicion toward the university that has lingered for decades. All of this was troubling….’ (Merrell Noden, “At home in two worlds,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, March 5, 2008) So this is the area where Obama decided to pursue his political career, obviously as a black-faced gatekeeper and protector of the University of Chicago’s interest against the black poor. As the veteran public servant Larry Johnson showed on his noquarterusa.net blog, the truth was that Obama WAS an employee of a Bill Ayers enterprise for about eight years. In reality, the terrorist Ayers had been Obama’s boss: “Barack also was essentially an employee of Bill Ayers for eight years. In 1995, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was created to raise funds to help reform the Chicago public schools. One of the architects of the Challenge was none other than Professor Bill Ayers. Ayers co-wrote the initial grant proposal and proudly lists himself on his own website as the co-founder of the Challenge. And who did William Ayers, co-creator of the Challenge, help select as the new director of the board for this program? Barack Obama. Barack Obama was the first Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. This appointment came at a crucial time in Barack’s life. He was on the verge of challenging longtime state Senator Alice Palmer for her job. When Barack decided to run, it is no surprise that he turned to William Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, for help in organizing the campaign and in hosting his first fundraiser in the district. Obama served on the board for eight years until the Challenge ended in 2003. Bill Ayers was intimately involved in the Challenge over this same time period.” (Noquarterusa.net, April 26, 2008) This was in addition to Ayers’ well-documented role in organizing the fundraiser that kicked off Obama’s first run for elective office in 1995. The old provocateurs of the left CIA were now serving as a support network for the next generation of domestic counterinsurgency operatives. THE WEATHERMEN’S LONG MARCH THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS HAS PRODUCED OBAMA The University of Chicago is of course the home of the Milton Friedman Chicago boys, the archreactionary or quasi-fascist economists who dictated the fascist austerity program imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile in the middle 1970s, and who have helped destroy or impoverish many other countries around the world from Bolivia to Poland to Russia. One of them is the infamous Skull and Bones member Austan Goolsbee, a top economic controller of the Obama campaign. But the intelligence community also has a left wing face. Here we find the Black liberation theologian and Ford Foundation operative Dwight Hopkins, who shuttles back and forth to Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Here also we find the residue of many intelligence community operations of previous decades, and in this context one group stands out above all others: the veterans of the more extreme factions of Students for a Democratic Society, the most important left wing organization of the 1960s and indeed the largest left-wing political formation in all of American history. Here we find, in other words, a group of left-wing radicals who are well IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 137 advanced in the long march through the institutions, working within the system and achieving remarkable positions of institutional authority in the process: ‘Today one of the approaches used by these types is the “long march” through the (presumably “bourgeois”) institutions. (See [a] discussion of it by “Progressives for Obama” supporter, Fidelista and former SDS leader Carl Davidson.) Of course, the “long march” referred to is that taken by Mao and the People’s Liberation Army in 1934. Now, Davidson et al. apply the concept to the tactics of the “left” inside various “reform movements” such as the anti-war movement. Davidson was one of the organizers of the 2002 anti war rally at which Obama first spoke out against the war.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Diamond also notes: ‘Bill Ayers appears to be attempting to lead a similar “long march” in the education world. Ayers is a vigorous advocate of local control along with a related concept called “small schools,” most likely because he believes it gives him the potential to build a political base from which to operate. He has discussed these ideas in speeches and writings on his blog. As he said in a speech he gave in front of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in late 2006: “Teaching invites transformations, it urges revolutions small and large. La educación es revolución!” (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Some of Obama’s friends were openly terrorists and bombers from the incendiary Weatherman faction, like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Others did not join the Weathermen in their long years of underground urban guerrilla struggle: here we find such figures as Carl Davidson and Marilyn Katz. Assorted leaders of various successor organizations to the Black Panthers and/or the Black Liberation Army will also appear. The common denominator of many of these figures is that they were seldom the spontaneous radicalized student militants that they pretended to be, but were generally elements of pollution: police agents, provocateurs, wreckers, sent in to the radical student left to do a job of sabotage, discrediting, and crippling. If Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn had been the authentic left-wing proto-fascist anarchists and bombers they have always claimed to be, they might well have faced an appointment with the gas chamber or the electric chair, given their implication in criminal conspiracies which led to the deaths of a significant number of persons, including police officers. Instead, Ayers and Dohrn have been rewarded and taken care of by some mysterious force through their receipt of prestigious endowed professorships in which they now have tenure. Was the hand that rewarded Ayers and Dohrn the same hand which has promoted and fostered the career of Obama? All indications are that it was, and that it was a hand attached to the left side of the US intelligence establishment. Right-wing commentators will rail that Ayers and Dohrn, Wright and Obama are authentic communists seeking to carry out the revolutionary program of Karl Marx. The argument here, by contrast, is that all of these figures are synthetic frauds who have been deployed to carry out the program of finance capital, as articulated through certain key parts of the US intelligence community who have never concealed their close relations with Wall Street. The difference is highly important. It is the difference between an ignorant right-wing hallucination which deserves to be mocked and laughed at, and an actual historical philosophical analysis of the systematic deformation and manipulation of social life by the immense power of an intelligence community that boasts a legal budget in the neighborhood of $100 billion, which is supplemented by hundreds of billions more coming from drug-running, gun-running, slave trading, and other nefarious activities, plus what the foundation endowments contribute. Only if they are understood in this way 138 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography can figures like Wright, Ayers, Dohrn, and the rest open a window into the process which has dished up the Manchurian candidacy of Obama. OBAMA’S NEST OF RACIST AND TERRORIST PROVOCATEURS The fact that Obama emerges from such a nest of racist and terrorist provocateurs has begun to dawn on a number of researchers. Steve Diamond writes: ‘The people linked to Senator Obama grew to political maturity in the extreme wings of the late 60s student and antiwar movements. They adopted some of the worst forms of sectarian and authoritarian politics. They helped undermine the emergence of a healthy relationship between students and others in American society who were becoming interested in alternative views of social, political and economic organization. In fact, at the time, some far more constructive activists had a hard time comprehending groups like the Weather Underground. Their tactics were so damaging that some on the left thought that government or right-wing elements helped create them. There is some evidence, in fact, that that was true (for example, the Cointelpro effort of the federal government.)’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Correct. The Weathermen were spooks, provocateurs who knew what they were doing, on some level. THOMAS AYERS OF THE BOARD OF GENERAL DYNAMICS, TOP PENTAGON CONTRACTOR AND SPOOK If we try to identify Obama’s personal patron during the Chicago years, we must conclude that Obama owed everything to the Ayers family – to ruling class patriarch Thomas Ayers, his son Bill Ayers the terrorist, to his daughter-in-law Bernardine Dohrn (another terrorist), and to Bill’s brother John. This is also the finding of Steve Diamond. So, who did “send” Obama? The key I think is his ties not to well-connected über lawyer Newton Minow … but more likely to the family of (in)famous former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers. Obama was a community organizer from about 1985 to 1988, when he left Chicago for Harvard Law School. During that time a critical issue in Chicago politics was the ongoing crisis in the public schools. A movement was underway from two angles: from below in black, Latino and other communities for more local control of schools, and from above by business interests who wanted to cut costs. For a fascinating account and analysis see Dorothy Shipps, “The Invisible Hand: Big Business and Chicago School Reform,” Teachers College Record, Vol. 99, #1, Fall 1997, pp. 73- 116 or her later excellent book on the subject: School Reform, Corporate Style: Chicago, 1880-2000 (Kansas 2006.) A 1987 teachers’ strike brought those two sides together to push for a reform act passed by the Illinois legislature in 1988 that created “Local School Councils” (LSC) to be elected by residents in a particular school area. According to Shipps, the strike “enrag[ed] parents and provid[ed] the catalyst for a coalition between community groups and Chicago United [the business lobby] that was forged in the ensuing year.” (The full story of this complicated process is provided by Shipps in her book; see Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) The central figure, establishment godfather, and spiritus rector of this entire network is Thomas Ayers, the recently deceased father and protector of Bill Ayers. Thomas Ayers headed Commonwealth Edison for seven years, ending in 1980. Before reaching the top job, he helped negotiate the first labor contract between the energy giant and the International Brotherhood of IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 139 Electrical Workers. He served on many boards, including that of G.D. Searle, Chicago Pacific Corp., Zenith Corp., Northwest Industries, First National Bank of Chicago and Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune. He worked with many nonprofits, serving as the chair of the Chicago Urban League, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chicago United, Community Renewal Society and the Chicago Community Trust. Extremely important is Ayers’ status as a member of the board of General Dynamics Corp. of St. Louis, one of the largest US defense contractors.34 This role by itself is enough to certify that Thomas Ayers was a high-level member of the US intelligence community. Thomas Ayers can be regarded as a civic leader and trend setter of the upper crust of Chicago society, a high-level political fixer who was comfortable hob-nobbing with bankers, top executives, trade union bureaucrats, gangsters, and finally with terrorists like his son. One of the remarkable things about the Weatherman faction was that so many of its leaders were the sons and daughters of the US ruling class, and especially of those with obvious links into the intelligence community, be it through the OSS, the CIA, or the foundations. One always wondered: were these protofascist anarchists simply acting out their own personal Oedipal rebellions against mommy and daddy? There is ample evidence of this in Ayers hyper-Oedipal “kill your parents” outburst. But, at the same time there was always the suspicion that there might be something more going on: were these spoiled little elitists being sent into the student movement to do a stage before they moved on to some cushier form of employment, perhaps in the family business? A few of them ended up dead or serving life terms in prison, but a military career would be no less risky. So there is always the lingering suspicion that such an internship might have been what some of their parents had in mind at the beginning. Believe it or not, the foundation-funded left CIA (or left FBI, as the case may be) has taken care of Bill Ayers so well that he is now a tenured professor of education at Northern Illinois University. He may have gone from throwing bombs to tampering with the minds of defenseless young students, but his program remains the same: to provoke an all-out race war in the United States. As Steve Diamond has commented on noquarterusa.net, ‘Since the days of Weather Underground, Ayers has advocated a viewpoint that argues that the fundamental issue in American life is “white skin privilege” – that white Americans benefit from being white at the expense of blacks. As Ayers’ wife Bernardine Dohrn wrote in the introduction to a 2002 book she co-authored with Ayers and their fellow Weather Underground veteran Jeff Jones: “One cannot talk separately about class, gender, culture, immigration, ethnicity, or biology without being intertwined with race, as Katrina and the systematic destruction of a major black U.S. city re-informs us. We were waking up [in the late 1960s]. What to do once we had knowledge of the dimensions of white skin privilege? How to destroy white supremacy? Well, that is another matter. And as burning today as it was then.”’ Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Jeff Jones, Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiqués of the Weather Underground 1970 – 1974 (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2006). AYERS: “I DON’T REGRET SETTING BOMBS. I FEEL WE DIDN’T DO ENOUGH” “‘I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said [to the New York Times]. “I feel we didn’t do enough.” Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970s as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago. The long curly locks in his Wanted poster are shorn, though he wears earrings. He still has tattooed on 140 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography his neck the rainbow-and-lightning Weathermen logo that appeared on letters taking responsibility for bombings. And he still has the ebullient, ingratiating manner, the apparently intense interest in other people that made him a charismatic figure in the radical student movement.” Does Ayers plan to kill again? “I don’t want to discount the possibility. I don’t think you can understand a single thing we did without understanding the violence of the Vietnam War,” he said, and the fact that “the enduring scar of racism was fully in flower.” Ayers admits that he finds “a certain eloquence to bombs, a poetry and a pattern from a safe distance.”’ (Dinita Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life with the Weathermen,”’ New York Times, September 11, 2001) Ayers later claimed that his threats to go back to terrorism were “a joke.” Ayers describes the Weathermen descending into a “whirlpool of violence’ – and, we might add, criminal insanity. What Ayers is saying is that, from the point of view of his terrorist controllers and ruling class case officers, it was well worth a few dead cops to be able to break the back of the protest movements of the 1960s, which is after all the only thing that Ayers and Dohrn have ever accomplished, apart from some narcissistic preening. The Weatherman symbol which Ayers bears, depending on how it is depicted, has something in common with the semi-circle which stands out from the logo of the Obama campaign. According to his own 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days, Ayers bears on his back the Weatherman logo, a rainbow with a superimposed lightning bolt. The basic form of this logo was a semi-circle; it can be seen on the dust jacket of the 2001 hardcover edition of Ayers’ book. It has curiously disappeared from the later paperback edition. The Obama campaign logo was a blue O, with the lower half filled with red and white stripes. When seen from certain angles and distances, the Obama logo bore a distinct resemblance to the older Weatherman coat of arms, especially when it was the all-blue version rather than the full-color one. In heraldry, one would have said that Obama’s escutcheon contained a reference to the Weatherman crest. One can imagine Obama, Ayers, and Dohrn meeting in 2005 or 2006 and wickedly chortling about the new design, meant to symbolize the final revenge of the Weather Underground terrorist killers and butchers in the form of the seizure of power in Washington by a secret disciple of their left CIA belief structure. It was a risky gesture, since it risked being recognized, denounced, and exposed. Would Americans ever vote to put a crypto- Weatherman into the White House? Given the importance of emblems in fascism, this should not be taken lightly. At the time he was interviewed, Ayers was 56, and was flogging his self-serving autobiographical cover story entitled Fugitive Days (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001). Ayers recounted how he participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, the Pentagon in 1972. Is this a confession? No, because Ayers by now has embraced post-modernism with its categorical denial that any such things as reality and truth exist or can ever exist: “‘Is this, then, the truth?” he writes. “Not exactly. Although it feels entirely honest to me…. ‘Obviously, the point is it’s a reflection on memory,” he answered. “It’s true as I remember it.” Ayers remembers much, and then disremembers it: “‘Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,” he writes. But then comes a disclaimer: “Even though I didn’t actually bomb the Pentagon — we bombed it, in the sense that Weathermen organized it and claimed it.” He goes on to provide details about the manufacture of the bomb and how a woman he calls Anna placed the bomb in a restroom. No one was killed or injured, though damage was extensive.’ There is no doubt: Ayers is a post-modernist, a liar. (Dinita Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life with the Weathermen,”’ New York Times, September 11, 2001) IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 141 The terrorist is now a suitably blasé and laid-back professor of education (not a professor of English, as Obama evasively described him in the Philadelphia debate with Hillary when George Stephanopoulos asked him about Ayers), and a very influential professor at that. According to the review in the New York Times, ‘Mr. Ayers is probably safe from prosecution anyway. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said there was a five-year statute of limitations on Federal crimes except in cases of murder or when a person has been indicted.” Ayers might still be vulnerable on the murder technicality, some might argue. Ayers’ transitional program to the Weatherman communist utopia was summed up in classically Oedipal terms as follows: “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that’s where it’s really at.” He is today distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. When questioned about his exhortation to homicide and terrorism, Ayers again retreats into the postmodern briar patch: if I say terrorism, it’s just a metaphor, a piece of irony! Ayers comments: “it’s been quoted so many times I’m beginning to think I did [say it],’ he sighed. “It was a joke about the distribution of wealth.” (Dinita Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life with the Weathermen,” New York Times, September 11, 2001) Too bad if you died. Ayers’ consort is Bernardine Dohrn, the sado-masochistic heroine of new left Weatherman terrorism who strutted as an elitist dominatrix in a leather mini-skirt on the stage of the SDS split convention on Wabash in Chicago in June 1969, ready to rumble with the downscale pro-working class nerds and Maoists of Milton Rosen’s Progressive Labor Party, a split-off from the CPUSA. Bernardine was the MI-6 leather lady Diana Rigg of The Avengers – with a whip, she could have started a brilliant career at such establishments as Dominique’s House of Pain. But Bernardine had come from the left-communist circles around the National Lawyers’ Guild, deployed into SDS to turn the organization towards lunatic purgative violence, the advocacy of race war in the US, and speedy doom. Ayers lived underground as a fugitive from the FBI from 1970 on. He disappeared from view after his then wealthy elitist/terrorist girlfriend, Diana Oughton, along with Ted Gold from the Mad Dog faction and the ultra-violent Terry Robbins, all died when their bomb factory, located in a posh Greenwich Village townhouse, blew up because of their incompetent handling of explosives.35 Between 1970 and 1974 the Weathermen took responsibility for 12 bombings, according to Ayers’ count, and also helped spring narcotics guru Timothy Leary from jail where he was serving time. This last caper was a piece of crude political theater, and showed anybody with a brain that the Weathermen were in fact police agents and that the CIA wanted Leary freed to further inundate the world with LSD under the auspices of Project MK Ultra. Dohrn is now the director of the Legal Clinic’s Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University. Their old friends Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, whose child they have raised, are serving prison terms for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in Rockland County, N.Y., in which the Weathermen murdered four people, including two policemen and two armed guards.36 Gilbert is clearly hoping that a President Obama would pardon him. TERRORIST MÉNAGE À TROIS: AYERS, BERNARDINE, WARD CHURCHILL Ayers, as the New York Times review concedes, was always suspect in SDS because he was the son of a rich and powerful executive, and was suspected of having intelligence community links. His father, Thomas Ayers, was, as we have seen, chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago, chairman of Northwestern University and of the Chicago Symphony. The little rich boy Bill Ayers attended Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Ill., then 142 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the University of Michigan, but dropped out to join Students for a Democratic Society. “In 1967 he met Ms. Dohrn in Ann Arbor, Mich. She had a law degree from the University of Chicago and was a magnetic speaker who often wore thigh-high boots and miniskirts,” wrote the Times. In 1970, after the explosion of the Greenwich Village townhouse, Dohrn jumped bail and failed to appear for her trial in connection with the Weatherman Days of Rage caper, a piece of absurd political tragicomedy in which a few hundred Weathermen wearing football helmets proposed to start the revolution by doing battle with the Chicago cops in the middle of the Loop. The Weathermen had expected a massive turnout that would have allowed them to rule the streets and sweep the forces of order aside. The whole lunatic exercise was predictably a tactical failure, and an even bigger strategic political failure, since it marks the end of the student movement and of the Students for a Democratic Society. Despite all of its problems, SDS had been by some measures the largest leftwing membership organizations in the history of this country, and with reasonable leadership it could have acted as a pressure group to the left of the Democratic Party for many years to come. But that meant nothing to the Weatherman provocateurs, police agents, and wreckers, who seemed determined to destroy SDS with all the tools at their disposal. Later in the spring of 1970, Ayers and Dohrn were both indicted along with other Weathermen in Federal Court under the Rap Brown law for crossing state lines to incite a riot during the Days of Rage, and then for “conspiracy to bomb police stations and government buildings.” Those charges were dropped in 1974, allegedly because of prosecutorial misconduct, including illegal surveillance, but, some said, because the individuals in question were evidently assets of interest to the US intelligence community. FOUNDATIONS ALLEGED TO HAVE FUNDED THE WEATHERMEN The now obscure but highly detailed survey entitled Carter and the Party of International Terrorism,37 issued in the summer of 1976 by the long-defunct US Labor Party, alleged the involvement of a number of foundations in the origins and development of the Weathermen. This study expresses a heterodox view of the Weathermen which may nevertheless prove heuristic: … The Weathermen were created as a joint project of the Ford Foundation, IPS, and the Institute for Social Research (ISR) [at the University of Michigan].38 The group was spawned in May, 1968 at a “secret meeting” in the midst of the Columbia University student strike. Weatherman founder Mark Rudd constituted the initial cell around a Ford Foundation grant under which the group agreed to bust the strike through anarchist provocations. The Ford Foundation “blank check” was conduited through Tom Neumann, the [step-son] of OSS ideologue Herbert Marcuse and the head of a New York City IPS anarchist project, “Up Against the Wall Motherf****r.” Weathermen were constituted as a national faction within the IPSdominated Students for a Democratic Society by means of the selection process conducted during 1968-1969 through a series of position papers published in the Radical Education Project, run by Marcus Raskin and Arthur Waskow. In fact, the position papers (including the infamous “You Don’t Need a Weatherman…” were synthetic belief structures drafted by psychological warfare experts at ISR and published under the bylines of SDS leaders like Bill Ayers and Jim Mellen – both [Ann Arbor] ISR graduate students. SDSers attracted to the anarcho-syndicalist Weatherman credo were put through a series of well-financed “military maneuvers” during this period to refine the selection. The Democratic Convention riots in Chicago: Led by IPS operatives Hayden and Waskow and heavily financed by the Carnegie Fund ($85,000), the Office of Economic Opportunity ($194,000 conduited through IPS), plus IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 143 similar sums from the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the New World Foundation, and the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU. […] The Fall 1969 “Days of Rage” in Chicago [was] a Weatherman riot financed through a “war chest” bankrolled by Raskin, Waskow, et al.; also funded through an IPS front called “American Playground,” through the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and through the IPS media project, Liberation News Service. By this point, the Weatherman belief structure was psychotically fascistic, as demonstrated in the Dec. 1969 ‘War Council’ speech by IPS controller Bernardine Dohrn referring to the recent Manson family murders’ [cited elsewhere in this book]. (Carter and the PIT, 121) The USLP authors explicitly accused the Ford Foundation of helping to call forth violent radical groups: The entire Ford operation took on an upgraded character in 1966 with the appointment of McGeorge Bundy as the president of the Ford Foundation. Bundy’s experience as the special National Security Adviser to President Kennedy provided for an upgraded interface between the Foundation’s activities and the overall global warfare policies of the Rockefeller family empire. Ford virtually orchestrated - along with the subsumed Institute for Policy Studies field operations - the creation of the black nationalist “radical” apartheid operation, the domestic race war prospectus, the building up of a nationwide network of urban brainwashing centers and the creation of a nationwide Gestapo in the form of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. By 1968, the Ford Foundation was openly funding domestic terrorism. The Weatherman organization represents the most open case, although during the 1968 New York City teachers’ strike, the Progressive Labor Party, the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party USA, all by that point under Institute for Policy Studies control, were bankrolled by Ford.” (Carter and the PIT, 19) It has proven impossible to corroborate these charges using other sources, and the historical record remains fragmentary and incomplete. The accuracy of some of these allegations cannot be determined without access to the relevant government and foundation archives, which will hardly be forthcoming in time to help vet Obama’s closest associates. If the charges made by the USLP three decades ago are accurate, then the leading Weathermen, including Obama’s friends Ayers and Dohrn, started working for the foundations more than forty years ago, and continue to receive grants from many of these same foundations today. THE WAR AGAINST MONOGAMY: AYERS GOES BISEXUAL Ayers also figures as yet another homosexual or bisexual in Obama’s life, beyond Frank, Donald Young, Larry Sinclair, and others. Ayers in Fugitive Days ‘also writes about the Weathermen’s sexual experimentation as they tried to “smash monogamy.” The Weathermen were “an army of lovers,” he says, and describes having had different sexual partners, including his best male friend.”’39 If Ayers became bisexual, he may still be bisexual, and this would place another bisexual or homosexual partner in Obama’s immediate circle, in addition to Wright (accused of closet homosexuality by Rev. James David Manning of Harlem), Larry Sinclair, and the late Donald Young, the gay choirmaster of Wright’s church who was found murdered on Christmas morning 2007. When Dohrn was asked about the revolutionary orthodoxy of settling into marriage after efforts to smash monogamy, Ms. Dohrn said, “You’re always trying to balance your understanding of who you are and what you need, and your longing and imaginings of freedom.” Ayers chimed in 144 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography that he shared the same conflicts about marriage. “We have to learn how to be committed,” he said, “and hold out the possibility of endless reinventions.” Indeed, a good agent provocateur should be able to re-invent himself or herself several times in a career. A champion in this was Arthur Koestler, who went from being a Zionist in Palestine to a KPD communist to a Cold War hardline anti-communist, to a Jungian dealer in paranormal and psychic phenomena, ending up as a voluntary euthanasia advocate. He also changed nationalities several times, from Hungarian to proto-Israeli to German to British. The best guess is that he was a British agent from the very early stages on. Ayers, by contrast, still has a ways to go if he wants to get into the Spy Museum. WARD CHURCHILL, WEATHERMAN AND PARALLEL LIFE TO AYERS AND DOHRN Another key Weatherman supporter who figures in the life of Ayers and Dohrn is Ward Churchill, who was up to the end of 2007 probably the best known former Weatherman still active in politics, largely because of his statement noted earlier that the office workers who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 were “little Eichmanns,” servants of imperialism who deserved what they got. Churchill also became infamous as a supporter of the CIA’s blowback theory of 9/11, which he saw not as a false flag operation by the Anglo-American intelligence community, but rather as just retribution for the crimes of US imperialism. This tirade had made Ward Churchill a favorite target of Fox News Channel personalities like O’Reilly and Hannity. Churchill stated that anyone who doubted the official US version of 9/11 – the 19 Arab hijackers, Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, etc.- was really a racist who did not believe that Arabs were capable of great things – a very imaginative defense of the US government line. Especially in 2005-2007, Churchill was repeatedly attacked by the reactionary Fox News Channel personalities O’Reilly and Hannity, and was ousted from his tenured post at the University of Colorado with much fanfare. Back around 1970, Ward Churchill had been a Weatherman, just like Ayers and Dohrn. Today he poses as an American Indian activist. A recent critical account of Ward Churchill by Bob Black alleges that c. 1970, Ex-Weathermen were even less popular than Vietnam veterans. It took Churchill awhile to find his way from the warpath to the career path. He became a staff writer for Soldier of Fortune magazine. Finally he discovered, or invented, his Indian heritage. In 1978 he took on the new role of professional Indian. By 1983, he was “director of Planning, Research and Development for Educational Opportunity Programs at the University of Colorado/Boulder.” In plain English, he was an affirmative-action bureaucrat, a paid race-monger. He made the most of the gig, and very possibly wrote himself a job description to jump into academia. So he is now, without even possessing a doctorate, a tenured ethnic-studies professor at the university in the posh resort town of Boulder. Tom Giago, an enrolled Oglala Sioux born and raised on the Pine Ridge reservation, the publisher of Indian Country Today, considers Churchill a “white profiteer, a police agent and a terrorist.”… If Churchill’s indigenism is the radical threat he says it is, why does the government pay him to propagate it? When Churchill first surfaces, he is killing indigenous people for the U.S. Government. Next he is a member of the agent-ridden Weatherman SDS; then a staff writer for Soldier of Fortune; and then a sachem in the agentriddled American Indian Movement. Next, notwithstanding this unsavory background, he works as a bureaucrat for a state university, from which gig he is bootstrapped into a tenure-track faculty position for which he has no qualifications, and soon he is tenured. His noisy presence IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 145 in the Amerindian nationalist movement helps to splinter it. For Churchill, the test of indigenist orthodoxy is simple: you pass it if – but only for so long as – you promote Churchill’s career. Is Churchill, as many suspect, a police agent? Nobody’s said it better than Churchill himself: “You don’t have to be a cop to do a cop’s work.” Indian identity, in Churchill’s windy words, “is determined by cultural/intellectual/political attributes,” but he is careful not to identify what these attributes are, for if he did, it would be obvious that he doesn’t possess them.’40 We have seen the race-based divide-and-conquer policies of the foundations at work against the black and Hispanic communities; Ward Churchill’s operations remind us that similar policies have been used against the American Indian or Native American parts of the population as well. Back in 1969, Ward Churchill worked together with Weatherman leader Bernardine Dohrn at the Chicago SDS National Office: ‘“I had my little medals, I went back to my tractor factory” - and started hanging out in Chicago at the national office of the leftist Students for a Democratic Society, where he ran into Bernardine Dohrn, an attractive leader of the Weather Underground, a radical group that favored the bombings of buildings and confrontations with police in their fight against racism, the Vietnam War and the ruling class. But the Weather Underground knew more about Marxism than about bombs. Churchill briefly taught the Weathermen and Weatherwomen how to make bombs and how to fire weapons - “which end does the bullet go, what are the ingredients, how do you time the damned thing.”’ Ward Churchill’s instruction may have been faulty, however: ‘Thenthree of the radicals accidentally blew themselves up in a New York brownstone, and Churchill decided that he had had enough. He became involved with Native American and Black Panther causes - “I was identifying more with people of color than the white left” - and started working for AIM in 1972, the year before the Wounded Knee, S.D., shootout between activists who had seized the village and FBI men who joined the violent confrontation.’ (Denver Post, January 18, 1987)41 One of those who perished in the explosion of the Weatherman bomb factory in New York’s Greenwich Village was, as we have seen, Bill Ayers’ then girlfriend, the wealthy heiress Diana Oughton. This was precisely the time when pro-terrorist professor Ward Churchill was teaching bombmaking to the Weatherman, as he himself boasted in a 1987 Denver Post interview. The old Weatherman ideology burns brightly in Ward Churchill, a veteran provocateur and wrecker. Ward Churchill speaks with much greater frankness about the Weatherman world view than do Ayers, Dohrn, and the rest of their circle, who need to be more careful of what they say in public. Ward Churchill lets it all hang out – he is the Weatherman who tells you what the others are thinking today. And this is what Ward Churchill is thinking these days: “One of the things I’ve suggested is that it may be that more 9/11s are necessary,” Churchill said in a 2004 interview to Satya magazine.42 Churchill specifies that he does not want a revolution; things are too far gone for that. He does not want a new regime to take power in the U.S. Instead, he explained, he wants the state destroyed. Like Wolfowitz after 9/11, he wants to “end states” – specifically this one. “I want the state gone: transform the situation to U.S. out of North America. U.S. off the planet. Out of existence altogether,” he concluded. This is indeed the hard line of the academic, foundationfunded, and intelligence-community linked ultra-left provocateurs. These are the sorts of people who will triumph in an Obama administration.43 Ward Churchill thus wants to annihilate and to obliterate the United States. This is a proposal for genocide. One of the central ideas of this book is that the old Weatherman program of destroying the American people in the service of the intelligence community, the foundations, and the Wall Street finance oligarchy, expressed more or less openly by Wright and with special violence and cynicism by Ward Churchill, is in fact the only possible program of a future Obama administration. 146 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography We stress again that there are not many degrees of separation between Ward Churchill and Obama. When Ward wanted to join SDS, he went straight to Obama’s friend, neighbor, and cothinker, Bernardine Dohrn. It was also Ward Churchill who, just back from his tour of duty in Vietnam in what looks like a branch of Army Intelligence (Long-Range Reconnaissance, the equivalent of a multi-state killing spree. taught bomb-making to the aspiring terrorist Weatherpeople in that posh Greenwish Village townhouse. When the townhouse blew up, one of the dead was Diana Oughton, who was the girlfriend of Obama’s sponsor, benefactor, and friend, Bill Ayers.(One-degree of separation: Obama’s ultra-leftist backers, Rezkowatch, Monday, April 28, 2008)44 HUMAN WRECKAGE The years have done nothing to diminish the radical subjectivism of the Weatherman clique. “Ms. Dohrn and Mr. Ayers had a son, Zayd, in 1977. After the birth of Malik, in 1980, they decided to surface.” These names may reflect the influence of a general turn in spook circles towards Islamic, rather than communist cover, which became evident at the end of the 1970s. “Ms. Dohrn pleaded guilty to the original Days of Rage charge, received three years probation and was fined $1,500. The Federal charges against Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn had already been dropped.” This happy ending was doubtless thanks to the efforts of the CIA Office of Security, which interfaces with most domestic police agencies and courts. When Kathy Boudin was arrested and given a life sentence for the New York Brinks robbery and the accompanying murders of policemen, Dohrn and Ayers volunteered to care for Boudin and Dave Gilbert’s son Chesa, then 14 months old, and became his legal guardians. Dohrn was called to testify about the robbery. When she refused to give a handwriting sample, she was jailed for seven months. Chesa was without a mother during that time. Ayers told the New York Times that Chesa was “a very damaged kid.” Given the criminal irresponsibility of both his biological parents and his adoptive parents, this is no surprise. “He had real serious emotional problems,” Ayers added. But after extensive therapy, “became a brilliant and wonderful human being.” (Dinita Smith, “No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen,” New York Times, September 11, 2001) Smith recounts: ‘As Mr. Ayers mellows into middle age, he finds himself thinking about truth and reconciliation, he said. He would like to see a Truth and Reconciliation Commission about Vietnam, he said, like South Africa’s. He can imagine Mr. Kerrey and Ms. Boudin taking part.” Perhaps this is something we will see under a future Obama administration. And if there were another Vietnam, he is asked, would he participate again in the Weathermen bombings? By way of an answer, Mr. Ayers quoted from “The Cure at Troy,” Seamus Heaney’s retelling of Sophocles’ Philoctetes: “Human beings suffer,/ They torture one another./ They get hurt and get hard.” He continued to recite: History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.’ IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 147 Is this Ayers’ dark prophecy of a future America ruled by his protégé Obama? The New York Times review moves towards its conclusion. Reflecting on his varied life in a mellow epiphany of self-indulgence, Ayers added: “I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire. And hope and history rhymed.” (Dinita Smith, “No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen,” New York Times, September 11, 2001) Too bad for the dead and maimed cops and innocent bystanders whose blood purchased these epiphanies for the privileged elitist Ayers, a gravedigger of protest politics in the US all his life. The question of the continuing close friendship among Ayers, Dohrn, and Obama began to emerge in February, thanks to the efforts of certain blogs such as noquarterusa.net, and to a campaign on this issue conducted by the right-wing radio talk show host and television personality, Sean Hannity.45 Gradually, the Ayers question began to seep into the controlled corporate media: Joe Klein wrote ‘There are other guilt-by-association problems floating out there: the occasional over-the-top racial statements by Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright; the fact that Obama has been described as “friendly” with 1960s dilettante-terrorist William Ayers.”’ (Joe Klein, Time, March 6, 2008) The “friendly” was from arch-mindbender David Axelrod. But Bill Burton, Obama’s spokesman, said Ayers “does not have a role on the campaign.” Ayers said he had no comment on his relationship with Obama. A brief look at the final phase of the Weatherman faction before it disappeared into clandestine safe houses for a decade or more will permit us to understand the ideology of Ayers and Dohrn, which is important because these ideas live on today most emphatically in the Obama campaign, and are in danger of being accomplished under a future Obama regime. The atmosphere that prevailed in the last days of the legal, aboveground existence of the Weatherman faction is conveyed in an extraordinary article from Liberation News Service written in the final days of 1969. WEATHERMAN: AN AGENCY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WILL RULE THE USA We can start with an old article from Liberation News Service about one of the last legal public events the Weathermen ever held, a kind of Christmas and New Years’ party for agents provocateurs as the student movement entered its death agony: ‘The Weatherman controlling faction of SDS held a national “war council” here Dec. 27-30. [1969] About 400 young people showed up at the gathering—nominally SDS’s quarterly national council meeting—to practice karate, rap in regional and collective meetings, dig a little music and hear the “Weather Bureau” lay down its political line for revolution in America. The meeting hall was decked with large banners of revolutionary leaders—Che, Ho, Fidel, Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver—hanging from the ceiling. One entire wall of the ballroom was covered with alternating black and red posters of murdered Illinois Panther leader Fred Hampton. An enormous cardboard machine gun hung from the ceiling. Violence was the keynote of the long hours of talk that began Dec. 27. The distinction between revolutionary armed struggle and violence for its own sake is a major point of contention between Weatherman and its numerous critics. The strongest debate centered on the question of who is going to make the American revolution. Weatherman, along with many others in the movement, recognizes that the American revolution is part of the world struggle against U.S. imperialism, a struggle for liberation from both colonial and capitalist oppression. Weatherman’s critics maintain, however, that Weatherman’s internationalism is based on an analysis that ignores capitalist oppression in America. Weatherman sees revolutionary change in America as happening almost solely, if at all, as a belated reaction to a successful world revolution including a successful revolt 148 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography by the black colony inside the U.S.’ (“Weatherman Conducts a ‘War Council,’” Liberation News Service, Flint, Michigan, Dec. 31, 1969)46 WEATHERMAN: ‘IF IT WILL TAKE FASCISM, WE’LL HAVE TO HAVE FASCISM’ For our purposes today, the most interesting remarks made that day are probably those of Weatherman extremist leader Ted Gold, who talked about what the US government and economy would be like if the race war desired by the Weathermen ever came about. We need to pay careful attention here, since we are learning something about the way a future Obama regime may treat the US population: The logic of that view was expressed in a statement by Ted Gold, a top Weatherman, who said that “an agency of the people of the world” would be set up to run the U.S. economy and society after the defeat of the U.S. imperialism abroad. A critic spoke up: “In short, if the people of the world succeed in liberating themselves before American radicals have made the American revolution, then the Vietnamese and Africans and the Chinese are gonna move in and run things for white America. It sounds like a John Bircher’s worst dream. There will have to be more repression than ever against white people, but by refusing to organize people, Weatherman isn’t even giving them half a chance.” “Well,” replied Gold, “If it will take fascism, we’ll have to have fascism.” Weatherman—virtually all white—continues to promote the notion that white working people in America are inherently counter-revolutionary, impossible to organize, or just plain evil — “honky -------,” as many Weathermen put it. Weatherman’s bleak view of the post-revolutionary world comes from an analysis of American society that says that “class doesn’t count, race does.” White workers are in fact fighting for their survival, insisted people doing organizing of factory workers in California. They claim that strikes for wage increases and job security can fairly easily be linked to the anti-imperialist analysis. But Weatherman denies that survival is an issue for white workers. Weatherman leader Howie Machtinger derided white workers for desiring better homes, better food and essentially better lives. Machtinger [argued]: “When you try to defend honky workers who just want more privilege from imperialism, that shows your race origins.” The Weatherman position boiled down to inevitable race war in America, with very few “honkies”—except perhaps the 400 people in the room and the few street kids or gang members who might run with them— surviving the holocaust. That notion is linked to Weatherman’s concept of initiating armed struggle now and not waiting to build mass white support—that is, a small but courageous white fighting force will do material damage that will weaken imperialism while the black liberation movement smashes “the imperialist ___” by itself. Machtinger talked a lot about how the black liberation movement is so far advanced at this point that the only thing left for white revolutionaries is to support blacks by fighting cops as a diversionary tactic. Weatherman is adamant in saying that whites cannot be organized into a mass revolutionary movement. To say that they can or should, according to Weatherleaders, is “national chauvinism.”… A new Weatherman catchword was “barbarism.” The Weathermen see themselves as playing a role similar to that of the barbarian tribes, such as the Vandals and the Visigoths, who invaded and destroyed the decadent, corrupt Rome.’ IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 149 BERNARDINE DOHRN DEMANDS TERRORISM AND ARMED STRUGGLE A central figure in these monstrous proceedings was Obama’s close friend Bernardine Dohrn, who found a way to bring the conference to a new low of despicable anti-human barbarism, but always under left cover: Bernardine Dohrn, former inter-organizational secretary of SDS for 1968-69, gave the opening speech.47 She began by admitting that a lot of Weatherman’s actions have been motivated by “a white guilt trip.” “But we ------ up a lot anyway. We didn’t fight around Bobby Seale when he was shackled at the Conspiracy Trial. We should have torn the courtroom apart. We didn’t smash them when Move peace creeps hissed David Hilliard on Moratorium Day in San Francisco. We didn’t burn Chicago down when Fred was killed.” Dohrn characterized violent, militant response in the streets as “armed struggle” against imperialism. “Since Oct. 11 [the last day of the SDS national window-breaking action in Chicago], we’ve been wimpy on armed struggle... We’re about being a fighting force alongside the blacks, but a lot of us are still honkies, and we’re still scared of fighting. We have to get into armed struggle.” Part of armed struggle, as Dohrn and others laid it down, is terrorism. Political assassination—openly joked about by some Weathermen—and literally any kind of violence that is considered anti-social were put forward as legitimate forms of armed struggle. “We’re in an airplane,” Dohrn related, “and we went up and down the aisle ‘borrowing’ food from people’s plates. They didn’t know we were Weathermen; they just knew we were crazy. That’s what we’re talking about, being crazy --------- and scaring the ----- out of honky America.”’ (“Weatherman Conducts a ‘War Council,’” Liberation News Service, Flint, Michigan, Dec. 31, 1969)48 BERNARDINE DOHRN: MANSON MURDERS AS THE ESSENCE OF THE REVOLUTION SHE WANTED And what kind of revolution did top Weathergirl Bernardine Dohrn want? It was a revolution in the spirit of Charles Manson, the demonic protagonist of that year’s grisly Tate-LaBianca murders in Hollywood: A 20-foot long poster adorned another wall of the ballroom. It was covered with drawings of bullets, each with a name. Along with the understandable targets like Chicago’s Mayor Daley, the Weathermen deemed as legitimate enemies to be offed, among others, the Guardian (which has criticized Weatherman) and Sharon Tate, one of several victims in the recent mass murder in California. She was eight months pregnant. “Honkies are going to be afraid of us,” Dohrn insisted. She went on to tell the war council about Charlie Manson, accused leader of the gang which allegedly murdered the movie star and several others on their Beverly Hills estate. Manson has been portrayed in the media as a Satanic, magnetic personality who held nearhypnotic sway over several women whom he lent out to friends as favors and brought along for the murder scene. The press also mentioned Manson’s supposed fear of blacks—he reportedly moved into rural California to escape the violence of a race war. Weatherman, the “Bureau” says, digs Manson, not only for his understanding of white America—the killer purportedly wrote “pig” in blood on the wall after the murder—but also a “bad --------.” (At least one press report explained the “pig” on the wall by saying that Manson wrote that in order to throw suspicion on black people.) [Dohrn gave a three-fingered “fork salute” to mass murderer Charles Manson. Calling Manson’s victims the “Tate Eight,” Dohrn gloated over the fact that actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time, had been stabbed with a fork in her womb.] 150 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography “Dig it, first they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!” said Bernardine Dohrn. This statement by Bernardine marks the maximum in subhuman degradation and degeneracy, a level of despicable anti-human animus which can match the decadence of any World War II fascist. Bernardine has lamely attempted to explain that this was all a metaphor, a joke. The Liberation News correspondent of 1969 took it quite seriously, and so must we today as we look forward to Bernardine Dohrn’s possible role in a future Obama administration. WEATHERMAN: THE ‘WHITE DEVIL’ THEORY OF WORLD HISTORY Bernardine functioned to all intents and purposes as the keynote speaker who set the exalted moral tone for the rest of the speeches. Women members of Weatherman held a panel discussion on women’s liberation. The fighting women, “the women who can carry bombs under their dresses like in “The Battle of Algiers,” were put forward as the only valid model for women’s liberation. Women’s liberation comes not only with taking leadership roles and with asserting yourself politically, they said, but also with overcoming hang-ups about violence. In between the women’s raps, the people sang a medley of Weatherman songs, high camp numbers such as, “I’m Dreaming of a White Riot,” “Communism Is What We Do,” and “We Need a Red Party.” Spirited chants broke out, too: “Women power!” “Struggling power!” “Red Army power!” “Sirhan Sirhan power!” “Charlie Manson power!” “Power to the People!” “Off the pig!” […] Another speaker referred to the white women’s role as reproduced and characterized white women who bring up children in white America as “pig mothers.” The “crazy violent ----------” theme was picked up in a long address by “Weather Bureau” member John Jacobs, who laid out the “White Devil” theory of all world history and traced the history of today’s youth from the Beat Generation of the 1950s. [Here Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger, Dwight Hopkins, and Otis Moss III might have felt at home.] “We’re against everything that’s ‘good and decent,’” Jacobs declared. That notion, coupled with the White Devil theory, formed the basis of what they call “Serve the People --------.” Serving the people, relating to people’s needs, is a crucial factor in many people’s minds of organizing white working people in America, so that the revolution will come as class war and end in socialism, rather than come as race war and end in fascism. (“Weatherman Conducts a ‘War Council,’” Liberation News Service, Flint, Michigan, Dec. 31, 1969)49 But the Weatherman perspective was precisely that there was no hope of revolution against the financier ruling class, and that in any case race war against white blue collar workers was the thing that was to be desired and provoked. OBAMA’S WEATHERMAN CONNECTION: HARBINGER OF SWIFT BOATING By spring 2008, it has been obvious for months that Obama’s close affinity with and friendship for some of the most celebrated terrorists and murderers of recent US history was going to cause him political problems, to say the least. As former CIA and State Department official Larry Johnson commented, Obama was damaged goods from the moment that the average American heard about his penchant for associating with known criminals: IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 151 There is now undeniable proof of a longstanding relationship between Barack Obama and William Ayers. We are not talking about two guys who just happened to bump into one another on the street. We are not talking about a secret admirer (Ayers) who quietly sent $200 to an aspiring politician. No, we are talking about William Ayers hosting a fundraiser for Barack Obama and actively working with him to secure Barack’s first electoral victory in Illinois. But wait, there is more. Barack and Ayers also served on the board of the Woods Fund. And they worked together to give money to some other folks, including a group with ties to the PLO. […] Look at the beating that John Kerry took for tossing his medals over the White House fence. Ayers did not toss medals, he threw bombs. Real ones. Bombs that exploded. Do you think that Republicans will ignore Obama’s ties to Ayers? The two were serving on the same board in 2002. We are talking less than six years ago and the record will come out showing some questionable grants by these two characters. William Ayers, in the age of terrorism, will be Barack Obama’s Willie Horton.’ (noquarterusa.net, April 16, 2008) THE SDS MENAGERIE AROUND OBAMA The problem goes way beyond just Ayers and his fork-saluting spouse. The Obama campaign presents the aspect of a storm cellar or assisted-living facility for the burned-out wreckage of the intelligence community operations of yesteryear. Some of these figures were Weatherman terrorists, some were simply SDS extremists, some flirted with Stalinism. In July 1996, the New York Times reported that Marilyn Katz, a former aide to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and now a wheel horse of the Daley machine and a supporter of Obama, “oversaw security for Students for a Democratic Society, a radical group at the eye of the Chicago protests” during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. There was no “security” in the SDS contingent on that occasion. Ms. Katz was presumably occupied with organizing provocations to provide cover for the police riot that ensued. On October 2, 2002, when Barack Obama delivered his obscure, unrecorded, and poorly attended but now famous speech at a Chicago antiwar rally, Katz was one of the key organizers of the rally. On the event’s fifth anniversary, Marilyn Katz, now a member of Obama’s national finance committee, posted the following statement on the blog of Chicagoans Against the War and Injustice (CAWI), which she had “put together,” relying upon “some of her old contacts she met organizing anti-war demonstrations for Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s.” Katz described how the rally in Chicago on October 2, 2002, was “not organized by a politician or a recognized political force. It was organized by a loose group of friends, mostly SDS veterans. Katz was thus key to providing Obama’s only foreign policy credential and proof of his alleged good judgment – his lame anti-war speech of October 2002, the horse that he mercilessly rode to death during the 2008 primaries. What would Barky ever have done without his SDS friends? MARILYN KATZ, SDS VET AND ORGANIZER OF OBAMA’S OCTOBER 2002 ANTI-WAR SPEECH Marilyn Katz later recounted: ‘Meeting in a living room in Chicago just ten days earlier, we chose to act, agreeing that on October 2, 2002, we would assemble in Chicago’s Federal Plaza to stand against the war. With a gut feeling that other Americans also thought the invasion of Iraq was foolhardy, if not immoral and absurd, but with no assurance than anyone would come to a demonstration we agreed that “If we were five, we would be five.” “If we were without any elected officials, we would be an involved citizenry. But we would take a stand.” But we were not alone. In 152 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography fact nearly 3,000 people assembled in Federal Plaza on that day responding to the flurry of emails (a new organizing technology for us) that seemingly liberated people from their sense of isolation and offered them the opportunity of collective action - of community. Black, Latino, White, veterans of the peace and women’s movements, the 60s, high school and college youth, community activist—a mosaic of the City. Long-time leaders like Jesse Jackson, Juan Andrade and Julie Hamos and a new voice.... not yet known to the crowd, to the media or to the nation.... the voice of State Senator Barack Obama.”50 Katz was joined in the organizing by former SDS president Carl Davidson, like Klonsky reputedly once upon a time close to the Communist Party USA line, so that Obama was getting help from “two perennially engaged ‘60s veterans and ex-SDS members,” Jeff Epton wrote December 15, 2003, for In These Times. Katz and Davidson were “key organizers” of the October 2, 2002, anti-war demonstration. Originating as Chicagoans Against War with Iraq (CAWI), by December 2003 CAWI had shifted into Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. Davidson later commented, “as the war transformed from invasion to occupation, CAWI activists managed to avoid splits over sectarian and strategic differences, and committed to stay together and move from ‘protest to politics.’” In 2005, Katz and Davidson co-wrote a documented entitled “Stopping War, Seeking Justice.” Davidson is “now a figure in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, an offshoot of the old Moscow-controlled CPUSA,” Cliff Kincaid wrote on February 18, 2008, for Accuracy in Media. Davidson is also an Obama supporter, now leading Progressives for Obama. On his blog Keep On Keepin’ On, Davidson recently endorsed Obama’s comments about small town people being bitter. Katz is attempting to minimize her role in the old SDS. On April 18, 2008, the Chicago Sun- Times quoted Katz as saying that she “met Ayers when he was 17 and they were members of Students for a Democratic Society, a peaceful group from which the Weather Underground splintered.” Katz also demanded that Obama’s relationship with former domestic terrorist William Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn—with whom Obama launched his political career in 1995 at the Ayers-Dohrn Hyde Park home— “should not be a campaign issue.” Katz is now the head of MK Communications and a registered lobbyist with the City of Chicago; she has personally contributed $1,000 to Obama for America, Obama’s presidential campaign fund. Marilyn Katz and her husband Allan J. Katz, a shareholder and chairman of the Policy Practice Group at Akerman Senterfitt of Tallahassee, Florida and a Tallahassee City Commissioner, as well as a Member of the Florida Democratic Committee and Democratic National Committee, are joint bundlers committed to raising a minimum of $200,000 for Obama’s campaign.’51 MIKE KLONSKY, FOUNDATION STALINIST Another Katz and Ayers associate—and Obama supporter—is Mike Klonsky. In 1968, he was the last pre-Weatherman SDS national chairman and a “demonstration organizer.” Klonsky ‘“would go on in post-SDS years to form the October League (Marxist-Leninist) and Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), part of the new communist movement that emerged [born dead] in the 1970s.” Klonsky was named by Ayers in the 1990s to head the Small Schools Workshop. In 1996, Klonsky, like William Ayers, was a consultant for Mayor Richard M. Daley’s “agenda for public schools.” Until June 25, 2008, when he was jettisoned for purposes of damage control and window dressing in the course of Obama’s hard right turn after the primaries, Klonsky maintained a community blog subtitled Freedom Teachers at MyBarackObama.com. IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 153 During the engineered breakup of SDS, Klonsky was a leader of the tendency called Revolutionary Youth Movement I (RYM-I), a less extreme competitor of the Ayers-Dohrn-Mark Rudd-Jeff Jones-John Jacobs-Ted Gold Revolutionary Youth Movement II (RYM-II), which became the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground, otherwise known as Weatherpeople, Weather Bureau, etc. Klonsky and Ayers appeared for a time as bitter factional opponents, but at bottom this was simply role-playing, with Klonsky picking up the radicals who were only halfdemented, and thus not crazy enough to join the kamikazes of the Ayers-Dohrn clique. If Ayers was known in SDS as a likely spook and provocateur for the intelligence community, Klonsky was regarded as a submarine for the Communist Party, USA, whose leaders were then in turn controlled by the FBI. During the lean years that followed, Klonsky tried Maoism. The cooperation of Ayers and Klonsky in favor of Obama’s seizure of power reproduces the old CP-anarchist alliance, which was a common wrecking plan for SDS chapters in 1969-1970. When Klonsky’s role in the Obama campaign’s internet effort became widely known, the Illinois Messiah was quick to cut his losses so as to avoid the specter of yet another explosive flare-up of negative publicity on the models of Rezko, Wright and Ayers. ‘No sooner than Global Labor blogged … about the role in the Obama campaign of Mike Klonsky, former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers’ longtime comrade-in-arms from their days in SDS to the Chicago School Wars they fought in the 80s and 90s alongside Barack Obama, and presto he’s gone. As of this evening, Klonsky is no longer blogging on the Barack Obama for President website.’ (Steve Diamond, http://globallabor.blogspot.com/, June 25, 2008) Another fanatical Obama backer with SDS connections is Tom Hayden, the SDS co-founder who helped promote the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago. Hayden, a former California state senator and ex-husband of radical chic Jane Fonda, has endorsed Sen. Obama. So has Jane Fonda. Hayden authored the SDS political manifesto, known as the Port Huron Statement, which the group’s founding members adopted in 1962. This document condemned the American political system as the cause of international conflict and a variety of social ills — including racism, materialism, militarism, and poverty. Instead, it offered the vacuous petty-bourgeois slogan of “participatory democracy,” while offering no analysis and making no demands for labor rights, rebuilding the inner cities, third-world economic development, or other urgent economic issues of the day. SDS derived from a group called the League for Industrial Democracy (LID), a transparent cold war anti-Soviet CIA front group made up of right-wing social democrats. LID has a student and youth branch called Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID). SLID was running out of steam in the early 1960s, so the intelligence community decided to re-invent it in the trendier format of SDS. The name may have been taken from German SDS (Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund), the successful pseudo-radical student group of Willy Brandt’s German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which many CIA officers had been able to observe first-hand during their frequent postings in West Germany, the hub of the cold war. During the course of the 1960s, large parts of the SDS membership would escape ruling-class ideological control, which is what gave SDS the potential that had to be destroyed. But the SDS leadership was confined to narrow cliques with strong intelligence community input, who were easily able to defeat challengers and insurgents in conformity with Roberto Michels’ Iron Law of Oligarchy. Todd Gitlin, the SDS president from 1963 to 1964, has also been well taken care of, and now serves as a tenured professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University. Giltin is a regular 154 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography contributor to Josh Marshall’s TPM Cafe. He also blogs at ToddGitlin.com. In a new low for tendentious, pro-Obama pseudo-journalism, Gitlin was contacted April 18, 2008, by The New Republic to respond to Sen. Obama’s Philadelphia cover-up speech about his hate-spewing pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Gitlin had endorsed Obama on February 4, 2008. Paul Booth is yet another founder and former National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and former President of Chicago’s Citizen Action Program (CAP), formed in 1969 by trainees from counterinsurgent Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), according to Discover the Networks. Booth is a labor skate, acting as assistant to Gerald McEntee, president of the public employees union AFSCME. In 1973, “radical activists” Booth and his wife, Heather Booth, founded The Midwest Academy (MA), a “training organization ... for a variety of leftist causes and organizations,” which “describes itself as ‘one of the nation’s oldest and best known schools for community organizations, citizen organizations and individuals committed to progressive social change.’” This is the usual coded language for local control/ community control counterinsurgency. Not surprisingly, one of The Midwest Academy’s funders is the Woods Foundation of Chicago, on whose board Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) served 1999 to December 2002 as a paid director with domestic terrorist William Ayers. In 1999, The Midwest Academy received a $75,000 grant from the Woods Fund. In 2002, The Midwest Academy received $23,500 for its Young Organizers Development Program. Additionally, in February 2004 Paul Booth contributed $500 to Obama’s 2004 senatorial campaign.’ (“One-degree of separation: Obama’s ultra-leftist backers,” Rezkowatch, Monday, April 28, 2008) WEATHERMAN HATRED OF WHITE WORKERS FROM 1969 TO OBAMA Obama’s top handler David Axelrod told NPR that it was a mistake to rely on white working class voters in the first place. In a statement dripping with elitist class prejudice, Axelrod observed: “The white working class has gone to the Republican nominee for many elections, going back even to the Clinton years. This is not new that Democratic candidates don’t rely solely on those votes.” This is simply factually wrong, since Bill Clinton won many of these voters. Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe was even more categorical that blue collar workers were out of reach. But these were after all registered Democratic voters that Obama was losing in a Democratic primary. These very damning statements illustrate the thesis of this book that Obama hates and resents white working families and blue collar voters. Since white working people represent the absolute majority of the US population, one must wonder by what system Axelrod hopes to win a general election. Again, the conclusion must be that Obama really has no plan to win a general election, but will hope for help from police state forces in the form of scandals which will conveniently destroy his opponent. This is, after all, the main reason Obama is in the US Senate in the first place – ask the hapless Trilateral victims Marson Blair Hull and Jack Ryan. THE WOODS FUND AND THE CIA-CONTROLLED FACTIONS OF THE PLO The Woods Fund of Chicago, with Ayers and Obama on the board for several years before 2002, appears to function as a funding conduit for certain US-controlled or US-influenced factions of the highly factionalized and crisis-ridden Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority. Whether these US-manipulated factions are violent or moderate is less important than the fact that they represent CIA tentacles inside the PLO. The fact that various Palestinian or PLO factions are controlled by foreign states is, or ought to be, well-known. The Soviets had some of these factions. IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 155 The Israelis were known to control a part of the central committee of the Abu Nidal Organization, run by Sabri al-Banna, the son of the pro-British and later pro-Nazi founder of the Moslem Brotherhood. Ariel Sharon helped to create Hamas, and so forth. The French and the Vatican are not far behind. So, Obama is close to the apparatus that funds the pro-US fifth column in the PLO. The PLO-linked groups funded by the Woods Foundation with the help of Obama’s august presence also appear to be devices for the social control of the Arab populations of Chicago and the surrounding areas, which are being managed according to the Hapsburg-style affirmative action/racial identity counterinsurgency method we have already seen at work against black Americans, Hispanics, and native Americans. With Obama helping to get funding for his group, the radical Palestinian professor Rashid Khalidi helped to set up a fund-raiser for Obama when he ran for congress in 2000. Khalidi, now the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, and head of that school’s Middle East Institute, in an interview in Tuesday’s Daily News, said he hosted the fundraiser because he and Obama were friends while the two lived in Chicago. “He never came to us and said he would do anything in terms of Palestinians,” Khalidi told the paper. Nevertheless, one Hyde Park source close to Obama, speaking only on condition of anonymity, recalled, “He often expressed general sympathy for the Palestinians — though I don’t recall him ever saying anything publicly.” Khalidi helped to arrange the recent appearance of Iran’s Ahmadinejad last summer at Columbia University. (Rashid Khalidi, “Middle East Professor at Columbia University and PLO activist,” The Jewish Week, 2007, noquarterusa.net) Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University was marred by the university president’s scurrilous insults against the foreign leader. In the estimation of this writer at the time, the visit created a turbulent scene of protests which could have been used as a covering screen to assassinate the Iranian leader and precipitate a general Middle East war. Thankfully, that had not occurred. But the question remains about Khalidi’s motives in bringing the Iranian president into the chaotic and dangerous situation that prevailed at Columbia. Had some case officer told him to do it? Even after its privatization into foundations and private fronts under Executive Order 12333, US intelligence still does not pay out its money for nothing. What was it that US intelligence was buying from Khalidi? As a pro-Israeli account details, Ayers and Obama had teamed up for three years on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charitable organization. Together, they voted to donate $75,000 of the largesse they controlled to the Arab American Action Network. The AAAN was co-founded by Rashid Khalidi… Despite considerable evidence to the contrary, Khalidi denies having been a PLO operative or having directed its official press agency for six years (from 1976 to 1982).’ (Aaron Klein, “Obama worked with terrorist; Senator helped fund organization that rejects ‘racist’ Israel’s existence,” WorldNetDaily, February 24, 2008) The details on the grants are very interesting: In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi’s wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002. Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund’s website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2001. … 156 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography The $40,000 grant from Obama’s Woods Fund to the AAAN constituted about a fifth of the Arab group’s reported grants for 2001, according to tax filings obtained by WND. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 also constituted about one-fifth of AAAN’s reported grants for that year. The AAAN, headquartered in the heart of Chicago’s Palestinian immigrant community, describes itself as working to “empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities.” It reportedly has worked on projects with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which supports open borders and education for illegal aliens. AAAN cofounder Rashid Khalidi was reportedly a director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982…. Khalidi’s wife, AAAN President Mona Khalidi, was reportedly WAFA’s English translator during that period. Rashid Khalidi at times has denied working directly for the PLO but Palestinian diplomatic sources in Ramallah told WND he indeed directed WAFA. Khalidi also advised the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1991… While the Woods Fund’s contribution to Khalidi’s AAAN might be perceived as a one-time run with Obama, the presidential hopeful and Khalidi evidence a deeper relationship. According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful first befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003 while Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004. Khalidi in 2000 held what was described as a successful fundraiser for Obama’s failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a fact not denied by Khalidi. Speaking in a joint interview with WND and the John Batchelor Show of New York’s WABC Radio and Los Angeles’ KFI Radio, Khalidi was asked about his 2000 fundraiser for Obama. “I was just doing my duties as a Chicago resident to help my local politician,” Khalidi stated. Khalidi said he supports Obama for president “because he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause.” Asked about Obama’s role funding the AAAN, Khalidi claimed he had “never heard of the Woods Fund until it popped up on a bunch of blogs a few months ago.” He terminated the call when petitioned further about his links with Obama. Contacted by phone, Mona Khalidi refused to answer WND’s questions about the AAAN’s involvement with Obama. (Aaron Klein, “Obama worked with terrorist; Senator helped fund organization that rejects ‘racist’ Israel’s existence,” WorldNetDaily, February 24, 2008) OBAMA AND THE CHICAGO ARAB UNDERWORLD: ATA “THE RAT” In addition to such figures as Khalidi, Obama also came into contact with the gangsters, grafters, hoodlums, and other sociopaths who populate the wormy underside of the Chicago Arab community. We will talk in a coming chapter about the Syrian-Levantine Antoin Rezko, his fellow Levantine Nadhi Auchi, and the renegade Iraqi Electricity Minister Alsammarae. Here we will refer to a smaller fish, but a very significant one: Ali Ata, who was caught up in the FBI dragnet of Operation Board Games around the Illinois Combine for graft and corruption, which has a division for every ethnic group in Chicago. Ali Ata, now a convicted felon, gets us very close to Obama: all the way to Obama’s godfather and moneybags Antoin Rezko, and all the way to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Here we begin to see what kind of perks might emerge as by-products of Obama’s role in helping get money for the US-controlled factions of the PLO: IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 157 The Tony Rezko trial opened the door to more Board Game cases not yet tried and more Combine members threw in the towel. Ali Ata, the former director of the Illinois Finance Authority, entered into a plea agreement on April 22, 2008… Ata pled guilty to charges that included tax fraud, and lying to the FBI in saying he received nothing in return for $50,000 in contributions to Blagojevich when according to the plea agreement, he did “receive something for those contributions, specifically employment with a state agency ... with an annual salary of approximately $127,000.” The agreement notes that Ata met with Blagojevich, not Rezko, in 2000 or 2001, and Blagojevich asked for his support because he was contemplating a run for higher office. Ata testified that he held his first Blagojevich fundraiser in the 1990s when he was asked to raise money for Blagojevich’s run for Congress within the Arab community. Ata made a $5,000 donation to Obama on June 30, 2003. Talat Othman was also appointed to this Board, and he donated $1,000 to Obama on June 30, 2003. David Gustman was made chairman, and his wife, Lisa, also gave Obama $1,000 on June 30. Ata is a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He represents “a deeper corruption” in the Arab American community, “an aspect of the story that has not received much attention,” according to a May 2, 2008 report by Ray Hanania in the Southwest News-Herald. Hanania points out that many in the Arab community are calling Ata a “rat.” But he’s not alone, Hanania says: “The real rats are those who used their positions as “leaders” to rape and pillage their own community. The real rats are the so-called “leaders” who worked to benefit themselves pretending they were doing it for the benefit of the community.” In his report, Hanania explains how Ata and others would often gather at a “hookah” café on Harlem Avenue, where they helped organize political dinners attended by Arab Americans from the Southwest suburbs at which politicians where “honored.” “These Arab community leaders,” he says, “would tell the community that if they bought tickets to their candidate’s nights,” their organization fundraisers or donated through them to local politicians, these politicians would respond by giving the Arab American community empowerment.” “They said the politicians would give the Arab Americans a voice in their governments,” he reports. “In truth,” Hanania says, “these political leaders lied…. They did get jobs, contracts and clout,” he notes, “but the people who benefited were not members of the community but rather the relatives, children, friends and business associates of these leaders.” (Pringle, “Curtain Time for Barack Obama - Part IV,” op-ed news) Here again, the narrow and divisive identity politics purveyed by the Ford Foundation reveals its bankruptcy: it creates a thin layer of rich exploiters, while leaving the majority of each ethnic group worse off than when they started. THE ROBERT MALLEY AFFAIR AND THE SOROS-BRZEZINSKI INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP Obama’s relations with the Middle East agent community were also illuminated by the Robert Malley affair. Robert Malley worked for the International Crisis Group, which is heavily funded by George Soros and has Zbigniew Brzezinski on its board. With this, we know everything we need to know about the International Crisis Group: its operatives do not want peace in the Middle East, but rather mobilization of the Arabs and Moslems against Russia and China in the framework of Brzezinski’s apocalyptic vision of confrontation. Robert Malley’s father Simon Malley was born in Cairo to a Jewish-Syrian family. He moved to France in 1969, where he founded the pseudo-left journal Afrique Asie; the name was changed to L’Economiste du Tiers Monde in the 1970s. This was supposedly radical third world nationalist, but gave ample scope to Fanon and the future Pol 158 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Pots and Bani Sadrs. Many suspected that Simon Malley was in fact running a British operation. Simon Malley was also used to sabotage French foreign policy in the third world, which is often in conflict with London and Washington. In October 1980, the French had had enough of Malley’s constant wrecking operations, and they deported him, hustling him onto a plane bound for New York. Simon’s son Robert obviously continued the family business of being a left-cover operative in the orbit of the US-UK imperial line. After months of inconclusive sniping by various web sites against Robert Malley, he was quickly dumped by the Obama campaign from his role in Obama’s Middle East Advisory Council at the end of the first week in May when it became known that he had been meeting with the Palestinian group Hamas. Malley told the London Times that he had been in regular contact with Hamas, which rules Gaza. Malley claimed that, when he met with Hamas, he was wearing his International Crisis Group hat, and not his Obama advisor’s hat. “I’ve never hidden the fact that in my job with the International Crisis Group I meet all kinds of people,” Malley said. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Obama, attempted damage control: “Rob Malley has, like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future.” The rapid departure of Mr Malley came after two days of heated clashes between John McCain, the Republican nominee-elect, and Mr Obama over Middle East policy. (London Times, May 10, 2008) Malley was a much less important advisor to Obama than the overall campaign controller and guru, Zbigniew Brzezinski. If Malley could be fired over a few meetings with Hamas, why was Brzezinski not fired because of his sponsorship of Ilyas Achmadov, the Chechen terrorist ambassador who was living high on the hog in Washington DC at US taxpayer expense as a result of Brzezinski’s lobbying – lobbying in which Senator McCain was also a key participant? THE IKHWAN ENDORSES OBAMA The Muslim American Society (MAS) is an organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. On its website’s “Personality Page,” the MAS displays a photo and short bio of Barack Hussein Obama along with those it calls other prominent Muslims, such as Malcolm X, Saladin and Moqtada al-Sadr. A 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that, after a contentious debate, U.S. leaders of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the classic British intelligence vehicle for fighting progressive nationalist regimes in the Arab world like Kassem of Iraq and Nasser of Egypt with benighted mystical reactionaries, decided in 1993 to begin calling themselves the Muslim American Society. The Brotherhood’s goal is ostensibly to spread the rule of Islamic law throughout the world, but exceptions are made whenever required by British interests. Key Muslim Brotherhood ideologues, including founder Hassan al-Banna (whom we have already met as the father of British and Israeli-controlled provocateur Sabri al Banna/Abu Nidal), have endorsed violence as a means of doing so. Today, MAS’ leaders admit that the group was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, but claim that MAS has evolved since then. MARK RUDD: THE WEATHERMEN AS FBI PROVOACTEURS? It must always be understood that the Weathermen were in no way honest radicals gone astray, nor yet authentic communist revolutionaries: they were wreckers, saboteurs, and provocateurs who had been sent by the intelligence community into the student and peace movements for the purpose of destroying them. Here again, Thomas Ayers’ seat on the board of General Dynamics, the largest IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 159 US defense contractor for the Pentagon in most years, tells us everything we need to know about the relations of the Ayers family to the intelligence community. Rumors that Bill Ayers was a spook circulated in SDS in the late 60s. One Weatherman leader who appears obsessed by the appearance that his old terrorist gang was in fact a tool of the FBI is none other than Mark Rudd. (Or, at least, Rudd chooses to harp on the FBI, perhaps to draw attention away from his more likely sponsors in the intelligence community, such as the domestic counterinsurgency operations of the Ford Foundation, with which Rudd has been linked by published sources.) At the time of the SDS split convention in Chicago in the summer of 1969, Mark Rudd was without question the most famous Weatherman leader because of the media attention to his role at the Columbia strike, and it was he who was chosen as the national secretary of the rump faction of SDS controlled by the Weatherman crazies after the expulsion of the Progressive Labor Party, the International Socialists, the Labor Committees, and a number of smaller Trotskyist groups. Rudd had been chosen by the New York City television stations as the authentic student anarchist voice of the Columbia University strike in April 1969, and this had given him a significant national profile. Rudd was sent on a national tour of university campuses and SDS chapters to make the case for the lunatic Weatherman point of view. The bomb throwing and cop killing Weatherman faction, however, considered Rudd as a lightweight and intended only to use him as a disposable figurehead. These crazies soon drove Rudd out of the Weatherman organization. In the following decades, Rudd appears to have developed some rudimentary understanding of the precious services rendered to the FBI and the intelligence community in general through the destruction of SDS by the Weatherman action faction. Rudd returns again and again to the idea that the Weathermen were doing exactly what the FBI wanted them to do, even though he also hysterically asserts that the Weathermen were not paid agents, conscious agents, or witting operatives. Here is a sample of Rudd’s ruminations, dating back to an interview recorded in 2004: ‘… we in the leadership of Weatherman (predecessor to the Weather Underground Organization) made a historically criminal decision at the end of 1969 to scuttle Students for a Democratic Society, the largest student anti-war and radical organization, with over 300 chapters on college campuses and high schools. We mistakenly believed that we could bring into existence a revolutionary movement, led by an underground revolutionary army; SDS, with its purely legal above-ground existence and its reform agenda, was seen as an impediment to the growth of the revolutionary army. Our faction was in control of the national and regional offices of the organization, plus its newspaper. I remember sometime in January, 1970, dumping the membership lists of the New York Regional Office into a garbage barge at the W. 14th St. pier. How could we have done the FBI’s work better for them? I believe that we weakened the larger movement, whose goal was uniting as many people as possible to end the Vietnam War. Besides causing people to drop out, we gave the government ammunition to smear the whole anti-war movement as violent crazies bent on destruction of the society. Did our actions help attract the huge middle of American society who might otherwise have joined the anti-war movement, public opinion being vastly against the war? “Bring the War Home,” was as counter-productive a line in 1969 and 1970 as it was in 2001 at the World Trade Center. Last, and probably most important, the Weather Underground forced a debilitating ideological debate in the much larger anti-war movement over the “necessity” of engaging in armed “revolutionary” actions. In the summer of 1969 Weather-organized actions even disrupted the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (“Mobe”) mass anti-war events and demonstrations. People became demoralized and left the antiwar movement because they didn’t want any part of an armed revolution. We destroyed SDS because it wasn’t radical enough (it couldn’t take the final step of anti-imperialism to armed action), thereby doing the work of the FBI.’ (Radical History Review, Spring, 2006, emphasis 160 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography added.) In fact, the control mechanism for the Weathermen ran through the foundations rather than through the FBI, for obvious reasons. These same themes are developed in Rudd’s retrospective analysis of how the proto-fascist Weatherman provocateurs succeeded in destroying SDS, which had been growing rapidly until the crazies seized control of the Chicago National Office in June and July of 1969: ‘Students for a Democratic Society had been growing almost effortlessly since 1965 when the U.S. attacked Vietnam with ground troops. By 1968 there were over 300 autonomous chapters on college campuses, high schools, and even post-college; the number of active members may have been more than 100,000 (though dues-paying national membership was much smaller). The story of what happened became known as The Days of Rage has been told elsewhere, including the 2003 documentary, “The Weather Underground.” What’s significant for this story, though, is that the SDS chapters rejected en masse support for the action. Most chapters had been independent, neither PL nor RYM, and didn’t participate in or even understand the argument. The effect of the split at the June Convention was to cut them off from the National Office. We in what became known as Weatherman had lost our base. But we kept going without one. The effect on SDS as a whole was disaster. By the beginning of 1970 the national organization had ceased to exist. We in the Weatherman leadership had made a decision that SDS wasn’t radical enough, that it was an impediment to the building of a revolutionary movement in this country. We needed an underground guerilla army to begin the revolutionary armed struggle. So we disbanded the National and Regional Offices, dissolved the national organization, and set the chapters adrift. Many chapters kept organizing, in their own ways, against the war and racism; demoralized, others disbanded. We couldn’t have done the FBI’s work better for them had we been paid agents, which I know we weren’t. [Maybe not of the FBI, but how about the foundations?] We were just stupid kids too in love with our ideas to realize they weren’t real. We believed they were real because we thought them… My recall is that my comrades and I in the leadership of Weatherman made specific bad decisions based on our evolving and deepening ideology toward the chimera of revolution and the strategy revolutionary guerilla warfare. One thinks of the roads not taken. We could have chosen to fight to maintain the organization, to strengthen its anti-imperialism and anti-racism among students, to build the largest possible coalition against the war. Perhaps we could have ended the war sooner, who knows?’52 Rudd is certainly right that without the efforts of the Weatherman wreckers and saboteurs, the Vietnam War might have been brought to an end much sooner, and other positive causes could have been advanced on the domestic front. But of course, the Weatherman domestic program was nothing but race war. Rudd’s commentary on youthful fanatics, not far removed from their delusions of infantile omnipotence, who hysterically insist that their egocentric ideas must be real simply because they are thinking them gives us some insight into the mentality of Obama’s swarming adolescents today. Perhaps someday, when the US and foundation archives are opened, we will be able to reconstruct the story of how the intelligence agencies destroyed SDS; we can be sure that an especially lurid chapter in this tale will feature the activities of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. THE URGENCY OF COUNTERINSURGENCY, 1986-1988: ADLAI STEVENSON’S DEBACLE, AXELROD, AND THE 1313 GANG The beginning of Obama’s career with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge under the sponsorship of Thomas Ayers and Bill Ayers takes us back to a moment when the bi-partisan, financiercontrolled social control apparatus ruling Chicago appeared to be undergoing definite strain and possible crisis. In the Illinois Democratic primary of March 18, 1986, the corrupt Chicago IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 161 Democratic machine was supporting the gubernatorial candidacy of Adlai Stevenson III, a former US Senator and the son of two-time Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson, a favorite of the New York investment banks and a man who put a professorial face on the dirty Cook County Democratic organization, but lost the presidency to Ike Eisenhower in 1952 and in 1956. For Illinois Secretary of State, the Democratic machine wanted the political hack Aurelia Pucinski, who came from a politically prominent family and was supported by the party organization. The Democratic machine was stunned when the Democratic nominations for Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State were won by Mark Fairchild and Janice Hart, two supporters of the political movement of Lyndon LaRouche. The national media went berserk over the idea that Illinois voters had chosen Fairchild and Hart, despite their association with LaRouche, as the most effective vehicles for an explosive protest vote against the existing order of things. Janice Hart said on the day after the primary: “I’m going to revive the spirit of Abraham Lincoln and General Patton. We’re going to roll our tanks down State Street.” Democratic National Committee chairman Paul Kirk joined in the hysteria, exclaiming, “Good Lord, we have a problem here.” At this point, Stevenson could have kept his own hopes for the governorship alive by bowing gracefully to the will of the voters, and gracefully and silently taking his place at the top of a Democratic ticket including Fairchild and Hart for statewide office. After all, actual terrorist bombers and accused murderers like Ayers and Dohrn had already been welcomed back into the Chicago Democratic machine in those years. Fairchild and Hart had never killed or bombed anybody. Neither one had ever appeared on the FBI’s most wanted list; neither had a criminal record. But, of course, Ayers and Dohrn were different: they had always been working as provocateurs for the intelligence community and the financiers. So Stevenson decided to go berserk, slandering the candidates chosen by the Illinois Democratic voters, and ruining his own hopes for the governorship in the process. AXELROD PUSHES STEVENSON TO SELF-DESTRUCT Ironically, the campaign manager who goaded the younger Stevenson to destroy himself was none other than Obama’s current Svengali, the Chicago machine hack David Axelrod: ‘Political consultant David Axelrod, who today runs Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, was in 1986 managing the campaign of Adlai Stevenson III for governor. Axelrod told Stevenson he should quit the race, rather than run in the general election on the same, Democratic, ticket with the LaRouche supporters. ‘“I thought he should resign. He couldn’t run with those maniacs,” Axelrod said later. Stevenson decided to quit the Democrats but to run as a third party candidate. Axelrod later recalled how Stevenson fared, under his guidance: “In the following months, Stevenson was battered by the press and deserted by the politicians. It reached the point of the absurd. It was the political equivalent of AIDS.”’ (Chicago Magazine, December 1987). David Axelrod grew up in New York City, where his mother, Myril Axelrod, was vice president of the Young & Rubicam advertising agency and was a pioneer of the use of “focus groups” for profiling the population, long before Frank Luntz and company had arrived on the scene. Attending the University of Chicago beginning in 1972, majoring in political science, Axelrod became associated with the financier-directed “political reform” movement centered at that University. While he was writing articles for the Hyde Park Herald, he was taken under the wing of Don Rose, a political operative of the Public Administration Service school at the University. That school was a component of the notorious 1313 building complex at the University of Chicago, a national center for the manipulation of America’s public policy and municipal administrations. According to a 2004 article in the Hyde Park Herald, “1313 grew from a 1930 lunchtime conversation in Geneva, Switzerland between [University official Louis] Brownlow and Beardsley Ruml. Ruml was executive director of the 162 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Spelman Fund of New York, a relatively new entity created to disburse Rockefeller dollars. Brownlow pressed his case for a public administration clearing house, Ruml enthusiastically embraced the idea and, in 1937 the [Rockefeller-controlled] Spelman Fund disbursed $1 million to the University of Chicago to underwrite the construction of what became 1313.” (Mr. Ruml also helped organize the fascist psychiatry enterprise known as the Josiah Macy Foundation.) Don Rose recommended young Axelrod for an intern’s job at the Chicago Tribune daily newspaper, where the intensely plugged-in Axelrod eventually rose to become political editor. Don Rose later told Chicago magazine, “Axelrod was the first political reporter at the Trib who was really associated with the liberal reform movement. He was sympathetic to the movement ... and he developed a lot of contacts. One of the reasons he looked good was because the people he developed associations with were on the ascendancy....” In 1984, Axelrod quit the Tribune to manage Paul Simon’s senate race, followed later by jobs with Stevenson, Harold Washington, and others. Throughout, Axelrod has been identified with the movement for political “reforms” — such as privatization, budget cuts, etc. — representing the oligarchs at the University of Chicago and their financier sponsors. David Axelrod is the Obama campaign’s overall director; Axelrod’s partner (in the firm AKP Media), David Plouffe, is Obama’s official campaign manager; and Axelrod’s other partner, John Del Cecato, is a strategist for the campaign.’ (larouchepac.com, April 24, 2008) Stevenson formed the Solidarity Party and ran with Jane Spirgel as the Secretary of State nominee and Mike Howlett for Lieutenant Governor. Hart achieved 15% of the vote, with Spirgel taking 17%. Hart and Spirgel’s opponent, Republican incumbent Jim Edgar, won the election by the largest margin in any state-wide election in Illinois history (until Barky’s 2004 defeat of the carpetbagging buffoon Allan Keyes), with 1.574 million votes (67%). Fairchild was defeated, and Republican Big Jim Thompson took the governorship over the hapless Stevenson. THE 1987 CHICAGO TEACHERS’ STRIKE As we have seen, one of the targets of any foundation-funded school reform is automatically to weaken or bust the teachers’ union. In September 1987, the Chicago teachers’ union went on strike for 19 days. This was the ninth strike in two decades. Secretary of Education William Bennett, in an attempt to encourage the busting of the union after the 1987 school strike, declared the city’s schools the “worst in America.” Under the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, Chicago had deliberately maintained a highly segregated system. ‘As whites fled to the suburbs and many remaining white families sent children to the large Catholic school system, citizen support for the public schools diminished. Daley tried to buy labor peace with the unions through financial sleight-of-hand that, after his death, resulted in full-scale crisis in 1979. In response to the crescendo of discontent which was also orchestrated by foundation operatives, Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor, convened an “education summit” in 1986 to persuade businesses to guarantee jobs to public school graduates if they met performance standards.” The LSC ploy also succeeded in splitting the black community, with Jesse Jackson lobbying forcefully against reform, fighting implementation, and battling, for example, to save the job of his old protégé, Manford Byrd, the superintendent of schools who was forced out. The black middle class, many of whom were school employees, was the political and financial base for Jackson’s Operation PUSH, despite his vocal advocacy of the disenfranchised poor. When PUSH came to the shove of disgruntled black parents, Jackson’s organization sided with the black administrators, above all, and the teachers.’ About 550 positions have been cut out of a central bureaucracy of about 4,100, while top administrators have done everything they could to save themselves. Veronica Anderson, writing in the March 2008 issue of Catalyst Chicago, described the local control institutions as generally moribund, observing that IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 163 “The death knell is ringing for Chicago’s local school councils, as it has been for years.” ‘One of the biggest abuses of the local control system is that principals have no tenure, and have to cater to the whims of local groups of parents who often have no concept of education except their own likes and dislikes. Anderson also reports that “the constant onslaught of negative buzz regarding LSCs has created the widespread impression that LSCs are hapless, ineffective, and at times as the case of Curie High School seemingly illustrates, dangerous to school improvement.” The interest of the foundations, and their grant money, was steadily fading.’ (David Moberg, “Can Democracy Save Chicago’s Schools?,” American Prospect, November 30, 2002) One of the few tangible results of the creation of the LSCs at the individual school level was that several hundred experienced and previously tenured principals were fired, which drastically lowered the administrative quality of the system, but which promised a big savings to the greedy banks who owned the Chicago municipal bonds marketed by firms like Nuveen and Co, and who wanted to be sure that their interest payments had top priority. BILL AYERS: FROM TERRORIST TO EDUCATION REFORMER Thanks to the fact that his father Tom had intelligence community connections on a very high level, Bill Ayers was able to emerge from clandestine criminal life and re-invent himself as an education reformer. A key part of this was his magical ability to get money from the foundations. His knack was so deft that it suggested that he had been a foundation operative all along, even before Executive Order 12333. Steve Diamond has chronicled the process by which the former fugitive Bill Ayers was transformed into a few short years into a top authority on education policy, and above all into a dispenser of tens of millions of dollars of corporate largesse: ‘Bill raised money to start the Small Schools Workshop in the early 90s and eventually hired another former Maoist from the 60s (and actually someone who was a bitter opponent of Ayers as SDS disintegrated) named Mike Klonsky to head it up. Bill’s brother John later got in on the small schools approach also, raising money in part from the Annenberg Challenge program started by Bill and chaired by Obama… A leading figure in the Chicago business groups that were lobbying for cost cutting and “efficiency” in the Chicago schools in the 1980s was Bill Ayers’ father, Thomas Ayers…. Tom Ayers co-authored a report of a joint public-private task force on school reform and was later nominated to head up Chicago United, a business backed school reform group that Ayers helped found, by Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, but was opposed successfully by black community activists. When the 1988 Reform Act was passed a group called Leadership for Quality Education (LQE) was formed…by the elite business lobby that was in part behind the new reforms, to train the newly elected local school council members. Some 6000 LSC members were elected. And they became a huge thorn in the side of school administration in Chicago. Interestingly, one LSC member was John Ayers, son of Tom and brother of Bill. In 1993, John was made head of the LQE - which, by then, according to Shipps, was caught in the middle of the battle emerging to re-centralize control of the schools in the hands of the mayor. In the fall of 1988, however, Obama left the city to go off to law school. My best guess, though, is that it was in that 86-88 time frame that Obama likely met up with the Ayers family.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Again, this cannot be seen as a matter of pure coincidence, but rather of people like Huntington and Brzezinski putting their protégé in contact with an important regional leader of the US financier establishment. 164 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA’S BIG BREAK: AYERS AND THE CHICAGO ANNENBERG CHALLENGE Diamond stresses that getting tapped to head up the prestigious and massively funded Annenberg Chicago Challenge – based on no visible qualifications – constituted Obama’s key inflection point or career take-off. Diamond is of course attempting to explain this process based on more or less chance encounters among individuals, rather than being aware that we are watching an intelligence network which goes back well over half a century. Obama and the Ayers clan came together not by chance, but thanks to the fine Trilateral hand that fosters some careers and strangles others. Diamond recounts: ‘Then, in late 1994 or early 1995, Obama made what I think was probably the key move in his early career. He was named Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million grant program to funnel money into reform efforts at Chicago schools. It turns out that the architect of the Annenberg Challenge was Bill Ayers, who designed the grant proposal and shepherded it to success. The purpose of the program was to defend the controversial and troubled local schools council effort that had been put in place back in 1988. The first Executive Director of the Challenge was Ken Rolling, who came there from the much discussed Woods Fund (where he had been a program officer). The Woods Fund had provided grants to Obama’s DCP in the late 80s and Rolling was a part of the school reform effort in which both Bill Ayers and Obama participated. Obama joined the board of the Woods Fund in 1993 in 1999 he would be joined on the board by Bill Ayers.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008)53 Obama’s role in heading up the Chicago Annenberg Challenge meant money, prestige, and above all an excellent chance to network with the lakefront oligarchs: ‘… the Annenberg Challenge money came through anyway due to the efforts of Bill Ayers, among others. It had to be matched 2 to 1 by corporate and foundation money (in fact, they raised an additional $60 million by 1999), so the Board Chairmanship would have allowed Obama to be in touch with the powerful money interests in Chicago, including possibly the Pritzker Family and others that Kaufman mentions in his story. Penny Pritzker would join the board of the Chicago Public Education Fund which received its startup funding from the Annenberg Challenge as the Challenge wound down in 2001 - the Challenge, in effect, handed the baton of support for school reform to the CPEF. Penny Pritzker [who owns a share of the Hyatt Hotel fortune, built on the backs of super-exploited Hispanic cleaning ladies] is now a key Obama campaign insider in charge of fund raising.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Today, Ayers presents himself not as terrorist vermin, cowardly butcher and mass murderer, but rather as a theoretician of educating children, and Midwest moralist to boot. Ayers wrote on his website in a January 19, 2008 essay on school reform: “The dominant narrative in contemporary school reform is once again focused on exclusion and disadvantage, race and class, black and white. ‘Across the US,’ the National Governor’s Association declared in 2005, ‘a gap in academic achievement persists between minority and disadvantaged students and their white counterparts.’ This is the commonly referenced and popularly understood ‘racial achievement gap,’ and it drives education policy at every level. Interestingly, whether heartfelt or self-satisfied, the narrative never mentions the monster in the room: white supremacy….Gloria Ladson-Billings upends all of this with an elegant reversal: there is no achievement gap, she argues, but actually a glancing reflection of something deeper and more profound—America has a profound education debt. The educational inequities that began with the annihilation of native peoples and the enslavement of Africans, the conquest of the continent and the importation of both free labor and serfs, transformed into IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 165 apartheid education, something anemic, inferior, inadequate, and oppressive. Over decades and centuries the debt has accumulated and is passed from generation to generation, and it continues to grow and pile up.” (Emphasis added.)54 In April 2008 Sol Stern of the neocon Manhattan Institute gave a series of interviews seeking to show that Ayers’ politics have hardly changed since his Weatherman days. According to Stern, ‘Ayers still boasts about working full-time to bring down American capitalism and imperialism, but he does this now from his tenured perch as Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago.55 Instead of planting bombs in public buildings, Ayers now works to indoctrinate America’s future teachers in the revolutionary cause, urging them to pass on the lessons to their public school students. […] ‘In late 1994 or early 1995, Obama made what I think was probably the key move in his early career. He was named Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge….’56 This was initially a $50 million grant program to funnel money into social engineering, manipulation, and divide-and-conquer efforts at Chicago schools. ‘It turns out that the architect of the Annenberg Chicago Challenge was Bill Ayers, who designed the grant proposal and shepherded it to success.’ (Pundita, noquarterusa.net)57 Naturally, this must be considered a true elective affinity between Ayers and Obama, but it also reflects the network which was supporting them both: the left CIA foundation network was promoting the careers of its stalwarts, even as it carried out its appointed tasks for the banking elite. Steve Diamond pointed out on Noquarterusa.net that ‘the link between Obama and Ayers had to pre-date the November 1995 event because [by 1995] Obama was already Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge grant program. The Annenberg Challenge was a $50 million grant (to be matched by additional donors 2:1) to a new Chicago non-profit entity to make grants to schools in Chicago. The grant proposal was conceived of and written by Bill Ayers. Ayers was named Chicago’s “Citizen of the Year” for his efforts. He was featured on the PBS News Hour to discuss the grant. In every assessment of the program Ayers was given credit for leading the charge on the program. He began the design of the proposal in late 1993 and the grant was awarded in January 1995.’ Steve Diamond goes on to elaborate that ‘the Annenberg Challenge was not a random school improvement effort. The purpose of the Challenge was to help shore up the ongoing reform effort then underway in the Chicago public schools. It was a counter-attack by Ayers in what some commentators called the “Chicago school wars.” The reform effort was floundering and facing increasing opposition from business groups and others. The reform was built on a 1988 law that imposed “local school councils” (LSCs) on the school system to create a new power center that would challenge both the Chicago teachers’ unions and the school system administration. Both Ayers and Obama were supporters of these 1988 reforms. (One little discussed fact about the reform effort - when it targeted the union and the school administration, it was taking on two institutions that had been a new and important source of attractive professional jobs for black Chicagoans.)”’ Diamond’s suspicions are more than confirmed: since the New York City teachers’ strike was broken in 1968-69, the stock in trade of the Ford Foundation and its co-thinkers has been to organize black parents into community control councils which can then be used to attack the teachers’ unions, while also tearing down the school system itself. The goal is the financiers’ aim of destroying free universal public education of any sort in this country, to facilitate the reduction of America into serfdom. So Ayers is doing his job as an affirmative action foundation provocateur eager to play black parents against teachers, many of them also black or Hispanic. The name of the game is always divide and conquer, playing one group of little people and victims of the system against another, to keep Wall Street and the financier elite above the fray. Caught between the topdown privatized business model, with private interests bilking the system, the voucher-school 166 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography choice-charter school route, and the lunatic left community control model peddled by Ayers with its eternal petty conflicts, quality education would never stand a chance. Real progress required resources, the rebuilding of neighborhoods, and the hope of good jobs on the horizon – all things which the US ruling financier elite had proven itself incapable of providing. Diamond adds that ‘…it was not clear that the LSCs were helping students learn more. In 1995 a new law would pass in Springfield re-centralizing power, but this time in the hands of the mayor (Richard Daley) through a new CEO for the school system. This gutted the power of the LSCs. Bill Ayers opposed this re-centralization (I believe because Ayers saw the LSCs as a potential means by which to impose his authoritarian “social justice” education agenda). To lead the Challenge Ayers would certainly have wanted a board chairman who was sympathetic with his goals. That suggests that Obama and he had already established a relationship that convinced Ayers that Obama was the right man for this key leadership role. As I have said here, it is possible Ayers and Obama first met during the campaign for the creation of the LSCs in the wake of the 1987 teachers’ union strike, an event that galvanized community and business support in Chicago for the LSC idea. Both Ayers and Obama were active in that campaign for the LSCs.’ The self-defeating counterinsurgency strategy of community control had, of course, been what Obama was selling when he worked for the Alinskyite wreckers at the Gamaliel Foundation. But there was also a Trilateral hand guiding his destiny, as we must never forget.58 WILL OBAMA DEMAND REPARATIONS? Other than Ayers, who qualifies as a top racist FOB (Friend of Barky), Senator Obama’s main education advisor is Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, a prominent national theoretician of education policy who teaches at Stanford University’s School of Education. Darling-Hammond operates through something called the Forum for Education and Democracy (FED). Darling- Hammond’s program for education reform starts off with the need to ‘Repay the “education debt.”’ This is a concept which is left vague, but which could very easily serve as a cloak for a demand for reparations for the black community only, a demand sure to create a violent paroxysm of racial tension and indeed race war if it were to gather strength under the present conditions of economic breakdown. The education debt, says Professor Darling-Hammond, is a concept invented by Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings, of the University of Wisconsin and a “convener” together with Professor Darling-Hammond of the FED. It is aimed at replacing the concept that has dominated much education reform discussion in recent years called the “achievement gap.” As Darling- Hammond has written: “[T]he problem we face is less an ‘achievement gap’ than an educational debt that has accumulated over centuries of denied access to education and employment, reinforced by deepening poverty and resource inequalities in schools. Until American society confronts the accumulated educational debt owed to these students and takes responsibility for the inferior resources they receive, [Gloria] Ladson-Billings argues, children of color and of poverty will continue to be left behind.”59 This might well serve as a cloak for reparations demands. The suspicions grow when we find Ladson-Billings quoting veteran foundation race operative Randall Robinson in an article on educational debt in Educational Researcher (Oct. 2005), where we read: “What is it that we might owe to citizens who historically have been excluded from social benefits and opportunities? Randall Robinson (2000) states: ‘No nation can enslave a race of people for hundreds of years, set them free bedraggled and penniless, pit them, without assistance in a hostile environment, against privileged victimizers, and then reasonably expect the gap between the heirs of the two groups to narrow. Lines, begun parallel and left alone, can never touch. (p. 74)’” The book by Randall Robinson which is cited here is The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 167 which is a strident demand for reparations to be paid by non-blacks to blacks to redress the impact of slavery and discrimination. Darling-Hammond has also argued that there is in America “a growing number of ‘apartheid’ schools that serve racial/ethnic minority students exclusively — schools that have little political clout and are extraordinarily impoverished.” (Steve Diamond, noquarterusa.net) Once more, the implied correct answer seems to be reparations. Let it be clear: class-based, race-blind economic recovery programs for those facing poverty and exclusion will enjoy wide support and will help to overcome the depression. Demands for some groups to pay reparations to other groups because of a theory of collective guilt will lead towards race war and civil war, to say nothing of deepening depression. Obama by all indications is leading towards the latter. OBAMA PROMISES DEEDS, NOT WORDS, FOR REPARATIONS In a Chicago speech at the end of July 2008, Obama made clear that he will indeed attempt to impose reparations if elected, doubtless on the basis of American collective guilt. These reparations would apparently go to Native Americans and to African-Americans, and possibly to Hawaiian- Americans as well. ‘“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for,” Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY ‘08, a convention of four minority journalism associations. The Hawaii-born senator, who has told local reporters that he supports the federal recognition bill for native Hawaiians drafted by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, noted other ethnic groups but did not mention native Hawaiians when answering a question about his thoughts on a formal U.S. apology to American Indians. “I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged,” the Democratic presidential hopeful said. “I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”’60 Let there be no doubt: under depression conditions, this policy is a recipe to move the United States towards civil war in the form of race war. This is apparently the firm intent of Obama’s Trilateral masters. FATHER PFLEGER, REPARATIONS, AND RACE WAR Another long-term close friend of Obama who is evidently supporting the concept of reparations is the renegade priest, Father Pfleger, who became a focus of controversy in late May 2008. Pfleger visited Trinity United, and was introduced by Otis Moss as “a friend of Trinity.” Pfleger then launched in to a diatribe which seems to suggest a campaign for reparations: “I must now address the one who says, ‘don’t hold me responsible for what my ancestors did.’ But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did! And unless you are ready to give up the benefits — Throw away your 401 fund! [sic] Throw away your trust fund! Throw away all the money that been put away in the company you walked into ‘cause your daddy and your granddaddy and your great granddaddy — Unless you are willing to give up the benefits, then you must be responsible for what was done in your generation! ‘Cause you are the beneficiary of this insurance policy!”61 There seems to be little doubt that the first year of an Obama presidency will be marked by convulsive campaign to impose punitive reparations on the non-black sectors of American society. Needless to say, this entire concept has been spawned by the cynical ruling class operatives of the foundation community as part of their eternal strategy of divide and conquer to keep the American people as a whole in submission to the Wall Street financiers, who are the ones that ought to be taxed for the benefit of the people as a whole. 168 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Steve Diamond sums up the situation, noting that Obama’s backers are heavily committed to the idea of reparations, specifically in the educational sphere: ‘If you believe the rhetoric of the “social justice” crowd influencing the Obama camp’s approach to education policy - the authoritarian leftists Bill Ayers and his sidekick Mike Klonsky as well as ed school professors like Linda Darling-Hammond and Gloria Ladson-Billings - only reparations for 400 years of oppression of non-whites will allow us to close the “achievement gap” between the oppressors, whites, and the oppressed, minority kids….Lying behind this argument is a pernicious concept - that white workers benefit at the expense of black workers and that more widely American workers live off the backs of workers in the third world. This is at the heart of the authoritarian and anti-union politics of the Ayers/Klonsky crowd.’ (http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/26/white-guilt-politics-of-Obamacrowd- undermined/) Better than call Ayers an authoritarian, we should dub him a totalitarian liberal who has already reached stormtroop junction. Very large sums of money were involved in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and it is well worth our while to follow them: ‘The CAC was established in 1995 as a result of a $49.2 million grant from Walter Annenberg to support education reform in Chicago. Bill Ayers and Anne C. Hallett co-signed a letter submitting the grant proposal to Brown University President Vartan Gregorian on November 8, 1994 where the national Challenge office would be headquartered. The letter was on the letterhead of the University of Illinois at Chicago (“UIC”). Ayers identified himself as representing the UIC and the “Chicago Forum for School Change.” Ms. Hallett is identified as the Executive Director of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform. At the bottom of the letter, a parenthetical states: “On behalf of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative.”’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers- Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) ‘The letter and the attached detailed proposal grew out of a process that began in December 1993 when a small group led by Ayers, Hallett and Warren Chapman of the Joyce Foundation ‘met to discuss a proposal to the Annenberg Challenge for support of this city’s public school reform efforts.” ‘This group became the nucleus of the larger Chicago School Reform Collaborative, one of the two operational arms of the CAC, which Ayers would co-chair and on which Hallett and Chapman would serve.’ (Program Report, CAC, Jan. 1, 1995 through Mar. 31, 1996 at 1). (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) The Chicago banking and finance elite includes the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, critical parts of the modern derivatives bubble. Did these ruling interests fear that Chicago was on the verge of a mass strike, in which white and black, employed and jobless, would demand economic concessions from the parasites that ran the city? There is some evidence that this fear might at least have dawned on the more far-sighted of them, especially after the Stevenson debacle of 1986 and the teachers’ strikes leading up to 1987. Perhaps we can feel some of the ruling class fear in their bombastic prose when they write: “Chicago is six years into the most radical system-wide urban school reform effort in the country. The Annenberg Challenge provides an unprecedented opportunity to concentrate the energy of this reform into an educational renaissance in the classroom.” (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) In reality, even before Bill Ayers became engaged in the CAC, patriarch Thomas Ayers of General Dynamics had already started the ball rolling: ‘The Alliance for Better Chicago Schools (“ABCs”) was formed then to push for the LSC idea in the Illinois state legislature. Active in the ABCs was Bill Ayers, Barack Obama’s Developing Communities Project, and Chicago United, a IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 169 group of businessmen concerned about race and education issues founded by Bill Ayers’ father, Tom Ayers, once CEO of the large Chicago utility, Commonwealth Edison (now Exelon).’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) From the counterinsurgency point of view of Bill Ayers, it was the Local School Council institutional machinery that mattered most, since these could be turned into a battering ram against the teachers’ union on the one hand and the board of education bureaucracy on the other, wrecking both while the municipal bond holders laughed all the way to the bank: ‘…in 1993 the CAC grant proposal was seen by Ayers as an attempt, in part, to rescue the LSCs. The grant proposal states, “We envision a process to unleash at the school site the initiative and courage of LSC’s….” Later, it states “[t]he Local Schools Councils…are important both for guiding educational improvement and as a means of strengthening America’s democratic traditions.” (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) Chicago was competing against many other cities for the massive largesse of the Annenberg Foundation. In writing the grant proposal, Ayers obviously had to show that the Annenberg Foundation could get more bang for its counterinsurgency buck by investing in the Chicago system: ‘Indeed, the CAC proposal effort led by Ayers and Hallett was a critical part of what the Project Director of the CAC, Ken Rolling, described as the “political wars” being waged over schools in Chicago at that time. Ken Rolling was a veteran of those wars because in his previous role he had been a program officer of the Woods Fund, which supported the school reform effort through its grants, including grants to Barack Obama’s Developing Communities Project. Other groups in other cities were competing for the same pool of funds (a total of $500 million made available by philanthropist Walter Annenberg) and, perhaps even more importantly, other groups in the city of Chicago with different policy views were applying to receive funds. However, the Ayers/Hallett proposal was successful in the end with the decision made in late 1994. In January of 1995 the formal announcement of a grant of $49.2 million was made. That money would have to be matched by contributions from the private and public sector 2:1 for a total amount over the life of the project of approximately $150 million dollars to be disbursed in Chicago. (Apparently the actual amount raised was an additional $60 million for a total of $110 million.) The CAC set up an office in rentfree space at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Bill Ayers taught.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) The one aspect of the Chicago Annenberg challenge which had no readily evident rational explanation was the choice of the unknown mediocrity, Barack Hussein Obama, who, as we already know, had been earmarked by the Trilateral Commission for greater things: ‘The first chairman of the CAC Board was Barack Obama, at that point, 32 years old and a second year attorney at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a small Chicago law firm. He began the Board position in early 1995 and stepped down from the chairmanship in late 1999, though he remained on the Board until the CAC phased itself out of existence and handed off its remaining assets to a permanent new institution, the Chicago Public Education Fund, in 2001. The Board began to meet in March of 1995 and formally incorporated the CAC as a non-profit entity in April 1995. Other board members included numerous already prominent Chicagoans: Susan Crown, Vice President of the Henry Crown Company; Patricia A. Graham, President of The Spencer Foundation; Stanley Ikenberry, President-Emeritus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Handy Lindsey, Executive Director of the Field Foundation; Arnold Weber, former President of Northwestern University and 170 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography then President of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago; and Wanda White, Executive Director of the Community Workshop on Economic Development. Some of these individuals would resign and be replaced by other equally prominent Chicagoans.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) For practical purposes, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was a monster with two heads. One was the Board, where Obama presided. ‘The second operating entity of the CAC would be the Collaborative that would represent various constituencies in the Chicago schools and wider community. […] The co-chair of the CAC’s Collaborative from 1995 until 2000 was Bill Ayers. Thus, the leaders of the two operative arms of the CAC from its inception until 2000 were Bill Ayers and Barack Obama. (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) Note the foundation jargon term, “the collaborative,” which we have seen in a previous chapter. One of the tasks which Obama and Ayers had to work on together derived from the fact that, even though the grant proposals had alleged that there was an insatiable hunger for community control among Chicago parents, there was overwhelming indifference throughout the city to the Local School Councils, and it soon proved to be very hard to recruit any candidates to run for the available posts. Accordingly, more foundation money had to be offered to convince parents to run for the LSCs. (The Chicago local school councils each consisted of the principal, two teachers, six parents, two community members, and a student representative in the case of high schools.) This question can be regarded as a crucial experiment which shows that community control of schools is generally not a spontaneous grass-roots demand by parents, but rather represents a completely artificial tactic introduced from the outside by cynical foundation operatives for purposes of manipulation and political wrecking. ‘The Collaborative and the Board became direct players in the Chicago LSC elections held in 1996. According to the CAC Report: “In 1996 the Chicago Public Schools were scheduled to hold the fourth election of Local School Council (LSC) representatives since the school reform of act [sic] of 1988 was passed. As in the past two elections support from the central office of the Chicago Public Schools appeared to be minimal. Until, that is, members of the Collaborative coalesced with school reform groups around the city and began to put pressure on the Chicago Public Schools’ central office to promote the elections both by recruiting enough candidates for the open seats so that contested elections would be held and by urging parents and community members to vote. […] The Board approved a grant of $125,000 for this effort. One of the first grants awarded in 1995 was a $175,000 Implementation Grant to the Small Schools Workshop. The Workshop had been founded by Bill Ayers in 1992 and was headed up by his former Weather Underground comrade, Mike Klonsky.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) We have already seen that to suppose that conflicts between Ayers and Klonsky represented nothing more than the division of labor between two operatives. $100 MILLION OF GRANT MONEY, HUNDREDS OF PRINCIPALS FIRED, BUT “NO MEASURABLE OR SIGNIFICANT GAIN” FOR CHICAGO SCHOOL KIDS And how did the Annenberg Chicago Challenge pan out? If increasing levels of student achievement were the goal, it was an abject failure. A posting by Steve Diamond on noquarterusa.net pointed out that in a ‘study that was done on the Annenberg Challenge in Chicago Public Schools—the one where Obama was Chairman of the Board, after all that funding which IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 171 included the $50 million from Annenberg and matching funds from state, Federal and other resources, the study concluded that there was “no measurable or significant gain” on the part of students.’62 In other words Ayers and Obama promoted a program that spent millions of private and public funds and accomplished nothing. I would note that the rubric used for this evaluation included not just student gains in hard core academic achievement areas but also in soft areas such as self-image, personal efficacy, school attendance, persistence, etc. Voters, bloggers, media analysts and MSM should be asking an essential question: If Obama was the chair of this Board (I think for its duration adding up to about 8 years) and nothing was really accomplished to improve the achievement and capacities of children to learn, what makes us think he will be successful on a national scale?’63 A good question. The answer must reflect that the goal of the Annenberg Chicago Challenge never had anything to do with helping students or improving schools. Its goal, and that of the foundation community that funded it, was social control through the divide-and-conquer counterinsurgency method of pitting Local School Councils against the unions and the administration. In this regard, it appears to have been reasonably successful. The Chicago political crisis of 1986-1987, which might have turned into a mass strike of all working people and unemployed people against the lunatic policies of the Reagan-Bush-Big Jim Thompson-Thomas Ayers financiers, was defused and deflected. The LSCs were also somewhat effective in providing cover for the system to fire principals, managers, and other trained and experienced personnel, possibly replacing them with political hacks looking for sinecures. Finally, the futility and constant strife of the LSCs wore out the existing parent activists until the situation was ripe for a partial privatization under corporate and business auspices, ratcheting everything down yet another big notch. Soon, the foundation oligarchs could see, the useless burden of universal free compulsory public education in the United States would cease to exist – a great savings from the point of view of Wall Street, but the death-knell for representative government in the United States. THE BIGGEST PROJECT OF OBAMA’S LIFE ENDS IN ABJECT FAILURE In 2003 the final technical report of the CCSR on the CAC was published. The results were not pretty. The “bottom line” according to the report was that the CAC did not achieve its goal of improvement in student academic achievement and nonacademic outcomes. While student test scores improved in the so-called Annenberg Schools that received some of the $150 million disbursed in the six years from 1995 to 2001, “This was similar to improvement across the system….There were no statistically significant differences in student achievement between Annenberg schools and demographically similar non-Annenberg schools. This indicates that there was no Annenberg effect on achievement.” The report identified the political conflict between the Local School Council promotion efforts of the CAC – such as the $2 million Leadership Development Initiative - as a possible factor hindering a positive impact on student achievement. (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) We must therefore conclude that Barack Hussein Obama, in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the biggest and most ambitious project of his life up until 2007, was an abject failure. His efforts produced no gain for Chicago school students. It should be clear in retrospect why he almost never talks about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. On the one hand, he would have to talk about his close personal cooperation with the unrepentant terrorist bomber Bill Ayers. On the other hand, he would have to dodge embarrassing questions about what the positive impact of all of this sound and fury had finally been. 172 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography By 1997, the entire LSC community control project was visibly moribund, but it may well have served its purpose of warding off a political upsurge by a united city against the lakeside financiers. It had certainly functioned as a colossal manpower sink, consuming the energies of yet another generation of ignorant and naïve activists. ‘The annual report for 1997 made special mention of the surrounding political context of the CAC’s work. Director Ken Rolling noted that a goal of the CAC was “seeking a changed policy environment” but that this “has been the most elusive to date with no major progress to report at this time. He explained further: “The Challenge began its work in 1995 at the same time a dramatic change in the leadership and management of the Chicago Public Schools took place. The Illinois state legislature awarded complete control of the…Schools to the Mayor of Chicago in 1995. A new management team and Reform Board of Trustees was installed and a major emphasis began on administration, financial stability and accountability measures that are tied to specific test scores. The Challenge began its program at the time the central administration of the public schools took off in a different direction.” Indeed, the 1995 law gave the Mayor and the Board the power to dissolve LSCs – the very bodies that the CAC was trying to bolster.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) Counter-insurgency operations cannot be Johnny one note — they must always be modulated and varied according to sharp turns in the political and economic situation. ‘By the end of this 1999, … Barack Obama would step down from the role of Board Chair as he anticipated an upcoming run for Congress.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) Obama cultivated his glittering career, while the hapless victims of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge drifted off into educational mediocrity and personal obscurity. Evaluations of the impact of Obama’s Annenberg meddling have been largely negative. ‘A report authored by Dorothy Shipps on the first three years of the Annenberg Challenge program, when Obama was its Board chair, concluded: “The Challenge sought to build on the momentum of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act which had radically decentralized governance of the Chicago Public Schools.” While apparently several hundred school principals had been fired by the LSCs, kids were still doing poorly in schools and there was chaos of sorts in the system…. Interestingly, Shipps concludes that the local control movement in Chicago, though backed by radicals like Ayers, gave “business the clearest voice in system-wide reform.”’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Shipps discovered the obvious post festum when she pointed out that the scale of the LSCs was too fragmented, too minuscule, to be able to implement positive reforms; she recommended a district-wide or city-wide assembly, but this is still too narrow and parochial, since schools cannot be successful unless there are good jobs waiting for the graduates. Diamond’s estimate is that the political sponsors of Obama were the extended Ayers family. As long as we are limited to the purview of Chicago, this is doubtless a sound analysis: ‘Thus, we have one possible answer to the question: Who “sent” Obama? It was the Ayers family, including Tom, John, Bill and Bernardine Dohrn. It is highly unlikely that a 30-something second year lawyer would have been plucked from relative obscurity out of a left wing law firm to head up something as visible and important in Chicago as the Annenberg Challenge by Bill Ayers if Ayers had not already known Obama very well. One possibility is that Obama proved himself to Ayers in the battle for local school control when he was at the DCP in the 80s. One guess as to why Obama does not play up his educational experience more thoroughly now – it certainly could be of use to him one would think in beefing up his “I have the experience to be President” argument – is that it would lead to a renewed discussion of the Ayers connection, which is clearly toxic for Obama. And IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 173 it turns out the impact of the Annenberg Challenge on actual students in Chicago schools is considered mixed at best, although Bill Ayers deemed it a success on political grounds. Indeed the 1995 and 1999 legislative attempts to recentralize power over the schools in the hands of the mayor did not quite succeed in wrestling control completely away from the LSCs, instead it helped, in the words of Alexander Russo, “keep the flame alive for decentralized, community-based school reform - even as the system was moving in a very different direction.”’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Of course, Obama came from much farther way – he came from the Trilateral Commission and the worldwide Bilderberger Group. ABC DEBATE: OBAMA’S BLATANT LIES ABOUT “ENGLISH PROFESSOR” BILL AYERS On April 16, 2008, ABC News in the person of Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos hosted a debate in advance of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. This debate stood out from more than a score of previous debates because of the refusal of the moderators to capitulate to the blackmail of the Obamakins and their demand that the Perfect Master be given a free ride. Since this was the first debate since the explosion of the Jeremiah Wright “God Damn America” controversy, Obama was asked about his relations with Wright. Obama went into serpentine contortions in response, at one point affirming that he had “disavowed” Wright, only to have to backtrack and specify that he had only disavowed the hate-monger’s incendiary statements. Most offensive to the Obama acolytes was Stephanopoulos’ query about Obama’s relations with the deranged Weatherman terrorist bomber-provocateur, Bill Ayers. In response, the Perfect Master had disappeared into a cloud of stuttering, stammering, and tergiversation. On these and other questions regarding his personal associations and his character, Obama was exposed as a desperate demagogue running away from most of his own past, while testily harrumphing that the inquiries were irrelevant. This was network television, and the audience for this debate was by the far largest of any debate of the 2007-2008 cycle, with 10.7 million viewers, some 96% of whom stayed until the end. This was in many cases their first exposure to Obama, and they were treated to the epiphany of a scoundrel. We can argue that Bill Ayers and his charming consort Bernardine Dohrn, along with Tony Rezko and the Jeremiah Wright TUCC crowd, represent Obama’s closest and most intimate circle of backers, sponsors, benefactors, and cronies. Obama was thus lying big time in the Philadelphia debate when Stephanopoulos asked him about Ayers and the Perfect Master massively played down the nature of his symbiosis with the Weatherman leader and his pasionaria. As Diamond notes, ‘This likely explains why Obama tried a kind of head fake when asked about Ayers by George Stephanopoulos in the TV debate with Clinton prior to the Pennsylvania primary. Obama said Ayers was a “professor of English.” Yet, Obama chaired the Annenberg Challenge for three years and served on its board for another three years, working closely with Ayers on grants to Chicago schools. And he did not know that Ayers was a professor of education? That strains credulity. (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) BILL AYERS IN OBAMA’S KITCHEN CABINET Diamond summed up: ‘The Chicago Annenberg Challenge allowed Barack Obama and Bill Ayers to work together, no doubt closely, in the heat of political battle to help disburse more than $100 million to allies, particularly in the LSCs, in the Chicago School system. Under the circumstances, it seems more than a bit disingenuous of Senator Obama to dismiss Bill Ayers as 174 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography “some guy who lives in my neighborhood.”’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) In reality, there is every indication that Ayers functions as a close political adviser to Obama, and his umbilical cord to key parts of the intelligence community who have a say in the actions of the Perfect Master. As Diamond points out, ‘Perhaps this would be of just historical interest if it could be firmly established that Bill Ayers no longer has any role in the Obama campaign. But that is not something we know for sure yet. In a recent television interview with Greta Van Susteren, John Murtagh, a Republican town council member from Yonkers, New York, said that Ayers is currently an “advisor” to Obama. Murtagh has a particular and understandable sensitivity to the Ayers- Obama connection besides his Republican politics: his father was a New York Supreme Court (in NY the Supreme Court is a trial court) judge who presided over a trial of the “Black Panther 21” in 1970-71…. Murtagh was 9 years old at the time. During the trial Murtagh’s home was fire bombed and Murtagh claims the Weather Underground was responsible for that bombing along with several others in “solidarity” with the Panthers. He charges, specifically, that Bill Ayers’ wife Bernardine Dohrn later took credit (apparently on behalf of the entire WU group) for the bombing.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Nor is this all. There are indications that the Weatherpeople regard Obama as one of their own, whose seizure of power will crown with unimagined success their long march through the institutions began in late 1969 and early 1970 when they went into clandestine and underground life. Does Obama bear the Weatherman tattoo flaunted by Ayers? Will Obama function as a Weatherman in the White House? Will he pardon Weatherman fanatic and butcher Dave Gilbert, thanks to whose efforts two cops and a security guard died in the Brinks robbery attempted by the Weatherpeople? Large parts of the federal bureaucracy might well be in continuous insurrection against Obama from his hypothetical first day in office. This would include parts of the Justice Department and various individual law enforcement officials. Here are some excerpts from an April 18, 2008 interview by CNN’s Lou Dobbs with Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor: On CNN, April 18 — DOBBS: Bill Ayers, we’re hearing today from Mayor Daley that he also knows Ayers and he’s just a fine fellow and no problem, don’t be — please don’t be discomforted by Senator Obama’s relationship with him. MCCARTHY: Look, of all the people who’ve ever bombed the Pentagon and the State Department and the New York City police headquarters, I’m sure he’s one of the best. But I — my sense is that regular Americans aren’t going to see it that way. DOBBS: Senator Obama, you are declaring rather straight forwardly, is denying some relatively close relationships that he is suggesting are not — are distant. MCCARTHY: Yeah, well he’s denying the relationship, but I think more importantly what he’s trying to obfuscate is that there’s a trajectory to all of this and there’s a theme that runs through it and whether its some of the statements made by his wife or Reverend Wright or Bernardine Dohrn and Ayers, the fact is he’s comfortable...Bernardine Dohrn being Ayers’ wife. The other Weather Underground terrorist who was Ayers’ wife. But, he’s comfortable with people who hate this country. And I think when he talks about and makes the theme of his campaign “Change,” and since he hasn’t really explained to us much about the change, we’re entitled to infer, from the people he’s comfortable with, who are social revolutionaries, the kind of change he wants to make in America. DOBBS: You’re including, obviously, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. MCCARTHY: Of course, right. IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 175 DOBBS: And — and Ayers. Others? MCCARTHY: Well, there’s Rashid Khalidi, who was a recipient of some of the largess that Obama controlled when he was on the Woods Board. He is somebody who was – DOBBS: He was on the board with Ayers? MCCARTHY: Yes, when Obama was on the Woods Board with Ayers, they gave grants to Rashid Khalidi, and his work…. (Lou Dobbs, CNN, April 18, 2008) We note once again in passing that the primitive analysis which is typical of right-wing observers insists on viewing figures like Ayers as authentic radicals or revolutionaries, rather than the cynical foundation-funded intelligence community operatives which they actually are. In any case, we can see here that a future President Obama would have a hard time bringing the executive agencies of his own regime together, quite apart from his grandiose promises of bringing together the majority and the opposition in Congress. OBAMA FANATICS WANT THE AYERS QUESTION DECLARED TABOO Even while the Philadelphia debate was continuing, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Obamakins squatting in the outer darkness. The shrillest of the effete snobs that evening was probably Tom Shales, the television critic of the Washington Post, which had long since joined in the swoon for the new messiah. Shales howled that the debate “was another step downward for network news – in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances…Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that has already been hashed and rehashed.” Shales mocked Gibson for “looking prosecutorial and portraying himself as a spokesman for the working class.” Obama had brought “refreshing candor” into the debate. The moderators could only be compared to “dogs.” (Tom Shales, “In the Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser is ABC,” Washington Post, April 17, 2008) The center-right oligarch David Brooks, by contrast, found that the ABC questions were “excellent. The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities. Almost every question tonight did that. The candidates each looked foolish at times, but that’s their own fault. We may not like it, but issues like Jeremiah Wright, flag lapels and the Tuzla airport will be important in the fall. Remember how George H.W. Bush toured flag factories to expose Michael Dukakis. It’s legitimate to see how the candidates will respond to these sorts of symbolic issues. The Democrats have a problem. All the signs point to a big Democratic year, and I still wouldn’t bet against Obama winning the White House, but his background as a Hyde Park liberal is going to continue to dog him. No issue is crushing on its own, but it all adds up. For the life of me I can’t figure out why he didn’t have better answers on Wright and on the “bitter” comments. The superdelegates cannot have been comforted by his performance. Final grades: ABC: A; Clinton: B; Obama: D+” (David Brooks, No Whining About the Media, New York Times, April 16, 2008) The ABC questions, far from representing a modern Torquemada treatment, had barely scratched the surface concerning Obama’s relation to Ayers. THE JOYCE FOUNDATION AND RULING CLASS PLANS FOR GUN CONTROL Larry Johnson has reported that for eight years, Obama sat on the board of Chicago’s Joyce Foundation — earning $70,000 in compensation — an influential board that ‘funneled almost $3 million in grants to political groups opposing gun rights,” according to Politico.com reporter 176 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Kenneth Vogel. This raised another duplicity problem for Obama, since his campaign has worked to assure uneasy gun owners that he believes the Constitution protects their rights and that he doesn’t want to take away their guns. As Jarlyn at TalkLeft indicated, “At Wednesday’s debate, Barack Obama wouldn’t say what his position is on the DC law banning handguns.” In her view, Obama “dodged, saying he wasn’t familiar with the facts of the case.” She had the audacity to wonder didn’t Obama answer the question at the debate instead of weaving and bobbing? Was it because he didn’t want to alienate PA voters, many of whom favor strong gun ownership rights? And, did he fail to tell the truth? According to the said Jeralyn, in November, “his campaign told the Chicago Tribune he supported the ban. (Chicago Tribune November 20, 2007.)’ (Larry Johnson, “Obama on Board That Funded Handgun Bans,” Noquarterusa.net, April 20, 2008) The Joyce Foundation website announces: “Our program areas are Education, Employment, Environment, Gun Violence, Money and Politics, and Culture. We focus our grant making on initiatives that promise to have an impact on the Great Lakes region, specifically the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A limited number of environment grants are made to organizations in Canada. Education grant making in K-12 focuses on Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee; early childhood grant making focuses on Illinois and Wisconsin. Culture grants are primarily focused on the Chicago metropolitan area, except for the Joyce Awards, which extend to other Midwest cities. We do not generally support capital proposals, endowment campaigns, religious activities, commercial ventures, direct service programs, or scholarships.” This adds up to social engineering and mind control. Between the role of the Ford Foundation as the flagship US counterinsurgency foundation, plus the influence of the terrorist Bill Ayers as a theoretician of education, it is easy to see how Obama was able to become a beneficiary of the Joyce Foundation after having served on the Gamaliel Foundation and the Woods Fund, two other Ford satellites. According to a focus group set up by the Pennsylvania television station WPVI held the night of the debate, “Senator Clinton is the debate winner, at least according to our focus group. 23% believe Senator Obama won while 50% believed Senator Clinton won.” (WPVI Post-Debate Analysis, April 16, 2008) According to Chuck Todd of NBC News, Obama “did not have a good night….His answer on Ayers and the flag question were simply weak; He seemed unprepared for them; Kinda surprising because he normally has a decent rant against “old politics” and yet “old politics” questions seemed to stump him.” (NBC First Read, April 16, 2008) The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder opined that there was “no way Obama could have fared worse. Chris Cillizza noted that Obama “struggled quite a bit more when asked to answer for Wright, his former pastor.” (Washington Post, The Fix, April 16, 2008) Katharine Seeyle of the New York Times was impressed by how much better Hillary Clinton fared: “She’s becoming expansive, seemingly in her element as she goes into details; Mr. Obama does not look as thrilled to be still standing there.” (New York Times, The Caucus, April 16, 2008) A Philadelphia commentator chimed in: “Obama is again less certain, and rambles a bit when asked about the Washington D.C. gun ban. Gibson asks him to deny that he has ever advocated a complete ban on hand guns in 1996. Obama says no. But whatever the truth, no other answer is possible.” (Philadelphia Inquirer Blog, April 16, 2008) This was actually a case of bare-faced, outright lying by Obama, since he denied the authenticity of a policy questionnaire which bore his own handwriting. Unnoticed by most was yet another pro-GOP testimonial by Obama, who this time pontificated that the foreign policy of George H.W. Bush was “wise” – this of the criminal adventurer who bombed Iraq back into the stone age in order to re-impose the regime of his own former business partner, the slave-holding Emir of Kuwait, and by doing so started the long agony of the US military presence in the Gulf. IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 177 BITTERGATE BY THE GOLDEN GATE; FASCIST HATRED OF THE WORKING CLASS During a visit to San Francisco, Obama unwisely blurted out a series of remarks which revealed the extraordinary degree he shares the outlook of the present day foundation world. Obama showed himself to be a very reckless individual, not capable of hiding thoughts and ideas which are proving extremely damaging to his political ambition. This was especially the case when he turned away from the glass plates of the Teleprompter and had to speak extemporaneously. One can imagine Obama meeting with a group of wealthy, ultra left, San Francisco elitists from whom he expects to get enormous amounts of bundled contributions for his political campaign. We can imagine some elitist of the general type of Gordon Getty, the partial heir to the Getty oil fortune and a person who shares with the Emperor Nero the conviction that he is the greatest lyric artist of the age. Getty or someone like him must have asked Obama why he is doing so poorly in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the perfect Master is cut to the quick, since these are obviously the states which a Democrat must win in order to get the presidency. Obama therefore responds with these fateful words, which projected the questions of oligarchy, elitism, and class consciousness into the center of the US political debate in a way so extraordinary that it has not been seen in many, many decades: OBAMA: “So, it depends on where you are, but I think it’s fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...I think they’re misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to ‘white working-class don’t wanna work — don’t wanna vote for the black guy.’ That’s...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it’s sort of a race thing. Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laughter), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter). But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is — so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide health care for every American. So we’ll go down a series of talking points. But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you’ll find is, is that people of every background — there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you’ll find Obama 178 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I’d be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you’re doing what you’re doing.”64 This very imprudent outburst reveals much about the characteristic outlook of the foundationfunded political intellectual in the United States today. First of all, this utterance is dripping with patronizing condescension and contempt for the people he is describing. Obama, well-trained by his procommunist anthropologist mother, has been in effect on fieldwork in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and is reporting to a group of his peers about the strange mores of the peculiar populations he has been attempting to profile and manipulate, with limited success. Obama is trying as hard as he can to treat the American people like malleable ethnographic material, but they have realized this and do not like it. Obama does not mention that the deindustrialization of the United States, and thus the destruction of the economic viability of the communities he has visited, were the direct result of the policies imposed by his own Trilateral Commission backers back at the time almost 30 years ago when Trilateral member Jimmy Carter, probably acting at the prodding of Trilateral member Zbigniew Brzezinski, place Trilateral member Paul Adolph Volcker at the helm of the Federal Reserve; it was Volcker’s 22% prime rate which effectively destroyed the industrial infrastructure of the United States, including especially its export industries. This kind of historical background is seldom included in the analysis developed by a bankers’ boy when it comes time to assign the blame. It is not surprising that Obama is contemptuous of religion, gun ownership, and sports shooting. The reference to “antipathy” obviously suggests that the people he is dealing with really are racists after all. Most interesting of all is the reference to “anti-trade,” since the suggestion here is that anyone who disagrees with economic and financial globalization is somehow irrational, anti-social, or even paranoid. This puts Obama’s statement closely in line with the classics of academic and foundation-backed anti-worker ideology. We will not try to develop here the case that economic and financial globalization have effectively wrecked the world economy, leading to an overall world immiseration in the form of declining standards of living, and declining economic opportunity. We have made this case already in Surviving the Cataclysm. Today, the financial order of globalization is dissolving before the horrified eyes of world public opinion, with the entire system going to the brink of a systemic explosion of the world banking system on the Ides of March with the looming bankruptcy of Bear Stearns, which threatened to set off chain reaction bankruptcies throughout the world financial community in 2008. One of the sources for the idea that anyone who opposes the prevailing economic and financial line of Wall Street, the US Treasury, and the Federal Reserve is suffering from some form of psychopathology is the work of the deeply dishonest and much reviled Columbia University historian, Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter was the author of “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” (Harper’s, 1964), and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. He was especially brutal in his slanders of the late 19th century protest movement among farmers who called themselves the Populists. Hofstadter was one of the leaders of the school of “consensus historians,” an approach which he described with the remark that “It seems to me to be clear that a political society cannot hang together at all unless there is some kind of consensus running through it.” His favorite technique was to psychoanalyze protest movements, always coming to the conclusion that the dissidents and critics of the established regime were hopelessly irrational, after probing into their unconscious psychological motives, status anxieties, hatreds, and paranoia, presenting these syndromes as the real cause for their political discontent. His favorite way of dismissing a critic was IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 179 to accuse that person of suffering from a “status panic.” Hofstadter’s work boils down to the idea that politics is a morass of fear, hatred, provincial ignorance, and insanity, and that the only thing to do is to support the Establishment and its existing order at all costs. Inevitably, Hofstadter had been a communist, but he insulted Franklin D. Roosevelt by dismissing him as “The Patrician as Opportunist.” Conservative commentator George Will once described Hofstadter as “the iconic public intellectual of liberal condescension,” who “dismissed conservatives as victims of character flaws and psychological disorders — a ‘paranoid style’ of politics rooted in ‘status anxiety,’ etc. Conservatism rose on a tide of votes cast by people irritated by the liberalism of condescension.”65 Hofstadter, like so many pompous professors, was little more than a paid apologist of the financier ruling class. And even such ideas as Hofstadter had were not really original, since most of them came from the 19th century French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Durkheim’s critique of religion is based on an idea drawn from Feuerbach that God’s kingdom is merely the projection into eternity and theology of the existing social relations in a given human group. Durkheim taught that God was “society divinized,” that “God is society, writ large.”66 Here again there was a very strong overtone that anyone in the position of a critic, a naysayer, an outsider, a maverick, or a protester was an example of social pathology rather than being a valuable corrective to the undeniable abuses of a failing system. Most importantly, Obama’s Bittergate comments documented that once again his deep hatred for the American working class, a hatred which constitutes the first and central point in the Fanon/Weatherman political doctrine: blue-collar white workers are racist, warmongering “honkies” who have been bought off by capitalist concessions and integrated into the system so that no revolution, but only bloody race war, remains possible. This concept, in turn, is congenial to the bosses of the foundations, and to the US financier oligarchy in general, since it happens to coincide so totally with their plan for a campaign of savage austerity, draconian reductions in the standard of living, and related genocidal policies against US working people as a means of dealing with the current world economic and financial depression. Jimmy Carter was of course a useful tool to the Trilateral bankers, but his effectiveness was sometimes undermined by the qualms, reticence, and second thoughts suggested by the Christianity he professed. With Obama, there is no such danger; quite the contrary, Obama will bring to his appointed task a ferocious criminal energy which will help him to attempt to flay the American people alive. OBAMA: A DEEP COVER AGENT OF THE 1313 GANG? The dominant component controlling Obama in terms of his policies and tasks is, as we have stressed, the Trilateral Commission, founded with Rockefeller family money by David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s controller and Obama’s top political director. In a general way, Obama can be accurately described as a controlled asset of the Rockefeller family and its allies. The Rockefeller apparatus of political and social manipulation which is sponsoring Obama has been around for a long time – more than a century. For them, manipulating elections is nothing new. The University of Chicago is a long-standing center for Rockefeller subversion. As we have seen, the University of Chicago 1313 gang was set up with the help of the Spelman Fund, a foundation created in December 1928 by the outrageous robber barons and sociopathic monopolists John D. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller Jr., the great-grandfather and grandfather of today’s fanatical Obama backer Senator John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. The Spelman Fund got $10 million 1928 dollars from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, which were to be used for social engineering in favor of financier interests in the field of child study, “parent education,” race 180 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography relations, and cooperation with public agencies–a whole range of meddling with the bitter clingers, and not mere humanitarian concerns. The mission statement of the oligarchical Spelman Fund bluntly stated that “the interest of the Spelman Fund is not in improvement of some social practice or function, but is rather in the contribution which maybe made to all aspects of public welfare through increase of efficiency, technical competence, and rational purposefulness in the operation of the machinery of government.” Not social progress, but totalitarian control was the goal. A recent journalistic account of 1313 informs us: ‘1313, completed in 1938, embodied the vision of two men, Charles E. Merriam, and Louis Brownlow. Brownlow had forged a career (without benefit of formal education) as a city manager and as a forceful advocate for the public service professions. Merriam was a University of Chicago political science professor with a bent for activism that led to service as a Chicago alderman and to two (unsuccessful) runs for the Mayoralty. The two men conceived 1313 as a vibrant center for (in the words of a 1963 booklet) “the improvement of the organization, administrative techniques, and methods of government – municipal, county, state, and federal – in the United States.” Within a few years, 1313 had clearly become a nerve center for American public administration. By 1963, it was organizational home to 22 non-profit entities, including: American Public Works Association, American Public Welfare Association, Council of State Governments. American Society of Planning Officials, American Society of Public Administration, National Legislative Conference, Public Administration Service, National Association of State Budget Officers, and the National Association of Attorneys General. Proximity was a key factor in the Merriam-Brownlow concept: proximity of the building’s organizational inhabitants both to each other and to the resources of the University of Chicago. The lively, continuous, cross-fertilizing exchanges ensuing from these proximities were to advance the professionalization of public administration in the U.S.’67 1313 appears as a Rockefeller deployment running parallel to European fascism, and aiming at the destruction, under the banner of good government and efficiency, of the large urban political machines which were to be so important in the 1932-33 coming of the New Deal, which the reactionary Rockefellers were eager to see headed off. AXELROD’S 1313 GANG AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER Some of the 1313 gang’s efforts were disrupted by World War II, but the 1313 operatives were quick to bounce back: ‘First, the 1313-Spelman boys were thinking hard about the ways and means to organize a New World Order. A lot of them were involved in the brainstorming that was to give birth to the new international organizations: their concern for integrating public administration had now a new level, the international one, in the hope that it would be possible to build a more efficient system than the League of Nations.’ Rockefeller-funded 1313 operatives played key roles in creating the United Nations, UNESCO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which dealt with refugees and displaced persons, the World Bank, and other components of the supernational bureaucracy. To each of these organisms the Rockefeller men imparted their characteristic features of sinister cruelty, manipulation, and the shameless pursuit of world supremacy for the Anglo-American financier oligarchy. The 1313 gang is thus central to the efforts for new world order: ‘Thus, the Ford consolidated the work of international organization that had begun in the 1930s, placing the urban international under discrete but effective American patronage. It added stone to what could be called a “Chicago consensus” on urban issues at the international scale, this consensus being circulated through the net of links created since the 1930s, and put in action thanks to the overlapping personnel of the Ford, the Chicago organizations, the international societies, and the IV. Apprenticeship with Foundation-Funded Terrorists: Ayers and Dohrn 181 international institutions. It needs more work to be able to say if the US involvement supported or engineered by the Big Foundations changed the way in which the city was imagined at the international scale, or rather created some new frame in which the city was imagined and managed. It seems that the big foundations heavily contributed to create a new market for governmental consultancy, quite close in its operation to the one that had been created on the domestic scene in the 1930s. A vital role in this development was the one played by 1313 leaders, when they cooperated with the Spelman and when they shaped the action of the Ford.’68 Here, in typical barbarous foundation-speak, is a good description of the interlocking nests of foundation operatives which constitute the political, social, and intellectual milieu from which Obama has emerged: the foundations. During the Eisenhower years, right-wing critics of the financier elite inevitably viewed the 1313 gang – in reality the proponents of a collectivism based on Wall Street finance capital, not the proletariat — as tinged with communism, and thus as ‘a secret nest and nexus of totalitarian evil in the U.S. One lead voice in the chorus of accusations was a woman from southern California named Jo Hindman. In 1959 and 1960 she published six articles in the American Mercury magazine that identified an insidious threat to American values and traditions that she termed “Metropolitan Government” – Metro, for short. In a 1963 book entitled Terrible 1313 Revisited, Hindman disclosed to the world that “. . . .in the late 1950’s, location of the Metro capital was discovered at 1313 E. 60th Street, Chicago 37, Illinois, a twenty-two organization clearing house. This arsenal of totalitarianism spews Metro directives, programs, and projects all over target U.S.A….In concept, practices, and in rapidly multiplying instances, Metro has wrecked private homes, businesses, property rights, and the ballot franchise. Upon the shambles of these basic concepts in American government, Metro seeks to force upon Americans collectivized Metropolitan Government, totally.” Metro’s key devices as enumerated by Hindman included zoning, public health measures, building codes, urban renewal and transjurisdictional authorities like the New York Port Authority. An Internet search still finds many references to Terrible 1313 on right-wing websites today.” (Bruce Thomas, “1313’s Hidden History,” Hyde Park Herald, May 23, 2004) Ms. Hindman’s analysis may have lacked sophistication, but she was surely on firm ground when she ascribed a basic world outlook of malevolence and oligarchical arrogance to the 1313 gang. This look back at 1313 as the later spawning ground for David Axelrod has also provided us with the immediate pre-history of the Ford Foundation “community control” and “local control” counterinsurgency methods of the late 1960s. Now a new generation of the 1313 project is poised to take power in the person of Ford- Rockefeller operative Obama, the Manchurian candidate whose campaign is dominated by David Axelrod, an operative who owes his training to the 1313 operation. Obama’s sordid associations suffered another implicit blow on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, when Pope Benedict XVI concluded a visit to Washington and New York with the benediction, “God bless America,” as he boarded his plane for the journey back to Rome. Many recalled the “No! No! No! God damn America!” rant of the satanic racist provocateur Jeremiah Wright of the foundation-funded black liberation theology synthetic religion, from whom the Perfect Master had imbibed hatred and political support for two decades. CHAPTER V: OBAMA’S HEART OF DARKNESS: REZKO, AUCHI, ALSAMMARAE, AND CHICAGO GRAFT “I am the first one to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move….” – Obama “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” – Obama “Illinois is awash in scandal and corruption.” – Jay Stewart, Illinois Better Government Association “The Illinois Combine… the bipartisan Illinois political combine.” – US Senator Peter Fitzgerald If Obama ever reaches the White House, he will certainly be classified as one of the most corrupt winners of a presidential election in the history of our country. Past presidents from Grant to Harding have been generally considered corrupt, but it is likely that a future Obama administration would eclipse them all. As this chapter will make clear, Obama has climbed out of a veritable sewer of corruption, crime, graft, bribery, kickbacks and rake offs to assume his current role as seraphic advocate of good government and public probity. Obama may not be the most corrupt individual ever to approach the presidency, but he is in all probability the person in whom the reality of corruption and a hypocritical pretense of clean government are most at variance. In this sense, Obama qualifies as a hypocrite greater than Molière’s Tartuffe, greater than Dickens’ Mr. Pecksniff in Martin Chuzzlewit. At the center of Obama’s universe of corruption are three godfathers. They are all Levantine Arabs from the eastern Mediterranean, corsairs of those dark seas where dirty machine politics and illegal financial manipulations flow together. The first is Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a nominal Catholic from the port of Aleppo in Syria, who has been Obama’s most immediate sponsor, backer, friend, and bagman during his entire political career. Rezko has probably bilked the public treasury for something approaching one hundred million dollars in the form of public-and private partnerships allegedly designed to rehabilitate, renovate, and restore decayed slum properties and make them fit for human habitation. In reality, the properties have been given over to rats and cockroaches, while Rezko has grown fabulously rich. Obama and his wife Michelle personally participated in this ill-gotten gain when Rezko assisted them in acquiring the bombastic and ostentatious mansion in the Kenwood district in which this nouveau riche couple now resides. Rezko got his start in Chicago opening Subway sandwich shops in places that needed city concessions. Rezko then became close to Jabir Herbert Muhammad, former manager of heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and son of the late Nation of Islam leader, Elijah Muhammad, and he entered active politics in 1983 to support the successful mayoral candidacy of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor. The second of Obama’s three godfathers is Nadhmi Auchi, who was born in Iraq, professes the Roman Catholic religion, and is ranked as the eighth (or 18th, depending on the account you read) richest person in the United Kingdom with a personal fortune approaching £2,000,000,000 or about $4 billion. In 2003, Auchi was convicted of fraud in the Elf Aquitaine bribery scandal, probably the largest corruption investigation in the history of postwar Europe. Auchi has a 15 month suspended sentence hanging over his head. The Elf scandal came complete with accusations against former French police Minister Charles Pasqua and former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, plus the involvement of the Corsican mafia and various Freemasonic lodges. The basic charge was that a network including scores of oligarchs had conspired to lose the French state owned oil company V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 183 Elf-Aquitaine of about 3 billion French francs (about $750 million), principally during the 1980s and 1990s. As a newspaper account related at the time of the Elf trial, Another powerful figure whose dealings were examined by the magistrates is a British-Iraqi businessman, Nadhmi Auchi. Defense attorneys said the magistrates investigated Mr. Auchi’s alleged role in Elf’s 1991 purchase of the Spanish oil company, Ertoil, from its Kuwaiti owner. According to French press reports, Mr. Auchi helped Elf by initially buying the company quickly - and avoiding regulatory delays - and then selling it on to Elf. Defense attorneys said Mr. Auchi allegedly received a commission from Elf of more than 300 million French francs for his role. Among the magistrates’ questions is whether Mr. Auchi funneled any “retrocommissions” on the deal back to Elf executives or political figures in France. Commissions and corporate bribes for foreign officials were legal under French law at the time - indeed, they were tax deductible. But it was illegal to kick money back to France through these so-called retro-commissions, which nonetheless are thought to have been widespread on major oil and arms deals. Mr. Auchi has denied any wrongdoing, and defense attorneys said he had offered to buy Ertoil back and repay any commissions he received. But he has refused to appear in France before the magistrates, who have issued an international arrest warrant for him. Although Mr. Auchi’s name is almost unknown to the French or British public, he is sometimes described as the eighth-richest man in Britain, with a broad portfolio of assets grouped under his holding company, General Mediterranean. At one time, he was also reputed to be the largest individual shareholder in the French bank, Banque Paribas, and a member of its international advisory board. According to press reports, the French government last year seized his shares in Paribas, said to be worth $500 million. Queried about his holdings Thursday, Paribas failed to respond. (Joseph Fitchett and David Ignatius, “Lengthy Elf Inquiry Nears Explosive Finish, International Herald Tribune, February 1, 2002)69 Aiham Alsammarae (also known as Ayham al-Samarie or Ahyam al Samarrai) is the third of Obama’s godfathers, and a picaresque figure in the annals of international crime. Alsammarae is officially listed as a Sunni Arab Iraqi politician and the former Iraqi Minister of Electricity. In his ministerial post, Alsammarae was accused of looting funds from the Iraqi Electricity Ministry during the reign of the feckless neocon proconsul, Paul “Jerry” Bremer, the Viceroy of the so-called Coalition Provisional Authority. In August 2006 Al-Samarie was arrested on corruption charges involving irregularities in the letting of contracts and the misappropriation of millions of dollars. He was convicted in October 2006 of corruption relating to a $200,000 generator purchase, and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. In December 2006, his conviction for corruption was thrown out, but he remained in jail awaiting trial for twelve additional corruption cases. Alsammarae fled his trial in Iraq on corruption charges after hiring Blackwater USA to break him out of prison. He currently resides in Chicago. . Alsammarae’s international flight to escape prosecution on felony corruption charges was openly aided and abetted by the Bush regime, since an American plane carried him out of Iraq to Jordan. Alsammarae is one of the international jackals whose looting of Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority helped to created the armed backlash of a national resistance which has so far cost the United States well over 4000 dead.70 Now, o muse, let Nixon’s Bebe Rebozo be silent; let Albert Fall of Harding’s Teapot Dome and Grant’s Credit Mobilier sink into obscurity. Let LBJ’s Billy Sol Estes and Reagan’s Gorbanifar and Kashoggi go gibbering into Hades, while Carter’s Bert Lance and Clinton’s Marc Rich retreat to the shadows wrapped in Sherman Adams’ vicuna coats from the Eisenhower era. A new champion of crime and logothete of corruption is at hand, and he is Obama. 184 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography THEN: TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE; NOW: ALSAMMARAE TO AUCHI TO REZKO TO OBAMA Obama has boasted and strutted about his alleged October 2002 speech opposing the idea of a US attack on Iraq, but it is quite possible that blood money looted from the Coalition Provisional Authority may have found its way into Obama’s infamous Kenwood mansion. The old Chicago Cubs double play went from Tinker to Evers to Chance. Obama’s new triple play of corruption may have gone from Alsammarae to Auchi to Rezko to Obama, with the US taxpayer being one of the main victims. As Jerome Corsi commented, “Following this twisted trail of suspicious millions, investigative reporters have drawn a line from Obama to Rezko to Saddam Hussein’s Oil for Food scandal, with the key connecting point being billionaire Nadhmi Auchi.”71 Most of the funding of Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority came from the Bush regime, and this was the money appropriated from the Iraqi Electricity Ministry by Alsammarae. Might Alsammarae then have transferred some of these funds to Auchi in London in the course of certain joint ventures in which these two were engaged? Might some of those same dollars then have made up part of a $3.5 million loan from Auchi to Rezko? Such money might have helped Rezko recoup some of his largesse to Barky involved in the earlier below-cost purchase of the lot next door to Obama’s mansion, a transaction which was indispensable to allow Barky and Michelle to get control of the property they wanted and later to expand the size of their yard: When Obama bought his mansion in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood, Rezko’s wife Rita, purchased adjoining land for $625,000 – land that the house’s owners insisted on selling at the same time. Seven months later, she sold the Obamas one-sixth of her lot, for $105,000, so they could expand their yard.72 According to another account, this time from a left liberal source: Troubling to the Obamas’ image of civic rectitude is their entanglement with a campaign contributor named Antoin (Tony) Rezko in a 2005 real-estate deal. (Rezko is now awaiting trial on corruption charges.) That year, as the Tribune reported, the Obamas moved to a $1.65- million Georgian Revival mansion in Hyde Park, which features a thousand-bottle wine cellar and bookcases made of Honduran mahogany. On the day they bought the house, Rita Rezko, Tony’s wife, purchased the adjacent lot, which was wooded and empty, for $625,000. After the deal went through, Michelle contacted the city’s landmarks commission, which she had served on, and received an e-mail from a deputy commissioner with suggestions for obtaining permits to erect a fence between the parcels. The Obamas paid for legal, architectural, and landscaping work, while Rezko got the bill for the fence’s construction, for fourteen thousand dollars. (New Yorker, March 11, 2008) The impudence and flagrance of this corrupt transaction underline once again what can only be called Obama’s megalomania, a sense that he has been absolved of obedience to the law in the same way that earlier false messiahs have proclaimed the suspension of all the rules. It was reckless folly for Obama to insist on getting the mansion with an assist from an organized crime figure, but he went ahead anyway. This is the same kind of antinomian mentality which we can detect in the crimes of presidents from Nixon to Bush. As Pringle comments, Obama’s entering into real estate deals with Rezko, while it was public knowledge that he was under investigation for funneling illegal contributions to Illinois politicians, was not a “boneheaded” move, it was motivated by pure greed. While knowing that he would get caught up in a major scandal, Obama went ahead with the deal because he and his wife wanted that V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 185 mansion, with four fireplaces, six bathrooms, and a wine cellar, period. (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) THE ILLINOIS BIPARTISAN COMBINE; MOTHER SHIP FOR OBAMA At the center of this worldwide network of crime and intrigue we find the one form of bipartisan political cooperation to which Obama is sincerely devoted: this sinister centerpiece is the bipartisan Illinois Combine, a continuing criminal enterprise under the definitions of the RICO statute through which a gang of racketeers composed of elected officials of the Democratic and Republican parties have systematically looted and despoiled the public treasuries of the city of Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois in particular. In his specific capacity as a ward heeling machine hack political operative, Obama looks to this criminal bipartisan Illinois Combine as his mother ship. Due to the pervasive presence and overwhelming rapacity of the bipartisan Illinois Combine, it may well be that Illinois and Chicago specifically represent the most filthy and corrupt jurisdictions anywhere in the United States today. How ironic that Obama, the self-styled angel of clean government, has chosen to climb out of this repulsive sewer. The working hypothesis of this book is that the Rezko conviction, which may well be followed by similar convictions of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and of Chicago Mayor Daley, will not be used by Soros and the Trilateral financiers to sabotage the candidacy of their own handpicked bankers’ boy during the 2008 contest. This would of course represent a self-defeating exercise in futility, a contradiction in terms. It is instead likely as Operation Board Games represents a capability which will be kept in reserve for the future, should it ever become necessary for the banking faction to remind the megalomaniac Obama about who is boss. If Barky becomes too rambunctious, he can be threatened with indictment and incarceration using the testimony of his longtime crony Rezko. Alternatively, Operation Board Games and the Rezko conviction might be used as convenient detonation devices, should the Trilateral bankers ever feel the need to jettison their puppet in a big hurry. This use of a large-scale federal investigation of the corrupt operations of a statewide political machine recalls a similar pattern which emerged around the puppet President Harry S. Truman, who could always be disciplined by reminding him that his patron and the architects of his political career, boss Tom Pendergast, had been sent to the federal penitentiary in 1939, where Harry could also be sent at any time if he were to forget whose servant he actually was. This grim reality of the Rezko conviction being available to enforce permanent puppet status on Obama, no matter what the latter might desire to do once he got to the White House, is yet another consideration for voters looking for an independent-minded president in 2008. The Rezko case, like a lugubrious Greek chorus, provided an ominous counterpoint to Obama’s activities during the primary season. Rezko was arrested at his home in Wilmette, Illinois on January 29 by federal agents and was taken forthwith to the hoosegow. Federal authorities said that Rezko had violated the conditions of his bail bond. Jury selection for the Rezko trial began about a month later. At this time, the Chicago newspapers were much more aggressive than the swooning national media who made up most of the press corps that was accompanying Obama on his campaign travels. None of the national pundits was the least bit interested in the fact that the Perfect Master had such a dirty godfather, but the Chicago types were more hard-bitten. Chicago papers demanded that Obama come clean, issuing the following set of demands just as the Rezko trial preparations were beginning: Jury selection began Monday in the trial of political influence peddler Tony Rezko. This would be the time — before a single witness takes the stand — for Barack Obama to finally share 186 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography every detail of his relationship with Rezko. Rezko stands accused of funneling state business to companies that lined his pockets and made campaign contributions to Gov. Blagojevich. Rezko allegedly directed $10,000 to Obama’s 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate. For months, Sun- Times investigative reporters have had a standing request to meet with Obama, face to face, to get answers to questions such as these: How many fund-raisers did Rezko throw for Obama? Obama is donating $150,000 to charity that Rezko brought into the campaign. But how much in all did Rezko raise? Did Rezko find jobs for Obama backers in the Blagojevich administration or elsewhere? Why did Obama only recently admit — after Bloomberg News broke the story — that Rezko had toured his South Side mansion with him in 2004 before he bought it? Dribs and drabs of people’s lives have a most unfortunate way of coming out in trials.’ (Chicago Sun- Times, “Sen. Obama, time to call us about Rezko: (312) 321-2417,” March 4, 2008) FITZGERALD DELIBERATELY SHIELDED OBAMA IN THE REZKO TRIAL US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose status as a high-level enforcer for the ruling class had been established during the Scooter Libby prosecution, elected not to bring Obama’s name into the Rezko trial at the numerous points where mentioning Obama would have been pertinent. Even in the original indictment against Rezko, Fitzgerald’s office had bent over backwards to avoid negative publicity for Obama: ‘The list of names in the indictment includes about eight persons referred to as “Co-Schemers,” and reads like a “who’s who list” of major campaign donors to Obama, Blagojevich, Daley and other powerful Illinois politicians. Blagojevich is referred to as “Public Official A,” Obama is referred to as a “political candidate,” and there is a list of “Individuals” from “Individual A” all the way up to “Individual HH.”’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) The same tender regard for Obama’s reputation continued through the entire Rezko trial: ‘Newly unsealed documents show that prosecutors sought to call witnesses to testify about Rezko’s ties to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The Illinois senator was the recipient of “straw” campaign contributions made by others on behalf of Rezko — money that Obama has since given to charities, but only after he got caught. The documents indicate that prosecutors considered offering witnesses to explore why Rezko used others to contribute to Obama and also to Blagojevich, and U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve ruled that they could. But they did not end up offering any such testimony during the trial. “Witnesses will testify that Rezko was a long-standing supporter and fund-raiser of Barack Obama,” prosecutors wrote.74 This deliberate decision to spare Obama for now, while his chief godfather and donor was hustled off to the federal penitentiary, supports the Truman-Pendergast hypothesis of how the entire Rezko and Operation Board Games verdicts are likely to be used in the future to ensure that Obama remains under strict financier control. OBAMA: “THIS ISN’T THE TONY REZKO I KNEW” Rezko was then convicted just after the last primary elections were held: One-time Barack Obama political fundraiser Tony Rezko has been convicted in federal court in Chicago of corruption charges in a kickback scheme involving the Illinois state government. Rezko was convicted of 12 counts of mail and wire fraud, two counts of corrupt solicitation and two counts of money laundering. Rezko allegedly schemed to corrupt two state boards and solicited contributions for the campaign of Governor Rod Blagojevich from companies seeking state business. He was acquitted of one count of attempted extortion, four counts of corrupt solicitation and three counts of fraud. (Yahoo Wires, June 4, 2008) V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 187 Obama released a statement announcing that he was “saddened,” adding in part that “this isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew, but now he has been convicted by a jury ... that once again shines a spotlight on the need for reform.” (cbs2chicago.com) This trope was now a very overworked topos from Axelrod’s rhetorical grab bag, having previously figured in Obama’s boiler plate “This isn’t the Jeremiah Wright I knew” evasive denial right after the ranting reverend’s geek act at the National Press Club. As Pringle points out, ‘…Obama knew about the Operation Board Games investigation during his year-long wheeling and dealing escapade with Rezko to arrange the purchase of the mansion and lot, and any claim to the contrary by the “I did not know” candidate is ludicrous.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) This was all bad enough, to be sure. But these monstrous crimes themselves are nothing but the tip of the iceberg. To estimate the real dimensions of the bipartisan Illinois Combine, we call on Evelyn Pringle, an expert in the ethnic labyrinths that are now the city of broad shoulders and former hog butcher to the world. TONY REZKO: FROM CAMELOT TO OBAMA’S LOT Pringle’s thesis is simple: Obama is an organized crime figure, and the Democratic Party should never have allowed him to get anywhere near its presidential nomination: The most trusted leaders of the Democratic party, such as John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, ought to be ashamed of themselves for supporting Barack Obama. With use of the internet, a fifth grader could connect the dots to show a picture of a guy who was picked up in college and carried up the political ladder by a corrupt gang of influence peddlers. John McCain is just drooling waiting for Obama to become the nominee so that he can come out with the trail of dirt that the Democratic Party is too afraid to reveal this late in the game. If nominated, Obama will not survive a month when faced with the Republican attack machine. If he becomes the nominee, the web of corruption leading to Obama’s rise to power that this investigative journalist was able to untangle in less than three weeks, will be front page news right up until election day, handing the Republicans their only chance in hell of winning the White House. (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) The keystone in this vast edifice of corruption is the Rezko-Auchi axis, which, thanks to Obama’s complicity, has allowed Rezko to become the owner of a huge piece of prime real estate in the Loop, the central business district of the lakeside metropolis. Pringle writes: The investigation called “Operation Board Games” will lead to Obama’s downfall and it will begin with what he claims was a “boneheaded” mistake in entering into real estate deal with the Syrian-born immigrant, Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, less than a month after Rezko received a $3.5 million loan from the Iraqi-born billionaire, Nadhmi Auchi, who ended up with Riverside Park, a $2.5 billion 62-acre development project in the Chicago Loop. [This immense prize of Riverside Park is a central feature of the entire scandal, since] … following the names linked to Riverside Park is the key to understanding Operation Board Games.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Today, Obama is naturally running away from Tony Rezko as fast as his legs will carry him, but the evasion is useless. At various times in his career, Obama has been a most assiduous frequenter of the Levantine gangster. ‘For a year, [Obama] also minimized his relationship with Rezko by telling the media that he only had dinner or lunch with Rezko one or twice a year. But when confronted by Sun-Times reporters during the March 14 interview, with the allegation that an FBI mole saw him coming 188 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography and going to Rezko’s office often and that three sources said he talked to Rezko on the phone daily, Obama changed his tune.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) ‘In the media, Obama always made it sound like he rarely saw Rezko, saying they met for breakfast or lunch once or twice a year. However, the FBI mole John Thomas helped investigators “build a record of repeat visits to the old offices of Rezko and former business partner Daniel Mahru’s Rezmar Corp., at 853 N. Elston, by Blagojevich and Obama during 2004 and 2005,” according to the February 10, 2008 Sun-Times.’ (Evelyn Pringle, “Curtain for Barack Obama Part II,” opednews.com) At the height of the Jeremiah Wright scandal in mid-March 2008, Obama finally gave in to the demands of the Chicago press corps and agreed to answer some questions about his relations with Rezko over the years. Obama was obviously seeking to use one scandal to eclipse another, but Pringle has gone through the relevant articles and found much material which is damaging to the Illinois Messiah. One aspect of this was the infiltrated FBI spy had testified that Obama was constantly in the company of Rezko: During his March 14, 2008 interview, the Sun Times told Obama, Thomas is an FBI mole and he “recently told us that he saw you coming and going from Rezko’s office a lot.” “And three other sources told us that you and Rezko spoke on the phone daily.” “Is that true?” the reporter asked. “No,” Obama said, “That’s not accurate.” “I think what is true,” he said, “is that, it depends on the period of time.” “I’ve known him for 17 years,” Obama stated. “There were stretches of time where I would see him once or twice a year.” He told the Sun Times, “when he was involved in finance committee for the U.S. Senate race, or the state senate races, or the U.S. Congressional race, then he was an active member.” “During the U.S. Senate race, there’d be stretches of like a couple of weeks - for example prior to him organizing the fundraiser that he did for us - where I would probably be talking to him once a day to make sure that was going well,” he said. “But the typical relationship was one that was fond,” he added. “We would see each other.” Now the story is that he may have talked to Rezko daily at times during campaigns but sometimes he went for a whole month without talking to him. “I have to say we’re talking over the course of 10 years,” Obama said, “there might have been spurts where I talked to him daily.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Further invasion is useless; Obama was as close to Rezko as the thumb is to the forefinger. One way to document this is by following the money. Obama himself has confessed to accepting something in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars from his convicted felon backer. ‘Tony Rezko was Obama’s political Godfather. Obama received his first contributions of $2,000, to launch his political career as a state senator on July 31, 1995, from Rezko. Obama started out saying that Rezko only raised $50,000 or $60,000 for his political career but after a year of lying his way through the primaries, the latest total he gave to the Sun-Times and Tribune during interviews on March 14, 2008, adds up to $250,000.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) OBAMA: REZKO “NEVER ASKED ME FOR ANYTHING” FOR THE $250K! Rezko and Obama go back a long way together, back to the early 90s when Obama was completing law school at Harvard. ‘Obama met Rezko soon after graduating from Harvard Law School. Rezko was well connected in Chicago’s African-American community, in part because he had worked with Jabir Herbert Muhammad, the son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 189 when he was managing the career of boxer Muhammad Ali, according to a May 2005 profile in the Chicago Tribune. Rezko moved into real estate and political fundraising, often a combustible combination in Chicago. Rezko offered Obama a job with his real estate company soon after they met, around 1991, but Obama declined. When Obama decided to run for the state Senate in 1995, Rezko was his “first substantial contributor,” according to the Tribune. That money relationship continued, with Rezko raising as much as $250,000 over the course of Obama’s five Illinois races, reported the Chicago Sun-Times. The friendship may have reflected the fact that both men were outsiders, trying to establish themselves in the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago. Obama told the Sun-Times last month: “My assessment of Tony Rezko was that he was an immigrant who had sort of pulled himself up by his bootstraps. ... I think he saw me as somebody who had talent, but he was probably also intrigued by my international background.” Part of what Obama says he liked about Rezko was his graciousness: “He never asked me for anything.” The relationship became controversial because of the now-famous home-purchase deal: When Obama and his wife bought a $1.65 million house in Chicago in June 2005, Rezko’s wife simultaneously bought the adjoining lot and later sold part of it back to the Obamas so that they could have a bigger yard. Obama conceded in an interview with the Chicago Tribune last month that in the real estate deal, “I made a mistake in not seeing the potential conflicts of interest or appearances of impropriety.” He said of Rezko’s motivation in buying the adjoining lot, “He perhaps thought that this would strengthen our relationship. He could have even thought he was doing me a favor.” What’s troubling about this story is that at the time Obama bought the house in June 2005, allegations had already surfaced about Rezko’s alleged influence-peddling. A Feb. 13, 2005, story in the Chicago Tribune criticized Rezko’s receipt of lucrative state contracts to operate restaurants on Illinois toll roads; an April 8, 2005, story said he was “under fire from Chicago’s city hall” because his restaurant chain had taken two spots at O’Hare airport designated for minority firms; a May 17 article reported that Rezko had been subpoenaed in a corruption probe. (David Ignatius, “Obama and the Chicago Insider,” Washington Post, April 20, 2008) Obama’s absurd claim that Rezko “never asked me for anything” shows his real contempt for the intelligence of voters, and in any serious presidential debate he would have been questioned mercilessly on this point. But Ignatius, a drooling acolyte of the Perfect Master, is more than willing to accept this nonsense at face value. OBAMA’S DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL POLICY FOR GRAFT Obama returns to this particular lie (the one about Rezko never having asked him for any favors whatsoever) again and again, like a dog to its vomit: …Obama has continuously claimed that Rezko never asked him for favors. On November 5, 2006, the Sun-Times published his answers to questions that were submitted to him after the news of the real estate deal with Rezko surfaced, and Obama stated: “I have never been asked to do anything to advance his business interests.” A day later, on November 6, 2006, he told reporters in Waukegan Illinois, “He had never asked me for anything. I’d never done anything for him.” In December 2006, he told the Washington Post: “I’ve known him for 15 years.” “He had never asked me to do anything.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Even the chickens are laughing at Obama’s mendacity. But the record indicates that Obama did a large number of very dirty favors redolent of graft and corruption for his sugar daddy Rezko. 190 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography On June 13, 2007, the Sun-Times reported that as a state senator, “Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.” In the Sun Times, Novak reported that the deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and [ex Obama employer and alleged public housing abuser Allison] Davis, while Obama was still working at the Davis law firm, for a bid on a project that was “four blocks outside Obama’s state Senate district.” Although the law firm represented several companies owned by Davis and Rezko when Obama wrote the letters, the firm did not represent New Kenwood in the deal. According to the Sun-Times, Davis and Rezko instead hired a firm owned by Mayor Daley’s brother Michael, “to help them get $3.1 million from bonds issued by the city of Chicago.” (Pringle, oped news) MICHELLE OBAMA’S FASHION SHOW OF GRAFT Michelle Obama joined her husband in eagerly cavorting in the cesspool of the bipartisan Illinois Combine. Michelle was the guest of honor at a veritable fashion show of graft; among those present was Patti Blagojevich the consort of the overlord of the entire bipartisan Illinois Combine. ‘In the November 2007, Chicago Magazine, James Merriner described a “fashion show” that took place in the first week in November 2006, to benefit St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which he said, “attracted little if any media coverage, which may have been exactly as its organizers and sponsors had hoped.” “The invitation to the affair,” he wrote, “offered a veritable guidebook to political influence in Illinois, much of it centered on one St. Jude benefactor, Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko.” “Just three weeks earlier,” Merriner pointed out, “Rezko had been indicted on charges of extorting kickbacks from businesses seeking contracts from the Blagojevich administration.” The “fashion show” was chaired by Rita Rezko, co-chaired by the Governor’s wife, Patti Blagojevich, and Michelle Obama was a special guest that day, according to Merriner. Two weeks after the “fashion show,” on November 17, 2006, the Sun-Times reported that Blagojevich’s wife Patti got nearly $50,000 from a real estate deal in late 2002 involving Rezko. (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) VALERIE JARRETT, FRIEND OF BARKY Michelle Obama had in fact been an integral part of the Illinois Combine even before Barky. It was Michelle who introduced Obama into the secrets of the machine: ‘Obama’s ties to the corrupt Daley machine began when he was dating his wife Michelle and she brought him into the fold. Valerie Jarrett, the deputy chief of staff to Mayor Daley, hired Michelle as her assistant in 1991…. Obama’s introduction into the “Combine” came when his wife Michelle was hired by Jarrett in the early 1990s, and served as Jarrett’s assistant in Daley’s office and followed her to the Department of Planning and Development.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) During the 2008 primaries, Valerie Jarrett was listed by Newsweek magazine as part of Obama’s standard traveling entourage. Valerie Jarrett played a key role in introducing both Obama and Michelle into the higher levels of the Combine: ‘Daley made Jarrett the chairman of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and Michelle worked as her assistant in that Department during 1992-93. From there Michelle moved up the political tiers to the University of Chicago and ultimately got an overnight pay V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 191 raise from about $121,000 to close to $317,000, after Obama became a US Senator, as a vice president at the University of Chicago.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) At the University of Chicago, the careers of Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett moved in tandem, like Plutarch’s parallel lives: On June 13, 2006, Michelle’s employer, the University of Chicago, announced that, “Valerie Jarrett has been appointed as the new Chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board and also Chair of a newly created Executive Committee of that board. She has also been named Vice-Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees.” Jarrett served on Obama’s US Senate campaign finance committee and serves on Obama’s presidential campaign finance committee along with Alex Giannoulias and Mayor Daley’s brother Bill.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Valerie Jarrett has also been important for the fundraising of the Obama campaign, the source of Obama’s much-vaunted claims of superiority over all his rivals: ‘When it came time for Obama’s US Senate campaign, Valerie Jarrett became the campaign finance chairman and worked hand and hand with fellow finance committee members, Rita and Tony Rezko, and his [Obama’s] former boss at the law firm, Allison Davis, in fundraising endeavors. The committee raised more than $14 million, according to Federal Election Commission records, Tim Novak reported in the Sun-Times on April 23, 2007. Jarrett is now the CEO of Habitat Co, a real estate development and management firm which manages the housing program for the Chicago Housing Authority, the entity mandated to administer public housing, and she serves as an unpaid advisor to Obama’s Presidential campaign.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) DAVID AXELROD: A FLACK FOR THE COMBINE The mastermind of Obama’s campaign, David Axelrod, whom we have already encountered as a graduate of the infamous University of Chicago 1313 school of mind bending, can only be properly understood in his role as a flack and public-relations man for the corrupt bipartisan Illinois Combine. On April 1, 2007, Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who is now chairman of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Ben Wallace-Wells in the New York Times: “David Axelrod’s mostly been visible in Chicago in the last decade as Daley’s public relations strategist and the guy who goes on television to defend Daley from charges of corruption.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) The need for such services has been increasingly evident: ‘On January 6, 2006, the New York Times ran the headline, “Corruption Scandal Loosening Mayor Daley’s Grip on Chicago,” and reported that a “wide-ranging federal investigation into what prosecutors describe as “pervasive fraud” in hiring and contracts at City Hall has led to 30 indictments, including two senior administrators close to the mayor, and a dozen cabinet-level resignations.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Axelrod’s network in the Daley machine and the Chicago Tribune has been a priceless asset for the Redeemer. Various websites have advanced the allegation that Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton’s campaign manager in 2007-2008, had come under the influence of Axelrod as a result of Solis Doyle’s Chicago connections to The Combine. In a posting on Taylor Marsh’s site, we find that ‘Daniel “Danny” Solis is a Chicago politician who serves as the alderman for the 25th ward which 192 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography includes the Lower West Side. He was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1996. He is the brother of Patti Solis Doyle, Senator Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager. Solis was a member of Clinton’s Illinois Steering Committee. Throughout his career as alderman, Solis has been an ally of Mayor Daley and in 2001 was appointed President Pro Tempore of the City Council, allowing him to oversee council proceedings in the mayor’s absence.’75 Some concluded from this that Patti Solis Doyle had turned into a submarine in the Clinton camp. This would explain why Clinton had little or no organization in the February 2008 post-Super Tuesday caucus and primary states, a failing which allowed Barky to build up his lead in delegates thanks to caucuses in Republican states where the Democratic Party was a restricted club dominated by rich elitists and global warming neo-Luddite fanatics.76 The charges were plausible, but there was also the matter of Mark Penn as another nefarious influence who shared responsibility for defeat. AN OBAMA BODY COUNT? During the Clinton era, right-wingers delighted in circulating a list of deceased persons which they referred to with much stretching of the imagination as a Clinton body count. It may now be time to revive this venerable institution for Obama and the bipartisan Illinois combine: John Stroger was the Cook County Board President and thus the top-ranking African-American elected official in the county in which Chicago is located. On January 31, 2006, Obama pointedly declined to endorse Stroger for re-election. The Chicago Democratic machine turned against Stroger, forcing him off the ticket and out of office. Stroger was elderly and not in good health, but he succumbed at a time that was convenient for the Daley machine: John Stroger will not be answering any questions about corruption, or any other matter, because he died on January 18, 2008. His former chief of staff and godson, Orlando Jones, will not be talking either because he was found dead of self-inflicted gun wounds in September 2007, “just as a corruption inquiry targeting him was heating up,” according to a September 7, 2007 report by CBS News channel 2 Chicago.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Was Jones suicided? ‘“Jones left his position in county government to create a lobbying firm in association with Tony Rezko, who has been indicted on fraud charges,” CBS reported. Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica [a Republican who had tried to get Stroger’s post] told CBS that Orlando Jones’ death raised many questions about the Cook County president’s office. “Some of these matters Jones was involved in that are currently being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are reaching to the highest level of county government,” Peraica said. (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Other names that might figure on an Obama body count include Donald Young, the gay choirmaster of Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, Larry Bland, and Nate Spencer, the latter also black gay men from the south side of Chicago who have died recently under mysterious circumstances. Nate Spencer was also a member of Wright’s Trinity United church. Despite all the media attention for this highly politicized church, two murders in the cathedral have not been reported by the controlled corporate outlets. V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 193 LOOTING OF PENSION FUNDS WAS OBAMA’S SPECIALTY Important aspects of Combine operations in which Obama was involved dealt with the organized looting of investment funds earmarked for the retirement income of state employees. Obama’s contribution was to streamline the process by which these pension funds could be bilked. Obama’s using the lure of the pension funds to raise campaign money goes way back. In 1999, he “was instrumental in the formation of a coalition of black investment firm owners and legislators in Illinois to create an initiative that would award black-owned firms with the management of some of the state’s retirement funds,” according to a 2004 article on Black Enterprise.com. […] However, the Times pointed out that Obama’s political career had benefited many times over from his ties to the group. “Several of the businessmen or their wives would help clear the debts from his Congressional race,” the Times wrote, “and six of the group’s members are now among the top fund-raisers for his presidential campaign, according to campaign finance records.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Obama’s services in making it easier for black oligarchs to siphon off money from these retirement accounts led in turn to increased campaign contributions for the Perfect Master: During this period, the Times says, campaign finance records show executives from Ariel Capital, Loop Capital, Holland Capital and Capri Capital, “sharply increased their donations” to Obama’s State Senate campaign fund. “And once he began his campaign for the United States Senate,” the Times wrote, “they quickly became a fund-raising core that has carried over into the presidential race.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) These machinations also help to explain one of the legendary Damascus road conversions of the 2008 primary season, the decision of former Clinton ally and DNC Chairman David Wilhelm to join the ranks of the renegades endorsing Obama. Wilhelm had been implicated for some years in shady activities in which Obama had also been a protagonist: Obama was chairman of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee in January 2003. A few articles in the media have mentioned that Obama sat on a committee that reviewed matters related to the Planning Board in conjunction with the Governor’s staff but none have discussed his integral part in getting the bill passed A June 2003 email exchange produced in the trial shows Obama was one of eight officials who received the names of the nominees for the new Board ahead of time, from the office of David Wilhelm, who headed Blagojevich’s 2002 campaign for governor. The corrupt new appointees were all contributors to the presidential hopeful, Blagojevich, and the US Senate hopeful Obama. On February 14, 2008, Wilhelm endorsed Obama in a call with reporters, citing the senator’s “masterful” campaign organization and strategy as well as his “undeniable momentum.” “He has outworked, out-organized and out-raised his opponents every step of the way,” Wilhelm said. “The Obama campaign, win or lose, will serve as a model for future generations to come.” Wilhelm’s firm has received a subpoena for records related to pension fund investments.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Pringle thinks that the Combine wanted to put Blagojevich into the White House, but the presidency is beyond the reach of gangsters at this level, unless the Trilaterals and related financier forces approve. 194 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography The pecuniary rewards for Obama and his fellow racketeers were most gratifying, but the impact on Chicago and Illinois was devastating. The Combine was a cancer so big that it was beginning to drain the life blood of its host, causing a gradual strangulation of the real economy: Illinois citizens are sick of paying the cost of corruption. A September 26, 2007 news release by Steve Stanek of the Heartland Institute carried the headline: “Proposed Tax Hike Would Give Chicago Nation’s Highest Sales Tax Burden” “Chicagoans would face an 11 percent sales tax rate, highest in the nation, if Cook County officials go through with a plan to more than triple the county’s portion of the area’s sales tax,” Stanek wrote. And let there be no doubt, Obama is a member of this corrupt gang. On January 22, 2007 ABC News in Chicago announced that Senator Obama “is supporting Mayor Daley’s re-election bid despite a series of City Hall corruption scandals.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) NADHMI AUCHI, PARTNER OF REZKO – AND BARKY? Obama’s second Levantine godfather is the British billionaire Auchi, whose front company, General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH), is now the owner of some prime Chicago real estate, thanks to his close relations with the Illinois Combine. This is Nadhmi Auchi, who ended up with Riverside Park, a 62-acre lot in the Chicago Loop estimated to now be worth $2.5 billion. On September 29, 2005, Crain’s Chicago Business news reported that General Mediterranean Holding, “a Luxembourg-based conglomerate headed by Nadhmi Auchi, is buying Riverside Park, a yet-to-be-built development on a prime 62-acre parcel on Roosevelt Road,” … General Mediterranean is owned by Nadhmi Auchi, who public source documents describe as a British-based Iraqi billionaire who was convicted several years ago in France on fraud charges. Auchi was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $2 million euros, but the sentence was suspended as long as Auchi committed no new crimes…. Auchi’s conviction was a part of the gigantic investigation into the corruption of the Elf oil company, “the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War. Elf became a private bank for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewelry, fine art, villas and apartments,” according to the November 16, 2003 Guardian. (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Auchi and Alsammarae both have their pied-à-terre in Chicago; Alsammarae, in fact, has three: “The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae — a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 — are part of a long list made public ... following a Sun-Times request.” “Alsammarae is the weakest link in the chain of people who stole money from the CPA and the Iraqi people since 2003. The evidence against him is strong and convincing. His conviction is a problem for the people in his gang. The Baathists.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) There is little doubt that a serious probe of Chicago real estate and public housing graft would reach all the way up to Mayor Richard Daley and beyond: Pringle has demanded that ‘an “Operation Board Games” investigation should be conducted on the slumlord business in Illinois over the past 15 years. Daley became Mayor in 1989 and Rezmar got its first city loan of $629,000 the same year, even though Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience.’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 195 According to Rawstory, “Auchi, a native of Iraq who lives in Great Britain, has a colorful past of his own. The businessman set up a variety of deals with Saddam Hussein’s regime prior to the 1991 Gulf War, and was one of the largest private shareholders in BNP Paribas, the bank that trafficked most of the funds involved in the UN Oil-For-Food scandal. He also admitted taking kickbacks from the French petroleum company TotalFinaElf in the 1990s (Auchi later sued Elf for entangling him in their criminal activities, according to Forbes).” By late summer 2008, right-wing papers from the mainstream media were finally beginning to realize the dimensions of the Auchi issue. Neocon John Fund wrote in the Wall Street Journal online edition: ‘Rezko’s trial raised a host of questions. Was Mr. Obama able to save $300,000 on the asking price of his house because Rezko’s wife paid full price for the adjoining lot? How did Mrs. Rezko make a $125,000 down payment and obtain a $500,000 mortgage when financial records shown at the Rezko trial indicate she had a salary of only $37,000 and assets of $35,000? Records show her husband also had few assets at the time. Last April, the London Times revealed that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born billionaire living in London, had loaned Mr. Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before the day the sale of the house and lot closed in June 2005. Mr. Auchi’s office notes he was a business partner of Rezko but says he had “no involvement in or knowledge of” the property sale. But in April 2004 he did attend a dinner party in his honor at Rezko’s Chicago home. Mr. Obama also attended, and according to one guest, toasted Mr. Auchi. Later that year, Mr. Auchi came under criminal investigation as part of a U.S. probe of the corrupt issuance of cell-phone licenses in Iraq. In May 2004, the Pentagon’s inspector general’s office cited “significant and credible evidence” of involvement by Mr. Auchi’s companies in the Oil for Food scandal, and in illicit smuggling of weapons to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Because of the criminal probe, Mr. Auchi’s travel visa to the U.S. was revoked in August 2004, even as Mr. Auchi denied all the allegations. According to prosecutors, in November 2005 Rezko was able to get two government officials from Illinois to appeal to the State Department to get the visa restored. Asked if anyone in his office was involved in such an appeal, Mr. Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times last March, “not that I know of.” FOIA requests to the State Department for any documents haven’t been responded to for months.’77 REZKO JAILED BEFORE SUPER TUESDAY OVER PAYMENT TO REZKO Auchi suddenly became big news just before Super Tuesday, when court proceedings connected to the Rezko trial revealed that Auchi had transmitted a hefty sum of cash to Rezko to help him to make bail and get sprung out of jail. When the judge in the Rezko trial learned of Auchi’s conveyance of this cash, Rezko was ordered back to jail at a very sensitive moment in the primary season – but most of the impact was blunted because of the media smokescreen for Barky. Important background information was provided by the London Times, the British newspaper of record: ‘An undeclared $3.5 million (£1.8 million) payment from a Iraqi-British businessman has landed Barack Obama’s former fundraiser behind bars. The payment, disclosed in court papers, is the first time that Mr Obama’s longserving bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Syrian immigrant to the United States, has been linked to Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi-born billionaire who is one of Britain’s richest men. Court papers describe Mr Rezko as a close friend of Mr Auchi, although Mr Auchi disputes this. The two are involved in a large Chicago land development together. But it is unclear how long the two men have known each other or whether they were linked before the 2003 Iraq war. Neither side would discuss their relationship. The Times has, however, discovered 196 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to Mr Obama’s fundraiser in May 2005. Fintrade’s directors include Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr Auchi’s wife. Mr Auchi’s spokespeople declined to respond to a question about whether he was linked to this business. Mr Rezko, to be tried for corruption this month, had his bail revoked on Monday after he disobeyed a court’s instructions to keep it informed of changes to his finances. Prosecutors feared that he could try to flee abroad…. According to prosecution documents Mr Rezko tried to persuade unnamed Illinois officials to help Mr Auchi to get a US visa after he was convicted of fraud in France. Mr Auchi denies asking Mr Rezko to approach any officials and Mr Obama’s aides deny that he was approached. There is no suggestion that any lobbying was related to the loan. Mr Rezko has been indicted for pressuring companies seeking state business for kickbacks and campaign contributions, although none for Mr Obama. He was granted bail in October 2006. He told a judge that he had no access to overseas money. But in April 2007 Mr Auchi’s business, General Mediterranean Holding (GMH), wired $3.5 million to Mr Rezko from a bank account in Beirut via a law firm. Mr Auchi has attracted attention at Westminster because of his closeness to politicians and the Establishment. He says that his brother was executed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. His business partners in Britain have included Lord Steel of Aikwood, the former Liberal leader, and Keith Vaz, the Labour MP and Home Affairs Committee chairman. On the 20th anniversary of his business in 1999, Mr Auchi received a greeting card signed by 130 politicians, including Tony Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy, who were then leaders of their respective parties. Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP, went on to table parliamentary questions asking why the Blair Government appeared slow to respond to a French extradition request. Mr Lamb said last night: “It’s a matter of public interest to understand why the payments were made. This deserves thorough investigation.” Mr Auchi founded GMH in 1979, a year before he left Iraq. He says that he did business with his native country when it was considered a friend of the West but ceased to trade with Saddam’s regime once sanctions were imposed after the invasion of Kuwait. US prosecution documents recall Mr Auchi’s suspended jail sentence and €2 million fine for corruption in France five years ago. Defence lawyers said that Mr Auchi lent the $3.5 million for legal and family expenses.’ (James Bone, “Obama bagman is sent to jail after failing to declare $3.5m payment by British tycoon,” London Times, February 1, 2008) AUCHI IMPLICATED IN OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL, CELL PHONE SCAM In addition to his other escapades, Auchi has according to published reports also been implicated by US government investigators in a bribery scheme to fix cell phone contracts let by the USimposed Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq, as well as of having played a key role in the Oil for Food scandal. The Oil for Food scandal occurred when international profiteers embezzled money from a UN program designed to deliver food and medicine to the people of Iraq during the period of the genocidal US-imposed sanctions, which resulted n the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. A crucial component of this story was provided by neocon Bill Gertz, who pointed out: ‘Auchi gave at least $10.5 million to Obama fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, including a payment of $3.5 million that coincided with Mr. Obama's purchase in 2005 of a $1.65 million Chicago house, the London Times reported Tuesday. The newspaper said the timing of the V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 197 payment and the house purchase, along with the purchase of land next door by Mr. Rezko's wife Rita from the same seller, raise questions about whether Auchi helped buy the house. Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, would not answer when asked if Auchi helped buy the senator's house. He said the senator did not recall ever meeting Auchi, who was convicted of corruption charges in France in 2003. A 2004 Pentagon report obtained by The Washington Times identified Auchi as a global arms dealer and Iraqi billionaire… The report to the Pentagon inspector general stated that "significant and credible evidence was developed that a conspiracy was organized by Nadhmi Auchi to offer bribes to 'fix' the awarding of cellular licensing contracts covering three geographic areas of Iraq” under the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority.” “Additionally, significant and credible evidence has been developed that Nadhmi Auchi has engaged in unlawful activities working closely with Iraqi intelligence operatives to: “Bribe foreign governments and individuals prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom to turn opinion against the American-led mission to remove Saddam Hussein. “Arrange for significant theft from the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program to smuggle weapons and dual-use technology into Iraq .... “Organize an elaborate scheme to take over and control the post-war cellular phone system in Iraq.” The report suggests Auchi has ties to British intelligence through a 2002 association with a former British intelligence chief, and that British telecommunications companies may have used Auchi to gain access to cellular phone markets in post-invasion Iraq. Auchi has denied accusations over the cell phone contract.’78 In a clear attempt to undermine free speech and the protections guaranteed to Americans by the First Amendment, Alasdair Pepper of the British law firm Carter-Ruck has been busy attempting to intimidate American web sites into taking down material deemed offensive by Auchi. Evelyn Pringle is one writer who has received such threatening communications. This amounts to an attempt to take down the First Amendment and impose the alien, British concept of libel, which tends to protect powerful or wealthy public figures from criticism, thus chilling political debate. The Obama campaign has been a direct beneficiary of the resulting suppression of news about Auchi. Pro-Obama news organs like the New York Times have tacitly cooperated with these activities, willingly weakening free speech to get their candidate elected79. THE OBAMA-ALSAMMARAE MUTUAL AID SOCIETY Alsammarae, a convicted felon in Iraq and an international fugitive, has contributed to Obama’s presidential campaign, and also helped pay the bail necessary to spring Rezko from the cooler. Obama reciprocated by doing favors for Alsammarae: Three days after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Aiham Alsammarae, the former electricity minister convicted of corruption in Iraq, put up $2.7 million in property to help raise $8.5 million to free Tony Rezko from jail in Chicago, the Times reported that Alsammarae had contributed six times to Obama’s presidential campaign. The April 29, 2008 report also noted that before he escaped from jail in Baghdad in December 2006, and returned to Chicago, Obama’s US Senate office had sought information about Alsammarae from the State Department on October 16, 2006 on behalf of Alsammarae’s family while he was being held in jail in Iraq. As usual, when busted on the contributions given in January, February and March [2008], the Obama camp said it would donate Alsammarae’s money to charity and his 198 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography spokesman, Ben LaBolt, put out the standard line that Obama does not ever “recall” meeting Alsammarae. The Associated Press ran a follow-up story on April 14, 2008, calling Auchi a “mysterious billionaire with his hands on a major chunk of Chicago real estate,” and described his arrival in Illinois in April 2004, as a major event in which Lt. Governor Quinn “headed a welcoming delegation that greeted Auchi when his private plane touched down at Chicago’s Midway Airport.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) REZKO’S 2004 RECEPTION FOR AUCHI: DID OBAMA AND MICHELLE ATTEND? Auchi was plainly treated like a head of state when he arrived at O’Hare in 2004 to meet with his cohorts. How could a convicted felon enter the US so easily? Did Senator Obama help Auchi clear some hurdles with the federal authorities? Pringle notes that ‘all members of the “Combine” have tried to distance themselves from Auchi’s visit because, as previously explained, he is not allowed in the US. However, the question that remains is, how did he enter this country in April 2004, after his 2003 conviction in France. According to the February 28, 2008 Sun-Times: “Auchi’s Londonbased lawyer, Alasdair Pepper, wouldn’t answer that.” “State Department and Homeland Security officials said they couldn’t comment,” according to the Times. During a March 14, 2008 interview, the Times asked Obama: “Did you ever help Auchi enter the country?” He said, “No.” But when asked the follow-up question of whether “his office” helped Auchi enter the country, he replied, “Not that I know of.” On January 28, 2008, Raw Story’s Michael Roston reported that after rumors began spreading that Auchi may have met with Obama, “In what appears to be a clumsy ‘cleanup’ operation, evidence of Auchi’s visit to Illinois has now been deleted from two websites linked to his company, General Mediterranean Holding.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Then there is the fascinating issue of a sumptuous reception, fit for a king, which was offered in the honor of visiting dignitary Auchi by his close business associate, Tony Rezko. At the time of this reception, invitations were doubtless very much in demand. But now, in a surprising reversal, the local bigwigs who attended are frequently attempting to argue that they were not there at all: because Auchi has now become a hot potato, especially for Obama, there is … a disagreement over whether Obama did or didn’t attend a party at Rezko’s house for an Iraqi-born billionaire named Nadhmi Auchi. A prosecution witness testified that Obama and his wife were guests at the April 3, 2004, gathering in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette. The Obama campaign responded that neither of the Obamas recalled attending such an event. Auchi similarly has “no recollection of meeting Senator Obama at any party in 2004 or at any other time,” according to his lawyer, Alasdair Pepper.’(David Ignatius, “Obama and the Chicago Insider,” Washington Post, April 20, 2008) There is a very good chance that we have just caught the distinguished senator and his charming consort lying, once again. This scandal makes the Billygate scandal of the Carter administration look like an innocent flirtation. The official position of the Obama campaign is that Obama has never met Auchi, meaning that the sworn testimony of Stuart Levine in the Rezko trial on this issue was perjury. Obama may have been smart enough to make sure that he did not get photographed together with Auchi, but his Governor Blagojevich apparently did not exhibit the same level of elementary prudence. There are in fact pictures of Auchi together with Blagojevich: V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 199 ABC News first posted a link to photos showing Auchi meeting with Blagojevich on the site, “Middle East Online.” The description under a picture of Auchi and Blagojevich, still accessible on the internet a month ago, stated: “Governor of the State of Illinois, Mr Rod Blagojevich hosted an official reception in honour of Mr Auchi.” Another picture, taken in the Chicago office of the President of the Illinois State Senate bears the title: “Illinois State Senate President Mr Emile Jones Jr. meets Mr Auchi.” (Pringle, op-ednews.com) Jones is of course another of Obama’s friends and patrons, and a key wheel horse of the Illinois Combine. But there are other accounts, very embarrassing for Obama as a proponent of clean government, that place him among those present at the 2004 Rezko-Auchi bash, with Obama leading the wellheeled guests in drinking to Auchi’s health and long life: …on April 16, 2008, Sun-Times columnist, Michael Sneed, reported that Obama had even made toasts at Rezko’s party, and wrote: “Dem presidential contender Barack Obama’s handlers may be telling the press Obama has NO “recollection” of a 2004 party at influence peddler Tony Rezko’s Wilmette house, but a top Sneed source claims Obama not only gave Rezko’s guest of honor, Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, a big welcome . . . but he made a few toasts!”80 In an April 26, 2008, interview with the Chicago Tribune reporter, John McCormick, Obama did not deny that he and Michelle were at the party but said he did not recall being there, stating: “I have to say that I just don’t recall it. I mean this has been, I guess, four years ago. My understanding, through his lawyer, Mr. Auchi doesn’t recall meeting me and you know, I can’t speak for other people’s recollections.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) This is another example of Obama’s technique of rhetorical evasion under the guise of disarming frankness. On February 25, 2005, a report by Charles Smith for NewsMax said, “Newly released documents from the Bush administration show that a former member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle has resurfaced inside the new Iraqi government, bringing charges of corruption, bribery and bid-rigging.” “As a result,” he wrote, “millions of U.S. aid dollars and billions in Iraqi government funds have disappeared in an ongoing scandal that is poised to engulf Baghdad and Washington.” : US SENATOR PETER FITZGERALD: “THE BIPARTISAN ILLINOIS COMBINE” Perhaps the most authoritative confirmation of the existence of the Illinois bipartisan Combine from former US Senator Peter Fitzgerald of the GOP, an elected official who for some reason did not completely fit in with the prevailing general agreement to loot the citizens. Senator Fitzgerald categorically affirmed the existence of such an ongoing criminal conspiracy, in which Obama is unavoidably implicated: Journalist John Kass asked US Senator, Peter Fitzgerald, “what do you call that connection that Stuart Levine describes from the witness stand [in the Rezko trial], you know that arrangement across party lines, with politically powerful men leveraging government to make money — what do you call it?” “The Illinois Combine,” he said. “The bipartisan Illinois political combine.” “And all these guys being mentioned, they’re part of it,” he told Kass. “In the final analysis,” the Senator said, “The Combine’s allegiance is not to a party, but to their pocketbooks.” “They’re about making money off the taxpayers,” he added. According to Kass, “the Rezko trial is part of the U.S. Justice Department’s attack on The Combine.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) 200 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography AIHAM ALSAMMARAE OF MESOPOTAMIA Alsammarae’s ability as a con man carried him all the way to a meeting with George Bush in the White House. Alsammarae moved to Chicago in the 1970s and met Rezko while attending engineering school. Reports indicating the Combine’s corruption extended to the electricity minister in Iraq began in mid-summer 2005. On July 29, 2005, Sandra Jones reported in Crain’s Chicago Business: “Rezmar ... controlled by Tony Rezko, a controversial confidant of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, entered into a joint venture with a British firm in a $150-million deal to build a power plant in Iraq.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Paul Bremer, the leader of the notoriously corrupt Coalition Provisional Authority, appointed him minister of electricity in August 2003. Alsammarae was photographed at a White House ceremony in the Oval Office on September 22, 2003, at which Bush called him a “good soul,” who “inherited a system of a corrupt tyrant.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Bush met Alsammarae, but Obama cannot be sure about his own track record: During a March 14, 2008 interview with the Sun-Times, Obama was asked: “Did you ever meet Nadhmi Auchi or Dr. Aiham Alsammarae?” “I have to say I do not recall meeting them. It’s been reported that a dinner Tony hosted at the Four Seasons, I don’t have the exact date, so I don’t know whether it was the before November ‘04 when I hadn’t been elected but had already won the primary or whether it was after the election, in which I was . . . “Tony called and asked if I could stop by because he had a number of friends that he had invited to dinner and he wanted to meet them. “I told him that I would be happy to come by if my schedule allowed it. And it did. Although I couldn’t, I think, stay for dinner, so I remember meeting a bunch of people who I had not met before. I frankly don’t remember what their names were. “Business was not discussed at the meeting. It was more of a social meeting and they asked me questions about the senate race and so forth and so on. “I have no specific recollection. They may have been there. I can’t say unequivocally that I did not meet them, but I just don’t recall.”’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Again, these answers by Obama are as interesting for the technique of evasion as they are for the factual situation they refer to. OBAMA’S PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR GRAFT IN ACTION At the end of June 2008, when Obama believed that he already had the Democratic presidential nomination locked up, the Boston Globe published a limited hang out investigative report on graft and corruption involving public housing and related issues in Chicago. This series was valuable for the first-person accounts it offered of the immense human suffering and despair left behind in the wake of the looting operations championed by Obama. It is also remarkable that Obama still maintains that the Chicago model of public-and private partnerships (PPPs), despite its blatant and scandalous failure in the Windy City, is the model he wants to bring to Washington to be applied to the entire United States. The PPPs represent catastrophic public policy, and probably also embody a sleazy payback by the Perfect Master to the various shady characters that have contributed to his campaign fund, and now want to feed at the federal trough. The Boston Globe evokes Obama’s archipelago of despair in graphic terms: V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 201 The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can’t afford to live anywhere else. But it’s not safe to live here. About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex as an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition. Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing. As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year. But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies - including several hundred in Obama’s former district - deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable. Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama’s constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted. Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama’s state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade. “No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it,” said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) It is bad enough that things are this way in Chicago; is this then what we want to impose on every city in the United States? Obama says it is. CASE STUDY: CECIL BUTLER, SLUMLORD AND OBAMA BACKER We have already encountered Valerie Jarrett as an early patroness of the rise of Michelle Obama in the corrupt Chicago city bureaucracy. For the Boston Globe, she features prominently in the Chicago housing story along with Allison Davis, the boss of Obama’s old law firm, and, of course, with Tony Rezko: Among those tied to Obama politically, personally, or professionally are: Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems. Allison Davis, a major fund-raiser for Obama’s US Senate campaign and a former lead partner at Obama’s former law firm. Davis, a developer, was involved in the creation of Grove Parc and has used government subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,500 units in Chicago, including a North Side building cited by city inspectors last year after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments….Rezko’s company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obama’s district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable. Campaign finance records show that six prominent developers - including Jarrett, Davis, and 202 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Rezko - collectively contributed more than $175,000 to Obama’s campaigns over the last decade and raised hundreds of thousands more from other donors. Rezko alone raised at least $200,000, by Obama’s own accounting. The Boston Globe also includes a somewhat lower level figure as an example of the broader clientele implicated in these operations: One of those contributors, Cecil Butler, controlled Lawndale Restoration, the largest subsidized complex in Chicago, which was seized by the government in 2006 after city inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) The Chicago landscape is filled with individuals who claim to have once been civil rights activists, but who now seem to be concentrating on graft; Obama himself is an example. The Boston Globe writes: Chicago’s struggles with the deterioration of its subsidized private developments seemed to reach a new height in 2006, when the federal government foreclosed on Lawndale Restoration, the city’s largest subsidized-housing complex. City inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations, including roof leaks, exposed wiring, and pools of sewage. Lawndale Restoration was a collection of more than 1,200 apartments in 97 buildings spread across 300 blocks of west Chicago. It was owned by a company controlled by Cecil Butler, a former civil rights activist who came to be reviled as a slumlord by a younger generation of activists. […] In 1995, Butler’s company got a $51 million loan from the state to fund additional renovations at Lawndale Restoration. In 2000 Butler’s company brought in Habitat Co. to help manage the complex. Nonetheless, the buildings deteriorated badly. The problems came to public attention in a dramatic way in 2004, after a sport utility vehicle driven by a suburban woman trying to buy drugs struck one of the buildings, causing it to collapse. City inspectors arrived in the ensuing glare, finding a long list of code violations, leading city officials to urge the federal government to seize the complex.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) Valerie Jarrett, who has been part of Obama’s traveling entourage during much of the primary season, turns out to be a dedicated ideologue of the public-and private partnership, that is to say, of privatization in a way which would be typical of a Friedmanite economics professor at the University of Chicago: Jarrett, a powerful figure in the Chicago development community, agreed to be interviewed but declined to answer questions about Grove Parc, citing what she called a continuing duty to Habitat’s former business partners. She did, however, defend Obama’s position that publicprivate partnerships are superior to public housing. “Government is just not as good at owning and managing as the private sector because the incentives are not there,” said Jarrett, whose company manages more than 23,000 apartments. “I would argue that someone living in a poor neighborhood that isn’t 100 percent public housing is by definition better off.”’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) This, we should recall, is one of Michelle Obama’s closest friends and indeed in many ways the initial sponsor of her career. Concepts like the “Chicago development community” may translate into “the Chicago graft community” on closer examination. V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 203 INSPIRATIONAL: OBAMA ONCE EYED A CAREER AS A SLUMLORD As we have already seen, Obama’s close cooperation with Rezko and Davis goes back almost twenty years. Obama now claims that part of the affinity among these figures was their shared ideology in favor of the public-private partnership, a setup which appears to combine the worst disadvantages of government ownership with all the pitfalls of private rapacity: Obama ‘once told the Chicago Tribune that he had briefly considered becoming a developer of “affordable housing.” But after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1991, he turned down a job with Tony Rezko’s development company, Rezmar, choosing instead to work at the civil rights law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, then led by Allison Davis. The firm represented a number of nonprofit companies that were partnering with private developers to build affordable housing with government subsidies. Obama sometimes worked on their cases. In at least one instance, he represented the nonprofit company that owned Grove Parc, Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., when it was sued by the city for failing to adequately heat one of its apartment complexes. Shortly after becoming a state senator in 1997, Obama told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that his experience working with the development industry had reinforced his belief in subsidizing private developers of affordable housing. “That’s an example of a smart policy,” the paper quoted Obama as saying. “The developers were thinking in market terms and operating under the rules of the marketplace; but at the same time, we had government supporting and subsidizing those efforts.”’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) Smart policy? Chicago’s ghetto victims are not in agreement, as this article will show. Obama’s election-year promises have generally turned out to be worthless, but the promise of inflicting public-private partnerships on the entire country seems to be one promise which we really can take to the bank: Obama has continued to support increased subsidies as a presidential candidate, calling for the creation of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which could distribute an estimated $500 million a year to developers. The money would be siphoned from the profits of two mortgage companies created and supervised by the federal government, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “I will restore the federal government’s commitment to low-income housing,” Obama wrote last September in a letter to the Granite State Organizing Project, an umbrella group for several dozen New Hampshire religious, community, and political organizations. He added, “Our nation’s low-income families are facing an affordable housing crisis, and it is our responsibility to ensure this crisis does not get worse by ineffective replacement of existing public-housing units.” (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) Given the Chicago results, Obama has negative credibility on this issue. Will he make Rezko or Daley the Secretary of Housing an Urban Development, which is already one of the most corrupt cabinet agencies? With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now insolvent, where would Obama get the money for so much graft? We have seen the reports from an FBI mole at various times in recent years that Obama was meeting Rezko once a day and more than once a day. Despite this, the Perfect Master wants us to believe that he was not aware that the properties Rezko had received from the city administration were now in total disrepair and unfit for human habitation. Eleven of Rezmar’s buildings were located in the district represented by Obama, containing 258 apartments. The building without heat in January 1997, the month Obama entered the state 204 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Senate, was in his district. So was Jones’s building with rats in the walls and Frizzell’s building that lacked insulation. And a redistricting after the 2000 Census added another 350 Rezmar apartments to the area represented by Obama. But Obama has contended that he knew nothing about any problems in Rezmar’s buildings. After Rezko’s assistance in Obama’s home purchase became a campaign issue, at a time when the developer was awaiting trial in an unrelated bribery case, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that the deterioration of Rezmar’s buildings never came to his attention. He said he would have distanced himself from Rezko if he had known. Other local politicians say they knew of the problems.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) Obama may have plausible deniability on some other issues, but he certainly has none here. 2004: A CECIL BUTLER BUILDING COLLAPSES Things soon got so bad in the Cecil Butler concessions that the federal government had to step into the midst of a mushrooming scandal. Given the regulatory laxity of the Bush regime, we can gauge the horrendous situation that must have been required to get federal authorities to act. Chicago’s struggles with the deterioration of its subsidized private developments seemed to reach a new height in 2006, when the federal government foreclosed on Lawndale Restoration, the city’s largest subsidized-housing complex. City inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations, including roof leaks, exposed wiring, and pools of sewage. Lawndale Restoration was a collection of more than 1,200 apartments in 97 buildings spread across 300 blocks of west Chicago. It was owned by a company controlled by Cecil Butler, a former civil rights activist who came to be reviled as a slumlord by a younger generation of activists. […] In 1995, Butler’s company got a $51 million loan from the state to fund additional renovations at Lawndale Restoration. In 2000 Butler’s company brought in Habitat Co. to help manage the complex. Nonetheless, the buildings deteriorated badly. The problems came to public attention in a dramatic way in 2004, after a sport utility vehicle driven by a suburban woman trying to buy drugs struck one of the buildings, causing it to collapse. City inspectors arrived in the ensuing glare, finding a long list of code violations, leading city officials to urge the federal government to seize the complex.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) CECIL BUTLER’S VICTIMS RALLY AGAINST OBAMA, 2004 For those who had suffered from the rapacity of the “civil rights” slumlord Cecil Butler, there was no doubt that Obama bore a major share of responsibility for the tragic decay of these housing developments. At one point, the public rage was so great that Obama had to face a public demonstration against his policies in the midst of his campaign to grab his Illinois seat in the U.S. Senate. ‘In the midst of the uproar, a small group of Lawndale residents gathered to rally against the Democratic candidate for the US Senate, Barack Obama. Obama’s Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, trailed badly in the polls and was not seen as a serious challenger. But the organizers had a simple message: Cecil Butler had donated $3,000 to Obama’s campaign. Habitat had close ties to Obama. And Obama had remained silent about Lawndale’s plight. Paul Johnson, who helped to organize the protest, said Obama must have known about the problems. “How didn’t he know?” said Johnson. “Of course he knew. He just didn’t care.”’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 205 This demonstration and the growing climate of public discontent, however, had absolutely no impact on Obama, who was determined to continue on his path of graft: Even as Lawndale Restoration and Rezmar’s buildings were foreclosed upon, and Grove Parc and other subsidized developments fell deeper into disrepair, Obama has remained a steadfast supporter of subsidizing private development.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) Nothing but nothing will pry Obama’s fingers away from the bankrupt and despicable model of the public-private partnership, as the Obama campaign underlined once again after the close of the primary campaign: Throughout his career in public service, Barack Obama has advocated for the development of mixed-income housing and public-private partnerships to create affordable housing as an alternative to publicly subsidized, concentrated, low-income housing,” the Obama campaign said in a statement provided to the Globe.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) A THREE-YEAR OLD TODDLER CRUSHED TO DEATH AT THE CABRINI GREENS, JUNE 2008 The Chicago housing scandals have come to represent a massive political vulnerability for Obama, even among those who would otherwise be sympathetic to his candidacy: “I’m not against Barack Obama,” said Willie J.R. Fleming, an organizer with the Coalition to Protect Public Housing and a former public housing resident. “What I am against is some of the people around him.” Jamie Kalven, a longtime Chicago housing activist, put it this way: “I hope there is not much predictive value in his history and in his involvement with that community.” (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008) The dirty public-private partnership deals favored by Obama claimed yet another victim in late June when a small boy died in a bizarre accident when a piece of the steel barrier around his housing complex came down on him, costing the toddler his life: ‘A 3-year-old boy was crushed to death Friday evening by a large, rusted steel gate at the Cabrini-Green housing complex, prompting a crowd to gather and hurl accusations of mismanagement at property managers. “How many accidents happen over here because of failed inspections,” screamed Willie J.R. Fleming, a resident and a director with the Coalition to Protect Public Housing. “There’s no accountability, there’s no oversight of this.” (Chicago Tribune, June 28, 2008, noquarterusa.net) The Cabrini Greens were already notorious in the late 1980s as one of the worst slum properties in the world, buildings full of murder, narcotics, crime, and despair. 20 years later, Obama’s much vaunted public-private partnerships had only made matters worse. ALEXI GIANNOULIAS AND MICHAEL “JAWS” GIORANGO; FRIENDS OF BARKY Obama, who poses in public as a reformer who wants to restore good government and end partisan haggling, has in fact been one of the most loyal soldiers of the corrupt Illinois Combine. It is instructive to view the case of Alexi Giannoulias, the Combine’s 2006 choice for the sensitive post of Illinois State Treasurer. Giannoulias, who had facilitated loans to a certain Michael Giorango, a convicted bookmaker and prostitution ring promoter, was so sleazy that even some 206 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Combine stalwarts found that it was not politic to offer him their public endorsement. But Obama had no such qualms, and gave the shady Giannoulias his stamp of approval forth with. During the campaign, the Democratic speaker of the state House and other party leaders criticized Giannoulias because of loans his family bank made to Michael “Jaws” Giorango, a convicted felon. Obama stuck with Giannoulias after the revelations, though he did call on him to explain the matter. “I’m going to ask Alexi directly what is happening,” Obama said in April 2006, according to the Chicago Tribune.81 The public has never gotten an answer. But Obama gave full support to this sleazy character: In the 2006 Democratic primary, for example, Obama endorsed first-time candidate Alexi Giannoulias for state treasurer despite reports about loans Giannoulias’ family-owned Broadway Bank made to crime figures. Records show Giannoulias and his family had given more than $10,000 to Obama’s campaign, which banked at Broadway.’ Obama endorsed the reelection of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose administration is now heavily embroiled in the Rezko corruption probe.’ (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) Obama had to be tolerant about convicted felons: if Barky can associate with Rezko, then surely Giannoulias can associate with Jaws Giorango and smaller sharks. If Obama were a member of a big city police force like the NYPD, he would be fired for associating with known criminals. OBAMA A “POLITICAL PSYCHOPATH” This affair led Pringle to observe: Obama is a political psychopath. He exhibits no shame, no matter where his money comes from. On September 5, 2007, the New York Post reported that, “Alexi Giannoulias, who became Illinois state treasurer last year after Obama vouched for him, has pledged to raise $100,000 for the senator’s Oval Office bid.” “Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links,” the New York Post noted, “that several top Illinois Dems, including the state’s speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama’s help.”’ (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com) Obama was also happy to have Giannoulias organize a fund-raiser for his campaign shortly before the Iowa caucuses and the opening of the 2008 primary season: On September 5, 2007, the New York Post reported that: “A man who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure will host a Windy City fund-raiser tonight for Senator Barack Obama.” Alex Giannoulias had vowed to raise $100,000 for Obama’s campaign. Naïve persons who believe the fairy tale that Obama is financed by millions of widow’s mites had better think again in the light of these revelations. PAY TO PLAY OBAMA: LOGOTHETE OF GRAFT AND CORRUPTION Daniel J. Kelly of the Chicago Daily Observer examines Obama’s relation to and political record regarding Alexi Giannoulias in the light of the mechanisms know to govern the Combine, where the first commandment is Pay to play, meaning in effect pay bribes however disguised to take part in the looting: “Pay to play” seems to be another disturbing constant in Obama’s meteoric political rise. He always seems to be available to the highest bidder. … the curious relationship between Obama V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 207 and his political protégé, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has not been widely publicized. Locally, the story generated some brief coverage, but the subject has been barely examined by the mainstream media. Bloggers are familiar with the tale, but Obama has skated on this subject with the general public. Some background is necessary: after spending a season playing professional basketball in Greece, Giannoulias returned to the USA and enrolled in law school at Tulane University in New Orleans, where every day is Mardi Gras. Less than three years after being admitted to practice in Illinois, Giannoulias launched his campaign for State Treasurer. With the financial support of his family banking business and US Senator Barack Obama’s endorsement, this politically inexperienced individual secured the Democratic nomination. In the general election campaign, State Democratic Party Chairman, Michael Madigan, continued to keep Giannoulias at arm’s length. Madigan had supported a different candidate in the primary and disseminated disquieting rumors about the business background of Giannoulias, the former Vice President and Senior Loan Officer of the Broadway Bank, which was owned by his family members. During his brief tenure in the banking industry, Giannoulias appears to have approved loans to convicted felons with ties to organized crime. One such loan applicant was a convicted bookmaker with an alleged sideline business promoting prostitution. Our colleague Russ Stewart was one of the few who pointed out the fact that Obama played the role of kingmaker in Giannoulias’ successful first time candidacy. At the age of thirty, Giannoulias became the youngest treasurer in Illinois history. What qualified Giannoulias for public office and earned him Obama’s endorsement? He plays basketball with Obama. No park district field house or asphalt parking lot games for these two men of the people. When in Chicago, Obama and his pal prefer to play at the exclusive East Bank Club. Throughout the primary season, Giannoulias has hit the campaign trail to play Obama in pick up games on the dates of the respective state primaries. Obama finds it relaxing to play hoops when ballots are being cast. Apart from shooting buckets, it also helped that Giannoulias and his family members have contributed so generously to the various Obama campaigns. Giannoulias and his family are not absolutely committed true believers in the Democratic Party and its causes, however, as they hedged their bets by contributing to the House Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and to have also made campaign contributions to former Governor George H. Ryan. (“A Consumer’s Guide to Obama and the Company That He Keeps,” Daniel J. Kelley, The Chicago Daily Observer , May 22, 2008.) Obama thus exhibits a pervasive pattern of graft through his policy of assisting his campaign contributors to get their hands into the public till. This method of graft is applied to donors of all ethnic groups and backgrounds, provided that they fork over campaign funds: In 2001, for example, Obama steered $75,000 to a South Side charity called FORUM Inc., which promised to help churches and community groups get wired to the Internet. Records show five FORUM employees, including one who had declared bankruptcy, had donated $1,000 apiece to Obama’s state Senate campaign. As the grant dollars were being disbursed to FORUM, the Illinois attorney general filed a civil lawsuit accusing the charity’s founder of engaging in an unrelated kickback scheme. Just days after the suit was filed, Obama quietly returned the $5,000 in donations. “I didn’t want to be associated with money that potentially might have been tainted,” he said. FORUM founder Yesse Yehudah, who unsuccessfully ran for state Senate against Obama in 1998, denied wrongdoing and, without admitting guilt, settled the attorney general’s lawsuit by paying $10,000 to a charity. (Chicago Tribune, May 3, 2007) 208 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography STATE SENATOR FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The Hyde Park suburb which Obama represented in the Illinois State Senate was notorious as a plantation for the University of Chicago, and thus for the Rockefeller (and Trilateral) interests more broadly speaking. Hyde Park is located on the South Side of Chicago, about seven miles south of the Loop. The University of Chicago is a citadel of reaction and oligarchism, having been founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller. One of the university’s key leaders between the world wars was Robert Maynard Hutchins, a high-level operative of the US ruling elite. The term “Chicago boys” is the object of worldwide execration because of the unspeakable crimes against humanity of the Chicago school of economics, most prominently associated with the name of the right-wing anarchist and extremist Milton Friedman, the top advisor of the brutal and murderous Pinochet regime in Chile. THE NEW YORK TIMES WHITEWASHES OBAMA Having now acquired some notion of the cesspool of corruption in which Obama has been natating for decades, we can now proceed to briefly contemplate the absurdity of the cover-up of some of these matters dished up by Obama’s backers at the New York Times. In a classic fallacy of composition, the newspaper of record makes Obama’s alliance with State Senate boss Emil Jones look like an elective affinity at the personal level, when it in fact represents an internal transaction of The Combine: Obama ‘positioned himself early on as a protégé of the powerful Democratic leader, Senator Emil Jones, a beneficiary of the Chicago political machine. He courted collaboration with Republicans. He endured hazing from a few black colleagues, played poker with lobbyists, studiously took up golf. (“An awful lot happens on the golf course,” a friend, Jean Rudd, says he told her.) With the assistance of Senator Jones, Mr. Obama helped deliver what is said to have been the first significant campaign finance reform law in Illinois in 25 years. He brought law enforcement groups around to back legislation requiring that homicide interrogations be taped and helped bring about passage of the state’s first racial-profiling law. He was a chief sponsor of a law enhancing tax credits for the working poor, played a central role in negotiations over welfare reform and successfully pushed for increasing child care subsidies.’(Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) The measures sponsored by Obama, we sense, were simply acts of window dressing designed to festoon his brag sheet later on as he moved up the ladder. Naturally, even in an environment where most legislators were devoted supporters of the Combine, Obama’s irrepressible arrogance and megalomania, his self-righteous posturing and holier-than-thou gift for talking down to those around them, were sure to generate frictions, and so it came to pass: We could barely have meetings in caucus because Donne and Rickey [black legislators] would give him hell,” said State Senator Kimberly A. Lightford, a Democrat and former chairwoman of the Senate’s black caucus. “Donne would be, ‘Just because you’re from Harvard, you think you know everything.’ Barack was like the new kid on the block. He was handsome and he was mild mannered and he was well liked. Sometimes there was a little ‘Who’s this? He coming here, he don’t know anything.” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 209 Already at this point in his life, Obama was exhibiting all the telltale signs of consuming ambition for higher and higher public office, a quest wholly divorced from any notion of achievement or public service on his part. This trait is so marked that even Obama acolytes ventured to offer timid criticisms: His critics say Mr. Obama could have accomplished much more if he had been in less of a hurry to leave the Statehouse behind. Steven J. Rauschenberger, a longtime Republican senator who stepped down this year, said: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a great legislator.”’ (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) All mincing of words aside, Obama was a thoroughgoing mediocrity in Springfield. In a pattern which Americans have now come to know: after a short stint in the State Senate and precious little to show for it, Obama tried to grab a seat in the US House of Representatives. But this time he had a serious opponent in the person of Congressman Bobby Rush. Another pattern of Obama’s public life is that he has been unable to win public office in any seriously contested election, and his resounding defeat by Bobby Rush confirms this rule. But losing his congressional race only made Obama more greedy for advancement, this time into the United States Senate with a significant helping hand from Emile Jones of the Combine. Within three years of his arrival, Mr. Obama ran for Congress, a race he lost. When the Democrats took control of the State Senate in 2003 — and Mr. Jones replaced James Philip, known as Pate, a retired Pepperidge Farm district manager who served as president of the Senate — Mr. Obama made his next move. “He said to me, ‘You’re now the Senate president,’” Mr. Jones recalled. “‘You have a lot of power.’ I said, ‘I do?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Tell me what kind of power I have.’ He said, ‘You have the power to make a U.S. senator.’ I said, ‘I do?’ He said, ‘You do.’ I said, ‘If I’ve got that kind of power, do you know of anyone that I can make?’ He said, ‘Yeah. Me.’” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) But these are not two drifting individuals who meet by chance; they are two cogs in The Combine. BETRAYING ALICE PALMER TO GET INTO THE STATE SENATE UNOPPOSED In making his first run for the state Senate, Obama went out of his way to have all of his opponents thrown off the ballot with the help of a high-priced election lawyer who appeared out of nowhere as if by magic at precisely the right moment to help Obama’s career – no doubt an example of Trilateral magic.82 One of the victims of this operation was a veteran black female civil rights leader who had been something of a benefactress to Obama – long-time State Senator Alice L. Palmer. With his usual ruthlessness and brutality, Obama had Palmer thrown off the ballot along with the others without so much as a second thought: Three years later, a congressman from the South Side of Chicago was convicted of having sex with a minor. A Democratic state senator from his district, Alice L. Palmer, decided to run for the seat. Carol Anne Harwell, Mr. Obama’s first campaign manager, said Ms. Palmer invited Mr. Obama, then 35, to run for her seat. But after losing in the primary, Ms. Palmer had second thoughts. A delegation of her supporters asked Mr. Obama to step aside. He not only declined, but his campaign staff challenged the signatures on Ms. Palmer’s campaign petitions and kept 210 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography her off the ballot. It was nothing personal: They did the same thing to every other Democrat in the race. “He knocked off the incumbent, so that right there gave him some notoriety,” said Ron Davis, who served as Mr. Obama’s precinct coordinator. “And he ran unopposed — which for a rookie is unheard of.”’ (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) Trilateral magic again. Democratic Senator Paul Simon of Illinois may perhaps be recalled by some Americans as the boring buffoon in the bow tie who competed in the Democratic primaries for the presidential nomination back in the 1980s. Simon’s role appears to have been to put a professorial, “good government” façade on the nefarious activities of the Combine. This included the absurdity of a bipartisan ethics bill that would in effect apply a thin film of lipstick to the corrupt porker of graft rollicking in the Combine’s pigsty. Illinois had one of the least regulated campaign finance systems in the country and a history of corruption. Paul Simon, the former United States senator, was running a public policy institute at Southern Illinois University and asked each of the four legislative leaders to name a trusted lawmaker to work on a bipartisan ethics bill. Mr. Jones recalls receiving a call from Abner J. Mikva, a former Chicago congressman, federal judge and friend of Mr. Simon. Judge Mikva, who had once tried to hire Mr. Obama as a law clerk, suggested him for the job. Mr. Jones says he knew that the new senator was hard-working and bright and that few others would want the assignment. “He caught pure hell,” Mr. Jones said of Mr. Obama. “I actually felt sorry for him at times.” The job required negotiating across party lines to come up with reform proposals, then presenting them to the Democratic caucus. Senator Kirk Dillard, the Republican Senate president’s appointee, said, “Barack was literally hooted and catcalled in his caucus.” On the Senate floor, Mr. Dillard said, “They would bark their displeasure at me, and then they’d unload on Obama.” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) COSMETIC REFORMS TO CAMOUFLAGE THE COMBINE Today Obama claims that his campaign does not take contributions from federal lobbyists, but in reality he is eager to take contributions from the law partners, close associates, families, and friends of those lobbyists through the notorious corrupt practice known as bundling. Here we see another aspect of Obama’s method as it has evolved since his days in Springfield, Illinois. He defines some aspect of the prevalent corruption in the most narrow and exclusive possible way, and then parades his stance on this tiny slice of the overall corruption pie as offering proof of his peerless probity and rectitude. So far, quite a few suckers have been taken in by this tactic. “I know [Obama] wanted to limit contributions by corporations or labor unions, and he certainly wanted to stop the transfers of huge amounts of money from the four legislative caucus leaders into rank-and-file members’ campaigns,” Mr. Dillard said. “But he knew that would never happen. So he got off that kick and thought disclosure was a more practical way to shine sunlight on what sometimes are unsavory practices.” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) Affluent suburbanites interested in clean government rather than in securing broad-based economic benefits for the disadvantaged went ga-ga over Obama’s exercise in cosmetic and window-dressing reform. All the while, the wheels of the Combine were grinding out graft in the back room. One example of Obama’s successful deception was a measure for public disclosure of campaign contributions: V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 211 The disclosure requirement “revolutionized Illinois’s system,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. By giving journalists immediate access to a database of expenditures and contributions, it transformed political reporting. It also, she said, “put Senator Obama on a launching pad and put the mantle of ethics legislator on his crown.” (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) OBAMA AS “THE WHITE MAN IN BLACKFACE IN OUR COMMUNITY” Obama by now was receiving largess from a number of foundation payrolls, so he could afford some clean government posturing which some of his colleagues could not. This again led to conflicts: By many accounts, there was already friction between him and Mr. Hendon, whose West Side Chicago district is among the poorest in the state, and Mr. Trotter. When Mr. Trotter and Mr. Obama both ran for Congress two years later — unsuccessfully, it turned out — Mr. Trotter told a reporter that Mr. Obama was viewed in part as “the white man in blackface in our community.” Mr. Dillard said, “I remember Rickey chiding Obama that, ‘What do you know, Barack? You grew up in Hawaii and you live in Hyde Park. What do you know about the street?’ To which Obama shot back: ‘I know a lot. I didn’t exactly have a rosy childhood. I’m a street organizer by profession and a lot of my area, once you get outside the University of Chicago neighborhoods, is just as tough as your West Side, Rickey.’ In an interview, Mr. Trotter said Mr. Obama had arrived “wanting to change things immediately,” as though he intended “to straighten out all these folks because they’re crooks.” … Mr. Hendon, who says he is writing a book on electoral politics called “Backstabbers,” said ethics reform would have passed with or without Mr. Obama because of scandals that preceded it. He said the sponsors of ethics bills tended to be “wealthy kind of people, the same kind of people who vote against pay raises, who don’t need $5,000 a year. Whereas senators like me from poorer communities, we could use that $5,000.”’ (Janny Scott, “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd,” New York Times, July 30, 2007) ILLINOIS STATE SENATE: A RACE OF BETRAYAL Of course, it was not just the old Weathermen who were mobilized to support Obama’s bid for public office. Many parts of the left countergang scene were mobilized to advance the career of the candidate chosen by the Trilateral financiers: As one ultra-right-wing observer notes, Obama’s socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat. Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the “champions” of “Chicago’s democratic left” and a longtime socialist activist. Obama’s stint as a “community organizer” in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored. (Cliff Kinkaid, http://www.aim.org/aim-column/Obamas-internationalsocialist- connections/) 212 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography THE NEW MUSICAL: OBAMA’S LOT The appalling contrast between Obama’s presidential campaign and its hypocritical slogans about hope and change, on the one hand, and a horrendous reality of the senator’s corruption was a national mockery of the first magnitude. Obama claimed that he was setting out to teach the world to hold the United States in high regard once again, but the first result of his candidacy was to demonstrate to any rational foreign observer that most Americans were abject fools, eager to listen to edifying verbiage from the mouth of a sleazy Chicago ward heeler who was lucky not to be standing in the dock next to his godfather Rezko. Fortunately, the spirit of self irony is not dead in Chicago, and a local journalist parodied the resulting situation by imagining a new musical comedy along the lines of Lerner and Lowe’s Kennedy era Camelot, but this time featuring Obama and Rezko as knights of a roundtable of graft. John Kass asked himself, Can Tony Rezko — the indicted Illinois political fixer and Sen. Barack Obama’s personal real estate fairy and fundraiser — carry a tune? Can Rezko really sing, loudly in a clear voice, in that orange federal jumpsuit he’s forced to wear, after a federal judge on Tuesday revoked his bond, figuring he’d run to Syria and skip out on his federal political corruption trial? If Rezko can sing, there’s a starring role in a new musical I’m writing about politics and real estate called “Obama’s Lot.” He’ll make a fortune if Obama becomes president. It’s sort of like “Camelot,” with magic and demons and unicorns and an evil enchantress. Can’t you see Rezko now? He waltzes across a national stage, surrounded by a chorus of Illinois politicians. They explain how Rezko helped the Obamas in the purchase of their nice home and that sumptuous lot next door. […] But in a unique use of symbolism, “Obama’s Lot” involves a magical sword of power. The brave young Obama pulls it from the cornerstone of Chicago’s City Hall and wields it proudly before his superiors in the Illinois State Senate. And, after a limited Washington engagement, he becomes president of the United States. A Hillary Clinton type plays the sensual Morgan La Fay, who uses her husky voice as she’s constantly trying to wrest power from the brave Obama. I’m not going to give it all away, but in my musical, Rezko walks behind Obama, part willowy magician, part jealous jester. He’s constantly judging, winking broadly at the audience during Obama’s few bouts with temptation. In the finale, Rezko sings to the tune of “If Ever I Should Leave You,” familiar in the renditions by Robert Goulet and Richard Harris: If ever I would squeal on you/It shouldn’t be in autumn. But it might just be in autumn/ as voters go to the polls. I’m no rat in the springtime/ summer, winter or fall But I don’t like being in here/No, not at all.83 REZKO AS OBAMA’S BOSS PENDERGAST: A PERPETUALLY PENDING INDICTMENT So why did the feds go to all the trouble of convicting Rezko and gathering plenty of evidence to bring down Obama for good, if they were determined all along not to bring down the arrogant Illinois senator? For the answer, we need to go back to 1944, a time when Franklin D. Roosevelt had rescued and restored to the American presidency the full panoply of constitutional powers intended by the framers. But Franklin D. Roosevelt, exhausted by his struggle with the world economic depression and by his exertions to win World War II, was dying. Despite the fact that V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 213 FDR had saved their otherwise doomed system in 1933, the Wall Street oligarchs so hated and resented the yoke of constitutional government that they were determined never again to allow a real president to occupy the White House and exercise the actual powers prescribed by the U.S. Constitution. From now, they vowed, only puppet presidents, mere marionettes obedient to the dictates of Wall Street, would be permitted. The first step in reestablishing this Potemkin presidency was to make sure that the Democratic Party’s 1944 vice presidential candidate would not be Henry Wallace, a competent and capable representative of the basic philosophy of the New Deal who might well have been capable of continuing the full constitutional presidency which Roosevelt had been able to restore. Instead, the ruling class through various operatives demanded that Senator Harry Truman of Missouri occupy the second place on the Democratic ticket. Truman had been an artillery captain in World War I, had attempted to make a career of haberdashery, but had failed. Truman had been attached himself to the corrupt political machine of boss Tom Pendergast, which dominated Democratic party politics in Kansas City, Missouri. As a loyal cog in the corrupt Kansas City machine, just as Obama has been a loyal cog in the filthy Chicago party apparat, Truman soon found himself up to his neck in the then prevalent forms of graft and corruption. In 1925, thanks to boss Pendergast, Truman was elected as a county judge. In 1933, again with Pendergast’s blessing, Truman was named Missouri’s director for the Federal Re-Employment program, a sub-set of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), at the request of FDR’s patronage boss Postmaster General James Farley as payback to Pendergast for delivering the Kansas City vote to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. Truman then became boss Pendergast’s handpicked candidate for the US Senate in 1934. But in 1939, Pendergast was indicted for income tax evasion involving a bribe. Pendergast was released after serving 15 months in prison at the nearby United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas, and died in 1945. Truman showed more loyalty towards boss Pendergast than Obama has shown towards Rezko and Wright: as Vice President, Truman attended Pendergast’s funeral a few days after being sworn in, and just a few weeks before Truman succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt as President. It is safe to say that Truman always remained aware of the definite possibility that he too might be sent to the penitentiary at Leavenworth because of his participation in the same corrupt activities which had brought down his friend boss Pendergast. The ruling elite desired a president with a built-in detonator of this type: Truman, after all, was inheriting the presidency at the peak of its powers, bequeathed to him by FDR. What Wall Street oligarch could be sure under these circumstances that Truman would follow orders in the way that, say, Coolidge had? Accordingly it was necessary to deploy a sword of Damocles over Truman said in the form of a perpetually pending indictment in the Pendergast Kansas City corruption scandal. Naturally, the ruling elite had other means of manipulating little Harry. In foreign policy, he was dominated by the rightwing Democrat and anti-Roosevelt renegade Dean Acheson, and adept depth of one of the lesser Yale secret societies. Working closely with Acheson was soon W. Averell Harriman of Skull and Bones and the Brown Brothers Harriman investment bank in Wall Street, which also featured the presence of Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the current tenant of the White House. Acheson and Harriman successfully dominated Truman’s options in the arena of world politics. In domestic policy, a committee of Wall Street operatives chaired by Clark Clifford, himself something of a Harriman man, was able to manipulate Truman in ways he was not even aware of, as Clifford has boasted in his memoirs. Generally, Truman’s handlers were able to manipulate him most easily through his periodic rage fits, which gave the White House palace guard an opportunity to direct the puppet president’s hatred against some target of their choosing. But beneath all this, and underpinning the entire edifice of control of the sitting president by forces above and behind the Oval Office, there always remained the specter that Truman could be indicted for some dirty 214 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography dealings connected to the Pendergast machine. Today’s Republicans and other opponents of Obama would do well to realize that it is very unlikely that the Rezko case will spontaneously emerge as his central campaign issue in 2008, if this matter is left up to the wishes of the Wall Street elite. The Rezko-Auchi-Alsammarae Illinois Combine scandal can be made to explode, but it will not explode on its own. The strategy of the Wall Street faction is to elect Obama now and to use the Rezko affair as a means of guaranteeing his future obedience, even though he would be president during a world economic and financial depression of unprecedented severity, and would also be able to mobilize something closely resembling a fascist movement in the streets and on the Internet in support of his power. CHAPTER VI: GRABBING A SENATE SEAT WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS TRILATERAL FRIENDS The emerging oligarchy of the United States holds the vast majority of the American population in deep contempt, considering them as Okies, bubbas, ghetto-dwellers, white trash, wetbacks, Appalachians, crackers, red-necks, losers, marginals, rubes, and hicks. – Webster G. Tarpley, Surviving the Cataclysm, 1998. No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity. His is the story of a man who flew so high, yet neglected to become himself. – Shelby Steele, March 18, 2008 As political candidates go, Obama is an intrinsically weak specimen. In this chapter we will further illustrate the two sides of the proposition that Obama has never in his life won public office through a genuinely contested and disputed election. Obama’s preferred mode of taking office has been by having his patrons in the banking establishment mobilize their resources to destroy his opponents. We will see the truth of this basic tenet first in Obama’s failed 2000 attempt to take away the seat of popular Southside Chicago Black congressmen Bobby Rush, who represented a real opponent capable of contesting an election, and thus defeated Obama by a wide margin. We will then see the other side of the proposition in the form of Obama’s Senate race in the year 2004, when not one but two reasonably formidable opponents had to be destroyed by piloted scandals, and when a carpetbagger and buffoon had to be brought in from far away Maryland, all to make sure that Obama finally got into the Senate as the Trilaterals wanted. In the course of telling this story, we will comment on the hollow gesture represented by Obama’s October 2002 speech concerning the Iraq war, which will be put into the necessary perspective by showing Obama’s support for the Iraq war and rejection of impeachment as a remedy after he got to the Senate. Our story here takes on the character of a Bildungsroman, a novel of coming of age, or a rake’s progress — in this case, the growth and advancement of one of the most ruthless, treacherous, and unprincipled political opportunists of our age, who is at the same time one of the most reckless of politicians in his personal life as well as in his devil- may-care attitude towards his own flip-flops. 2000: FAILED CHALLENGE TO CONGRESSMAN BOBBY RUSH In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. Obama radically overestimated his own chances of winning this election, and insisted on forging ahead despite advice to the contrary from some of his oligarchical sponsors, including Newton Minnow. In Obama’s rash behavior in undertaking this long shot bid for the Congress, we can see the signs of the overweening pride and arrogance verging on megalomania which already characterized his mentality. The megalomania, as we will see, has grown over the years, and by the late summer of 2008 was reaching proportions worthy of the Emperor Nero. Obama’s failed bid for the Congress is also instructive because, since both major candidates were black, it removes the race issue from consideration, and can thus be used as a crucial experiment to show that Obama’s fundamental weakness lies in his elitism and systematic oligarchical refusal to understand the situation of working families in the United States today. It also shows that Obama can be a very stubborn and headstrong subject: 216 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography The rise of Barack Obama includes one glaring episode of political miscalculation. Even friends told Mr. Obama it was a bad idea when he decided in 1999 to challenge an incumbent congressman and former Black Panther, Bobby L. Rush, whose stronghold on the South Side of Chicago was overwhelmingly black, Democratic and working class. “Campaigns are always, ‘What’s the narrative of the race?’” said Eric Adelstein, a media consultant in Chicago who worked on the Rush campaign. “In a sense, it was ‘the Black Panther against the professor.’ That’s not a knock on Obama; but to run from Hyde Park, this little bastion of academia, this white community in the black South Side — it just seemed odd that he would make that choice as a kind of stepping out.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) When the idea of challenging Congressman Bobby Rush first occurred to him, Obama made some calls to his backers. One was Newton Minow, who as chief of the Federal Communications Commission had coined the phrase “vast wasteland” to describe network television back during the Kennedy administration. But Minow was now far from the New Frontier, and had settled in as an official of the Sidley Austin law firm, the lawyers on retainer for Tom Ayers’ Commonwealth Edison, where Bernardine Dohrn and Michelle Obama had worked, and where Barky met Michelle one summer. Not just Minow, but also his daughter, apparently worked as his case officers for the promising young property called Obama. Newton Minow was skeptical that Obama could win the race: Mr. Obama called Mr. Minow, his former boss, asking to see him. Mr. Obama was eyeing the Hyde Park Congressional seat held by Bobby L. Rush, a former Black Panther leader. “Are you nuts?” Mr. Minow recalled telling the younger man. “Barack, I think this is a mistake.” Mr. Minow flipped through his Rolodex, calling black businesspeople and asking them if they would help finance Mr. Obama’s bid. He said he received a uniform answer: “No — let him wait his turn.” Nevertheless, the impatient Mr. Obama jumped into the race. Brimming with confidence, he equated Mr. Rush with “a politics that is rooted in the past” and cast himself as someone who could reach beyond the racial divide to get things done. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) OBAMA BLINDED BY OVERWEENING AMBITION As for Congressman Rush, he realized that he was dealing with an egomaniac at the very least: “He was blinded by his ambition,” Mr. Rush said. “Obama has never suffered from a lack of believing that he can accomplish whatever it is he decides to try. Obama believes in Obama. And, frankly, that has its good side but it also has its negative side.” Mr. Rush’s district, the state’s most Democratic, was 65 percent black. And in 1999, it included not only Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago, but several relatively affluent Irish-American neighborhoods. (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) LATTE LIBERALS FOR OBAMA The divide between Rush and Obama therefore occurred along class lines rather than according to any racial divide. The affluent and the elitists went for Obama, and the working families chose the alternative of Rush. VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 217 There were plenty of college-educated, white, “latte liberals” with whom Mr. Obama polls well. But he was barely known outside his state Senate district, in the eastern part of Mr. Rush’s district. To win, he would have to expand his support among blacks, including the older, church-going, Rush loyalists who vote disproportionately in primaries. “Taking on Bobby Rush among black voters is like running into a buzz saw,” said Ron Lester, a pollster who worked for Mr. Obama. “This guy was incredibly popular. Not only that, his support ran deep — to the extent that a lot of people who liked Barack still wouldn’t support him because they were committed to Bobby. He had built up this reserve of goodwill over 25 years in that community.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) Congressman Rush had a strong base in the community, but he had exhausted some of his resources by attempting to oust Mayor Daley from City Hall: Mr. Rush had grown up in Chicago, enlisted in the Army, joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped found the Illinois Black Panther Party in 1968. He coordinated a medical clinic that pioneered mass screening for sickle cell anemia, which disproportionately affects blacks. As an alderman in 1992, he had ousted a black political legend — Representative Charles A. Hayes, a veteran of the civil-rights and labor movements who was caught up in a scandal that year involving the House bank. In February 1999, Mr. Rush lost the mayoral primary to Mr. Daley, getting just 28 percent of the vote. Toni Preckwinkle, a city alderman, encouraged Mr. Obama to challenge Mr. Rush. … Mr. Shomon said he and Mr. Obama did an amateur poll to gauge his chances. They designed questions, recruited volunteers to telephone 300 people, and concluded that Mr. Rush was vulnerable. Mr. Shomon, who became Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, said, “Obama will tell you that this poll was not the best poll in the world.” Asked why, he said, “Because the results didn’t turn out to be correct.” State Senator Terry Link, a friend of Mr. Obama, said he advised him not to run. “He tried to justify it: He didn’t feel Bobby was representing the area, he thought he could do a better job,” Mr. Link recalled. “I think he misread it. He didn’t analyze the strength of the congressman in that area, the will of the people.” Mr. Obama, in a brief telephone interview, said, “In retrospect, there was very little chance of me winning that race. That was a good lesson — that you should never be too impressed with your own ideas if your name recognition in a Congressional district is only eight or whatever it was.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007), It was not to be the last time that inaccurate polling shows up in an Obama campaign. Today, polls favoring Obama are deliberately and repeatedly fabricated. DAVID AXELROD, HOPEMONGER Obama’s 2000 attempt to oust Rush is also the point in his career where he becomes permanently wedded to the sinister political consultant, David Axelrod. Axelrod, as we have seen, worked on political campaigns, and also dedicated much of his time to refuting charges of corruption against Mayor Daley and other members of the Combine. In Obama’s tirades against Rush as a practitioner of the old politics, we can already hear the rhetorical notes which have resonated ad nauseam during Obama’s 2008 campaign, and which are building towards a crescendo in Obama’s match up with the geriatric Senator McCain. Obama…entered the race in late September, six months before the primary. He told voters that Mr. Rush represented “a politics that is rooted in the past, a reactive politics that isn’t good at 218 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography coming up with concrete solutions.” He promised new leadership, reaching beyond the black community and leading coalitions to take on contemporary problems, cut crime, expand health care coverage, promote economic development and expand educational opportunities. But several weeks later, Mr. Lester’s polling put Mr. Rush’s approval rating at 70 percent and Mr. Obama’s at 8 percent. Forty-seven percent of the people polled favored Mr. Rush, 10 percent favored Mr. Obama and 5 percent favored a third candidate, State Senator Donne E. Trotter, who is also black. Almost all of Mr. Obama’s support initially came from whites, Mr. Lester said.’ (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) Rush thus had some vulnerabilities, but he could also count on significant loyalty in the black neighborhoods. Part of the election result was also determined by the shooting of Rush’s son in what appeared to be a random street crime. “Bobby Rush had not been the most active member of Congress from Illinois, but there was no issue that made him particularly vulnerable,” [Obama ally Abner] Mikva said. “He hadn’t robbed a bank or beaten his grandmother or things like that. In that respect, I was concerned.” “Also,” Mr. Mikva said, “I had seen reform candidates running against incumbents in African- American areas. It’s hard. Reform is not the most compelling issue to people who don’t have a job.” Then in mid-October, Mr. Rush’s 29-year-old son, Huey Rich, was shot on his way home from a grocery store. He hung between life and death for four days. Mr. Rush benefited from an outpouring of sympathy; the wake was studded with politicians and there were renewed calls for gun control, one of Mr. Rush’s causes. “That incident seemed to wash away any bad feelings that voters had or might have had about Bobby Rush,” said Chris Sautter, whose communications firm worked on the Obama campaign.’ (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) OBAMA AWOL ON KEY GUN CONTROL VOTE: WAS MICHELLE RESPONSIBLE? Obama also committed the fundamental political error of considering a family vacation more important than a vote in the state legislature on a key piece of gun control legislation, of which he had been one of the main backers. Here we may hear the strident voice of Michelle Obama demanding that she get her vacation, and gun control be damned: Later, Gov. George Ryan called the Legislature into special session to try to re-enact a package of gun-safety bills that the Illinois Supreme Court had overturned. Mr. Obama was voting consistently in favor of it. But the session dragged on toward Christmas and an annual trip to Hawaii to visit his grandmother, who had helped rear him. He had planned to return after the holiday when the session was to resume, Mr. Shomon said. But a crucial vote came up earlier than expected. With Mr. Obama and others absent, it failed by five votes. Mr. Obama, in particular, came under fire. In his defense, he said he had not flown back in time because his 18-month-old daughter was sick. But he was hammered by editorial writers, the governor and Mr. Rush. “We were thrown under the bus,” Mr. Shomon said. “It was a terrible day of news coverage, since, A, we got blasted for not being there and, B, the perception was that Obama doesn’t care about gun safety.” By this point, Obama was one chastened megalomaniac, as he tells us himself in his generally self-serving memoir: VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 219 In his book “The Audacity of Hope,” Mr. Obama wrote: “Less than halfway into the campaign, I knew in my bones that I was going to lose. Each morning from that point forward I awoke with a vague sense of dread, realizing that I would have to spend the day smiling and shaking hands and pretending that everything was going according to plan.” Billboards in the district read: “I’m sticking with Bobby.” A few black elected officials endorsed Mr. Obama but most fell in line behind the incumbent. Ministers closed ranks. The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of the St. Sabina Catholic Church, said other ministers and congregation members called to complain when he endorsed Mr. Obama.’ (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) Pfleger is the renegade priest whose hate-filled and sexist mockery of Senator Clinton became a scandal at the end of the primary season; Pfleger, we see, is a close friend of Obama and has been for a long time. If Pfleger had wanted to follow the black community, he would have gone with Rush. Instead, he went with Obama, the darling of the elite law firms, the foundations, and the University of Chicago. Pfleger renders much more to the foundations than he renders unto God, or even to his crackpot race theories. CONGRESSMAN BOBBY RUSH: OBAMA AN “EDUCATED FOOL” When the vote came in, Obama had 30.36 percent, and Representative Rush had 61.02 per cent. In 2000, just as in 2008, a deciding factor in the voting was Obama’s pedantic and condescending professorial elitism and holier-than-thou demeanor, which gave the clear impression that he was concerned about oligarchical opinion, and not about the wishes of the constituencies in the congressional district he was asking to represent. This is a trait which, one thinks, will be with Obama as long as he lives. Mr. Obama’s Ivy League education and his white liberal-establishment connections also became an issue. Mr. Rush told The Chicago Reader, “He went to Harvard and became an educated fool. We’re not impressed with these folks with these Eastern elite degrees.” Mr. Rush and his supporters faulted him for having missed experiences that more directly defined the previous generation of black people. “Barack is a person who read about the civil-rights protests and thinks he knows all about it,” Mr. Rush told The Reader. Mr. Obama was seen as an intellectual, “not from us, not from the ‘hood,” said Jerry Morrison, a consultant on the Rush campaign. Asked recently about that line of attack, Mr. Rush minimized it as “chest beating, signifying.” The implication was not exactly that Mr. Obama was “not black enough,” as some blacks have suggested more recently; his credentials were suspect. “It was much more a function of class, not race,” Mr. Adelstein said. “Nobody said he’s ‘not black enough.’ They said he’s a professor, a Harvard elite who lives in Hyde Park.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) In the 2000 contest, class was trump, along with the uneasy perception that Obama talked a good game in many fields in which he had never actually accomplished anything whatsoever. Characteristically, Obama’s strong suit was fund-raising. Given the extent of Obama’s backing from top elitist law firms and financial interests, this is hardly a surprise. Obama was a plutocandidate in 2000, and remains one to the present day. But, as the Obama machine discovered in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania in the spring of 2008, even outspending an opponent by three to one, four to one or even five to one will not produce victory if the candidate is viewed as an arrogant oligarchical elitist. In 2000, 220 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Mr. Obama proved unusually good at raising money. He raised more than $500,000 — less than Mr. Rush but impressive for a newcomer — tapping connections at the University of Chicago, Harvard Law School, law firms where he had worked, and a network of successful, black, Chicago-based entrepreneurs who have played an important role in subsequent campaigns. He was also catching on among whites in the district thanks to Thomas J. Dart, then a popular state representative who is now Cook County sheriff. But President Clinton’s endorsement of Mr. Rush, an early supporter of Mr. Clinton, dealt a final blow. According to Mr. Adelstein, Mr. Clinton — after a personal request from Mr. Rush — overrode his own policy of not endorsing candidates in primaries. Mr. Rush won the primary with 61.02 percent of the vote; Mr. Obama had just over 30 percent. Mr. Obama was favored by whites but lost among blacks, Mr. Lester said. Looking back, some say the magnitude of the loss reflected Mr. Obama’s failure to connect with black, working-class voters. Mr. Mikva said, “It indicated that he had not made his mark in the African-American community and didn’t particularly have a style that resonated there.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) Clinton’s endorsement for Congressman Rush may account for some of the bitter hatred towards the former president shown by Obama during the 2008 primary season. Obama, ever the megalomaniac, had apparently gotten it into his head that his work on Project Vote in 1992 had been decisive in delivering Illinois for Clinton in the 1992 presidential election. In 2000, Obama evidently thought that Clinton owed him, and that the endorsement of Congressman Rush was therefore a betrayal. Look for a President Obama to continue making emotional blunders of this sort because of his hyper-inflated sense of his own importance. A DEBUT FOR OBAMA’S DEMAGOGY OF “HOPE” It was apparently in this race that Obama made the empty abstraction of “hope” into the workhorse of his rhetorical arsenal. From a demagogic point of view, the multiple advantages of using such a vacuous construct should be immediately evident. By using hope as his main slogan, Obama was able to avoid specific commitments to concrete improvements in the living standards, working conditions, and public infrastructure of the people he was appealing to. Hope is green, and so is the chameleon most of the time. By talking about hope, Obama was able to skirt the issues of how any new programs would be paid for, a touchy topic that would always grate on the ears of greedy bankers who wanted to make sure that the bonded debt of the city of Chicago always came first, since these were the payments which were flowing into their own pockets. We should also note that the appeal to hope also presupposes very high levels of despair in the target community, which apparently was indeed the case. One Obama backer from 2000 recalled: “There was a gradual progression of Barack Obama from thoughtful, earnest policy wonk/civil rights lawyer/constitutional law expert to Barack Obama the politician, the inspirer, the speaker.” Denny Jacobs, a friend of Mr. Obama and a former state senator, agreed. “He stumbled on the fact that instead of running on all the issues, quote unquote, that hope is the real key,” he said. “Not only the black community but less privileged people are looking for that hope. You don’t have to talk about health care, you have to talk about ‘the promise’ of health care. Hope is a pretty inclusive word. I think he is very good at selling that.”’ (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 221 “Hope for sale” might be the real motto of the Obama-Axelrod machine since 2000. For the sake of historical accounting, we should point out that the rhetorical promise to deal with the despair of the masses emerges as a distinct characteristic of the irrationalist totalitarian mass movements of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe. After Obama had emerged victorious from a very peculiar U.S. Senate contest four years later, Congressman Rush, who had been backing an opponent of Obama who was destroyed by piloted scandals at just the right moment, commented bitterly that Barky had now become accustomed to winning without a fight: In March 2004, Mr. Obama won the Democratic primary for the United States Senate with nearly 53 percent of the vote, racking up huge totals in wards he had lost to Mr. Rush in 2000. (Mr. Rush, still stung by Mr. Obama’s challenge to him, endorsed a white candidate in the race, Blair Hull, a former securities trader.) Mr. Obama won the general election with the biggest margin ever in an Illinois Senate race. “For what he’s doing now, he didn’t need to march against police brutality,” Mr. Rush said, invoking his own record. “He didn’t need to demonstrate against poor meat in substandard grocery stores. He didn’t need that kind of stuff because obviously his audience was at a different level.” (Janny Scott, “In 2000, a Streetwise Veteran Schooled a Bold Young Obama,” New York Times, September 9, 2007) OBAMA NETWORKS WITH THE ELITE After his defeat by Congressman Rush, Obama concentrated on building networks that would assist him in the more grandiose projects that were now on his horizon. Having disregarded the advice of his mentor Newton Minnow, Obama now assiduously cultivated this hoary patriarch: Mr. Obama was comfortable attending performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with city scions like Newton N. Minow, the father of Martha Minow. Mr. Minow, who had served in the Kennedy administration and managed the white-shoe law firm of Sidley Austin when Mr. Obama worked there after his first year of law school, began introducing him to Chicago’s business titans. “He felt completely comfortable in Hyde Park,” said Martha Minow, his former law professor and a mentor. “It’s a place where you don’t have to wear a label on your forehead. You can go to a bookstore and there’s the homeless person and there’s the professor.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) OBAMA LAUDS TERRORIST AYERS’ 1998 BOOK: “A SEARING AND TIMELY ACCOUNT” Obama also drew closer to the unreconstructed Weatherman terrorist bomber Bill Ayers, the son of Thomas Ayers, the dean of the Chicago financier establishment. The cover story for this tandem between Obama and Ayers was, incredibly enough, educational and juvenile justice reform, in which Ayers now paraded himself as an expert: The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city’s education system. They appeared together on academic panels, including one organized by Michelle Obama to discuss the juvenile justice system, an area of mutual concern. Mr. Ayers’s book on the subject won a rave review in The Chicago Tribune by Mr. Obama, who called it “a searing and timely account.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) 222 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA: TERRORIST AYERS IS “COURAGEOUS” We thus have from this time a rare published endorsement of Ayers by Obama which appears to have been overlooked by many of the opposition researchers during the spring primary campaigns. Obama’s encomium of Ayers came in a review of the terrorist bomber’s book on juvenile justice, a review which was published just before Christmas in 1997: “As Bloomberg News reported recently, Obama and Ayers have crossed paths repeatedly in the last decade. In 1997, Obama cited Ayers’ critique of the juvenile justice system in a Chicago Tribune article on what prominent Chicagoans were reading.”84 The title of Ayers’ work is A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court by William Ayers (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998). Obama’s full comment was: “A searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair.” (Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1997) Even ten years ago, Barky was long on hope.85 One can surmise that Ayers’ chances of becoming secretary of education under a future Obama regime are higher than most observers would imagine. Obama also pursued a relentless process of political networking: Mr. Obama cultivated clients like Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, the influential pastor of an 18,000- member black church and founding president of the Woodlawn Organization, which focuses on improving conditions for blacks in a neighborhood adjacent to Hyde Park. The two men began talking politics over tennis games at Chicago’s elite East Bank Club, Mr. Brazier recalled. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) Obama also solidified his relations with the foundation world, the ambient in which he feels most at ease. Mr. Obama further expanded his list of allies by joining the boards of two well-known charities: the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation. These memberships have allowed him to help direct tens of millions of dollars in grants over the years to groups that championed the environment, campaign finance reform, gun control and other causes supported by the liberal network he was cultivating. Mr. Brazier’s group, the Woodlawn Organization, received money, for instance, as did antipoverty groups with ties to organized labor like Chicago Acorn, whose endorsement Mr. Obama sought and won in his State Senate race. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) The Acorn endorsement is proving to be of significant value for Obama down to the present day. OBAMA SLIPPERY AND SHIFTY ON THE ISSUES During this entire phase, Obama’s positions on issues go beyond the simple flip-flop to confront us with a bewildering and shimmering kaleidoscope of variegated answers. The simple attempt to catalog Obama’s positions on the issues would require a task force in its own right. The Roman god Proteus was famous for his ability to assume any shape he wanted, and Obama has inherited some of this gift. Around 2000, Obama claimed to be in favor of gun control and opposed to the death penalty, whereas in 2008 these views have been transmuted into their opposites by the alchemy of the Perfect Master: Today, Mr. Obama espouses more centrist views [on guns and the death penalty] and says a campaign aide had incorrectly characterized his views on those issues — a shift that does not sit well with some in the group, the Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 223 Organization. “We certainly thought those were his positions,” said David Igasaki, the group’s chairman, who noted Mr. Obama had also interviewed with the group. “We understand that people change their views. But it sort of bothers me that he doesn’t acknowledge that. He tries to say that was never his view.”’ (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) Obama was able to impress allies and observers with his matchless flexibility and ductility when it came to compromise; this was all the easier for him because in the final analysis he had no principles at all. His willingness to negotiate — the interrogation law ended up with a host of exceptions — gained him a reputation as a pragmatist who could sell compromise as a victory to all sides, said Peter Baroni, then the legal counsel to the Republican caucus. “He took what came into the fray as a very leftist bill, a very leftist proposal, a very non-law-enforcement bill,” Mr. Baroni said, “and he appeased law enforcement and brought everyone around to support it.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) Obama has demonstrably always instinctively tended to the pro-austerity position demanded by the financiers and bankers who own him and who have fostered his career. This approach is clearly evident in Obama’s claims about his sponsorship of welfare to work programs, in which he claims that he reduced the welfare rolls by 80% — meaning that many needy persons were simply jettisoned by the system to preserve loot needed by the Combine and its clients. In his early years, Obama would answer the pleas of his constituents for some practical benefit with a browbeating, pedantic lecture on the tightness of the budget and the need for budget austerity. Now, Obama became more cunning. He now preferred to co-opt demands for significant material improvements in the life of the black community by delivering patronage payments to those who made themselves spokespersons for such demands. Compared to real broad-based reform, the expense of this approach for the system was trifling. An example of this is Obama’s transfer of something like a quarter of a million dollars of public funds to the renegade priest Father Pfleger, who could be counted on to suppress demands that might call into question the domination of Chicago by parasitical financiers. Before his loss to Mr. Rush, Mr. Obama’s typical response for requests for state money would be a lecture, recalled Dan Shomon, a former Obama aide. “He would say something like: ‘You know what, you’re not going to get your money, and you know why? Let me explain the state budget,’” Mr. Shomon said. “Then he’d give a 20-minute treatise on how the Republicans wouldn’t raise taxes, so there wasn’t any money to do what they wanted to do.” Now, Mr. Obama more eagerly met the demands for spending earmarks for churches and community groups in his district, said State Senator Donne E. Trotter, then the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I know this firsthand, because the community groups in his district stopped coming to me,” Mr. Trotter said. Typical of Mr. Obama’s earmarks was a $100,000 grant for a youth center at a Catholic church run by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a controversial priest who was one of the few South Side clergymen to back Mr. Obama against Mr. Rush. Father Pfleger has long worked with South Side political leaders to reduce crime and improve the community. But he has drawn fire from some quarters for defending the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and inviting him to speak at his church. Father Pfleger, who did not return calls for comment, is one of the religious leaders whose “faith testimonials” Mr. Obama has posted on his presidential campaign Web site. David Axelrod, the chief strategist for 224 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the Obama presidential campaign, said that Father Pfleger was “remaking the face” of Chicago’s South Side and that all of Mr. Obama’s earmarks went to worthy programs like his. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) OBAMA’S BID FOR THE US SENATE With Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald not getting along with the bosses of the Combine, Obama it now sensed that the main chance might be in the offing: With his black base more secure, Mr. Obama began in 2002 to contemplate a run for the United States Senate. “I had lunch with him at the Quadrangle Club, and we were discussing the different bases he had to touch. I said, ‘You have to talk to the Jackson boys first,’” Mr. Mikva recalled, referring to Representative Jackson and his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “Because Jesse Jackson Jr. had his eye on that seat. He said, ‘I know. I’m working on that.’” Mr. Obama soon sat down with the younger Mr. Jackson at the 312 Chicago restaurant. Michelle Obama had attended high school with Mr. Jackson’s sister and been close to the family for years, and the congressman had attended the Obamas’ wedding. “He said, ‘Jesse, if you’re running for the U.S. Senate I’m not going to run,’” Mr. Jackson recalled. Mr. Jackson had already decided against it, and he gave Mr. Obama his blessing. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) With the Jesse Jackson machine neutralized, Obama had removed one significant obstacle on his way to the world’s most exclusive club. THE PHANTOM ANTI-WAR SPEECH OF OCTOBER 2002 Obama’s October 2002 speech in downtown Chicago opposing the notion of a US attack on Iraq furnished the only concrete reason many of his followers could cite to justify his bid to take the presidency. Unfortunately, this speech is as hard to pin down as ectoplasm. Obama’s antiwar speech is like the Dao of the old Chinese mystic Lao-Tse: it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There is no film of the speech. There is no audio recording. There is no authoritative text. The version of the speech that some people believe they have seen is in fact a reenactment which we can safely assume has been embellished and enhanced to a fare thee well.86 Naturally, it was better to be against the Iraq war in October 2002 than it was to be in favor of it. But unfortunately for Obama, his claim is much broader: he claims that he has consistently opposed the Iraq war from October 2002 until the present. This is simply a big lie. Obama has gone through any number of opportunistic transmogrifications in his Iraq position, as in his other positions on virtually every issue. Most glaring in this context has been his hyper-aggressive proposals to bomb Iran, and more recently Pakistan. As for Obama’s much touted openness to the Arab world, even in his dubious allies from the Chicago Arab community have at length realized that this was a purely opportunistic pose sure to be jettisoned when expediency dictated: “He has a pattern of forming relationships with various communities and as he takes his next step up, kind of distancing himself from them and then positioning himself as the bridge,” said Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian-American author and co-founder of the online publication Electronic Intifada, who became acquainted with Mr. Obama in Chicago. (Jo Becker and VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 225 Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008) Even the fabled October 2002 Chicago antiwar speech came equipped with a series of escape hatches and emergency exits which the candidate could use to climb back on the warmonger bandwagon if that seemed to be politic: Even moments that supporters see as his boldest are tempered by his political caution. The forceful speech he delivered in 2002 against the impending Iraq invasion — a speech that has helped define him nationally — was threaded with an unusual mantra for a 1960s-style antiwar rally: “I’m not opposed to all wars.” It was a refrain Mr. Obama had tested on his political advisers, and it was a display of his ability to speak to the audience before him while keeping in mind the broader audience to come. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008) AN SDS PRODUCTION STARRING CRYPTO-WEATHERMAN OBAMA We have seen in a previous chapter that Obama’s speech against the Iraq war was in fact an opportunity delivered to him by his friends among the SDS veterans who seem to flock to his support at every critical juncture, as if by Trilateral magic. A key figure in organizing this performance was Marilyn Katz, who gave him entry into another activist network: the foot soldiers of the white student and black power movements that helped define Chicago in the 1960s. As a leader of Students for a Democratic Society then, Ms. Katz organized Vietnam War protests, throwing nails in the street to thwart the police. But like many from that era, Ms. Katz had gone on to become a politically active member of the Chicago establishment, playing in a regular poker game with Mr. Miner while working as a consultant to his nemesis, Mayor Daley. “For better or worse, this is Chicago,” said Ms. Katz, who has held fund-raisers for Mr. Obama at her home. “Everyone is connected to everyone.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) COURTESY OF AN OLD CARTER NETWORK Obama’s antiwar speech, however, could hardly have taken place without crucial input from the limousine liberals of Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive, North of the loop. Betty Lu Saltzman, a Democratic doyenne from Chicago’s lakefront liberal crowd, convened a small group of activists, including Ms. Katz, in her living room to organize a rally to protest the United States’ impending invasion of Iraq. It was late September 2002, and Mr. Obama was on the top of Ms. Saltzman’s list of desired speakers. She first met him when he ran the black voter registration drive in the 1992 election, and was so impressed that she immediately took him under her wing, introducing him to wealthy donors and talking him up to friends like Mr. Axelrod. But with just a few days to go before the rally, Ms. Saltzman was having trouble reaching Mr. Obama. Finally, she said she left word with his wife. But before Mr. Obama called her back, he dialed up some advice. With his possible run for the United States Senate, he wanted to speak with Mr. Axelrod and others about the ramifications of broadcasting his reservations about a war the public was fast getting behind. An antiwar speech would play to his Chicago liberal base, and could help him in what was expected to be a hotly contested primary, they told him, but it also could hurt him in the general election. “This was a call to 226 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography assess just how risky was this,” said Pete Giangreco, who along with Mr. Axelrod described the conversation. When Mr. Obama tossed out the idea of calling it a “dumb war,” Mr. Giangreco said he cringed. “I remember thinking, ‘this puts us in the weak defense category, doesn’t it?’ (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) Betty Lu Salzman is the daughter of Philip Klutznick, who was Secretary of Commerce in the final years of the Jimmy Carter regime. So it was evidently an old Carter network that gave the anointed one his golden opportunity to go on record against Bush’s war. A number of Obama critics have rightly stressed the pervasive role of Obama’s old SDS networks in setting up this legendary rally. Steve Diamond, for example, writes: “…do not forget, the Anti-war speech Obama gave in 2002, was organized by former terrorists of the SDS days, Carl Davidson, Marylyn Katz and others!” And: As it turns out, there are other ex-SDS types around the Obama campaign as well, including Marilyn Katz, a public relations professional, who was head of security for the SDS during the disaster in the streets of Chicago in 1968. She is close (politically) to Carl Davidson, a former vice president of SDS and longtime Fidelista, who is webmaster for a group called Progressives for Obama, that is headlined by other former 60s radicals like Tom Hayden and the maoist Bill Fletcher. Davidson and Katz were key organizers of the 2002 anti-war demonstration where Obama made public his opposition to the Iraq war that has been so critical to his successful presidential campaign. Davidson apparently moved into the maoist movements of the 70s after the disintegration of SDS.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?‘ globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Obama spoke before an undetermined number of persons, with aging SDS radicals from the Ayers-Dohrn era setting the cultural tone. The following account is from the New York Times, and must therefore be regarded with a dose of skepticism: The rally was held on Oct. 2, 2002, in Federal Plaza before nearly 2,000 people.87 On the podium before speaking, Mr. Obama joked about the dated nature of crowd-pleasing protest songs like “Give Peace a Chance.” “Can’t they play something else? ” Ms. Saltzman recalled his saying. The speech, friends say, was vintage Obama, a bold but nuanced message that has become the touchstone of his presidential campaign: While he said the Iraq war would lead to “an occupation of undetermined length with undetermined costs and undetermined consequences,” he was also careful to emphasize that there were times when military intervention was necessary. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) Obama’s careful hedging could not have been more evident, and this hint of duplicity was not popular with the assembled crowd: Obama’s refrain about supporting some wars perplexed some in the crowd. An event organizer, Carl Davidson, recalled that a friend “nudged me and said, ‘Who does he think this speech is for? It’s not for this crowd.’ I thought, ‘This guy’s got bigger fish to fry.’ At the time, though, I was only thinking about the U.S. Senate.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 227 OBAMA PATRON JAMES CROWN OF GENERAL DYNAMICS AND J.P. MORGAN Obama now began to receive more open support from the highest levels of the US ruling elite. It will be recalled that Thomas Ayers had been a member of the board of directors of General Dynamics. With the elder Ayers now ailing, Obama began to receive support from another member of the General Dynamics board, the Chicago tycoon James Crown. James Crown is a close relative of the late Colonel Henry Crown, who had become the majority stockholder in General Dynamics back in 1959. Crown, currently one of Obama’s main backers, began giving the neophyte politician advice: As Mr. Obama moved closer to running, he paid a visit to James S. Crown and his father, Lester, billionaire investors who presided over a sprawling Chicago business dynasty and prominent leaders in the Jewish community. As the meeting ended, the younger Mr. Crown said, his father — who is “fairly hawkish” about Israel’s security — was noncommittal about Mr. Obama. But, James Crown said, “I pulled him down to my office, and I said, ‘Hey, look, I think you should run, and I want you to win.’ (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) OBAMA A PUPPET OF GENERAL DYNAMICS, MERCHANTS OF DEATH The Crown family were a pillar of the US industrial-military-financier complex. As we read in the open-source literature, James S. Crown is … is president of Henry Crown and Company, a private investment company. He is a director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., General Dynamics and Sara Lee as well as being the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Chicago. A member of Chicago’s Crown family, James’ father is billionaire Lester Crown. He earned his BA from Hampshire College in 1976 and his law degree from Stanford in 1980. It is believed his family holds ownership in the following companies: CC Industries, Inc.; General Dynamics Corp. (Resources Group); Material Service Corp.; Freeman United Coal Mining Co.; Freeman Energy Corp.; Century-America LLC; Century Steel LLC; Tishman Speyer Crown Equities; Industrial Insurance Agency, Inc.; Aspen Skiing Co. (Colorado); Citation Oil & Gas Corp.; Crown Theatres, LP; Chicago Sweeteners, Inc.; Eltek, ASA; Great Dane Trailers L.P.; Van Vlissingen & Co.; V & V Food Products, Inc.; Lakewood Homes, Inc.; Lennar Chicago; Crown Golf Properties; Wireless One Network; Active Screw & Fastener, L.P.; Plasco, Inc.; Crown Community Development; Ojai Resort Management (California); Bush Hog, LLC; Woodard, LLC.88 The lesson is clear: Obama is anything but an insurgent; he is the carefully tended puppet of the highest levels of finance capital and the military-industrial complex. Watch for General Dynamics (currently the sixth largest defense contractor in the world) to take the inside track in Pentagon contracts under a future Obama regime! Maybe Obama will decide that the US needs more nuclear submarines, since that is the specialty of General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division. THE CORRUPTION CROWN: A SWEETHEART MORTGAGE FOR THE OBAMAS At the end of June 2008, a scandal emerged around the fact that Democratic senators had been receiving sweetheart mortgages with extraordinarily low interest rates from lenders like the 228 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography infamous Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide bank. The first two Democratic senators involved were Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Chris Dodd of Connecticut both of whom attempted to weasel out of the charges. But then, at the beginning of July, it was revealed that the divine Barky had also received a sweetheart mortgage when he bought the ostentatious mansion that his friend, convicted felon Tony Rezko, had helped him to acquire. The Washington Post reported: Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois. The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a “super super jumbo.” Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates. Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama’s rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.’ Michelle and Barky had succumbed to the insatiable greed which is typical of the parvenu in all places and in all ages, and does not vary according to whether the oligarch in question is white, black, or some other color. The tastes of the man of the people were revealed to be sybaritic: ‘The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths, including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar, a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored kitchen.’ (Joe Stephens, “Obama Got Discount on Home Loan; Campaign Defends Lower Rate as Lender Competition for Business,” Washington Post, July 2, 2008) The question was now whether Northern Trust had given Obama the sweetheart rate because of his honest face, or in the hope of building up chits that could be used to influence legislation later on. A glance at the Board of Directors of Northern trust revealed the presence of none other than Susan Crown, a close associate of her relative James Crown, whom we have already identified as one of Obama’s most important backers and controllers. Susan Crown is the vice president of the Crown family counting house, Henry Crown and Company, and has served on the Board of Directors of Northern Trust since 1997. Susan Crown is an important oligarch in her own right: she is also a trustee of Yale University. OBAMA SELLS OUT MAYTAG WORKERS The parasitical Crown family has played a major role in the demontage of the Maytag Corp., which was once one of the biggest appliance makers in the United States. To make the sweetheart mortgage scandal even more outrageous, we must remember that Obama lent the Crown family in the person of Lester Crown a helping hand by co-opting the protest of threatened Maytag workers into his 2004 senate campaign, and, once he had their support, selling them down the river. This particular stab in the back developed as follows: Crown family members have been major donors to Obama’s campaigns, and serve on his elite fundraisers group for his presidential campaign. Among the most disturbing stories of Obama’s many efforts to give political and legislative advantages to the Crown family’s holdings, Senate candidate Barack Obama promised Illinois’ Maytag workers he’d work to protect their jobs — and took campaign donations from the beleaguered workers — but then met with Lester Crown, on the board of directors of Maytag, to take his campaign donations. Crown later told the press that Obama never raised the workers’ fate with him. The machinists lost their jobs to Maytag’s VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 229 Mexican plant. From [the] story, “Machinists’ Union TELLS It Like It Is,” quoting a must-read article at TradingMarkets.com, “Obama’s fundraising, rhetoric collide: Union says senator did little to save jobs.” Obama had a special connection to Maytag: Lester Crown, one of the company’s directors and biggest investors whose family, records show, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama’s campaigns since 2003. But Crown says Obama never raised the fate of the Galesburg plant with him. These are the ties that bind: The billionaire industrialist Crown family’s board memberships with Exelon Corporation, Maytag Corporation, and Northern Trust [and their close ties to] Barack Obama. Barack Obama plays the “populist” routine in his campaign speeches, but he delivers to his billionaire benefactors, not the common working stiffs who are losing their jobs and their homes. (susanunpc, noquarterusa.net, July 2, 2008)89 OBAMA’S LIMITLESS HYPOCRISY Back in February 2008, susanunpc had called attention to Obama’s scandalous hypocrisy, which had become an issue on the campaign trail, writing: Machinists Union President Tom Buffenbarger, introducing Clinton, talks about Maytag. He talks about the betrayal by Barack Obama, who only gave those Maytag workers a speech. WORDS. Baloney. But then Obama collected huge sums from the Crown family of Chicago, owners of Maytag who shipped those workers’ jobs out of the country.90 The Chicago Tribune commented: It is a ready applause line for the Illinois presidential hopeful, one that he has been reciting almost verbatim since he was a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2004, when appliance giant Maytag was in the process of shutting a refrigerator plant here, putting 1,600 people out of work. But the union that represented most of those Galesburg workers isn’t impressed with Obama’s advocacy and has endorsed his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Its leaders say they wish he had done more about their members’ plight. What rankles some is what Obama did not do even as he expressed solidarity four years ago with workers mounting a desperate fight to save their jobs. Obama had a special connection to Maytag: Lester Crown, one of the company’s directors and biggest investors whose family, records show, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama’s campaigns since 2003. But Crown says Obama never raised the fate of the Galesburg plant with him, and the billionaire industrialist insists any jawboning would have been futile.’91 OBAMA’S LEFT FLANK: ABUNIMAH, KHALIDI, AND RABBI WOLF But at the same time that he was courting high finance and the military-industrial complex, Obama was also at tentative to his left flank, and particularly to the interface between the US intelligence community (to which Obama belongs under Executive Order 12333 thanks to his foundation connections) and certain factions of the PLO: For years, the Obamas had been regular dinner guests at the Hyde Park home of Rashid Khalidi, a Middle East scholar at the University of Chicago and an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the 1990s peace talks. Mr. Khalidi said the talk would often turn to the Middle East, and he talked with Mr. Obama about issues like living conditions in the occupied territories. In 2000, the Khalidis held a fund-raiser for Mr. Obama during his Congressional campaign. Both Mr. Khalidi and Mr. Abunimah, of the Electronic Intifada, said Mr. Obama had spoken at the fundraiser and had called for the United States to adopt a more “evenhanded approach” to the 230 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Palestinian-Israel conflict. Still, Mr. Khalidi said ascertaining Mr. Obama’s precise position was often difficult. “You may come away thinking, ‘Wow, he agrees with me,’” he said. “But later, when you get home and think about it, you are not sure.” A.J. Wolf, a Hyde Park rabbi who is a friend of Mr. Obama’s and has often invited Mr. Khalidi to speak at his synagogue, said Mr. Obama had disappointed him by not being more assertive about the need for both Israel and the Palestinians to move toward peace. “He’s played all those notes right for the Israel lobby,” said Mr. Wolf, who is sometimes critical of Israel. … Mr. Abunimah has written of running into the candidate around that time and has said that Mr. Obama told him: “I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping that when things calm down I can be more upfront.” The Obama camp has denied Mr. Abunimah’s account. Mr. Khalidi, who is now the director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, said, “I’m unhappy about the positions he’s taken, but I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed.” He added: “People think he’s a saint. He’s not. He’s a politician.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) BARUCH OBAMA, GENERAL DYNAMICS, AND RIGHT-WING JEWS James Crown is reportedly very pleased with how Obama has handled himself since entering the US Senate; Crown’s investment has paid off in spades: Mr. Crown, for his part, could not be more pleased. Since Mr. Obama was elected to the Senate Mr. Crown said that even his father had been won over, helping to arrange meetings for Mr. Obama in a visit to Israel. James Crown said he had “never had even the slightest glimmer of concern that Barack wasn’t terrific” on Israel — a view that Mr. Obama jokingly reinforced at a meeting last year in Mr. Crown’s office. As Mr. Mikva recounted it, after discussing a lukewarm response by more conservative Jews to some of Mr. Obama’s comments, “I turned to Barack and said, ‘Your name could be Chaim Weizmann, the founder of the Jewish state, and some of these Jewish Republicans wouldn’t vote for you.’” And, Mr. Mikva said, “He joked, ‘Well, you know my name is “Baruch” Obama.’ (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) As he strove upwards, Obama jettisoned more and more of the trappings of a reform or anticorruption Democrat and cultivated assiduously his ties to the notorious Chicago Democratic machine: …as Mr. Obama ascended to the larger stage, he also took the final step in his evolution from Hyde Park independent to mainstream Chicago politician, establishing an overt alliance with Mr. Daley. “Over the years, Senator Obama and I have been like-minded in most of the issues facing Chicago,” the mayor said in a statement. His former chief of staff, Gary Chico, said the mayor’s alliance with the senator was “based on mutual interest and what the mayor saw in the man. They’re both pragmatic.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) The shared pragmatism was clearly of the Nietzschean variety, the antinomian kind that says that everything is allowed. Each one of these maneuvers, expedient though it were in its own right, left behind some disillusioned reformers and good government types who began to see through Obama’s opportunism. VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 231 … Mr. Obama’s closer relationship with the mayor, coupled with some of his endorsements of Democrats who championed the kind of patronage politics Mr. Obama had once denounced, left some supporters feeling as though he was straying from his roots in the reform movement. Last year, Mr. Mikva said he took Mr. Obama aside to complain about his endorsement of an alderwoman [almost certainly the infamous racist Dorothy Tillman, whom the Chicago Sun- Times describes as using historical involvement in slavery by companies and others to extort payments to herself and her allies] who had supported Mr. Obama in his United States Senate run and was the focus of newspaper reports about questionable spending on a $19.5 million cultural center. Mr. Mikva said Mr. Obama’s response was simple: “Sometimes you pay your debts.” Early last year, Mr. Obama endorsed Mr. Daley in his re-election bid, asserting that Chicago had blossomed during his tenure. Mr. Miner, the mentor who had brought Mr. Obama into his law firm in the early 1990s, said he remained an enthusiastic Obama supporter. But, when it comes to some of Mr. Obama’s endorsements, “I don’t know who he’s listening to.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) ACORN: FOUNDATION-FUNDED STORM TROOPERS Another foundation-funded organization that strongly supports Obama is ACORN, a group which uses real issues like poverty and low wages as pretexts to create gangs of goons and thugs which are used to target entities various entities to which the foundations are hostile. ACORN is reportedly heavily funded by such entities as the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation, two leftleaning tentacles of the foundation world where Obama has personally served as a board member. For many decades, as we have seen, the foundations have used the race issue as the hinge of a divide-and-conquer strategy designed to – preserve the supremacy of Wall Street financiers in this society. Now, as the economic depression deepens, it is clear that the foundations have deployed ACORN as a means of seizing control of social ferment around issues like unemployment, low wages, poor working conditions, and the like among a broader population, and one not limited by race. ACORN resembles the old KPD, the communist party of Weimar Germany, which organized unemployed workers into goon squads and street-fighting units. It also bears more than a passing resemblance to Bob Avakian’s provocateur organization, the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party. ACORN has been specifically responsible for vote fraud actions, and is deeply implicated in the goon squad operations that were such a prominent feature of Obama’s exclusion and intimidation tactics during the 2008 caucuses. Right-wing critics of Obama have a hard time understanding ACORN, since they cannot realize the validity and mass appeal of themes like a living wage, the fight against predatory lending, and restoring the social safety net provided by the Aid to Families with Dependent Children or general welfare provisions of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s great Social Security Act of 1935. The reality is that, with the Democratic Party failing to act on these vital questions, the field is open for their demagogic exploitation by foundation-funded gangs like ACORN who will bring growing numbers of the poor and the jobless into action as expendable shock troops and pawns under the control of ruthless demagogues loyal to the financier ruling class. One observer comments on ACORN: Obama’s most questionable tie is to a leftist organization called ACORN. His connection to this group begins with a woman named Madeleine Talbot. She embraced Obama and taught him the ropes. He remained a part of this group’s training cadre. Obama taught leadership conferences for the group while working for Miner, Barnhill & Galland. His connections don’t end there. Obama actively sought and received the endorsement by ACORN for the US presidency…. 232 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography According to its web site ACORN (an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. At first glance, this organization seems to be benign. This is not true since it uses very aggressive tactics to get its work done. … Some recent reports about their activities include the following things. They have disrupted and blocked activities within the Chicago City Council during living wage discussions. In Baltimore, MD, they burst into the scene of a private law dinner. They bussed four loads of protesters to the site of a mayor’s house, where they spewed profanities at the mayor and his family. And these are just the ones we know about. … These are not their only questionable actions. In the past they have been tied to illegal voter registration in at least three states. These three states are Washington, Missouri, and North Carolina. … In Missouri, the voter fraud case was tied to at least one campaign, the senate campaign of Claire McCaskill…. In 2004, the Washington state Secretary of State described ACORN’s illegal activity as the “largest case of voter fraud in the state’s history”…. They were fined $25,000 and promised to instruct their paid canvassers on the state election requirements. In 2005, according to the complaint filed with Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, the voter fraud involved the registration of homeless people. ACORN agrees they break the law but said “no one told us”. In 2006, in Kansas City, MO, five low-level operatives were charged with voter fraud. Four pleaded guilty, with the fifth person released because it came out that an ACORN worker had stolen her identity. … Their national goals are municipal “living” wage laws, targeting big companies like Costco, rolling back welfare reform, and regulating banks. If ACORN attacks COSTCO, does that mean they are paid by Wal-Mart? But the heart of the matter is this: ACORN as well as other groups was the recipients of foundation money from both the Woods Fund and Joyce Foundation. Why is this important? Obama sat on both boards. Through his board positions, he was able to assist in the funneling of many millions of dollars in grant money to various ultra-liberal organizations like Chicago’s ACORN.92 Despite what right-wingers may think, the real danger posed by ACORN is that of fascism, not communism. If actual assault sections appear on the streets of America, ACORN may well be prominently involved. Only broad-based New Deal economic policies can pull the rug out from under demagogues like these by neutralizing the problems they exploit to recruit useful idiots for the ruling elite. THE BLACK AGENDA REPORT EXPOSES OBAMA One of Obama’s sharpest critics over the past several years has been the distinguished black journalist Glenn Ford, a writer of real integrity who has earned the high regard of readers of the Black Commentator, and now of the Black Agenda Report. Ford’s work on Obama allows us to view the senator through the eyes of a black activist who over the years has fought consistently for the real interests of the black community in the broadest sense, as distinct from the personal ambitions of individual members of the black overclass. As a result, Ford has been very tough on the members of the Congressional Black Caucus in particular. Ford tells the fascinating story of how he first began to notice Obama’s tendency towards opportunism, specifically on the question of Obama’s early support from the Democratic Leadership Council, the notorious nest of right-wing Democrats who were always determined to appease the Republicans in every way possible, no matter what the cost: VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 233 Although close friends and confidants had been talking up a run for national office since the early 1990s, Barack Obama in 2003 was still an Illinois state senator running in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. This reporter, a longtime and former Chicago community and political organizer, had worked with Obama in 1992’s highly successful Project VOTE Illinois registration drive. After moving to Georgia in 2000, I managed to keep in touch with events at home, and was well aware of Obama’s run for the US Senate. While researching a story on the Democratic Leadership Council for the internet magazine Black Commentator in April and May of 2003, I ran across the DLC’s “100 to Watch” list for 2003, in which Barack Obama was prominently featured as one of the DLC’s favorite “rising stars.” This was ominous news because the DLC was and still is the right wing’s Trojan Horse inside the Democratic party. The DLC exists to guarantee that wealthy individuals and corporations who make large campaign donations have more say in the Democratic Party than do flesh and blood Democratic voters. The DLC achieves this by closely examining and questioning the records, the policy stands and the persons of officeholders and candidates to ensure that they are safe and worthy recipients of elite largesse. The DLC also supplies them with right-wing policy advisers beholden to those same interests, and hooks up approved candidates with the big money donors. Then as now, the DLC favors bigger military budgets and more imperial wars, wholesale privatization of government functions including social security, and in so-called “free trade” agreements like NAFTA which are actually investor rights agreements. Evidently, the giant insurance companies, the airlines, oil companies, Wall Street, military contractors and others had closely examined and vetted Barack Obama and found him pleasing. (Glenn Ford, “How We Held Obama’s Feet to the Fire in 2003,” The Black Agenda Report) OBAMA “THE WAR HO” – “A LIAR OF THE FIRST ORDER” – “WE MUST REJECT HIM” In a later article, Ford elaborated: ‘The Senator from Illinois masquerades as a “peace candidate” – and then proposes the Americans invade Pakistan, the only Muslim nation that has The Bomb. … Obama wants to invade Pakistan, the most dangerous place in the world. Obama wants to add almost one-hundred thousand new troops to the U.S. military.’ Ford went on to quote a recent speech by Obama: ‘“My plan would maintain sufficient forces in the region to target al Qaeda within Iraq,” Obama told the fat cats at the Woodrow Wilson Center. In other words, he is not about to get out of Iraq. Barack Obama is a liar of the first order. Obama masks himself as a peace candidate, but he is really a son of war. He carries the “White Man’s Burden,” proudly. He will carry us into a suicidal conflict, with relish. We must reject him.’ (Glenn Ford, “Barack Obama Ain’t Nothin’ But a War Ho’,” Black Agenda Report)93 Glenn Ford proceeded to demolish the Obama mystique in a systematic refutation: The 2008 Obama presidential run may be the most slickly orchestrated marketing machine in memory. That’s not a good thing. Marketing is not even distantly related to democracy or civic empowerment. Marketing is about creating emotional, even irrational bonds between your product and your target audience. From its Bloody Sunday 2007 proclamation that Obama was the second coming of Joshua to its nationally televised kickoff at Abe Lincoln’s tomb to the tens of millions of dollars in breathless free media coverage lavished on it by the establishment media, the campaign’s deft manipulation of hopeful themes and emotionally potent symbols has led many to impute their own cherished views to Obama, whether he endorses them or not. To cite the most obvious example, the Obama campaign cynically bills itself as “the movement”, 234 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the continuation and fulfillment of Dr. King’s legacy. But the speeches of its candidate carefully limit the application of all his troop withdrawal statements to “combat troops” and “combat brigades,” omitting the six figure number of armed mercenary contractors in Iraq, along with “training,” “counterinsurgency” and other kinds of troops. Obama also presses for an expansion of the US Army and Marines by more than 100,000 troops and a larger military budget even than the Bush regime. The fact that both these stands fly in the face of the legacy of Martin Luther King, and flatly contradict the wishes of most Democratic voters is utterly invisible in the establishment media, and in the discourse of established Black leaders on the Obama campaign. The average voter is ill-equipped to read Obama’s statements on these and other issues as closely as one might read a predatory loan application or a jacked up insurance policy, trying to determine exactly what is covered. As we pointed out back in December: The Obama campaign is heavy on symbolism, and long on vague catch phrases like “new leadership,” “new ideas,” “a politics of hope,” and “let’s dream America again” calculated to appeal to millions of disaffected Americans without actually meaning much of anything. Corporate media actively bill Obama as “the candidate of hope,” and anointed representative of the “Joshua generation.” There are good reasons campaign placards at Obama rallies say “change we can believe in” instead of “stop the war - vote Obama” or “repeal NAFTA - Barack in ‘08.” The first set of messages are hopeful and vague. The second are popular demands among the voters Obama needs, against which his past, present and future performance may be checked. When the comparison is made, the results are dismaying to many who want to support Barack Obama.94 2003: OBAMA DEEP SIXES HIS OWN 2002 ANTI-WAR SPEECH As part of his research into Obama, Glenn Ford looked at the senator’s website and found that Obama had gone silent on any opposition to the Iraq war, which at this point in 2003 seem to have been decisively won. Ford tells us that he revisited Obama’s primary election campaign web site, something I had not done for a month or two. To my dismay I found the 2002 antiwar speech, the same one which Barack Obama touts to this day as evidence of his antiwar backbone and prescience, which had been prominently featured before, had vanished from his web site, along with all other evidence that Obama had ever taken a plain-spoken stand against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. With the president riding high in the polls, and Illinois’ Black and antiwar vote safely in his pocket, Obama appeared to be running away from his opposition to the war, and from the Democratic party’s base. Free, at last. After calls to Obama’s campaign office yielded no satisfactory answers, we published an article in the June 5, 2003 issue of Black Commentator effectively calling Barack Obama out. We drew attention to the disappearance of any indication that U.S. Senate candidate Obama opposed the Iraq war at all from his web site and public statements. We noted with consternation that the Democratic Leadership Council, the right-wing Trojan Horse inside the Democratic party, had apparently vetted and approved Obama, naming him as one of its “100 to Watch” that season. This is what real journalists are supposed to do - fact check candidates, investigate the facts, tell the truth to audiences and hold the little clay feet of politicians and corporations to the fire. Facing the possible erosion of his base among progressive Democrats in Illinois, Obama contacted us. We printed his response in Black Commentator’s June 19 issue and queried the candidate on three “bright line” issues that clearly distinguish between corporate-funded DLC Democrats and authentic progressives. We concluded the dialog by printing Obama’s response on June 26, 2003. For the convenience of our readers in 2007, all three of these articles can be found here. It was our June 2003 exchange with candidate Obama VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 235 that prompted him to restore the antiwar speech on his web site, though not as prominently as before, the same antiwar speech which is now touted as evidence of his early and consistent opposition to the war. Our three “bright line” questions invited him to distinguish himself as an authentic progressive on single-payer national health care, on the war in Iraq, and on NAFTA. And it was our public exposure of the fact and implications of the DLC’s embrace of Obama’s career which caused him to explicitly renounce any formal ties with the Democratic Leadership Council. We didn’t do it because we were haters. We were doing our duty as agitators. (Glenn Ford, “How We Held Obama’s Feet to the Fire in 2003,” The Black Agenda Report) 95 In the fall of 2006, accompanied by the leading black journalists Bruce Dixon, Margaret Kimberley and Leutisha Sills of CBC Monitor, Glenn Ford left the Black Commentator which he had co-founded and edited since 2002, and launched Black Agenda Report. The Black Commentator continued under Bill Fletcher as executive editor. Fletcher is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, an important focus of the left wing of the US intelligence community, and the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum, a group linked with reparations advocate Randall Robinson. It would appear that the issue of provoking this split was specifically whether or not to support Obama for the presidency. Glenn Ford, for his part, has continued to maintain a critical stance in regard to the Illinois Senator, while Fletcher has gone as far as the traffic will bear in the direction of backing Obama. Here is Fletcher’s recent quasi-endorsement of Obama: My conclusion, and I offer this with great caution, is that critical support for Obama is the correct approach to take. Yet this really does mean critical support. It means, among other things, that Senator Obama needs to be challenged on his views regarding the Middle East; he must be pushed beyond his relatively pale position on Cuba to denounce the blockade; he must be pushed to advance a genuinely progressive view on the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast and the right of return for the Katrina evacuees; and he must be pushed to support single payer healthcare. As I emphasized in an earlier commentary, it is up to the grassroots to keep the candidates honest. Silence, in the name of unity, is a recipe for betrayal. What we have to keep in mind is something very simple: the other side, i.e., the political Right, always keeps the pressure on. If we do not pressure, in fact, if we do not demand, the reality is that the Right will come out on top. To do the right thing, we must assess and appreciate Senator Obama for who he is and what he is - politically - rather than engage in wishful thinking. To do anything else is to be disingenuous to our friends and our base. Senator Obama, if elected President, will be unlikely to reveal himself to have been a closeted progressive. Yet, with pressure from the base, he may be compelled to do some of what is needed, despite himself and despite pressures to the contrary. (Bill Fletcher, Jr., The Black Commentator) OBAMA IN 2004: BOMB IRAN – AND PAKISTAN Already in the 2004 Senate race, Obama displayed the incongruous and bizarre combination of nominal opposition to the Iraq war, while explicitly recommending a much wider regional conflagration involving Iran and Pakistan, amounting essentially to the beginnings of a new world war. Obama expounded his war plans to the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune in late September 2004: U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. Obama said the United States must first address Iran’s attempt to gain nuclear capabilities by going before the United Nations Security Council and lobbying the 236 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography international community to apply more pressure on Iran to cease nuclear activities. That pressure should come in the form of economic sanctions, he said. But if those measures fall short, the United States should not rule out military strikes to destroy nuclear production sites in Iran, Obama said. “The big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures, including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point are we going to, if any, are we going to take military action?” Obama asked. Given the continuing war in Iraq, the United States is not in a position to invade Iran, but missile strikes might be a viable option, he said. Obama conceded that such strikes might further strain relations between the U.S. and the Arab world. “In light of the fact that we’re now in Iraq, with all the problems in terms of perceptions about America that have been created, us launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in,” he said. “On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse. So I guess my instinct would be to err on not having those weapons in the possession of the ruling clerics of Iran. … And I hope it doesn’t get to that point. But realistically, as I watch how this thing has evolved, I’d be surprised if Iran blinked at this point.” As for Pakistan, Obama said that if President Pervez Musharraf were to lose power in a coup, the United States similarly might have to consider military action in that country to destroy nuclear weapons it already possesses. Musharraf’s troops are battling hundreds of well-armed foreign militants and Pakistani tribesmen in increasingly violent confrontations. Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different brand of foe than was the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they must be treated differently. “With the Soviet Union, you did get the sense that they were operating on a model that we could comprehend in terms of, they don’t want to be blown up, we don’t want to be blown up, so you do game theory and calculate ways to contain,” Obama said. “I think there are certain elements within the Islamic world right now that don’t make those same calculations. “… I think there are elements within Pakistan right now–if Musharraf is overthrown and they took over, I think we would have to consider going in and taking those bombs out, because I don’t think we can make the same assumptions about how they calculate risks.” (David Mendell, “Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran,” Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2004) These remarks are a foreshadowing of Obama’s call in the July 2007 Democratic candidates’ debate in Chicago for US bombing raids to be conducted on a unilateral basis in northern Pakistan, without consultation of the Musharraf government, and thus wantonly violating the national sovereignty of a very large and very proud nation which happens to possess nuclear weapons. At that time, Clinton, McCain, and even Bush had rejected this demand on various grounds, but by January 2008 Obama’s demand for the reckless and unilateral US bombing of Pakistan had become a reality, as reported by the Washington Post and other published sources. Naturally, Obama’s motion had passed thanks to the ascendancy inside the US government of the Zbigniew Brzezinski faction, as whose puppet Obama functions. But in September 2004, even the Chicago Tribune could see that there was something strange about being a dove on Iraq and a hawk on the two larger countries further east: Obama’s willingness to consider additional military action in the Middle East comes despite his early and vocal opposition to the Iraq war. Obama, however, also has stressed that he is not averse to using military action as a last resort, although he believes that President Bush did not make that case for the Iraq invasion… (David Mendell, “Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran,” Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2004) VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 237 US SENATE: THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY AND THE ELIMINATION OF BLAIR HULL We must now attempt to explain how the mediocre and relatively obscure Obama was able to force his way into the United States Senate in 2004 against other candidates who were better known, better qualified, and better financed. Once again, Trilateral magic will play a central role. Most accounts of this Senate race are purely fantastic, and try to explain Obama’s unlikely victory as a product of some astute machinations by the anointed one. Here is an example from a meretricious journalist whose notoriously slimy methods became a focus of attention during the Spring 2008 primaries: …the [Illinois] Senate race was crowded, dominated by two independently wealthy newcomers to politics: on the Democratic side, Blair Hull, a former securities trader who had made his first stake playing blackjack and pumped $29 million of his own money into the race, and for the Republicans, Jack Ryan, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who had made a fortune and then spent time as a teacher in an inner-city Catholic school. Another Democratic contender was the state controller, Dan Hynes, from an old Chicago political family, who figured to have strong labor and organization support. But Obama had his own ace: Emil Jones, whose support had the effect of tying the hands of Mayor Richard Daley and Governor Rod Blagojevich. “He knew if he had me in the run for the Senate, it would put a block on the current mayor,” Jones recalled. “The current mayor and the father of the controller, which was Dan Hynes, they were roommates in Springfield when the mayor was a state senator, so they had a relationship. Another big financial backer for the governor was Blair Hull. Barack knew if he had me it would checkmate the governor, ‘cause the governor couldn’t come out and go with Blair Hull, ‘cause the governor needs me. Same with the mayor. So he had analyzed and figured all of that out. He knew I could help him with labor support. And I could put a checkmate on some of the local politicians that didn’t know him, but they couldn’t really go against me. It was just like in a football game: you got this talented running back, but without those linemen opening the holes and blocking, the running back would never get out of the backfield.” Obama secured the nomination and in November 2004 won election to the Senate. (Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) This is the journalism of pure hallucination. The account given is absolutely fraudulent, and makes no mention whatever of the decisive factors that determined the outcome of this Senate race: these were two huge scandals which, with perfect timing, came out of nowhere and destroyed Obama’s most formidable opponents in the Democratic primary, Marson Blair Hull, and then — once again with perfect timing — brought down Jack Ryan, Obama’s Republican opponent in the November election. The New York Times account was a little better, but still left out the main things: If freshman senators arrive as celebrities, it is usually because they are “dragon slayers,” having ousted big-name incumbents. Mr. Obama was not one of those; two serious opponents in Illinois self-destructed, smoothing his path to election in November 2004. (New York Times, March 9, 2008) What these establishment writers are trying to hide is the fact that Obama has never won election to public office in a truly contested election. The 2004 Illinois Senate race confirms this adage, since Obama faced no serious opposition in the Democratic primary or in the general election, since his most formidable opponents had been knocked out by piloted scandals. 238 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography BARKY’S FIRST FOE: MARSON BLAIR HULL, OPTIONS MILLIONAIRE The most dangerous opponent for Obama was Blair Hull, usually considered the richest person to have ever run for statewide office in Illinois. Hull’s financial resources, accumulated during a career as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, were unusually formidable, and Hull was also determined to avoid the rich man’s fallacy that everything necessary for a campaign can simply be bought with money, whereas in reality there are some things that political organizing alone can accomplish. As we read in an Internet source, …in early polls leading up to the March 16, 2004, primary election, candidate Blair Hull enjoyed a substantial lead and widespread name recognition resulting from a well-financed advertisement effort. He contributed over $28 million of his personal wealth to the campaign. However, Hull was soon embroiled by allegations of domestic abuse. Marson Blair Hull, Jr. (born September 3, 1942), commonly known as Blair Hull, is an American businessman and politician, notable for his attempt to win the Democratic Party nomination to serve in the United States Senate from Illinois in 2004. He is the founder and CEO of the Hull Group, an equity option market making firm that was sold to Goldman Sachs. He is currently chairman and chief executive officer of Matlock Capital a family office. In early media polls leading up to the March 16, 2004 primary election, Hull enjoyed a substantial lead and widespread name recognition resulting from a well-financed advertisement effort. He contributed over $28 million of his personal wealth for the campaign. When allegations that Hull had abused his exwife were made by the media, Hull’s poll numbers dropped and he failed to win the nomination. Illinois State Senator Barack Obama later became the nominee. Challenger Barack Obama, an Illinois state senator, won endorsements from four Illinois congressmen and former DNC chairman David Wilhelm, increasing his name recognition among voters. In the final weeks of the campaign, Obama’s primary campaign gathered support from favorable media coverage and an advertising campaign designed by David Axelrod. The ads featured images of U.S. Senator Paul M. Simon and the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington; the support of Simon’s daughter; and the endorsement of most of the state’s major papers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. In the March primary, Obama won a majority of support, earning 52% of the vote, fueled by an overwhelming victory in Cook County, including Chicago. (Wikipedia on Blair Hull)96 This account captures certain features of the reality of what went on, but it stops at the superficial level of phenomenon and is unable to explain anything in terms of causation. THE ATLANTIC PROFILES HULL: SELF-FINANCED CANDIDATES ARE VULNERABLE TO SCANDALS We can begin to understand the surprising fall of Blair Hull more adequately once we recognize that Hull’s campaign had been extensively observed and profiled over a period of months by a number of journalists and operatives linked to institutions that would later emerge as key centers of support for Obama. The most egregious example is that of the Atlantic Monthly, in many ways the flagship magazine of the Boston and New York banking establishment in the same way that the New York Times is their newspaper of record. The Atlantic Monthly became one of the first house organs of pro-Obama hysteria in December 2007, with an adulatory cover story celebrating the Perfect Master by neocon Andrew Sullivan. One suspects that the Atlantic Monthly has cultivated a benevolent interest in the career of Obama going back several decades, as several other financier institutions had. In any case, by the spring of 2004 the Atlantic Monthly had assigned an VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 239 investigative journalist to the task of profiling the hapless Blair Hull. Here is some of what this operation unearthed: Blair Hull can afford to be cavalier about a senator’s $158,000 salary, because he is the richest person ever to seek office in Illinois. He has a larger staff than any of his competitors. He pays his staffers more than any of the nine Democratic presidential candidates pay theirs. And there is a very good chance that he will spend more just on Illinois’s March 16 Democratic primary than all but one or two of the Democratic presidential hopefuls will spend nationwide throughout the campaign. When I joined him for a few days in November, Hull was in the midst of the most expensive campaign in Illinois history, having pledged to spend as much as $40 million in pursuit of the seat being vacated by the Republican Peter Fitzgerald. Hull’s has all the trappings of a state-of-the-art campaign: meetups, a blog, and a timeshare in a corporate jet, not to mention a red, white, and blue “Hull-on-Wheels” RV that is featured prominently in his television commercials and has become a rolling symbol of the campaign. And at least in theory Hull, who is sixty-one, is a formidable candidate: as a former high school teacher, union worker, and board member of NARAL, he appeals to important Democratic constituencies; as the lone veteran in the field, he can oppose the war in Iraq unquestioned. His unusual life story, too, sets Hull apart from the drab lawyers, state representatives, and political scions who normally pursue office in Illinois, though in fact he is less flamboyant than his campaign and personal history suggest. Trained in mathematics and computer science, Hull became part of a notorious card-counting ring that operated in Nevada in the 1970s. … Hull always expected future gain. As if to underscore his analytical rigor, he used his winnings to found Hull Trading Co., a computerized options firm that earned him $340 million—and the means to run for the Senate—when Goldman Sachs bought it, in 1999. … But Hull’s campaign does demonstrate a shrewd understanding of what it takes to buy a Senate seat. In the past few years Corzine and Warner (this time running for Virginia governor) got elected, laying out a strategy that Hull’s campaign has largely adopted. Unlike Checchi and Huffington, Corzine went beyond television advertising to build his base of support. “Any self-funded candidate who relies on mass media to carry his message in the absence of creating a warm and lasting connection with voters is going to lose,” Steve DeMicco, who managed Corzine’s campaign, warns. Corzine courted key state officials and built an intricate grassroots network well in advance of the election. (Hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable donations to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and similar organizations didn’t hurt either.) And he largely resisted the urge to overrule his advisers, though he did refuse the suggestion that he shave his beard. “For the most part,” DeMicco says, “he knew what he didn’t know.” Hull, too, has assiduously cultivated the grass roots—particularly downstate, where he is counting on outperforming his Chicago-based competitors in the primary. Given that at least six other candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination, the winner should need only 25 to 30 percent of the vote. Though the millions Hull has spent to date have yet to make him the front-runner, his campaign is showing reasonable progress in the difficult task of turning a virtual unknown into a serious prospect for the state’s 12 million citizens. Hull has already campaigned full time for more than a year, blanketing the state with television ads, joining parades in the “Hull-on-Wheels” RV, and giving endless talks in small towns similar to Orland Hills. Like other candidates, Hull supports drug re-importation from Canada. He recently took a bus trip to Windsor, Ontario, with seniors who were buying prescription drugs. Unlike other candidates, he paid for the bus, the hotel rooms, and even the doctors’ visits. And just as Corzine did, he has spent an astonishing amount of money courting 240 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography state officials—donating to Rod Blagojevich’s successful 2002 campaign for governor of Illinois, for instance, a total of $459,000 in loans, cash, and the use of his jet. It turns out that Hull is that rare breed of candidate who will give an honest assessment of his chances. “At the outset,” he told me, “I estimated there was about a ten percent probability” of winning. But by the time he was six months into his campaign, Hull’s name recognition and poll support had risen to the point where, he said, “it is clearly above that—and rising.” He emphasized his continued willingness to bet millions of dollars that he can win. Hull is most animated by those aspects of campaigning that can be quantified and formulated. “Politics is very unpredictable,” he told me. “More so than blackjack.” When Elliott Close, a South Carolina textile heir, ran for the Senate in 1996, his consultants thought it politically unwise for him to drive a fancy foreign car. Close dutifully swapped it for a Cadillac. Not long afterward he was ticketed for speeding, and a subsequent newspaper account emphasized his expensive choice of automobile. Exasperated, Close bought a Buick and was said to carry the newspaper clipping in his wallet for the remainder of the campaign. Other examples are not quite as harmless. The Republican businessman Michael Huffington’s Senate campaign in California, in 1994, featured a get-tough-on-immigration platform unveiled in the final weeks of the campaign. A few days after the announcement the Los Angeles Times reported that Huffington employed an illegal alien as a nanny. Like Close, Huffington lost his election. Nevertheless, there is compelling evidence that Illinois voters will accept a candidate who draws on his own fortune to run for office. They have already elected one: Peter Fitzgerald, who in 1998 spent $14 million of his personal fortune of $40 million to win the seat Hull wants. But after Hull started campaigning, Fitzgerald announced that he would not seek re-election. Spending part of a fortune to become a senator was one thing; going through the rest of it to remain one, apparently, was another. The central finding of the profile, perhaps suggesting what would come next, was this: Self-financed candidates are usually facing media scrutiny for the first time. They are therefore more susceptible to damaging revelations: a drunk-driving arrest, a history of domestic violence, an illegal nanny. This reality can be daunting. (Joshua Green, “Blair Hull thinks he has found the formula for how to buy a Senate seat A Gambling Man,” Atlantic Monthly, February 2004) 97 As it turned out, the Obama machine could do better than a nanny. They would tar Hull with domestic violence and threatening to kill his own wife. HULL FALLS VICTIM TO AXELROD'S DIVORCE PAPERS GAMBIT Blair Hull’s world began to get turned upside down when a group of Chicago media apparently led by Axelrod’s network at the reactionary and neocon Chicago Tribune began demanding that the sealed court papers regarding the divorce which had ended Blair Hull’s marriage be revealed to the public. This procedure was highly irregular, since proceedings in Family Court are not automatically open to the public, because of the interest of the minor children. But these mere technicalities did not stop the Chicago Tribune, aided and prodded, as it was later learned, by the Obama campaign and quite possibly by the anointed one himself. When the papers were finally opened, they were an unmitigated disaster for poor Marson Blair Hull, including a physical beating and a death threat. Things had reached such a level of intensity between Hull and his wife that she had to ask for a special protective order to keep the allegedly violent husband away. Naturally, VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 241 these charges were all made ex parte by Hull’s wife, and therefore are not necessarily true at all. However, they were just the thing that the Trilateral doctors ordered for the anemic campaign of Obama. Here is a sampling of one journalistic account: The divorce filings reveal a highly volatile relationship between a couple who were married and divorced twice within four years. In the second divorce, the proceedings became so bitter that each party hired a private investigator to look into the other’s life, the divorce filings show. Before his first marriage to Sexton, Hull had been married for 29 years to another woman with whom he had four children. For her part, Sexton, 49, alleged a pattern of emotional and mental abuse by Hull. On March 12, 1998, she asked a Cook County Circuit Court judge to issue an order of protection against Hull, in part, because she alleged Hull had threatened her life. “I am in great fear that if this court does not enter a protective order in my favor and against Blair, as well as exclude him from my residence in which I am residing with my child ... Blair will continue to inflict mental, emotional and physical abuse upon me as he has done in the past,” Sexton alleged to obtain a court order to keep Hull away from her. “At this point, I fear for my emotional and physical well-being, as well as that of my daughter.” Sexton outlined several incidents in which she accused Hull of becoming violent, profane and verbally abusive. During one, she alleged that he “hung on the canopy bar of my bed, leered at me and stated, ‘Do you want to die? I am going to kill you....’” Only once, however, did she accuse him of striking her, which led to his arrest. But authorities declined to press charges against Hull because they determined that “mutual combat” had occurred. Hull said he struck Sexton’s shin in retaliation after she allegedly kicked him. A Cook County prosecutor “felt she would be unable to sustain a burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt” in the battery case, according to the divorce filing. But just days after she asked for the protective order, the couple reached a settlement agreement giving her $3 million and half the value of their North Side home. And despite her allegations of abusive behavior by Hull, Sexton agreed to allow the protective order to expire when the marriage was dissolved in court months later. (David Mendell, “Hull’s ex-wife called him violent man in divorce file,” Chicago Tribune, February 28, 2004) HULL CRUSHED BY TRILATERAL SCANDAL MACHINE The impact of these revelations on the hapless Hull’s campaign can be likened to that of a thermonuclear explosion. Here is an assessment of the state of Hull’s campaign on March 19, 2004 which stresses the collapse of … Blair Hull’s extravagant quest for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Hull’s campaign followed a trajectory more dramatic than Howard Dean’s, with big leads in the polls preceding what the Chicago Tribune called “the most inglorious campaign implosion in Illinois political history.” Hull finished a distant third in Tuesday’s voting, with barely 10% of the vote. His campaign was financed, lavishly, from the personal fortune Hull made as the founder of an options firm he sold to Goldman Sachs for $340 million in 1999. Hull spent at least $29 million on the campaign; the Tribune estimates he paid $260 for each vote he received. Hull’s undoing was a story that broke less than a month before the primary. His ex-wife had sought an order of protection against him during their divorce in 1998. Hull tried to keep the divorce records sealed, but pressure from journalists and opposing candidates forced him to release them. The papers revealed that his ex-wife alleged that Hull had threatened her life, and that a physical altercation between them had led to his arrest for battery, though no charges were filed. An established politician with a reputation and a track record might have survived such publicity. But Hull was a political novice. Not only had he never run for office before 2004, he hadn’t 242 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography bothered to vote for years at time. An article by Joshua Green on Hull, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly as his candidacy was cresting, was prescient: “Self-financed candidates are usually facing media scrutiny for the first time. They are therefore more susceptible to damaging revelations: a drunk-driving arrest, a history of domestic violence, an illegal nanny.” The ubiquitous Hull television ads had given him far better name recognition than his obscure opponents. But the footage of him chartering a bus to take Illinois senior citizens to Canada for cheaper prescription drugs than they could buy in the U.S. did him no good once the divorce story broke. Voters now knew one thing about Hull that didn’t come from his ads, and it made even the least credulous suspect that the virtues and earnestness on display in the paid spots were contrived. After the divorce story broke, Blair Hull posted a message on his campaign website: “If voters want to judge me solely on the basis of my divorce, I’m willing to allow the chips to fall where they may. However, what voters tell me they want this election to be about is who has the independence to make health care more affordable, drive down the costs of prescription drugs, get our economy moving and create jobs.” Jay Gatsby realized, finally, that none of those people at his parties were his friends—they were just there for the food, the drinks and the thrills. Blair Hull now knows that only a few of those earnest voters who spoke to him were really interested in his gold-plated policy seminar. They wanted a tabloid story, and he became it. (William Voegeli, “The Rise and Fall of Blair Hull,” The Claremont Institute, March 19, 2004)98 Note once again that the demolition of Hull followed the guidelines suggested by the profile in the Atlantic Monthly, which is today one of the temples of the Obama cult. OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN “WORKED AGGRESSIVELY” TO SMEAR BLAIR HULL As the 2004 Senate primary neared, it was clear that it was a contest between two people: the millionaire liberal, Hull, who was leading in the polls, and Obama, who had built an impressive grass-roots campaign. About a month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune revealed, near the bottom of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. In the following few days, the matter erupted into a full-fledged scandal that ended up destroying the Hull campaign and handing Obama an easy primary victory. The Tribune reporter who wrote the original piece later acknowledged in print that the Obama camp had ‘worked aggressively behind the scenes’ to push the story.99 (emphasis added)100 Even with the support of this profiling and scandal machine, Obama was only able to eke out 52.77% of the primary vote in a crowded field. The Obama campaign was deeply implicated in the mudslinging. THE ELIMINATION OF JACK RYAN Now Obama had to face the Republican candidate, who was yet another multimillionaire, this time with a glamorous actress wife who had been a star of the television series Star Trek. A standard Internet reference work gives the following account of what followed: Obama was then pitted against Jack Ryan, the winner of the Republican primary. Ryan campaigned in favor of across-the-board tax cuts, school choice, and tort reform, an effort to limit payout in medical malpractice lawsuits. Ryan spent his childhood in Wilmette, Illinois, with his five siblings, and attended New Trier High School. He graduated from high school in 1977 and went on to Dartmouth College, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 243 Kappa. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his JD from Harvard Law School. After this, he worked for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker and eventual partner, first in New York City, and then in the Chicago branch. Ryan married actress Jeri Ryan in 1991; together they have a son, Alex Ryan. They divorced in 1999 in California, and the records of the divorce were sealed at their mutual request. Five years later, when Ryan’s Senate campaign began, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and WLS-TV, the local ABC affiliate, sought to have the records released. Both Ryan and his wife agreed to make their divorce records public, but not make the custody records public, claiming that the custody records could be harmful to their son if released. On June 22, 2004, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider agreed to release the custody files. In those files, Jeri Ryan alleged that Jack Ryan had taken her to sex clubs in several cities, intending for them to have sex in public. The decision to release these files generated much controversy because it went against both parents’ direct request and because it reversed the earlier decision to seal the papers in the best interest of the child.101 This time around, Obama assumed a stance of Pecksniffian hypocrisy, deploring that such scabrous and salacious material was coming up in a political campaign. ‘“I don’t think it’s an appropriate topic for debate,” Obama said. Obama has consistently said that his campaign would not focus on Ryan’s 1999 divorce from TV actress Jeri Ryan.’ (Chicago Sun-Times, April 3, 2004) OBAMA AND THE ART OF PORNOGRAPHIC CAMPAIGNING The usual suspects from among Axelrod’s pals at the Chicago Tribune intervened actively on Obama’s behalf to dig up as much dirt as they could about Jack Ryan. Since divorce is now so prevalent, it is perhaps not a big surprise that Obama’s journalistic myrmidons chose the tactic of attempting to open up court papers from Ryan’s ugly divorce from the famous Star Trek actress Jeri Ryan: As the campaign progressed, a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Tribune and ABC-owned station WLS-TV led to a California court’s opening of child custody files from Ryan’s divorce with actress Jeri Ryan. In those files, she alleged that he had taken her to sex clubs in several cities, intending for them to have sex in public. Although the sensational nature made the revelations fodder for tabloid and television programs specializing in such stories, the files were also newsworthy because Ryan had insisted to Republican leaders that there was nothing damaging in them. As a result, many Republicans questioned Ryan’s integrity following the release, and he dropped out of the race on June 25, 2004, leaving Obama without an opponent. (Wikipedia on Jack Ryan)102 The stunning blow for Jack Ryan came on June 22, 2004 when, contrary to most legal precedent, the divorce papers were opened and published before a candid world. An account from the gotcha website The Smoking Gun describes the impact of these revelations on Ryan, who had tried to portray himself as a family values conservative against the cosmopolitan and Bohemian Obama: In what may prove a crippling blow to his U.S. Senate campaign, divorce records reveal that Illinois Republican Jack Ryan was accused by his former wife, actress Jeri Ryan, of pressuring her to have sex at swinger’s clubs in New York, Paris, and New Orleans while other patrons watched. The bombshell allegation is contained amidst nearly 400 pages of records ordered released yesterday by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who ruled on media requests to unseal documents from the Ryan case. The salacious charge leveled at the politician was made by Jeri Ryan, who has starred in TV’s “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Boston Public,” in a court 244 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography filing in connection with child custody proceedings…. The performer alleged that she refused Ryan’s requests for public sex during the excursions, which included a trip to a New York club “with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling.” While Ryan, a former Goldman Sachs executive, confirmed the trips with the actress, he described them simply as “romantic getaways,” denying her claims that he sought public sex. The politician has repeatedly claimed that his divorce file – portions of which were sealed in 2000 and 2001 – contained no embarrassing information that would harm his chances against Democratic nominee Barack Obama. The Ryans were married in 1991 and, in November 1998, Jeri Ryan filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences.” Another unsealed document reveals that Jeri Ryan, as part of the divorce settlement, received about $20 million in Goldman Sachs stock, while Jack Ryan retained a $40 million stake in the investment giant.103 RYAN FREQUENTED “A BIZARRE CLUB WITH CAGES, WHIPS, AND OTHER APPARATUS” Here are some excerpts from the unusually prurient statements of Jeri Ryan about her former husband’s penchant for dragging her into sex clubs: “They were long weekends, supposed ‘romantic’ getaways,” Jeri Ryan said in the filing. “The clubs in New York and Paris were explicit sex clubs. Respondent had done research. Respondent took me to two clubs in New York during the day. One club I refused to go in. It had mattresses in cubicles. The other club he insisted I go to.” In her 2000 filing, Jeri Ryan alleged that after she and Jack Ryan left the first sex club they entered in New York, he asked her to go to another. She said he told her that he had gone out to dinner with her that night even though he didn’t want to and “the least I could do in return was go to the club he wanted me to go.” She described the second place as “a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling.” “Respondent wanted me to have sex with him there with another couple watching. I refused,” Jeri Ryan continued. “Respondent asked me to perform a sexual activity upon him and he specifically asked other people to watch. I was very upset. “We left the club and respondent apologized, said that I was right and he would never insist that I go to a club again. He promised it was out of his system.” “Then during a trip to Paris, he took me to a sex club in Paris, without telling me where we were going. I told him I thought it was out of his system. I told him he had promised me would never go. People were having sex everywhere. I cried, I was physically ill. Respondent became very upset with me, and said it was not a ‘turn on’ for me to cry.” (AP, June 22, 2004) 104 Ryan could only counter weakly that “We did go to one avant garde nightclub in Paris which was more than either one of us felt comfortable with.” With the tabloids full of these sensational accounts, Jack Ryan’s Republican allies began to run away from him about as fast as they ran away from Mark Foley two years later. After the records were made public, Congressman Ray LaHood of the 18th District immediately called on Ryan to drop out of the race. By June 25, Dennis Hastert, another prominent Illinois Republican (and the House Speaker) had “made some calls,” according to anonymous sources reported in the Daily Southtown, and the consensus was for Ryan to step aside. The Southtown newspaper also reported that Ryan was expected to step aside. Some commentators pointed out that the information contained in the files involved private matters between a husband and wife and should not have been grounds for the destruction of Ryan’s campaign. Others pointed out that the allegations were never proven, and in fact, Ryan was awarded additional custody rights at the end of the hearing, suggesting the allegations were not deemed reliable by the judge. VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 245 Ryan trailed Obama in early polls, with Obama opening up a 20-point lead after the media reported that Ryan had assigned Justin Warfel, a Ryan campaign worker, to track Obama’s appearances. Warfel followed Obama’s movements 24 hours a day, recording everything Obama did in public on videotape. Warfel also heckled Obama by yelling questions at him in public. Ryan eventually withdrew Warfel, but did not apologize. (Wikipedia on Ryan)105 THE CARPETBAG CAMPAIGN OF ALAN KEYES OF MARYLAND It was now late June, and the Illinois Republican Party no longer had a credible candidate for the United States Senate. At this point, given the typical Republican mentality and voter base, it would have been natural for the Illinois Republicans to do the obvious thing and pick the best financed, best known white candidate they could find in order to at least cut their losses. The normal Republican reasoning would be that since Obama is black, a white candidate would automatically acquire support from backlash voters, especially those in the rural areas of downstate Illinois. A white candidate was the obvious choice. There was absolutely no reason to go far afield to recruit a black candidate yet for some inexplicable (and probably Trilateral) reason, this is what the Illinois Republicans did. Perhaps, after two of Obama’s opponents had been knocked out by perfectly timed scandals, the Illinois GOP had detected the hand of Divine Providence and concluded that Obama’s entry into the US Senate was now divinely ordained. Otherwise, there is no explanation of what the Illinois Republicans did next. They went all the way to Maryland to recruit Alan Keyes, a former State Department official under Reagan, a failed Senate candidate in his own state of Maryland, and a former Republican presidential candidate who was widely thought to have run for the White House in order to increase the standard fee he could demand for making lectures in front of groups of reactionary students on college campuses. Keyes was a widely known windbag and buffoon, and by making the trip from Maryland all the way to Illinois he compounded his problems by adding carpetbagger and interloper to the list of epithets ready to be hurled against him. In August 2004, with less than three months to go before election day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination to replace Ryan. A long-time resident of Maryland, Keyes established legal residency in Illinois with the nomination. Through three televised debates, Obama and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers, and tax cuts. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes’s 27%, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. (Wikipedia)106 Obama had received an important boost from Laurance S. Rockefeller, a senior member of the Rockefeller family, in the form of some very generous contributions to Axelrod and some issue ads designed to favor Obama’s Malthusian party line. Laurance, along with David, was one of the surviving members of the Rockefeller brothers’ generation, the sons of John D. Rockefeller Junior. Laurance died at the age of 94 in July 2004, so the Obama campaign was one of his last projects.107 OBAMA’S VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT SPEECH AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION In the midst of these events, Obama was chosen by the party hacks and Wall Street operatives who control the Democratic Party to deliver the keynote address of the 2004 Democratic national convention in Boston, Massachusetts. This was an unmistakable symbol of the fact that Obama had a support network that went far beyond the confines of the corrupt Chicago Democratic machine: it reached to Wall Street and beyond. In an instant, the obscure mediocrity Obama became a national and indeed international celebrity, and the Chicago Democratic wheel horses with whom he had 246 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography been rubbing shoulders in the various clubhouses of the South Side for a decade and more were stunned to see the forces that were now promoting Barky’s meteoric career. When Mr. Obama delivered a now-famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that catapulted him onto the national stage, sitting in the audience was Mayor Daley of Chicago. As Mr. Obama spoke, Mr. Daley and other Illinois officials “were just as wide-eyed as the thousands of convention goers,” said James A. DeLeo, a Democratic leader in the Illinois Senate. The mayor and the senator had some ties, but they had never had a close relationship. Mr. Obama’s friend Ms. Jarrett had worked for Mr. Daley, and had hired Michelle Obama into the administration in the early 1990s. Yet Mr. Obama had run multiple times as a candidate without the mayor’s help. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.) Obama’s Boston keynote address of 2004 represents essentially the same speech that he has been giving ever since: a tissue of patriotic clichés changed by New Age sensibilities, an oblique polemic against the Lee Atwater-Karl Rove use of wedge issues by the Republican party, and above all a cascade of vapid messianic slogans and Utopian rhetorical figures. The great overarching theme was the mystical unity of the American nation and people. Obama’s oration had not a scintilla of originality. It was a standard Democratic Party corporatist speech in the Volksgemeinschaft tradition – the (at best) communitarian idea that the mystical unity of The People magically dispels all real conflicts of interest, also a staple of the fascist rejection of class conflict. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan at the 1976 Democratic National Convention had played the Volksgemeinschaft card against Nixon and Ford. Jordan had intoned on that occasion: This is the question which must be answered in 1976: Are we to be one people bound together by common spirit, sharing in a common endeavor; or will we become a divided nation? For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future. We must not become the “New Puritans” and reject our society. We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor. It can be done. This speech had doubtless been written for Ms. Jordan by the Trilateral managers who ran both Jimmy Carter and the 1976 convention. Some of the rhetorical devices are actually echoed in Obama’s boilerplate rhetoric. “My story is part of the larger American story,” Obama pontificated in a performance that the controlled corporate media uniformly touted as electrifying and inspirational. “In no other country on Earth is my story even possible.” “We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states,” he said. “We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.” Here again was the mystical unity of the nation, a staple of standard fascist rhetoric. THE APOTHEOSIS OF A MEGALOMANIAC In the standard Roman triumphs, the victorious general returning to receive the tumultuous accolades of the Senate and people was also provided with a slave whose job it was to keep repeating that he was only mortal and that all glory was fleeting; this was a kind of Roman preventive care lest megalomania ensue from too much adulation. Obama has always needed an VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 247 entire staff to try to keep his characteristic megalomania under control. In an instant, Obama had leapt from relative obscurity to bask in the klieg lights of DC fame, and it was all going straight to his head: Obama’s good friend Martin Nesbitt, a successful black businessman in Chicago, spent the day of the speech with him, traveling from appearance to appearance. “We were walking down the street in Boston, and this crowd was growing behind us, kind of like Tiger Woods at the Masters. And I turned to Barack and I said, ‘This is incredible. You’re like a rock star.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘If you think it’s bad today, wait till tomorrow.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and he said, ‘My speech is pretty good.’ ” It was an extraordinary display of selfconfidence, and self-knowledge. (Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) We would rather call it an extraordinary display of megalomania on the part of a person who somehow believes that magical oratory can automatically be used to produce concrete effects in the real world — not a very healthy frame of mind for anyone, much less a president who will always have to fight to get the bureaucracy to do anything at all. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes’s 27%, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. Obama became only the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, after Edward Brooke of Massachusetts and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. We can expect Obama to undergo acute bouts of megalomania if he should ever get the Democratic nomination, to say nothing of the Nero-style performance he will put on if he should ever reach the White House. God help us. IN THE US SENATE: TACKING RIGHT WITH LUGAR Despite the underlying megalomania, Obama has also developed a certain limited capacity to display a self-deprecating humor. One example: Senator Barack Obama stood before Washington’s elite at the spring dinner of the storied Gridiron Club. In self-parody, he ticked off his accomplishments, little more than a year after arriving in town. “I’ve been very blessed,” Mr. Obama told the crowd assembled in March 2006. “Keynote speaker at the Democratic convention. The cover of Newsweek. My book made the best-seller list. I just won a Grammy for reading it on tape. “Really, what else is there to do?” he said, his smile now broad. “Well, I guess I could pass a law or something.” … He was running for president even as he was still getting lost in the Capitol’s corridors. “I think it’s very possible to have a Senate career here that is not particularly useful,” he said in an interview, reflecting on his first year. And it would be better for his political prospects not to become a Senate insider, which could saddle him with the kind of voting record that has tripped up so many senators who would be president. “It’s sort of logic turned on its head, but it really is true,” said Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the former senator and Democratic leader who has been a close adviser to Mr. Obama.’ (New York Times, March 9, 2008) Obama appears to be preparing to go one step further in the departure from reality which the neocons have thus far so nobly advanced: in the bizarro world of Obama, no experience is better than vast experience, and no track record is far better than a voluminous track record, since only perceptions, and never reality are involved. Unfortunately for Obama, this is just not the way the world works. 248 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography THE HOPE POPE CREATES THE HOPEFUND And then there were the kudos, the accolades which showered down on the anointed head: Shortly after Obama’s swearing in, his beatification begins when Time magazine names Obama one of “The World’s Most Influential People.” He is listed among other leaders and revolutionaries. This same year, the British journal New Statesman names Obama one of “10 People Who Could Change the World.” After he was on the cover of Newsweek the same week President Bush appeared as Time’s Man of the Year, his fellow Democratic senators gently ribbed him at their first weekly luncheon of the new Congress. His memoir was on The New York Times’ best-seller list for 54 weeks. And Washington society was eager to embrace him — a Capitol Hill newspaper ranked him as No. 2 on its list of most beautiful people. Mr. Obama was also pulling in big money. He created a political action committee, the Hopefund, to increase his visibility and help other Democrats, and it raised $1.8 million the first year. He disappointed some Democrats by not taking a more prominent role opposing the war — he voted against a troop withdrawal proposal by Senators John Kerry and Russ Feingold in June 2006, arguing that a firm date for withdrawal would hamstring diplomats and military commanders in the field. His most important accomplishment was his push for ethics reform. Party leaders named him their point person in 2006, and when the Democrats assumed the majority in Congress in January 2007, Mr. Obama and Mr. Feingold, a longtime Democratic proponent of ethics reform, proposed curtailing meals and gifts from lobbyists, restricting the use of corporate planes, requiring lobbyists who bundle donations to disclose individual donors… “He folded like a cheap suit,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a close ally of Mr. McCain. “What it showed me is you are not an agent of change. Because to really change things in this place you have to get beat up now and then.” (New York Times, March 9, 2008) Obama’s betrayal of the Kerry-Feingold bill of mid-2006 is by itself enough to make his claim of consistent opposition to the Iraq war into a bitter mockery, but the Kool-Aid drinkers and lemming legions who support his cultist candidacy are epistemologically incapable of seeing this simple fact. TOM DASCHLE, THE SENATOR FROM CITIBANK As soon as Obama got to Washington, he immediately began recruiting a staff of classic powerbrokers and influence peddlers. Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005. Although a newcomer to Washington, he recruited a team of established, high-level advisers devoted to broad themes that exceeded the usual requirements of an incoming first-term senator. Obama hired Pete Rouse, a 30-year veteran of national politics and former chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, as his chief of staff, and economist Karen Kornbluh, former deputy chief of staff to Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, as his policy director. His key foreign policy advisers include Samantha Power, author on human rights and genocide, and former Clinton administration officials Anthony Lake and Susan Rice. Obama holds assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Veterans’ Affairs, and he is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists him as the fifth African-American Senator in VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 249 U.S. history, the third to have been popularly elected, and the only African-American currently serving in the Senate.’ (Wikipedia entry on Obama)108 Especially sinister is the presence of Tom Daschle, notorious as the senator from Citibank, which happens to be one of the largest employers in the state of South Dakota because of the presence of some of its back-office facilities there. Daschle embodies in the cringing appeasement and milquetoast opposition which was typical of the Democratic Party during Bush’s first term. He lost his seat to the upstart Thune because of his numerous betrayals and he is now attempting to reinvent himself thanks to the Hope Meister. STRIPPING THE RUSSIAN NUCLEAR DETERRENT WITH DICK LUGAR Naturally, everybody in Washington is in favor of stripping away as much of the Russian nuclear deterrent as can be managed, so this was a very noncontroversial choice for Obama, and happened by some coincidence to also coincide perfectly with the anti-Russian priorities of his longtime mentor and controller, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Soon after he was sworn into office on January 4, 2005, Obama partnered with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana to craft a bill that attempted to undermine the Russian deterrent under the pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. The choice of the reactionary Lugar was significant, since this is a figure whom Obama is known to be considering either for the vice presidency or for a post like secretary of state. Lugar was one of Obama’s first mentors in the Senate, and was at that time the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar later invited Obama on a trip through the former Soviet Union, inspecting projects to decommission Cold War-era weapons. The two joined hands to pass legislation to control the spread of weapons. “I like him, and I appreciate working with him,” Lugar said. “It seems to me that he was adept in finding partners and coalitions and actually was able to achieve results.” In addition to a legislative accomplishment teaming with Lugar, the partnership gave Obama the added credibility he sought in an association across party lines. A former presidential candidate who has seen many fellow senators launch White House bids during his 30-year Senate career, Lugar offers unusually strong praise for Obama. “He does have a sense of idealism and principled leadership, a vision of the future,” Lugar said. “At certain points in history, certain people are the ones that are most likely to have the vision or imagination or be able to identify talent and to manage other people’s ideas. And I think he does this well.” (New York Times, March 9, 2008) AUSTERITY FANATIC TOM COBURN AND WARMONGER JOE LIEBERMAN Obama also gravitated to another notorious reactionary, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, with whom he created a website that tracks all federal spending. Radical right-wingers were intrigued by Obama’s ability to camouflage proposals for brutal austerity and savage cuts in the standard of living under the fatuous cloud of utopian babbling. By now, these reactionaries also had a pretty good idea that Obama was a candidate with a glass jaw, and much less formidable in the 2008 election than Senator Clinton would be. “…nobody should imagine that the right-wing media whose voices now praise Obama will continue to do so if he wins the Democratic nomination, or that the mainstream media, which still takes so many cues from the right, will do likewise.” This article also talks about Obama’s “free ride” that I have been talking about for the longest time along with his “mentor” 250 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography relationship to Joe Lieberman: “Should Obama hope to continue to enjoy his free ride, he should consult his old mentor Joe Lieberman, the senator from Connecticut who used to be a Democrat. Conservative commentators and right-wing media outlets always loved Lieberman for his willingness to echo their talking points on subjects such as school vouchers and Social Security privatization.” And in March 2006, Obama went out of his way to travel to Connecticut to campaign for Senator Joseph Lieberman who faced a tough challenge by antiwar candidate Ned Lamont. At a Democratic Party dinner attended by Lamont, Obama called Lieberman “his mentor” and urged those in attendance to vote and give financial contributions to him. This is the same Lieberman who Alexander Cockburn called “Bush’s closest Democratic ally on the Iraq War.” Why would Obama have done that if he was truly against the war? (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) Obama’s antics during his first months in Washington, DC before he left the Senate to go on the presidential campaign trail give us some idea of what he means by bipartisan cooperation, which is a blanket capitulation to reactionaries on virtually every issue, especially the economic ones. Observers were astounded or a poll: When Obama first got to Washington, he wanted to be a wonk, to keep his head down and concentrate on small issues. “The plan was: Put Illinois first,” one of his aides tells me. Obama himself admits that his initial agenda had a “self-conscious” modesty. His early legislative accomplishments have been useful and bipartisan — he has even sponsored bills with ultraconservative Sen. Tom Coburn, who believes that high school bathrooms breed lesbianism — but they have been small-scale and off the headlines: a plan to make it easier for citizens to find out about government spending, increased research into ethanol, more job training and tax credits for “responsible fathers.” This is the kind of head-down diligence that plays well in the Senate. “I am amazed by his sheer stamina,” says Sen. Dick Lugar, a Republican from Indiana who has become something of a mentor to Obama. 109 Now even poor Tom Coburn has been thrown under the bus by Obama as a result of the Philadelphia debate in which the anointed one cited Coburn as an example of a right-wing extremist who wanted the death penalty for abortions as part of a rhetorical trick to seemingly balance his decades-long friendship with the Weatherman terrorist bomber Bill Ayers. Obama’s concept of friendship is clearly a very ephemeral one. RECTOR OBAMA SNIFFS AT “THE MANUEVERINGS, THE CHICANERY, THE SMALLNESS” OF THE US SENATE Fundamentally, Obama is an apolitical and anti-political candidate who is opposed to a form of government in which economic questions are decided primarily by the give and take and haggling inherent in the parliamentary and legislative processes. Obama thinks that these decisions ought to be made by bankers speaking among themselves in the measured tones of the corporate boardroom. His entire campaign therefore has a decidedly anti-parliamentary thrust, a characteristic that it shares with the early Italian fascism of Mussolini between 1919 in 1922. The Duce once described the Italian parliament as a cattle pen, and his contempt for parliamentary methods was always flagrant. Obama offers the same attitude in a somewhat laid-back postmodern or new age form, but it is the same attitude, as we can see from this: …Washington has plenty of wonks, and Obama wasn’t going to distinguish himself through diligence alone. He came to the Capitol equipped with his own, swelling celebrity; the Senate was not a perfect fit. Beyond his considerable charm, Obama can be righteous and cocky. He VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 251 came to Washington pushing the hope that politics could be better — but now he can give the impression that he’d rather be just about anywhere other than in Washington. “It can be incredibly frustrating,” he tells me. “The maneuverings, the chicanery, the smallness of politics here.” Listening to a bloviating colleague at his first meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama slipped a three-word note to a member of his staff: “Shoot. Me. Now.” On a recent day, as Obama made his way through the Capitol’s corridors, his fellow senators seemed like good-natured sportscasters, jolly and easy with their power, bantering about the fortunes of baseball teams in their home states... Obama is aloof and quiet. He prefers to listen, attentive as a rector, not quite of this world, silently measuring it. “The typical politician pushes himself on people to get them to pay attention,” says Frank Luntz, the Republican campaign strategist. “Obama is quieter. He doesn’t push — he has a laid-back feel that pulls you in. That is so rare.” (Wallace Wells, “Destiny’s Child,” Rolling Stone, February 27, 2007) But no matter what the issue, Obama will always take any opportunity he is offered to pontificate, lecture, hector, and talk down to his interlocutors: The lesson the senator took from the meeting, he says, was this: “Politics is not a sport. The debates we have in Washington are not about tactical advantages. They are about who we are as people, what we believe in and what we are willing to do to make sure we have a country that our children deserve.” Afterward, he signs autographs in the crowd for what seems like hours: He can’t, he won’t, get away. (Wallace Wells, “Destiny’s Child,” Rolling Stone, February 27, 2007) US SENATE: MEDDLING IN KENYAN DESTABILIZATION NECKLACING As part of Obama’s efforts to demonstrate his continuing usefulness to Zbigniew Brzezinski and the rest of the Rockefeller-Trilateral policy faction as they strive to reject the Chinese from Africa and thus cut off the flow of African oil, raw materials, and minerals to the Middle Kingdom, Obama — puffed up by his new senatorial dignity — now undertook a second roots trip back to Kenya. This time it was no longer a matter of discovering inconvenient truths about his father and the rest of his relatives; it was now a matter of documenting his ability to help destabilize Kenya with the help of his murderous cousin, the Anglo-American provocateur Ryan Odinga: During Obama’s trip to Kenya in August 2006, he openly meddled in tribal politics against the majority Kikuyu ethnic group, which controlled the government, and in favor of his own Luo tribe, which had become identified to some extent with the cause of Islam. It must be stressed that the motivation for Obama as illegitimate interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state was not dictated by religious considerations, but had everything to do with the desire of the Zbigniew Brzezinski faction of the US elite to overthrow the Kenyan government because it was open to cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, which Brzezinski is targeting in the first phase of his final apocalyptic assault on Russia. Under the Brzezinski strategy, all of Africa is to become a battlefield between the United States and the Chinese, with the goal of denying Beijing access to oil, minerals, and other strategic raw materials. Obama made his meddling so blatant and so obvious that the existing Kenyan government labeled him in blunt terms as a “stooge” for the Luo-based and US-backed opposition forces, who were led by his cousin, the murderous Raila Odinga. (Mike Flannery, “[Kenyan] Government Says Obama is a Stooge for Political Opposition,” CBS2.com, August 2006) 252 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography KENYAN GOVERNMENT: OBAMA “A STOOGE” Seeing Obama’s eagerness to meddle and interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign and independent African states, some African leaders already began to understand what breed of cat this Obama what is. As one right-wing Internet site comments, There are signs of tension between Sen. Barack Obama and African leaders. On Monday, Obama stepped up his criticism of government corruption in Kenya. At the University of Nairobi, the senator offered more pointed criticism, something he’s done almost every day since arriving last week. After remaining largely silent, the government of President Mwai Kibaki is beginning to respond, suggesting that Obama may have fallen under the spell of opposition leader Raila Odinga, Obama’s cousin. Odinga is the son of Senior’s sister, a direct first cousin and nephew of Obama’s father. A potential presidential candidate himself, Odinga’s been at Obama’s elbow here fairly often and is a member of the Obama family’s Luo tribe. “Sen. Obama has to look at critically about where he’s receiving his advice from,” said government spokesman Dr. Alfred Mutua. “Just because somebody, somewhere wants to run for president and is using Sen. Obama as his stooge, as his puppet to be able to get to where he wants to get to.” Raila Odinga, who is Obama’s first cousin, has, in his own words, a “close personal friendship” with Obama. When Obama went to Kenya in August of 2006, he was hosted by Raila and spoke in praise of him at several rallies in Nairobi…. When Raila Odinga lost the presidential election to Mwai Kibaki, he claimed the vote was rigged, whereupon his tribal followers went on murderous rampages, such as in the town of Eldoret, where on New Years’ Day dozens of Christians were burned to death in a church set on fire. Throughout Kenya, hundreds of people have been politically murdered in the last few days.110 The problem is that the American people can have no conceivable interest in taking sides in the conflict between the Luo and the Kikuyu; the American interest is to maintain mutually beneficial relations with the government of a peaceful and united Kenya which is making forward progress in its own national economic development. THE CIA’S LUO-ISLAM ALLIANCE WRECKS KENYA Right-wing websites and called attention to the fact that the Odinga-Luo party inclines towards the Islamic political movements in Kenya. This may presently be the case, but no one should mistake the underlying strategy, which is that the Kenyan government must be destroyed because it is willing to conclude development accords with the People’s Republic of China. Odinga is not a Moslem jihadi; when traveling overseas, he is in practice a CIA asset. Nevertheless, the details of these operations show how cynically the Christian populations of Africa are being sacrificed by Brzezinski in the service of his obsessive anti-Chinese and anti-Russian designs. We find on the Internet that, for example, the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya has posted on its website a photograph copy of a Memorandum of Understanding, dated and signed on August 29, 2007, between Raila Odinga and Shiekh Abdullah Abdi, chairman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum of Kenya. Here is a summary on the agreement which was signed: It pledges the support of Kenyan Moslems for Raila’s election. In return, as President of Kenya, Raila agrees to 14 actions, listed a) through n) on page two. Within 6 months re-write the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Shariah as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared regions. Within one year facilitate the establishment of a Shariah court in every Kenyan divisional headquarters. (Note: VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 253 everywhere in Kenya, not just in “Muslim declared regions.”) Popularize Islam, the only true religion… by ordering every primary school in Kenya in the regions to conduct daily Madrassa classes. Impose a total ban on open-air gospel crusades by worshippers of the cross… Outlaw gospel programs… on KBC, the National Broadcaster. Impose a total ban on the public consumption of alcoholic beverages…Impose an immediate ban on women’s public dressing styles that are considered immoral and offensive to the Muslim faith…111 OBAMA’S COUSIN ODINGA: NECKLACING IN THE FAMILY AND THE TRIBE There is little doubt that Raila Odinga is no champion of either democracy or Islam, but rather a brutal and power-hungry thug who happens to have hitched his wagon to US-British imperialism. One observer writes that Obama’s involvement in Kenyan politics, whether tribal or religious, is bothersome. On January 2nd, in classic Marxist tradition, Obama’s Kenyan 1st cousin, Raila Odinga, accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 election, and rallied his Luo followers in western Kenya, demanding a new election. Kibaki “must step down or there must be a re-election — in this I will not be compromised. You cannot steal my cow, and I catch you red-handed, and then expect me to share the milk because the cow is mine.” More than 1,000 people, mostly Kikuyu Christians, have been killed and 300,000 forced from their homes by Odinga’s followers.112 To some this may look like Marxism, but the method is that of the classical National Endowment for Democracy people power coup or color revolution. An interesting side light to all this is that “Raila Odinga named his daughter after Winnie Mandela, who championed the act of necklacing – murdering an opponent by putting a burning rubber tire around his neck — in South Africa some years back. His son is named for Fidel Castro.”113 BRZEZINSKI: KICK THE CHINESE OUT OF AFRICA The calculation being made by Brzezinski and other diehard defenders of US-UK world domination is that the novelty of Obama’s black face can be used to refurbish their own image to the point where a counteroffensive against the Chinese in Africa will become possible in the short run. Think first of George Bush attempting to convince African leaders that they should join in the campaign of London and Washington to impose economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, because — irony of ironies — Bush is offended by the alleged fact that Mugabe uses vote fraud to maintain his hold on power! Clearly, Bush’s chances of prevailing in such requests would be minimal. But now imagine that it is Barack Hussein Obama who is making the appeal to the African states to join in the latest imperialist campaign. Now, the imperialist chances, although still low, have decidedly improved. Obama went to Africa in large part to show that he could appeal directly to the African masses, but once again the inherent professorial elitism and pedantry of this haughty Luo got in the way. Here is a first-person account: In late August, for the third time in his life, he traveled to Kogelo, the tiny, grassless village in western Kenya where his father had grown up the son of a Muslim goat herder and where the senator’s grandmother still lives. There is something absurd about the collision of Obama’s worlds, right now, dozens of microphones thrust in the face of this eighty-five-year-old woman who has spent her life in this amazingly obscure place and barely knows her grandson. But this is part of the Obama legend, the globalized Abe Lincoln: This is his log cabin, a generation removed. When his caravan pulls into the village, thousands of people are waiting for him, a 254 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography vast and disciplined crowd standing in long, silent lines, like those old photos of British colonials reviewing the Zulus. They are rooting for him to say something big, something feeling, about Africa, about the relation between America and Kenya, about the way history is beginning to shift. Obama, instead, backs away. “I don’t come here as a grandson but as a U.S. senator,” he tells them. “My time is not my own. Don’t expect me to come back here very often.” And then again: “I’m not going to be here all the time.” He goes on in this vein: He wants to help Kenyans, but he also wants them to help themselves. He begins to sound like any other politician, a deputy to the trade commissioner. The crowd, full of hope, almost visibly deflates. (Wallace Wells, “Destiny’s Child,” Rolling Stone, February 27, 2007) Not a very promising beginning, but also perhaps a fair reflection of the predicament of Anglo- American imperialism in Africa today. GETTING RICH IN THE MILLIONAIRE’S CLUB Obama and his wife are trying to cultivate the public image of an anti-materialist power couple were urging young people to choose the path of idealism and not pecuniary aggrandizement. This is a public relations ploy doubtless invented by Axelrod, and it is a cruel sham. One of Obama’s first preoccupations upon arriving in the Senate was how to begin amassing wealth into a considerable fortune as soon as he could: Less than two months after ascending to the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu. In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease. He also bought more than $50,000 in stock in a satellite communications business whose principal backers include four friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees. A spokesman for Obama says the senator did not know that he had invested in either company.114 The perfect Master was too much involved in his idealistic meditations to ever think about all that filthy lucre he was amassing by means of classical graft. OBAMA REFUSES TO HELP END THE IRAQ WAR Obama’s elusive October 2002 antiwar speech has remained for many years an isolated and impotent gesture, clearly conceived and executed as part of a cynical marketing strategy as a means of jumpstarting Barky’s Senate campaign by mobilizing a brigade old SDS leftists. in 2005 in 2006, Bush could count on Obama as a reliable vote in favor of the continued funding of the Iraq war and against impeachment, which by late 2006 had become a genuine mass movement, especially in the middle class. Even Obama’s allies in the controlled corporate media began to take notice of his duplicity: Campaigning for the Illinois Senate seat in 2003 and 2004, Obama scolded Bush for invading Iraq and vowed he would “unequivocally” vote against an additional $87 billion to pay for it. Yet since taking office in January 2005, he has voted for four separate war appropriations, totaling more than $300 billion. Last June [2006], Obama voted no to Senator John F. Kerry’s proposal to remove most combat troops from Iraq by July 2007, warning that an “arbitrary deadline” could “compound” the Bush administration’s mistake. And now he’s voted for a Republican-sponsored resolution that stated the Senate would not cut off funding for troops in VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 255 Iraq. He left it to others to lead public opinion. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) emerged as the strongest voices against the war. Those critics all spoke out before Obama gave his first major policy speech on the war — 11 months after he took office.’ (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) JULY 2004: “NOT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE” BETWEEN BUSH AND OBAMA ON IRAQ In July of 2004, Obama, replied to a question about his differences with Bush regime regarding the Iraq war with this: “I’m not privy to Senate intelligence reports. What would I have done? I don’t know.” He added: “There’s not much of a difference between my position on Iraq and George Bush’s position at this stage.” (“Meet the Press,” 2004, MyDD, Nov. 11, 2007) The senator himself tries to portray his many pro-war votes as being the result of his recognition of the nuanced complexity of the situation in Iraq, rather than as the cynical sellouts that they are: Obama defended his reluctance to call for withdrawal during most of his first year in the Senate. “At the time, my view was that the [Iraqi] government was still forming and it would be important to not give the impression, prior to the formation of that government, that we were already on the way out,” Obama said. “Now, what changed? We have the breaking out of a complete civil war, at least a significant low-grade civil war.” Feingold offers Obama mixed reviews for his handling of Iraq. “I’ve been pleased that his opposition has intensified over time. I was not that happy with his initial opposition to a timeline,” Feingold said. (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) NADERITE MATT GONZALEZ: OBAMA FAILS ON THE ISSUES Matt Gonzalez is a former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and is currently (2008) running on Ralph Nader’s ticket as a vice presidential candidate. Before declaring his candidacy, he contributed an excellent overview of Obama on the issues. The first thing that Gonzalez notices is the point we have just been stressing, namely that Obama’s self-portrait as a consistent and reliable antiwar vote is, to use President Clinton’s term, a “fairy tale.” Generally speaking, Obama is running away from his own voting record as fast as his legs will carry him, preferring to pose as the purveyor of hope and change in the most vacuous and generic terms. Gonzalez notes: Let’s start with his signature position against the Iraq war. Obama has sent mixed messages at best. First, he opposed the war in Iraq while in the Illinois state legislature. Once he was running for US Senate though, when public opinion and support for the war was at its highest, he was quoted in the July 27, 2004 Chicago Tribune as saying, “There’s not that much difference between my position and George Bush’s position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who’s in a position to execute.” The Tribune went on to say that Obama, “now believes US forces must remain to stabilize the war-ravaged nation a policy not dissimilar to the current approach of the Bush administration.” Obama’s campaign says he was referring to the ongoing occupation and how best to stabilize the region. But why wouldn’t he have taken the opportunity to urge withdrawal if he truly opposed the war? Was he trying to signal to conservative voters that he would subjugate his anti-war position if elected to the US Senate and perhaps support a lengthy occupation? Well as it turns out, he’s done just that. Since taking office in January 2005 he has voted to approve every war appropriation the Republicans have put forward, totaling over $300 billion. He also voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary 256 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography of State despite her complicity in the Bush Administration’s various false justifications for going to war in Iraq. Why would he vote to make one of the architects of “Operation Iraqi Liberation” the head of US foreign policy? Curiously, he lacked the courage of 13 of his colleagues who voted against her confirmation. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) 115 Then there is the little matter of civil liberties, where Obama is actually looking more and more like a crypto-totalitarian. In any case, it is certain that Obama was a supporter of renewal of the Patriot Act in midsummer 2005, a time when anti-Bush sentiment was clearly the wave of the future: “Obama voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act in July 2005, easily the worse attack on civil liberties in the last half-century. It allows for wholesale eavesdropping on American citizens under the guise of anti-terrorism efforts.” (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) Now, in the 2008 primary season, we have had another cycle of promises and betrayals inflicted on us by Obama, who strutted as an implacable enemy of the Iraq war during 2007, but who, by mid 2008, is signaling more and more that he is open to prolonging the Iraq war virtually indefinitely. Recently, with anti-war sentiment on the rise, Obama declared he will get our combat troops out of Iraq in 2009. But Obama isn’t actually saying he wants to get all of our troops out of Iraq. At a September 2007 debate before the New Hampshire primary, moderated by Tim Russert, Obama refused to commit to getting our troops out of Iraq by January 2013 and, on the campaign trail, he has repeatedly stated his desire to add 100,000 combat troops to the military.’ (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) ‘At the same event, Obama committed to keeping enough soldiers in Iraq to “carry out our counter-terrorism activities there” which includes “striking at al Qaeda in Iraq.” What he didn’t say is this continued warfare will require an estimated 60,000 troops to remain in Iraq according to a May 2006 report prepared b y the Center for American Progress. Moreover, it appears he intends to “redeploy” the troops he takes out of the unpopular war in Iraq and send them to Afghanistan. So it appears that under Obama’s plan the US will remain heavily engaged in war. This is hardly a position to get excited about. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) At some points during the 2007 debates, Obama spouted vaguely anti-imperialist rhetoric, but this was clearly yet another hoax: when all is said and done, Obama, like Kerry, is basically claiming to be a smarter imperialist than Bush, and that is nothing to write home about. OBAMA VOTES AGAINST CLASS ACTION LAW SUITS These days in Washington, when a lobbyist wants to take some important right away from the American people, it is customary to cloak such operation under the edifying term of “reform.” Obama’s own parlance is rich in many examples of this kind of doubletalk. A good case study is Obama support of what the corporate lobbyists like to call “class action reform,” which is no reform at all but rather a high-handed outrage by the malefactors of great wealth. ‘In 2005, Obama joined Republicans in passing a law dubiously called the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) that would shut down state courts as a venue to hear many class action lawsuits. Long a desired objective of large corporations and President George Bush, Obama in effect voted to deny redress in many of the courts where these kinds of cases have the best chance of surviving corporate legal challenges. Instead, it forces them into the backlogged Republican-judge dominated federal courts. By contrast, Senators Clinton, Edwards and Kerry joined 23 others to vote against CAFA, noting the “reform” was a thinly-veiled “special interest VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 257 extravaganza” that favored banking, creditors and other corporate interests. David Sirota, the former spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, commented on CAFA in the June 26, 2006 issue of The Nation, “Opposed by most major civil rights and consumer watchdog groups, this Big Business-backed legislation was sold to the public as a way to stop “frivolous” lawsuits. But everyone in Washington knew the bill’s real objective was to protect corporate abusers.” Nation contributor Dan Zegart noted further: “On its face, the class-action bill is mere procedural tinkering, transferring from state to federal court actions involving more than $5 million where any plaintiff is from a different state from the defendant company. But federal courts are much more hostile to class actions than their state counterparts; such cases tend to be rooted in the finer points of state law, in which federal judges are reluctant to dabble. And even if federal judges do take on these suits, with only 678 of them on the bench (compared with 9,200 state judges), already overburdened dockets will grow. Thus, the bill will make class actions, most of which involve discrimination, consumer fraud and wage-and-hour violations all but impossible. One example: After forty lawsuits were filed against Wal-Mart for allegedly forcing employees to work “off the clock,” four state courts certified these suits as class actions. Not a single federal court did so, although the practice probably involves hundreds of thousands of employees nationwide.” Why would a civil rights lawyer knowingly make it harder for working-class people (Or the people of Hunter Point suing Lennar) to have their day in court, in effect shutting off avenues of redress? (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) Washington is full of corrupt congressmen who are experts in this kind of flimflam; but the truly galling thing about Obama is the sanctimonious hypocrisy with which he envelops each and every criminal sellout of the public interest. Obama has always been the trimmer, and has sought to avoid above all things an irrevocable, clear, and principled stand on any major issue. One of his favorite tricks in the Illinois Senate was to constantly vote present when he needed to take evasive action: These seemingly unusual votes wherein Obama aligns himself with Republican Party interests aren’t new. While in the Illinois Senate, Obama voted to limit the recovery that victims of medical malpractice could obtain through the courts. Capping non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases means a victim cannot fully recover for pain and suffering or for punitive damages. Moreover, it ignored that courts were already empowered to adjust awards when appropriate, and that the Illinois Supreme Court had previously ruled such limits on tort reform violated the state constitution. In the US Senate, Obama continued interfering with patients’ full recovery for tortious conduct. He was a sponsor of the National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation Act of 2005. The bill requires hospitals to disclose errors to patients and has a mechanism whereby disclosure, coupled with apologies, is rewarded by limiting patients’ economic recovery. Rather than simply mandating disclosure, Obama’s solution is to trade what should be mandated for something that should never be given away: namely, full recovery for the injured patient. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) OBAMA BLOCKS REFORM OF THE MINING LAW OF 1872 An entire separate detailed study would be necessary to fully cover the extent of Obama’s involvement with been ruthless corporate barons who run the mining industry. Some Southern 258 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Illinois coal mine owners clearly own a time share of Obama, and he has been shameless in delivering on their demands: In November 2007, Obama came out against a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872. The current statute, signed into law by Ulysses Grant, allows mining companies to pay a nominal fee, as little as $2.50 an acre, to mine for hardrock minerals like gold, silver, and copper without paying royalties. Yearly profits for mining hardrock on public lands is estimated to be in excess of $1 billion a year, according to Earthworks, a group that monitors the industry. Not surprisingly, the industry spends freely when it comes to lobbying: an estimated $60 million between 1998-2004, according to The Center on Public Integrity. And it appears to be paying off, yet again. The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 would have finally overhauled the law and allowed American taxpayers to reap part of the royalties (4 percent of gross revenue on existing mining operations and 8 percent on new ones). The bill provided a revenue source to clean up abandoned hardrock mines, which is likely to cost taxpayers over $50 million, and addressed health and safety concerns in the 11 affected western states. Later it came to light that one of Obama’s key advisors in Nevada is a Nevadabased lobbyist in the employ of various mining companies. (CBS News “Obama’s Position on Mining Law Questioned. Democrat Shares Position with Mining Executives Who Employ Lobbyist Advising Him,” November 14, 2007). NUCLEAR REGULATION: THE SENATOR FROM EXELON (AKA TOM AYERS’ COMM EDISON) Naturally, Obama’s deepest loyalties (if that is the word) go to the late Thomas Ayers of Commonwealth Edison, now known as Exelon. Thomas Ayers is one of the principal figures who lifted Obama up out of nothingness and made him. Not surprisingly, Obama has done yeoman service for the Ayers interests: The New York Times reported that, while campaigning in Iowa in December 2007, Obama boasted that he had passed a bill requiring nuclear plants to promptly report radioactive leaks. This came after residents of his home state of Illinois complained they were not told of leaks that occurred at a nuclear plant operated by Exelon Corporation. The truth, however, was that Obama allowed the bill to be amended in Committee by Senate Republicans, replacing language mandating reporting with verbiage that merely offered guidance to regulators on how to address unreported leaks. The story noted that even this version of Obama’s bill failed to pass the Senate, so it was unclear why Obama was claiming to have passed the legislation. The February 3, 2008 The New York Times article titled “Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate” by Mike McIntire also noted the opinion of one of Obama’s constituents, which was hardly enthusiastic about Obama’s legislative efforts: “Senator Obama’s staff was sending us copies of the bill to review, and we could see it weakening with each successive draft,” said Joe Cosgrove, a park district director in Will County, Ill., where low-level radioactive runoff had turned up in groundwater. “The teeth were just taken out of it.” As it turns out, the New York Times story noted: “Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama’s campaigns for the United States Senate and for president. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund-raisers.” (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 259 CORN-BASED ETHANOL GENOCIDE FOR THE THIRD WORLD Obama is also fully committed to the monstrosity of turning corn into gasoline at extravagant expense while a hungry world starved to death. This is, after all, a strange way to appeal for the friendship of the developing countries, where cheap corn often means the difference between life and death. González notes that …on energy policy, Obama is a big supporter of corn-based ethanol which is well-known for being an energy-intensive crop to grow. It is estimated that seven barrels of oil are required to produce eight barrels of corn ethanol, according to research by the Cato Institute. Ethanol’s impact on climate change is nominal and isn’t “green” according to Alisa Gravitz, Co-op America executive director. “It simply isn’t a major improvement over gasoline when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.” A 2006 University of Minnesota study by Jason Hill and David Tilman, and an earlier study published in BioScience in 2005, concur. (There’s even concern that a reliance on corn-based ethanol would lead to higher food prices.) So why would Obama be touting this as a solution to our oil dependency? Could it have something to do with the fact that the first presidential primary is located in Iowa, corn capital of the country? In legislative terms this means Obama voted in favor of $8 billion worth of corn subsidies in 2006 alone…. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) OBAMA REJECTS UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE Wall Street commentators have made no secret of the fact that they prefer Obama because he is the only Democrat not to demand national, universal health care. Here it is extremely clear that Obama has chosen to champion the financier interest while mortifying and betray the obvious public interest of all Americans, and indeed of all persons under US jurisdiction. González has drawn up the following catalog of Obama’s betrayals in this department: Obama opposed single-payer bill HR676, sponsored by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers in 2006, although at least 75 members of Congress supported it. Single-payer works by trying to diminish the administrative costs that comprise somewhere around one-third of every health care dollar spent, by eliminating the duplicative nature of these services. The expected $300 billion in annual savings such a system would produce would go directly to cover the uninsured and expand coverage to those who already have insurance, according to Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and cofounder of Physicians for a National Health Program. Obama’s own plan has been widely criticized for leaving health care industry administrative costs in place and for allowing millions of people to remain uninsured. “Sicko” filmmaker Michael Moore ridiculed it saying, “Obama wants the insurance companies to help us develop a new health care plan-the same companies who have created the mess in the first place.”’ (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) Michael Moore, no man of principle, did not let the little matter of universal health care get in the way of a slobbering public embrace of Obama as soon as he thought that would represent a career enhancing move. In the meantime, a 40 to 50 million Americans have no health care insurance, and prospects for any improvement in the refuge or Obama regime are exceedingly grim. 260 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA STRADDLES ON FREE TRADE SELLOUTS During the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries, Obama postured as a sharp critic of free trade sellouts like NAFTA, CAFTA, and others. At the same time, Obama sent his top economic controller, Skull and Bones alumnus Austin Goolsbee of the Friedmanite Chicago school, to reassure the Canadians that Obama was simply bloviating for electoral purposes. Obama has flipped on this issue literally countless times: Regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement, Obama recently boasted, “I don’t think NAFTA has been good for Americans, and I never have.” Yet, Calvin Woodward reviewed Obama’s record on NAFTA in a February 26, 2008 Associated Press article and found that comment to be misleading: “In his 2004 Senate campaign, Obama said the US should pursue more deals such as NAFTA, and argued more broadly that his opponent’s call for tariffs would spark a trade war. AP reported then that the Illinois senator had spoken of enormous benefits having accrued to his state from NAFTA, while adding that he also called for more aggressive trade protections for US workers.”’ (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) After Goolsbee’s secret contacts with the Canadians were revealed, Obama indignantly denied that these talks had taken place. Nevertheless, at the close of the primary season, in June 2008, Obama told Fortune magazine that he was indeed a friend free trade agreements and a dedicated apostle of the supremacy of market forces. But, just as in the case of Obama’s warmongering against Pakistan and other countries, the lemming legions loyal to Barky are epistemologically incapable of seeing the reality before their eyes, meaning that they are hysterical in the strict sense of the word. By now, Obama has learned to recite the standard Democratic Party litany that labor and environmental guarantees must be included in any future free trade sellouts — as if these trivial and minimalist requirements would do anything to stop or even slow the destruction of the US economy by the sinister forces of economic globalization. But when it comes to actually voting for something concrete in this direction, Obama is as totally impotent and feckless as he usually is: Putting aside campaign rhetoric, when actually given an opportunity to protect workers from unfair trade agreements, Obama cast the deciding vote against an amendment to a September 2005 Commerce Appropriations Bill, proposed by North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, that would have prohibited US trade negotiators from weakening US laws that provide safeguards from unfair foreign trade practices. The bill would have been a vital tool to combat the outsourcing of jobs to foreign workers and would have ended a common corporate practice known as “pole-vaulting” over regulations, which allows companies doing foreign business to avoid “right to organize,” “minimum wage,” and other worker protections. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) OBAMA THE WIMP One of the issues discussed in the Democratic candidates debates in the early part of the primary season was the need to fight the entrenched powers of Washington in order to make any progress at all of the People’s agenda. Senator Edwards talked a very good game of fighting, and promised to fight all the way to the convention, but then suddenly dropped out even before the Super Tuesday primaries. Senator Clinton promised to fight, and then won wide admiration by actually delivering on that promise, showing considerable courage in the process. Obama’s method was to take the capitulation policy of someone like his mentor Tom Daschle, and raise that cowardice and VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 261 appeasement to the theoretical level of positive virtue. It was clear to many that Obama is a wimp far worse than Bush the Elder, an incurable wuss and whiner. González senses the seriousness of this problem and asks: Why should we believe Obama has courage to bring about change? He wouldn’t have his picture taken with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom when visiting San Francisco for a fundraiser in his honor because Obama was scared voters might think he supports gay marriage (Newsom acknowledged this to Reuters on January 26, 2007 and former Mayor Willie Brown admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle on February 5, 2008 that Obama told him he wanted to avoid Newsom for that reason.) (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) We need to point out here that anything impinging on homosexuality evokes palpable terror on the part of Obama, quite evidently because of his own bisexual practices, as Larry Sinclair has pointed out. Another case in point is the death penalty, which Obama supports, for obvious demagogic reasons. A politician who was willing to sacrifice human lives as the rhetorical props for his own ambition is beneath contempt, and this fits the anointed one: Obama acknowledges the disproportionate impact the death penalty has on blacks, but still supports it, while other politicians are fighting to stop it. (On December 17, 2007 New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed a bill banning the death penalty after it was passed by the New Jersey Assembly.)’ (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) So far, Obama has proven undecided about how to play the Mexophobia card. Here his maneuvering is complicated by the contradictory situation in which he desperately needs Latinos to vote for him, while these Hispanic voters have shown that they simply cannot stomach Obama and are against him by at least a two to one margin. On September 29, 2006, Obama joined Republicans in voting to build 700 miles of double fencing on the Mexican border (The Secure Fence Act of 2006), abandoning 19 of his colleagues who had the courage to oppose it. But now that he’s campaigning in Texas and eager to win over Mexican-American voters, he says he’d employ a different border solution. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) Gonzalez is surely on firm ground when he concludes: ‘It is shocking how frequently and consistently Obama is willing to subjugate good decision making for his personal and political benefit.’ (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) If Nader and González can develop an anti-Obama critique of the necessary depth and intensity, they will be performing an important public and patriotic service in helping to disorganize and demoralize the left wing of Obama’s movement of fanatical cultists. OBAMA OPPOSES CAPS ON CREDIT CARD INTEREST, FAVORS USURY One of the issues which was raised against Obama during the course of the Democratic candidates’ debates was his vote against a mandatory federal limit on credit card interest rates. It was clear to everyone that the interest rate cap included in the bill in question was far too high, but on the other hand passing the bill meant regulating credit card rates at the federal level for the first time in living memory. Obama predictably voted in favor of maintaining limitless usury in the tradition of Jeremy Bentham, and at the same time retreated behind a pedantic, professorial smokescreen about how the legislation had failed to meet his high standards. One might say that 262 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Obama’s trick is to make the perfect the enemy of the good, thus blocking any concrete and practical benefit that might actually be within reach. As Gonzalez points out, Obama has a way of ducking hard votes or explaining away his bad votes by trying to blame poorly-written statutes. Case in point: an amendment he voted on as part of a recent bankruptcy bill before the US Senate would have capped credit card interest rates at 30 percent. Inexplicably, Obama voted against it, although it would have been the beginning of setting these predatory lending rates under federal control. Even Senator Hillary Clinton supported it. Now Obama explains his vote by saying the amendment was poorly written or set the ceiling too high. His explanation isn’t credible as Obama offered no lower number as an alternative, and didn’t put forward his own amendment clarifying whatever language he found objectionable. Why wouldn’t Obama have voted to create the first federal ceiling on predatory credit card interest rates, particularly as he calls himself a champion of the poor and middle classes? Perhaps he was signaling to the corporate establishment that they need not fear him. For all of his dynamic rhetoric about lifting up the masses, it seems Obama has little intention of doing anything concrete to reverse the cycle of poverty many struggle to overcome. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) OBAMA AS THE LEADING SABOTEUR OF IMPEACHMENT Given the way the 2008 primaries worked, Obama was able to attract a very large part of the left liberal wing of the Democratic Party into his camp. These left liberals had been the leading force calling for the impeachment and removal from office of Bush and Cheney, and action which is not a mere matter of opinion, but rather an objective necessity if we want to wipe the slate clean of all the liberticide precedents and entrenched totalitarian practices of the Bush Cheney regime. There is in fact an ample window for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney by the new Democratic Congress during the 17 days between the convening of the two chambers on January 3, 2009, and Bush’s departure from office (in so far as the law is observed) on January 20, 2009 at noon. But, by early February 2008, it was clear that the left liberals supporting Obama were dropping impeachment like a hot potato, evidently because it conflicted with the Perfect Master’s pledge to usher in a new golden age of harmonious bipartisan cooperation, thanks to the beatific and transfiguring power of Barky’s radiant personality. Impeachment, by contrast, is a very messy and a very partisan affair indeed, but it happens to be necessary to preserve constitutional government in this country. One of the reasons that the Trilateral financiers deployed Obama in the first place was because of their desire to divert and deflect a very strong mass resentment against Bush, Cheney, the neocons, and much of what they stand for. Obama has largely succeeded in fulfilling this task, since his candidacy has coincided with the collapse of momentum in favor of impeachment up and down the line. By sending forth Obama, the Trilateral banking faction is attempting to set in motion a process of organizing masses of the American people against themselves with the help of a ruthless demagogue financed by an avalanche of cash — a process which has all the essential characteristics of fascism. González shows that Obama aggressively opposed initiating impeachment proceedings against the president (“Obama: Impeachment is not acceptable,” USA Today, June 28, 2007) and he wouldn’t even support Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold’s effort to censure the Bush administration for illegally wiretapping American citizens in violation of the 1978 and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In Feingold’s words “I’m amazed at Democrats cowering with this president’s numbers so low.” Once again, it’s troubling that Obama would take these positions VI. Grabbing a Senate Seat with a Little Help from his Trilateral Friends 263 and miss the opportunity to document the abuses of the Bush regime. (Matt Gonzalez, “The Obama Craze,” Counterpunch) In the final analysis, Obama emerges as a demagogue and word monger of a new and dangerous type. González concludes: Once I started looking at the votes Obama actually cast, I began to hear his rhetoric differently. The principal conclusion I draw about “change” and Barack Obama is that Obama needs to change his voting habits and stop pandering to win votes. If he does this he might someday make a decent candidate who could earn my support. For now Obama has fallen into a dangerous pattern of capitulation that he cannot reconcile with his growing popularity as an agent of change. OBAMA IN THE POCKET OF THE COAL LOBBY One of the most grotesque contradictions which has emerged from Obama is relentless pursuit of corporate sponsorship has been the Perfect Master’s relationship with the coal industry in Illinois and beyond. After the primaries were over, Obama announced that an energy policy capable of dealing with the pseudo-problem of global warming and climate change would represent one of his three top priorities, and this is precisely what we would expect from such a deeply Malthusian mentality. But, at the same time, Obama continues his loyal service to the holding companies that control the coal industry, even though it is by now clear that coal is much more valuable when used as an indispensable feedstock for the modern petrochemical production, rather than being used as a fuel, where it is hopelessly outclassed by nuclear power. Nevertheless, Obama has attempted to straddle this issue as well: Reflecting the interests of southern Illinois coal producers, he sponsored legislation to provide tax breaks and other incentives for refineries that turn coal into liquid fuel, generating criticism from environmental groups that say the coal-based technology would contribute to global warming. (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) The Washington Post has attempted to make a mockery of this important issue and get Barky off the hook that way: “Who, but who,” writes the Post, ‘would soil the environmental reputation of Barack Obama? The Democratic senator from Illinois gets stellar marks from greens. Just a few months ago he was calling global warming “real,” saying: “It is here.... We couldn’t just keep burning fossil fuels and contribute to the changing atmosphere without consequence.” Sen. Barack Obama (DIll.) has reintroduced the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007. It’s a development that has the coal crowd cheering. (Charles Dharapak, AP) So why then, environmentalists ask, is Obama backing a law supporting the expanded use of coal, whose emissions are cooking the globe? It seems the answer is twofold: his interest in energy independence — and his interest in downstate Illinois, where the senator’s green tinge makes the coal industry queasy... (Elizabeth Williamson, “The Green Gripe With Obama: Liquefied Coal Is Still . . . Coal,” Washington Post, January 10, 2007116 One way to make sense of this picture is to recall that the Rockefeller-Trilateral interests that controlled the Carter administration were obsessed at that time with the notion of increasing US coal production, and indeed with making domestic coal the central element of a national energy policy for many decades to come. This lunatic project, like so many others, disappeared in the 264 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography general shipwreck of Carter’s ship of fools, but look for it to reemerge if Obama is able to seize power over the coming months. A FECKLESS AND CALLOW YOUTH BLINDED BY MEGALOMANIA AND EASY SUCCESS It was in October 2006 that Obama published a new edition of his memoir, The Audacity of Hope. As is now widely known, the title is borrowed from a line which appears in one of his sermons of the foundation-funded racist provocateur, the raving Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who served as Obama as mentor and spiritual adviser for more than two decades, with Obama paying through the nose for this dubious privilege with the majority of his charitable contributions yearover- year. The original edition of this book first appeared in 1995. What kind of a man writes his own autobiography when he has not yet reached the age of 35, and has accomplished virtually nothing in life? The ominous answer may well be, a megalomaniac, a person suffering from delusions of grandeur, like the stock inmate of a mental hospital who imagines that he is the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Obama appears to be aware of the megalomania which for him is always nearby, and appears to be at pains to dispel the cold glare of these delusions with a kind of frivolous and superficial, but also nervous and high-strung, attempt at humor: When asked to speak in 2006 at the Gridiron Dinner — a white-tie-and-tails gathering that brings together Washington’s political and media elites — he reached for humor to show a bit of humility and deflate expectations. “Most of all,” he told reporters gathered for the function, “I want to thank you for all the generous advance coverage you’ve given me in anticipation of a successful career. When I actually do something, we’ll let you know.” (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) The American people are still waiting. CHAPTER VII: THE HOPE POPE AND HIS TRILATERAL MONEY MACHINE A new political alliance is being forged in this country between the super-rich and the superpoor– especially the alienated and activist members of minority groups. The Ford Foundation, under the aggressive leadership of McGeorge Bundy, is providing the major thrust for this power bloc ... This is a dangerous game but it doesn’t seem to worry those members of the ‘Eastern Establishment’ who are involved. They’re sure that no matter what happens they’ll still be on top. Vincent J. Salandria, 1971. “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views . . .” - Obama Obama, as we have seen thus far, is the puppet candidate of an unparalleled combination of institutions representing the Anglo-American ruling financier elite: his family traditions of those of the Ford Foundation and of its satellite foundations. He enjoys the backing of the Rockefeller, family, of George Soros, and now of Rupert Murdoch. His career has been fostered by the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberger group at the highest levels. His controllers, advisors, handlers, and entourage come from the Council on Foreign Relations, the RAND Corporation, Skull and Bones, and the Chicago school of reactionary economics. Many of these institutions had already collaborated in the most elaborate previous attempt to create an entire presidential administration around a candidate as the puppet of these financiers — the CFR 1980s Project, and the resulting Jimmy Carter regime. Obama might be called the candidate of pan-oligarchy, that is to say of an attempt to unite the warring factions of the US-UK elite for the purpose of securing another century of world domination for London and Washington. Brzezinski, Huntington, and the other members of the Trilateral brain trust had been expecting the domestic political upheaval inside the United States to begin sometime after 2010, but the disasters of the Bush presidency had accelerated the timetable. A suitable puppet demagogue was now urgently required for the 2008 contest. Accordingly, after just a few months in the US Senate, Barky was given the go-code to begin his presidential campaign, and the Rockefeller-Soros-Trilateral-Bilderberg-CFR-RAND-Skull and Bones-Chicago Boys-foundation network went into high gear. This unparalleled combination of financier factions and interest groups is prepared to spend something approaching half a billion US dollars for the purpose of creating an Obama regime. These are admittedly depreciated dollars, but this is still an impressive investment. Obama has now emerged as the greatest Pluto-candidate in all of American history, a figure who is leading historical characteristic may appear to future observers in the form of the unprecedented money machine which his wealthy backers have assembled around the vapid utopian slogans and hollow messianic rhetoric of the Hope Pope. Obama’s rich supporters, it should be obvious, are not paying through the nose in this way because they find these demented slogans compelling. Rather, they are paying top dollar for direct access to political power – naked, brutal, crushing, pitiless political power. In this they are like Fritz Thyssen, a friend of Prescott Bush and the author of a book entitled I Paid Hitler, a man who was not interested in Hitler’s idiotic and primitive views about race and history, but was rather looking for a steady supply of slave laborers for the factory complexes that grow up around the concentration camps. Obama, it must be added, is a far more degraded and abject puppet then Jimmy Carter ever was, if only because he has been indoctrinated for a much longer time. With Obama in the White House, and large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress standing ready to rubber-stamp his crimes, the financiers will be in a position to pursue their 266 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography fantastic design for permanent world domination, even as they flay the American people alive by forms of austerity and sacrifice that will reduce the standard of living to perhaps one half or one third of the current depressed levels. This is what Obama means when he pontificates about his future regime: “I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington, but I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” (Quoted in “Raising Obama,” Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair, March 2008) OBAMA AS PLUTOCRAT The necessary fuel for this monstrous and cynical project is money, money in vast quantities. De l’argent, encore de l’argent, toujours de l’argent. During the 2008 primaries, Obama distinguished himself from most of the other candidates by his unparalleled hypocrisy on precisely this score. Obama has tried to portray himself as an opponent of corruption, a candidate of good government and clean government, a foe of the preponderant role of money in political campaigns, a supporter of campaign finance reform and strict ethics requirements for government officials, and as the implacable enemy of lobbyists, pork barrel spending, and earmarks of all sorts. But, upon closer examination, this entire profile is revealed as a chimera, an illusion, a mirage. Obama bids fair to become the most corrupt presidential candidate of all time. This is a corruption that goes far beyond even the horrendous practices of the Alsammarae-Auchi-Rezko axis which we have already discussed. The phalanx of plutocratic financier interests which is now uniting around the figurehead candidacy of Obama reaches from Chicago to Wall Street for London and far beyond, and includes some of the wealthiest banks, investment banks, brokerage firms, defense contractors, and law firms in the entire world. During the primaries, Obama had promised that he would find a compromise with Senator McCain so as to allow the fall presidential campaign to be governed by the public financing rules of the Federal Elections Commission, with each candidate pledging to use only public funds and to respect the various rules inherent in the system. This commitment by Obama was one of the most essential and qualifying parts of his entire campaign. In June 2008, however, Obama pompously announced that this promise was no longer operational, and that he would become the first candidate in United States history to reject the public financing system for the fall campaign, and would rely exclusively on the contributions that he would gather from the backers. This showed, for anyone who was still keeping score, that Obama is a liar and a scoundrel. Obama’s hypocrisy and duplicity concerning campaign finance reform are matched by his deceptive public pledge never to receive campaign contributions from lobbyists. Here, once again, the Perfect Master is duping his gullible following. Obama knows very well that, in a law firm that has lobbying the federal government as one of its primary objectives, the number of registered lobbyists is generally a limited minority of the lawyers who own the firm. There are always lots and lots of other partners, to say nothing of administrators, and even clerical personnel, plus innumerable spouses, children, and other relatives who can be coerced into contributing $2,300 each to the Obama campaign. Indeed, it is clear enough that many such law firms make contributions in this sort a condition for keeping one’s job in the first place. This practice is known as bundling, and it makes a mockery of the austere limits to fundraising which Obama is so fond of parading in his inimitable self-righteous way. If we were able to determine the amount of cash that Barky has raked in at law firms and others engaged in lobbying, using the broad definition to suggest that, we would probably find that Obama is the all-time champion when it comes to cashing in with lobbyists. VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 267 DECLARING FOR PRESIDENT WITH SOROS AND MOVEON.ORG One of Obama’s most important supporters is the classic ultra left financier George Soros. Soros has long-standing ties to the leadership clique of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, the flagship of the entire system. Soros is also deeply involved in the US intelligence community, controlling a set of foundations whose activity has been key for subversion operations into with the former Warsaw Pact and Soviet space. Soros is also the sugar daddy for many US left liberal and ultra left activists, particularly in the antiwar movement. Without the sponsorship of Soros, Moveon.org could hardly have gotten off the ground. The characteristic profile of those groups that are on the Soros gravy train is that they demand an end to the Iraq war, but say nothing about getting the US out of Afghanistan, since the Afghanistan component is fully coherent with Brzezinski’s plan for bringing down China and Russia. Soros is also associated with a series of projects designed to assault traditional moral values, such as his championing of legalized narcotics to be made freely available, inevitably to young people as well. Soros endorsed Obama at the Davos confab of global oligarchs in January 2007, just after Barky had announced his bid for the White House: “As for the U.S. 2008 presidential race, Mr. Soros, who gave $18 million to Democratic advocacy groups seeking to defeat President Bush in 2004, said he supported Barack Obama. But he also said he would support Hillary Clinton if she won the Democratic nomination.”117 Soros is acutely aware of the fact that the entire Anglo-American financial system is now descending into a chaotic breakdown crisis. In this crisis, Soros knows what he wants, and that is savage austerity, sacrifice, and a reduction of the living standards of working people across the board. Since Soros is well aware that Obama nurses a hate-filled grudge against American bluecollar workers, he is looking to Barky to serve as the exterminating angel of the austerity he wants to institute. Here is Soros’ diagnosis of the present world economic depression: The current financial crisis was precipitated by a bubble in the US housing market. In some ways it resembles other crises that have occurred since the end of the Second World War at intervals ranging from four to 10 years. However, there is a profound difference: the current crisis marks the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency. The periodic crises were part of a larger boom-bust process. The current crisis is the culmination of a super-boom that has lasted for more than 60 years. (George Soros, Financial Times, January 23, 2008) Now that the boom is over, Soros wants to clear the decks for austerity, with Obama as his chosen left-cover enforcer. Soros is the kingpin of Moveon.org, but he is also joined by a phalanx of other limousine liberals eager to use a left-wing demagogue to obtain a new phase of aggressive foreign policy, and a new round of austerity and sacrifice at home. This process started in the 2004 election, and it is Barky who is now the beneficiary, since the financier community feels they cannot rely on Senator Clinton to deliver the kind of bone crushing reductions in the standard of living which they know they will require: According to the March 10, 2004, Washington Post, The Democratic 527 organizations have drawn support from some wealthy liberals determined to defeat Bush. They include financier George Soros who gave $1.46 million to MoveOn.org Voter Fund (in the form of matching funds to recruit additional small donors); Peter B. Lewis, chief executive of the Progressive Corp., who gave $500,000 to MoveOn.org Voter Fund; and Linda Pritzker, of the Hyatt hotel family, and her Sustainable World Corp., who gave $4 million to the joint fundraising committee. 268 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA’S NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES FOR LEFT FANATICS It was of course Moveon.org who attacked General Petraeus with the famous “General Betray Us” ads of September 2007 – hardly an act of great courage, since this was already the safe majority view. When the Republicans tried to ram through a resolution condemning these ads, Obama did not defend his friends, but characteristically ran like a rabbit. By June-July 2008, Obama would be sniping at his own ultra-left storm troopers. The dynamic here is similar to Hitler’s Night of the Long Knives in June-July 1934, when the brown shirts of the SA and their ideas of a second revolution were liquidated. Obama needed the ultra leftist lemmings of moveon.org as shock troops against the Clinton machine. Once he thought he had the nomination in his grasp, it was time to dump the ultra lefts, whose hysterical fanaticism could easily become a liability. Soros understands these tactics perfectly, since his goal is mainly to put his puppet Obama in the White House so Obama can implement the policies that Soros wants. MoveOn.org executive director Eli Pariser said the country needs a president to “change business as usual in Washington.” Soros’ 34-year-old son Jonathan Soros, an attorney and financier, recently promoted to deputy manager of Soros Fund Management LLC, is heavily involved with MoveOn.org’s activities. Obama’s much touted opposition to the war helped him pick up the backing of MoveOn.org, which claims to have 3.2 million members. Pariser claimed that Obama had won the referendum by a vote of 70 percent to 30 percent for Clinton, but there were some who saw vote fraud at work. ‘The group claimed that it had 1.7 million members in the 22 states scheduled to vote in the primaries, that it would immediately begin a campaign to get them behind Obama…’118 Worldly asceticism has no place in Obama’s method of operations. Obama is not shy about accepting rides on corporate jets, especially when he is in a hurry to get to one of his own wellheeled fund raising events. Senator Barack Obama flew at least nine times on corporate jets last year, traveling to fundraisers in New York and San Francisco, home to Chicago and to Rosa Parks’ funeral in Detroit. Each time, he reimbursed the plane’s owners at first-class rates, as Senate rules require. But Mr. Obama, freshman Democrat from Illinois, felt queasy about this perk of Senate life, so he said he gave it up. “This is an example where appearances matter,” he said. “Very few of my constituents have a chance to travel on a corporate jet.” (“Obama accepts rides on corporate jets, some to attend his own fundraisers,” New York Times, March 7 2006) Has he kept his pledge? In any case, he now has his own corporate jet. OBAMA’S MONEY CARTEL But flights in corporate jets are only the beginning. Obama’s money cartel is so immense that we can only indicate some of its major components. A good starting point is Exelon, the former Commonwealth Edison, and the company dominated for decades by Thomas Ayers, the father of Obama’s close friend, the former Weatherman terrorist bomber, Bill Ayers. Exelon’s executives and employees were big backers of Obama’s 2004 Senate bid and gave his presidential campaign nearly $160,000 in the first quarter of this year, second only to UBSAmericas, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. (Chicago Tribune, June 12, 2007) VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 269 Pam Martens, a researcher with considerable Wall Street experience, has provided a useful exposé of Obama’s money cartel. It turns out that some of Obama’s biggest donors are also among the most predatory and parasitical jackals that the financial community has to offer. A case in point involves the subprime and adjustable rate mortgage gang, who have victimized the black community to an even greater degree than they have looted the rest of the US population. Obama is the beneficiary of the largesse of these same predatory lenders: Seven of the Obama campaign’s top 14 donors consist of officers and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages. These latest frauds have left thousands of children in some of our largest minority communities coming home from school to see eviction notices and foreclosure signs nailed to their front doors. Those scars will last a lifetime. These seven Wall Street firms are (in order of money given): Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. There is also a large hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, which is a major source of fee income to Wall Street. There are five large corporate law firms that are also registered lobbyists; and one is a corporate law firm that is no longer a registered lobbyist but does legal work for Wall Street. The cumulative total of these 14 contributors through February 1, 2008, was $2,872,128, and we’re still in the primary season. (Pam Martens, Obama’s Money Cartel: How he’s fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street, CounterPunch, February 23, 2008) Martens notes the hypocrisy of Obama’s repeated lie that he does not take money from lobbyists: ‘But hasn’t Senator Obama repeatedly told us in ads and speeches and debates that he wasn’t taking money from registered lobbyists? Hasn’t the press given him a free pass on this statement? Barack Obama, speaking in Greenville, South Carolina, on January 22, 2008: “Washington lobbyists haven’t funded my campaign, they won’t run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of working Americans when I am president”. Barack Obama, in an email to supporters on June 25, 2007, as reported by the Boston Globe: “Candidates typically spend a week like this – right before the critical June 30th financial reporting deadline – on the phone, day and night, begging Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs to write huge checks. Not me. Our campaign has rejected the money-for-influence game and refused to accept funds from registered federal lobbyists and political action committees.” The Center for Responsive Politics’ website allows one to pull up the filings made by lobbyists registering under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 with the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and secretary of the U.S. Senate. These top five contributors to the Obama campaign have filed as registered lobbyists: Sidley Austin LLP; Skadden, Arps, et al; Jenner & Block; Kirkland & Ellis; Wilmerhale, aka Wilmer Cutler Pickering. Is it possible that Senator Obama does not know that corporate law firms are also frequently registered lobbyists? Or is he making a distinction that because these funds are coming from the employees of these firms, he’s not really taking money directly from registered lobbyists? That thesis seems disingenuous when many of these individual donors own these law firms as equity partners or shareholders and share in the profits generated from lobbying. Far from keeping his distance from lobbyists, Senator Obama and his campaign seems to be brainstorming with them. (Pam Martens, Obama’s Money Cartel: How he’s fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street, CounterPunch, February 23, 2008) Obama is most eager to take money from law firms that are chock-full of registered lobbyists; only the most naïve gulls and dupes can believe his repeated posturing that he will not be the creature of lobbyists if he ever gets into power. 270 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA AS CORPORATE MERCENARY AGAINST CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS Martens analyzes Obama’s vote in favor of the outrageous and reactionary anti-class-action legislation of some years back. Here there is a direct link between the money of Obama took and his vote against the rights of ordinary people to seek recourse against corporate abuses through the courts when they have been victimized: On February 10, 2005, Senator Obama voted in favor of the passage of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. Senators Biden, Boxer, Byrd, Clinton, Corzine, Durbin, Feingold, Kerry, Leahy, Reid and 16 other Democrats voted against it. It passed the Senate 72-26 and was signed into law on February 18, 2005. … Three days before Senator Obama expressed that fateful yea vote, 14 state attorneys general, including Lisa Madigan of Senator Obama’s home state of Illinois, filed a letter with the Senate and House, pleading to stop the passage of this corporate giveaway. The AGs wrote: “State attorneys general frequently investigate and bring actions against defendants who have caused harm to our citizens... In some instances, such actions have been brought with the attorney general acting as the class representative for the consumers of the state. We are concerned that certain provisions of S.5 might be misinterpreted to impede the ability of the attorneys general to bring such actions...” The Senate also received a desperate plea from more than 40 civil rights and labor organizations, including the NAACP, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Human Rights Campaign, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Justice and Democracy, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), and Alliance for Justice. They wrote as follows: “Under the [Class Action Fairness Act of 2005], citizens are denied the right to use their own state courts to bring class actions against corporations that violate these state wage and hour and state civil rights laws, even where that corporation has hundreds of employees in that state. Moving these state law cases into federal court will delay and likely deny justice for working men and women and victims of discrimination. The federal courts are already overburdened. Additionally, federal courts are less likely to certify classes or provide relief for violations of state law.” This legislation, which dramatically impaired labor rights, consumer rights and civil rights, involved five years of pressure from 100 corporations, 475 lobbyists, tens of millions of corporate dollars buying influence in our government, and the active participation of the Wall Street firms now funding the Obama campaign. “The Civil Justice Reform Group, a business alliance comprising general counsels from Fortune 100 firms, was instrumental in drafting the class-action bill”, says Public Citizen. One of the hardest-working registered lobbyists to push this corporate giveaway was the law firm Mayer-Brown, hired by the leading business lobby group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Chamber of Commerce spent $16 million in just 2003, lobbying the government on various business issues, including class action reform. (Pam Martens, Obama’s Money Cartel: How he’s fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street, CounterPunch, February 23, 2008)119THE SENATOR FROM CITIBANK The role of Citigroup, where former Clinton Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin is one of the leading personalities, is very instructive. We should remember that former Senator Tom VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 271 Daschle, one of Obama’s leading surrogates, is notorious as the Senator from Citibank, since this dubious financial institution was long one of the largest single employers in South Dakota. Obama’s newest economics controller, Jason Furman, comes from Rubin’s reactionary Hamilton Project, a nest of monetarists attempting to camouflage their intentions under a few shreds of center-left cover. Martens asks: So, how should we react when we learn that the top contributors to the Obama campaign are the very Wall Street firms whose shady mortgage lenders buried the elderly and the poor and minority under predatory loans? How should we react when we learn that on the big donor list is Citigroup, whose former employee at CitiFinancial testified to the Federal Trade Commission that it was standard practice to target people based on race and educational level, with the sales force winning bonuses called “Rocopoly Money” (like a sick board game), after “blitz” nights of soliciting loans by phone? How should we react when we learn that these very same firms, arm in arm with their corporate lawyers and registered lobbyists, have weakened our ability to fight back with the class-action vehicle? (Pam Martens, Obama’s Money Cartel: How he’s fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street, CounterPunch, February 23, 2008) Martens goes on to ask, in despair: Should there be any doubt left as to who owns our government? The very same cast of characters making the Obama hit parade of campaign loot are the clever creators of the industry solutions to the wave of foreclosures gripping this nation’s poor and middle class, effectively putting the solution in the hands of the robbers. The names of these programs (that have failed to make a dent in the problem) have the same vacuous ring: Hope Now; Project Lifeline. (Pam Martens, Obama’s Money Cartel: How he’s fronted for the most vicious firms on Wall Street, CounterPunch, February 23, 2008) The answer to this problem is quite simply the necessity of opposing Obama by exposing his actual role as a servant of the financier elite. LOBBYISTS: BUNDLERS FOR BARKY Martens is not the only one to notice the glaring contradiction between Obama’s “no lobbyists” pledge, and a veritable river of swag that runs from the lobbying offices on K Street into the coffers of the Obama campaign. A major article in USA Today noted: Barack Obama often boasts he is “the only candidate who isn’t taking a dime from Washington lobbyists,” yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show. Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million for the Illinois senator’s presidential race. Employees of their firms have given Obama’s campaign $2.26 million, a USA Today analysis of campaign finance data shows. Which lawyers bundle money? Thirty-one of the 38 are law firm partners, who typically receive a share of their firm’s lobbying fees. At least six of them have some managerial authority over lobbyists. “It makes no difference whether the person is a registered lobbyist or the partner of a registered lobbyist, if the person is raising money to get access or curry favor,” said Michael Malbin, director of the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan think tank. Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that while Obama’s refusal to take money from lobbyists “isn’t a perfect solution or symbol, it does reflect Obama’s record of trying to change the way that Washington does business.” He declined to elaborate. Lobbyists have long played key fundraising and policymaking roles for candidates, and 272 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography lobbyists are raising money for both Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain. Obama fundraisers who work for law firms that lobby and share the fees include: •Allan Katz, a Florida lawyer who chairs the government relations practice of Akerman Senterfitt. The firm took in $3.6 million for Washington lobbying last year, according to public records compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The firm touts on its website “an enviable level of access” for clients. •Mark Alderman, managing partner of Philadelphia’s WolfBlock law firm. The firm’s lobbying subsidiary earned $930,000 in Washington last year representing clients including defense contractor Lockheed Martin, records show. •Scott Blake Harris, managing partner of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis, a Washington telecommunications law firm. Harris withdrew as a lobbyist for Microsoft and Cisco in June, but his partners still lobby, he said. (Ken Dilanian, USA Today, April 16, 2008) As could be expected, most of these lobbyists claimed that their hefty contributions had nothing whatsoever to do with their lobbying practice, but this was obviously eyewash. Obama is obviously living a lie. This article was accompanied by the following highly instructive chart, which ought to be required reading for the Obama cultists who still believe that their Savior is going to reform the way Washington works, despite the fact that he is beholden to an immense array of interest groups, including some of the most predatory ones in town. The chart shows contributions to the Obama campaign from law firms that also do lobbying work. Either we assume that Obama is getting all this money because of his pretty face, or else it is clear that these lobbyists are paying for access and influence in the usual Washington mode, but on a vastly expanded scale. OBAMA FUNDRAISERS: LOBBYIST TIES These 38 fundraisers for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign work for law firms that have lobbying operations in Washington, D.C. The dollar figure reflects the minimum amount each has pledged to raise for the campaign. Bundler Min. pledge Location Firm Scott Harris $200,000 DC Harris, Wiltshire and Grannis Allan J. Katz $200,000 FL Akerman Senterfitt Michael Lawson $200,000 CA Skadden, Arps John Levi $200,000 IL Sidley Austin Karol Mason $200,000 GA Alston & Bird Thomas J. Perrelli $200,000 VA Jenner & Block Thomas A. Reed $200,000 VA Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis Christina Tchen $200,000 IL Skadden, Arps Tony West $200,000 CA Morrison & Foerster Mark L. Alderman $100,000 PA Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen Timothy M. Broas $100,000 MD Winston & Strawn Peter Bynoe $100,000 IL DLA Piper Gregory B. Craig $100,000 DC Williams & Connolly Norman Eisen $100,000 DC Zuckerman Spaeder VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 273 Nicole Lamb-Hale $100,000 MI Foley & Lardner Andrew Schapiro $100,000 NY Mayer Brown Charles C. Adams Jr. $50,000 Switzerland Hogan & Hartson David Burd $50,000 DC Arnold & Porter Tom Cole $50,000 IL Sidley Austin Michael H. Dardzinski $50,000 China Reed Smith Howard W. Gutman $50,000 MD Williams & Connolly Jeff Horwitz $50,000 NY Proskauer Rose David C. Jacobson $50,000 IL Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal Hrishi Karthikeyan $50,000 DC Covington & Burling Ronald Kirk $50,000 TX Vinson & Elkins William T. Lake $50,000 DC WilmerHale Edward Lazarus $50,000 CA Akin Gump Jack Levin $50,000 IL Kirkland & Ellis Kenneth G. Lore $50,000 DC Bingham McCutchen Charles B. Ortner $50,000 NY Proskauer Rose Susan Pravda $50,000 MA Foley & Lardner Paul N. Roth $50,000 NY Schulte Roth & Zabel John Schmidt $50,000 IL Mayer Brown Robert M. Sussman* $50,000 DC Latham & Watkins Kathryn Thomson $50,000 VA Sidley Austin Barry B. White $50,000 MA Foley Hoag Steven M. Zager $50,000 TX Akin Gump Robert S. Litt n/a MD Arnold & Porter * Robert M. Sussman retired as a partner on December 31, 2007 Source: Obama for America, Center for Responsive Politics, Public Citizen, from USA Today, April 16, 2008 OBAMA A CREATURE OF GOLDMAN SACHS, TOP OIL SPECULATORS David Brooks of the New York Times, an avid chronicler of oligarchical affairs, discovered with some surprise that Obama is far more venal even than his Republican rival, Senator McCain. Brooks also found that one of the most important centers of bundling for Barky was the infamous Wall Street investment house Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs, along with Morgan Stanley, was responsible for the creation of the London ICE exchange or IntercontinentalExchange, the offshore vehicle which now handles approximately one half of the oil futures contracts in the world. Goldman Sachs co-founded ICE as a means of escaping even the desultory regulatory regime of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in favor of the nonexistent regulatory regime in Great Britain. A back of the envelope calculation suggests that Goldman Sachs alone is responsible for about 40% of the oil speculation which has doubled the price of oil for American consumers of petroleum products over the last year. With Goldman Sachs employees checking in as Obama’s biggest bundlers, we leave it to the imagination of the reader whether Obama will bring much enthusiasm to the task of reining in this gang of hyenas if he ever gets to the White House. Brooks wrote: 274 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography As in other recent campaigns, lawyers account for the biggest chunk of Democratic donations. They have donated about $18 million to Obama, compared with about $5 million to John McCain, according to data released on June 2 and available at OpenSecrets.org. People who work at securities and investment companies have given Obama about $8 million, compared with $4.5 for McCain. People who work in communications and electronics have given Obama about $10 million, compared with $2 million for McCain. Professors and other people who work in education have given Obama roughly $7 million, compared with $700,000 for McCain. Real estate professionals have given Obama $5 million, compared with $4 million for McCain. Medical professionals have given Obama $7 million, compared with $3 million for McCain. Commercial bankers have given Obama $1.6 million, compared with $1.2 million for McCain. Hedge fund and private equity managers have given Obama about $1.6 million, compared with $850,000 for McCain. When you break it out by individual companies, you find that employees of Goldman Sachs gave more to Obama than workers of any other employer. The Goldman Sachs geniuses are followed by employees of the University of California, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, National Amusements, Lehman Brothers, Harvard and Google. At many of these workplaces, Obama has a three- or four-to-one fund-raising advantage over McCain. (David Brooks, New York Times, July 1, 2008) OBAMA FINANCED BY THE MERCHANTS OF DEATH Obama’s ties with Wall Street are bad enough, and then there is the matter of his strong support from certain defense contractors who deal with the Pentagon, otherwise known as the merchants of death. Among Obama’s strongest backers in the defense contractor community, we must of course again mention the Crown family of General Dynamics fame, who belong to Obama’s intimate circle of Chicago supporters. General Dynamics builds nuclear submarines and some light tanks that have not given a very good account of themselves in Iraq. The Washington Post pointed to crown is a key component of the Obama lucre cartel: The Chicago contingent also includes James Crown, a director of General Dynamics, the military contractor in which his family holds a large stake. The company has been the beneficiary of at least one Obama earmark, a request to spend $8 million on a high-explosive technology program for the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The program got $1.3 million. The descendants of Henry Crown, architect of a great American fortune, James Crown and his family donated more than $128,000 to Obama’s U.S. Senate race in 2004. Crown was among the first people Obama approached as he contemplated a White House run Crown said he and Obama never discussed General Dynamics, which, with its focus on Army programs, is a defense contractor that has benefited directly from the Iraq war. Obama’s opposition to the war never meant that he wanted the armed forces to be poorly equipped, Crown said. “I stand in agreement with what he has said [about the Iraq war.] Those who work in the defense industry are extremely focused on the national defense,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we want to be fighting wars.”120 CROWN’S BRADLEY FIGHTING VEHICLE: AN “EXPLODING COFFIN” Crown is one of the bosses of General Dynamics, which produces the woefully inadequate Bradley fighting vehicle. Here is the opinion of an experienced military man about what this vehicle, a cross between a light tank and armored personnel carrier, is worth. VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 275 The M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicle is a three million dollar version of the World War II Sherman tank, with room in the back for six guys. It weighs 30 tons, so it’s too heavy to be picked up by any helicopter and too large to be carried by a C-130, and is not truly amphibious. It’s expensive to operate, expensive to maintain, and only carries six infantrymen. Worst of all, it’s a huge vehicle with little armor and packed with explosive TOW missiles. The idea of mechanized vehicles is to carry infantrymen behind tanks until they are needed. However, the US Army cannot field a vehicle to safely transport a dozen grunts, it must add every known gadget to field a golden “fighting vehicle”. The M1A1 tank is a fighting vehicle, the Bradley is an exploding coffin. The Bradley is almost 10 feet tall, but can only carry six grunts who are trapped inside with explosive TOW missiles. During live fire tests of the Bradley, a hit usually ignited a stored TOW causing massive explosions. The Bradley looks good in peacetime exercises, including the invasion of Iraq, but it will not do well with an enemy who shoots back. The Army has tried to counter criticism by putting extra armor on the upgraded Bradleys, but its still a huge target with little armor slope. Upgraded Bradleys are weighted down with external armor plates, but even these can be penetrated with light infantry anti-armor weapons.121 Crown’s General Dynamics also manufactures the Stryker troop carrier, which has been associated with heavy losses in the Iraq war because of its vulnerability to rocket propelled grenades and roadside bombs. Recent press accounts have emphasized the inadequate engineering that went into the high-priced Stryker: The Strykers are the first new combat vehicle in 20 years and a cornerstone in the Army’s efforts to transform itself into a new, 21st-century fighting force. Critics say the eight-wheeled vehicles each costing an average of $1.5 million may be a costly misstep on that path. The Army recently discovered flaws in the Stryker’s ceramic composite armor and is racing to fix it. The vehicle’s remote weapon systems can’t be fired accurately on the move, and soldiers must get out of the vehicle to reload, exposing them to enemy fire.122 As the Iraq war ground on, Stryker losses increased because they had not been designed to deal with the weapons deployed by the Iraqi national resistance: A string of heavy losses from powerful roadside bombs has raised new questions about the vulnerability of the Stryker, the Army’s troop-carrying vehicle hailed by supporters as the key to a leaner, more mobile force. Since the Strykers went into action in violent Diyala province north of Baghdad two months ago, losses of the vehicles have been rising steadily, U.S. officials said. A single infantry company in Diyala lost five Strykers this month in less than a week, according to soldiers familiar with the losses, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release the information. The overall number of Strykers lost recently is classified. In one of the biggest hits, six American soldiers and a journalist were killed when a huge bomb exploded beneath their Stryker…. It was the biggest one-day loss for the battalion in more than two years.123 In order to stop these unsustainable losses, the Pentagon had to invest $22 billion to set up an assembly line capable of turning out 1,200 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected trucks per month. But it was not General Dynamics that provided these vehicles, but International Military and Government, a subsidiary of Navistar International. These new vehicles with their characteristic Vshaped hulls were able to reduce losses significantly. How many GIs died to pad Crown’s bottom line? Look for more sweetheart contracts to go to General Dynamics in any future Obama regime, independent of the merits, and look for the death rates among American troops to go up accordingly. 276 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA FRONTS FOR RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS A few other components of Obama’s Chicago Mafia are also worth mentioning; these include notorious low-wage employers and union busters like the Pritzker family, who have made their fortune exploiting the underpaid Hispanic cleaning ladies in their hotel chains, and also gambling interests inevitably redolent of organized crime: The Chicago finance elite has been a major hub of Obama’s fundraising, led by Pritzker. Another major figure is billionaire Neil G. Bluhm, a hotel and office building developer. But Bluhm has posed a symbolic problem for Obama in Pennsylvania, site of an April 22 primary, because his latest endeavor is a push to open a controversial casino along the Philadelphia waterfront. “Bluhm’s path crossed Obama’s in 2003, when Bluhm pursued a gaming license for a Chicago riverboat. That June, he gave the first $1,000 of what would become more than $78,000 in contributions from him and his family. In 2006, Pennsylvania awarded Bluhm one of two coveted Philadelphia gambling licenses. Last year, his partners in the project, called Sugar House, made $2,300 donations to Obama, including nearly $50,000 from the Philadelphia law firm Cozen O’Connor, which represents him in the deal. Bluhm said that the gaming project “has got nothing to do with” his support for Obama and that the two have never discussed it. “My interest in him is, I think he’s inspirational, I think he will enormously improve our economy and our relations with other countries,” he said.124 The impudence of a riverboat gambler who says that he is paying for inspiration, not for political influence and favors, is one of the many grim ironies of the Obama cash cartel. THE JOSHUA SPEECH AND OBAMA’S MEGALOMANIA During the course of 2007, Obama began to experience his delusions of grandeur in public. As he basked in the adulation of his adoring and fawning coterie, his tendency towards megalomania became exacerbated. From this point on, Obama’s megalomania was destined to emerge in the wake of every significant uptick in his march towards power. A foundational document for the analysis of Obama as a case study in megalomania is provided by the speech he delivered to the commemoration of the Selma, Alabama voting rights protest on March 4, 2007. Here Obama is prepared to concede that Martin Luther King and others of his generation can be compared to the prophetic figure of Moses in the Old Testament, but at the same time he demands that he, the young whelp and upstart, be recognized as the new Joshua, the lieutenant of Moses and the civic organizer destined to lead black America into the promised land. In reality, as we have attempted to show, Obama must be considered a continuation of the anti-Martin Luther King tradition inaugurated when the Ford Foundation massively funded black power demagogues hostile to Martin Luther King during the last years of King’s life. Note Obama’s ritual nods to his teachers of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright cabal: But I got a letter from a friend of some of yours named Reverend Otis Moss Jr. in Cleveland, and his son, Otis Moss III is the Pastor at my church and I must send greetings from Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. but I got a letter giving me encouragement and saying how proud he was that I had announced and encouraging me to stay true to my ideals and my values and not to be fearful. And he said, if there’s some folks out there who are questioning whether or not you should run, just tell them to look at the story of Joshua because you’re part of the Joshua generation. So I just want to talk a little about Moses and Aaron and Joshua, because we are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses. We’re in the presence today of giants whose shoulders VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 277 we stand on, people who battled, not just on behalf of African-Americans but on behalf of all of America; that battled for America’s soul, that shed blood , that endured taunts and torment and in some cases gave — torment and in some cases gave the full measure of their devotion. Like Moses, they challenged Pharaoh, the princes, powers who said that some are atop and others are at the bottom, and that’s how it’s always going to be. I’m here because somebody marched. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we’ve got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn’t cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You’ll see it. You’ll be at the mountain top and you can see what I’ve promised. What I’ve promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I’ve fulfilled that promise but you won’t go there. We’re going to leave it to the Joshua generation to make sure it happens. There are still battles that need to be fought; some rivers that need to be crossed. Like Moses, the task was passed on to those who might not have been as deserving, might not have been as courageous, find themselves in front of the risks that their parents and grandparents and great grandparents had taken. That doesn’t mean that they don’t still have a burden to shoulder, that they don’t have some responsibilities. The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is what’s called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today? Now, I don’t think we could ever fully repay that debt. Moses told the Joshua generation; don’t forget where you came from. I worry sometimes, that the Joshua generation in its success forgets where it came from. Thinks it doesn’t have to make as many sacrifices. Thinks that the very height of ambition is to make as much money as you can, to drive the biggest car and have the biggest house and wear a Rolex watch and get your own private jet, get some of that Oprah money. And I think that’s a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but if you know your history, then you know that there is a certain poverty of ambition involved in simply striving just for money. Materialism alone will not fulfill the possibilities of your existence. You have to fill that with something else. You have to fill it with the golden rule. You’ve got to fill it with thinking about others. And if we know our history, then we will understand that that is the highest mark of service. Second thing that the Joshua generation needs to understand is that the principles of equality that were set forth and were battled for have to be fought each and every day. It is not a one-time thing. I was remarking at the unity breakfast on the fact that the single most significant concern that this Justice Department under this administration has had with respect to discrimination has to do with affirmative action. That they have basically spent all their time worrying about colleges and universities around the country that are given a little break to young African-Americans and Hispanics to make sure that they can go to college, too.125 Obama is doubtless familiar with the Strauss-Howe theory of generations, which his campaign uses for profiling his dupes and gulls among generation Xers and the younger set.126 If so, Obama has misread Strauss and Howe, since he and his ilk do not have the characteristics of a modern Joshua, but rather must be classed among the worshipers of the golden calf, the faction that gave Moses so much trouble as he attempted to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. Obama’s ritual acknowledgment of the foundation-funded racist provocateur Jeremiah Wright — a figure not of austerity, but sybaritic hedonism — and the Ford Foundation grant recipient Otis Moss III only make his membership in the golden calf congregation unmistakable for all. This was also the occasion when Obama attempted to convince the Selma audience that he had been conceived by his 278 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, because they had been inspired by the fervor following the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights demonstration that was commemorated March 4. “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama,” he said, “because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama” The problem was that, as we have seen, Obama was born in 1961, and the Selma march occurred four years later, in 1965. The New York Times reported that when the senator was asked about the discrepancy later that day, he clarified: “I meant the whole civil rights movement. OBAMA AS THE CONSUMMATE DIVIDER The Joshua speech is an important document because it illustrates yet another dimension of Obama’s efficacy as a divider and a splitter of the American population so as to leave them open to further attacks by the financier oligarchy. Obama says he wants to bring the American population together, but in practice the net effect of his well-financed presence, backed up by the formidable Trilateral-Bilderberg network, has been to divide the American people six ways to Sunday. Obama divides white against black, black against Hispanic, black against Asian, men against women, and elitists and affluent suburbanites against blue-collar workers. With his spurious and self-serving generational analysis, he can also play old against young in a generational conflict which can further weaken the capacity of the American people to resist what the Trilateral financiers have in store. Obama thus emerges as a fiendishly clever deployment to shatter the American people along lines of race, national origin, religion, gender, class, and generation — quite an achievement for his controllers. Bush the younger, by comparison, is a paragon of national unity. This is why the Trilateraloids were willing to pay top dollar to finance such a mediocrity and attempt to make the entire national debate revolve around his vapid and vacuous personality. One of the included benefits was the likelihood that the Democratic Party would shatter along its fairly obvious fault lines in the aftermath of a catastrophic Obama regime. THE RACE CARD YET AGAIN In the course of the Texas primary, it became obvious that Obama was pursuing what some called a “two-track strategy” in his rallies. The candidate of authenticity had two distinct stump speeches, one for black audiences and one for white audiences. As he campaigns in the Lone Star State, Barack Obama has mostly stuck to his standard stump speech about the economy, health care and Iraq. But when he spoke before a mostly black audience in the coastal, working-class town of Beaumont, he talked about Popeye’s fried chicken and individual responsibility. “I have a nine- and a six-year-old daughter, so I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly,” Obama told the audience of about 2000 as he broached the subject of health care at a town hall-style meeting Thursday. “But I also know that if we are, if folks are just letting kids drink eight sodas a day which some parents do. Or you know, even a bag of potato chips for lunch or Popeye’s for breakfast –ya’ll have Popeye’s down in Beaumont? All right. I know some of you all, you get that cold Popeye’s out for breakfast! I know! That’s why you all laughing. I caught you out. You can’t do that! Children have to have proper nutrition.” The audience, many of whom waited in line five hours or more for a chance to see Obama, cheered, laughed and gave thunderous applause to the remarks, which he peppered with phrases straight from VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 279 a Texas Southern Baptist church. “Can I get an amen here?” Obama said to the cheering crowd as he compelled them to turn the TV off at home and make sure their kids hit the books. But these risks did not resurface later at a rally in Fort Worth, where the audience was decidedly more racially mixed and in a higher income bracket. Gone was the preacher-like cadence. He talked about health care and education, but only made a passing reference to individual responsibility. Political analysts say Obama is using a dual approach to win Tuesday’s primaries in Texas and Ohio and the Democratic nomination beyond that — a race-neutral, rousing stump speech for most audiences and a sermon like dialogue reserved for lower-income black audiences. “I called it a two-track strategy,” said University of Maryland political science professor Ron Walters, who has written extensively about blacks. “This requires two different kinds of politics and Barack Obama has been able to synthesize both of them.” (Susan Ferrecchio, Washington Examiner, March 3, 2008) THE MEDIA SWOON FOR BARKY, THE HOPE POPE One of the things that Obama’s money machine could be used to mobilize was of course the fawning adulation of those press whores who populated the controlled corporate media of this unhappy nation. Here is a sample from the middle phase of the 2008 primaries. Notice how the author tries to establish the unique world historical importance of Obama, and then goes on to compare him to John F. Kennedy, before deciding to throw in Lincoln as well. We can only guess how many of these hack writers were getting paid by the word for such moronic hyperbole: The tides of history are rising higher and faster these days. Read them right and ride them, or be crushed. And then along comes Barack Obama, with the kinds of gifts that appear in politics but once every few generations. There is a sense of dignity, even majesty, about him, and underneath that ease lies a resolute discipline. It’s not just that he is eloquent — with that ability to speak both to you and to speak for you — it’s that he has a quality of thinking and intellectual and emotional honesty that is extraordinary. I first learned of Barack Obama from a man who was at the highest level of George W. Bush’s political organization through two presidential campaigns. He described the first-term senator from Illinois as “a walking hope machine.” All this was made clearer by the contrast with Hillary Clinton, a capable and personable senator who has run the kind of campaign that reminds us of what makes us so discouraged about our politics. Her campaign certainly proved her experience didn’t count for much: She was a bad manager and a bad strategist who naturally and easily engaged in the politics of distraction, trivialization and personal attack. The similarities between John Kennedy and Barack Obama come to mind easily: the youth, the magnetism, the natural grace, the eloquence, the wit, the intelligence, the hope of a new generation. But it might be more to the point to view Obama as Lincolnesque in his own origins, his sobriety and what history now demands. (Jann S. Wenner, “A New Hope,” Rolling Stone, March 20, 2008)127 The hysteria of this encomium was in inverse proportion to Obama’s substantive record. After spending 2005 and 2006 pretending to be a senator, but in reality planning his presidential campaign, the Illinois Messiah dropped out of his legislative functions completely, missing virtually every vote. According to one press account, Obama had missed “the most votes of any Democratic presidential hopeful in the Senate over the last two months, including a vote on an Iran resolution he has blasted Sen. Hillary Clinton for supporting.” The Illinois Democrat had missed nearly 80 percent of all votes after September 2007. This was a great advantage, since no one could really know what he stood for, if anything. 280 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography REUNION OF CARTER-ERA TRILATERALS TO SUPPORT OBAMA Given Obama’s Trilateral-Rockefeller pedigree, it was not surprising to see that the supporters of the Messiah’s campaign resembled nothing so much as a reunion of retreads from the catastrophic Jimmy Carter regime of 1977 to 1981, an administration which had set in motion the disastrous Great U-Turn of the United States towards deindustrialization, a low wage economy, pessimism, and collapse. Now the Carter veterans gathered around their new clone, Obama. One of these was Paul Adolph Volcker, the Trilateral boss of the Federal Reserve who had placed the United States firmly on the course of deindustrialization and decay. Volcker was clearly overcome with admiration for Obama: “After 30 years in government, serving under five Presidents of both parties and chairing two non-partisan Commissions on the Public Service, [said Volcker,] I have been reluctant to engage in political campaigns. The time has come to overcome that reluctance,” Mr. Volcker said …. “However, it is not the current turmoil in markets or the economic uncertainties that have impelled my decision. Rather, it is the breadth and depth of challenges that face our nation at home and abroad. Those challenges demand a new leadership and a fresh approach.” He concluded: “It is only Barack Obama, in his person, in his ideas, in his ability to understand and to articulate both our needs and our hopes that provide the potential for strong and fresh leadership. That leadership must begin here in America but it can also restore needed confidence in our vision, our strength, and our purposes right around the world.”128 This is from the man who succeeded in doing what Hitler, Tojo, Stalin, and Mao failed to do, that is to say laying waste to the industrial might of the United States with interest-rate policies so disruptive that they outclassed even nuclear weapons. Volcker’s endorsement was a real feather in Obama’s cap. President Carter himself had signaled a preference for Obama early on, but waited until the primaries were about over before he formally endorsed Sen. Obama, D-Ill., after the South Dakota and Montana primaries. ‘“The fact is the Obama people already know they have my vote when the polls close tonight,” President Carter told The Associated Press earlier in the day.’129 The list would not be complete without the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family, John D. Rockefeller IV, who has increasingly taken over from the now decrepit David Rockefeller, the last surviving member of the Rockefeller Brothers generation. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) endorsed fellow Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) …. Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Obama’s position on the Iraq war in 2002 was partially behind his decision to support the Illinois senator. “The indisputable fact is Barack Obama was right about Iraq when many of us were wrong,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “It was a tough call and the single greatest national security question, and mistake, of our time.”130 BRZEZINSKI’S GLOWING ENDORSEMENT OF OBAMA The most important endorsement of all was of course that of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the cofounder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller 35 years ago, and the person whose criminal energy has only grown with the passing years when it comes to his lifelong obsession of destroying Russia. Brzezinski was effusive in his praise of the Illinois Senator: Obama “recognizes that the challenge is a new face, a new sense of direction, a new definition of America’s role in the world,” Brzezinski remarked during an interview on Bloomberg VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 281 Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt.” “Obama is clearly more effective and has the upper hand,” Brzezinski said. “He has a sense of what is historically relevant, and what is needed from the United States in relationship to the world.” Brzezinski dismissed Hillary Clinton as totally inadequate: “Being a former first lady doesn’t prepare you to be president. President Truman didn’t have much experience before he came to office. Neither did John Kennedy,” Brzezinski said. Clinton’s foreign-policy approach is “very conventional,” Brzezinski added “I don’t think the country needs to go back to what we had eight years ago.” “There is a need for a fundamental rethinking of how we conduct world affairs,” he continued. “And Obama seems to me to have both the guts and the intelligence to address that issue and to change the nature of America’s relationship with the world.” (Bloomberg, “Zbigniew Brzezinski Endorses Barack Obama,” Friday, August 24, 2007) Serious students of history immediately recognized that this last point was an indispensable part of classic fascist political doctrine; see the final chapter of this book. BRZEZINSKI ATTEMPTS TO CAMOUFLAGE HIS DOMINANCE OF OBAMA The columnist Colbert I. King of the Katherine Meyer Graham stable complained about a winter 2008 report in Newsweek magazine that the Clinton campaign was attacking Zbigniew Brzezinski to get at Obama. “In a January conference call with American Jewish organization leaders, the magazine reports, Clinton senior adviser Ann Lewis attempted to denigrate Obama’s pro-Israel credentials by pointing out that Zbigniew Brzezinski is Obama’s “chief foreign policy adviser.” Brzezinski, Newsweek noted, “has a reputation that is close to toxic in the American Jewish community.”’ That sounded fair enough; Brzezinski was after all the father of modern Islamic fundamentalism and the architect of the Khomeini regime in Iran. But for the devotees of Obama, any criticism is ipso facto illegitimate. Colbert I. King took the occasion to whine: “it mattered not to Clinton’s clan that Brzezinski is not a key Obama advisor, that Obama has said he has had lunch with Brzezinski only once or that they have exchanged e-mails perhaps three times. Linking Obama to someone who is anathema to the Jewish community was the point to be scored — even if it meant committing a foul.” (Washington Post, March 1, 2008) Colbert I. King is a liar. As we show in this book, Zbigniew Brzezinski is more than an adviser to Obama — he is his controller, and the developer of the entire profile which Obama is using to run for president. Unless and until Obama abandons his obsessive secrecy and tells the full story of his years at Columbia University, we will persist in the suspicion that Obama was in fact recruited by Zbigniew Brzezinski at Columbia in 1981-1983 as a member of the left CIA stable of foundation-funded political assets. As far as Obama’s implausible denials are concerned, they leave the door wide open to the obvious possibility that Brzezinski gives Obama his orders at breakfast or dinner, or that he gives his instructions to the candidate by instant messaging or by phone. Henry Kissinger is famous for never giving the clients of his influence peddling business even a single scrap of paper with writing on it; maybe Brzezinski operates with the same kind of secrecy. As we show elsewhere in this book, there were times during the Carter administration when Brzezinski had to be kept off the TV networks and hidden in the closet; maybe Zbig has figured out that if you are Dr. Strangelove it is best to keep a low profile. But the irrefutable fact remains that when Brzezinski introduced Obama on the occasion of his first major foreign policy speech, the Polish revanchist was unquestionably billed as the campaign’s senior foreign policy adviser. 282 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography BRZEZINSKI A GROWING LIABILITY FOR OBAMA Thanks in part to the work of the present writer, the Brzezinski connection became a serious embarrassment to Obama, just as the Polish revanchist (in 1980 arguably the most unpopular Democratic official since LBJ) had been a huge albatross around the neck of Carter. Here are some relevant excerpts from a transcript of the National Public Radio program “To the Point,” in which the Jerusalem Post correspondent Caroline Glick and the Obama Middle East advisor Mel Levine131 comment on who is actually running the senator’s foreign policy in that part of the world: Warren Olney: (directed to Caroline Glick) You have expressed very severe reservations about Senator Obama and have reservations in regards to his stance on Israel. In particular his association with some of his advisors and to Jeremiah Wright. Can you speak to some of the concerns you have about Senator Obama. Caroline Glick: Senator Obama surrounds himself with people who are overtly either anti Semitic like Rev. Wright, anti-white like Rev. Wright, anti-American like Rev. Wright, or simply and viscerally anti-Israel like Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Robert Malley, and Samantha Power his former advisor, and then there are people who are messianically anti-Israel like Dan Cursor, the former US Ambassador to Israel and Egypt. And each time then it’s pointed out to him (Obama) that these people have made statements and followed policies that are inherently hostile to Israel, he says, “Well, these aren’t reflective of my views.” And the fact is, among all of these people there are no counter balancing force among Barack’s advisors or friends or Rev. Wright’s that is supportive of Israel. So, I find the whole perception that he can say, I wasn’t at church then, or the fact that Zbig was in Syria the same week that [Hezbollah leader] Imad Mugniyah was assassinated in Damascus, and there is no one on his team that is different from Brzezinski on Israel, so it is all but impossible not to conclude that views of ALL of his advisors are reflective of his views. Host: Mel Levine would you distinguish yourself from Mr. Zbigniew Brzezinski? And to what extent is Zbig an advisor to Barack Obama? Mel Levine: I, I, ah, I, ah, um, I’m speechless after what I heard from Ms. Glick. My views on Israel are very clear to anyone I have ever worked with in Congress. I am one of his Middle East Advisors and my views are very different from Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Zbigniew Brzezinski is NOT one his foreign policy advisors, nor one of his advisors at all. This really points out the nature of the type of distortions that have been leveled to Senator Obama for quite some time. And what Ms. Glick has said is completely false.” (To the Point, NPR, April 21, 2008) Obama’s attempted sleight of hand was obvious to the world: Moscow News referred on April 3, 2008 to “...Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is trying to conceal his involvement with Barack Obama’s team.” It is worth repeating that, in the wake of the Samantha Power “monster” flap, Zbiggy had been billed in published reports as an advisor to Obama: ‘In response to a request for reaction to her resignation earlier today, the office of Brzezinski—another of Obama’s foreign policy advisers— relayed the following statement: “I think an expression of regret for using an inappropriate description of Senator Clinton should have sufficed. And I don’t think she should have resigned.”’132 Along with Brzezinski, a key to the entire Obama machine was Soros. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an abject failure who stood long ago have been ousted and sent to the back benches, distinguished herself during the primaries by her treachery against Senator Clinton on the question of sexist and misogynistic propaganda favoring Obama. Pelosi pretended to be neutral, but it was VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 283 clear that her heart beat only for Barky. In addition to her spontaneous ultra-left sympathies, it was clear that Pelosi was also acting as a servant of Soros, who had one of his top operatives in Pelosi’s office: Let us connect the dots. In February, 2007, Nancy Pelosi hired Joseph Onek as her Chief Counsel. Mr. Onek is also a chief policy advisor for the Open Society Institute, funded by none other than George Soros. You may be curious about Felix Rohatyn. Mr. Rohatyn is a not only a major financial backer of Nancy Pelosi but he is one of her top economics advisors. Mr. Obama has called for the formation of a National Infrastructure Investment Bank (NIRB). This is a derivative of the Rohatyn-Rudman National Investment Corporation (NIC) first proposed in 2005. Essentially, Mr. Obama is a surrogate for a private investment model controlled by George Soros and those that subscribe to his world monetary monopoly model. The NIRB is nothing more than a fascist economic model.’ (noquarterusa.net, June 30, 2008) Indeed: the NIRB, as Bruce Marshall has shown in Obama — The Postmodern Coup would employ the methods of Hjalmar Schacht and his infamous Mefo bills to create a post-crash bubble in the wake of the current breakdown crisis. SMALL DONORS AS A SCREEN FOR FATCAT BUNDLERS In June 2008, after the Democratic primaries were over, and Obama had less need of the petit bourgeois good government activists who are so important for winning Democratic caucuses, he announced with consummate cynicism that he would not accept the restrictions inherent in public funding for his fall campaign. With exquisite demagogy, Obama and his followers argued that they are fundraising model had already fulfilled the need to democratize campaign finance contributions by mobilizing so many millions of small donors to give their modest pittances and widow’s mites for the greater glory of the Perfect Master. We have already seen that the real secret of the Obama campaign was bundling on an unprecedented scale under the cover of Obama’s cynical “no lobbyists” propaganda. A more granular analysis of Obama’s fundraising revealed that the role of the small donors as compared to the corporate bundlers had been consistently and systematically overstated by himself and his campaign flacks. One researcher reported …that Obama received more than two-thirds (68 percent) of his first quarter 2007 fundraising total “from donations of $1000 or more.” Obama has “played up populist themes of [campaign finance] reform,” trumpeting his ‘“large number of small donations” and claiming (in the Senator’s words) to be “launch[ing]a fundraising drive that isn’t about dollars.” But his astonishing first-quarter campaign [2007] finance haul of $25.7 million included $17.5 million from “big donors” ($1000 and up) - a sum higher than the much more genuinely populist John Edwards’ total take ($14 million) from all donors. According to Chicago Sun Times columnist Lynn Sweet: “Obama talks about transforming politics and touts the donations of ‘ordinary’ people to his campaign, but a network of more than 100 elite Democratic ‘bundlers’ is raising millions of dollars for his White House bid. The Obama campaign prefers the emphasis to be on the army of small donors who are giving — and raising — money for Obama. In truth, though, there are two parallel narratives — and the other is that Obama is also heavily reliant on wealthy and well-connected Democrats. ‘Bundlers’ are people who solicit their networks for donations and, at the elite giving levels, often get some assistance from campaign fund-raising professionals. Each of the 138 Obama bundlers promised to raise at least $50,000, and many are from Chicago, not surprising since Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker is the national finance chairwoman. Among those from the city are major Democratic donors Lou Sussman, who was 284 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography John Kerry’s chief of fund-raising in 2004; Betty Lu [Klutznick] Saltzman, one of Obama’s biggest boosters; personal-injury attorney Bob Clifford; Capri Capital CEO Quintin Primo; activists Marilyn Katz and Michael Bauer, Ariel Capital’s John Rogers and Mellody Hobson. Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg; a string of Harvard Law School friends; Broadway producer Margo Lion, and Bill Kennard, managing director of the Carlyle Group, are among the other bundlers.” The hypocrisy is many-sided. Last week Sweet reported that Obama had received large donations from at least eight executives at Island Def Jam, a hiphop recording firm that markets rap artists Obama has accused of “degrading their sisters” with sexist slurs. (Paul Street, “Big (Deceptive) Talk About ‘Small Donations,’” Zmag)133 In this interpretation, the swarms of small contributors function as a kind of screening operation for the main force units of the Obama money cartel, who are the rapacious corporate bundlers. When Obama finally turned away from public funding, many commentators joined Obama in his cynicism, speculating that this whole issue had simply been a smokescreen for Democratic attacks on their better funded Republican rivals in the first place. Prominent among the cynics was, as usual, the oligarchical apologist David Brooks: The media and the activists won’t care (they were only interested in campaign-finance reform only when the Republicans had more money). Meanwhile, Obama’s money is forever. He’s got an army of small donors and a phalanx of big money bundlers, including, according to The Washington Post, Kenneth Griffin of the Citadel Investment Group; Kirk Wager, a Florida trial lawyer; James Crown, a director of General Dynamics; and Neil Bluhm, a hotel, office and casino developer. (David Brooks, New York Times, June 20, 2008)134 RUPERT MURDOCH SUPPORTS OBAMA, LATE MAY 2008 Obama is intrinsically a creature of what may be called in general terms the center-left side of the US-UK financier establishment. This wing of the banking community is grouped around names like David Rockefeller, George Soros, Robert Rubin, Felix Rohatyn, and Goldman Sachs. Its political spokesmen include James Baker III, former Congressman Lee Hamilton, Pelosi, the Kennedy family, and others. During 2007, it had been possible to distinguish another faction which could be associated with the names of George Shultz, Rupert Murdoch, Tony Blair, and various right-wing figures in Wall Street. During the primary season, it was significant that many of the revelations which so damaged Obama came from O’Reilly, Hannity, and other commentators employed by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel. It was therefore significant when archreactionary Rupert Murdoch announced that he too was smitten by the Obama craze. “We’re on the verge of a complete phenomenon,” Murdoch said. “Politicians are at an all-time low and are despised by 80% of the public, and then you’ve got a candidate trying to put himself out above it all. He’s become a rock star. It’s fantastic. “There are a lot of problems. The education system in this country is a total disgrace.” Murdoch heaped praise on Obama, saying he was a “highly intelligent man with a great record at Harvard”, but stopped short of a full personal endorsement because he wanted “to meet him personally.” The Obama phenomenon and undoubtedly the recession and everyone getting hurt... the average American family today is really financially hurting and that all bodes well for him,” he said. “He may not carry Florida because the Jewish people are suspicious of him, and so are Hispanics. But he’ll probably add Ohio and others. He will probably win.” Despite saying he was a friend of John McCain, Murdoch said the Republican presidential nominee had “a lot of problems.” “McCain has been in congress a long time and you’ve got to make too many compromises,” he said. VII: The Hope Pope and his Trilateral Money Machine 285 “What does he really stand for? He’s a patriot - he’s a friend of mine and a really decent guy - but he’s unpredictable. “[He] doesn’t know much about the economy and - I say this sympathetically - I think he has a lot of problems.” (London Guardian, May 30, 2008) In July, billionaire oligarch Warren Buffett participated in Obama’s meeting of economists and financiers along with Paul Adolph Volcker, Robert Rubin, and a few token labor leaders. Now, there could be no doubt whatsoever that Obama was indeed the consensus candidate of the Wall Street financier establishment and its British cousins. This provided thinking persons with the most powerful motivation to mobilize against Obama. THE OBAMA MONEY MACHINE SPUTTERS, JULY 2008 Yet, Obama’s path to financial supremacy was not quite that simple. Senator Clinton had mobilized significant numbers of wealthy contributors. Many of these persons of considerable means had been thoroughly antagonized by the scurrilous sexism and misogyny of the Obama campaign. But, his vision clouded by his own rising megalomania, Obama assumed that at the end of the primary season, these traditional Democratic Party financial backers would fall into line and filled his coffers for the fall. A key turning point was a meeting for Democratic fatcats at the Mayflower Hotel on K Street in Washington, where Obama held forth behind closed doors before a group of deeply suspicious Hillary backers. Accounts of what had gone on in this tense and heated meeting filtered out only gradually through the media: “I would say he was pretty underwhelming,” a longtime Democratic activist said several days after he and some 200 other big-money supporters of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign met with the victor, Barack Obama, in Washington on June 26. … the tone of what really happened inside the locked ballroom was quite different once Obama and Hillary Clinton had their cordial say and the floor was opened for questions. The first “questioner,” an angry woman from New York, demanded a roll call of presidential preference at the Denver convention. Next came another distraught woman who declared that Clinton’s candidacy was the victim of “misogyny.” One participant told me, “This is as tough a crowd as Obama is going to face the whole campaign.” But, in the opinion of the Clintonites, he did not open the door to his campaign, because he asked nothing of them. Big-money Democrats who could have expected to be named U.S. ambassadors by a President Hillary Clinton realized that they would get nothing from a President Obama. The train had left the station, and they were not aboard.135 Any machine pol knew that patronage handouts could be used to cement an effective political apparatus, but Obama apparently had not even learned that. SNOBBISH, ARROGANT, AND BORING: OBAMA DEMANDS TRIBUTE Obama had promised a new politics of hope and change, but in practice he was delivering a bitter and vindictive rebuff to Hillary’s supporters. The megalomania exhibited in an earlier stage in the infamous Joshua speech was now taking over more and more of the Perfect Master’s personality, causing him to commit stupid and easily avoidable political blunders. Here is another insider account of Obama’s wretched performance at this critical meeting: ‘Hillary, ever the good trooper and team player, gave Barack an intro to her big dollar donors and an opportunity to start the healing. But Barack continues to play the role of petulant bore. He gave an uninspired, mechanical speech. The charm exhibited on the campaign trail that left women swooning, was missing in action. Folks from the Hillary camp described the speech as 286 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography snobbish, arrogant, and boring. But it was Barack’s response to questions from Hillary’s supporters that produced sour bile. 1. What about the Vice President slot? The questioner told Barack that if he named Hillary as the Vice President that the Democrats would be in a position to own the White House for the next 16 years. Barack said nothing to give Clinton supporters hope that he would consider the Senator from New York. 2. Will you help Hillary retire her debt? On this one Barack said he had written a check for $2300 (According to the AP, Michelle gave a check as well. A good first step.) but that his real interest was getting access to the phone lists of Hillary’s donors and contacts. Hillary supporters at the gathering sat on their hands, their checkbooks, and their lists. 3. What will you do to stop the sexist smear of Hillary? The questioner noted that Barack did nothing to quell the rampant sexist attacks on Hillary during the campaign and that she continues to be brutalized. Barack said, “Yes, I know. But there is another woman who has been brutalized as well. The healing will take a long time to fix.” So there you have it. No vision. No magnanimous gesture. It is still all about Barack and Michelle. Most of the Hillary supporters left unassuaged. Instead of a promise from Barack to tell his supporters to stop the attacks on Hillary and her supporters, he essentially put his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders.’ (Larry Johnson, “Breaking News: Obama Bombs,” June 26, 2008)136 As the primary season progressed, Obama would show himself a weaker and weaker candidate, and more and more anemic as a vote-getter. The same thing occurred with Obama’s fundraising, which has relentlessly declined from the peak hysteria among the lemming legions which was registered in February, 2008. In that month, Obama had raked in $55 million, an all-time record for any US presidential campaign in a single calendar month. But in March, as the Reverend Wright scandal began to hit, this had gone down to $40 million. In April, as Obama’s blue-collar problems multiplied and the Bill Ayers-Bernardine Dohrn scandal surfaced, Obama declined further to $31 million. In May, as Obama was being widely pronounced as a new George McGovern, the creaking money machine was only capable of bringing in $22 million — only a half a million or so more than McCain, who was supposed to be notoriously weak in this department. All in all, it was estimated that Obama’s fundraising take in the second quarter of 2008 had come in 70% lower than he had targeted. There were reports that Obama was running out of money that he could spend before the beginning of the fall campaign around September 1. His burn rate must have been staggering. In the meantime, even the notoriously pro-Obama Newsweek poll plummeted from a lead of 15 points for the Perfect Master down to an advantage of a measly three, with the Gallup tracking poll showing a statistical dead heat with Obama ahead by two. States like Ohio and Pennsylvania had seen Obama outspend Senator Clinton by margins that were variously estimated at three to one, four to one, and five to one. By July, McCain was ahead of Barky in a Gallup-USA poll. During the primaries, Obama had spent about $285 million just to eke out an outright loss in the popular vote to Senator Clinton. His handlers had boasted at the time he dropped out of public financing in June 2008 that he could raise ‘hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few months,” including $100 million in June alone.137 In reality, it was little more than half that. Obama’s hard right turn and multiple flip-flops on issues from the Iraq war to FISA wiretapping to NAFTA to the death penalty to gun control and the looming privatization of Social Security had begun to disillusion even some of his most fanatical lemming legions. CHAPTER VIII: “OUR SOULS ARE BROKEN” – “FEEL, DON’T THINK! BE VISCERAL!” – MICHELLE OBAMA, POSTMODERN FASCIST IDEOLOGUE “Mrs. Obama’s statement is nothing less than a renunciation of democracy and an embrace of fascism. The basic idea of liberty is that people have a natural right to live their lives as usual and to be uninvolved and uninformed. And they certainly have a right to expect that their government will butt out of their souls.” - (Caroline Glick, “Obama the Savior,” Jerusalem Post, April 22, 2008) As fascism’s founding father, Benito Mussolini, once said: …”Think with your blood.”138 “Denken mit eurem Blute!” - “Think with your blood!” - Hitler One of the slogans of the Nazi S.A. was “Think with your blood.” We don’t need that.139 “Think with your blood.” – NSDAP slogan. On January 31 of this year, the oaf Keith Olbermann donned his most serious face and most indignant tone of voice to rail against George Bush for supporting telecom immunity and revisions to FISA. In a 10-minute “Special Comment,” the MSNBC star condemned Bush for wanting to “retroactively immunize corporate criminals,” and said that telecom immunity is “an ex post facto law, which would clear the phone giants from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with [Bush’s] illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass email.” Olbermann added that telecom amnesty was a “shameless, breathless, literally textbook example of Fascism — the merged efforts of government and corporations that answer to no government.” Noting the numerous telecom lobbyists connected to the Bush administration, Olbermann said: “This is no longer just a farce in which protecting telecoms is dressed up as protecting us from terrorists’ conference cells. Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich, trying to protect the Krupp family, the industrial giants, re-writing the laws of Germany for their benefit.140 Of course, this was before Obama voted in favor of the rotten compromise with FISA in June 2008. But the important idea here is the thesis about the nature of fascism that Olbermann is trying to sell. In a later chapter, we will show that the Obama campaign is the closest thing to a classic 1919-1922 fascist movement that we have ever seen here in the United States. Fascism, we must always remember, is not a top-down phenomenon; it starts with a radical, anti-establishment protest movement with many grievances – a movement that masquerades as an authentic, grass-roots, bottom-up social phenomenon, and hides the fact that it has been funded and created by bankers. The movement centers around a demagogic mob orator who makes utopian promises about overcoming despair and restoring the position of the nation in the world by refurbishing the mystical unity of the people. The fascist movement struggles for power by striving to weaken and destroy political parties, trade unions, sports groups, clubs, publications, media networks, and all other institutions which might provide support for resistance against fascism. Later on, if it is successful, the fascist mass movement will transform itself into a totalitarian and dictatorial regime, often liquidating its own plebeian and populist tendencies in the process. As the fascist regime consolidates and solidifies, it gradually comes to resemble an old-style, top-down dictatorship or bureaucratic-authoritarian regime. But the point is that, without the destruction of 288 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography opposition institutions by the fascist mass movement, the top-down dictatorship could never have emerged. The view peddled by such figures as Olbermann is that fascism occurs when an authoritarian government becomes more and more oppressive, until it can be called fascist. This is completely anti-historical and fails to explain why a new term of fascism had to be coined just after World War I. In the United States today, the prevalent understanding of fascist ideology is impoverished in the extreme. If people know anything at all about fascism, they are likely to think of Hitler, and to define him as someone who was a dictator, an anti-Semite, a genocidalist, and a military aggressor. But this leaves out the whole question of fascist ideology and of how a fascist movement could exercise mass appeal and take power in the first place. One of the purposes of this book is to fill in some of these blank spaces. Here we will be concerned with a few characteristic points of traditional and typical fascist ideology as they are reflected in the speeches and activities of Michelle Obama, who has emerged as a clear case of fascist ideology in her own right. The Obamas are like a pair of onions: they have several layers of built-in deception, and several of these layers must be stripped away to get anywhere near reality. But of the two, it is Michelle who displays her ideology more openly. As the present writer concluded in January-February 2008, and as the Jerusalem Post has noted more recently, Mrs. Obama’s ideology, as expressed on numerous occasions and in various forms, is in a very strict technical sense fascism. Not fascism in the sense of the all-purpose epithet thrown at adversaries by superficial media whores like Olbermann, but fascism as the belief structure actually embraced and preached by fascist leaders such as the young Mussolini between 1919 in 1922, when the fascist movements were just getting started. It is in this sense that Mrs. Obama qualifies without any doubt as a fascist. We should also take the warning of the Jerusalem Post quite seriously. There is no doubt that the Jews have suffered greatly as a result of European fascism. We should therefore take such a warning seriously, and carefully examine whether it is true. The finding here is that Michelle qualifies as the most open fascist ideologue yet seen in an American presidential campaign. But since it is left fascism, more like the young Mussolini rather than the mature and consolidated dictator, the left liberals are quite incapable of noticing this critical fact. MICHELLE OBAMA: BROKEN SOULS The principal document illustrating Michelle Obama’s fascist world outlook is the standard stump speech which she delivered during the primaries and caucuses of January and February in particular. It was in this phase that the messianic and utopian elements of the Obama campaign were most pronounced, and Michelle appears to have been encouraged to reveal at least something of her actual worldview over audiences. Through her words, Michelle was doubtless communicating strong elements of subliminal and subconscious irrationalism to the excitable lemming legions and Kool-Aid cultists who were her audience. She was suggesting that Obama is a far more irrational and anti-rational candidate than he can afford to admit in public, with vast projects of world transformation and reform which could not yet be articulated. All of this could be read into her constant references to “broken souls” that needed to be healed and made whole; this was a construct into which individual listeners could project vast amounts of their personal fantasy lives, and could imagine themselves emerging in the form of a new species of humanity. Some might hear in Michelle’s standard remarks with the veiled promise that Obama is capable of constructing a new world order in which instinctual repression will no longer be necessary, and instinctual gratification will be immediately available — in other words, the eternal antinomian promise to abolish the law and liberate the Freudian id. Exactly this has been the promise of the VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 289 false Messiahs of past centuries – the abolition of the law and instant gratification, somewhat in the mode of Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization. Such hints were indeed present in the oratory of the irrationalist mass movements between the two world wars, especially in Europe. This is the kind of suggestion which has so often been a premonition of unspeakable horrors in the real world of politics, economics, and military affairs, as a glance at the history of the last two and a quarter centuries will confirm. Here is what Mrs. Obama had to say in her appearance at the University of California Los Angeles on February 15, 2008: SAMPLE MICHELLE OBAMA STUMP SPEECH, MID-FEBRUARY 2008 In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another. We don’t know our neighbors. We don’t talk. We believe that our pain is our own - we don’t realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same. We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as them and they as opposed to us - we don’t engage because we are still too cynical. Don’t get sick in this country - not here. Americans are in debt not because they live frivolously but because someone got sick. And even with insurance, the deductibles and premiums are so high that people are still putting medication and treatments on credit cards. And they can’t get out from under. I could go on and on and on, but his is how we’re living, people, in 2008. And things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime - through Democratic and Republican administrations - it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another - that we cannot measure our greatness in the society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done - that is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls - our souls are broken in this nation. If we can’t see ourselves in one another, we will never make those sacrifices. So I am here right now because I am married to the only person in this race who has a chance at healing this nation. The first major decision he had to make in his life, after college - “Do I go to Wall Street and make money, or do I work for the people?” - Barack worked as a community organizer in some of the toughest neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago. Helping young mothers find their voice and their power - folks who had a reason to be cynical because government had forgotten them long ago. There is no one else in this race who can claim that kind of commitment to people on the ground. No one. And I would think in a nation like ours, - Barack, as Oprah said, is one of the most brilliant men you will meet in our lifetime. Barack is more than ready. He’ll be ready today, he’ll be ready on day one, he’ll be ready in a year from now, five years from now - he is ready. That is not the question. The question is: What are we ready for? Wait, wait, wait - because we say we’re ready for change, we say we’re ready for change, butcha see, change is HARD. Change will always be hard, and it doesn’t happen from the top down. We do not get universal health care, we don’t get better schools because somebody else is in the White House. We get change because folks from the grass roots up decide they are sick and tired of other people telling them how their lives will be - when they decide to roll up their sleeves and work. And Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your division, that you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push yourselves to be better, and that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed...We have young kids all over the world who are looking to this nation, and they are trying to figure out who we are, and what we wanna 290 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography become. We have a chance, not just to make history, but we can change the world. We can change the world - yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can... (Michelle Obama at UCLA, February 15, 2008)141 Several sayings in this are notable here. First of all, Michelle effectively evokes the real problems of the inadequate healthcare and other material privations which have been and are the last of the American people on there for decades of overall reactionary Republican domination. But it is equally striking that she does not propose any concrete measures to deal with these problems in the real world. If anything, she rather argues that it is impossible to solve these problems in the world the way it is presently constituted. Her line is that solving social problems and economic problems is impossible, because our souls are defective. So this means that we cannot solve any problems until we proceed to a complete reformation of the human personality itself. This is what she means when she raises the issue of broken souls. How then should the human personality be reformed, in Michelle’s opinion? The reference to turning away from Wall Street seems to indicate that a de-emphasis of materialism in favor of spiritual benefits is required. We need to give up our cynicism and think about the poor, she says. Naturally, all of this sententious advice stands in the sharpest contrast to the greed, rapacity, and social climbing of Michelle and Barky, who have become rich by working for the foundations, and by serving the corrupt Chicago political machine. But few of the excitable lemmings attending an Obama rally will have any idea about that. Rather, Michelle goes on to claim that Barky has an absolute monopoly on the path to salvation: he is the only anointed one whose touch can heal and repair the broken souls of the people. There is the strong implication that the process of fixing the broken souls is a painful process which will require some kind of sacrifice, most likely in the form of economic austerity. But not only austerity: Obama, she warns, will require that the population be kept in a constant state of mobilization and activity in the service of the transformation which he means to initiate. These are the main features of a process which will need to a complete utopian transformation of the world. At this point, the crowd intervenes with chanting, in the best Mussolini-D’Annunzio tradition. Let us now illustrate some of these aspects of Michelle’s standard speech by citing formulations she has used on other occasions. The standard stump speech must necessarily very slightly from place to place, and these differences of formulation will give us a further opportunity to see what Michelle has in mind. The uniqueness of Obama as a savior (or Mahdi) is a constant feature. Here is one journalistic account: ‘Michelle Obama declared that her husband is a needed anecdote to a troubled nation torn by war and struggles for opportunity. “Before we can fix our problems, we have to fix our souls,” she said. “Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it begins with leadership. It begins with inspiration.” And: “Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone . . . Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed.”’142 Obama always appears as the source of transfiguration and beatification of the drab, isolated, and alienated individual lives of his followers, even though this process is accompanied by forms of pain and sacrifice. Here is the same motif in a slightly different form: “We need to fix our souls,” she said. “Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it begins with inspiration. It begins with leadership.” And again, in yet another variation: “Before we can fix our problems, we have to fix our souls...our souls are broken. It begins with LEADERSHIP. This race is about CHARACTER. I am married to the only person in this race who has a chance of healing this Nation.” (Michelle Obama, February 3, 2008) VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 291 The alleged uniqueness of Obama as the indispensable leader recurs again and again: Michelle Obama also urged the crowd not to overlook the importance of inspiration and hope. “Our souls are broken,” she said. “And right now we need some inspiration. Inspiration and hope are not words. Everything begins and ends with hope. And the only person in this race who has a chance of getting us where we need to be is Barack Obama.” Sometimes the note of difficulty, sacrifice, and travail becomes more prominent, as here: “We need a leader who’s going to touch our souls because you see, our souls are broken,” Michelle Obama said. “The change Barack is talking about is hard, so don’t get too excited because Barack is going to demand that you too be different.” In medieval Europe, there was a tradition that a true King could cure diseases such as scrofula with his mere touch alone: here we see Obama promoted to the level of such a sacral king, without the benefit of the special ancient unctions which were stored in the French case in the cathedral of Rheims. As a rule, the dominant notes of hope and change are tempered by many less prominent references to austerity and sacrifice, leaving no doubt that there is no purgation of the broken soul without pain: ‘Obama brought her husband’s message of hope and change to a standing-room-only crowd. “Our souls are broken in this nation, and we need some inspiration and a whole lot of hope,” she told a packed auditorium…. though Obama’s speaking style is generally more conversational than that of her husband, she has her own loftier, more rhetorically aspirational moments. “We need a different leadership because our souls are broken. We need to be inspired...to make the sacrifices that are needed to push us to a different place,” she said. And, toward the climax of her speech, she said, “Dreaming does count. You need to dream to realize your possibilities.’143 At times, selected surrogates are permitted to join in the paean to Obama the savior, but Michelle generally plays the role of the high priestess or Pythoness of the mystery cult of Barky. One such surrogate was Caroline Kennedy, who was used to depict the apostolic succession of Obama from the martyred Kennedy brothers. As Craig Crawford put it, the Kennedys had no choice but to pass the torch to Obama, because their own kids were all in rehab. This account evokes such a liturgical moment: At UCLA, Caroline Kennedy called Obama a generational figure “who inspires me the way people say my father inspired them. “It’s rare to have a candidate who can help us believe in ourselves and tie that belief to the highest ideals,” said Kennedy, who said Obama stands for “the future of our party and the future of our country.” Michelle Obama declared that her husband is a needed anecdote to a troubled nation torn by war and struggles for opportunity. “Before we can fix our problems, we have to fix our souls,” she said. “Our souls are broken in this nation.”144 Incredibly enough, the question of broken souls or, more commonly, “wounded souls” is a commonplace in the psychological and sociological literature about the genesis of mass movements and their demagogic leaders. The dialectic of such movements commonly involves the promise of the demagogue to provide solace and healing, or else violent revenge, for the damage suffered by the battered souls of the rank and file. An example of this sort of thinking can be found in Dr. Jerrold Post’s book, Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World: The Psychology of Political Behavior (Psychoanalysis and Social Theory) (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2004). 292 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Dr. Post had worked for two decades as the head of CIA bureau charged with developing psychological profiles of the leaders of foreign states and other targets of Langley. Ironically, Dr. Post was interviewed by Sam Litzinger on WWWT radio in Washington DC in early May 2008 at some length precisely about this question of wounded souls. Michelle Obama was thus revealed as a fascist ideologue so cynical that she introduced the technical jargon of mass brainwashing into her standard stump speech. It was clear that the intelligence community’s professional mind-benders were an integral part of the Obama campaign apparatus, helping to churn out the demagogy about hope for broken souls when they were touched by the new false messiah. “A RENUNCIATION OF DEMOCRACY AND AN EMBRACE OF FASCISM” The older American common sense would suggest that if your soul is broken, you probably need a priest, or else a shrink. The idea that you would turn to a politician is a decidedly novel one, and by all indications a sign of decadence and degeneracy in a culture which has been made ripe for fascism by the degradation of eight years of Bush-Cheney neocon domination, false flag terrorism, and senseless wars. But, whatever the cause, fascism is fascism and it must be denounced wherever it is found. Those who call attention to the presence of fascism deserve credit, whatever their motives, and however objectionable other aspects of their own outlook might be. We must therefore thank Caroline Glick for having had the courage to write the following: Speaking in February of the man she knows better than anyone else does, Michelle Obama said that her husband, Illinois Senator and candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination Barack Obama, is the only candidate for president who understands that before America can solve its problems, Americans have to fix their “broken souls.” She also said that her husband’s unique understanding of the state of souls of the American people makes him uniquely qualified to be President. Obama can do what his opponent in the Democratic race Senator Hillary Clinton, and Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, cannot do. He can heal his countrymen’s broken souls. He will redeem them. But then, saving souls is hard work, and Mrs. Obama won’t place the whole burden on her husband. He’ll make the Americans work for him. As she put it, “Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.” At base, Mrs. Obama’s statement is nothing less than a renunciation of democracy and an embrace of fascism. The basic idea of liberty is that people have a natural right to live their lives as usual and to be uninvolved and uninformed. And they certainly have a right to expect that their government will butt out of their souls.’ (Caroline Glick, “Obama the Savior,” Jerusalem Post, April 22, 2008) Neocon or not, Ms. Glick is precisely on target. Perhaps in the near future American politics will be divided into the broken souls faction, and another faction which will demand that government butt out of their souls. It would be better to divide over real economic issues, and Obama has been deployed among us for the precise purpose of making sure that such a reality-based economic debate does not happen. “FEEL – DON’T THINK! … BE VISCERAL!” Another important window into Michelle Obama’s fascist ideology is provided by a report of the advice she gave her husband early in the primary season. Here we read the following: VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 293 ‘On a conference call to prepare for a recent debate, Barack Obama brainstormed with his top advisers on the fine points of his positions. Michelle Obama had dialed in to listen, but finally couldn’t stay silent any longer. “Barack,” she interjected, “Feel — don’t think!” Telling her husband his “over-thinking” during past debates had tripped him up with rival Hillary Clinton, she said: “Don’t get caught in the weeds. Be visceral. Use your heart — and your head.”’ (Monica Langley, “Michelle Obama Solidifies Her Role in the Election,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2008) This advice spotlights another indispensable aspect of fascist ideology, and that is the rejection of reason and of thinking in general in favor of irrational intuition. In the modern US Hollywood culture, the irrational elements are so pervasive that the average person has a very hard time remembering the insistence on mass irrationality on the part of all the European fascist movements of the first half of the 20th century. In those days, fascist demagogues and international bankers recommended that the masses think with their blood; “May the Force be with you” is a more recent Hollywood version of something quite similar. German fascists lived in the world of Wagner’s Ring cycle, and cultivated myth, superstition, astrology, and occult folklore. Over the past decades, Hollywood has churned out The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and an avalanche of mummies, vampires, witches, mutants, warlocks, super-heroes, and wizards. The latest Indiana Jones movie now has the Russians as the enemy, just in time for the Brzezinski Plan. Those saturated in such irrationalist banality have a very hard time resisting irrationality when it appears in political form. Telling somebody to be visceral means telling them to think with their bowels or with their guts, not with their head. This is very close to the classic fascist approach which is to tell them to think with their blood. “Think with your blood” has come into English-speaking culture directly through the translations of speeches by both Hitler, Mussolini, and their followers. It has also been propagated by the works of a writer who is better known as a pornographer than as a fascist, but who had very pronounced fascist sympathies which his literary promoters have found it convenient to sweep under the rug: we mean of course D.H. Lawrence, the Nietzschean and fascist sympathizer whose novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was all the rage on American campuses a half century ago. Lawrence was interested in the theme of blood consciousness especially as it related to erotic mysticism and to his own pornographic vision in general. More important precursors of the theory of blood consciousness which Michelle Obama seems to profess include first of all the Italian ultranationalist provocateur and British agent Giuseppe Mazzini, who taught that the individual was in the process of disappearing from world history to be replaced by a new protagonist in the form of the ethnic or racial group, the popolo. Another important precursor was the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, a contemporary of Napoleon Bonaparte. Fichte’s concept of the Volksgeist meant that every national grouping had its own characteristic mental outlook and way of thinking which was not commensurable with the mentalities of other ethnic groups. This tended to undermine the notion of universal reason as a general human characteristic or potential. A third precursor to Michelle’s outlook can be found in National Socialism, where it was claimed that the positive content of world culture was uniquely the product of the Germanic race, and that the method of thinking characteristic of all other ethnic groups was inherently inferior, destructive, and worthy of extirpation. For the fascist ideologues, blood consciousness meant something slightly different: blood for them meant race, and blood consciousness accordingly indicated a mental outlook that was determined by one’s own race-based existence. For these fascists, “think with your blood” was a way of demanding that you think like a member of your own ethnic or racial tribe. But today, the general US public knows almost nothing about the “think with your blood” side of fascism, perhaps 294 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography because it is too close for comfort to the prevailing foundation-backed racial identities which require certain groups to act black, act like la raza, and so forth. A few examples will be useful to show how big a role the “think with your blood” slogan played in fascist agitation, as part of the more general fascist attack on human reason and critical thinking, which the foundations continue into our own time. Here blood consciousness finds its place in any array of better known fascist slogans: Slogans like “Who has betrayed us, the Social Democrats,” “The Jews are our Misfortune,” “Think with your Blood,” “One Nation, One Race, One People,” are the slogans of fascist movements….(Norman Markowitz, “Tom DeLay’s Kampf,” political affairs.net, April 9, 2005)145 Markowitz observes, in a totally different context and before Obama burst upon the scene, Ultra-rightists and open Fascists are in effect cheap political crooks whose gaudy patter is aimed at covering up their corruption, crimes, and drive to establish dictatorial political power. Sing “God Bless America” (or “Deutschland Uber Alles,” or whatever) hate Communists, Socialists, liberals, Jews, Muslims, or whomever is convenient in your political market, and “think with your blood,” a Mussolini slogan that translates as think with your emotions and ethnicity, not with your head. 146 The prominence of thinking with your blood as a fascist concept has also not been lost on competent academic writers on the subject, at least until Michelle came along. A recent academic survey notes: In this respect, fascism is a reactionary ideology. It took shape in the years following World War I as a reaction against the two leading ideologies of the time, liberalism and socialism. Unhappy with the liberal emphasis on the individual and the socialist emphasis on contending social classes, the fascists provided a view of the world in which individuals and classes were to be absorbed into an all-embracing whole-a mighty empire under the control of a single party and a supreme leader. Like the Reactionaries of the early 1800s, they also rejected the faith in reason that they thought formed the foundation for liberalism and socialism alike. Reason is less reliable, both Mussolini and Hitler declared, than intuitions and emotions – what we sometimes call “gut instincts.” This is why Mussolini exhorted his followers to “think with your blood.” (Terrence Ball and Richard Dagger, Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal (New York: Longman Publishing, 1998), chapter 7; Fascism.)147 Other students of fascism have stressed the pervasive irrationalism, often tinged with romanticism, of these movements, an irrationalism that is emphatically shared by Obama: At its best this way of thinking — or rather, of feeling — is a usually harmless romanticism. At its worst, and not uncommonly, lies the darker version of romanticism that resembles — to many scholars, is the essence of — fascism. One such scholar was the great British philosopher, Isaiah Berlin. According to this review (critical review, by the way) of his collection of essays, The Roots of Romanticism (Princeton, 1999), Berlin argued that Romanticism’s emphasis on passion over reason represented “a rupture with the Enlightenment’s commitment to reason and objectivity.”148 Irrationalism in the United States received a huge boost 40 years ago with the failure of the political movements of the 1960s, and the arrival – during the phase of acute demoralization, VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 295 disorientation, and despair that followed during the 1970s, of a tsunami of irrationalism under the guise of the so-called counter culture: The counter culture’s tie-in with Romanticism is important for one particular reason. In its latest stages, Romantic culture degenerated into one of the central ingredients of fascism: “Feeling is all,” Goethe’s Faust proclaimed: and a little more than a century later Hitler, almost paraphrasing D. H. Lawrence, provided a distorted echo: “Think with your blood.” (Theodore Roszak, “Youth and the Great Refusal” (1968)149 Has Michelle Obama been reading the classics of fascism? And if not, where could she have gotten the specific form of the ideology she is expressing with her order to Barky to “be visceral”? Maybe we should look for the obvious: the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, foundation-funded racist provocateur. Wright offered the elements of a theory of Afrocentric or black-only irrationalism in his speech to an NAACP dinner in Detroit on April 27, 2008, just before his speech to the National Press Club which impelled Obama to dump him. Here Wright outlined a tradition of writers going back to Carter G. Woodson, and then to …two brilliant scholars and two beautiful sisters, both of whom hail from Detroit in the fields of education and linguistics, Dr. Janice Hale right here at Wayne State University, founder of the Institute for the Study of the African-American Child, and Dr. Geneva Smitherman formerly of Wayne State University now at Michigan State University in Lansing. Hale in education and Smitherman in linguistics. Both demonstrated 40 years ago that different does not mean deficient.150 Janice Hale’s book Black Children (1986) is billed the Johns Hopkins University Press in these terms: As African-American children are acculturated at home and in the African-American community, they develop cognitive patterns and behaviors that may prove incompatible with the school environment. Cultural factors produce group differences that must be addressed in the educational process.” Wright’s reading of Hale is summarized below. Smitherman travels in the world of what the average person would possibly recognize as Ebonics, the attempt to codify an African-American dialect or ghetto language of substandard grammar and limited vocabulary (especially in the hard sciences) which would turn the black community in on itself, cut off its channels of communication with the wider world, and render children speaking Ebonics unemployable for life in the twenty-first century, when not just internationally intelligible standard English, but one or two foreign languages will be in demand.151 Ebonics and its variations represents yet another weapon in the foundation and ruling class armory to impose self-enforced separation, backwardness, and poverty on the black community. Here is the left brain-right brain “race science” theory as expounded by Wright to the NAACP: Dr. Hale’s research led her to stop comparing African-American children with European- American children and she started comparing the pedagogical methodologies of African- American children to African children and European-American children to European children. And bingo, she discovered that the two different worlds have two different ways of learning. European and European-American children have a left brained cognitive object-oriented learning style and the entire educational learning system in the United States of America, back in the early ‘70s, when Dr. Hale did her research, was based on left brained cognitive object oriented learning style. Let me help you with fifty cent words. Left brain is logical and analytical. Object oriented means the student learns from an object. From the solitude of the 296 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography cradle with objects being hung over his or her head to help them determine colors and shape to the solitude in a carrel in a Ph.D. program stuffed off somewhere in a corner in absolute quietness to absorb from the object. From a block to a book, an object. That is one way of learning, but it is only one way of learning. African and African-American children have a different way of learning. They are right brained, subject oriented in their learning style. Right brain that means creative and intuitive. Subject oriented means they learn from a subject, not an object. They learn from a person. Some of you are old enough, I see your hair color, to remember when the NAACP won that tremendous desegregation case back in 1954 and when the schools were desegregated. They were never integrated. When they were desegregated in Philadelphia, several of the white teachers in my school freaked out. Why? Because black kids wouldn’t stay in their place. Over there behind the desk, black kids climbed up all on them. Because they learn from a subject, not from an object. Tell me a story. They have a different way of learning. Those same children who have difficulty reading from an object and who are labeled EMH, DMH and ADD. Those children can say every word from every song on every hip hop radio station half of who’s words the average adult here tonight cannot understand. Why? Because they come from a right-brained creative oral culture like the (greos?) [sic] in Africa who can go for two or three days as oral repositories of a people’s history and like the oral tradition which passed down the first five books in our Jewish bible, our Christian Bible, our Hebrew bible long before there was a written Hebrew script or alphabet. And repeat incredulously long passages like Psalm 119 using mnemonic devices using eight line stanzas. Each stanza starting with a different letter of the alphabet. That is a different way of learning. It’s not deficient, it is just different. Somebody say different. I believe that a change is going to come because many of us are committed to changing how we see other people who are different. What Dr. Janice Hale did in the field of education, Dr. Geneva Smitherman did in the field of linguistics.152 When Wright says the right brain is intuitive, he means irrational. When he says the left brain is logical, he is attacking reason. Not content with destroying the unity of world history by carving it up into a multitude of hermetically sealed cultures in the manner of Oswald Spengler, modern foundation-funded “race science” also attempts to demolish the unity of human reason. In reality, human reason is the single invariant factor which can be observed at work in every society from the emergence of humans down to the present day. It is a true universal, necessary and present in every individual. It is present in Plato and in Confucius, in the Egypt of Akhnaton and in the Baghdad of Haroun al Rashid, and it is neither eastern nor western, neither northern nor southern, neither black nor white. It is present from Thales to Dr. George Washington Carver. It belongs to no race, and has no color. To attempt to mutilate or deform this universal reason is the greatest act of vandalism against humanity that is possible, and it is likely to bring on catastrophic consequences that go far beyond the world of ideas. This is what the foundation-funded racists, obscurantists, irrationalists, and mythmongers are attempting to do. Wright is their publicist, and Barack and Michelle are the fanatical cadre they have formed. Do Hale and Smitherman know that they are converging with Gumplowitz, Houston S. Chamberlain and Alfred Rosenberg? They may or may not, but that is what they are doing. Foundation-funded race theory is a desolate path that leads into the abyss of blood consciousness. It should also be clear that the left brain-right brain mumbo-jumbo is the mirror image of the Robert Herrnstein - Charles Murray Bell Curve racism, but decked out in radical rhetoric to make it seem liberating and thus acceptable to the black community. VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 297 When Craig Venter went to the White House in 2000 to inform President Clinton that modern science had mastered the human genome, he told Clinton that one of the results of his research was that no such thing as race exists. President Clinton declared, “After all, I believe one of the great truths to emerge from this triumphant expedition inside the human genome is that in genetic terms all human beings, regardless of race, are more than 99.9% the same.” At the same press conference, Craig Venter, president and CEO of Celera Genomics, reinforced Clinton’s message, asserting that “the concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis.”153 Race is a fiction, an empty construct, a pure mystification. The neurological differences that Wright asserts are the result of poverty and exclusion, and can be dealt with by eliminating these factors. “GNOSTIC” ELEMENTS IN THE OBAMA AGITATION Another way of analyzing Michelle Obama’s speeches about the problem of broken souls is to understand that she is claiming for political activity in government a much wider role than has usually been the case in this country. Michelle Obama is trying to sell politics as a means of reaching goals which have normally been associated with religion. The fixing or healing or making whole of broken souls is the task of Paradise or Nirvana, and not of the politically rally or the ballot box. The traditional view is the one expressed by St. Paul: Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.154 According to this, it is only in the life of the world to come that the fragmentation, mutilation, and alienation of this earthly vale of tears can be overcome. Virtuous pagans could and did have wisdom, justice, temperance, and fortitude, but faith, hope and charity are specifically Christian virtues – especially, for our purposes here, hope. Michelle Obama makes a radically different claim, suggesting that the magical powers possessed by her husband can realize and accomplish in the political form, on earth, and soon the sorts of deep changes that are usually reserved for heaven. The political philosopher Eric Voegelin applied the label of Gnosticism to this kind of political culture. Others suggested that the fascists could be called pagan or neopagan, but Voegelin insisted on the term Gnostic, since he saw modern politicians in Europe as holding out the promise of specifically Christian forms of Paradise or heaven (referred to as the eschaton), but brought down to earth in the form of a political utopia thought to be within reach if only state power could be seized and held. A pre-Obama standard reference summary of Voegelin’s leading concept may make these connections clear: Voegelin was a political philosopher known most widely in America for The New Science of Politics, his 1952 University of Chicago Walgreen lectures. In them Voegelin argued that modern ideological movements such as communism and fascism repeated the gnostic heresy of early Christianity. Early Christian gnosticism separated a person’s “spiritual” elements— claimed to be real—from his or her “material” parts—claimed to be unreal. Jesus was perfect because his spirit—his reason and motivation—was perfect. Gnostics believed humans who grasped this truth could also achieve perfection on earth and not have to wait for the eschaton. Voegelin argued that in modern times gnosticism has become politicized. Politicized gnosticism 298 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography asserts that personal and social perfection is possible. Such perfection, however, usually requires a few sages who understand the truths and who must sometimes rather ruthlessly and violently impose “perfection” on others. Both fascism and communism, according to Voegelin, are gnostic-like attempts to “immanentize the eschaton;” that is, to overcome the limitations, anxieties, and uncertainties of human experience for an enlightened vanguard to build a “heaven on earth.” (A wonderful theory, its implementation always goes astray.) One destroys real democracy and politics in the process of imposing a “perfect” social vision. (Wikipedia) Pope Benedict XVI Ratzinger has made the following observations about communist ideology, which are also highly relevant to our current discussion of a fascist mentality: “...where the Marxist ideology of liberation had been consistently applied, a total lack of freedom had developed, whose horrors were now laid bare before the eyes of the entire world. Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic.” These remarks are included in Ratzinger’s “Liberation Theology” (2007), a critique of currents in theology which share a great deal with the James Cone “Black liberation theology” taught by the foundation-funded racist provocateur Jeremiah Wright, who is evidently a special favorite of Michelle. THE SAVIOR The gnostic mantle of the Obama campaign envelops both Barack and Michelle, each in their assigned role. Obama supporters are often apolitical or anti-political. They are fans, groupies, cultists, enthusiasts, adepts, and they avidly crowd around the divine couple. The great violinist Yehudi Menuhin wrote that, having witnessed both modern rock concerts and Nazi party rallies, he could sense something in common between the two, and concluded that rock concerts might well represent a preparation for authoritarianism and fascism later on. The first generations that cannot remember a world without orgiastic rock concerts and mosh pits are also the ones that provide Obama with his idolaters: “People don’t come to Obama for what he’s done in the Senate,” says Bruce Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. “They come because of what they hope he could be.” What Obama stands for, if anything, is not yet clear. Everywhere he goes he is greeted by thrilled crowds, trailed constantly by a reporter from The Chicago Tribune who is writing a book about the senator with a preliminary title so immodest that it embarrassed even Obama’s staff: The Savior. The danger here is that the public has committed the cardinal sin of political love, forcing Obama onto the national stage before knowing him well enough to gauge whether he’s ready for it. The candidate they see before them is their own creation — or, rather, it is the scrambling of a skinny, serious, self-reflective man trying to mold his public’s conflicted yearnings into something greater. “Barack has become a kind of human Rorschach test,” says Cassandra Butts, a friend of the senator’s from law school and now a leader at the Center for American Progress. “People see in him what they want to see.” (Wallace Wells, Rolling Stone) The London Sunday Telegraph reported: “Barack Obama criticized over ‘cult-like’ rallies.” The article went on to report: “for a growing number of Barack Obama skeptics, there is something disturbing about the adulation with which the senator and Democratic presidential frontrunner is greeted as he campaigns for the White House – unnervingly akin to the hysteria of a cult, or the fervour of a religious revival.” VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 299 A recent London Times story (also appearing in The Australian) was headlined: “Early signs of a Barack-lash.” Correspondent James Bone wrote: The American presidential candidate who can do no wrong is experiencing the first signs of dip in popularity, called the “Barack-lash”. Barack Obama has become a darling of the internet generation since he started his underdog campaign to triumph over the wife of a former president and become the first black leader of the free world. Millions downloaded a YouTube video of his “Yes We Can” speech set to music by Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am with celebrity friends including actors Scarlett Johansson and Amber Valletta. But Obama’s popularity has begun to rebound on him now that he has emerged as the Democratic frontrunner. Even supporters are questioning whether he can really deliver on all their hopes. Mathew Honan, a freelance writer and contributor to Obama’s campaign, set up a website called www.obamaisyournewbicycle.com after his wife, Harper, a nurse and avid cyclist, began exhibiting symptoms of “Obama-mania”. Within two weeks there were more than 2.3 million visits to the site, which carries messages such as: “Barack Obama escorted your Gramma across the street”; “Barack Obama baked you a pie”; “Barack Obama dedicated a song to you”; “Barack Obama carries a picture of you in his wallet”; and “Barack Obama remembered your birthday”. Website obamamessiah.blogspot.com asks “Is Obama the Messiah?” and boasts a “transfiguration” scene of the Christ-like candidate addressing supporters from a staircase. In a section on “Obama Conversion Stories”, it quotes author Deepak Chopra calling Obama’s candidacy “a quantum leap in American consciousness”. The SenatorObamas.com site portrays him in a variety of guises, from “Obamarama” to the nightwear-clad “Pajamabama”. Before the Hollywood writers’ strike, Obama won sympathy on the widely watched Saturday Night Live television comedy show on November 3, playing himself as a guest at a party thrown by the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill. With the writers back at work, Saturday Night Live returned to lampoon the Obama media obsession. A white actor played Obama in a sketch parodying the latest Democratic debate. The moderator confessed she had been “clinically diagnosed as an Obamamaniac”. The New York Times columnist David Brooks has diagnosed the mood swing experienced by many liberals as “Obama Comedown Syndrome”. “The afflicted had already been through the phases of Obamamania — fainting at rallies, weeping over their touch screens while watching Obama videos, spending hours making folk crafts featuring Michelle Obama’s face,” Brooks writes. “These patients had experienced intense surges of hope-amine, the brain chemical that fuels euphoric sensations of historic change and personal salvation. But they found that as the weeks went on, they needed more and purer hope injections just to preserve the rush. “They wound up craving more hope than even the Hope Pope could provide, and they began experiencing brooding moments of suboptimal hopefulness. “Anxious posts began to appear on the Yes We Can! Facebook pages. A sense of ennui began to creep through the nation’s Ian McEwan-centred book clubs.” (James Bone, London Times, February 25, 2008) OBAMA: “LOOK AT THESE FOLKS WHO ARE BEING DUPED” Obama tried to fight back against the “cult” description, and NBC’s Lee Cowan reported from Toledo that there was “…a subtle new argument that Barack Obama’s been using ... that’s starting to get some traction.” “He says it’s not so much what Hillary Clinton says about him by way of criticism,” Cowan explained, “but what she’s implying about his supporters that he says should get them pretty riled up.” Obama first introduced this argument at Tuesday’s debate in Austin, where he 300 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography stated, “The implication is, the people who’ve been voting for me or involved in my campaign are somehow delusional.” Obama’s stump speech was revamped to include the same argument. “Some of these folks make fun of y’all,” he told one audience. “They say, ‘Y’all look at these folks who are being duped.’“ “However they’re characterized, they are certainly energetic,” Cowan concluded, seeming uncertain just what to make of Obama’s supporters. “And the more they are criticized for that enthusiasm, the more it just seems to galvanize their cause.”’ There was talk of Hare Krishna and the Manson family. Obama was mentioned as both the Messiah and the anti-Christ, with elaborate web sites devoted to both themes. A slate.com editor noticed that Obama’s rhetorical style was similar to that of Mussolini: ‘The deputy editor of a major online magazine spent time in a weekly podcast explaining how the style of Senator Barack Obama shares much in common with the speech of fascist dictators like Benito Mussolini. “That’s slightly fascistic,” David Plotz, the deputy editor at Slate.com said in the magazine’s weekly podcast when one of his fellow editors brought up Obama’s style. “That’s a very, like, let’s rally the nation. I don’t want to be rallied.” After his fellow Slate editors lightly gibed him for his statement, he continued the point: “My brother who is an academic wrote this wonderful book about crowds, and crowd theory. And one of the sort of lessons that he’s always imparted to me is just that crowds are terrifying. Crowds are horrifying for the most part because they have a will of their own, and they act independently of rationality. And I think that Obama relies hugely on that. That’s not to say, I don’t, I still support him, but I don’t like that fascistic, I like him not for the fascistic elements of his candidacy, which I think are profound.”’ (Michael Roston, “Slate editor calls Obama speech style ‘fascistic,’” Rawstory, February 4, 2008) Right-wing Fox News Radio host Tom Sullivan took a call from a listener who stated that when listening to Barack Obama speak, “it harkens back to when I was younger and I used to watch those deals with Hitler, how he would excite the crowd and they’d come to their feet and scream and yell.” Sullivan then played a “side-by-side comparison” of a Hitler speech and an Obama speech. Sullivan mimicked the crowd during both speeches, yelling, “Yay! Yay!” Radio reactionary Michael Savage agreed. It would be easy to disregard these comments because the sources have discredited themselves so thoroughly in their support of Bush and his lunatic foreign wars. But then again, gold is sometimes where you find it. IRRATIONALIST MASS MOVEMENTS TARGET WOMEN No account of the success of Mussolini and his imitators as mob orators would be complete without some mention of the special hypnotic power which fascist rhetoric and the personality of the fascist leader exercised on women. Some of the most enthusiastic swooners at fascist rallies were women, many of whom had a special devotion for Il Duce. Obama seems to have acquired an instinctive awareness of this set of issues from his own mother. If we are to judge by the prominence that this episode receives in Obama’s memoirs, we must conclude that one of the formative experiences of Obama’s life was the moment when his mother revealed to him that she found Harry Belafonte to be sexually attractive. This experience seems to have furnished Obama with the belief that he is able to exercise an almost hypnotic appeal over middle-aged white woman, and his campaign has tried very hard to play this card, including through the use of special focus groups. Here is the episode in question, as described in a recent puff piece of adulation offered by a popular magazine to the Perfect Master: There is an amazingly candid moment in Obama’s autobiography when he writes of his childhood discomfort at the way his mother would sexualize African-American men. “More than once,” he recalls, “my mother would point out: ‘Harry Belafonte is the best-looking man VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 301 on the planet.’” “What the focus groups his advisers conducted revealed was that Obama’s political career now depends, in some measure, upon a tamer version of this same feeling, on the complicated dynamics of how white women respond to a charismatic black man. “I remember when we realized something magical was happening,” says Obama’s pollster on the campaign, an earnest Iowan named Paul Harstad. “We were doing a focus group in suburban Chicago, and this woman, seventy years old, looks seventy-five, hears Obama’s life story, and she clasps her hand to her chest and says, ‘Be still, my heart.’ Be still, my heart — I’ve been doing this for a quarter century and I’ve never seen that.” The most remarkable thing, for Harstad, was that the woman hadn’t even seen the videos he had brought along of Obama speaking, had no idea what the young politician looked like. “All we’d done,” he says, “is tell them the Story.” From that moment on, the Story became Obama’s calling card, his political rationale and his basic sale. Every American politician has this wrangle he has to pull off, reshaping his life story to fit into Abe Lincoln’s log cabin. Some pols (John Edwards, Bill Clinton) have an easier time of it than others (George Bush, Al Gore). Obama’s material is simply the best of all. What he has to offer, at the most fundamental level, is not ideology or even inspiration — it is the Story, the feeling that he embodies, in his own, uniquely American history, a longed-for break from the past. “With Obama, it’s all about his difference,” says Joe Trippi, the Democratic consultant who masterminded Howard Dean’s candidacy. “We see in him this hope that the country might be different, too.”’ (Wallace Wood, Rolling Stone) Obama’s handlers have devoted much special study to enhancing their candidates appeal among women, specifically white women, and even more specifically middle-aged white women. This has included attempts to capitalize on sexual tensions across racial lines, obviously a big issue for Obama’s mother, and the phenomenon evoked by one blogger who observed about Obama: ‘Years later, when he’s working on Wall Street, he’s creeped out by his visiting mother’s insistence on seeing her favorite film, the 1959 Brazilian art-house classic “Black Orpheus.” He belatedly realizes that his very fair-skinned mother is sexually attracted to dark men. He pompously intones, “The emotions between the races could never be pure; even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart.”’ Here is a description of the results of some of Obama’s white woman focus groups: What the focus groups his advisers conducted revealed was that Obama’s political career now depends, in some measure, upon a tamer version of this same feeling, on the complicated dynamics of how white women respond to a charismatic black man. Early in his run for the U.S. Senate in 2004, Obama’s pollsters discovered that women loved him, especially nice white ladies who like personalities more than politics and definitely don’t like political arguments. Then, running preliminary polls, his advisers noticed something remarkable: Women responded more intensely and warmly to Obama than did men. In a seven-candidate field, you don’t need to win every vote. His advisers, assuming they would pick up a healthy chunk of black votes, homed in on a different target: Every focus group they ran was composed exclusively of women, nearly all of them white.’ (Wallace-Wells, Rolling Stone) But these same middle aged ladies were not happy with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Anton Rezko, and their view of Barky began to change. By late July 2008, Dick Morris was arguing that Obama’s greatest vulnerability was his failure to convince older women to vote for him. Recent national polls show Obama with just a 40% favorable ratio among white voters. “He is clearly 302 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography hitting up against some substantial sales resistance, particularly among middle aged and older white women,” Morris argued.155 FEMINIST RENEGADES FOR OBAMA The internet is now replete with women who are eager to recount their sexual fantasies about Obama. Here we can see some of the pathos which Obama’s cynical handlers and controllers are determined to exploit in order to seize power: Have you ever gone through a really dry period sexually? At first you get angry that you’re being neglected and ignored, and you act out. Then one day you wake up with a sense of nonchalance and you start to marvel at how much you’re getting done, and how much easier it is not to care. And then... one day, maybe a stranger comes and begins to romance you and strokes your hair in a sort of contemplative way, uttering the most delightful insights. He touches your hand softly and then a little more firmly, awakening the feelings that you thought you’d left behind, and then you start speaking really poetically and hearing melodies and then suddenly you WANT IN! You want back in the game and you think ‘spring is here’... YES WE CAN!’ (Lili Haydn, “Why Obama is Like a Desert Lover,” February 29, 2008) Although those involved will not appreciate the suggestion, it may well be that these focus groups and the tactics developed from them have something to do with the failure of many feminist leaders to honor their most obvious commitment and support Senator Clinton for president, turning instead to the arch-manipulator Obama. One massive defection by these erstwhile feminists took place at the beginning of February, and evoked a puff piece from the Huffington web site which announced: “New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama,” an organization of more than 100 New York feminist leaders released a joint statement Sunday afternoon criticizing Hillary Clinton and supporting Obama for president. Clinton’s support for the war in Iraq was the leading reason she lost the support of the group. Those endorsing Obama include longtime peace activist Cora Weiss; Katha Pollitt, columnist for The Nation; Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times writer Margo Jefferson; award-winning women’s rights historians Alice Kessler Harris and Linda Gordon; Barbara Weinstein, president of the American Historical Association, and Ellen P. Chapnick, Dean for Social Justice Initiatives at Columbia Law School. Susan Sarandon and Francis Fox Piven signed on Monday.” MASTERS OF VENOM: THE OBAMA ATTACK MACHINE It should also be mentioned that female critics of Obama, starting with Senator Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Geraldine Ferraro, have received especially brutal treatment by the Obama aversive attack apparatus. Here is a testimonial to this effect by the well-known writer and feminist Erica Jong: Ever since I wrote an article in the Washington Post ten days ago, I’ve been getting love letters from women and super-smart men and brickbats from the Hillary-Haters. Unfortunately the Hillary-Haters are in charge. They monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows — both radio and TV. They are crossing their legs for fear of castration. They are wearing the body armor our troops never got. Or got too late to matter. They are determined that a woman will not prove herself competent as Commander in Chief. Patriarchy: 1000, Hillary: 0.”156 VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 303 LEFT CIA FOR OBAMA Just as Lenin praised Mussolini from afar, all kinds of extremist political movements today have shown a fascination with Obama, if only because of the promise he holds out to them that the US will soon undergo a huge and crippling internal convulsion. One such admirer is President Danny Ortega of Nicaragua, the radical-chic former Sandinista leader who was infamous for making his shopping trips to procure designer sunglasses into his top priority, at international conferences where he was supposed to be working for his country and people. If Danny Ortega survives today, it is manifestly because he has made his deal with the CIA and has accepted the status of a radical asset operating under anti-US cover within the bounds marked out for him by the State Department. On February 14, 2008, Danny Ortega endorsed Obama, saying that the senator’s presidential bid is a “revolutionary” phenomenon in the United States: “It’s not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. ... but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change,” Ortega, described Obama as a spokesman for the millions of Central American and Mexican citizens who migrate to the U.S., and said he has “faith in God and in the North American people, and above all in the youth, that the moment of great change in the U.S. will come and it will act differently, with justice and equality toward all nations.” The radical chic Ortega is out of touch. US Hispanics, except those on the foundation payroll, have no love for Obama. Obama also has the endorsement of the New Black Panther Party. ‘His website has a link to the “New Black Panther party which has endorsed his run for the Presidency. From the website: “Why I support Barack Obama: Barack Obama represents “Positive Change” for all of America. Obama will stir the “Melting Pot” into a better “Molten America.”’157 This endorsement was expunged during one of the frequent Orwellian purges which Barky has to carry out from time to time as he morphs from one political profile into another. MEDIA WHORES FOR OBAMA If fascism is coming to the United States, the corrupt corporate media must bear a good deal of the responsibility. During the 2008 primaries ordinary Americas, especially women, became aware as never before that the television networks are not news organizations, but rather purveyors of mass brainwashing. Reporters became the lightning rods for outbursts of popular rage: ABC’s Kate Snow tells me that members of the public often bear down on her when they see her TV mike, cursing her out as a stand-in for Tim Russert, even though he is at NBC. “They feel we’re the people taking her down,” she said. (Tina Brown, Newsweek, 17 March 2008) This was before the death and canonization of Russert, who was nothing more than another sleazy propagandist among many. As a result of the media vilification of Senator Clinton, the potential for a resistance to fascism on the part of women has surely increased: ‘Cynthia Ruccia, a grass-roots political organizer in Columbus, told me that in these last beleaguered weeks, women started showing up in waves at Clinton headquarters—women who told her they had never volunteered in a campaign before. “There was just an outpouring about the way she was being treated by the media,” Ruccia said. “It was something we hadn’t seen in a long time. We all felt, as women, we had made a lot of progress, and we saw this as an attack of misogyny that was trying to beat her down.”’ One leading exponent of New Age and other irrationalism for consumption by women is Oprah Winfrey, whose ratings fell precipitously after she had 304 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography conducted a public fling with Obama, especially because of resentment from women over this betrayal. One of Oprah’s previous darlings had been the writer James Frey, who had marketed a fictional account as a real first person narrative of actual events. With Frey and Obama, Oprah had struck out twice in a row. Women were appalled: “Even Oprah abandoned them when she opted for Obama. Am I alone in suspecting that TV’s most powerful 54-year-old woman just might have endorsed him so fast for reasons of desirable viewer demographics as much as personal inspiration? Certainly, no TV diva in her 50s who values her ratings wants to be defined by the hot-flash cohort.” (Tina Brown, Newsweek, 17 March 2008) Seasoned and experienced observers, including some from within the black community, could also see the negative potential of the Obama youth cult. Adolph Green is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and notes: There is also something disturbingly ritualistic and superficial in the Obama camp’s young minions’ enthusiasm. Paul Krugman noted months ago that the Obamistas display a cultish quality in the sense that they treat others’ criticism or failure to support their icon as a character flaw or sin. The campaign even has a stock conversion narrative, which has been recycled in print by such normally clear-headed columnists as Barbara Ehrenreich and Katha Pollitt: the middle-aged white woman’s report of not having paid much attention to Obama early on, but having been won over by the enthusiasm and energy of their adolescent or twenty-something daughters. (A colleague recently reported having heard this narrative from a friend, citing the latter’s conversion at the hands of her eighteen year old. I observed that three short years ago the daughter was likely acting the same way about Britney Spears.) (Adolph Green, “Obama No,” The Progressive, May 17, 2008) REPORTS OF A MICHELLE OBAMA “HATE WHITEY” TAPE In the late spring of 2008, rumors circulated that Karl Rove was in possession of a video tape which showed Michelle Obama denouncing the white race or white people in the most violent and abusive terms. This video tape was thought to represent the “October surprise” against Obama referred to by the Clinton campaign in its conference calls, a time bomb ticking underneath the entire Obama candidacy, capable of wiping him off the political map within a few days. This may also have been what right-wing columnist Robert Novak had been referring to in the fall of 2007 when he reported that the Clinton campaign is spreading the word that it’s holding back on dishing dirt on Barack Obama, and charged the Democratic frontrunner with playing “Nixon tricks.” … Novak’s initial report said: “Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information” about Obama, “but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.”158 Novak’s story was published on November 19, 2007. As for Michelle, her growing reputation as a race baiter was a growing liability for Obama’s chances. In late May 2008, Larry Johnson reported the existence of a “hate whitey” tape depicting a racist tirade by Michelle, with vicious attacks on white America, the “white race,” or just plain whitey in extreme terms. The tape was reported to be in the possession of Karl Rove, who was organizing private screenings for GOP fatcats to generate fundraising for his autumn 2008 October surprise designed to stun and defeat Obama. By now Obama had almost repudiated Wright, but what was he going to do when the racist rant came from Michelle? VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 305 There was an interesting wrinkle in the story: Johnson wrote about a right-wing Republican who hated McCain and did not want him elected to the presidency. This right-wing moneybags was offering a cool million to get the tape for himself, with the intent of showing it at once, thus sinking Obama before he ever got the Democratic nomination. That way, Hillary would get the Democratic nod in Denver, and she would of course have a much better chance of defeating McCain. It was clear that fall 2008 would see an unprecedented battle of the scandal dossiers. In this new phase, scandal dossiers were like ICBMs in an all-out thermonuclear exchange. The watchword had to be, “Use ‘em or lose ‘em.” If one acquired scandal material, it had to be launched into public view immediately, since otherwise the other side might strike first. The flaw in Rove’s plan was that if he waited until October to unload what he had, Obama’s FBI backers might strike first against McCain, leaving Rove with no candidate left standing. Obama, we stress again, had no real hope of winning except by way of piloted scandals. There can be no doubt that Michelle Obama is a racist thinker, in addition to the elements of fascist ideology which have already been noted. Indeed, the more robust versions of fascism, like the German one, incorporate racism and “race science” (which of course means pseudo-science in reality) as a foundational element of the fascist outlook. In her Princeton thesis, Michelle already swore allegiance to a race-based outlook when she wrote that she would use all of my present and future resources to benefit [the Black] community first and foremost… Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites…it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first… there is a distinctive Black culture different from White culture…. [A] Black person may have all White friends and prefer these friends and their activities to those with Blacks without the individual believing that he/she is White….159 This is hardly the voice of a person prepared to help a president govern in the name of all the people. A reported paraphrase and summary of Michelle Obama’s remarks in the reported tape soon appeared on line: “Once again, the white man keeps us down, what’s up with Whitey, Why’d he attack Iraq, Why’d he let Katrina happen, Why’d he leave millions of children behind. This is the legacy the white man gives us.” 160 As the primaries were ending in Puerto Rico, Fox News Channel carried an interview by Geraldo Rivera with Republican operative Roger Stone in which Stone reported: This has little to do with the general election and a lot to do with why Hillary Clinton is staying in the race. Look, there is already a buzz in Washington at least seven news organizations have contacted me wanting to know how to get their hands on this tape, giving me more information than I had after I had spoken to each one of them. I now believe the tape exists and I believe a network has it. If this pans to out to be true, based on Michelle Obama’s previous comment that this is the first time she had been proud of her country, which I think shows an attitude, it is problematic. (FNC 06/01/2008 14:43:30)161 MICHELLE TOGETHER WITH MRS. FARRAKHAN AND MEEKS Soon the site HillBuzz was reporting more details about the circumstances in which Michelle had delivered her tirade: What’s on the Michelle Obama Rant Tape? Here’s what’s known so far: The Michelle Obama Rant Tape was filmed between June 26th - July 1st 2004 in Chicago, IL at the Rainbow/PUSH 306 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Coalition Conference at Trinity United Church: specifically the Women’s Event. Michelle Obama appeared as a panelist alongside Mrs. Khadijah Farrakhan and Mrs. James Meeks. Bill Clinton spoke during the Conference, as did Bill Cosby and other speakers, but not at the panel Michelle attended. Michelle Obama spoke at the Women’s Event, but referenced Bill Clinton in her rant — his presence at the conference was the impetus for her raving, it seems. For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into a rant about the evils of America, and how America is to blame for the problems of Africa. Michelle personally blamed President Clinton for the deaths of millions of Africans and said America is responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis and other ethnic groups. She then launched into an attack on “whitey”, and talked about solutions to black on black crime in the realm of diverting those actions onto white America. Her rant was fueled by the crowd: they reacted strongly to what she said, so she got more passionate and enraged, and that’s when she completely loses it and says things that have made the mouths drop of everyone who’s seen this. The “tape” is a DVD that Trinity United sold on its website, and possibly offered free for download up until March 2008 when Trinity’s site was scrubbed and the DVDs were no longer offered for sale. This outburst happened just one month before the 2004 Democratic Convention, when Barack Obama delivered the keynote address.162 The trolls who make up the Obama mercenary assault sections on the Internet soon concocted an absurd explanation of what Michelle is supposed to have said. In doing this, they may have indicated more or less the formulations which are in fact on the tape in question. Larry Johnson summed up the state of the case by writing: Our thanks to Martin Longman over at Booman Tribune. He performed a public service last night by disseminating Barack Obama talking points even before I had published my update. Two key points–First, the Obama campaign is admitting the tape exists by ponying up a bogus explanation. Second, they don’t dispute that Michelle is sitting at the table with Louis Farrakhan. So, here’s what Martin posted: My old friend, Larry Johnson, knows about manipulating elections from his training with the Central Intelligence Agency. He doesn’t want Obama to win the nomination for whatever reason, and he’s in full propaganda mode to do everything he can to frighten the superdelegates. He claims to have a shocking tape of Michelle Obama ranting in some anti-white diatribe. He promises to produce this tape tomorrow at 9am. From what I understand, it is a tape of Michelle Obama criticizing the Bush administration. How you’d write it: Why did Bush cut folks off Medicaid? Why did Bush let New Orleans drown? Why did Bush do nothing about Jena? Why did Bush put us in Iraq for no reason? How you’d say it: Why’d he cut folks off Medicaid? Why’d he let New Orleans drown? Why’d he do nothing about Jena? Why’d he put us in Iraq for no reason? How Larry Johnson wants you to hear it: VIII: “Our Souls Are Broken” - Michelle Obama, Postmodern Fascist Ideologue 307 Whitie cut folks off Medicaid? Whitie let New Orleans drown? Whitie do nothing about Jena? Whitie put us in Iraq for no reason?163 As Johnson noted, this amounted to a confirmation of some of the internal features of the tape in question. On June 3, Bob Beckel, a Democratic Party political hack who had worked for Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Carter National Security Council before going on to help lead Walter Mondale’s catastrophic election campaign in 1984, commented on the Fox and Friends morning program that he was very worried indeed about the existence of a Michelle Obama tape and about the possible political consequences if this were revealed to the public. This incident attracted wide attention and became known as “The Beckel Bombshell” on the Internet.164 OBAMA FAILS TO DENY EXISTENCE OF TAPE, ATTACKS QUESTIONER On June 5, a woman reporter for the McClatchy News Service, which still tries to be a news organization, finally asked Obama whether this tape existed or not. The Perfect Master went into evasive maneuvers, and failed to deny that the tape exists. Instead, he pontificated about the pervasive presence of “dirt and lies,” and then attempted to chastise the reporter for being one of the very few who was trying to do her job. One report described the incident thus: Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday batted down rumors circulating on the Internet and mentioned on some cable news shows of the existence of a video of his wife using a derogatory term for white people, and criticized a reporter for asking him about the rumor, which has not a shred of evidence to support it. “We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in emails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it,” Obama said to the McClatchy reporter during a press conference aboard his campaign plane. “That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it.” Asked whether he knew it not to be true, Obama said he had answered the question. “Frankly, my hope is people don’t play this game,” Obama said. “It is a destructive aspect of our politics. Simply because something appears in an e-mail, that should lend it no more credence than if you heard it on the corner. Presumably the job of the press is to not to go around and spread scurrilous rumors like this until there is actually anything, an iota, of substance or evidence that would substantiate it.” So was it even acceptable to ask the question? Before Obama could answer, communications director Robert Gibbs interjected: “You just did.” “That is my point,” Obama said. “I just think people have to think about it before they ask.” (“Obama denies a rumor and questions the question,” Politico, June 5, 2008)165 This is once again a typical Obama style to which we have become accustomed: when nailed for some outrageous action, the candidate immediately attempts to turn the tables and to transform himself from accused into accuser. He begins pontificating about some general moral or social evil which he can connect to the issue in question, and begins counterattacking those who are trying to hold him accountable. This technique of attacking the questioner is of course a favorite ploy of George W. Bush, the current tenant of the White House, as Dr. Justin Frank has pointed out in his study, Bush on the Couch. Since Frank concludes that Bush is a megalomaniac, and since the present study points to megalomania as one of the salient aspects of Obama’s personality, we may 308 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography find that this technique of dodging questions (the recent archetype of which is the Jimmy Carter malaise speech on energy policy of July 1979) is rooted in the mental dynamics of megalomania itself. Responding to this exchange, Larry Johnson pointed out: If someone was accusing my wife of saying something racist that was not true, and you asked me in public, I would say emphatically and clearly, “it is not true.” So what is Barack’s problem. … Huh? Are you kidding me? If it ain’t true say so. But when a politician tap dances on nuance–Baby it is true. My sources have not backed off. They maintain they have a tape and will drop it on the Dems in the fall. Now if Barack said, “No, and hell no” I would be wondering about my sources. But he punted. He went for the weasel word. The non-denial denial.166 So, as the summer wore on, the Michelle Obama “hate whitey” rant continued to hang over the Obama campaign like a sword of Damocles. Would it appear in September or October? Or would the Trilateral-Bilderberg scandal machine destroy McCain first? CHAPTER IX: OBAMA’S TRIUMPH OF THE WILL: THE 2008 PRIMARIES “Barack Obama is wheezing to the finish line.” - Chris Wallace, Fox News “My faith in the American people has been vindicated.” –Obama in Florida, May 21, 2008. PATROCLUS :Well said, adversity! and what need these tricks? THERSITES: Prithee, be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk: thou art thought to be Achilles’ male varlet. PATROCLUS: Male varlet, you rogue! what’s that? THERSITES: Why, his masculine whore. - Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. The initial goal of the Obama-Trilateral forces was to stun all opposing candidates, and especially Senator Clinton and Senator Edwards, by winning decisive victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then setting up a clamor with the help of their brigade of media whores to demand that all opposition candidates drop out and allow the acclamation of the Perfect Master as the Democratic candidate. For Obama strategy to work optimally, it was essential that the Democratic primary process be brought to an end as soon as possible, so as to rule out any possibility that Obama’s real background might be investigated. All during 2007, the controlled corporate media had failed abysmally in their normal task of informing the public about who this slick and newcomer really was, including most emphatically his past associations, his own track record in politics, and his current handlers, backers, and controllers. More accurately, the controlled corporate media had succeeded in their appointed task of preserving a seraphic aura of postpartisan, post-racial, post-political transcendence around their charismatic protégé. It was clear to all that Obama’s pretensions as a messianic liberator could never stand up to even the most cursory scrutiny. Therefore, it was essential that the primaries be ended as soon as possible so that Obama could seize the nomination while most people still had no idea who he was. Obama was like a con man who went from town to town plying his trade, but was always aware that he had to fleece his dupes and move on before too long, since if he tarried, there was a good chance that his con job strategy would be diagnosed by the authorities and he would be apprehended. Obama strategy was that of a CIA people power coup or US backed color revolution as these models have been applied in the Orange Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine in late 2004, and in the roses revolution in Tiflis, Georgia a few years earlier. The color revolution model for subverting a political process under the cover of an election included the presence of a telegenic and talented demagogue and mob orator, the use of vast sums of money and narcotics, savvy exploitation of the social networking sites on the Internet, the creation of an artificial media hysteria stoked by intelligence agents inside the controlled media, catchy slogans, colors, and emblems for branding purposes, fake polling, and rent-a-mobs and dupe-a-mobs of feckless and callow youth — the swarming adolescents who can be easily mobilized in large numbers. These were the methods which the Obama forces set in motion in Iowa during the winter of 2007-2008. At this time, Senator Clinton had unwisely accepted the advice of her corrupt and mediocre campaign manager Mark Penn, who had recently published a book arguing that there would be no more big upheavals in American politics, but only a series of micro trends which had to be exploited one by one by smart politicians aiming to win. The stupidity of Penn’s thesis could not have been in greater 310 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography contrast with the predictable reality that 2008 represented a watershed year of fundamental reordering of American politics — it was a year of party realignment. Party realignment in American history have come along every three to four decades, and have been characterized by the majority and minority parties trading places, by the collapsible parties and the emergence of new parties, or by other important and lasting shifts in the political landscape. 2008 was comparable to the coming of Jacksonian Democracy in 1828, which inaugurated a time of disaster for the United States, with a sickening slide into the greatest of all conceivable calamities, civil war. 2008 was comparable to 1860, the year when the Lincoln Republican Party emerged out of the wreckage of the Whigs, the Know-Nothings, and the Free Soil party, even as the Democratic Party split into two parts thanks in large part to the treachery of Caleb Cushing, the king of the dough-faces; this cycle allowed national unity to be preserved in a civil war and slavery to be eradicated, while setting the stage for the United States to become the greatest industrial power that the world had ever seen. 2008 was in the same league with 1896, when the contest between William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley gave the Republicans another cycle of dominance, but this time under the banner of Wall Street Republicanism and the dominance of the House of Morgan, the emergence of an invisible government controlled by financiers, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and the historical vandalism of the US entry into World War I, all crowned by the beginnings of the Great Depression under Herbert Hoover. 2008 might be similar to 1932, the most successful of all party realignments in American history, which put an end to the dominance of the reactionary and pro-fascist Republican financiers, and inaugurated the New Deal state of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the most effective form of human organization ever seen in history, a force powerful enough to defeat fascism, checkmate communism, open the secrets of the atom, and put humans on the moon. A negative model for 2008 was 1968, the beginning of the Republican Southern strategy theorized by Kevin Phillips, a retrogressive regime which consolidated itself after the horrors of Jimmy Carter into the so-called Reagan coalition of white men, suburban voters, evangelical Christians, and the Southern backlash against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By 2006, the Reagan coalition had demonstrably collapsed and this fact was announced in the current cycle by Ed Rollins, at that time running the Huckabee campaign. 2008 was therefore destined to be a year of crisis and upheaval, and the advice given by Mark Penn to Senator Clinton was the worst possible guidance she could have received. Mark Penn recommended that Mrs. Clinton begin during the Democratic primaries the phase of triangulation or moving towards the center which is normally reserved for the general election campaign in September and October. Mark Penn’s premature triangulation was the key to Mrs. Clinton’s defeat in Iowa. If Senator Clinton had had any competent polling, she would have seen that her excessive moderation was setting her up for defeat, but there are hints that Penn was skewing the internal polls of the campaign so that his bad advice would seen to be successful, and would therefore continued to be followed. Mark Penn had worked with Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution coup of 2004, and therefore was widely suspected of divided and conflicting loyalties. When Obama won the Iowa caucus, there was grave danger that the Democratic primaries would be over in less than a week, and that the process of politicization and political education that the primaries implied would be a boarded and brought to a premature end. This was the fervent wish of the Wall Street financiers who constitute the US ruling class, since they much prefer the American people to be kept in an apolitical stupor of apathy and resignation. OBAMA’S COUP SLOWED BY CLINTON AND EDWARDS To Senator Clinton above all, and to some extent to Senator Edwards, goes the merit of having foiled Obama’s plan for a cold coup d’état. By bouncing back from her disappointing third-place finish in Iowa to win the New Hampshire primary, Clinton saved the Democratic Party and perhaps IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 311 the United States as a whole from the terrible consequences of having the Democratic nomination seized through a lightning campaign by a totally unknown political adventurer and con artist. Senator Clinton was doubtless helped by the fact that New Hampshire voters had already been exposed to the specific brand of demagogy which Obama was peddling. In New Hampshire, as well as in Rhode Island, the main local television channels come from Boston, and therefore reflect the internal politics of Massachusetts into these two nearby states. In 2006, Deval Patrick had been elected as the first black governor of Massachusetts. Patrick’s campaign manager had been the Chicago ward heeler David Axelrod, a member of the corrupt Daley machine who had specialized in getting black candidates elected in situations where it was indispensable for them to obtain significant numbers of white votes. Axelrod had attempted to solve this problem by recommending that the black candidates he advised employee a vague and aspirational rhetoric of messianic slogans and glittering utopian generalities, making the grubby details of another cynical exercise in political hucksterism and corruption into a sublime idealistic quest. Axelrod had found that this approach would deliver sizable support from affluent white voters and college youth which, when supplemented by strong turnout from black inner-city voters, would often carry his candidates to victory. But Patrick was failing as Governor of Massachusetts and voters there had been soured by the Obama formula. OBAMA: MANIPULATING AMERICAN VOTERS AS ETHNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL Even before Obama’s “Bittergate” remarks in San Francisco, the acerbic Spengler of Asia Times had diagnosed Obama’s method of profiling and manipulating the American people: he was an anthropologist, true to his mother’s method, doing field work, and reducing American voters to ethnographic material in the process: ‘Obama profiles Americans the way anthropologists interact with primitive peoples. He holds his own view in reserve and emphatically draws out the feelings of others; that is how friends and colleagues describe his modus operandi since his days at the Harvard Law Review, through his years as a community activist in Chicago, and in national politics. Anthropologists, though, proceed from resentment against the devouring culture of America and sympathy with the endangered cultures of the primitive world. Obama inverts the anthropological model: he applies the tools of cultural manipulation out of resentment against America. The probable next president of the United States is a mother’s revenge against the America she despised. (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) The lesson was that if you do not have a full set economy, including nuclear energy, you risk becoming ethnographic material in today’s world. MESSIANIC AND UTOPIAN: THE IOWA TELEPROMPTER SPEECH During and right after the Iowa caucuses, Obama began to attract attention as an orator. His preference was to deliver a speech off a teleprompter before a huge crow in a stadium or sports arena. The parallels to the Mussolini balcony speech or the later German Nuremberg party rallies were overwhelming, but were seldom pointed out by the corrupt US corporate media. As Spengler noted, ‘There is nothing mysterious about Obama’s methods. “A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is,” wrote Karl Krauss. Americans are the world’s biggest suckers, and laugh at this weakness in their popular culture. Listening to Obama speak, Sinclair Lewis’ cynical tent-revivalist Elmer Gantry comes to mind, or, even better, Tyrone Power’s portrayal of a carnival mentalist in the 1947 film noir Nightmare Alley. The latter is available for instant viewing at Netflix, and highly recommended as an antidote to having felt uplifted by an Obama speech. America has the great misfortune to have encountered Obama at the 312 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography peak of his powers at its worst moment of vulnerability in a generation. With malice aforethought, he has sought out their sore point. This reversal has provoked a national mood of existential crisis. In Europe, economic downturns do not inspire this kind of soul-searching, for richer are poorer, remain what they always have been. But Americans are what they make of themselves, and the slim makings of 2008 shake their sense of identity. Americans have no institutionalized culture to fall back on. Their national religion has consisted of waves of enthusiasm - “Great Awakenings” – every second generation or so, followed by an interim of apathy. In times of stress they have a baleful susceptibility to hucksters and conmen. Be afraid - be very afraid. America is at a low point in its fortunes, and feeling sorry for itself.’ (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) THE DYNAMICS OF THE MASS MEETING It was above all on the night that Obama won the Iowa caucus that the world began to see the fully developed technique of Obama’s mass meetings, with hysterical crowds and teleprompter delivery. All the well-worn clichés warning that those who fail to understand history are condemned to repeat it now became operative, with a vengeance. American politics was rushing backward in time to postwar Italy and depression-era Germany: the hour of the demagogue and mob orator was at hand. Fascism had already been tried once, and it had failed. Now, American society had been schooled in top-down totalitarianism for eight years by the Bush-Cheney-neocon regime, which had brought military defeat and world economic depression. Now the ruling elite was reversing its field, and trying a bottom-up approach to the demolition of real representative democracy. American were however ignorant of the main internal features of fascist movements of the recent past. Would they fall victim so easily to postmodern fascism? The founder of National Socialism had famously argued that the masses were always and everywhere characterized by irrationalism: ‘“The people (das Volk) are in their overwhelming majority so womanly in their views and attitudes that their thought and action are much less determined by sober reflection than by emotional feelings.” The goal of mass meetings of the Obama type is to attack the faculties of reason and free will in the audience. As Georg Lukacs commented, National Socialism “wants manipulation instead of convincing arguments, wants to create by any means necessary a sultry atmosphere of blind belief and hysterical gullibility on the part of despairing people. Here again the struggle of existentialist philosophy (Lebensphilosophie) against reason — quite apart from how much existentialism Hitler may have known — forms the basis in terms of world outlook for a pure technique of demagogy. Hitler’s ‘originality’ consists in the fact that he was the first to apply American advertising methods in German politics and propaganda. His goal was to dumb down and swindle the masses. In his principal work he confesses that his goal is demagogy and the breaking of the free will and cognitive faculty of people. The only question that Hitler ever thoroughly and conscientiously studied is by what tricks this goal can be reached. Here he discusses all possible external details of manipulation and the manipulability of the masses.” (Lukacs, Zerstörung der Vernunft, 630-631) Hitler was very explicit about the goals of his mass meeting: they were cynically planned as a systematic assault on human reason and human freedom: “In all these cases we are seeking to erode the freedom of the human will. And that is true especially of meetings where there are men whose wills are opposed to the speaker and who must be brought around to a new way of thinking. In the morning and during the day it seems that the power of the human will rebels with its strongest energy against any attempt to impose upon it the will or opinion of another. On the other hand, in the evening it easily succumbs to the domination of a stronger will. Because really in such assemblies there is a contest between two opposite forces. The superior oratorical art of a man who has the compelling character of an apostle will succeed better in bringing around to a new way of IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 313 thinking those who have naturally been subjected to a weakening of their forces of resistance rather than in converting those who are in full possession of their volitional and intellectual energies.” (Mein Kampf, vol. II, chapter 6) Lukacs comments: “Hitler’s propaganda technique is closely related to one of the few honest points in his entire world outlook: he is a passionate enemy of objective truth and fights against objectivity in every aspect of his life.” (Lukacs 631) Hitler also commented: “The masses are like an animal that obeys its instincts…. I have been reproached for making the masses fanatics and ecstatic. In the opinion of these wiseacres, the masses must be soothed and kept in apathy. No, gentlemen, the reverse is true. I can lead the masses only if I tear them out of their apathy. Only a fanatic mass can be swayed. A master this apathetic and dull is the greatest threat to unity.” And he continued: “At a mass meeting, thought is eliminated. And because this is the state of mind I require, because it secures me the best sounding board for my speeches, I order everyone to attend the meetings, will become part of the mass whether they like it or not, ‘intellectuals’ and bourgeois as well as workers. I mingle with the people. I speak to them only as the mass. I am conscious that I have no equal in the art of swaying the masses, not even Goebbels…. And remember this: the bigger the crowd, the more easily it is swayed…. Don’t waste time over ‘intellectual’ meetings and groups drawn together by mutual interests. Anything you may achieve with such folk today by means of reasonable explanation may be erased tomorrow by an opposite explanation. But what you tell the people in the mass, in a receptive state a fanatic devotion, will remain like words received under a hypnotic influence, ineradicable, and impervious to every reasonable explanation. (Hitler to Rauschning, Voice of Destruction, 211-212) SUBPRIME OBAMA At the same time, Obama continued to run to the right of the rest of the Democratic candidates, to the right of Clinton and far to the right of Edwards, if the latter’s speeches could be believed. Even some writers for The Nation began to realize that Obama was an apostle of right-wing economics, especially in refusing to halt foreclosures; their shortcoming was that they failed to see how destructive Obama’s economic approach would actually be: ‘Only Obama has not called for a moratorium and interest-rate freeze. Though he has been a proponent of mortgage fraud legislation in the Senate, he has remained silent on further financial regulations. And much like his broader economic stimulus package, Obama’s foreclosure plan mostly avoids direct government spending in favor of a tax credit for homeowners, which amounts to about $500 on average, beyond which only certain borrowers would be eligible for help from an additional fund. “One advantage to the tax credit is that there’s no moral hazard involved,” one of Obama’s economic advisers explains. “There’s no sense in which you’re rewarding someone for taking too big a risk. If you lied about your income in order to get a bigger mortgage, then you’re not qualified. Do you really want to give a subsidy to the guy who wasn’t prudent?” Obama has used similar language on the campaign trail. “Innocent homeowners,” he has promised, those “responsible” borrowers “facing foreclosure through no fault of their own,” would get help restructuring their loans. But no such luck for those “claiming income they didn’t have” or “lying to get mortgages.” “There’s been less emphasis from the Obama campaign on the really dysfunctional role of the financial industry in the subprime mess,” says Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute. “Edwards and Clinton talk much more about regulation of the financial industry going forward, and to the extent that blame is placed, they tend to place it on the lenders for steering people into loans they couldn’t afford.” Obama’s disappointing foreclosure plan stems from the centrist politics of his three chief economic advisers and his campaign’s ties to Wall Street institutions opposed to increased financial regulation. David Cutler and Jeffrey Liebman are both Harvard economists who served in the Clinton Administration, and they work on market-oriented solutions to social welfare issues. Cutler advocates improving 314 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography healthcare through financial incentives; Liebman, the partial privatization of Social Security. Austan Goolsbee, an economist at the University of Chicago who calls himself a “centrist market economist,” has been most directly involved with crafting Obama’s subprime agenda. In a column last March in the New York Times, Goolsbee disputed whether “subprime lending was the leading cause of foreclosure problems,” touted its benefits for credit-poor minority borrowers and warned that “regulators should be mindful of the potential downside in tightening [the mortgage market] too much.” In October, no less a conservative luminary than George Will devoted a whole column in the Washington Post to saluting Goolsbee’s “nuanced understanding” of traditional Democratic issues like globalization and income inequality and concluded that he “seems to be the sort of fellow – amiable, empirical, and reasonable – you would want at the elbow of a Democratic president, if such there must be.” … Wall Street apparently has come to a similar conclusion. Obama had received nearly $10 million in contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector through October, and he’s second among presidential candidates of either party in money raised from commercial banks, trailing only Clinton. Goldman Sachs, which made $6 billion from devalued mortgage securities in the first nine months of 2007, is Obama’s top contributor. When asked if Obama would hold these financial institutions accountable for losses incurred by homeowners and investors, his campaign refused to comment.’ (Max Fraser, “Sub-prime Obama” The Nation, February 110, 2008) Soon Goolsbee went into eclipse because he had warned the Canadian government that Obama’s criticism of free trade sellouts like NAFTA was just demagogy for the campaign trail to edify the plebs. Goolsbee was then supplanted by Jason Furman, another monetarist. Well-informed sources from Goldman Sachs reported that the word on the Street was that Furman, like Jeffrey Liebman, was on board with the idea of privatizing Social Security as a means of “saving” it – the same policy that Bush had tried and failed to impose in 2005. OBAMA USES RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA TO WIN SOUTH CAROLINA Desperate to rebuild the momentum of his coup after his loss to Clinton in New Hampshire, Obama turned to the most disreputable allies and methods in his bid to win South Carolina. Obama turned to Reverend McClurkin, a local Elmer Gantry, to whip up support among the black churches. One commentator noted, ‘Obama’s reliance on McClurkin, a homophobic black minister, to deliver the black vote in South Carolina was eye-opening. What’s even worse, McClurkin is gay.’ This combination of public homophobia on the part of public figures who are themselves homosexual has been one of the hallmarks of recent Republican rule, as the Mark Foley and Larry Craig scandals have underlined; Obama represents more of the same in this department. Obama also developed a coded speech with which to appeal to South Carolina black voters, using echoes of speeches by Malcolm X which would be understood by some of his listeners, but not by others. It was a two-tiered technique, and rightly merited the name of duplicity. Here is a sample: ‘As the South Carolina primary campaign built to a climax, Obama addressed a largely African-American audience in Sumter. … Obama drops his eloquent Harvard accent, and says, “They’re trying to bamboozle you. It’s the same old okie-dokie. — Y’all know about okie dokie, right? — They try to bamboozle you. — Hoodwink ya. Try to hoodwink ya. Alright. — I’m having too much fun here....” This speech had been borrowed from one of Obama’s heroes, Malcolm X, who said, “You’ve been hoodwinked. You’ve been had. You’ve been took. You’ve been led astray, led amok. You’ve been bamboozled.” It is strange that a candidate, who belongs to an “Afrocentric” church, that bestows awards on Louis Farrakhan, would borrow from Malcolm X, who was a spokesman for the Nation of Islam, right before complaining about e-mails claiming he is Muslim.’167 IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 315 OBAMA AND DEVAL PATRICK: CLONES OF THE TRILATERAL MOTHER SHIP When it was discovered in New Hampshire in 1987 that Senator Joe Biden, then running for president, had lifted entire passages out of a speech by British Labour Party leader Neal Kinnock and spouted them on the campaign trail, Biden had been buffeted by a tide of ridicule so merciless that he was forced to drop out of the race in just a few days. Over the past twenty years, US political standards had deteriorated sharply. Obama has been caught spouting passages already used in the campaigns of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, another client of Obama’s chief sophist, David Axelrod. Patrick is in all probability a clone of the same Trilateral mother ship which runs Obama. Patrick can in fact be viewed as Brzezinski’s spare Obama, a fall-back option who might have been mobilized if Obama had overdosed or been apprehended in some nefarious activity.168 But this time Obama, unlike Biden two decades ago, was not forced to drop out. Public morality, we see, had taken a massive turn for the worse. Here is Deval Patrick on June 3, 2006, according to a YouTube video: “I am not asking anybody to take a chance on ME. I’m asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations.” Here is Barack Obama on Nov. 2, 2007 in Manning, S.C., according to a YouTube video: “I’m not just asking you to take a chance on ME. I’m also asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations.” Another quote from Obama, this time responding to the criticism that he is nothing but a word monger: “Don’t tell me words don’t matter. ‘I have a dream’ — just words? ‘We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal’ — just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just words? Just speeches?” Here now is Patrick responding to a similar stricture: “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ — just words? Just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just words? ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ Just words? ‘I have a dream’ — just words?” Blogger Taylor Marsh, who would end up drinking the Kool-Aid for Obama, summed up that Obama’s classic line would never be “I have a dream.” Much more appropriate for the senator would be “I have a con.” OBAMA: DUMMY; ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: VENTRILOQUIST In my book Obama – The Postmodern Coup: The Making of a Manchurian Candidate, I argue that presidential candidate Barack Obama is a wholly-owned puppet of Zbigniew Brzezinski and his associates of the Trilateral Commission, founded by David Rockefeller. As some have noted, Brzezinski has been attempting to conceal his actual domination of the Obama campaign, for which he is the chief guru and controller. Now a rhetorical outburst by Obama on the campaign trail in Oregon at the close of the primaries once again pointed to the reality that Obama is a ventriloquist’s dummy, with the Russia-hating fanatic Brzezinski, a barbarous relic of the Cold War, acting as the ventriloquist. At a campaign stop in Oregon, Obama intoned: “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said. “That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added. If India and China’s “carbon footprint gets as big as ours, we’re gone.” (AFP) This remarkable statement reveals the true program of a future Obama administration: savage austerity, brutal economic sacrifice, and a massive further reduction in the standard of living of the depleted and exhausted US population – as demanded by David Rockefeller, George Soros, and 316 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Obama’s Wall Street backers. This will be done under left cover – through a global warming tax, a third world solidarity tax, and other demagogic frauds, with the revenue going to bail out Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and JP Morgan Chase. The tired, discredited post-9/11 “war on terror” slogans will be largely dumped. Most interesting is that Obama’s sound bytes are actually a sloganized version of a key passage from Zbigniew Brzezinski’s recent book Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower.169 This book contains Zbig’s desperate strategy for preserving the crisis-ridden US-UK world empire, including by making the US “social model” more attractive to developing sector publics. Zbig writes: In mutually compounding ways, material self-indulgence, persistent social shortcomings, and public ignorance about the world increase the difficulty the American democracy faces in formulating a globally appealing platform for effective world leadership. Americans must recognize that their patterns of consumption will soon collide head-on with increasingly impatient egalitarian aspirations. Whether through the exploitation of natural resources, excessive energy consumption, indifference to global ecology, or the exorbitant size of houses for the well-to-do, indulgent self-gratification at home conveys indifference to the persisting deprivations of much of the world. (Just try to imagine a world in which 2.5 billion Chinese and Indians consume as much energy per capita as Americans do.) That reality the American public has yet to assimilate. To lead, America must not only be sensitive to global realities. It must also be socially attractive. That calls for a broader national consensus in favor of correcting the key failings of the American social model. OBAMA’S OLIVER TWIST MOMENT Obama has thus unmasked himself as the exterminating angel of super-austerity dictated by the elitist Trilateral bankers’ clique. Will he cut the current US standard of living by 40%? By 50%? When he does, will he still call it the politics of hope? The rhetoric recalls the malaise of the earlier Trilateral puppet and austerity fanatic Jimmy Carter, but it goes much further. Is every American child to be put on rations, like Oliver Twist, and forbidden to ask for some more? Obama is eager for this kind of cruelty. Obama has been trained to hate the American people through two decades of association with hate-mongers like Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Brzezinski himself. For Rockefeller and Soros, Obama’s hatred of the American people is a positive guarantee that he will enforce Wall Street’s austerity decrees with a vengeance. Forget the utopian platitudes and the messianic rhetoric: Obama’s real economic program is now clear for all to see. It is a path that leads to genocide against the US population, among others. Obama’s Oregon outburst also needs to be read in the light of earlier unguarded statements by Michelle Obama, who, as we have seen, has said at various times in her stump speech: “…before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls - our souls are broken in this nation. If we can’t see ourselves in one another, we will never make those sacrifices….We need a different leadership because our souls are broken. We need to be inspired...to make the sacrifices that are needed to push us to a different place…. The change Barack is talking about is hard, so don’t get too excited because Barack is going to demand that you too be different.” Here the theme of purification and redemption by means of sacrifice and economic austerity is clearly conveyed. Now Barack has begun to fill in the details. Insiders have long recognized that Zbigniew Brzezinski (helped by his son Mark) owns and runs Obama. David Ignatius has pointed to Second Chance as a scenario for a future Obama administration. Ignatius commented over a year ago: “Zbigniew Brzezinski has written a new book IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 317 that might be a foreign policy manifesto for Barack Obama… The most intriguing part of Brzezinski’s book is what I would describe as the Obama manifesto. (David Ignatius, “A Manifesto for the Next President,” Washington Post, March 14, 2007) It has also long been known that Zbig does the thinking for Obama; the London Economist last year hailed “a new brain for Barack Obama! It’s 78 years old and it still works perfectly. It belongs to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the peppery ex-national security adviser to Jimmy Carter.” (“A New Brain for Barack Obama, Economist.com, March 14, 2007) Obama’s campaign has long been attacking Bush from the right, criticizing the current regime for not exploiting 9/11 to impose savage economic austerity, as seen in Samantha Power’s “monster” interview. We now have good evidence that Obama will flay the American people alive with his elitist economic policies. Obama had committed a major error by showing his hand. Would voters react in time to stop him? OBAMAKINS AND NEOCONS SUPPORT THE SAVIOR One area where Obama enjoyed strong support was at the arch-reactionary, Rockefeller-funded University of Chicago, and especially among the neocons of the law school there. A middleman between these neocons and the Obama campaign was evidently Cass Sunstein, who was considered something of an antiwar liberal. Sunstein expressed his support for Obama in oblique but unmistakable terms: ‘The University of Chicago Law School is by far the most conservative of the great American law schools. It helped to provide the academic foundations for many positions of the Reagan administration. But at the University of Chicago, Obama is liked and admired by Republicans and Democrats alike. Some of the local Reagan enthusiasts are Obama supporters… he appreciates the virtues and power of free markets. I do not deny that skeptics are raising legitimate questions. After all, Obama has served in the Senate for a short period (less than four years) and he has little managerial experience. Is he really equipped to lead the most powerful nation in the world? Obama speaks of “change”, but will he be able to produce large-scale changes in a short time? What if he fails? An independent issue is that all the enthusiasm might serve to insulate him from criticisms and challenges on the part of his own advisers — and, in view of his relative youth, criticisms and challenges are exactly what he requires.’ (Cass Sunstein, Huffington Post, March 5, 2008) TEXAS: OBAMA PLAYS THE RACE CARD ONCE AGAIN Obama confesses in his memoirs that he has a very good understanding of how the race card can be used by a black candidate in an election where white votes were also important; he cites the example of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington: ‘Black politicians less gifted than Harold discovered what white politicians had known for a very long time: that race-baiting could make up for a host of limitations. Young leaders, eager to make a name for themselves, upped the ante, peddling conspiracy theories all over town - the Koreans were funding the Klan, Jewish doctors were injecting black babies with the AIDS virus. It was a short cut to fame, if not always fortune; like sex, or violence on TV, black rage always found a ready market.’(Dreams 203) Obama himself played the race card with brutality, but under a mask of moderation; he also knew the importance of letting his surrogates and backers do a lot of this dirty work. One example is Obama’s response to Clinton’s Texas television ad about the 3 AM phone call to the White House, which was meant to raise doubts about Obama’s reliability in national security emergencies. Obama found a bizarre surrogate who was able to turn the whole thing into a race issue, where Obama thought he had the advantage: The Clinton campaign had produced a television ad which depicted a family scene with parents watching over their sleeping children. Then the camera shifted to the 318 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography White House, where Senator Clinton was shown answering an emergency telephone call at 3 AM in what was obviously some sort of national security emergency. The suggested theme was that Senator Clinton was prepared for the awesome responsibilities of the presidency, specifically in the areas of national defense and crisis management. The Obama campaign immediately screamed that this was a highly negative ad – despite the obvious fact that Obama’s name was not even mentioned. Not content with this, the Obominables trotted out the Harvard sociology professor Orlando Patterson, a black man in a postmodernist Mao suit, who proclaimed that he had discovered a racist and nefarious subliminal message in Clinton’s ad – the emergency implied was in his view a prowler or thief trying to break into the house, and, given, the southern state where the ad was being shown, that thief or prowler could only be a black man! It was a salto mortale of the worst kind, buttressed by the kind of impressionistic deconstructionism pioneered by the late Jacques Derrida. Patterson’s charges were absurd, and he was exposing himself as an opportunist and charlatan. This amazing outburst was answered by Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, who was emerging as one of the most incisive critics of the Obama campaign’s duplicitous hypocrisy on the race issue. Wilentz commented: ‘Reading Orlando Patterson’s op-ed in the New York Times, “The Red Phone in Black and White,” is a depressing experience. Not only does the piece scurrilously accuse Hillary Clinton’s campaign of cutting an ad that borrows from the filmmaker D.W. Griffith’s glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Not only is this attack based on a Clinton advertisement about national security, not domestic policy (let alone race), that required a singularly tortured and biased “close reading” by Patterson to reach its conclusions. What is truly depressing is that the essay fits what has become a troubling and familiar pattern by the Obama campaign and its fervent supporters to inject racial politics on the eve of yet another Democratic primary in a Southern state, in this case Mississippi, where African-American voters are expected to vote in large numbers. […] In Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island on March 4, as earlier in New Hampshire, the Obama campaign did not achieve the knock-out blow it expected and predicted. Indeed, just before those primaries and since, Obama’s camp started to receive serious criticism and scrutiny for the first time, over the candidate’s connections to indicted Chicago fixer Tony Rezko, and over the amateurish and revealing actions of senior advisers Austan Goolsbee, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power. The campaign has turned to double-talk and to stonewalling the press. And once again, it has lashed out by playing racial politics while accusing the Clinton campaign of playing the very same game. Interpreting the Clinton 3 A.M. phone ad on preparedness and national security as a hidden appeal to white racism takes a remarkable bit of bad faith on the part of Professor Patterson. But the bad faith is not restricted to him alone. Earlier in the campaign, in speeches to black audiences, Obama mouthed lines generally believed to come from Malcolm X about how African-Americans were being “bamboozled” and “hoodwinked” by white oppressors and Uncle Toms – except that the lines were not actually Malcolm’s but were scripted for Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s movie. Now, in Mississippi, Obama is talking about blacks being bamboozled and hoodwinked again. Then, after Obama conceded that Clinton had nothing to do with the ridiculous posting on the disreputable Drudge Report of a picture of Obama in ceremonial Somali dress – supposedly an appeal to racial and religious fears – he now is telling the voters of Mississippi that in fact she was responsible for the photo’s appearance, and that she did it in order to scare people – a charge he well knows to be untrue. In the televised debate in Ohio on February 26, Obama said that “I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo. So I think that’s something that we can set aside.” But on March 10 in Jackson, Mississippi, he declared, “When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you’re behind, and your campaign starts leaking photographs of me when I’m traveling overseas wearing the native clothes of those folks to make people afraid ... that’s not real change” The flip-flopping IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 319 is bad enough, even if the press corps does not always report it. But the cynical race politics by Obama and his passionate followers, is toxic, not just for this campaign but for American political life.’ (Sean Wilentz, “Hold On--’3 A.M.’ Wasn’t Racist — Obama supporters cry wolf on race again,” New Republic online, posted March 11, 2008) CRAIG CRAWFORD: ANTI-CLINTON MEDIA BIAS “BORDERS ON MENTAL ILLNESS” Another commentator who was capable of seeing through the Obama racist smokescreen was Craig Crawford, a veteran political operative and journalist who generally knew what he was talking about. He made the following remarks one morning on MSNBC Obamavision in response to the moronic anti-Clinton spurious spinning by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski: CRAWFORD: You know, I have sat down here in Florida for the last month. And I have watched the coverage, and I really think the evidence-free bias against the Clintons in the media borders on mental illness. I mean, I think when Dr. Phil gets done with Britney [Spears], he ought to go to Washington and stage an intervention at the National Press Club. I mean, we’ve gotten into a situation where if you try to be fair to the Clintons, if you try to be objective, if you try to say, “Well, where’s the evidence of racism in the Clinton campaign?” you’re accused of being a naïve shill for the Clintons. I mean, I think if somebody came out today and said that Bill Clinton — if the town drunk in Columbia [South Carolina] came out and said, “Bill Clinton last night was poisoning the drinking water in Obama precincts,” the media would say, “Ah, there goes Clinton again. You can’t trust him.” I really think it’s a problem. You know what? You guys make him stronger with this bashing. This actually is what makes the Clintons stronger. Crawford was right in recalling that Bill Clinton’s greatest gift during the 1990s was his ability to position himself in the center, making his opponents seem like extremists and haters. It was in this way that Clinton was able to defeat the Gingrich budget coup attempt of 1995 and later the impeachment coup of 1999. Would this same method finally defeat Obama? SHELBY STEELE: OBAMA NEGLECTED TO BECOME HIMSELF The black conservative Shelby Steele has pointed out the tremendous internal stresses and strains to which Obama is subject as he increasingly masks his own views and professes opinions which are calculated to appeal to large groups of white voters. Steele classes Obama as a bargainer who survives by making deals with the white power structure, but who avoids open challenges to oppression. This makes Obama different from types like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who operate by constantly challenging the moral justifications of the white minority; these latter are seen as far more threatening. It is not a very profound analysis, but it does offer some useful insights. Steele writes: ‘No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity. His is the story of a man who flew so high, yet neglected to become himself.”170 Steele observes that Obama has embraced what he calls a black identity: “There is a price to be paid even for fellow-traveling with a racial identity as politicized and demanding as today’s black identity. This identity wants to take over a greater proportion of the self than other racial identities do. It wants to have its collective truth-its defining ideas of grievance and protest-become personal truth.... These are the identity pressures that Barack Obama lives within. He is vulnerable to them because he has hungered for a 320 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography transparent black identity much of his life. He needs to ‘be black.’ And this hunger—no matter how understandable it may be—means that he is not in a position to reject the political liberalism inherent in his racial identity. For Obama liberalism is blackness.”171 But Steele has failed to historicize the “black identity” he is talking about. Obama’s version of the black identity is the post- 1965 black identity as it has been manufactured by foundation-funded intellectuals and social movements under the reign of affirmative action and multiculturalism, which have failed to solve the problems of the black inner-city ghetto. The reason this synthetic black identity is so destructive and consumes so much of the self is that it has been designed to be self-destructive and selfdefeating by the foundation mind-benders. The contradictions related to the foundation-funded black identity continue to explode into public view around the demonic figure of Reverend Wright: ‘…nothing could be more dangerous to Mr. Obama’s political aspirations than the revelation that he, the son of a white woman, sat Sunday after Sunday — for 20 years — in an Afrocentric, black nationalist church in which his own mother, not to mention other whites, could never feel comfortable. His pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a challenger who goes far past Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in his anti-American outrage (“God damn America”). How does one “transcend” race in this church? The fact is that Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol? What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn’t thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to “be black” despite his biracial background. And so fellow-traveling with a little race hatred seemed a small price to pay for a more secure racial identity. And anyway, wasn’t this hatred more rhetorical than real? But now the floodlight of a presidential campaign has trained on this usually hidden corner of contemporary black life: a mindless indulgence in a rhetorical anti-Americanism as a way of bonding and of asserting one’s blackness. Yet Jeremiah Wright, splashed across America’s television screens, has shown us that there is no real difference between rhetorical hatred and real hatred. No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity….’ (Shelby Steele, “The Obama Bargain,’ Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2008) In early July, Jesse Jackson noted correctly that Obama was talking more and more about personal responsibility for the black family and the black community, and less and less about the need for government intervention to fight poverty and exclusion. Jackson was right to say that this amounted to talking down to the black community. The answer, however, was that the entire foundation race-based divide-and-conquer approach had to be junked, and replaced with class-based, color-blind New Deal programs for jobs, housing, education and health care that attacked poverty as an empirically measurable phenomenon among all groups in the US population, rather than attempting to deal with accumulated grievances, where the black overclass would always demand the lion’s share of the available benefits. To tell people of any color that they have to use self-reliance and family values in the midst of a world economic depression caused by Wall Streets $1 quadrillion derivatives bubble, with dollar hyperinflation, banking panic, systemic breakdown, the death agony of the US dollar as a reserve currency, and chain-reaction bankruptcies ripping through the landscape – that is sheer genocidal madness. It was time for New Deal measures for economic recovery and the general welfare, and those were necessarily color-blind measures to help the poor of all races, creeds, and national origins. This was the very outcome that Obama had been deployed by the Trilateral financiers to prevent, so Jesse Jackson was on to something. IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 321 OBAMA CAMPAIGN: WE NEED MORE WHITE PEOPLE Obama’s campaign was relentlessly obsessed with race, in a number of directions. The following account from Gateway Pundit deals with a campaign event at Carnegie Mellon University near Pittsburgh on April 2, 2008. Michelle Obama’s handlers noticed that the television framing of the speakers’ platform was going to show too many non-white faces. They therefore proceeded in a blatant and ham-handed way to expel an Asian woman from the shot, while moving in a white face. ‘So just as Teresa Heinz Kerry, the woman who supports the lifestyle of the man whole sold the Democrats down the river four years ago, was about to introduce the woman who took more than 40 years to be “proud of America,” suddenly……. gasp!… suddenly…….somebody noticed something: While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.” “I didn’t know they would say, ‘We need a white person here,’” said attendee and senior psychology major Shayna Watson, who sat in the crowd behind Mrs. Obama. “I understood they would want a show of diversity, but to pick up people and to reseat them, I didn’t know it would be so outright.”’ (Gateway Pundit, “Giving Hope a Comeback,” April 2, 2008) It looked rather like the old politics. OBAMA WEAKENED IN THE COURSE OF THE PRIMARIES In the wake of the Texas-Ohio-Rhode Island results, the Clinton campaign began to argue more in detail that the public’s honeymoon with Obama had now passed its apex, and that his campaign was beginning to ebb. Their statistics were based on the inherently unreliable exit polls, but might still have indicated the beginnings of a sea-change. Clinton’s people claimed that “…just a few weeks ago, Barack Obama won 68% of men in Virginia, 67% in Wisconsin and 62% in Maryland. He won 60% of Virginia women and 55% of Maryland women. He won 62% of independents in Maryland, 64% in Wisconsin and 69% in Virginia. Obama won 59% of Democrats in Maryland, 53% in Wisconsin and 62% in Virginia. And among Republicans, Obama won 72% in both Virginia and Wisconsin. But now Obama’s support has dropped among all these groups. In Mississippi, he won only 25% of Republicans and barely half of independents. In Ohio, he won only 48% of men, 41% of women and 42% of Democrats. In Texas, he won only 49% of independents and 46% of Democrats. And in Rhode Island, Obama won just 33% of women and 37% of Democrats. Why are so many voters turning away from Barack Obama in state after state? In the last few weeks, questions have arisen about Obama’s readiness to be president. In Virginia, 56% of Democratic primary voters said Obama was most qualified to be commander-in-chief. That number fell to 37% in Ohio, 35% in Rhode Island and 39% in Texas. So the late deciders - those making up their minds in the last days before the election - have been shifting to Hillary Clinton. Among those who made their decision in the last three days, Obama won 55% in Virginia and 53% in Wisconsin, but only 43% in Mississippi, 40% in Ohio, 39% in Texas and 37% in Rhode Island.” (Clinton Campaign, “Keystone Test: Obama Losing Ground,” March 12, 2008) WAS OBAMA’S CAUCUS SUPERIORITY BASED ON HOOLIGAN DISRUPTION? For weeks it had been assumed that Obama’s superiority and caucus states had been based on the obvious advantage he held among rich elitists, affluent suburbanites, left liberal ideologues, and Obama groupies, fanatics, and personality cultists — namely that all these groups were much more 322 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography likely to spend two or three hours going to a party caucus and hobnobbing with their peers then were the low-wage hourly workers, housewives, and other working people who were far more likely to support Senator Clinton. But was there another dimension beyond this? Had the Obama people power coup developed a playbook of tactics to disrupt and subvert the caucuses? One reported commented: ‘I have obtained a copy of a memo written by a Clinton campaign volunteer in Washington state intended only for other Clinton volunteers in subsequent caucus states (specifically for Texas campaign volunteers). It warns them of “caucus disruption strategies” by supporters of Sen. Barack Obama. The memo was written by a University of North Carolina professor emerita of anthropology who served as a volunteer Clinton precinct committee officer in the Washington state caucuses last month. It warned other volunteer organizers about so-called “strategies” alleged to have been observed by herself and by Clinton volunteers in Iowa and Nevada: … Individuals arriving all at once in large groups can disrupt the caucus by making it difficult to keep track of sign-in sheets, among other things…Other behaviors that can make it difficult for the caucus to run smoothly are deliberate disruptions with things like chanting, sign waving, dancing or singing. The Precinct Chair (or Caucus Chair) will need to insist on order. Individuals may arrive who are not registered to vote in a particular precinct with the story that ‘they just moved there.’ Some places where this has been observed, the person really didn’t fit the picture of somebody who had ‘just moved into’ the precinct. They were allowed to register to vote and to caucus….Supporters for a particular candidate, such as Senator Clinton, have arrived at caucus sites early to decorate and organize and been told that ‘the building was locked.’ When they are finally allowed into the building they see that signs for other candidates had already been posted. Bottom line: know who you are dealing with in terms of the caucus coordinator ... This will usually be some volunteer for the local Democratic Party.” (Bonnie Erbe, “Democratic caucus disruptions,” Scripps Howard News Service, March 12, 2008) There was also this eyewitness account from Pacific John of El Paso, Texas: ‘In one example of fraud that I witnessed, one of my precinct captains, an elderly Hispanic woman, called me to report that BHO supporters had illegally seized control of the convention. During our series of phone calls, Mrs. “A.” reported that the Obama people took the convention materials and did not have a legal election of officers. Like nearly all of El Paso, BHO people would have lost such an election in this majority-Hillary, Hispanic, mostly elderly precinct convention. The Obama people ordered Mrs. A. to sit across the room during the delegate calculation, and excluded Hillary supporters from the process. Mrs. A. overheard an Obama supporter call in a false delegate count to Austin. In a 13 delegate precinct where Obama should have won approximately 4 delegates, the Obama supporters attempted to award 19 delegates to Obama. This was not innocent. During my attempts at cell phone diplomacy, the Obama “chair” hung up on me, and refused to talk to the ethical Obama organizer I was paired with at another precinct convention. As with all major attempts at fraud that we identified, this delegate count was rectified in private at the county TDP headquarters, according to TDP rules, but there were no public charges or sanctions. It is my opinion that people should be in jail, but there is not a mechanism for this sort of prosecution, certainly not within TDP rules. Although I have only volunteered in one state, virtually every Clinton staffer I have talked to has similar stories from other caucus states. While the Hillary field campaign operates and feels very much like typical Democratic campaigns, the Obama campaign is something new to Democratic politics. From my perspective, it looks like it has copied the worst attributes of Republican campaigns, but with unprecedented zeal.’172 IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 323 GENOCIDAL AUSTERITY FOR THE PLANET AND THE THIRD WORLD The reality of a future Obama regime as an exercise in brutal austerity and draconian sacrifice for an already exhausted US population is carefully hidden by the swooning media whores in this country, but the intent is gross enough to be perceived from far away. Russian commentators, well aware that Brzezinski runs Obama, have called attention to the Polish revanchist’s demands for a further lowering of the US standard of living in order to increase the attractiveness of the US social model to the rest of the world. In short, Brzezinski wants austerity for US blue collar workers and poor people of all colors in order to enhance the efficacy of his imperialist war plans A smart Russian author writing under the name of “Maksim Kalashnikov” observes: ‘In his most recent book, entitled Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower, Mr. Brzezinski is trying to inspire his nation for a strategic mobilization, using arguments that curiously recall old Soviet experience. It is more remarkable that speaking of disappointment of the international audience in the American way of life, Mr. Brzezinski concentrated on the moral aspect of the US development. To his view, the Americans have sunk into over-consumption, luxury, and hedonism. As soon as the Americans encountered domestic economic problems, their example became increasingly unattractive. The author correctly reminds us that the crisis of the Soviet Union started with the loss of attractiveness of its model. Brzezinski emphasizes that the continuing efforts to transplant democracy on a different soil degenerate into connivance to weakness of partners, and multiply to lack of knowledge of relevant societies. Meanwhile, the universal image of an American is associated with arrogant over-consumption, luxurious entertainment, along with indifference towards environment and exploitation of natural resources. To make a plausible example, Brzezinski proposes the audience to imagine a world in which every Chinese or Indian consumes as much as an ordinary American, even in the conditions of economic recession. “Our standards of consumption are going to get into a conflict with more and more intolerant egalitarian aspirations”, warns Brzezinski. Therefore, to his view, the United States has to be “socially attractive” – which requires broad national accord vis-à-vis one of the major flaws of the American social model.’ (“Maksim Kalashnikov, “Brzezinski Discovered America,” April 3, 2008) The last wholly-owned Trilateral puppet, Jimmy Carter, was of course thoroughly committed to as much austerity as the political traffic would bear. But even Carter had moments of conscience and reticence, scruples, and qualms when confronted with the enormity of the sacrifices the Trilaterals wanted to bail out their corrupt and bankrupt system. Carter was hampered among other things by his residual allegiance to Christianity under the Trilateral overlay. But Carter had not been indoctrinated for very long compared with Obama. Obama’s attraction to the Trilateral financiers is precisely that he is the son of the Ford Foundation anthropologist Ann Dunham, a woman who flirted with Marxism and was anti-American for all the wrong reasons, and that he is a disciple of the Cone-Hopkins-Wright synthetic religion of race hatred. Under his suave and cultured veneer, Obama is boiling with resentments and hatred against the American working class, at whose hands he imagines that he has received all manner of slights and humiliations. Obama’s basic tendency if he ever gets to the White House will be to take advantage of an unparalleled opportunity to flay the American people alive and leave them nothing but their eyes to weep with in a way that Bush, for all his malevolence, never dreamed of doing. And while Bush had to hide his own looting of the American people, Obama will loudly proclaim his own austerity plan, trumpeting it as the essence of social justice, as the answer to imperialism, colonialism, slavery, racism, and pollution – except that the proceeds will go into the pockets of David Rockefeller, George Soros, and the other finance oligarchs who own Obama. 324 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography THE PROCEEDS GO TO ROCKEFELLER, SOROS, RUBIN, ROHATYN One way that Obama could show that he is better than Bush and better than McCain when it comes to imposing crushing austerity on the American population is his ability to dress up cuts in the living standard in the camouflage of leftist and humanitarian verbiage. A fiendish variant of this demagogy is Obama’s plan to help the third world. In reality, the sums of money cited here will go to bail out the bankrupt banks and investment houses of Rockefeller, Soros, Rubin, and Rohatyn. But left liberals will support these measures, especially because they involve further sacrifices for blue collar workers. Obama’s bill is called the Global Poverty Act, ‘… and could result in the imposition of a $845 billion global tax on the United States. The bill, which has the support of many liberal religious groups, makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations. The U.N.’s “Millennium Project,” says that the U.N. plan to force the U.S. to pay 0.7 percent of its GNP in increased foreign aid spending would add $65 billion a year to what the U.S. already spends. Over a 13-year period, from 2002, when the U.N.’s Financing for Development conference was held, to the target year of 2015, when the U.S. is expected to meet the “Millennium Development Goals,” this amounts to $845 billion. And the only way to raise that kind of money is through a global tax, preferably on carbon-emitting fossil fuels. Here’s an abstract of the proposed legislation: “To require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the [U.N.] Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.” Here’s how Senator Obama’s website frames the bill: “With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces,” said Senator Obama. “It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America’s standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere.”’ 173 The key to getting the United States and the rest of the world out of the present Bush economic depression is to gear up American factories for a campaign of exporting high technology capital goods to the developing countries, especially in the critical areas of infrastructure and nuclear energy production (Atoms for Peace). That would be a real economic recovery program. But Obama is talking about nothing of the kind: he is talking about extorting taxpayer dollars by citing the very real fact that 40,000 people die every day in the developing countries of malnutrition and starvation, and then cynically giving the money to his bankrupt Wall Street backers to prop up their rotten and doomed system. This capability of Obama to impose sacrifice and austerity qualitatively worse than Carter depends on the fact that the force of hatred is far stronger in Obama, the foundation-funded anti- American racist and crypto-Weatherman, than it ever was in Carter, who appears benign by comparison. Even the cynical Spengler is aghast at the hatred of the American people which can be detected in Obama: ‘“Evil will oft evil mars”, J. R. Tolkien wrote. It is conceivable that Barack Obama, if elected, will destroy himself before he destroys the country. Hatred is a toxic diet even for someone with as strong a stomach as Obama. As he recalled in his 1995 autobiography, Dreams from My Father, Obama idealized the Kenyan economist who had married and dumped his mother, and was saddened to learn that Barack Hussein Obama, Sr, was a sullen, drunken polygamist. The elder Obama became a senior official of the government of Kenya after earning a PhD at Harvard. IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 325 He was an abusive drunk and philanderer whose temper soured his career.’ (Spengler, Asia Times, Feb. 26, 2008) Obama also has a powerful demagogic weapon to turn against the American people as he seeks to ram killer austerity down their throats: this is the global warming hope is, assiduously cultivated over some two decades by the oligarchical Malthusian profiteer and parasite Al Gore. The ultimate source for Obama’s future austerity programs is doubtless Prince Charles, the ego ideal and master of Obama’s backer Gore. Prince Charles comes from the British royal family, which supported Mussolini in the 1920s and Hitler in the 1930s. After World War II, they turned to green fascism in the form of extreme Darwinian-Malthusian zero growth, and now to global warming as the basis for their genocide policy against the third world. As Prince Charles recently stated: “We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall,” he said. “We are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them.” The neofascist Prince claimed that the rainforests, which provide the “air conditioning system for the entire planet”, releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living. Charles raved that every year, 20 million hectares of forest – equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland – were destroyed and called for a “gigantic partnership” of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down. This is just the kind of PPP or publicprivate partnership which represents the preferred expression for the fascist corporate state in the English-speaking world. “What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead,” Charles estimated that the cost would be about £15 billion a year towards which he offered to pay nothing, but rather attempted to con his listeners by defining this as an insurance policy for the whole world. “That is roughly just under one per cent of all the insurance premiums paid in the world in any one year. It is an insurance premium to ensure the world has some rainfall and reasonable weather patterns. It is a good deal.” A good deal for parasites and genocidalists, one might observe. (Andrew Pierce, “Prince Charles: Eighteen months to stop climate change disaster,” Daily Telegraph, May 18, 2008) Prince Charles is clearly counting on Obama to break the back of the remaining industrial powers during the first year of his presidential term; this would inevitably be followed by social chaos and mass starvation. In an article entitled “Global warming hysteria serves as excuse for world government,” Daniel Taylor outlines how the exploitation of the natural phenomenon of “global warming” was a pet project of the Club of Rome and the CFR. “In a report titled ‘The First Global Revolution’ (1991) published by the Club of Rome, an oligarchical think tank, we find the following statement: “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.... All these dangers are caused by human intervention... The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”174 With Bush, the enemy image (Feindbild) was concocted on the basis of the 9/11 myth. With Obama, the enemy image is humanity in general, based on the insane hoax of overpopulation, the limits of growth, and of carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The essence of fascist economics is the imposition of a statesponsored compulsory cartel for the purpose of reducing employment and cutting production, outside of which no economic activity is permitted. Back during the Carter years, the Trilateralists concluded that the way to impose the fascist corporate state in the United States is to do it under the cover of ecological and environmentalist explanations. The Al Gore “cap and trade” swindle predicated on global warming is the chosen means to smuggle the fascist corporate state in through the back door under the cover of controlling the emissions of so-called greenhouse gases. Cap and trade represents Gore’s method of creating a new financial bubble after the catastrophic collapse of 326 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the current worldwide asset bubble. Those who do not join the compulsory cartel by entering the market for carbon offsets will be shut down by the Green Corps Gestapo. This approach is now the basis of an emerging pan-oligarchical consensus among the US-UK financiers. ‘…attendees at the recent Trilateral meeting raised the specter of climate change as a tool to force through tax hikes. Calling on the United States government to adopt a “carbon monoxide control policy,” former CIA boss and long term champion of creating a domestic intelligence agency to spy on Americans John Deutch, argued that America should impose a $1- pergallon increase in the gasoline tax under the pretext of fighting pollution. During the secretive Trilateral Commission group meeting in March 2007, elitists gathered to formulate policy on how best they could exploit global warming fear-mongering to ratchet up taxes and control over how westerners live their lives. At the confab, European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, Bilderberger and chairman of British Petroleum Peter Sutherland, gave a speech to his cohorts in which he issued a “Universal battle cry arose for the world to address “global warming” with a single voice.” Echoing this sentiment was General Lord Guthrie, director of N.M. Rothschild & Sons, member of the House of Lords and former chief of the Defense Staff in London, who urged the Trilateral power-brokers to “Address the global climate crisis with a single voice, and impose rules that apply worldwide.’175 So far, China, Russia, and India have refused to accept economic strangulation and the shutdown of their economic development plans by the global warming charlatans. Instead, 50-60 countries around the world are demanding a rapid shift to nuclear energy, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has advanced a workable plan for 1,400 new nuclear reactors to guarantee the future of humanity. One of Obama’s first tasks will be to attempt to sabotage these efforts in favor of an endless stagnation and neo-colonial underdevelopment. Any country which accepts the Gore cap and trade insanity is committing moral and economic suicide, and will not survive. Ever the hypocrite, Obama is oblivious to all this: he has just bought a Chrysler with a big 5.7-liter engine from them, probably with a sweetheart discount from the Cerberus hedge fund which is now demolishing Chrysler. CAMOUFLAGE FOR OBAMA’S SCHACHTIAN ECONOMICS Obama’s economic handlers, advisers, and controllers were assigned to him from the ranks of the University of Chicago monetarist school, the home of the infamous hyper-austerity economics which reached its fullest flowering when the bloody-handed military dictator of Chile Agusto Pinochet, who had been installed in a violent coup by Kissinger, called in Milton Friedman to superintend the “liberal reforms” need to crush the working class of Chile, roll back a century of social and economic gains by the labor movement, and drastically reduce the standard of living in order to enhance the looting rate enjoyed by US-UK multinational corporations. Naturally, it would be something of an embarrassment to the Perfect Master if he were exposed as following in the footsteps of Pinochet and Thatcher in his economic policy, even though it is exactly that which his controllers intend him to do. One short-term palliative is to pretend that Obama’s top adviser, Austan Goolsbee of the University of Chicago free market, free trade, neoliberal looting temple is not really a full-fledged member of the Chicago School – he is just a fellow who happens to teach at the University of Chicago. Obviously, this threadbare subterfuge will not be very effective. What is therefore required is to concoct a more ambitious plan for smokescreen and camouflage, inevitably in the form of yet another “third way” between authentic FDR New Deal economics (which the monetarists fear so much that they prefer to apply to it the very misleading label of Keynesianism) and the Friedman-von Hayek monetarist looting theory. This operation emerged in the late spring of 2008 in the form of the Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 327 Health, Wealth, and Happiness (New Haven CN: Yale University Press, 2008). As Art Laffer once remarked, “You want to prove that Milton Friedman is a fascist? It’s easy – quote him.” DON’T NOODGE ME, BRO’ The cynical gambit here is that Obama represents a third way capable of transcending the New Deal and monetarist clash, and that this third way is not the same as the deeply flawed third way that had been embraced by Bill Clinton in 1993 after his lecture from Greenspan on how bad things really were – a lecture which submerged Clinton’s populist instincts under a toxic tide of Wall Street pro-globalization ideology. The new buzz word is paternalistic libertarianism, meaning in practice the Friedmanite anti-state, pro-monopoly, pro-cartel (“pro-market”) vision, but now seasoned with a heady dose of coercion, which masquerades under the guise of a helpful “nudge.” If we switch into Yiddish, we can see that both Thaler and Sunstein indeed qualify as full-fledged nudges or noodges. In good Yiddish, nudzh or noodge works as substantive meaning one who persistently pesters, annoys, or complains, a transitive verb meaning to annoy persistently or pester, and even as an intransitive verb meaning to complain or carp persistently. The etymology goes back to the Yiddish nudyen, to pester, bore, from Polish nudzi.’176 Soon we are likely to hear calls to Obama saying “Don’t noodge me, bro’” – because of the candidate’s propensity to complain and blame his failures on the American people. Obama’s economic policies can be classified as neo-liberal tending towards Schachtian – going back to Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s first Finance Minister, a figure widely recognized by his contemporaries as the chief German asset of the House of Morgan. What Thaler and Sunstein have come up with is a not so clever pastiche based on the fake argument that Obama is “a behavioralist—the term economists use to describe those who subscribe to the tenets of behavioral economics, an increasingly popular discipline that seeks to marry the insights of psychology to the rigor of economics.” As soon as we hear the term behaviorism applied to human affairs, it is time to run for our lives. Behaviorism is the bankrupt, discredited, and sinister complex of crude and cruel doctrines associated with the names of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Skinner was the inventor of the Skinner box, a torture chamber into which little white rats were placed so they could receive alternating electrical shocks and pellets of food and candy in order to shape their behavior according Skinner’s notion of operant behavior modification. Another example is Pavlov teaching dogs to salivate when they hear a gong. These methods have long been applied to human affairs, with one of the most infamous examples being Jeremy Bentham, one of the founders of modern British intelligence and an architect of the worst Jacobin excesses of the French revolution. Bentham designed a prison called the Panoptikon in which behaviorist methods were used to maximize the exploitation of prisoners. Therefore, if you want to get a good image of yourself and your family under a future Obama regime, imagine yourself in the position of that wretched little white rat in a Skinner box, working and scampering and scurrying about hectically and desperately to avoid excruciating electric shocks and to earn a little pellet of food. That is the core idea of behaviorist economics, once the advertising copy has been stripped away. This is your future under the politics of hope and change. As a political matter, Obama’s acolytes are well aware that Clinton evolved well into New Deal territory during her campaign, and these are the ideas that Obama is assigned to crush: as a recent review notes, ‘Hillary Clinton, after initially equivocating, has emerged as the would-be heir to FDR and John Maynard Keynes. In addition to imposing a ninety-day moratorium on foreclosures and a five-year freeze on certain adjustable mortgage rates, she would have the federal government buy up an undetermined number of troubled home loans, enabling lenders to convert them to more 328 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography affordable deals and putting a floor under the housing market. Clinton would also allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the value of mortgages, a proposal the banking industry vigorously opposes, and she has criticized McCain as the reincarnation of Herbert Hoover….’ (John Cassidy, “Economics: Which Way for Obama?” New York Review of Books, · June 12, 2008) Obama is a creature of the catastrophic Great U-Turn under Carter, and of the Reaganite Age of Monetarist decline which followed, and his handlers are determined to go further in this bankrupt direction: ‘Should Obama win the nomination, political considerations may well force upon him a more interventionist position, but his first inclination is to seek a path between big government and laissez-faire, a trait that reflects his age—he was born in 1961—and the intellectual milieu he emerged from. Before entering the Illinois state Senate, he spent ten years teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago, where respect for the free market is a cherished tradition. His senior economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, is a former colleague of his at Chicago and an expert on the economics of high-tech industries. Goolsbee is not a member of the “Chicago School” of Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, but he is not well-known as a critic of American capitalism either. As recently as March 2007, he published an article in The New York Times pointing out the virtues of subprime mortgages. “The three decades from 1970 to 2000 witnessed an incredible flowering of new types of home loans,” Goolsbee wrote. “These innovations mainly served to give people power to make their own decisions about housing, and they ended up being quite sensible with their newfound access to capital.”’ Too bad if you die of exposure after undergoing foreclosure, Goolsbee’s doctrines will not doubt offer a world of solace and comfort. Among the more recent precedents for behaviorist economics, our reviewer notes these: ‘Although its intellectual roots go back more than thirty years, to the pioneering work of two Israeli psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, behavioral economics took off only about ten years ago, and many of its leading lights, among them David Laibson and Andrei Shleifer, of Harvard; Matt Rabin, of Berkeley; and Colin Camerer, of Caltech, are still in their thirties or forties. One of the reasons this approach has proved so popular is that it appears to provide a center ground between the Friedmanites and the Keynesians, whose intellectual jousting dominated economics for most of the twentieth century.’ Now we have a new attempt to put lipstick on the Friedmanite pig. A central concept of this new school of economic kookery and obscurantism is the concept of the nudge, a gentle tap from the regime to push the individual into the direction desired by the finance oligarchs and their political puppets like Obama. Since the goal of the entire exercise is to increase the looting rate and austerity index at the expense of working families, the nudge will have to evolve in a more and more coercive direction. It will go from a nudge to a shove to an elbow in the ribs to a cattle prod to a whip to a truncheon, and then to a bayonet, before turning into a machine gun. Our reviewer continues: ‘The central tenet of the Chicago School is that markets, once established and left alone, will resolve most of society’s economic problems, including, presumably, the mortgage crisis. Keynesians—old-school Keynesians, anyway—take the view that markets, financial markets especially, often fail to work as advertised, and that this failure can be self-reinforcing rather than self-correcting. In some ways, the behavioralists stand with the Keynesians. Markets sometimes go badly awry, they agree, especially when people have to make complicated choices, such as what type of mortgage to take out. But whereas the Keynesians argue that vigorous regulation and the prohibition of certain activities such as excessive borrowing are often necessary, behavioralists tend to be more hopeful about redeeming free enterprise. With a gentle nudge, they argue, even some very poorly performing markets—and the people who inhabit them—can be made to work pretty well.’ (John Cassidy, “Economics: Which Way for Obama?” New York Review of Books, June 12, 2008) IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 329 As if by magic, the Trilateral hand which guides Obama’s fortunes has arranged for a new book which can serve as a fig leaf for his odious and reactionary economic program: ‘In a fortuitous accident of timing, Sunstein and his friend Richard Thaler have just published a book that makes the behavioralist case in non-technical language: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. On the face of it, finding two more suitable coauthors would be difficult. Sunstein is a one-man think tank and a prolific writer—by my count, this is his eighth book in as many years. Thaler, who, like Goolsbee, teaches at Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, is one of the founders of behavioral economics. During the 1980s, he began publishing a series of columns in the Journal of Economic Perspectives about economic phenomena that defied the accepted wisdom of the subject, which depended heavily on the twin assumptions of individual rationality and market efficiency.’ (John Cassidy, “Economics: Which Way for Obama?” New York Review of Books, · June 12, 2008) The entire package has to be dressed up in a libertarian mantle, to add an extra layer of camouflage protection and to imbue it with crossover appeal to the numerous drifting stragglers from the Ron Paul campaign who are going to have to go somewhere when their current Pied Piper of the Austrian School is finally defeated at the Republican Convention: ‘In defense of Thaler and Sunstein, their emphasis is on public policy. Yet the program they outline seems unduly restrictive. Not content to be behavioralists, they are also libertarians, and they endorse something they call “libertarian paternalism.” They write: “Libertarian paternalism is a relatively weak, soft, and nonintrusive type of paternalism because choices are not blocked, fenced off, or significantly burdened. If people want to smoke cigarettes, to eat a lot of candy, to choose an unsuitable health care plan, or to fail to save for retirement, libertarian paternalists will not force them to do otherwise—or even make things hard for them. Still, the approach we recommend does count as paternalistic, because private and public choice architects are not merely trying to track or to implement people’s anticipated choices. Rather, they are self-consciously attempting to move people in directions that will make their lives better. They nudge.” A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting the fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.’ Alas! It is a slippery slope, especially when the bankers are calling the shots, as they will be under Obama. The conclusion reached by Thaler and Sunstein is this: “The twentieth century was pervaded by a great deal of artificial talk about the possibility of a “Third Way.” We are hopeful that libertarian paternalism offers a real Third Way—one that can break through some of the least tractable debates in contemporary democracies.”’ (John Cassidy, “Economics: Which Way for Obama?” New York Review of Books, · June 12, 2008) Rather than a third way, this is the same old monetarist blind alley in drag – and, under conditions of the Bush depression, it is a blind alley that leads off a cliff. YOUTHFUL ENERGY AND LOFTY IDEALS: THE DRAFT AND FORCED LABOR Obama has issued a “Call to Serve,” announcing his intent to impose some kind of peacetime national service; in a major policy address at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Obama said: ‘I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history’s course. And if I have the fortune to be your President, decades from now – when the memory of this or that policy has faded, and when the words that we will speak in the next few years are long forgotten – I hope you remember this as a moment when your own story and the American story came together, and history bent once more in 330 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the direction of justice.” At the event, Senator Obama was introduced and endorsed by former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford (D-PA), former Associate Director of the Peace Corps and former Special Assistant to the President for Civil Rights during the Kennedy Administration. Wofford was instrumental in the formation of the Peace Corps, played a key role in crafting and passing the legislation that led to the creation of AmeriCorps and Senator, and currently serves as an advisor to ServeNext.’ Senator Obama’s plan would …would: expand AmeriCorps from its current 75,000 slots to 250,000 slots, enabling the program to establish five new Corps that address some of America’s most pressing challenges: Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, Veterans Corps, and Homeland Security Corps; . engage retiring Americans in service on a large scale by expanding and improving Senior Corps, VISTA and other programs that connect individuals over the age of 55 to volunteer opportunities; double the size of the Peace Corps from 7,800 volunteers to 16,000 by its 50th anniversary in 2011 and work to partner volunteers with people from other nations; establish an America’s Voice Initiative to recruit and train Americans that are fluent speakers of local languages to bolster our public diplomacy efforts abroad; and create a national online network, modeled on Craigslist, to connect volunteers to service and donation opportunities.’177 All of these formations could easily acquire paramilitary overtones, with obvious implications for postmodern fascist developments. The Homeland Security Corps was an especially sinister plan that deserved relentless scrutiny and wife exposure. OBAMA’S FREIWILLIGER ARBEITSDIENST Not content with this Obama also demanded measures accomplish the following: ‘establish a goal of having middle and high-schoolers contribute at least 50 hours a week to community service, and reach that goal through national guidelines for service-learning and additional resources for schools to develop successful programs; Connect disadvantaged youth to service opportunities and a pathway to success through the creation of Green Job Corps and the expansion of Youth Build from 8,000 slots today to 50,000 slots over the next eight years; Create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for Americans willing to complete 100 hours of public service a year; Promote College Serve-Study by immediately increasing the percentage of Federal Work-Study Program funding that goes to community service jobs from 7 percent to 25 percent, and helping colleges and universities reach a goal of 50 percent of serve-study over time; Expand the capacity of the nonprofit sector by establishing a Social Investment Fund Network to provide R&D capital to encourage innovation, find out what works, and expand successful programs to scale across the country; Create a Social Entrepreneurship Agency to enable nonprofits to build capacity through improved collaborations with government. (“Obama to Issue Call to Serve, Vow to Make National Service Important Cause of His Presidency,” World socialist web site, December 5th, 2007) In his speech on national service on July 2, 2008 at the University of Colorado, Obama promised that as president he would “set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year.” Underneath the edifying service verbiage was the clear intent to prepare a form of compulsory service for the benefit of the bankrupt Wall Street financiers, which might then kick over into outright forced labor through the use of food control and other expedients as the depression worsened. Obama’s youthful dupes do not know it, but there is a future of involuntary servitude waiting for them, be it armed with a rifle or a shovel. Here, their fervent idealism would be ground into powder in the service of Wall Street greed. IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 331 THE MOST SCURRILOUS CANDIDATE EVER: OBAMA’S SEXUAL INNUENDO From a CNN report we learn: Barack Obama appeared to have a bit of an awkward ‘moment on the campaign trail in South Bend, Indiana. From the pool report: “[Obama] posed for report pictures with the staff when he apparently felt his phone start to vibrate in his pocket on his right thigh – against which one woman was closely pressed. Later, as two cafe waitresses and owner Brenda Wilson squeezed next to him for a photograph, Obama suddenly turned to one woman. “That’s my phone buzzing there,” he said. “I don’t want you to think I’m getting fresh or anything.”’ (CNN, April 10, 2008) On May 8, 2008, CNN aired a segment which was later posted with the caption/title “Obama in Jeans.” This segment showed Obama lounging in blue jeans in the front of his campaign plane while talking on his cell phone. Readers are invited to judge for themselves whether the comments appended to this photo are correct. Obama clearly has a very scurrilous idea of presidential decorum. Was Obama attempting to prove that he did not share an anatomical deficiency widely attributed to Hitler? An Obama White House would rival the court of Nero or, better yet, Heliogabalus, for its sexual depravity and licentiousness.178 “HOLD ON A SECOND, SWEETIE” — OBAMA’S INCURABLE MISOGYNY Obama’s contempt for women is constantly expressed. Another example was his dismissal of a serious policy question about jobs in the auto industry from a woman reporter working for a major Detroit television station while the Perfect Master was mugging his way through an automobile plant. ‘The moment came at a campaign stop in Detroit, when Peggy Agar, a reporter at ABC’s Detroit affiliate WXYZ-TV, asked Obama this question: “Senator, how are you going to help the American autoworkers?” “Hold on a second, sweetie. We’ll hold a press avail,” replied Obama, referring to a structured question and answer session with the media. Hours later, Obama left Agar a voicemail, apologizing for not answering her question and for calling her “sweetie.” “That’s a bad habit of mine,” Obama said in the message. “I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front.” It apparently is a habit. In an earlier campaign stop, Obama said to a woman, “Sweetie, if I start with a picture I will never get out of here.” And then: “Sweetie if I start doing autographs I just won’t be … I am really late.” (Dan Harris, “Obama’s ‘Sweetie’: Spontaneous or Sexist?” ABC News, May 16, 2008) Obama’s patronizing, condescending approach was also in evidence during a visit to Tama Manufacturing near Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he flirted with and flattered women who make less than poverty wages. According to Huffington Post: ‘Obama lavished compliments on dancewear manufacturer Marisa Cerveris, who gave him a black and pink leotard for [Obama’s daughters] Malia and Sasha, explaining she was once in the New York City ballet. “You look like you might be a dancer,” Obama told her, later adding: “You’re big time.” “You’re gorgeous,” he told Cerveris after glancing at one of her old ballet photos. “I was,” she replied. “You still are,” he countered, asking the crowd, “Isn’t she beautiful?” and answering his own question: “Absolutely.” The average unionized worker at Tama makes about $18,000 a year, lower than poverty level wages for a family of four according to government standards. Tama workers make $10.50 an hour, and must contribute $50 a month toward their health care. Obama praised Tama Manufacturing as a success story saying, “I’m glad to see we still have a good company here with a good owner looking after his workers.” Recently, these same workers had gone on strike for 15 weeks. 332 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA FEARS ISSUES OF HOMOSEXUALITY AND BISEXUALITY Questions of homosexuality and bisexuality, as already noted, are obviously fraught with a great deal of attention and peril in Obama’s case. In late October 2007, Obama became embroiled in a controversy because he accepted the support of Donnie McClurkin, the superstar black gospel singer, who is a former homosexual who argues the thesis that homosexuality is a choice, a view which many homosexuals regard as heresy. McClurkin appeared together with Obama at a gospel concert in Columbia, South Carolina. ‘“Don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay when I have suffered the same feelings,” said McClurkin. “God delivered me from homosexuality,” he added. He then told the audience to believe the Bible over the blogs: “God is the only way.” Obama was forced to backpedal furiously, issuing a statement saying that he strongly disagrees with Mr. McClurkin’s views and that he has tried to address what he called the homophobia among some black voters. As a result, some of Obama’s events were picketed in protest by small groups of gay and lesbian militants.’ (Katharine Q. Seelye, Obama’s Gospel Concert Tour, New York Times, October 29, 2007) Later, before the Pennsylvania primary, Obama was damaged by a public dispute with the leading gay publication in Philadelphia because he refused to grant an interview, something that many black press organs have also complained about. The Philadelphia Gay News attacked Obama for his consistent refusal to speak to gay media outlets. In a pre-election issue, the paper featured a front-page interview with Hillary Clinton and a large blank space under a photo of Barack Obama, with a banner headline reading, “Clinton Talks, Obama Balks.” The paper’s accompanying editorial commented: “At this point in the Democratic presidential campaign, we’re able to view the candidates by their actions. And we have found that Sen. Barack Obama would rather talk at the LGBT community than with them....” (Queerty) All of this left the question of why Obama seemed so blocked and uncomfortable when it came to interacting with media which represent a considerable number of Democratic primary voters. Based on the Larry Sinclair revelations and the Reverend Manning “Trinity of Hell” tape, Obama may be concerned that he will be outed as a closet homosexual or bisexual. The important Pennsylvania primary was held on April 22. It had been preceded by 6 weeks of intensive campaigning, and had allowed Obama to bring to bear the full range of advantages inherent in his well-heeled Soros-powered pluto-candidacy. Obama outspent Clinton by margins that were variously estimated as two to one, three to one, or four to one (Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), with much of this concentrated in the area of television advertising. Obama’s television advertising blitz probably crossed into the area of diminishing returns and of active annoyance and backlash against his condescending and hectoring tone. Obama was defeated by 10 percentage points, 55 to 45. It was a humiliating and ominous defeat. The postmodern fascist had broken his sword against the Clinton lines. OBAMA GIVES HILLARY THE FINGER In a campaign appearance the next day, Obama manifestly engaged in an obscene gesture – the digitus infamis – directed personally against Mrs. Clinton. He also brushed off his shoulders to show his contempt for Clinton’s criticisms. Among the media, the most explicit discussion was provided by O’Reilly on the evening of April 21, 2008, although there had been some previous light-headed badinage on MSNBC. Laluchasigue of noquarterusa.net called attention to the fact that Obama was using coded references to communicate a racist message to his followers in a way that IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 333 many other voters would not understand. Laluchasigue pointed out that the key to interpreting Obama’s antics over these days were the following lyrics: ‘[Chorus: Jay-Z] If you feelin’ like a pimp n***a, go and brush your shoulders off Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off N****z is crazy baby, don’t forget that boy told you Get, that, dirt off your shoulder. Laluchasigue went on to elaborate his thesis: ‘Now, get this Obamabot’s reaction to the gesture: “Dude, I nearly swooned — SWOONED, I tell you — when I saw that. That’s one of my fave Jay- Z joints of all time. HUGE SWIRLING VORTEX OF LOVE. I could not pink-fuzzy-heart Barack one iota more.” Violet Socks posted a diary about that “swooner” over at the terrific new blog…Laluchasigue continued: ‘Obama’s gesture prompted a mash-up video that made the Jay- Z/Obama connection explicit. Ari Melber, the other Obamabot named Ari at The Nation, posted the video on The Nation’s website, noting, “Obama really is a Jay-Z fan, too. When asked which hip hop artists he likes in a recent interview, he said, ‘lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Jay-Z — this new American Gangster album.’” Spencer Ackerman, another young white male media Obamaton, called Obama’s gesture “perhaps the coolest subliminal cultural reference in the history of American politics.” So what is the hype about? What did Jay-Z actually say that captivated Barack Obama? Here is the hook and first verse to the new theme song of Obama ‘08: [Chorus: Jay-Z] If you feelin’ like a pimp n***a, go and brush your shoulders off Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off N****z is crazy baby, don’t forget that boy told you Get, that, dirt off your shoulder [Verse One] I probably owe it to y’all, probably to be locked by the force Tryin to hustle some things, that go with the Porsche Feelin no remorse, feelin like my hand was forced Middle finger to the law, n***a grippin ma balls Stab the ladies they love me, from the bleachers they screamin All the ballers is bouncin, they like the way I be leanin All the rappers be hatin, off the track that I’m makin But all the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it Came from the bottom the bottom, to the Top of the Pops N***a London, Japan and I’m straight off the block Like a running back, get it man, I’m straight off the block I can run it back n***a cause I’m straight with the Roc.’ Laluchasigue continued: ‘Obama hasn’t flipped a “middle finga to the law” but to Hillary instead (his godfather Tony Rezko and possible financial angel Nadmi Auchi were the ones flicking off the law). He got his clock cleaned in a debate about his closest associates, his domestic policy proposals and national security credentials, but after a quick, not-so-subliminal reference to Jay-Hova, Obama’s back to “feelin’ like a pimp.” (Laluchasigue, ‘Obama Invokes Jay-Z “Stab the Ladies…Middle Finga To The Law”, noquarterus.net, April 18, 2008) 334 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography The decadent forces of radical chic like Mo Dowd were also fully aware of the scurrilous and obscene references that were built into Obama’s contemptible posturing: ‘It had to be the first time in history that a presidential candidate had a hip-hop moment. Barack Obama, who says he listens to Jay-Z along with his “old school guy” favorites like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Temptations, alluded to the rapper’s 2003 hit “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” on Thursday to sweep away concerns about his pugnacity. After conceding that the Philly debate was tough, he brushed the imaginary lint of Hillary, George and Charlie from his shoulders, in a wordless reference to Jay-Z’s lyrics in his anthem about not letting anyone crimp your ride as you cruise from the bottom to the top: “Got some, dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me.”’ (Maureen Dowd, “Brush It Off,” New York Times, April 20, 2008) These decadent circles knew what they were getting. And they liked it. With Obama, the institution of the presidency was destined to sink into a sewer of degradation comparable to the era of the British Hellfire Clubs or the more depraved Roman emperors. OBAMA STONEWALLS THE MEDIA The clouds gathered ever more densely over Obama’s head. Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Bittergate – small wonder that he stopped taking questions from his own traveling press corps, who had generally been exemplary in their docility. In Blue Bell, Pennsylvania on April 21, ‘reporters and photographers slightly trampled a Sept. 11 memorial garden to get into position to photograph Obama after the event, and to try to ask him a few questions. Obama has not taken questions from reporters traveling with him for 10 days. He gave his supporters some advice about the cameras at the start of his event. “Just ignore them,” he said. “Pretend they’re not there.”’ (John McCormick, “Mellow, Outdoor Afternoon with Obama,” Chicago Tribune, The Swamp, April 21, 2008) A photograph turned up in which the Perfect Master was depicted making the classic coarse gesture not to Sen. Clinton, but to the traveling press corps: The caption read: ‘Here’s your Barack Obama, all alone on this giant luxury jet plane, reading his newspapers and perhaps flipping the bird to Hillary, the airplane, and especially the political journalists who are again pretending that Hillary Clinton can “win” the nomination, when she doesn’t have enough votes or delegates to actually do that. Also, taped to the cabin ceiling ... a blood-stained towel?’ [AP Photo] (Wonkette, April 23, 2008) ELITISM AND OLIGARCHICAL THINKING: OBAMA’S ACHILLES HEEL The main objection to Obama remained that he was an elitist, an oligarch by training and ideology, and also in terms of the narrow interests he proposed to serve. This was especially evident in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and later in West Virginia and Kentucky. A Pennsylvania critic observed: “Obama is black by heritage but also a product of liberal elitism, which appears to drive his thinking: Poor kid from single-parent home gets access to the best schools, the best opportunities, and is groomed for greatness…. his thinking hovers on liberal elite. That is why his comment in San Francisco about embittered Middle America was so revealing about whom and what he is. Yet because of race, his political veneer was not scratched. In ideology, is he different from Mike Dukakis, John Kerry, Al Gore or George McGovern? Probably not. He just looks really cool saying the kind of things once said by those four men who lost the presidency for the Democrats. And why did they lose? In large part, because of a lack of connection with bread-and-butter Democrats. Love him or hate him, give Bill Clinton his due: He fought for the presidency against all odds, from a small white Southern town; when he won, he delivered without ever embracing liberal elitism. That is part of the price Hillary Clinton is paying in this primary: The party’s liberal-elite side resents Bill’s performance… Compare this with two modern presidents IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 335 who are widely remembered and admired: William Jefferson Clinton and Ronald Wilson Reagan. Neither came from or had access to the elite system, though at times they brushed against it; when push came to shove, they rejected it for their own survival. Both deeply wanted people to like them because of their upbringings — both came from poor families in small-town America with abusive, alcoholic fathers….If the candidate who emerges from this primary season echoes the liberal elitism of McGovern, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry, then Democrats should start bracing for a losing year, one they should have easily won.” (Salena Zito, “Elite Democrats Lose,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 20, 2008) OBAMA AS ADULATION ADDICT As one British journalist noted, ‘Obama personally was an adulation addict: he needed the adoration of the mob as his emotional fuel: In the last, say, three weeks, Obama hasn’t put forward a single new proposal. He hasn’t, at least on any evidence that I’ve seen, tweaked his stump speech much. He’s been static and stale and … he hasn’t been looking like he’s having fun doing this. That can be deadly, and voters can smell it. A campaign can’t be static. It has to sense new dynamics and paradigms as they arise and roll with them. While it shouldn’t depart from its basic message, it should undertake little reinventions of the candidate along the way to show that the candidate is on top of what’s going on out there.’ (Michael Tomasky, London Guardian, April 25, 2008) The addiction to mob adulation is historically one of the most ominous possible symptoms for the survival of a democracy. In this regard, Obama was on cold turkey for most of the second half of the primary season, a fact which underscored his weakness as a candidate: ‘After the end of February, it was a very long time before Obama WON any victories in primary elections. In the interim, the Bill Ayers case and a second round of the Jeremiah Wright scandal exploded into public view, thoroughly discrediting the Trilateral candidate. Obama had now settled into a familiar pattern: he was able to win the votes of affluent suburbanites, feckless college students, and the black community. He had very little appeal to white voters in general, trade union households, women, retirees, Catholic voters, Jewish voters, Asian voters, Hispanic voters, and to that group of swing voters known as the Reagan Democrats. The only question that remained was whether Obama’s losing coalition would look more on the Electoral College map like McGovern in 1972, Carter in 1980, Mondale in 1984, Dukakis in 1988, Gore in 2000, or Kerry in 2004. There was little doubt that Obama was a sure loser in any normal election. Obama’s gamble was obviously enough that his friends in the Department of Justice and the FBI would be able to deliver scandals powerful enough to destroy Senator McCain at some opportune time in the fall. In the meantime, the attitude of the hacks and elitists at the Democratic National Committee was a mystery to many: why did they insist on nominating Obama, when he was so obviously a pathetically weak candidate with no hope of winning the presidency in a contested election? Superficial observers said that this was because the party insiders really were multicultural and politically correct, and that they therefore did not want to offend the black community by rejecting its once-in-a-lifetime champion. More seasoned commentators knew very well that the Democratic National Committee did not give a damn about the black community one way or the other, and that the hysterical support for Obama was simply due to the fact that he was the candidate demanded by the Wall Street financial oligarchs for purposes of saving the entire Anglo American imperialist system. This was the real reason, and not any concern about black sensibilities. 336 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography CALIFORNIA AND MASSACHUSETTS VULNERABLE TO GOP WITH OBAMA? As the primaries rolled on, it became painfully obvious that even traditional Democratic states could easily fall to the Republicans if Obama were in fact the candidate. The shocking list of states where this condition obtained included such bulwarks as California, and such swing states as Florida. Even Massachusetts, one of the most reliable Democratic of all the states, turned into a battleground in case of an Obama nomination, presumably due to widespread voter disaffection with the failed governor Deval Patrick, who notoriously spouted the same messianic-utopian rhetoric which was Obama’s stock in trade. Massachusetts voters were saying in effect that one Trilateral stooge in a generation was all that they could stomach. The veteran electoral analyst Michael Barone summed up Obama’s plight in a commentary issued at the end of April: “…Clinton seems to run stronger than Obama in the industrial (or formerly industrial) belt, running west from New Jersey through Pennsylvania and Ohio to Michigan and Missouri. Obama’s weakness among white working-class voters in the primaries here suggests he is poorly positioned to win votes he will need to carry these states in November. This is not a minor problem — we’re talking about 84 electoral votes. Obama has also fared poorly among Latino and Jewish voters in every primary held so far. This is of consequence most notably in Florida, which has 27 electoral votes. In 2000, Al Gore won 67 percent of the vote in Broward County and 62 percent in Palm Beach County — both have large Jewish populations. In this year’s Florida primary, Obama lost those counties to Clinton by 57 percent to 33 percent and 61 percent to 27 percent. No Democrat can carry Florida without big margins in Broward and Palm Beach. Obama’s weakness among Latinos and Jews could conceivably put California’s 55 electoral votes in play. Los Angeles County delivered an 831,000 vote plurality for John Kerry in 2004. Most of that plurality came from areas with large numbers of Latinos and Jews…. And his discomfort, evident in the Pennsylvania debate, when he is greeted with anything but adulation does not augur well for his ability to stand firm and show a sense of command in the face of the stringent criticism he is bound to receive as the Democratic nominee. (Michael Barone, “Popular Vote Gives Clinton an Edge,” realclearpolitics.com, April 26, 2008) THE RUBE GOLDBERG-BYZANTINE NIGHTMARE OF THE MCGOVERNFRASER- DUKAKIS-JACKSON RULES To understand the rules of the Democratic Party for choosing delegates, you need to imagine the cartoonist Rube Goldberg transported into the flowing robes of a Byzantine Emperor of the tenth century. It would take such a strange hybrid to come up with the present procedures for delegate selection, which have become one of the main reasons why the Democratic candidate almost always loses. Governor Ed Rendell told the discredited Chris Matthews on April 22 that the Democratic Party delegate rules were “screwed up,” and that a straight tabulation of the popular vote would be the most democratic criterion for winning. What then were these delegate selection rules upon which Obama was relying as he sought to game the system? According to one attempted explanation, “For its first 150 years, the Democratic Party selected its presidential nominee in a proverbial smoke-filled room, with delegates picked by party bosses. The system began to change in the 1940s and 1950s, when a handful of states including New Hampshire established primaries to give voters a say in the selection of delegates.” As a result of the 1968 defeat, a reform commission was set up under the leadership of George McGovern and UAW leader Douglas Fraser. In 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey had won the Democratic nomination over the elitist antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy without winning any primaries. The next year, party leaders named Senator George McGovern of South Dakota to head a panel to overhaul the delegate selection process. The McGovern reforms, by abolishing the tradition of giving party leaders seats at the IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 337 convention, sharply reduced the number of senators and congressmen who served as delegates. These officeholders were less inclined to support the party’s standard-bearer when they had played no role in the convention. There were also far fewer trade union leaders as delegates, with correspondingly more environmentalists, sexual orientation activists, and minority militants. The Daley machine of Illinois had simply ignored the McGovern recommendations. A floor fight over the seating of the Illinois delegation ensued, with Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago clashing with Jesse Jackson, leader of the reform slate. Daley was ousted and Jackson was seated. McGovern then used the new system he had helped to design in order to seize the 1972 nomination, resulting in his catastrophic defeat. McGovern won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in one of the biggest defeats in US history. Between 1972 and 1988 there were a series of commissions that were supposed to reform the rules; a 1973 commission chaired by City Councilor Barbara Mikulski of Baltimore scaled back some of the affirmative action provisions in McGovern’s rules and explicitly prohibited winner-take-all primaries. Another commission in 1978 turned down the idea of superdelegates. In June 1988, representatives of Dukakis and Jesse Jackson reworked the rules for picking a Democratic Party nominee, creating an elaborate framework for selecting delegates based on proportion of votes in states and congressional districts, with an additional role played by party elders in the form of superdelegates. By 1980, the proportion of Democratic senators who served as delegates had declined to 14 percent, down from 68 percent in 1960. Elected officials were unhappy because they were obliged to run against their own voters and constituents for seats at the convention. Therefore, there was support for the introduction of superdelegates, meaning party veterans and elected officials. The one legitimate purpose served by this innovation was to have some experienced people on the floor of the convention who could say no to a new hysteria of the type that had propelled the obviously doomed George McGovern to the nomination in 1972. But Obama and Axelrod had seen that the entire mechanism by 2008 was ripe for the most cynical gaming. The Electoral College had been designed to give one candidate a convincing and significant majority of the electoral votes, by ruling out proportional representation and instituting a winner take all system. The modern Democratic Party system, motivated by politically correct and multicultural postmodern criteria did just the opposite: it tended to prevent the emergence of a winner based on the Electoral College mega states fairly early in the game. The Democratic party rules were therefore completely dysfunctional, and they had become a major factor in the breakdown of the entire US political system during the year 2008. These rules were a insane, and the fact was widely recognized. “This is the nightmare” that all the commissions sought to avoid, said consultant Bill Carrick, who was part of the 1982 reform panel, in 2008. It was bad enough that the nomination was in the hands of the party’s 795 “superdelegates,” who constitute party insiders. Even worse was the fact that these superdelegates seemed to lack the elementary instinct for survival that would have impelled them to give Clinton the nomination based on her superior ability to win the White House. Again, obedience to Wall Street, and not any notion of solidarity with the black community, was the main factor involved. In 1980, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts ran against President Jimmy Carter in the primaries. Kennedy organized a series of rules challenges against Carter at that year’s chaotic convention in New York City, triggering another bout of Democratic soul-searching. “There was a palpable sense that this rules fight was really taking the party down,” said the party hack Elaine Kamarck, a Carter backer in 1980. “People felt, if only there had been more elected officials on the floor of the convention, maybe they could have short-circuited this.” There was much dithering, leading to the creation of another commission chaired by James Hunt, the governor of North Carolina, which recommended rolling back some of the more extravagant “reforms.” But it was the Hunt commission that made Democratic members of Congress into automatic delegates, the 338 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography superdelegates of today. In 1984, Jesse Jackson complained that the rules had been stacked against him by organized labor and Democrats aligned with Kennedy and former vice president Walter Mondale. In the 1988 election, Jackson claimed that in Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, and other states that awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis within each congressional district, he had been robbed of his share of the delegates. “We raised hell about the unfairness of the system that was in play,” said Steve Cobble, Jackson’s delegate director. The rotten compromise of 1988, extorted by Jackson without regard to the viability of future nominees, mandated proportional representation as the only method for states to apportion their delegates. When the Hunt Commission created the superdelegates in 1982, they constituted about 15 percent of all delegates; since then, they have grown to include some big city mayors, former DNC chairmen, plus former Democratic presidents and vice presidents. Superdelegates now number 795 and constitute 20 percent of the total. The McGovern reforms “have been watered down significantly by this superdelegate stuff,” said one Democratic official. “Any time you have that number of delegates that are not elected by the people, it’s wrong. It’s just wrong.” The obvious problem is that, under the proportional representation rule imposed in 1988, it becomes mathematically difficult for a winner to emerge from the primaries. “The unintended consequence has been to make it harder to get a consensus as to who the nominee should be,” said another official, who supports a return to some winner-take-all primaries to hasten the process. “The same people who complain about Electoral College strong-arming can’t very well have a de facto Electoral College,” Jackson said. “That would be suicidal.” (Alan Wirzbicki, “Changes have left uncertainty: ‘80s rules reform skews Democrats’ nominee process,” Boston Globe, February 17, 2008) The Democratic party rules to delegate selection are currently in blatant contradiction to the rules of the November election. In the Democratic primaries, there is proportional representation; in the Electoral College it is winner take all with a few minor exceptions. In the November election, everything is decided by voting through secret ballot; in the Democratic Party, there are caucuses where loudmouth Malthusian elitists and affluent suburban ideologues can intimidate blue-collar working people, elderly women, and other core constituencies, sometimes browbeating them into supporting candidates they do not want, and are sure not to vote for in November. There are many reports of abuses by the Obamakins in this direction. In Texas this year, Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote convincingly, but still ended up with fewer delegates because the Obama lemming legions were able and willing to stay through the lengthy evening caucuses, thus giving Obama more delegates — surely a scandal for the Democratic Party. . In the Electoral College, the number of votes each state has is in rough proportion to its population, although smaller states fare slightly better because they start off with a minimum of three electoral votes. In the Democratic Party, by contrast, small states and states that are likely to go Republican get a special bonus of delegates compared to vital, indispensable Democratic states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Finally, in the Electoral College it is more or less one-person one-vote; not so in the Democratic Party, where the Jesse Jackson reforms make sure that an inner-city black vote is worth much more in terms of electing delegates than a white, blue-collar, rural vote. THE DEMOCRATIC RULES: “CRAZY” The inherent absurdity of this entire system for a political party whose announced goal was not to follow orders from Wall Street, nor to celebrate the ethereal virtues of multiculturalism and political correctness, but was rather supposed to have to do with winning elections, was pointed out by Steve and Cokie Roberts, a team of seasoned observers of the Washington scene. They correctly noted: “Yes, the Clinton camp made strategic blunders that allowed Obama to score heavily in IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 339 Republican states where few Democrats vote. But the real culprit is the party’s stupid, selfdestructive nominating system, which has two major flaws. Since Feb. 19, seven states have voted. Clinton has won four — Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island —building up a popular-vote margin of 483,000. Yet her total gain in delegates was exactly five. In Texas, she won by more than 100,000 votes, but because of that state’s ridiculous rules, she actually came out five delegates behind. How can that outcome possibly be fair? How can it possibly benefit the party? Wait, it gets worse. Obama built up sizable margins in small states that Clinton was foolish enough to concede. His delegate advantage in Idaho, Kansas and Louisiana — three states that will never vote Democratic — was a total of 38. By contrast, Clinton handily won three large swing states — Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. And yet, because of party rules, her combined marginal gain amounted to 28 delegates. How can it make sense for Idaho, Kansas and Louisiana to have a bigger impact on choosing the Democratic nominee than Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio? Add in the exclusion of Florida and Michigan, two crucial states that favor Clinton, and there’s only one word for the Democrats’ system: crazy. And Republicans are gleeful.” (Cokie and Steve Roberts: “Democrats will have to overcome their own system,” May 6, 2008) Only by junking these rules could the Democrats hope to make a permanent comeback in the party realignment process. OBAMA AS A BURDEN FOR CANDIDATES DOWN THE TICKET The North Carolina Republican Party released a television ad attacking Beth Perdue and Richard Moore, two Democratic gubernatorial candidates in that state, because they had both endorsed Obama, who was now labeled as “too extreme for North Carolina” with documentation featuring the Wright “God damn America” rant. It was an ominous sign to Democratic superdelegates that running on the same ticket with the now-tarnished Perfect Master might be highly detrimental to their chances of winning an election. As a result of Obama’s reckless reliance on his left CIA, left wing intelligence community network from Chicago, it was now evident that Democratic Party candidates at all levels would go into the November election carrying an immense burden of public opprobrium, suspicion, and resentment. The components of this burden had names: they were Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, the rest of Obama’s gaggle of Weatherman terrorist cronies, Antoin Rezko, Auchi, Richard Daley, Rod Blagojevich, and many more. The burden included Obama’ s Bittergate slurs against the lifestyle of blue-collar working class voters, the hissing venom of Michelle Obama’s self-centered and self-righteous fascistoid tirades, plus a whole series of gaffes in which Obama appeared to be babbling in delirium as soon as he was separated from his beloved Teleprompter and had to speak off the cuff. Even more ominous was the fact that the Obama burden was likely soon to include that Michelle Obama “hate Whitey” tape, which was reportedly being used by Karl Rove in private screenings to extract substantial contributions from Republican moneybags and fatcats for Rove’s 527 groups. Most critical of all, it was the scandal complex that centered around the names of Donald Young and Larry Sinclair which had the obvious potentiality to bring Obama down even more rapidly than New York Governor Eliot Spitzer had been destroyed. More eloquent than any polls in mid-summer 2008 was the growing list of Democratic Party elected officials who had taken the unusual step of openly and publicly telling Obama that they were not interested in the vice presidency. The first was Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, who presided over the classic battleground state which had decided the 2004 election. Then there was Mark Warner of Virginia, a popular former governor who could have given Obama some faint hope of taking Virginia out of the GOP column. Warner wanted to keep running for senator. Another categorical denial came in from Marine General James Jones, the former NATO commander, who 340 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography would have given Obama a shred of military credibility. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, who had an impressive machine, said that he was no good at being second banana and therefore would have to beg off the veep spot. Then came Senator James Webb of Virginia, a strange militarist ideologue who was wrapped up in his pugnacious Scots-Irish identity trip, and also had a soft spot for the Confederate States of America. Senator Jack Reid of Rhode Island also opted out. Even former Senator Bill Bradley made a public statement rejecting a run for veep. All of these open rejections were very ominous indeed, since each was a powerful vote of no confidence in the viability of the Messiah at the polls.179 THE NORTH CAROLINA DEBATE THAT NEVER WAS AND OBAMA’S WIMP FACTOR A Democratic presidential debate had been scheduled for North Carolina, this time moderated by Katie Couric of CBS. The Perfect Master had gone into contortions to avoid a format in which he was now – after his Philadelphia debacle — manifestly a failure, to say nothing of his fear of new questions about his hate-mongering and terrorist personal associations. Lanny Davis suspected that DNC chair Howard Dean had connived with the Obamakins to get the North Carolina Democratic Party to call off the debate, which had become a serious embarrassment to Obama and Axelrod. Davis demanded that, if Howard Dean had indeed intervened to get Obama off the debate hook, he should resign his chairmanship on the grounds that he had violated the neutrality and impartiality to which the DNC leader is formally pledged. If Obama and Axelrod did not in fact fear a debate, they could easily prove it by offering to show up. How could Obama continue as a viable candidate if he were afraid of his opponents? Would he run from McCain as well? How could such a political coward command voter support? Larry Johnson obtained an internal document of the North Carolina Democratic Party which attempted to motivate the cancellation of the debate by arguing that “While there was great interest in the debate, there were also growing concerns about what another debate would do to party unity…” Larry Johnson then offered an “Uppity Translation: There are growing concerns that any more hard or revealing questions might not be so good for Baby Jesus Obama.” (Noquarterusa.net, April 23, 2008) By May, Obama had virtually stopped campaigning. He skipped West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico, which had very different demographics, but in which Clinton beat Obama 2:1 each time. Clinton even won South Dakota; Obama could only manage Oregon and Montana. HO HO AND THE WAR HO In 2000 and 2004, Democratic activists had demanded that every vote be counted. Now Obama and his friend Ho Ho (as Howard Dean was known in Vermont), both defenders of the politically correct-elitist-neomalthusian status quo that had caused so many defeats, were demanding that Florida and Michigan, two indispensable megastates, not be counted. For any professional pol who wanted to win an election, it was sheer madness. But many careers and reputations had come to depend on the Democratic Party as a multicultural, politically correct crazy quilt of racial identity groups, and sexual preference lobbies, with elitist, radical environmentalist, anti-working class, and neo-Luddite components generally retaining the upper hand. This chaotic congeries, of course, corresponded to the multiple fault lines along which the Ford Foundation, its satellite foundations, and its domestic counterinsurgency apparatus (which had produced Obama) sought to split, divide, slice, and dice the old FDR New Deal Coalition so it could not threaten Wall Street again. It mattered not to Dean, Brazile, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy and so many others that the politically correctmulticultural rainbow coalition model for the party was an incurable, incorrigible loser. The IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 341 rainbow model had led to the rout of the union movement, the collapse of living standards over four decades, and to the impotence and isolation of the party. But the Pelosi faction had lashed themselves to the carcass of multiculturalism, and they would rather lose an infinity of presidential elections rather than lose their personal status and power, no matter what the terrible consequences to the American people. OBAMA AS THE NEW MCGOVERN: EGGHEADS AND BLACKS ARE NOT ENOUGH After Obama’s staggering defeats in Ohio and Pennsylvania, even some of the more clear-eyed acolytes of his campaign began to fear for the result in November. What caught their eye was the eerie resemblance between the outlines of Obama’s coalition as he became weaker and weaker in April and May, and the 1972 McGovern voter base. That distant debacle was clearly in danger of being repeated if Obama got the nomination. John Judis had co-authored a book about what he saw on as the emerging Democratic majority, but Judis was now alarmed. He wrote an article which caused a furor among the more faithful Kool-Aid addicts at The Nation, who began directing their vituperation and infective against their hapless left liberal colleague. Judis found that ‘…Obama’s weaknesses as a general election candidate grow more apparent with each successive primary. I visited Pennsylvania during this time, and could feel the growing disillusionment with Obama. … Obama cut into Clinton’s advantage, but couldn’t erase it. Even though he campaigned extensively among white working class Pennsylvanians, he still couldn’t crack this constituency. He lost every white working class county in the state. He lost greater Pittsburgh area by 61 to 39 percent. He did poorly among Catholics – losing them 71 to 29 percent. A Democrat can’t win Pennsylvania in the fall without these voters. And those who didn’t vote in the primary but will vote in the general election are likely to be even less amenable to Obama. But Obama also lost ground among the upscale white professionals that had helped him win states like Wisconsin, Maryland, and Virginia. For instance, Obama won my own Montgomery County, Maryland by 55 to 43 percent but he lost suburban Philadelphia’s very similar Montgomery County by 51 to 49 percent to Clinton. He lost upscale arty Bucks County by 62 to 38 percent. …the electoral premise of Obama’s campaign – that he can attract middle class Republicans and Independents--is being undermined. Indeed, if you look at Obama’s vote in Pennsylvania, you begin to see the outlines of the old George McGovern coalition that haunted the Democrats during the ‘70s and ‘80s, led by college students and minorities. In Pennsylvania, Obama did best in college towns (60 to 40 percent in Penn State’s Centre County) and in heavily black areas like Philadelphia. Its ideology is very liberal. Whereas in the first primaries and caucuses, Obama benefited from being seen as middle-of-the-road or even conservative, he is now receiving his strongest support from voters who see themselves as “very liberal.” In Pennsylvania, he defeated Clinton among “very liberal” voters by 55 to 45 percent, but lost “somewhat conservative” voters by 53 to 47 percent and moderates by 60 to 40 percent. In Wisconsin and Virginia, by contrast, he had done best against Clinton among voters who saw themselves as moderate or somewhat conservative. Obama even seems to be acquiring the religious profile of the old McGovern coalition. In the early primaries and caucuses, Obama did very well among the observant. In Maryland, he defeated Clinton among those who attended religious services weekly by 61 to 31 percent. By contrast, in Pennsylvania, he lost to Clinton among these voters by 58 to 42 percent and did best among voters who never attend religious services, winning them by 56 to 44 percent. There is nothing wrong with winning over voters who are very liberal and who never attend religious services; but if they begin to become Obama’s most fervent base of support, he will have trouble (to say the least) in November. The primaries, unfortunately, are not 342 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography going to get any easier for Obama. While he should win easily in North Carolina, where he benefits from a large African-American vote and support in the state’s college communities, he is going to have trouble in Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, where he will once again be faced by a large white working class vote. He can still win the nomination and lose these primaries. Pennsylvania was the last big delegate prize. But if Obama doesn’t find a way now to speak to these voters, he is going to have trouble winning that large swath of states from Pennsylvania through Missouri in which a Democrat must do well to gain the presidency. That remains Obama challenge in the month to come.’ (John B. Judis, “The Next McGovern? — Obama may still get the nomination, but his loss tonight deals a harsh blow to his electability arguments,” The New Republic, April 23, 2008) Judis was flayed and vilified by the true believers among the lemming legions who saw this essay as an act of unspeakable lèse majesté. A right-wing commentator stressed that Obama was showing signs of mental disintegration even as his vote totals deteriorated, and that there was always the possibility that he might be quickly taken down by a scandal of the Spitzer type. ‘Hillary won just enough to show that it is ludicrous to oust a 10-point winner at this late junction, but not quite the blow-out that might cause a stampede to her in the next few states. The Democrats are tottering at the edge of the abyss. They are about to nominate someone who cannot win, despite vastly out-spending his opponent, any of the key large states — CA, NJ, NY, OH, PENN, TX, etc. — that will determine the fall election. And yet not to nominate him will cause the sort of implosion they saw in 1968 or the sort of mess we saw in November 2000. Hillary won’t quit, since she knows that Obama, when pressure mounts, is starting to show a weird sort of petulance, and drops the “new politics” for snideness. And at any given second, a Rev. Wright outburst, an Ayers reappearance, another Michelle ‘never been proud’ moment, or another condescending Obamism can cause him to nose dive and become even more snappy.’ (Victor Davis Hanson, “The Second Coming of McGovern,” National Review.com, April 22, 2008) OBAMA: ALWAYS THE RACE CARD Professor Sean Wilentz elaborated on his penetrating diagnosis that the most basic technique of the Obama campaign was to accuse any critic or opponent of being a racist, all the while denying that any race card was being played at all by Obama. As the skein of Obama’s defeats lengthened, the media whores at the Washington Post and other financier controlled press organs began putting out the line that the problem was not with Obama, but rather with the American people, who were now being exposed as unreconstructed racists. Here again, we see the logic of the Carter malaise speech, which is the eternal template for every Trilateral puppet politician: when you get into trouble because of your own incompetence, treachery, and stupidity, turn the tables as fast as you can and blame the American people. Wilentz wrote: ‘In fact, all of the evidence demonstrates that white racism has not been a principal or even secondary motivation in any of this year’s Democratic primaries. Every poll shows that economics, health care, and national security are the leading issues for white working class voters - and for Latino working class voters as well. These constituencies have cast positive ballots for Hillary Clinton not because she is white, but because they regard her as better on these issues. Obama’s campaign and its passionate supporters refuse to acknowledge that these voters consider him weaker — and that Clinton’s positions, different from his, as well as her experience actually attract support. Instead they impute racism to working class Democrats who, the polls also show, happen to be liberal on every leading issue. The effort to taint anyone who does not support Obama as motivated by racism has now become a major factor in alienating core Democrats from Obama’s campaign. Out with the Democratic Party of Jefferson, Jackson, F.D.R., IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 343 Truman, Kennedy and Johnson, and in with the bright, shiny party of Obama - or what the formally “undeclared” Donna Brazile, a member of the Democratic National Committee and of the party’s rules committee, has hailed as a “new Democratic coalition” swelled by affluent white leftists and liberals, college students, and African-Americans.’ (Sean Wilentz, “Barack Obama and the Unmaking of the Democratic Party,” Huffington Post, May 23, 2008) It was a slow motion tragedy unfolding before the eyes of the public: the bosses of the Democratic Party, because they were controlled by the Wall Street financial elite who demanded Obama and nothing but Obama, were throwing elementary political prudence out the window to nominate a candidate who was doomed to defeat under all normal circumstances. At the same time, the Obama fanatics attempted to motivate their hysterical persistence with the idea that the old voting blocs were irrelevant, because the Perfect Master was going to bring in hordes of new voters. ‘This year’s primary results show no sign that Obama will reverse this trend should he win the nomination. In West Virginia and Kentucky, as well as Ohio and Pennsylvania, blue collar white voters sent him down to defeat by overwhelming margins. A recent Gallup poll report has argued that claims about Obama’s weaknesses among white voters and blue collar voters have been exaggerated - yet its indisputable figures showed Obama running four percentage points below Kerry’s anemic support among whites four years ago. Given that Obama’s vote in the primaries, apart from African-Americans, has generally come from affluent white suburbs and university towns, the Gallup figures presage a Democratic disaster among working-class white voters in November should Obama be the nominee. Yet Obama’s handlers profess indifference - and, at times, even pride — about these trends. Asked about the white working-class vote following Obama’s ten-point loss in Pennsylvania, chief campaign strategist David Axelrod confidently told an National Public Radio interviewer that, after all, “the white working class has gone to the Republican nominee for many elections going back even to the Clinton years” and that Obama’s winning strength lay in his ability to offset that trend and “attract independent voters... younger voters” and “expand the Democratic base.”’ (Sean Wilentz, “Barack Obama and the Unmaking of the Democratic Party,” Huffington Post, May 23, 2008) It is clear that the attempted radical deemphasis of blue-collar workers and the white working class in general reflects the characteristic class hatreds of Obama’s base of support among affluent suburbanites and Malthusian fanatics. What Axelrod says here also reflects the doctrine which Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dorn, and the rest of the Weathermen had been professing for four decades, and that is that the white working class is the enemy and has to be destroyed. OBAMA: CANDIDATE OF ELITIST CLASS HATRED AGAINST WHITE WORKERS As Wilentz points out, the notion that Obama is going to bring in masses of new voters is a utopian fiction concocted by spin doctors like Axelrod and his ilk: ‘Apart from its basic inaccuracy about Clinton’s blue-collar support in 1992 and 1996, Axelrod’s statement was a virtual reprise of the Democratic doomed strategy from the 1972 McGovern campaign that the party revamped in 1988. The main difference between now and then is the openness of the condescension with which many of Obama’s supporters - and, apparently, the candidate himself - hold the crude “low information” types whom they believe dominate the white working class. The sympathetic media coverage of Obama’s efforts to explain away his remarks in San Francisco about “bitter,” economically-strapped voters who, clinging to their guns, religion, and racism, misdirect their rage and do not see the light, only reinforced his campaign’s dismissive attitude. Obama’s efforts at rectification were reluctant and half-hearted at best - and he undercut them completely a few days 344 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography later when he referred derisively, on the stump in Indiana, to a sudden “political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true.” Culturally as well as politically, Obama’s dismissal of white working people represents a sea-change in the Democrats’ basic identity as the workingman’s party - one that has been coming since the late 1960s, when large portions of the Left began regarding white workers as hopeless and hateful reactionaries. Faced with the revolt of the “Reagan Democrats” - whose politics they interpreted in the narrowest of racial terms - “new politics” Democrats dreamed of a coalition built around an alliance of right-thinking affluent liberals and downtrodden minorities, especially African-Americans. It all came to nothing. But after Bill Clinton failed to consolidate a new version of the old Democratic coalition in the 1990s, the dreaming began again - first, with disastrous results, in the schismatic Ralph Nader campaign of 2000 and now (with the support of vehement ex-Naderites including Barbara Ehrenreich and Cornel West) in the Obama campaign. (Sean Wilentz, “Barack Obama and the Unmaking of the Democratic Party,” Huffington Post, May 23, 2008) OBAMA BETRAYS THE FORGOTTEN AMERICANS Wilentz correctly concludes that the Democratic Party is about to cast its fate to the winds in a way which has obviously tragic implications for the party’s working-class base, many of whom need the urgent help of a president who is actually sympathetic to their plight and inclined to do is something about the Bush economy and the related accumulative wreckage of the Bush era. Wilentz sums up: ‘Obama must assume that the demographics of American politics have changed dramatically in recent years so that the electorate as a whole is little more than a larger version of the combined Democratic primary constituencies of Oregon and South Carolina. In any event, Obama had shown no ability thus far to attract the one constituency that has always spelled the difference between victory and defeat for the Democratic Party. The party must now decide whether to go along with Obama and renounce its own heritage — and tempt the political fates.’ (Sean Wilentz, “Barack Obama and the Unmaking of the Democratic Party,” Huffington Post, May 23, 2008) The crackpot notion that Obama can somehow win the Electoral College without blue-collar workers, the white working class, and the Reagan Democrats even spawned a totally new school of pseudo-sociology. The premise here was that the United States was now a totally parasitical country with no working-class worth mentioning that was left over. It is of course true that productive jobs in the United States have been wiped out since the Carter Volcker era at an unprecedented rate, but it is at the same time a total illusion to think that the Democratic Party can mean without the support of its traditional working-class base; the defeats of the effete patricians Gore and Kerry proved just the opposite, in contrast to the victories of Clinton, who did have some considerable populist appeal. A certain Chris Bowers indulged in a lengthy hallucination about a utopian world having very little relation to present day reality. Gary Hart in 1984 had claimed that he would win thanks to the new social ascendancy of the yuppies or young urban professionals. During the 1990s, a class of affluent young housewives known as soccer moms were supposed to provide the key demographic for getting elected. After 9/11, these soccer moms became security moms. Generally speaking, the more elaborate the demographic theory, the smaller the real chance of the candidate to get elected. This rule of thumb points to big trouble for Obama, since his signature demographic theory is one of the most arcane to come along in many moons. Obama, you must realize, is being touted as the candidate of a new, glamorous, and dynamic population group known as the “creative class.” IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 345 OBAMA’S CHIMERA OF THE “CREATIVE CLASS” Bowers writes that …unless Obama somewhat surprisingly does not become the next President of the United States, the Democratic Party will experience its first changing of the guard since the late 1980’s. What differences will be in store? Here are the three major changes I expect: 1. Cultural Shift: Out with Bubbas, up with Creatives: There should be a major cultural shift in the party, where the southern Dems and Liebercrat elite will be largely replaced by rising creative class types. Obama has all the markers of a creative class background, from his community organizing, to his Unitarianism, to being an academic, to living in Hyde Park to shopping at Whole Foods and drinking PBR. These will be the type of people running the Democratic Party now, and it will be a big cultural shift from the white working class focus of earlier decades. Given the demographics of the blogosphere, in all likelihood, this is a socioeconomic and cultural demographic into which you fit. Culturally, the Democratic Party will feel pretty normal to netroots types. It will consistently send out cultural signals designed to appeal primarily to the creative class instead of rich donors and the white working class. 2. Policy Shift: Out with the DLC, up with technocratic wonks. My sense of Obama and his policy team is overwhelmingly one of technocratic, generally less overtly ideological professional policy types. We should see a shift from the more corporate and triangulating policy focus of the Democratic Party in the 1990’s, and see it replaced by whatever centrist, technocratic policies are the wonkish flavor of the month. It will all be very oriented toward think-tank and academic types, and be reminiscent of policy making in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. A sort of “technocratic liberalism” that will be less infuriating than DLC style governance, but still not overtly leftist. 3. Coalition reorganization: Out with party silos, in with squishy goo-goos. In addition to a shift in culture and policy focus, I also expect a different approach to coalition building. A longstanding Democrats approach of transactional politics with different issue and demographic silos in the party shift toward an emphasis on good government (goo goo) approaches. We will see lots of emphasis on non-partisanship, ethics reform, election reform instead of on, say, placating labor unions, environment groups, and the LGBT community by throwing each of these groups a policy bone or two. Now, the focus will be on broad, squishy fixes that are designed to appeal to several groups at once.’ (Chris Bowers, Changing of the Guard, open left, May 8, 2008) This is the eternal delirium of the crisis-crazed petit bourgeois, who imagines himself or herself to represent pure and undifferentiated humanity free from all parochial interests, and cannot imagine that there are billions of people in the world who do not see things in the same way. The source for this idiocy is a successful and trendy academic huckster by the name of Richard Florida, the author of Cities and the Creative Class and The Rise of the Creative Class. Here is how Florida advertises himself on his own website: ‘Just as William Whyte’s 1956 classic The Organization Man showed how the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have. Our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing. Leading this transformation are the 40 million Americans – over a third of our national workforce – who create for a living. This “creative class” is found in a variety of fields, 346 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography from engineering to theater, biotech to education, architecture to small business. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future, they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.’ Another creative class pseudo-sociologist is the pretentious and oligarchical journalist of the New York Times David Brooks, the author of Bobos in Paradise, where the “bobos” or bourgeois bohemians — that is to say, bourgeois in income and Bohemian in lifestyle, correspond to Florida’s creative class. These studies actually reflect nothing more than the decline of productive employment in the United States which has now been going on for 30 years, since the massive deindustrialization under Trilateral Paul Adolph Volcker, Jimmy Carter’s appointee to head the Federal Reserve. The United States is widely acknowledged to be falling farther and farther behind the world standard when it comes to hard scientists and engineers, and this is the creative class which will be decisive in the 21st century. The United States has fewer and fewer industrial workers, and fewer and fewer indigenous Ph.D.’s in science. Florida’s analysis has lost some of its glow since the collapse of the dot com bubble in 2001. The group that he was originally talking about was made up of fast-talking dot.com stockjobbers, a class that might be better termed as parasitical subjectivists rather than creative. As one right-wing commentator points out, the apex of Florida’s creative class sociological analysis took place in a rare interval of world history when the laws of economics seemed to have been momentarily suspended — during the lunatic excesses of the 1999-2000 dot com bubble. Its time has already passed. He argues that ‘Neither the professor nor his most ardent adherents seem worried that the Internet generation formed its eccentric capitalist culture during a speculative bubble, when billions of dollars of free-flowing investment capital gave workers and their bosses the freedom to ignore basic economic concerns, and that now, with that money vanished and many companies defunct, a focus on such old-economy ideas as profits and tax rates has re-emerged. Moreover, as Florida’s ideas reach beyond urban-planning types and New Age liberal politicians, they are at some point likely to find resistance from the hard-core urban Left, composed increasingly of social-services activists and representatives of public-employee and service-industry unions, who demand ever more government spending for social programs, not art and culture. Indeed, the professor’s relentless argument that governments should help furnish bobo-friendly amenities ultimately comes to sound like a new form of class warfare: old-economy workers have no place in his utopian dreams. But a far more serious—indeed, fatal—objection to Florida’s theories is that the economics behind them don’t work. Although Florida’s book bristles with charts and statistics showing how he constructed his various indexes and where cities rank on them, the professor, incredibly, doesn’t provide any data demonstrating that his creative cities actually have vibrant economies that perform well over time. A look at even the simplest economic indicators, in fact, shows that, far from being economic powerhouses, many of Florida’s favored cities are chronic underperformers. Exhibit A is the most fundamental economic measure, job growth. The professor’s creative index—a composite of his other indexes—lists San Francisco, Austin, Houston, and San Diego among the top ten. His bottom ten include New Orleans, Las Vegas, Memphis, and Oklahoma City, which he says are “stuck in paradigms of old economic development” and are losing their “economic dynamism” to his winners. So you’d expect his winners to be big job producers. Yet since 1993, cities that score the best on Florida’s analysis have actually grown no faster than the overall U.S. jobs economy, increasing their employment base by only slightly more than 17 percent. Florida’s indexes, in fact, are such poor predictors of economic performance that his top cities haven’t even outperformed his bottom ones. Led by big percentage gains in Las Vegas (the fastest-growing local economy in the nation) as well as in Oklahoma City and Memphis, IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 347 Florida’s ten least creative cities turn out to be jobs powerhouses, adding more than 19 percent to their job totals since 1993—faster growth even than the national economy. […] Florida’s ten most creative mid-sized cities are even less impressive economic engines. Since 1993, these cities, which include such underperformers as Albany, New York, and Dayton, Ohio, have increased their job totals by about 16 percent—less than the national average.’ (Steven Malangan, “The Curse of the Creative Class,” City Journal, Winter 2004) ITALIAN FASCISM AND THE CREATIVE CLASS, 1919-1922 In reality, the situation is far worse. The drooling acolytes of Obama automatically assume that the presence of artists, writers, movie makers, and other people who claim to be creative is a guarantee that a social movement is progressive and destined to win. Here once again, a look backwards at the early years of Italian fascism shows how foolish this attitude really is. The early years of Italian fascism between 1919 in 1922 saw the participation in the new fascist movement of a whole series of writers and artists, most of whom were far more gifted than the gaggle of pretentious no talents who are huddling around Obama. Some of these belonged to the movement or artistic school known as the futurists. To the surprise of many modern left liberals, it turns out that these artistically talented futurists were also rabid warmongers, determined to get Italy into World War I, and then determined to support an aggressive imperialistic foreign policy. The founder of the futurist movement was Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who wrote in his 1909 Futurist Manifesto, “We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman. We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice.” The fascist futurists Marinetti, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Corrado Cagli, Dante Baldelli, Luigi Russolo, Ardengo Soffici, and Giacomo Balla were the leading painters of Italy at that time. Umberto Boccioni the chief sculptor of the group, was also an international celebrity. The architect Antonio Sant’Elia was another fascist futurist. The futurists glorified danger, war, and the machine age, attacked academies, museums, and other establishment bastions, and spoke out in favor of fascism. Even more important for the development of Italian fascism was Gabriele D’Annunzio, who was by all odds the most famous and influential Italian novelist and poet of the age. D’Annunzio was a disciple of Nietzsche who belonged to the decadent school of late 19th century literature. D’Annunzio character of Andrea Sperelli in his novel Il piacere (The Child of Pleasure) evokes a typical human type of decadent late 19th century European society. Sperelli could certainly teach Obama’s most decadent followers a thing or two. D’Annunzio agitated for Italy to enter World War I, and dropped leaflets on the enemy during a daring Italian air raid on Vienna. Later, he became the leader or Duce of the fascist forces who seized the city of Fiume, in Istria, along the border with the newly emerging nation of Yugoslavia. Here D’Annunzio developed most of the ceremonies and rituals which came to characterize the fascist political liturgy, including the Roman salute, the balcony speech, the chanting of slogans, and other fascist paraphernalia. Even after Mussolini had emerged as the principal fascist leader, he was always aware that D’Annunzio represented a very formidable rival who might have been able to oust him under certain circumstances. Given these fascist precedents, we need to keep our enthusiasm for the new creative class very much under control. Self-styled creativity is no guarantee of morality, or even of real creativity. One might be willing to accept the suicide of the post-1968 multicultural, politically correct, Malthusian, and neo-Luddite Democratic Party, which had proven to be such so useless for social change or even for defending what had been won under the New Deal. But then what? ‘Obama’s 348 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography campaign has been very clever in carving out a strategy to amass Democratic delegate votes, but its momentum is in some ways a Potemkin construction—built largely on victories in states that no Democrat will win in November—that will fall apart under Republican pressure. And then where will we be?’ (Adolph Reed Jr., “Obama No,” The Progressive, May 17, 2008)180 That was the view of many honest Democrats. HYSTERIA OF THE FINANCE OLIGARCHS FOR OBAMA But the house organ of the New York financier elite saw things differently. The New York Times now editorialized against Clinton in an outburst of wild hysteria which reflected all the desperation of a bankrupt and discredited ruling elite who were now peering into the abyss of defeat and default everywhere they turned: ‘It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind when they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her negative campaign. If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs.’ (“The Low Road to Victory,” New York Times, April 23, 2008) Over at the Washington Post, supposedly serious columnists were raving in favor of Obama like adolescent girls once did for Elvis or for the Beatles. One sample of this psychotic prose: ‘The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is far from perfect. But he has demonstrated the most mysterious and precious gift in politics, which is grace under pressure. […] What’s compelling about Obama is that fusion of grace and ambition. He’s playing for the highest stakes, but he makes it look easy. That cool, graceful quality evokes John F. Kennedy and the Rat Pack — all these sleek, handsome men in silk suits and skinny ties who never break character, never miss a beat.’ (David Ignatius, “Mr. Cool’s Intensity,” Washington Post, May 11, 2008) OLBERMANN DEMANDS VIOLENCE AGAINST SEN. CLINTON Over at MSNBC, the Brzezinski Network, Obamakin media whores Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman of Newsweek showed their contempt for democracy and representative government by demanding that the superdelegates immediately abort and override any remaining primaries and proceed to the coronation of the divine Barry. Fineman demanded that “grownups” come forward “like a referee in a fight” to separate the contenders. These, Fineman opined, would be “the super-super-super delegates” – exalted oligarchs indeed. Olbermann emphatically nodded assent, saying that the need was for heavies powerful enough to take Mrs. Clinton into a room “and only he comes out.” Here was another blatant document of elitism parading itself in a psychotic public tantrum. A threat of violence to a presidential candidate was also implied. Maybe it was time for the Secret Service to visit Olbermann. In any case, it was time for the old sports junkie to get the sack. James Poniewozik, the media critic of Time Magazine, registered the degeneracy of this Keith Olbermann, who had now advanced to the position of chief resident yelping media hound of MSNBC, otherwise known as Obamavision. Olbermann had re-invented himself based on the usual two points, opposition to Bush and opposition to the Iraq war. Olbermann launched a tirade at Clinton after she made a garbled remark about the Robert Kennedy assassination in relation to the unusual length of the 2008 primary and the media hysteria calling on her to drop out. Poniewozik commented acutely: “Even if we concede his argument--that Clinton was at best callously and at worst intentionally suggesting she should stay in the race because Obama might be killed--every time he turns up the volume to 11 like this lately, he sounds like just another of the cable gasbags he IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 349 used to be a corrective to.” (James Poniewozik, “Keith Olbermann Blows Last Remaining Gasket,” Time, May 27, 2008) Former SDS leader and foundation fellow traveler Tom Hayden worried that Obama was too weak on the issues, and was losing out to Hillary for that basic reason: “...Obama’s basic problem is that he relies on stylistic differences rather than substantive ones, because he believes he cannot attack Clinton on policy grounds and still maintain his centrist orientation. She senses that, is therefore neutralizing the policy differences, and taking the offensive to demolish his character claims. Between two candidates with personal baggage, she figures the voters will ultimately vote for experience.” (Huffington Post, April 23, 2008) But there were very important policy differences between Clinton and Obama, and these explained the way the Democratic Party was dividing. Clinton was for a freeze on foreclosures and on interest rate resets on adjustable rate mortgages; Obama wanted to let the “market” work. Clinton had crossed into explicit New Deal territory by proposing the re-creation of the Home Loan Ownership Corporation, an FDR creation. Clinton commented: “During the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress dealt with huge impending foreclosures by creating the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC. Now, a small but growing group of academics and public figures, including Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, is calling for the federal government to bring back something like the HOLC. Count me in.”181 Obama’s man Goolsbee sniffed that one had to respect the “market,” instead. Clinton was for universal health care; Wall Street crowed that Obama was the only Democrat who opposed it. Clinton wanted to apply the New Deal method by lifting the 18¢ per gallon federal gasoline tax, and shifting the resulting tax burden to a windfall profits tax on the oil cartel to keep the Highway Construction Fund replenished and maintain jobs on the front. Obama cited a myriad of reactionary pro-Wall Street economic charlatans to assert that this was pandering; he lost the Indiana primary as a direct result. Clinton, having learned something during the campaign, wanted to re-open NAFTA and other free trade sellouts. Obama gave lip service to this idea, but sent Goolsbee to reassure the Canadians that this was pure electioneering demagogy. Clinton was for a robust manned space program, one of the indispensable science drivers for any future recovery; Obama wanted to wipe out the manned space program by shifting the funds into education – a cheap and transparent antiscience ploy. Obama’s advisors, especially the pudgy-faced Jason Furman and his sidekick Jeffrey Liebman, wanted to begin privatizing Social Security to please Robert Rubin of bankrupt Citibank; Clinton was having none of this. Even more important, as time went on, Obama moved towards the Wall Street financier line on all major issues, while Clinton moved in the New Deal direction. It was a clear choice. CLINTON IN NEW DEAL TERRITORY In economic policy, Michelle Obama’s veiled references to broken souls and a future of sacrifice and the presence of ultra-right Friedmanite Chicago school ideologues like Austan Goolsbee make clear that an Obama presidency will be one of savage austerity, economic sacrifice, and a lowering of the standard of living for the already exhausted and depleted US population. There will be onerous global warming taxes to please Al Gore, global solidarity taxes for third world subversion, and much more. The proceeds will flow to Wall Street. Corporate state entities of the type demanded by Rubin, Soros, Rohatyn and Rudman will be set up to exploit the infrastructure crisis to create new financial bubbles. Obama is likely to cause more immiseration that Carter, who still holds the post-Hoover record in this sad department. Civil war in the US is a distinct possibility. Sen. Clinton, by contrast, benefited by being betrayed and scorned by the worst Wall Street predators (Rockefeller, Soros), the worst media whores, and the worst Democratic Party elitists. She 350 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography would be beholden in the White House to none of them, but rather to blue collar workers. She had evolved in the direction of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal on a number of issues. Most important, Hillary and Bill Clinton offered the greatest potential in sight for escaping the status of puppet of the banking establishment which has been the tendency for post-1944 presidents. Together, they might even hope to approximate a new FDR presidency. Sen. Clinton’s considerable fighting qualities were our best bet in this regard; she had already stopped the Obama coup several times, when weaker figures like Edwards ran away. REVEREND WRIGHT: OBAMA JUST ANOTHER POLITICIAN Obama’s marplot spiritual guru was not about to hop in his Porsche, drive home to his $1.6 mansion, start enjoying his $10 million line of credit, and taste the many joys of leisured and affluent victimhood. On the last weekend of April 2008, Reverend Wright went on the offensive to assert the validity of his personal school of racist provocations. He was interviewed by Bill Moyers, LBJ’s former flack and salesman for the Vietnam war, and now the dean of the foundation-funded media whores in public television. Here Wright suggested that Obama was simply a prevaricating “politician” who responded like a politician, trimming and fibbing according to the needs of the moment. It was not a good ad for Obama’s pretentious claim to float above the vulgar political fray. Then there was a stop in Dallas, where Wright revealed that he had been crucified by being denied the honorary degrees and triumphant lecture appearances which he clearly felt were his due. Then it was on to the NAACP dinner in Detroit, where the Jeremiad proffered his view that the media were unfairly stressing that the candidate was “Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Barack HUSSEIN Obama.” At the National Press Club in Washington on the morning of April 28, Wright was in the full exultance of the manic phase. He basked in attention of hundreds of reporters of thirty television cameras. He repeatedly identified the black church with his own inflated ego, an act of gross historical injustice to the majority of black traditionalist churches who wanted nothing to do with the cursing and hating of his own style, nor with the synthetic religion that was black liberation theology. What finally did Wright want? Above all, he wanted attention, since he was a megalomaniac in no way inferior to Obama. What else did he want? As it turned out, he wanted an apology for slavery and racism. All this sound and fury for mere words, a mere piece of paper expressing sorrow for the wrongs of the past. It showed that Wright was not capable of formulating demands that might be meaningful for the lives of the real victims of today, the majority of the black population who remained trapped in the poverty of the inner city ghetto. The black majority, the black underclass, needed something far more meaningful than a mere apology that would leave them exactly where they were. They needed housing, jobs, health care, education, urban mass transit, a ban on foreclosures, measures to control the gas price, and a whole series of other improvements in the material conditions of their lives. The resources needed for those improvements would be measured in the trillions of dollars. But what of that? In March 2008 alone, Bernanke had pumped almost half a trillion into the banking system to deal with the Bear Stearns debacle. The same money pumped into American cities would create a new world. A few of those injections, properly invested, would go far towards lifting the Other America out of poverty and despair. The beneficiaries would be inner city blacks, to be sure. But they would also be poor whites in Appalachia, the high plains, and the rest of rural America. They would be Latino migrant farm workers. They would be super-exploited Vietnamese, Koreans, and other Asians. And that would be a united front of the American people against Wall Street. This, of course, was the eventuality that the Ford Foundation and other sponsors of black liberation theology were paying good money to IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 351 sabotage and abort. So Wright used his hour of fame to demand essentially nothing for the most disadvantaged part of the black community – just like his friend Farrakhan, who had ruined the success of the Million Man March by giving a raving speech about numerology and occult freemasonic symbolism instead of laying out a fighting program to rebuild America for all the people. Down the road was even more trouble, since Wright was now promising a book to be published in October 2008, on the eve of the general election. And if there was to be a book, there would also be a book tour, with innumerable press conferences and press availabilities, and unending opportunities for Wright to embarrass and sabotage Obama, if he were still in the race at that point. As soon as the primaries were over, Obama quit Trinity United once and for all. But after 20 years, it was much too late to neutralize the issue. Obama was clearly a candidate with so many demolition charges built in that Democrats now had to jettison this fatal baggage before he dragged them down. TONGUE-TIED: OBAMA’S CATASTROPHIC PRESS CONFERENCE OF APRIL 29, 2008 April was indeed the cruelest month for Obama. What followed was one of the most bizarre press conferences in recent American history. This time there was no teleprompter, and for this the Perfect Master paid a terrible price. No longer was his head thrown back in haughty superiority. Now his eyes were downcast, his speech halting, his demeanor grim and saturnine, with streaks of anger. Never had the Perfect Master stuttered, stammered, paused, halted, hiccupped, and gurgled so much as on this fateful occasion. He said “uuh” a great deal. He drew out the word “and” until it seemed to have two syllables. Never had the great balcony orator been so tongue-tied. A good index of the disintegration of Obama’s troubled personality might have been the “y’know index.” As long as he had read off teleprompters, he had been fluent. As long as he stuck to the pre-masticated utopian platitudes and messianic clichés of his stock stump speech as written by the Grub Street scrivener Favreau, he had been reasonably proficient. But now, when he had to extemporize under fire, and above all to exercise some sort of self-reflexive and self-critical judgment, the words would not come. Obama was now the waffle candidate, and he proved it by waffling on the Wright issue. Even with hell gaping below his candidacy, he could not bring himself to break definitively with the racist provocateur. He was still a member of Wright’s church, and he would not quit that church unless and until he had conferred with Reverend Otis Moss III, the Ford Foundation scholar who was now the pastor. Even when Obama’s political survival was at stake, he was a wimp who could not be decisive. OBAMA – APOSTATE MOSLEM OR MAHDI ? Many Obama backers tried to create the impression that Obama’s Moslem name would automatically win him the good will of a billion Moslems around the world. But this may represent a misconception on the part of handlers like Brzezinski, who is notorious for knowing virtually nothing of the Islamic world and of many of the parts of the world that he tries so hard to manipulate and destroy. Would Obama be able to give US imperialism a face lift and a new lease on life among the Moslems? A veteran neocon warned against the ‘argument that Mr. Obama’s election would raise America’s esteem in Africa — indeed, he already arouses much enthusiasm in his father’s native Kenya and to a degree elsewhere on the continent. But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. 352 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith. As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant. […] His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive). With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.) It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran’s Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities. For example, in Iran in 1994 the intervention of Pope John Paul II and others won a Christian convert a last-minute reprieve, but the man was abducted and killed shortly after his release. Likewise, in 2006 in Afghanistan, a Christian convert had to be declared insane to prevent his execution, and he was still forced to flee to Italy. Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.’ (Edward N. Luttwak, “President Apostate?” New York Times, May 12, 2008) DONALD YOUNG: MURDER IN WRIGHT’S CATHEDRAL A dangerous scandal looming over Obama was the murder of Donald Young, the gay choirmaster in Wright’s and Obama’s church, whose bullet-riddled body was found last Christmas morning. The Globe of May 19, 2008 quoted the opinion of a Chicago private detective that Young was murdered to keep him quiet about Obama, meaning the candidate’s notorious homosexual activities. These latter are attested to by Larry Sinclair of Minnesota, who has a federal civil suit pending in which he alleges that he had two gay sex encounters with Obama in 1999, with Obama indulging in crack cocaine. Sinclair also alleges that Donald Young tried to sound him out about matters related to Obama before Young was murdered. This first echelon also includes Reverend James David Manning’s “Trinity of Hell” tape, which names Obama and Wright as closet homosexuals, a charge repeated by Manning on the Hannity radio program. Was Obama Wright’s catamite? Murder in the cathedral, gay sex, and crack cocaine now loomed over Obama’s arrogant claim of victory. THE OBAMA BODY COUNT There were other mysterious deaths related to Trinity United and the surrounding area. Two other young black men that attended the same church—Larry Bland and Nate Spencer—also died within 40 days of each other, beginning in November 2007. Nate Spencer was a member of the TUCC Sanctuary Choir; his funeral was held on Monday January 7, 2008. All three were openly homosexual. Larry Sinclair stated in sworn affidavits that Obama is a closet bisexual with whom he IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 353 had sexual and drug-related encounters in November 1999. Sinclair also claimed that Obama was personally acquainted Donald Young and that choir director Donald had contacted him shortly before being murdered from multiple gunshot wounds on December 23, 2007. These killings are receiving a number of different reactions. Mike Parker, reporting for CBS in Chicago, wrote, “Activists fear gay African-Americans are being targeted for murder,” while Marc Loveless of the Coalition for Justice and Respect queries, “Are we under attack? Is this a serial killer?” An even more sinister aspect of this case is being investigated. Sinclair has stated in an affidavit to the Chicago Police Department, Donald Young had informed him that he and Barack Obama were “intimate” with each other. Sinclair revealed in a January 18, 2008, YouTube video that on two separate occasions in November 1999, he engaged in sexual acts with Obama, and that Obama smoked crack cocaine—once in a limousine and the other time at a hotel in Gurnee, Ill. Sinclair has also raised the important question of why Donald Young, whom he had never met, would initiate these calls using cell phone numbers which Sinclair had given to the Obama campaign, at a time when Sinclair had not yet gone public with any part of his story and was therefore not a public figure. A private investigator connected to the Chicago Police Department told the Globe, “Donald Young was silenced because of something he knew about Obama. Donald was in a position where he heard a lot of things and saw a lot of things concerning Barack.” … The unavoidable fact was that three gay black men had died, two by violence, within a span of 40 days among the members of Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, which at the time was the object of consuming media attention. 182 MICHELLE OBAMA, RACIST; ILYAS ACHMADOV, ENVOY OF TERRORISTS Another echelon of scandal was the Michelle Obama racist tirade against white America, reportedly employing extreme language. Still another echelon involved contacts of the Obama campaign to certain foreign organizations, including terrorist groups like the Chechen rebels. A mere hint was the case of Robert Malley, who was forced out because he was meeting with Hamas. Malley was working for the International Crisis Group, which is funded by Soros and features Brzezinski on its board. Far more explosive are Brzezinski’s lobbying activities for Ilyas Achmadov, the resident US envoy of the top Chechen terrorist gang, which specializes in massacres of women and children in hospitals and schools, with a body count in the thousands. Achmadov is now living in Washington DC with an upscale apartment, a posh office, a secretary, a travel budget, and a public relations budget, all generously paid for by US taxpayers – an arrangement obtained for him by Brzezinski. Moscow wants Achmadov extradited to stand trial as a mass murderer and terrorist, but Brzezinski is protecting him. SECURING A SUCCESSFUL PARTY REALIGNMENT This year of 2008 was a rare historical turning point, a watershed party re-alignment election in the series 1828 (Jackson), 1860 (Lincoln), 1896 (McKinley over Bryan), 1932 (FDR and the New Deal), and 1968 (the Nixon southern strategy). A new stable progressive coalition for the next four decades needed to be forged, and only Clinton had shown the ability to permanently incorporate Latinos, Asians, Reagan Democrats, women, retirees, union households, Jewish voters, and other key groups which will be critical for dominating the Electoral College until about 2050. Obama was betting on a congeries of groups and a crazy quilt of oddly assorted states to make it. Clinton’s underlying appeal to black voters would return once the smoke had cleared. Clinton’s duty was therefore to act to save the country from national catastrophe under Obama and his controllers, whatever it took. 354 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA BETS EVERYTHING ON GEORGIA AND VIRGINIA By July, Obama’s hopes for winning at the ballot box (as distinct from by means of scandals orchestrated by the FBI) came down to this: ‘Obama’s entire claim to redrawing the political map is based on his perceived ability to win in Southern states precisely because of African-American voters. … Hillary’s claim that she alone was capable of winning large swing states that Democrats must win, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, went unnoticed and unheeded by Dean, Pelosi and others. However, this is a severe and dangerous gamble. As we pointed out a few weeks back, the Obama campaign seems to know that Ohio and Florida are going to be a stretch, so they are looking for alternate paths to 270, which means they are relying heavily on the Southern states, especially Virginia and Georgia. They also discuss the Rocky Mountain states of Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, but frankly, even if he wins those three, and Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire (all three of which will be highly competitive), if he loses Ohio and Florida, he will lose the election 267-271 (this count includes all the states Kerry won). In short, if Obama loses Ohio and Florida, the three Rocky Mountain states and Georgia and Virginia become must win states. As Senator Obama will still lose the general election with the three Rocky Mountain states if he fails to swing Georgia and Virginia, these two states are of particular interest. […] Mr. Obama can write off Georgia and North Carolina for the same reasons that Mississippi is beyond his reach — although the math in those two states is slightly less daunting…. But while Obama is throwing millions of dollars at states that have not gone to Democrats since 1964 (Virginia), and 1992 (Georgia and Bill), he’ll be opening the door even wider for Republicans in actual swing states. Mike DuHaime, political director of the Republican National Committee, doesn’t argue with Obama’s fund-raising advantage. But he disputes the notion that Obama can afford to keep throwing money at long shots once the campaign really heats up in the fall, and he contends that Obama’s defense of vulnerable states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio will be much more expensive. “It would take a major swing to swing these [Southern] states,” says DuHaime. “I don’t fault them for trying to expand the map, but we have better opportunities in other states that are just as big, if not bigger — Pennsylvania, Ohio, for example.”’183 Democrats should also note that what is being aimed at here is not a permanent and durable Democratic majority capable of rebuilding the country, but rather an odd bloc of states built around the personality cult of Obama. Even if Obama got to the White House, if the next Democratic nominee after Obama were not also Obama, there would be no strategy left. As usual, Obama was building a personality cult, not a permanent and reliable voting bloc with a coherent pattern based on identifiable voter groups. There would be no FDR coalition, but just a flash in the pan. OBAMA HAS NEVER WON A CONTESTED ELECTION The 2008 presidential election represents the second time that Obama has ever run in a truly contested election. In his 1996 state senate race, he threw all his opponents off the Democratic primary ballot, which was tantamount to election. In 2000, Obama made a bid for election to the US House of Representatives, but in this case he had an actual opponent, the incumbent Democrat Representative Bobby Rush. In this contest, Obama was resoundingly thrashed. In his 2004 US Senate race in Illinois, his Democratic primary opponent and his Republican general election opponent were conveniently destroyed by scandals piloted by his friends at the reactionary Chicago Tribune. In the end, his Republican general election opponent was a carpetbagger and buffoon, Allan Keyes from Maryland. One wonders why the Democratic Party would ever consider betting its fortunes in a once in four decades party realignment election on a candidate who has never won a contested election. IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 355 OBAMA IS WATERGATE-BAIT In early May, Harold Ickes of the Clinton campaign had talked about an October surprise. This could have meant a number of things, since Obama was indeed a scandal-rich contender, and one of the prominent possibilities was the notorious Michelle Obama “Hate Whitey” tape, an apoplectic outburst of racist rage by the Messiah’s consort, full of violent and obscene invective against the white race, white American, and other objects of Michelle’s fascistoid rage cathexis. There was an uneasy awareness, even among the most fanatical Obama acolytes, that there were more scandals lurking in the Perfect Master’s closet: ‘The Clinton campaign has made it clear that Senator Clinton remains in the race because anything can happen. That generally has been taken to mean that a scandal could erupt that would cause the Obama campaign to implode. Some Reverend Wright on steroids might burst into public view. Keep in mind what happened to Eliot Spitzer.’ (Bob Herbert, New York Times, May 27, 2008) RESULT: A LONG HOT SUMMER OF SCANDAL DOSSIERS Karl Rove increasingly resembled the Japanese Admiral Nagumo at Midway, who dithered and hesitated when he should have been launching his attack waves at the earliest possible moment. As a result, he was caught flat-footed with his planes warming up on deck when the main US dive bomber attack materialized; four Japanese carriers were sunk and the war was as good as lost. Karl Rove seemed to think that he could hold the Michelle Obama “Hate Whitey” tape in reserve until mid-October, using it in the next few months to harvest huge quantities of GOP cash to stoke the fires of his 527 empire. Karl might be more interested in getting his hands on that cash than in anything else. But he was risking watching McCain get the Spitzer treatment and be swept away in 72 hours. The summer 2008 battle of the scandal dossiers was like thermonuclear war: the greatest advantage was to be gained by a successful first strike, after which the retaliatory riposte would be weak and disorganized. The new motto for the holders of the scandal dossiers should be” “Use ‘em or lose ‘em.” Whatever scandal dossiers you attempt to hold in reserve are likely to be useless, since your own candidate can be taken down in a day or two, and once such an attack has started it will be almost impossible to stop it or even disrupt it. Once McCain had the GOP nomination, he was wide open to scandal attack. The wiser course for the GOP oppo research brigade was to recognize that Obama was the FBI-CIA intelligence community candidate, and that he was the one slated to enjoy a scandal-assisted quest for the White House as his opponents were destroyed – or, for that matter, liquidated. It was far better to destroy Obama before he attained the Democratic nomination, thus making Hillary the candidate. Hillary was herself more or less impervious to scandals, having thrived in the crucible of Whitewatergate and Monicagate, but she was not going to get the same kind of help from the FBI that Obama was sure to have. McCain’s best chance was, ironically and in contrast to the usual rules, to unload everything preemptively on Obama in June and July, and then mobilize for a more or less fair fight with Hillary in September and October. If Karl Rove and company did not do this, it could only mean that they were blinded by greed and not that much concerned about McCain’s fate, after all. THE LIKELY CATASTROPHE OF AN OBAMA PRESIDENCY May of 2008 saw the death of Hamilton Jordan, who had been Jimmy Carter’s top crony from the Georgia mafia and White House Chief of Staff. David Broder, one of the top ideological watchdogs of the financier establishment, took this occasion to refer back to interviews that Jordan had given to historians soon after the end of the disastrous Carter administration. Jordan’s main 356 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography point had been that the Carter coup inside the Democratic Party had only been possible in the first place because of an extraordinarily high degree of chaos and disorganization among the Democrats after eight years of Nixon and Ford. Broder noted: ‘The main theme of Jordan’s interview was this intriguing observation: “Only because of the fragmentation that had taken place” in the Democratic Party and its allied groups was Carter able to be nominated and elected in 1976. But that same fragmentation made the challenge of governing so difficult that he was almost doomed to fail. What Jordan meant was this: In the two previous elections, the Democratic Party was riven by strife over the Vietnam War, social policy and civil rights. It was bitterly divided by the nomination of Hubert Humphrey over Eugene McCarthy in 1968, and of George McGovern over Humphrey and others in 1972. In 1974, after Watergate ended the Republican revival, the old-guard Democrats suddenly confronted an influx of reform-minded new faces in Congress. But once Carter was in the White House, the liberals who controlled Congress quickly took his measure. They put their obligations to their constituencies and interest groups ahead of any loyalty to him. He never had a “honeymoon,” and by his third year his presidency had unraveled, not because of Republican obduracy but because of his inability to lead his fellow Democrats. gained his first and most important win in Iowa with 37.6 percent of the votes, while Hillary Clinton and John Edwards split almost 60 percent evenly. Both Carter and Obama lost several late primaries but held on to the delegate lead they had staked out earlier. This is the cautionary tale Obama and his brain trust could find in Jordan’s interview. Obama, too, has profited from fragmentation in the Democratic Party that has allowed a long shot, once again, to capture its greatest prize. But if he is elected, he will have to solve the problems of fragmentation that doomed Jimmy Carter.’ (David Broder, Washington Post, May 29, 2008) Naturally, Broder did not mention the real basis of in-depth comparison between Carter and Obama, which is that both are puppets of the Trilateral Commission and of Zbigniew Brzezinski personally. Nevertheless, this point is well taken, and has already been discussed by me in the companion volume to this study, Obama — The Postmodern Coup: the Making of a Manchurian Candidate, where I developed a detailed comparison between the Carter regime and the likely outlines of a future Obama rule. By running as a blank slate, and by promising to be all things to all people, Obama at will necessarily face a moment of shocked recognition when the majority of his followers be allies that they have been hoodwinked by his sanctimonious utopian platitudes and vapid messianic rhetoric. That moment is likely to come less than 12 months into Obama’s term in office. But since the political, economic, and military crisis of the United States today is so much more severe than it was three decades ago we cannot assume that the penalty for letting Obama into the White House will be comparable to what it was under Reagan and Bush, bad as those presidents were. Rather, the perspective under Obama would have to be a catastrophic combination of hyperinflationary economic depression and breakdown crisis, accompanied by extreme forms of foreign military adventure likely to end in crushing defeat, with the United States internal political situation rapidly degenerating in the direction of possible civil war, somewhat along the lines of the breakdown of public order in the Roman Empire during the 50 year crisis of the third century A.D. RALPH NADER: OBAMA EXPLOITS WHITE GUILT There was an immediate necessity for critical voices to start attacking Obama from his left, since that was his greatest vulnerability. Here was an area where Ralph Nader could perhaps provide an important public service. Nader shared his views about Obama with the Rocky Mountain News: Q: Do you see Barack Obama as qualitatively different than Al Gore or any other Democrats. He talks about taking on lobbyists, not taking money directly from lobbyists ... People portray IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 357 him as being different. Do you see him as being any better than Al Gore or any of the other Democrats that you’ve opposed over the years? Nader: No. I mean, he’s deceiving people. He takes, he takes ... In this very building he would take money from corporate lawyers who are not registered lobbyists but whose desks are across the aisle from corporate lawyers who are registered lobbyists in the same law firm. That has been reported more than once in the mainstream press ... Six out of seven industries, as of a month ago, have given more money to Obama than they have to McCain, only the transportation industry is more equal opportunity corruption. Look at the health care industry. It has poured money into his campaign. The securities industry, the defense industry. No. There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards. I think his main problem is that he censors himself. He knows exactly who has power, who has too much, who has too little, what needs to be done right down to the community level. But he has bought the advice that if you want to win the election, you better take it easy on the corporate abuses and do X, Y, Z. When I hear that I say, Oh, I see. So he’s doing all this to win the election, and then he’ll be different. Well let’s see if it worked. Did it work for Mondale? Did it work for Dukakis? Did it work for Clinton? Yes, but only because of Perot? Did it work for Gore? Did it work for Kerry ... ? Q: Do you think he’s trying to, what was your term, ‘talk white?’ NADER: Of course. I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor are going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law. Haven’t heard a thing. I mean, the amount of economic exploitation in the ghettos is shocking. You’d think he’d propose a task force to at least study it. I mean, these people are eroded every day. The kids, bodies are asbestos and lead, municipal services discriminate against them because it’s the poor area, including fire and police protection and building code enforcement. And then the lenders, the loan sharks get at them, and the dirty food ends up in the ghettos, like the contaminated meat. It’s a dumping ground for shoddy merchandise. You don’t see many credit unions there. You don’t see many libraries there. You don’t see many health clinics there. This is, we’re talking 40-50 million Americans who are predominantly African- Americans and Latinos. Anybody see that kind of campaigning? Have you seen him campaign in real poor areas of the city very frequently? No, he doesn’t campaign there. Q: What do you think the purpose of that is? NADER: He wants to show that he is not a threatening, a political threatening, another politically-threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as a black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it’s corporate or whether it’s simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.184 The Obama cultists howled, but Nader’s points were well taken as far as they went. Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr attacked Obama for his cowardly capitulation on the renewal of the totalitarian FISA law. Barr promised that he would not betray his supporters in the same way that Obama had. It was a miserable time to be a Democrat. 358 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography FREE LARRY SINCLAIR, OBAMA’S POLITICAL PRISONER On June 18, 2008, Larry Sinclair appeared at the National Press Club in Washington DC to officially deliver his bill of indictment against Obama. Incredibly, he was arrested just after he concluded the press conference. Sinclair was taken into custody by DC police and US Marshals in the Square Bar off the Holeman Lounge, where he had spoken to the media. From Wednesday to Monday, Larry Sinclair was held in the DC Jail, the victim of a Gestapo-style enemies’ list operation that went beyond Nixon, carried out just three blocks from the White House. Sinclair had come to the National Press Club to detail his charges that the self-proclaimed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama had indulged in two homosexual encounters complete with crack cocaine in early November 1999, that Obama was complicit in the December 2007 assassination of Donald Young, the gay choirmaster of Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, and that Obama’s resident perception monger, David Axelrod, had paid the pornographic website Whitehouse.com $750,000 to organize a campaign of character assassination against Sinclair, culminating in a faked polygraph test. At the close of the press conference, Sinclair was arrested inside the press club by US Marshals and DC police, apparently based on an old Delaware warrant. The Whitehouse.com owner, Dan Parisi, abortively called off his own scheduled press conference in another room of the Press Club once it was known that Sinclair had been arrested. GESTAPO TACTICS IN THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, THE TEMPLE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT Where were the civil libertarians? Where were the paladins of the ACLU? Where were the outcry and the indignation? Was no one concerned about threats to lynch a gay man for political reasons in the heart of the nation’s capital? Where were the left liberals who had been ostensibly so concerned about civil rights and civil liberties from Nixon to Bush-Cheney? Perhaps they were sleeping, or perhaps they had drunk the Obama Kool-Aid and had become morally insane. Or perhaps they were so obsessed with the reform of the FISA law and the danger that Bush might be listening in to their telephone calls that they did not notice when a prominent critic of a presidential candidate who is infamously a darling of the establishment media was actually arrested, taken into custody and led away, the target of Gestapo tactics in the National Press Club, the sanctum sanctorum of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the First Amendment generally. Surely the weak sisters who had joined Obama’s fifth column were morally insane when they joke about how Barky’s Myrmidons were able to arrest Sinclair. If the First Amendment does not apply to speech which is not popular with the establishment and the mob, then the First Amendment does not exist at all, for anybody. Any journalist or writer should be able to see that they themselves may be next, now that the US Marshals are serving as the “Fight the Smears” enforcement arm of the Obama campaign. Selective and vindictive prosecution, anyone? The mere fact that Larry Sinclair had been able to hold such a successful press conference was already a serious defeat for the corrupt and brutal Obama machine. Sinclair had appeared in the Holeman Lounge before more than a hundred journalists, with 10 cameras set up on tripods in the back of the room. The number of handheld cameras, camcorders, and tape recorders was beyond counting. The press conference was dignified, businesslike, factual. There was no screaming, no disruption, no threats or insults. Every journalist who wanted to ask a question was given ample opportunity to do so, and about three dozen questions were asked. Reasonable follow-ups were allowed. There were journalists from Britain, from Germany, from India, from China. Most of the questions represented honest attempts to pin down the facts of what was being alleged. IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 359 Sinclair’s honesty compared favorably to that of most politicians today. He started his presentation with a detailed admission of his criminal record, jail time served, his pending court motion to dismiss an old Colorado warrant, and a statement that his troubles with the law date back more than 20 years to 1980-1986. In the question-and-answer segment, Sinclair gave a straight answer to every question he was asked. He did not dodge questions, he did not prevaricate, he did not refuse to answer questions, and he did not bungle his answers. Sinclair has made serious mistakes in life, as he readily conceded. But Sinclair is not a candidate, not a person who has to be evaluated by the public and then accepted or rejected. Sinclair came forward as a witness with a series of allegations to make and a story to tell. It was up to public opinion and most emphatically the news media to evaluate those allegations and those facts, including through the efforts of enterprising investigative journalists anxious to make a name for themselves by finding out the truth about what is potentially the biggest political scandal of the century. Obama, after all, is the candidate of whom we know little and who needs urgently to be evaluated. The issue posed is not what you think about Larry Sinclair. The overriding issue is the presidency in a time of military defeat, institutional crisis, and economic breakdown. HOMOPHOBIC DEATH THREATS AGAINST SINCLAIR Obama’s lemming legions, and especially his notorious mercenary squadristi of the Internet, had done everything possible to sabotage and disrupt Sinclair’s press conference. One Obama backer had issued a categorical death threat against Sinclair in terms that made it abundantly clear that a homophobic hate murder might be in the offing. The FBI and the District of Columbia police had shown zero interest in offering Sinclair protection against a possible hit by one of Obama’s fanatics. Once it is accepted that police agencies can intervene in political campaigns, it is possible to a rest or detain almost anyone if the interest is great enough. If nothing can be found at this level, there are always old parking tickets and library fines that can be ginned up. Any political candidate who has had dealings with the Federal Elections Commission can be hauled in on some minor technical violation. The precedent established by the arrest of Sinclair at the National Press Club was exceedingly ominous for the public life of this country. The irony was that repression was being carried out not to help the Republicans, but rather under ultra-left cover, to help the radical subversive Obama. Since the warrant used as the pretext to arrest Sinclair came from Delaware, attention naturally turned to Senator Joe Biden, the incorrigible blowhard and defeated presidential candidate who is now known to be angling for the post of vice president or Secretary of State in a future Obama regime. We also note that Biden’s son, the nepotist Beau Biden, the current Attorney General of Delaware, issued the warrant. As the cops would say, the Biden machine, anxious to ingratiate themselves with Obama, had the means, motive, and opportunity to arrange this outrageous arrest. For those gullible enough to believe that civil liberties might improve under an Obama regime, this ought to provide a reality shock. Do not assume that civil liberties will get better under Obama; the evidence is now that they will get worse. Obama’s National Press Club caper is as blatant as anything seen under Bush – and Barky is not even in the White House. At the end of his detailed indictment of Obama, Sinclair demanded information on four points. The first involves Obama as phone records for November 3, 1999 through November 8, 1999 — the time frame of the two alleged encounters between Obama and Sinclair, mediated, Sinclair said, by Paramjit Multani of Five Star Limo at O’Hare Airport. The second involves Obama’s phone records for September 2007 — December 23, 2007, when Sinclair was receiving probing phone calls from Donald Young about how much Sinclair had revealed concerning Obama — calls that 360 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography ended when Young was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds just before Christmas 2007. Sinclair’s third demand for clarification touches communications from Obama, Axelrod, and campaign manager David Plouffe to Whitehouse.com in January and February 2008. Sinclair’s fourth point regards possible payments by Obama, Obama’s campaign, Axelrod, Plouffe, and Axelrod’s AKP Message and Media to Whitehouse.com in that same time frame of January- February 2008. OBAMA MUST ANSWER, NOT EVADE It was up to Obama to answer these charges. It was imperative that this be done promptly, without further delay, before the Democratic Convention. No responsible citizen wants a president who can be blackmailed and thus turned into a puppet because he is hiding secrets about bisexual activities, crack cocaine, political murder, and character assassination campaigns. It was also up to the great news organizations, including ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and the Washington Post, to carry out their responsibility to the public. These news organizations could not play the role of kept courtesans of those in political power. As Sinclair pointed out, he had told his story and had thus done everything he could. It was up to the great media concerns to locate and interview the limo driver Paramjit Multani, to investigate the relevant telephone records, and above all to question Obama himself about this very serious matter. It was not the role of the corporate media to sit back and sniff about whether Sinclair had conclusively proven his own case to their satisfaction or not; the proving or disproving is the responsibility of the media, and let them make damn sure that they get it right. By today’s journalistic standards, Sinclair’s allegations were extraordinarily substantive already, especially when compared with some other major scandal allegations heard during the primaries. Sinclair had filed a federal civil suit against Obama and Axelrod, complete with sworn affidavits and court papers. This meant that he was willingly risking rule 11 penalties for filing a frivolous lawsuit. He had also made statements to the Chicago police about his contacts with murder victim Donald Young. These steps represented a very high degree of public commitment by Sinclair to the truth of what he is saying. Compare this to the shoddy standards of the New York Times which, on February 21, 2008 published and prominently displayed on its front page an innuendo about a supposed sex affair between Senator McCain and a certain Vicki Iseman, a Washington lobbyist. Not one single solitary named source was cited to support this innuendo. Or, take the case of Vanity Fair magazine, the house organ of decadent left liberalism, which included a slander piece against President Clinton entitled “The Comeback Id” by Todd Purdum in its July 2008 issue. Here again, there was not one single named source who was willing to have his or her name publicly associated with Purdum’s sleazy allegations. It was painfully obvious that there is one set of journalistic standards for the Perfect Master Obama, and another and much laxer set for the competition. This was intolerable. NO SECRETS FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO ACCESS THE NUCLEAR BUTTON It is fair to say that the idea of a private sphere for US presidential candidates about which the general public is not entitled to know anything became obsolete at the same time that intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads became available around 1960 to 1965. Since then, every presidential candidate has in effect appeared before the public asking to get his or her hands on the thermonuclear button that can start World War III. At this point, the notion of a private sphere for presidential candidates becomes wholly untenable. In this day and age, we have IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 361 the right to know everything but everything about presidential nominees who are asking for our votes. We have a right to know their full personal histories, with no exceptions, no omissions, and no withheld documents. We have a right to know if they are HIV-positive and whether they ever registered for the draft. We want to know if they have received electroshock, psychopharmaca, and whether they have been treated by a psychiatrist. We have a right to see their birth certificate, their college transcript, their senior thesis if they wrote one, their law school transcript, their passport, papers from earlier times in public office, and all other relevant documents. We have a right to know about their mother, their father, their sister, their brother, their Aunt Tilly, their best friends at all stages of life, their boyfriends, their girlfriends, their pets, their backers, their sponsors, their gurus, their controllers, and their associates of every kind. We want to know what religions they have professed or not professed. More than a right to know these things, we have an imperative duty to find them out. For they are asking to get their hands on the thermonuclear button, the misuse of which can unleash a thermonuclear fireball that will not respect any aspect of the privacy of ourselves and our family. Naturally, candidates are free to make their own choices in life just like everybody else: they can choose their religion, their personal associations, their forms of recreation, and all the rest in any way that they like. But none of this — absolutely nothing — can be claimed as a secret off limits to the attention of the public. All of it must be thoroughly investigated, aired, and published when the presidency is at stake. An Air Force crewman at a missile silo in the Dakotas goes through a background check which leaves scant room for privacy. We must demand nothing less from presidential candidates. OBAMA’S COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND ALLEGED COCAINE USE Larry Sinclair alleges that Obama has indulged in crack cocaine. Those familiar with the public literature about the current tenant of the White House know very well that there are many indications that his extraordinarily low level of performance may derive from cognitive impairment brought on by habitual cocaine use. How many more coke fiends in the White House are compatible with the further national survival of the United States? Ronald Reagan notoriously suffered from cognitive impairment and constantly made his remarks off index cards which he kept hidden in his hands. Those index cards were a low-tech version of the glass plates of the Teleprompter upon which Obama relies. As soon as he cannot read his words off those glass plates, Obama begins to stutter, to stammer and babble, to hem and to haw, repeatedly losing his syntax and constantly interjecting “um” and “you know.” What if Obama’s cocaine use really did not stop in 1981, as he suggests in his memoir, and continued all the way to late 1999 at the very least, as Larry Sinclair has alleged? That might suggest that Obama suffers from greater cognitive impairment than Bush, as Obama’s incredible series of gaffes at the end of the primaries also indicates. Larry Sinclair stressed during his press conference that he has been a gay man all his life, and that he regarded the crack cocaine issue as the central one, at least until the time of the Donald Young murder. During the press conference, Sinclair announced that he was willing to make his own personal medical records, including mental health records, available to responsible representatives of accredited news organizations, at their own expense. That means that Sinclair is much more forthcoming about his medical history than Obama, who has withheld his medical records and offered a single meaningless page of advertising copy signed by his personal physician. And remember that Sinclair was not running for any office, while Obama wants to be president. In the meantime, Larry Sinclair was still the target of frame-up operations, threats, and harassment. What kind of a presidential campaign would we have when critics of the most radical subversive to ever get this close to the presidency have to worry about a knock on the door in the middle of the 362 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography night? There was a rising demand that the Obama campaign drop their enemies’ list operation against Larry Sinclair, release him from jail at once, and halt their vendetta against him. SIGNS OF OBAMA’S MENTAL DISINTEGRATION: THE GAFFES The right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin called attention to Obama’s unprecedented string of public gaffes: for Malkin, Obama was ‘a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign: Last May, he claimed that Kansas tornadoes killed a whopping 10,000 people: “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12. Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.” Last week, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, South Dakota audience, Obama exulted: “Thank you Sioux City…I said it wrong. I’ve been in Iowa for too long. I’m sorry.” Explaining last week why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.” On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois? Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps. Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Alabama, he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement: “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.” Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was “speaking metaphorically about the civil rights movement as a whole.” Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by honing in on a lack of translators: “We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages. Over the weekend in Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multi-billion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear waste clean-up: “Here’s something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that I’m not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you I’ll learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport.” I assume on that ride, a staffer reminded him that he’s voted on at least one defense authorization bill that addressed the “costs, schedules, and technical issues” dealing with the nation’s most contaminated nuclear waste site.’185 Obama first said Iran was a tiny country that did not pose a threat, then that it was not a threat a few days later – a very ominous and light-headed performance. When Obama was in Sunrise, Florida, he thought he was in Sunshine, Florida: “How’s it going, Sunshine? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everybody. It’s good to be in Sunshine!” Obama declared on taking the stage this afternoon for a rally at the BankAtlantic Arena in Broward County, Fla., just west of Ft. Lauderdale.186 On Memorial Day 2008, Obama intoned: “As our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong. (New Mexico, Memorial Day 2008) Obama also boasted that his grandmother’s brother, Charlie Payne, helped liberate a Buchenwald sub-camp in April 1945 as part of the 89th Infantry Division. But it was the Soviet Red Army that freed the inmates of Auschwitz.187 None of this made any impact on the swooners of the controlled corporate media. Arch-oligarch David Broder, for example, continued to write hogwash like this about IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 363 Barky’s “innocents abroad” world blitz: “…as millions of Americans who watched the primary campaign learned, Obama is invariably articulate. There would be no verbal gaffes.”188 Invariably articulate? No gaffes? Obama’s Teleprompter dependency and gaffes, like Carter’s infamous “fuzziness,” had already emerged as a major campaign issue. Without the glass plates of the Teleprompter, Obama hemmed and hawed, or virtually babbled in delirium. What planet was Broder living on? This column posed the question of mental impairment not just for Obama, but for Broder as well. OBAMA’S MENTAL DEBILITY: IMPLICATIONS OF NEW MARIJUANA RESEARCH By a happy coincidence, new evidence of the relation between marijuana use and mental impairment came to light late in the primary season. Given Obama’s confession of heavy marijuana use, these considerations are highly relevant to his qualifications for the presidency: ‘Long-term heavy use of marijuana may cause two important brain structures to shrink, Australian researchers [have found]. Brain scans showed the hippocampus and amygdala were smaller in men who were heavy marijuana users compared to nonusers, the researchers said. The men had smoked at least five marijuana cigarettes daily for on average 20 years. The hippocampus regulates memory and emotion, while the amygdala plays a critical role in fear and aggression. The study, published in the American Medical Association’s journal Archives of General Psychiatry, also found the heavy cannabis users earned lower scores than the nonusers in a verbal learning task — trying to recall a list of 15 words. The marijuana users were more likely to exhibit mild signs of psychotic disorders, but not enough to be formally diagnosed with any such disorder, the researchers said. “These findings challenge the widespread perception of cannabis as having limited or no harmful effects on (the) brain and behavior,” said Murat Yucel of ORYGEN Research Centre and the University of Melbourne, who led the study.’ (Will Dunham, “Heavy marijuana use shrinks brain parts: study,” AP, June 2, 2008) Reporters who get to question Obama should ask him how his hippocampus and amygdale are doing these days. Not well, we fear. THE ROLL CALL OF THE STATES DECIDES THE NOMINEE – NOT DEAN It was unthinkable that any responsible political leader would be willing to see Obama receive the nomination while the sword of Damocles of further scandals hung over his head. Larry Sinclair’s videotape had been on the Internet since mid-January, and it had at various times been the object of discussion on something approaching a million websites. The issues are Obama’s crack cocaine use, his bisexuality, his possible involvement in the Donald Young assassination, and the allegations of character assassination and harassment against Sinclair funded by the Obama campaign. There was also the matter of the Michelle Obama “hate whitey” tape. Karl Rove knew all about each one of these points, and there was no way to deter Karl Rove and his cohorts. So, although it might have incomprehensible to Obama’s drooling acolytes, the interest of the Democratic Party was best served by thorough airing of these allegations to before the roll call of the states is held on August 27, 2008 — and this was exactly what Sinclair had been trying to do since mid-January. If Sinclair had been a GOP deployment, he would simply have waited for September or October to come forward. There were of course those who lamented and regretted that it was necessary to dredge up the sordid details of a figure like Obama. They suggested that it was better to use political campaigns to talk about issues. This might sound plausible, but it is totally wrong, and the fault rests with 364 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Obama. First, Obama does not campaign on issues in any systematic way. He presents himself as the Perfect Master, the Anointed One, the Savior, the Messiah, the Mahdi. His hysterical followers are obsessed, not with a political program or a set of issues, but with the personality cult of Obama. This means that any attempt to engage Obama on the issues is by definition an impotent and selfdefeating tactic. The only useful objections that can be made to Obama are ad hominem biographical revelations designed to show that he is not so anointed after all, and that his ability to walk on water has been overestimated. Then there is also the matter of Obama’s notorious duplicity and flip-flops even where he does have specific positions on certain issues. First Obama wanted a fixed schedule for getting out of Iraq, but Samantha Power revealed that this was not the case at all. Barky said he wanted a different kind of foreign policy, and then he pandered to AIPAC, probably lying through his teeth in the process. First Obama wanted to help the lower income brackets, but now he is talking about cutting the corporate income tax. Obama attacked free trade in Ohio and Pennsylvania, even as his top economic controller, Austan Goolsbee of the Friedmanite Chicago School reassured the Canadians that this was just election posturing; now Obama told Fortune magazine that he likes free trade and is devoted to “free markets.”189 First Obama was going to be tough on FISA; now he went going along with the Democratic congressional leaders as they attempt to appease Bush. Obama had built his career on ethics in government and reducing the role of political contributions; now he turned his back on the only meager legislative achievements by becoming the first presidential candidate in modern times to repudiate matching funds in the general election. Most dramatic was Obama’s about face on Iraq, where he was now signaling an openended commitment. On all these points, to attempt a substantive debate with Obama is a fool’s errand. The only way to pin Barky down was through pointed reference to crucial facts in his own background, biography, and associations which cannot be changed or swept under the rug. Any other approach was deliberate impotence and capitulation. DEAN-BRAZILE MINORITY COUP SPLITS DEMOCRATS On May 31, 2008 the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee took a giant step on the road to political suicide. Their decision to cut in half the voting strength of the Florida and Michigan delegations effectively disenfranchised the voters of these two vital and indispensable states, and reduced them to second-class citizenship. Even the infamous three-fifths compromise embodied in the US Constitution of 1787 treated a slave better than the Democratic National Committee was treating the voters of Florida and Michigan. Without these two states, any Democratic ticket was doomed to defeat in the November election. The Democratic Party does not exist for the primary purpose of obeying its own rules; it exists for the purpose of winning elections, and the goal of such winning is that the interests of the people may be served and defended. This basic truth of equity had now been trampled on by the Dean-Brazile-Obama Wall Street puppets. Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, and their retainers argued that they owe it to black voters and to fervent youthful idealists to make sure that Obama gets the nomination. In reality, the Democratic National Committee has proven over and over again that it does not care a damn about black voters, nor about young voters either. Dean and Brazile get their orders from Wall Street bankers like Rockefeller and Soros and their associated think tanks, and it is these Wall Street interests that are demanding Obama be nominated to carry out a program of draconian domestic economic austerity and a final confrontation with Russia and China, as prescribed by the Brzezinski Plan. By their actions, Dean, Brazile, and the Obama campaign had already split the Democratic Party. It is they who had to assume the historical responsibility for the impending scission. If you exclude half of IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 365 Michigan and half of Florida, you have already split the party, and this is what the Obama camp had done. Obama’s candidacy was already beset by at least five distinct orders of scandal. First was the fact that he was the product of a nest of racist foundation-funded provocateurs associated with Reverend Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, with the renegade theolib priest Father Pfleger being merely the latest in the series of these racist hate mongers to come to the attention of the public. Second was the fact that Obama was a product of a nest of Weatherman terrorists, including Obama’s close friends Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who have sponsored his career at a number of critical points. Third is the fact that Obama was sunk up to his eyeballs in a cesspool of corruption and graft associated with the Daley-Blagojevich Cook County Democratic machine and ongoing criminal conspiracy known as the Illinois bipartisan Combine, which features the Levantine gangsters Antoin Rezko, Nadhi Auchi, and former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae. Fourth was a complex of scandals involving murder, cocaine, and illicit sex, associated with the names of Larry Sinclair and of Donald Young, the gay choirmaster of Wright’s church who was found murdered last Christmas morning. Fifth were the relations between the Obama campaign and terrorist patsy groups in the Middle East. The relations of Robert Malley with Hamas have already led Obama to dump Malley. The next phase may well involve the sponsorship in Washington of Ilyas Achmadov, the envoy of the murderous Chechen terrorist organization, by Obama’s top controller and guru, Zbigniew Brzezinski. These five echelons of scandal meant that Obama was out of the question as a viable candidate of the Democratic Party. According to a Rasmussen poll, about one third of Democrats and one half of Clinton supporters wanted Senator Clinton to be on the November ballot without regard to what the Democratic bosses might decree. These results were gathered in a situation when this option was totally taboo for the controlled corporate media. With some elementary mass political education, these numbers would rise considerably overnight. What was needed was the certain trumpet.190 FISA BETRAYAL WAS PREDICTABLE – WATCH THE HANDLERS Some were surprised when Obama betrayed the pathetic faith of his duped supporters and broke his solemn promise to filibuster the new FISA law if it contained automatic immunity for telecom companies who had broken the law at the urging of the Bush-Cheney police state operators. There should have been no surprise: on this issue as on others, it is generally enough to look at who Obama’s handlers and controllers are to see how he will come down in the end. In this case, the top issue controller was John Brennan, who had told National Journal: “I do believe strongly that [telecoms] should be granted that immunity,” former CIA official John Brennan told National Journal reporter Shane Harris in the interview. “They were told to [cooperate] by the appropriate authorities that were operating in a legal context.” Before leaving government to join the private sector, Brennan had been the head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a joint office operated by the CIA, FBI and other government agencies. At the time Brennan said this, his remarks were in direct conflict with the line that Barky was still spouting on the stump. In a serious campaign, Brennan would have been fired for bucking the party line. But within a few weeks, the stump speeches were forgotten and the orders from the handlers and controllers, in this case Brennan, prevailed. (Justin Rood, ABC News) We can use this method to repeat the firm prediction that Obama will attempt to privatize Social Security, based on the past track record of advisers like Jason Furman, Jeffrey Liebman, and Austan Goolsbee in that regard. Another case was that of the infamous genocide procuress Samantha Power, who had blurted out before Ohio that Obama’s stump remarks on the timetable for Iraqi pullout were meaningless hot air, and that Obama would in 366 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography effect do whatever he wanted about Iraq. Samantha Power’s remarks came true in early July, releasing a shock wave that might doom the Obama candidacy in its entirety. There was also NAFTA: Obama said he was critical, but Austan Goolsbee told Canadian officials that Barky was a free trader, and Goolsbee had been right, as Obama’s Fortune interview showed. OBAMA’S SHIFT TOWARDS ENDLESS WAR IN IRAQ On July 3, Barack Obama revealed once and for all that he is an imposter and a con artist. From the very beginning, the foundation of Obama’s campaign and his claim to possess superior strategic and moral judgment had been his claim to oppose Bush’s Iraq war. In a North Dakota campaign event, Obama declared that he would consult with the generals and “refine his position” on the Iraq war. The Washington Post headlined: “Obama May Consider Slowing Iraq Withdrawal.” But the real message was clear: Obama was moving rapidly away from his earlier 11-month or 16-month timetables for withdrawal and towards full support for endless war, endless bloodbath, and endless bankruptcy in Iraq. Samantha Power had confessed Obama’s doubletalk on Iraq months ago. The handwriting was now on the wall: Obama would soon go to Iraq, meet with General Petraeus, and then announce his Baghdad road conversion to a policy of open-ended military occupation, oblivious to the immense human costs. Soon there would be no difference at all between Obama and McCain on the Iraq war, and the Democratic Party would have missed yet another historic opportunity to help the American people end Bush’s and Cheney’s failed criminal adventure. McCain gloated that Obama’s flip-flop proved he had no principles, only opportunism and expediency, and that his much-touted soaring words meant precisely nothing. Democrats now had their last chance to reflect: did they really want to give their nomination to a little-known newcomer who had posed as a peace advocate, and had now unmasked as a warmonger and candidate for Bush’s third term? OBAMA’S BETRAYAL OF DEMOCRATS ON FISA, NAFTA, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, THE DEATH PENALTY AND MUCH MORE From the instant that he felt that the Democratic nomination was in his hands, Obama moved relentlessly to the right in a breathtaking, stunning exhibition of cynicism and duplicity. Everything he was supposed to stand for was thrown overboard, and Obama’s contempt for his own voters was now center stage. Obama had promised to stop Bush’s assault on the Constitution and civil liberties, and end illegal wiretapping. Now, Obama voted for the rotten compromise on the FISA bill, including immunity for the telecoms – something he had vowed to filibuster. Obama had promised clean government and less corruption, but he broke his promise by opting out of public financing for his fall campaign, junking the cause of political reform he had claimed to champion. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, Obama posed as a critic of free trade sellouts like NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO, but he now told Fortune magazine that he was a great friend of free trade. Obama now openly supported the death penalty, more of Bush’s faith-based boondoggles, and the “merit pay” assault on teachers. He wanted to cut the corporate income tax, and opposed attempts to curb hand gun violence. His current team of economic advisers guaranteed that he would eventually come out for the partial privatization of Social Security camouflaged as “entitlement reform.” In short, Obama intended to betray not just his own basic commitments, but the historical foundations of the Democratic Party going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt. All that remained to complete this panorama of betrayal was the choice of a Vice President: it was clear that Obama would reject Senator Clinton, the greatest primary vote getter in the history of the Democratic Party, and the candidate IX: Obama’s Triumph of the Will: The 2008 Primaries 367 who had won the popular vote in 2008. Instead, he was likely to choose a Republican – a Bloomberg, a Hagel, or a Lugar, putting a Republican just a heartbeat away from the presidency. SLIPPERY, FLIP-FLOPPING WARMONGER OBAMA NOT A VIABLE CANDIDATE If Obama imitated McCain on so many issues, the November election would come down to a choice between two individuals, and a shifty, slippery, flip-flopping Obama will not fare well against the war hero McCain and his carefully cultivated reputation as a straight shooter. McCain would point out that voters cannot trust the flip-flopper Obama, and on that McCain would be right. Fortunately, Obama has tipped his hand and dropped the mask too soon: there was no Democratic nominee until the Roll Call of the States on August 27, 2008 in Denver. PUMA DEMOCRATS MOBILIZE AGAINST OBAMA During June 2008, the Democratic Party split. There emerged a coherent movement of opposition to Obama and to the postmodern fascism he represented. These were the PUMA Democrats, who first emerged on May 31 when Soros’ man Howard Dean had cut the Florida and Michigan delegations in half on the basis of his Wall Street doubletalk. PUMAs were suddenly all over cable television threatening to vote for McCain, but it was clear that what they really wanted was to prod Senator Clinton to come back into the race. They said they were not calling for some futile and self-defeating gesture, but rather pointing to the path that lead to victory in November. The preconditions for a Clinton resurgence were an open convention not subject to the totalitarian control of discredited and hated figures like Dean, Brazile, and the other machine bosses and hacks. Then, there had to be the chance to vote through a formal Roll Call of the States, the centerpiece of every American convention since time immemorial. But Dean and Brazile were already attempting to cancel the Roll Call of the States, and orchestrate a convention of mindless Obama hoopla, preventing even platform debate. Obama was demanding that he give his acceptance speech in the Denver ball park, and was trying to schedule a speech before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on his upcoming trip to Germany so he could posture as the new Kennedy. 175 PATRIOTS COULD STOP OBAMA ON THE FIRST BALLOT IN AN OPEN CONVENTION At this point, the fate of the United States appeared to depend on a minimum of 175 delegates to the Denver convention willing to exercise their mature political judgment in the service of their country, and turn away from Obama to support Senator Clinton. By most accounts, Obama had about 2229.5 delegate votes, with 1766.5 pledged delegates and 463 superdelegates. Clinton had 1896.5 delegate votes, with 1639.5 pledged and 257 super delegates. Shift just 350 delegates from Obama to Clinton, and Obama’s power grab would grind to a halt. After that, there would be the opportunity to deliberate and choose a competent candidate. Lexington and Concord were started by a few dozen farmers. Did the Democratic Party still have 175 patriots with the courage to take a stand? By July 2008, the PUMAs held the key to the situation. New motivation for these efforts came from the polls, which suggested at the end of July 2008 that Obama remained a likely loser for the Democrats in a contested election against McCain. A USA Today/Gallup poll of likely voters showed McCain now ahead 49%-45%. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times posed the question of “Where’s the Bounce” for Obama: ‘It is a question that 368 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography has hovered over Senator Barack Obama even as he has passed milestone after milestone in his race for the White House: Why is he not doing better? …”They’ve known John McCain for years,” Bill McInturff, a pollster for Mr. McCain, said of survey participants. “But people say in focus groups, ‘Who the heck is Barack Obama? Had you heard of him before six months ago?’ And he’s 46 years old. He’s somebody nobody knows about.” … Mr. McCain is “running ahead of where he should be based on the environment,” Mr. McInturff said. … Even Mr. Obama’s advisers say they are uneasy about his difficulty so far in breaking the 50 percent barrier — a reminder, in poll after poll, that there many Americans who are not yet ready to cast their lot with him, and may never be.’191 Nagourney was widely vituperated by Obama’s nutroots Myrmidons. Taylor Marsh, by now firmly in the Obama camp, commented: ‘See, for those who haven’t been paying attention, American voters don’t cheer for the champ or the smarty pants who seems full of himself, no matter how right, no matter how good the policies he’s pushing. The do-gooder who can do no wrong. See Gore 2000, or Kerry.’192 There was still time for Democrats to dump Obama. CHAPTER X: OBAMA: A LOOMING WORLD TRAGEDY Brzezinski is “someone I have learned an immense amount from,” and “one of our most outstanding scholars and thinkers”. – Obama, 2007. “I’m not opposed to all wars.” – Obama, 2002 “Where did you get a public opinion that we should fully disarm and then, according to some theoreticians, such as Brzezinski, divide our territory into three or four states? If there is such a public opinion, I would disagree with it.” –Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 4, 2007. My book Obama - The Postmodern Coup: The Making of a Manchurian Candidate grew out of the realization on the weekend between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary that the Obama bandwagon was not a normal political campaign, but rather an application of the methods of the neo-imperialist and neo-liberal people power coup/color revolution (as we had seen them in Ukraine, Georgia, Lebanon, etc.) brought home to the United States. It was a postmodern coup under the cover of an election. A little digging showed that Obama’s handlers and controllers – Zbigniew Brzezinski, Mark Brzezinski, Joseph Nye, Austan Goolsbee – represent the core of the Trilateral Commission-Bilderberger group, closely associated with the Rockefeller interests. Some of these people, especially Zbig and Paul Volcker, are the handlers who directed the catastrophic Carter Trilateral presidency thirty years ago. LAKE AND DAALDER: THE CONCERT OF OLIGARCHIES TO RULE THE WORLD Another Obama handler and controller is Anthony Lake, a veteran Democratic Party foreign policy hack. Lake was Clinton’s first NSC Director starting back in 1993, and he did not last long. One of Clinton’s very good initial ideas was to appoint a US Special Ambassador to do something about ending the brutal British occupation of Northern Ireland. This had indeed been one of Clinton’s popular promises on the campaign trail. Once they were in the White House, Lake told Clinton that such an envoy would be seen by the lordly British as an affront, since their line was that Northern Ireland was purely an internal affair of the United Kingdom. Therefore, Lake argued successfully, the special US envoy was out of the question, and the whole idea had to be dropped. Clinton caved in. In 1993, it was the ultra-imperialist British who were doing the human rights violations, so any intervention was unthinkable. Today, Brzezinski & Co. are eager to launch a whole series of interventions and invasions under left cover, human rights cover, and humanitarian cover against targets like Sudan, Burma, and China, including via Tibet. Under these conditions, Lake the Snake, as he was known by his opponents in the Clinton NSC, has become a true powerhouse of fervor for humanitarian interventions, utterly unlike the cautious fellow we saw back in 1993. A May 19, 2008 op-ed by Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl touted the efforts of Obama handlers Anthony Lake and Ivo Daalder to establish a “Concert of Democracies,” to sanction military invasions of countries in Africa and Asia, generally using left, human rights cover. The “Concert of Democracies” hearkens back to the Castelreagh-Canning system of British imperial domination of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. At that time, any state which threw off the oppressive yoke of the Quadruple Alliance could become the target of counter-revolutionary intervention by the British and their continental junior partners, headed by Prince Metternich of the Austrian Empire. Revolutionary states were deemed rogue states, in today’s parlance, and they were 370 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography considered fair game for outside invasion. Such a system was naturally unworkable and dissolved in revolutionary chaos in 1848 – a chaos fomented by the British themselves in many cases. A similar idea was put forward in 1938 under the rubric of the “League of Democracies” as advocated by the US Anglophile financier Clarence Streit, who was Felix Rohatyn’s father in law. There was also the Community of Democracies, a gaggle of US-UK satellites created under Clinton by Madeline Albright and Morton Halperin, Soros’ man in Washington. But now, in 2008, the long-standing Anglo-American world domination was reaching the end of the line. Hence the desperation of crackpot plans like those embraced by Lake the Snake. Experience shows that, if Obama’s handlers demand it, Barky will do it sooner or later. Lake and his sidekick Ivo Daalder, also an Obama controller, have been working closely of late with the head of the neocon wing of the US ruling class, George P. Shultz, the man who picked Bush, picked Cheney, picked the neocon Vulcans, and then went on to pick Arnold Schwarzenegger to be Governor of California. The convergence between the center-left imperialists like Lake and the neocons like Shultz is the practical content of the “bi-partisanship” that Obama is always babbling about. This convergence is based on the very sober estimate that the Anglo-American empire is in a heap of trouble, and that further open divisions in the ruling class could well open the way to a popular movement for real reform. Therefore, the two wings of the ruling class, the Shultz- Rupert Murdoch-Warren Buffet neocons and the James Baker-Robert Rubin-Soros-Rohatyn wing have an urgent need to come together, to crush domestic opposition, and finally to take down the real centers of opposition, Moscow and Beijing. THE SLAUGHTER PLAN Daalder and Lake serve as honorary co-chairs of the Princeton Project on National Security, which came out, in the fall of 2006, for an Anglo-American-led Concert of Democracies to carry out preventive and preemptive wars of regime change around the world, outside the United Nations Charter.193 Daalder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, has collaborated top neocon Robert Kagan (an informal advisor to John McCain) to promote the aggressive interventionism inherent in this lunatic plan for a Concert of Democracies. The Princeton Project on National Security proposal for a Concert of Democracies was included in the project’s final report by G. John Ikenberry and Woodrow Wilson School Anne-Marie Slaughter (nomen est omen, her name is her program), who is billed as a likely recipient of a plum job in a future Obama regime. (Imagine the headlines: Obama Proposes New World Order Based on Slaughter Plan!”) The Slaughter Plan may have confidential protocols that represent the detailed program for an Obama regime, in the same way that the 1980s Project of the Council on Foreign Relations represented the script for the Carter administration.194 THE “ROGUE BLOC” – RUSSIA AND CHINA The Concert of Democracies scheme was discussed by Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay, who argued in an article in The American Interest that it could encompass up to 60 nations, including 28 of the 30 largest economies. Bush the elder and Bush the younger carried out their imperialist adventures using what they called coalitions of the willing – ad hoc groups of states which could be cajoled, bribed, threatened, or coerced into joining in, usually with token contingents, on the side of the US-UK imperialist enforcers. These coalitions of the willing were often mocked as the coalitions of the shilling, since the majority were indeed shills for the Anglo-Americans. Daalder and Lake can see that they will never ram their adventurous plans through the United Nations, where the Shanghai Cooperation Organization powers – Russia and China – are ready to bar their X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 371 way with crossed vetoes. At the same time, the old neocon idea of the US, UK, and Israel at war with the rest of the world until the end of time simply will not work, because these powers are far too defeated, discredited, isolated, and bankrupt. Accordingly, the new idea is to institutionalize the coalition of the willing in permanent form, splitting the world into a US-UK “democratic” bloc, which will face off against a “rogue” bloc centered on Russia and China. The precondition to forming this bloc would be an unprecedented level of gullibility and servility on the part of Europe, Japan, and other parts of the planet. Lake, a kind of mini-Brzezinski, has motivated this new version of the Holy Alliance as follows: “One thing is clear,” he wrote in the American Interest. “Crises in Iran, North Korea, Iraq and Darfur, not to mention the pressing need for more efficient peacekeeping operations, the rising temperatures of our seas and multiple other transnational threats, demonstrate not only the limits of American unilateral power but also the inability of international institutions designed in the middle of the 20th century to cope with the problems of the 21st.” As Jackson Diehl comments, “… a post-Cold War and post-George Bush United States will not have the capacity or the legitimacy to unilaterally take on global crises. But working through the United Nations, as Bush himself tried to do for the past several years, is more often than not a recipe for paralysis, because of the resistance of non-democratic states. Take the past few months: China, helped by Russia, has stopped the Security Council from discussing a humanitarian intervention to rescue the 1.5 million Burmese endangered by the criminal neglect of their government following a cyclone. Strong sanctions against Iran for its refusal to freeze its nuclear program have been blocked by Russia. An attempted U.N. intervention in Darfur is failing, largely because of Chinese and Russian refusal to authorize stronger measures against the government of Sudan. Whether Obama or McCain, the next president will take office knowing that he inherits the messes in Darfur, Burma and Iran and also that new crises will erupt during his term. If he is unable to respond — if he, like Bush, ends up watching as tens or hundreds of thousands of people die in a weak or failed state while China and Russia block U.N. action — he will be harshly judged. That’s why McCain has smartly begun to talk about his League of Democracies and promised early action to create it. If Obama is wise, he will make Daalder’s Concert of Democracies part of his own campaign.” (Jackson Diehl, “A ‘League’ by Other Names,” Washington Post, May 19, 2008) And if Brzezinski finds this institutional camouflage useful for his apocalyptic confrontation with Russia, China, and their allies, we can be very sure that puppet Obama will comply. Another prominent foreign policy adviser of the Obama campaign was the abrasive Susan Rice, who had been the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa during the Clinton Administration. Before she drank the Kool-Aid for Obama, Taylor Marsh recalled that ‘along with [Anthony] Lake, Dr. Susan Rice is one of the people responsible for the disastrous policy towards Rwanda in the 1990s, for which Bill Clinton deservedly took so much heat and eventually apologized. As for Power, she obviously is simply unprofessional.’ Rice attracted attention for her clumsy gaffe during the controversy about Clinton’s Texas ad suggesting that Obama was not prepared to react to a 3 a.m. telephone call to the White House announcing a strategic emergency. Rice countered that charge by arguing in effect that both candidates were equally unqualified: “Clinton hasn’t had to answer the phone at 3 o’clock in the morning and yet she attacked Barack Obama for not being ready. They’re both not ready to have that 3 a.m. phone call.” This performance caused Rice to be nominated by a least one blog for the dubious honor of being named the ‘worst foreign-policy spokesperson ever.” (March 6, 2008) 372 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography OBAMA THE APPEASER: FOR ONCE, BUSH WAS RIGHT In late May, President George Bush gave an address to the Israeli Knesset on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence. We must leave aside the appalling historical mockery of Bush appearing in that place, given that his grandfather Prescott Bush had been one of the principal backers and financiers of the Nazi party and must thus be counted as one of the indispensable supporters of Hitler’s seizure of power in January 1933. Those who wish to dig deeper into this background are invited to consult my book, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), where the full story of Prescott Bush’s support for National Socialism is detailed. In the course of his Knesset address, Bush remarked: Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (Applause.) (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html) Obama’ handlers, eager to pick a fight with Bush, chose to interpret this remark as aimed specifically against them — hardly a clever move given the obvious liabilities of a young whelp of a senator who notoriously would not know the difference between a rocket propelled grenade and a bong. Even picking a quarrel with Bush was something that Obama had to do in a cowardly and tentative way, initiating the polemics with a carefully worded written statement which accused Bush of launching a “false attack” on the Perfect Master. In the course of several polemical exchanges with Senator McCain, Obama prevaricated, muddied the waters, and shifted his own position several times on this issue. Apart from these verbal pyrotechnics, it must be recognized that Bush for once was quite correct, although for reasons which he himself could never have fathomed. The foreign policy which Brzezinski and Obama intend to carry out in regard to countries like Syria and Iran is indeed a carbon copy of the so-called appeasement policy followed by British Prime Minister Sir Neville Chamberlain, most notably at the Munich conference of September 1938, where much of Czechoslovakia was awarded to Hitler without any direct consultation of the government in Prague. THE BRITISH APPEASEMENT POLICY MEANT ACTIVE SUPPORT FOR HITLER In order to get to the heart of the matter we need to get rid of the term appeasement which is a very weak euphemism invented by British historians to put their own countries leaders in a somewhat better light. The essence of what is called appeasement was a policy of active support for Hitler and the national Socialist regime on the part of the Baldwin and Chamberlain governments of Britain during the 1930s. This support was comprehensive, and included financial assistance to the Nazis by the Bank of England under Lord Montague Norman, the Anglo German naval agreement of 1935, which scrapped the arms limitations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles and gave German rearmament the official British stamp of approval, plus British approval of the remilitarization of the Rhineland, support for the unification of Germany with Austria, active support for Hitler’s grab of Czechoslovakia, and a de facto hands-off policy when it came to Nazi aggression against Poland. The only condition suggested by the British for all this support was this X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 373 that Hitler should direct his aggressive intentions eastward in the direction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The essence of this British policy was to play Hitler against Stalin by encouraging Hitler to go east, and to hope to get rid of both of them that way, thereby guaranteeing the British Empire in another century or more of world domination. There was a parallel British policy of appeasement towards Japan, with the goal of embroiling Japan and the United States in the Pacific war for the greater glory of London. The British aristocracy was hysterically convinced that Hitler was a one-way gun who could only fire into the sunrise, never into the sunset. Naturally, this policy was sheer lunacy, and was destined to blow up in the faces of the British sooner rather than later. The center of this policy was notoriously the Astor family and their social circles, known as the Cliveden Set, which was the immediate social milieu inhabited by Sir Neville Chamberlain. Cliveden was a country house frequented on weekends not only by the Prime Minister, but also by Lord Astor and Lady Astor’s guests, who included Lord Lothian, Lord Brand, Lord Halifax, the future foreign Secretary, and many more.195 This is the faction referred to by Carroll Quigley as the Milner group, and they were closely allied to other aristocrats like the Duke of Hamilton, the nobleman whom Rudolf Hess was seeking to visit when he parachuted into Britain a few weeks before the Nazi attack on the Soviets. All of this is amply documented for those willing to take a look. Carroll Quigley of Georgetown, Bill Clinton’s history professor, wrote that the Astor group in question …was known in those days as the Round Table Group, and later came to be called, somewhat inaccurately, the Cliveden Set, after the country estate of Lord and Lady Astor. It included Lord Milner, Leopold Amery, and Edward Grigg (Lord Altrincham), as well as Lord Lothian, Smuts, Lord Astor, Lord Brand (brother in law of Lady Astor and managing director of Lazard Brothers, the international bankers), Lionel Curtis, Geoffrey Dawson (editor of The Times), and their associates. The group wielded great influence because it controlled the Rhodes Trust, the Beit Trust, The Times of London, The Observer,. the influential and highly anonymous quarterly review known as The Round Table (founded in 1910 with money supplied by Sir Abe Bailey and the Rhodes Trust, and with Lothian as editor), and it dominated the Royal Institute of International Affairs, called ‘Chatham House” (of which Sir Abe Bailey and the Astors were the chief financial supporters, while Lionel Curtis was the actual founder), the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and All Souls College, Oxford.”196 The Daily Express published a picture of Lady Astor’s Cliveden estate under the headline “Mr. Chamberlain spent the week-end here — and why.” The article began ominously by noting that “France has her ‘Cagoulards,’ the hooded men who are supposed to be plotting a Fascist uprising there. And England has her ‘Cliveden Set,’ who are supposed to be plotting a Fascist regime here. Brrrrr!” wrote the Daily Express, which went on to dismiss the whole story as “a first-rate bogey.” (Daily Express, March 28, 1938) Cockburn loved to mock the Cliveden group as the “cagloulords” — Astor, Astor, Lothian, Londonderry, Brand, and Halifax. Cockburn’s original thesis was that the Astor group viewed Hitler as a “one-way gun” — one which, they hoped, would only fire east towards Moscow. The infamy of Cliveden soon reached the United States. Hedley Donovan informed the readers of the Washington Post, under the headline “Empire’s New Leaders Friendly to Fascism,” that “the energetic Lady Astor occupies a position of great influence in Britain’s councils.” Donovan told his readers to prepare to read soon in their morning newspapers a news item like the following: “The British government has given its blessing to Hitler’s impending annexation of German-speaking Czechoslovakia, it was learned here from a source close to Cliveden.” (Washington Post, April 3, 1938) The Minneapolis Journal noted that “the Tory press have been shouting for years to let Hitler have his own way for central Europe and Russia. (April 3, 1938) The Philadelphia Record 374 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography described the Cliveden set as having been in existence in its current form for about 20 months, with a policy including an Anglo-German, bargain, British recognition of Franco’s Spain, the final dismantling of the collective security features of the League of Nations, and a round of new loans to Germany from bankers — perhaps Brand — who are themselves Cliveden habitués. “The prodictator attitude of this clique,” this article pointed out, “is the real reason that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain refuses to tell Parliament and the world at what point England will fight.” (Philadelphia Record, April 4, 1938) The New York Times article on Cliveden was headlined, “Friends of Hitler Strong in Britain,” and noted that Chamberlain, more at ease with the pro- German element, had spent Easter with Lord Londonderry, an outspoken pro-German and an important official of the Conservative Party. (The wealthy elitist Lord Londonderry was about to publish his book Ourselves and Germany, a plea for Anglo-German rapprochement.). The author, Ferdinand Kuhn Jr., noted “British aristocracy by its very nature is more hostile to communism than to fascism. When men like Londonderry or Viscount Rothermere or Lord Astor have political nightmares the ogre of their imagination is Russia, not Germany. Menace to their wealth, their social position, as they see, it, is the creed of communism, and, in their minds, whatever endangers themselves endangers England.” But what of the demagogue Hitler? Kuhn felt that “it is not difficult to see why so many British aristocrats today sympathize with Hitler. They may not approve particularly of his persecution of Catholics or Jews, but they do regard him as a St. George who killed the dragon of communism in Germany and prevented Russia from spreading her creed to Western Europe.” (New York Times, April 17, 1938) Lord Halifax of the Cliveden set met with Hitler, and offered cooperation against the USSR. According to a German Foreign Ministry memo on the Hitler-Halifax talks later published by the Soviets (although denied by the British), Halifax stated that Britain regarded Hitler as the chief bulwark against communism in Europe. He hinted that the UK was seeking a four-power combination of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy against Moscow. The Germans further understood from Halifax that Britain was ready to sacrifice Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to the German sphere of influence if this could be done without war into which the Conservative Cabinet might become embroiled. 197The British Communist house organ, the Daily Worker, revealed the guest book for this meeting of “the pro-Fascist clique that directs the policy of the Chamberlain government,” naming the Astors, Lothian, Tom Jones, Neville Chamberlain, Sir Thomas Inskip, Cadogan, Lady Wilson, and Mrs. Tate, the MP from Frome. The Daily Worker was especially intrigued by the presence of Lady Ravensdale, the sister-in-law of Sir Oswald Mosely of the British Union of Fascists. The communist organ alleged that Lady Ravensdale’s presence had been reported by early editions of Monday’s Evening Standard, but suppressed in later editions. The Daily Worker further alleged that Cliveden was planning peace-time conscription or forced labor, citing Lord Lothian’s comments to The Times of March 14 in favor of “universal national service.” (Daily Worker, March 30, 1938)’198 Compare this to Obama’s extremely extensive program of national service discussed above. The British historian A.J.P. Taylor wrote obliquely about the Munich sellout of September 1938, where Czechoslovakia was sacrificed to the British appeasement policy: ‘The settlement at Munich was a triumph for British policy, which had worked precisely to this end; not a triumph for Hitler, who had started with no such clear intention. Nor was it merely a triumph for selfish or cynical British statesmen, indifferent to the fate of far-off peoples or calculating that Hitler might be launched into war against Soviet Russia.199 But one year after Munich came the Molotov-Ribbentrop or Hitler-Stalin Pact, which meant that the British policy had blown up in the faces of Lady Astor and her crew. Hitler now had a free hand to turn west to crush France and the Low Countries, leading to the British debacle at Dunkirk. This X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 375 event also marks the great watershed in Brzezinski’s personal life, since with the occupation of Poland by the Nazis and the Soviets his diplomat father, who had been posted to Canada, no longer had a country to represent. The Brzezinski family gravitated into the social world of the eastern European puppet governments in exile set up by the British. It is the twisted mentality of these revanchist aristocratic and British agent circles which lives on in Zbigniew and his clan, including Mark, Ian, Mika, and Matthew Brzezinski today, and which fuels their fanatical hatred of Russia. Josef Korbel, the father of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the mentor of Condi Rice, belonged to these same anti-Russian circles. For various reasons, Brzezinski blames these events on Stalin, although he must have some idea of the grave responsibility of the Astor- Chamberlain group. The Italian historian Gaetano Salvemini concluded that the reverses suffered later on by the British ‘were the logical consequences of a basic assumption, i.e. that Hitler, after swallowing Austria and Czechoslovakia, would go and meet his doom in Eastern Europe. If one ignores that assumption, British foreign policy after 1934 becomes a succession of absurd muddles. If one bears it in mind, the policies of the British Tories become clear and consistent.’ Salvemini offered this verdict on the bungling geopoliticians of the British leadership: “…on the Conservative Government of Britain falls the responsibility of giving Hitler rope with the idea that he would hang himself. By throwing Central Europe piecemeal to the wolves they thought they were heading Hitler off eastwards to meet his doom in Russia: two birds killed with one stone.200 The American historian Frederick Schumann concurred, pointing to the British desire to wipe out the Soviet leadership, which resembles the anti-Russian and anti-Chinese plans of the Brzezinski group: “The destruction of the Soviet counter-elite was a constant object of the [British] oligarchy after 1917…The USSR must be isolated. The ties between France and her eastern allies must be broken. France must be immobilized, for any French involvement in the clash to come would, for geographical reasons, entail British involvement — which was precisely what was to be avoided. The immobilization of France required the strengthening of Italy and Germany to a point at which Paris could not challenge them. Hence remilitarization of the Rhineland, threats to French communications in the Mediterranean, and Fascist victory in Spain were all useful devices to supplement British efforts to keep France neutral….In the end the Fascist Triplice [Germany, Italy, and Spain] must attack the USSR….This program could never be openly acknowledged by Tory officialdom because the masses whom the oligarchy ruled (and even some members of the oligarchy itself) had unfortunately been conditioned to respond favorably to such shibboleths as ‘indivisible peace,’ collective security,’ and “League of Nations.’201 More recent leftist historians have come to a similar conclusion: ‘The alternative argument presented here is that those in the [British] ruling group before May 10, 1940 were bloody-minded protectors of privilege whose fixation with destroying communists and communism led them to make common cause with fascists. They were not honest, idiotic patriots; they were liars and traitors who would sacrifice human lives in their defense of property and privilege….Blame for the tragedy of World War II, including the Holocaust, must rest partly with Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Lord Halifax, and their close associates, who, far from being naïve appeasers anxious to avoid wars in Europe, were visceral anti-communists who single-mindedly pursued an alliance with Hitler.’202 Future historians writing from the rubble of a post-World War III world will doubtless issue some similar indictment of Brzezinski and company for his contorted, contradictory, crackpot scheme to isolate China, and then play China (and Iran) against Russia and get rid of all of them that way, procuring another century of US-UK world domination. 376 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography BRZEZINSKI’S WORLD STRATEGY TO SAVE THE EMPIRE The mental life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the obsessive revanchist and anti-Russian fanatic who runs so many aspects of the Obama campaign, seems frozen in the amber of 1939. That was the year when this British plan was blown up by the signing of the Hitler Stalin pact, leading to the destruction of Poland and to the Brzezinski family’s being marooned in Canada, thus visiting Zbigniew on the United States a few years later. Zbigniew today is determined to use an Obama regime to create a worldwide geopolitical constellation capable of crushing Russia, China, and any other states supporting the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the main pole of resistance to Anglo-American imperialism in today’s world. For this purpose, Zbigniew has been busily provoking crises in Eastern Europe, designed to pit the European Union against Moscow. These include the independence of the Serbian province of Kosovo, under the control of an organization known as the KLA, notorious for its involvment in gun running, drug running, terrorism, and slave trading. The independence of Kosovo was designed principally as an affront and provocation to Moscow, and this is also true of Brzezinski’s plan for a Polish missile crisis to be occasioned by the installation of alleged US anti-ballistic missiles on the territory of Poland. Many other provocations against Moscow are in the offing but this is only the beginning. The first main task assigned to Obama is to kick the Chinese out of Africa, where the Chinese have been assiduously courting African states with offers of economic cooperation deals based on parity and equality of economic advantage. These deals have excited the rage of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, whose monopoly has thus been broken; but for Brzezinski the stakes are much higher. Brzezinski’s design is to deprive the Chinese of all the oil, natural gas, strategic minerals, and strategic raw materials which they are presently purchasing in Africa. The chosen method is the destabilization and destruction of most African states as a means to forcing the Chinese out. Much of this will be done under the new US African command or Africom, which is about to be created in Ethiopia. Under the Brzezinski policy, Africa will become increasingly a battleground between China and the United States and the result is likely to be a continent in flames, with the levels of genocide against the sub-Saharan populations reaching unprecedented levels. As part of this design the CIA’s gaggle of terrorist patsies known as Al Qaeda has surfaced in Algeria (one of the largest oil producers), Tunisia, and Morocco. The Mugabe government in Zimbabwe is being massively destabilized. Obamas own Luo tribe has become a vehicle for the destabilization of Kenya, previously one of the most stable African states, with the option of exporting civil war to other nearby countries where the Luo are also found. Obama’s Luo cousin, the demagogue Omega, is implicated in terrorism and ethnic cleansing, but is supported by the State Department anyway. The three largest sub-Saharan African states, Sudan, Nigeria, and South Africa, are all targeted for comprehensive destabilization and Balkanization of their territory into impotent, squabbling petty states incapable of resisting the demands of any multinational oil company. The US, the British, and the Israelis have all been destabilizing Sudan for decades, but today the resulting humanitarian crisis in Darfur province is used by London and Washington as a possible pretext for humanitarian invasion. Naturally, the real goal of such an attack on Sudan would have nothing to do with the situation of Darfur province, and everything to do with cutting off the 7% of China’s oil which now comes from Sudan. Left-wing CIA assets are already spreading the line that Chinese economic development in Sudan is committing “ethnocide” by destroying the alleged culture of impoverished villages, which are yearning for a way out of the inferno of the world oil crisis and the world food crisis. Indeed, an attack on Sudan unleashed by Obama would immediately enjoy the active support of many elements of today’s so-called peace movement. X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 377 SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION TARGETED Brzezinski’s plan to strip China of all of her allies and sources for oil, minerals, and strategic raw materials is not limited to Africa but is to be carried out worldwide. Another country targeted using the same logic is Burma, whose government is allied with Beijing. Gene Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institute would like to use Burma as a staging ground for future destabilization attempts against mainland China itself, using the abundant stocks of fanatical Buddhist monks as cannon fodder. Indeed, this is what they are already doing in Tibet, where the insurrection against Chinese rule has been fomented by the left CIA and its foundations grouped around the national endowment for democracy. Venezuela is another target because it might make a deal with China. The neocon response is to bomb or invade Venezuela, but Brzezinski knows that the US is much too weak, isolated, and bankrupt to try that. He prefers to play Colombia against Venezuela, exploiting President Chavez’s ill-advised support for the FARC rebels, the darlings of Richard Grasso, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange. By playing Colombia against Venezuela, both can be destroyed at scant cost to the US, and the oil to China effectively cut off. Once China had been completely isolated and stripped of allies and economic partners, and also deprived of any foreign sources of oil, vital raw materials, and other strategic commodities, the final stage of Brzezinski’s program would go into action. This final stage would be accompanied by vigorous attempts to weaken and destabilize the government in Beijing, attempts which are slated to begin in the summer of 2008 under the cover of the Summer Olympic Games. Brzezinski’s endgame would be something resembling a de facto trade blockade of China, with Brzezinski prodding the Chinese to solve their oil shortage by invading Russia and eastern Siberia to seize the oil wells and mines which are located there in a country very sparsely populated by Russians. In other words, the goal of all of Obama’s edifying and mellifluous peace rhetoric is nothing less than a cynical and deliberate unleashing of the Third World war, most likely fought out with thermonuclear weapons in the vast spaces of Siberia and Mongolia. Brzezinski imagines that by playing China against Russia in this way, he will be able to secure another century or more of Anglo American imperial world domination. This is the familiar refrain we already heard from Sir Neville Chamberlain, and here again the result will be the same: the plan is destined to blow up in Brzezinski’s face, not least because the Russian and Chinese elites are already thoroughly informed of every particular, and have said so in the Russian case. BRZEZINSKI WANTS TO PLAY IRAN AGAINST RUSSIA So how does the question of appeasing Iran (and/or Syria) fit into the Brzezinski plan of which Obama is the steward? The answer has been blatantly evident since the final report of the Baker Hamilton Iraq study group was delivered at the end of 2006. That is the organism that recommended that the US urgently negotiate with Iran and Syria, lifting the absurd diplomatic embargo imposed by the fanatical neocons of the Bush regime. As James Baker openly and cynically pointed out at the time, he had successfully recruited Syria to be a member of the US-led coalition of the willing against Iraq in the first Gulf War of 1991. Baker’s message was clear enough: I got you Syria then, and I could get you Syria now if given half a chance. Iran, by implication, was also susceptible to being “gotten.” But gotten for what? Let us imagine a hypothetical conversation between President Achmadinejad of Iran and the US team of Brzezinski and Obama. The reader must imagine that Obama is seated on Brzezinski’s lap in the guise of the ventriloquist’s dummy in the posture made famous by such past practitioners as Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, or Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney. It is therefore Brzezinski who is speaking, 378 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography even though the words seemed to come out of Obama’ mouth. The reader must also imagine a tone of voice used to convey the American offer which is reminiscent of Jack Nicholson as the US president negotiating with the Martian leader in the cinema classic, Mars Attacks. Obama/Brzezinski would speak to the Iranians thus: “Why should we be enemies and adversaries? Why can’t we be friends and cooperate and work together? Between the two of us, we could totally dominate the entire Middle East, and nobody could do anything here without our permission — not the Russians, not the Chinese, not the Indians, not the Pakistanis, not the Egyptians. Just think of it: the United States and Iran working together! Imagine the potential! What do we need to do for you to make it possible? What do we need to give you? Just for openers, we can free up those frozen assets that we have been holding in our banks for the past 30 years — they now add up to hundreds of billions of dollars. We need to have comprehensive diplomatic relations, a cultural exchange program, maybe a mutual nonaggression pact if that is what you would like. Of course we’d take you off that silly old terrorist list! Of course we can make sure that Hezbollah gets what they are entitled to in Lebanon! Of course we can make a whole series of other concessions to your various friends and proxies! But let’s get to the really big issues. You want to have nuclear weapons. We can’t approve that in public but we are willing to guarantee you right here and right now that we will give you a wink and a nod. If you run into problems along the way, we can help you solve your bottlenecks with the right kind of technology when you need it. Come to think of it, we could deliver a small stock of bombs if that is what you would like. Just like Iran-contra, but better! We have a new missile that we call the Brzezinski special — you fire it off from anywhere in the world and it flies straight to Moscow! We’d be glad to give you some of those right now! You just have to remember that your hereditary enemy has never been the Americans, but the Russians! Think how badly they behaved when they occupied the northern part of your country during World War II — that was really messy! We’ve never done anything like that, and we don’t want to! We just want to be friends and make sure that you’re strong enough to stand up against the real threats and all of those come from Moscow. By the way Mr. President, we see that your popularity has been a little anemic lately. But surely you know that the biggest resentment harbored by the Iranian people is their resentment against the Russians. Your Iranians hate those Russians much more than they hate the US and the British! So any time you pick a quarrel with Moscow you can count on pleasing a big majority of your own base! And we can help you to do it. Think of how bad those Russians treated you lately on that Bushehr reactor. They charged you too much in the first place, and then they withheld the parts, blackmailed you, and all the rest — a real humiliation! We would certainly never do that! So what else would you need? How about a nice new naval fleet in the Caspian Sea so you can sail right up to the ports of southern Russia and spit in their eye! With nuclear missiles, of course! Think of all the dandy incidents you could stage that way, poking at that Russian bear with your big Iranian pitchfork! That way you can stop them from stealing your Caspian oil! And if they ever fight back, don’t worry — we’ll be here to back you up! And then there are those Chinese! Why do you want to sell so much oil to them? Pretty soon you’ll be selling them so much that they will have you in their pocket, and you wouldn’t want that, would you? You’re better off dealing with us, even if it is for dollars. We want you to know that we are honest in the worst way!” Thus the siren song of Brzezinski, intent on playing the Islamic fundamentalists of Iran against the Russians in the same way that he once played the Islamic fundamentalists of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, destroying the latter and its entire world system of alliances. The line towards Syria would be similar, and would sound something like this: “We are natural allies! We need to be friends! All we need to do is to remove a few little irritants and everything will be hunkyX: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 379 dory! Take for example that nasty little naval base that the Russians have on your Mediterranean coast in that little place called Tartus. All you need to do is take them out of there! Then not paying you anything like what that place is worth! Give us that base and we’ll pay you triple what the Russians are giving you! We can even get the Israelis to give you back the Golan heights if you’re willing to play ball with us! All you need to do is recognize that the Russians have always been the problem and always will be, and the quicker we get them out of the Middle East completely, the better off everybody will be! The same thing goes for those damn Chinese! And look how the North Koreans bungled everything they promised to do for you! Let’s go back to those good old days when Henry Kissinger could say, ‘God may punish me for it, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for Hafez Assad.’” ISRAEL DEMOTED: FROM STRATEGIC HUB TO EXPENDABLE ASSET Much of this is anything but fanciful, and has already been approximated by Trilateral Commission spokesmen in public statements. At about this time, former President Jimmy Carter, Obama’s predecessor on the path of Trilateral puppetry, revealed that in his opinion the Israelis had about 150 nuclear weapons. Everyone had long known that the Israelis had three times as many as this, but Carter went on to ask: “What happens if, in three years time, Iran has a nuclear weapon,” Mr Carter asked. “I’m not sure that is going to happen, but if it does, what do we do? They are rational people like all of us in this room. Do they want to commit suicide? I would guess not. So what we have to do is talk with them now and say to them we want to be their friends. The United States must let Iran know that we want to give them fuel and everything they need for a nonmilitary nuclear programme. Twenty-five years ago we cut off trading with Iran. We’ve got to resume trading to show Iran we are friends.” (Independent, May 26, 2008) Again, quite independent of how much of the strategy Carter personally understands, Brzezinski’s goal is not a peaceful settlement of the Middle East, but rather the mobilization of Middle East countries against Russia and China in the framework of the apocalyptic global showdown which he is planning to execute under the aegis of an Obama presidency. Soon after the appeasement flap began, Brzezinski accused members of the American Jewish establishment of “McCarthyism” in their attitude towards critics of Israel. He called the pro-Israel lobby “too powerful” and accused American supporters of Israel of being too ready to use the slur of “anti-Semitism” against critics of Israel. He stated that AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee has “consistently opposed a two-state solution and a lot of members of Congress have been intimidated and I don’t think that is healthy.” Brzezinski went on to say: “It’s not unique to the Jewish community — but there is a McCarthyite tendency among some people in the Jewish community. They operate not by arguing but by slandering, vilifying, demonizing. They very promptly wheel out anti-Semitism. There is an element of paranoia in this inclination to view any serious attempt at a compromised peace as somehow directed against Israel.” Reports noted that Obama has paid tribute to the aging Polish revanchist as “someone I have learned an immense amount from”, and “one of our most outstanding scholars and thinkers”. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School and others had already called on Obama to dump Brzezinski as a campaign adviser, although of course in reality Zbig had hired Barky, and not the other way around. Zbig had earlier antagonized the Israeli lobby through his support for the work of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer. This entire incident came shortly after the Obama campaign had dumped Robert Malley and Samantha Power, two thuggish foreign policy operatives with a history of clashing with the Israeli regime. Obama campaign co-chairman and top military adviser Merrill “Bomb Now, Die Later” McPeak complained about the influence of American Jews in the foreign policy debate, 380 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography commenting that the problem was not centered in the State Department or the White House, but rather among the Jewish voters of “New York City. Miami. We have a large vote — vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it.” McPeak also claims that a combination of Jews and Christian Zionists are manipulating U.S. policy in Iraq in dangerous and radical ways: “Let’s say that one of your abiding concerns is the security of Israel as opposed to a purely American self-interest, then it would make sense to build a dozen or so bases in Iraq. Let’s say you are a born-again Christian and you think that Armageddon and the rapture are about to happen any minute and what you want to do is retrace steps you think are laid out in Revelations, then it makes sense. So there are a number of scenarios here that could lead you in this direction. This is radical....” (Ed Lasky, ‘Obama Advisor Accuses Jews of “McCarthyism,” American Thinker.’) Maybe, but then again, Brzezinski is crazier than any neocon. Many of the criticisms leveled by the Obama camp against the Israelis and their US supporters are unquestionably true, but this does not make them any less opportunistic. The main objection against Israeli right-wing extremists of the Netanyahu type is that they are implacably opposed to a general peace settlement for the Middle East, and in this they agree completely with Brzezinski and Obama, who want to use the Middle East as a staging area for confrontation and possible war with Russia and China. The Israelis have acquired quite a few enemies for themselves by their brutal and arrogant behavior during the Bush regime era, but it is always a mistake to let one’s outlook be distorted by hatred, and one senses that much of the anti-Israeli rhetoric is of this type. It helps to have some understanding for the subjective predicament of the Israelis themselves. Under Bush, Israel was the unquestioned strategic center of the world, with many exertions of the United States devoted to eliminating present adversaries and future challenges for the Israeli regime. With Brzezinski, by contrast, the Israelis are finding themselves radically demoted from the status of linchpin of the world to that of just another expendable pawn in the Polish revanchist’s apocalyptic confrontation with Moscow and Beijing. In this, the Israelis are far from alone: Europe, Africa, the Middle East as a whole, and the United States itself are all seen by Brzezinski as expendable pawns in this apocalyptic struggle with the two capitals of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It is simply a fact that the Iran which Brzezinski is intent on building up and then launching against Moscow may well surprise the old revanchist by striking out in completely unexpected directions, and Israel could very well be one of them. The Israelis therefore have every right to object vehemently to the new US imperialist line that takes so little account of their survival. Even worse, it is clear that Brzezinski regards Israel, with its 500 to 600 nuclear weapons, and relevant delivery systems, as a possible trump card to be played against the Russians. Naturally, in such a confrontation Israel’s lack of geographic depths when measured against the immensity of the Eurasian superpower could well lead to the annihilation of the Israelis. All in all, the new hegemony of Brzezinski over US foreign policy spells nothing but trouble for the Israelis and for the rest of the Middle East. We must however add that the Israelis need to steer clear of leaders like Netanyahu, and rather embrace the outlines of the Yossi Beilin -Yasser Abed Rabbo Geneva Accords of November 2003, which call for two independent, sovereign and inviolable states, quite possibly separated by cordons of foreign troops, with the demolition of all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, and the strict abrogation of any Palestinian right to return into the future Israel. Both of these measures need to include substantial compensation for the people involved. What needs to be added to this plan is the idea of a regional Marshall plan for the economic developments and postwar reconstruction of the entire Middle East, including not just Israel and Palestine, but also such devastated areas as Lebanon, Iraq, and Sudan, and the redressing of the pernicious effects of many X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 381 years of economic sanctions against Iran and other regional nations. If American Jewish voters can understand this lesson, they can play a critical role in defeating the colossal and reckless adventurism of which Obama is the bearer. In the midst of the appeasement flap, Zbigniew Brzezinski teamed up with his former NSC assistant William Odom to present the public cloak for the new Iranian policy in the form of a Washington Post op-ed. Compare this boilerplate to the real content of the Brzezinski plan as outlined above, and you will come to the unavoidable conclusion that Brzezinski is truly an accomplished liar, far more skillful in the arts of mendacity than a whole brigade of neocons, despite their claims to be the world champions of exoteric falsehood. Brzezinski and Odom write: ‘Current U.S. policy toward the regime in Tehran will almost certainly result in an Iran with nuclear weapons. The seemingly clever combination of the use of “sticks” and “carrots,” including the frequent official hints of an American military option “remaining on the table,” simply intensifies Iran’s desire to have its own nuclear arsenal. Alas, such a heavy-handed “sticks” and “carrots” policy may work with donkeys but not with serious countries. The United States would have a better chance of success if the White House abandoned its threats of military action and its calls for regime change. A successful approach to Iran has to accommodate its security interests and ours. Neither a U.S. air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities nor a less effective Israeli one could do more than merely set back Iran’s nuclear program. In either case, the United States would be held accountable and would have to pay the price resulting from likely Iranian reactions. These would almost certainly involve destabilizing the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan, and serious efforts to disrupt the flow of oil, at the very least generating a massive increase in its already high cost. The turmoil in the Middle East resulting from a preemptive attack on Iran would hurt America and eventually Israel, too. Given Iran’s stated goals — a nuclear power capability but not nuclear weapons, as well as an alleged desire to discuss broader U.S.-Iranian security issues — a realistic policy would exploit this opening to see what it might yield. The United States could indicate that it is prepared to negotiate, either on the basis of no preconditions by either side (though retaining the right to terminate the negotiations if Iran remains unyielding but begins to enrich its uranium beyond levels allowed by the Non-Proliferation Treaty); or to negotiate on the basis of an Iranian willingness to suspend enrichment in return for simultaneous U.S. suspension of major economic and financial sanctions. Such a broader and more flexible approach would increase the prospects of an international arrangement being devised to accommodate Iran’s desire for an autonomous nuclear energy program while minimizing the possibility that it could be rapidly transformed into a nuclear weapons program. Moreover, there is no credible reason to assume that the traditional policy of strategic deterrence, which worked so well in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and with China and which has helped to stabilize India-Pakistan hostility, would not work in the case of Iran. The widely propagated notion of a suicidal Iran detonating its very first nuclear weapon against Israel is more the product of paranoia or demagogy than of serious strategic calculus. It cannot be the basis for U.S. policy, and it should not be for Israel’s, either. An additional longerrange benefit of such a dramatically different diplomatic approach is that it could help bring Iran back into its traditional role of strategic cooperation with the United States in stabilizing the Gulf region. Eventually, Iran could even return to its long-standing and geopolitically natural pre-1979 policy of cooperative relations with Israel. One should note also in this connection Iranian hostility toward al-Qaeda, lately intensified by al-Qaeda’s Web-based campaign urging a U.S.- Iranian war, which could both weaken what al-Qaeda views as Iran’s apostate Shiite regime and bog America down in a prolonged regional conflict. Last but not least, consider that American sanctions have been deliberately obstructing Iran’s efforts to increase its oil and natural gas outputs. That has contributed to the rising cost of energy. An eventual American-Iranian accommodation 382 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography would significantly increase the flow of Iranian energy to the world market. Americans doubtless would prefer to pay less for filling their gas tanks than having to pay much more to finance a wider conflict in the Persian Gulf.’ (Zbigniew Brzezinski and William Odom, “A Sensible Path on Iran,” Washington Post, May 27, 2008, emphasis added) Shortly after this was published, Odom died. GENERAL WILLIAM ODOM, ZBIG’S NSC ASSISTANT AND OBAMA BACKER A word about Brzezinski’s co-author in the case of this article may be in order. Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in his memoir, Power and Principle, that he had been a sponsor of the career of William Odom starting more than three decades ago. Here is Zbig wrote: “… I wanted on the NSC staff some individuals who shared my broad strategic perspectives, and who could undertake the needed review of our military doctrine, of our basic assumptions about global power, and thus help to define new longer-range goals for the United States. Given the centrality of this undertaking, it was important that the staffers involved share some of my basic assumptions and be congenial to me personally. With this thought in mind, I recruited Colonel William Odom, who later became a general while on the NSC staff, from the US military Academy at West Point. I knew him from an earlier association with me at the research Institute on International Change at Columbia, I respected his views on Soviet military affairs and strategy, and I considered him to be an innovative strategic thinker.” (Power and Principle 75) Odom was a ghoulish technocrat of thermonuclear war who later was promoted to be the head of the National Security Agency, the center for electronic espionage. Like many other profoundly reactionary imperialist thinkers, Odom was able to reinvent himself and refurbish himself for a the new Obama era of left cover world strategy à la Carter by the simple expedient of declaring himself opposed to the Iraq war as it has been carried out, and to George Bush personally — both very safe, low risk bets in today’s Washington. Predictably, however, Odom became the darling of the left liberal antiwar set who swoon when they think of the respectability to be gained by the fact that General Odom shares some of their most obvious opinions. BRZEZINSKI TRILATERALS PURGE THE US AIR FORCE On June 6, 2008 the Trilateral faction flexed its muscles, ousting the top civilian and military personnel of the US Air Force, who were too close to the neocons to be trusted to carry out Brzezinski’s orders in the new phase. This extraordinary simultaneous ouster of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force chief of staff, followed by the naming of Trilateral Commissioner and Carter administration veteran James Rodney Schlesinger to purge USAF generals and colonels, dramatically documented the fact that power in Washington DC was no long in the hands of the Bush-Cheney-neocon clique, but had passed to the Brzezinski-Trilateral faction. PRINCIPALS’ COMMITTEE RULES WASHINGTON; BUSH-CHENEY OUT Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the firing of Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley, citing the failure of the Air Force to maintain the security of strategic nuclear forces, as shown in the infamous rogue B-52 incident of late August 2007, when a B-52 intercontinental strategic bomber with six nuclear armed cruise missiles, hijacked by the Cheney clique, flew from North Dakota to Louisiana totally outside of the purview of the USAF command control and communications systems. Gates, we recall, had been Brzezinski’s office boy at the NSC between 1977 and 1979.Gates also mentioned that four hightech electrical nosecone fuses for Minuteman nuclear warheads were sent to Taiwan in place of X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 383 helicopter batteries, along with other failures. Gates was a leading member of the Principals’ Committee, an interagency group which now ran the US government from day to day with scant reference to the discredited outgoing lame ducks Bush and Cheney, who stayed on mainly as figureheads. The Principals’ Committee had been in charge of the US government since no later than early May, around the time of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, when the controlled corporate media began trumpeting that Obama was the winner of the Democratic nomination. The Principals’ Committee was made up of Pentagon boss Gates, Secretary of State Rice, NSC director Hadley, Joint Chiefs of Staff head Admiral Mullen, and intelligence czar McConnell, along with a few others. Treasury Secretary Paulson of Goldman Sachs is also probably onboard. Attorney General Michael Mukasey appears to be cooperating as well, as does a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court. These figures are now marching to the tune of Trilateral Commission bigwigs like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Joseph Nye, and the Rockefeller family. These are the same forces who own and control the Wall Street Manchurian candidate Obama. It is notable that the high-profile purge of the USAF came less than 48 hours after Obama had unilaterally proclaimed himself the Democratic presidential nominee. The Principals’ Committee rules in the name of a panoligarchical consensus. The rogue B-52 flew with six nuclear cruise missiles from Minot AFB North Dakota to Barksdale AFB Louisiana on August 30, 2007. Source reports published by Wayne Madsen suggest that the B-52 was stopped by patriotic low-level USAF personnel. As the issue of whether to allow the plane to fly on to the Middle East went up the chain of command and expanded to involve the intelligence agencies, it transpired that the majority of the government and the establishment did not want the plane to attack targets in the Middle East. The scandal of the rogue B-52 broke on September 5, 2007, and a stand-down and nuclear census of the entire USAF soon followed. According to all indications, the B-52 was under the extra-legal control of the Cheney faction, which evidently planned to fly it to the Middle East and quite possibly use one or more of the nuclear cruise missiles in an attack on Iran and/or Syria, probably in cooperation or coordination with the Israeli air attack on Syria which occurred on September 6, 2007. The fact that the B-52 was blocked may have represented the last gasp of the Bush-Cheney-neocon faction, and the beginning of the hegemony of a different and far more dangerous group, namely the Brzezinski-Trilateral faction. The Gates purge indicates that the new Trilateral masters of Washington DC do not trust the USAF generals who are so deeply compromised with the Bush-Cheney-neocon faction. The USAF was up to its neck in 9/11, and then in the rogue B-52 affair. The Trilaterals are accordingly driving out the old rogues, and replacing them with new rogue generals of their own, who are loyal to the insane Trilateral agenda. Brzezinski does not want nuclear weapons wasted on Iran, which he intends to turn into an expendable puppet or kamikaze pawn in his apocalyptic showdown with Russian and China. This is what Obama’s appeasement of Iran actually aims at: Iran as a US asset to be played against Russia and China. Brzezinski wants to be in control of those nukes, since he may soon need them for use against Russia and China. Those who might celebrate the defeat of the Bush-Cheney-neocon group must rather face the fact that the US had just jumped out of the frying pan of conventional invasions and into the fire of looming thermonuclear confrontations among the great powers. This is the real nature of the change for which Obama is the public symbol. Obama’s foreign policy will be dictated in every respect by Trilateral co-founder Brzezinski. Obama is now supported and surrounded by Trilateral members David Rockefeller, Jay Rockefeller, Joseph Nye, Paul Adolph Volcker, Jimmy Carter, and many more. With James “Rodney the Robot” Schlesinger now helping to purge the Pentagon, including its associated intelligence agencies, the Trilateral grip 384 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography on Washington DC is tightening. Obama’s choice of a vice president, it was announced, would be dictated by long-time Trilateral stalwart Jim Johnson, a former aide to Trilateral operative Vice President Walter Mondale. The last time the Principals’ Committee or its equivalent was this powerful was back in 1999, when President Clinton had been forced to mortgage and sacrifice most of his constitutional powers in exchange for votes in the Senate to avoid being removed from office. At that time, the Principals’ Committee had been composed of Vice President Gore, Secretary of State Albright, Defense Secretary Cohen, General Shelton of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and top bureaucrat Richard Clarke, with help from Bill Richardson and Richard Holbrook, among others. At that time, the main project which the Principals’ Committee was promoting was the bombing of Serbia, which was seen as a means for humiliating the Russian government of Boris Yeltsin and promoting the further disintegration of Russia, in conformity with what we know today as the Brzezinski plan. Russian Prime Minister Primakov was flying across the Atlantic with a very high probability of arriving at a negotiated solution when the despicable Al Gore gave the order to begin the bombing of Serbia, causing Primakov to turn back over mid-ocean, and return to Moscow. At a later point, the scoundrel General Wesley Clark joined forces with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in order to secure a NATO invasion of Serbia by land forces, a move which would have led to extravagant casualties on the NATO side in the course of destroying that country. By this time, fortunately, Clinton had recouped enough of his powers to be able to block the move, which coincided with the Washington conference held to mark the 50th anniversary of the NATO pact. This time around, the task of the Principals’ Committee was clearly the winding down of the Iraq war, and the ratcheting up of operations against Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burma, Venezuela, and ultimately against China and Russia. The rogue B-52 incident was forecast by me in an essay entitled “Cheney Determined to Strike in US with WMD This Summer,” issued on July 21, 2007, and widely distributed in July-August 2007 on the internet and in print form in the Rock Creek Free Press in Washington, as well as in other papers. This was followed by the Kennebunkport Warning, which was posted online in the evening of August 26, 2007, less than 72 hours before the rogue B-52 nuclear missiles were loaded. By September 3, the Kennebunkport Warning was posted on 110,000 web sites worldwide. The precision and timeliness of this warning represent an unprecedented intelligence achievement. But since October-December 2007, the danger of a US attack on Iran has steadily declined. Brzezinski’s hit list is much more ambitious, and includes Sudan, Pakistan, Burma, and China, all stepping stones to the final reckoning with Moscow. The main possibility of an attack on Iran in the present situation comes from disgruntled Israeli factions like the one around Netanyahu who are aghast that they are being demoted from their previous role as the hub of US strategy to the status of just another expendable pawn in Brzezinski’s lunatic plan for confrontation with Beijing and Moscow. The Israelis are horrified by Obama, just as everyone in the world should be. The winning faction of the US-UK establishment does not want the attack on Iran, and the Israelis would be foolhardy to try it on their own. The threats today from former IDF chief and Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, about an Israeli solo attack on Iran because of the failure of economic sanctions to stop nuclear development, indicate deep discontent, but the guess here is that they are a bluff. We will soon find out: if the Israelis do not strike Iran in the next few weeks, they will have lost their chance, as the Trilaterals continue to consolidate their power. X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 385 THE BRZEZINSKI PLAN FOR RUSSIA Groaning under the weight of two lost wars, the terminal crisis of the US dollar, banking panic, and hyperinflation, the US ruling elite is attempting to unify itself around Obama for a breathtaking reversal of their entire strategic and ideological field. The intent is to largely jettison the post-9/11 enemy image of Islamic terrorism and the focus on the Middle East, and to shift target to Russia, China, and their allies in a vast global showdown or planetary end game for which Obama is supposed to be the figurehead. As outlined by the cold warrior and Russia-hater Brzezinski, the first phase is to eject the Chinese from Africa, cutting off their access to oil and raw materials, and thus sabotaging their current rapid industrial development. All of Africa is rapidly becoming a battlefield of the US against the Chinese, and Obama is the ideal front man for this. Chinese allies like Sudan, and also Pakistan and Burma, are all being targeted as part of this plan. With Iran and Syria, the effort will not be to attack them, but to turn them against Russia and China. This Brzezinski design is why Obama says he wants to negotiate with Iran, but bomb Pakistan. China is being weakened and destabilized by the Tibetan insurrection and other operations, and Zbig would like to stage a large-scale incident under the cover of the summer Olympics. In the final stage, Zbig thinks he can drive the oil-starved Chinese in on Russia’s provinces of eastern Siberia, where there is much oil and few Russians. Obama is thus the bearer of a plan for Sino-Russian World War III that far surpasses the insanity of the neocons. Since Russia and China are both well aware of the Brzezinski plan, this entire lunatic project is sure to blow up in our faces, with cataclysmic results. The Iraq war will seem a tea party by comparison. The main grounds for aggression in the new phase will be humanitarian and human rights claims, not terrorism, so as to maximize left cover. OBAMA’S ATTACK ON PAKISTAN An example of the heightened aggressiveness that could be expected under the Brzezinski plan was the question of unilateral US bombing of Pakistan. Not a few observers spent the first half of 2008 worrying about an imminent attack on Iran. The reality was that the growing power of the Brzezinski faction in Washington made such an attack less and less likely, at least as far as the United States and the United Kingdom were concerned. But these same observers were largely blind to a program of systematic aggression being carried out by the United States and the British against Pakistan, a country that was almost 3 times larger than Iran, and became equipped with nuclear weapons and medium-range ballistic missiles to deliver them. Every gust of wind in the Persian Gulf was considered a harbinger of Armageddon, but the constant bombing raids in the northwest regions of Pakistan were considered a matter of scant importance. The irony was that the bombing attacks on Pakistan had been demanded by none other than Obama. Speaking indeed the July 2007 Democratic candidates’ debate held in Chicago, in a colloquy with Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Obama had stated: ‘And, Chris, respectfully — and you and I are close friends — but the fact is you obviously didn’t read my speech. Because what I said was that we have to refocus, get out of Iraq, make certain that we are helping Pakistan deal with the problem of al Qaeda in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But, Chris, if we have actionable intelligence on al Qaeda operatives, including bin Laden, and President Musharraf cannot act, then we should. Now, I think that’s just common sense. I don’t know about you, but for us to authorize — (cheers, applause) — (inaudible) --.’203 386 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Senator Clinton had disagreed with this reckless and unilateral approach: ‘“You can think big, but remember, you shouldn’t always say everything you think if you’re running for president, because it has consequences around the world,” Senator Clinton had retorted. Dodd had joined Clinton in criticizing Obama. Dodd said Obama’s stance could undermine Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the country’s military ruler, who has been a U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda. “While General Musharraf is no Thomas Jefferson, he may be the only thing that stands between us and having an Islamic fundamentalist state in that country,” Dodd said. “So while I would like to see him change, the reality is, if we lose him, then what we face is an alternative that could be a lot worse for our country.”204 Dodd added: ‘I think it’s highly responsible — or irresponsible for people who are running for the presidency and seek that office to suggest we may be willing unilaterally to invade a nation here who we’re trying to get to be more cooperative with us in Afghanistan and elsewhere. So my views — and I say this respectfully to my friend from Illinois here — I think it was wrong to say what he did in that matter. I think it’s important for us to be very careful about the language we use, make it clear that if this United States is going to build the relationships around the world, we’re going to have to do so with allies, in some cases allies that we may not particularly like.’205 Senator McCain had criticized Obama for making such a reckless and incendiary proposal. President Bush himself stated that he intended to work closely with President Musharraf in regard to all operations conducted by the United States on Pakistani territory. JAKE TAPPER: OBAMA MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN BUSH Since the tenant of the White House had ruled out the unilateral bombing of Pakistan which Obama had demanded, the matter appeared to be closed. Jake Tapper of ABC News found it striking that Obama, who was posing as the peace candidate for Iraq, should be so aggressive in regard to Pakistan. Tapper showed that Obama was raising the issue on the campaign trail, quoting him. ‘“I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges,” Obama said, “but let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.” There it was again: unilateral US bombing of a sovereign state that had nuclear weapons. Tapper commented: ‘In many ways, the speech is counterintuitive; Obama, one of the more liberal candidates in the race, is proposing a geopolitical posture that is more aggressive than that of President Bush.’ (Jake Tapper, ‘Presidential Candidate Pushes Aggressive Stance Toward Pakistan,’ ABC News, August 1, 2007)206 In other words, when it came to Pakistan, Obama was a bigger warmonger than any Republican or Democrat in sight, including Bush and McCain, to say nothing of Clinton. Astoundingly, the power of Brzezinski in Washington grew so rapidly that Obama was destined to prevail, imposing his policy instead of the announced intentions of the man who kept calling himself the president of the United States. Late in March 2008, a press account revealed that the US had indeed gone over to unilaterally bombing northwest Pakistan: ‘The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that Pakistan’s new leaders will insist on scaling back military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials. “We have always said that as for strikes, that is for Pakistani forces to do and for the Pakistani government to decide. . . . We do not envision a situation in which foreigners will enter Pakistan and chase targets,” said Farhatullah Babar, a top spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party, whose leader, Yousaf Raza Gillani, is the new prime X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 387 minister. “This war on terror is our war.” But Kamran Bokhari, a Pakistani who directs Middle East analysis for Strategic Forecasting, a private intelligence group in Washington, said the new government will almost certainly take a harder line against such strikes. “These . . . are very unpopular, not because people support al-Qaeda, but because they feel Pakistan has no sovereignty,” he said. The latest Predator strike, on March 16, killed about 20 in Shahnawaz Kot; a Feb. 28 strike killed 12 foreign militants in the village of Kaloosha; and a Jan. 29 strike killed 13 people, including senior al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi, in North Waziristan.’ (Robin Wright and Joby Warrick, “US Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan,” Washington Post, March 27, 2008)207 Soon it became clear that this was a systematic US bombing campaign and represented a scandal as big in its own way as the Nixon-Kissinger secret bombing of Cambodia back in the early 1970s. This is no hyperbole; we must simply remember that a nuclear power, and not some banana republic, is being attacked! Soon it became clear that the US bombing campaign was being conducted with wild and reckless abandon, and that members of Pakistani paramilitary formations were getting killed: ‘Pakistan is condemning a U.S. air strike which allegedly killed 11 Pakistani paramilitaries as a “completely unprovoked and cowardly act.” U.S.-led forces killed Pakistani troops in an air strike along the volatile Afghan border that Pakistan’s army condemned on Wednesday as “completely unprovoked and cowardly.” U.S. officials confirmed that three aircraft launched about a dozen bombs following a clash between Taliban militants and Afghan and U.S.- led coalition forces late Tuesday. Pakistan says the strikes killed 11 of its paramilitary troops. The Pakistani army said the air strike hit a post of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the Mohmand tribal region …. It launched a strong protest and reserved “the right to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression,” the military said in a statement. The statement said the clash “had hit at the very basis of cooperation” between the allies in the war on terror.’208 The Pakistani government was now the one elected in the elections conducted after the death of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. This was supposedly the regime the US had wanted to install, but Brzezinski was doing everything possible to humiliate, mortified, and thoroughly antagonize the new government in Islamabad. The Frontier Post of Pakistan reported: ‘On June 10, 2008 US - led coalition forces along the Afghan border launched an air strike on a Frontier Corps Sheikh Baba border post in the mountainous Gora Prai region in Mohmand Agency. 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops including one major, 10 civilians killed and several injured. The incident took place inside Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. Pentagon confirmed that coordinated artillery and air strikes were carried out. On Jun 11 2008, Prime Minister Gilani condemned the deaths, telling parliament: “We will take a stand for the sake of this country’s sovereignty, for the sake of its dignity and self-respect”. He further revealed that “We do not allow our territory to be used. We completely condemn this, and will take it up through the foreign office.”’ (“NATO’s Senseless Aggressiveness in FATA,” Frontier Post)209 By early July 2008, the US was making preparations tom escalate: US commandos are reportedly poised to launch raids against al-Qa’ida and Taliban targets in Pakistan as Washington moves an aircraft carrier into the Arabian Sea. The redeployment of the Abraham Lincoln and its escort vessels from the Gulf yesterday came after US military intelligence officials recorded an increase in the number of foreign fighters travelling to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants.’210 What was Brzezinski doing? He was obviously using a pretext of bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban in order to destroy the central government of Pakistan, and promote civil war, Balkanization, partitioning, and subdivision in that country. The goal was evidently the division of Pakistan into three or four or five petty states, including such areas as Sind, Pushtunistan, Baluchistan, and so forth. This operation had nothing whatsoever to do with bin Laden, Al Qaeda, 388 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the Taliban, or the “global war on terror,” but had everything to do with the fact that Pakistan was a traditional Chinese ally and economic and trading partner. Pakistan had to be destroyed as part of the Brzezinski strategy to strip China of all of her allies, and promote the isolation and encirclement of the Middle Kingdom. By this time, northwest Pakistan was one of the very few parts of the world where the US continued to rely on the bin Laden-Al Qaeda myth to justify its policy. Elsewhere, considerations of humanitarian intervention and human rights were on the front burner. GOP: LAME DUCK BUSH REDUCED TO CHILD’S PLAY In the late spring and early summer of 2008, a series of events further underlined the degree to which Bush, Cheney, and the neocons had indeed lost power to Brzezinski and company. Bush and Cheney appeared to have about as much power as the White House janitor or the groundskeeper at the Naval Observatory. Bush and Cheney were variously described as finished, washed up, lame ducks, figureheads, and kaput. Some Republicans were becoming concerned that Bush had lapsed into a figurehead-lame-duck status, and impotence and passivity so extreme that they might become a negative factor for McCain in the upcoming election. One columnist noted: ‘Some of President Bush’s allies tell the Political Bulletin they are embarrassed and angry that the White House seems to be wasting Bush’s time on frivolous events when much of the country is suffering through economic hard times. “Look at the schedule for Monday,” says an outside Bush adviser. “A highlight of his day was witnessing a tee ball game. ... He is being reduced to child’s play.” The adviser says Bush also signed a supplemental appropriations bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Monday, but he adds that it didn’t get much coverage and that the tee ball game set the wrong tone. There is growing concern among Bush allies that the Democrats will effectively portray the President and GOP candidate John McCain as out of touch. Some GOP insiders now predict that the Republicans will lose at least five seats in the Senate and 15 to 20 in the House, and it could get worse if gasoline prices continue to soar and the public remains in a disgruntled mood.’211 THE NORTH KOREA DEAL: CHENEY VANQUISHED, APOPLECTIC A leading symptom of this loss of power by Bush and Cheney was the announcement by Secretary of State Rice, another member of the Principals’ Committee, that a deal had been reached with North Korea (the DPRK) concerning the termination of the North Korean nuclear weapons program, in exchange for which the United States had pledged to remove North Korea from the State Department list of terrorist states. The remaining neocons were apoplectic to the point of foaming at the mouth. The British press revealed that the diehard Cheney had fought tooth and nail to block this deal, but had been vanquished by Rice — and thus by the superior power of the Principals’ Committee, in our view: ‘Vice President Dick Cheney fought furiously to block efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to strike a controversial US compromise deal with North Korea over the communist state’s nuclear program… Mr Cheney was so angry about the decision to remove North Korea from the terrorism blacklist and lift some sanctions that he abruptly curtailed a meeting with visiting US foreign experts when asked about it in the White House last week, according to the New York Times “I’m not going to be the one to announce this decision. You need to address your interest in this to the State Department,” he reportedly said before leaving the room. “The exchanges between Cheney’s office and Rice’s people at State got very testy. But ultimately Condi had the President’s ear and persuaded him that his legacy would be stronger if they reached a deal with Pyongyang,” said a Pentagon adviser who was briefed on the battle.’ Top neocon John Bolton was beside himself with rage, and saw this deal with the DPRK as a harbinger of the neocon Götterdämmerung: ‘“It’s shameful,” said John Bolton, Bush’s former U.S. ambassador to the X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 389 United Nations. “This represents the final collapse of Bush’s foreign policy.” (CBS-AP, June 26, 2008) the mood of his fellow neocon Richard Perle was equally apocalyptic: ‘“Usually the word ‘meltdown’ applies to a nuclear reactor. In this case it applies to Bush administration diplomacy which once aimed to halt the North Korean program and has now become an abject failure,” Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon defense policy board in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, told the Telegraph.’ (Daily Telegraph, June 28, 2008) At the same time, a pattern of intense diplomatic activity had emerged across the Middle East, even as the Israeli politician Shaul Mofaz was threatening Iran with an inevitable nuclear attack if it were to persevere in its alleged attempts to procure nuclear bombs. The Israelis were known to be negotiating with Syria in a series of talks mediated by the Turkish government. The Israelis were also making deals with Hamas and Hezbollah, something that was formally speaking a violation of the strict Bush doctrine in this regard. Remarkably, the top levels of the US government issued some unusual warnings to the Israelis, telling them to back off from any plan to strike at Iran: “President Bush and the top U.S. military commander warned Israel... against bombing Iran, suggesting the U.S. doesn’t want to get involved in a third war. “This is a very unstable part of the world and I don’t need it to be more unstable,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman [and leading member of the ruling Principals’ Committee], said at a briefing. Bush said, “I have made it clear to all parties [including Israel] that the first option is diplomacy,” in getting Iran to stop enriching uranium that could be used for a nuclear weapon. The warnings came after the disclosure that Israel had conducted air operations over the Mediterranean that could simulate a strike on Iran.’212 In addition to these public warnings, there were also reports of private messages telling the Israelis to back off. One was delivered by Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen of the Principals’ Committee: ‘The US did not give the green light for an Israeli attack on Iran, Prof. Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and currently the top defense analyst at the ABC TV network, said…. Cordesman was speaking during a meeting with Israeli defense analysts held by the Institute of National Security Studies. He said IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi was notified of the United States’ stance regarding Iran by Admiral Michael Mullen, the top uniformed US military officer, during Mullen’s visit here at the end of June. The US has opted at this point to stick to the diplomatic track in its efforts to keep Iran from going nuclear, and has made clear to Israel that it shouldn’t attack Iran without White House approval, Cordesman said. He added that the current US policy is likely to remain unchanged at least until the next US president is sworn in. Israeli officials confirmed that Cordesman’s statements indeed reflected the current tone of US policy.’213 There were also indications that Iran was being offered the possibility of continuing to enrich uranium at the level of its present capacity to do so, while opening a negotiation with Solana of the European Union. This was welcomed by the Iran Foreign Minister Mottaki, and was widely regarded as the prelude to a deal or modus vivendi between the US under Brzezinski and the Iranians: “Iran agreed …to enter into talks with the European Union about its nuclear program before the end of the month, Iranian state-run media said. The EU, which recently placed sanctions on Iran, has offered a package of political, economic and security incentives to Iran if it halts uranium enrichment. Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, called EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to tell him the response to that offer was coming, according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency, and Solana’s office characterized Jalili’s tone as friendly and positive. The EU has proposed suspending further sanctions if Iran takes a six-week break from installing or manufacturing any more centrifuges that enrich uranium. Iran would be allowed to continue to run 390 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography the more than 3,000 centrifuges it already has but could not manufacture more (“Iran ready to discuss EU’s nuclear offer,” CNN, July 4, 2008)214 In the midst of these negotiations, Iran launched a number of medium and short range ballistic missiles. The neocons tried to beat the drum, but the response of Secretary Gates of the Principals’ Committee was as low-key and placid as could be imagined: ‘The United States is no closer to confrontation with Iran after Tehran test-fired missiles it says could reach Israel and U.S. assets in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday. Asked if the United States was any closer to confrontation, Gates told reporters: “No, I don’t think so.” Gates also said it was “highly unlikely” that Russian air defense missiles would be in Iranian hands soon. An improved air defense system would make a strike on Iran more difficult.’ (Reuters: “Pentagon chief: US no closer to Iran confrontation,” July 9, 2008)215 Gates also mentioned the terrible consequences which any hostilities with Iran would have. The following day, there were press reports that the US was allowing the Israelis to use Iraqi airspace to ready an attack on Iran. These reports were quickly denied by the Pentagon. An Israeli attack could not be ruled out, but there was no doubt that the US and the British were strongly opposed to the idea, which would undercut Brzezinski’s entire plan of turning Iran against the Russians. On July 11, 2008, it was reported that Treasury Secretary Paulson had convinced Bush that the administration policy of hostility to Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, the twin mortgage lenders whose debts amounted to some $5.3 trillion, was risking a systemic crisis of the US banking system – a financial Armageddon. Paulson reportedly told Bush that if he insisted on driving Freddie and Fannie into liquidation, he would be Hooverized in very short order, long before he left office. At this point, wheels were set into motion and the Federal Reserve that Freddie and Fannie might get access to the discount window of the US central bank. This story is highly relevant here because it shows the degree to which the members of the Principals Committee are now running the government and telling Bush what to do on most the major issues. A few weeks later, Paulson also forced Bush to drop his threat to veto a bill to bail out the giant mortgage lenders, a measure stridently demanded by Wall Street. It is clear that Brzezinski and his fellow oligarchs intend to maintain and consolidate the current preeminence of the Principals’ Committee under a possible future Obama administration, and also if McCain becomes president, although that variant is much less promising for their hopes of giving US imperialism a hyper-demagogic facelift. NEOCONS DISPLACED BY TRILATERALS, 2006-2008 The erosion of neocon power had proceeded apace, starting around the time of the 2006 US congressional elections. Around that time, British intelligence began signaling the urgent necessity of shifting target towards Russia by staging two bombastic intelligence circuses in the form of the Politkovskaya murder and the Litvinenko affair, both of which were immediately blamed on Russian President Putin. The British also stepped up their subversion efforts inside the Russian Federation under the cover of cultural exchanges conduited through the Foreign Office front organization, the British Council. As a result of the new Democratic majority in the Congress, the discredited neocon faction leader Rumsfeld was forced out and replaced by Robert Gates, a Sovietologist who had served as the Russophobe Zbigniew Brzezinski’s office boy at the National Security Council during 1977, 1978, and 1979. Gates had also been active in Brzezinski’s mujahedin operations against the Soviets, operations which had been given birth to the CIA Arab Legion, Al Qaeda. At the end of 2006, the report of the Iraq study group, also known as the Baker-Hamilton commission, signaled a change in oligarchical policy and with it the beginning of the end of the neocon dominance in Washington. The Iraq study group recommended that there be no US attack on Iran, and that negotiations with Syria and Iran be begun immediately. James Baker, a former X: Obama: A Looming World Tragedy 391 secretary of state under Bush the Elder, stated explicitly that he had procured Syria as an ally for the United States during the first Gulf War, and that he could do so again. Neocon press organs screamed that Baker and Hamilton were “surrender monkeys,” but the handwriting was now on the wall. The middle of the year saw the fall of the crypto-neocon Tony Blair, a creature of Rupert Murdoch and the last of the major European leaders who had cooperated with Bush and the neocons to unleash the Iraq war in the first place. The last serious attempt of the neocon faction to launch war with Iran probably occurred at the end of August and the beginning of September 2007, when rogue forces allied with Cheney in effect hijacked a B-52 intercontinental strategic bomber carrying six nuclear armed cruise missiles, and flew it from North Dakota to Louisiana. One or more of these missiles was probably destined to join in the Israeli attack on Syria which occurred on September 6. The fact that this B-52 was not allowed to proceed, and that a consensus against letting it leaves the United States rapidly emerged in the higher levels of the oligarchy, probably represented the last gasp of the US - UK neocons as far as starting a wider war was concerned. Bush’s outbursts in October and November about World War III were partly directed against Putin, and partly expressed his frustration that no strategic attacks on Iran were likely. This overall impression was solidified in December 2007 with the issuance of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which concluded that there was no longer any active Iranian program to build nuclear bombs. In 2008, attention was already shifting to such classic Brzezinski gambits as Kosovo independence and the emerging Polish missile crisis, along with the Tibet insurrection, threats to attack Sudan, and a clear desire to use a humanitarian emergency in Burma as a pretext for a humanitarian invasion and regime change using the story that the Burmese junta was not an efficient distributor of relief supplies. During these same months, the US Supreme Court was handing down the majority opinions striking down the Bush-Cheney military commissions plan for alleged terrorist captives, and then asserting the right of habeas corpus for the prisoners being held in the US exclave of Guantánamo Bay Cuba. Once again, the neocons howled in their impotence. Then came the deal to de-list North Korea as a terrorist state, followed by increasing indications of an imminent deal with Iran, even as the attacks on Pakistan escalated and that country teetered on the brink of civil war and partition. The years had not been kind to the neocons: Scooter Libby had been convicted, and only escaped prison through Bush’s highly controversial pardon. Lord Conrad Black, arguably an even bigger neocon then Libby, was now actually serving a multi-year prison sentence in a US federal penitentiary for embezzling money from his companies. Lord Black had been one of the major funders of the American Enterprise Institute, where no less a personage than Lynn Cheney, as well as Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen, had been employed. As for Ledeen, his problems might only be beginning: a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee alleged that Ledeen and his old Iran-Contra friend Ghorbanifar had conspired to manipulate US intelligence during the run-up to the Iraq war. This report had no doubt received much personal attention from the Committee Chairman, who was none other than Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, of the Trilateral-Rockefeller faction which also included Brzezinski. These were some of the steps by which the Trilaterals had ousted the neocons from their previous positions of power, had neutralized Bush and Cheney, and had generally introduced a demagogic left turn in the entire posture of Anglo American foreign policy, propaganda, and intelligence operations. Now, all they needed was a figurehead to become the spokesman for this deceptive and cynical left turn — and this was obviously the role assigned to Obama. If the American people could imagine no conflict worse than the Iraq war, they were obviously suffering from a severe poverty of imagination. Zbigniew Brzezinski’s imagination was richer than that. He could and did imagine a drive to break up both Russia and China, reducing both to a 392 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography congeries of warlords and petty states, all absolutely impotent to resist the Anglo-Americans. That would give London and Washington another century of world domination. Brzezinski would always claim that his intention was to accomplish all this using proxies, surrogates, and pawns, and without embroiling the US in war with Russia and China. His approach had all the defects of the old Cliveden set of the 1930s, who were convinced that they could build up Hitler, turn him east, play him against Stalin, and destroy both Germany and the USSR in the process. Unfortunately, they had been too clever by half, and their plan had blown up in their faces when Hitler turned west before going east. That had been World War II. Now, it was clear that Brzezinski’s fantastic strategy was also destined to blow up in his face, and in all our faces. An Obama regime was therefore a probable one-way ticket to thermonuclear war, an outcome several orders of magnitude worse than anything the neocons had ever plotted. Brzezinski and his friends were more aggressive, more adventurous, more intelligent, and more insane than the neocons. The American people, if they succumbed to Obama, were about to leap out of the frying pan and into the fire. BRZEZINSKI WARNS OF WORLD WAR IV UNDER MCCAIN Perhaps responding to criticisms like the ones developed here, Brzezinski has attempted to refurbish his image as a relative dove. He has warned about the temptation to try to win militarily in Afghanistan, which is the trap he himself used to destroy the USSR. Brzezinski means to say that the point of waging war in Afghanistan is not the permanent occupation and subduing of Afghanistan, but rather using the Afghan war to destroy Pakistan, along with Afghanistan itself. Above all, Brzezinski wants to avoid being exposed as the most dangerous warmonger of them all, stating: “Well, if McCain is president and if his Secretary of State is Joe Lieberman and his Secretary of Defense is [Rudolph] Giuliani, we will be moving towards the World War IV that they have been both favoring and predicting,” he said, calling that an “appalling concept” (and adding that by their lights, the Cold War counted as World War III). “So it depends on who are the principal officers. If it’s [Richard] Armitage, or if it were to be Brent Scowcroft, I think it would be very different.” Asked who he would like to see in a potential Obama cabinet, Brzezinski said: “I think [Sen. Chuck] Hagel. I would like to see a bipartisan cabinet. I think we need one very badly — and we did well in the Cold War when we had one. I would say Hagel and [Sen. Dick] Lugar would be very good Republicans [for Obama].” He also cited Sen. Joe Biden as a potential Secretary of State, in which case it would also be possible to “keep [Secretary of Defense Bob] Gates in the job for a few months.” Brzezinski said such a cabinet would be an important step in redressing the increased partisanship of foreign affairs in recent years, adding: “I think there is a tendency, because of the very complexity of the issues, for solutions to become polarized and more extreme. ... Republicans move toward neocon-ish formulas, and Democrats [follow] idealistically escapist formulas. In either case you don’t end up with the necessary mix of idealism and realism.”216 In other words, we need a united oligarchy in order to guarantee another century of empire. It is the neocon project of world domination, in a form that is more clever and more insane at the same time. CHAPTER XI: OBAMA AS SOCIAL FASCIST “…the oscillations among the responses could intensify in such a way as to threaten to destroy both ideals and institutions…. This situation could lead to a two-phase dialectic involving intensified efforts to reform government, followed by intensified frustration when those efforts produce not progress in a liberal-democratic direction, but obstacles to meeting perceived functional needs. The weakening of government in an effort to reform it could lead eventually to strong demands for the replacement of the weakened and ineffective institutions by more authoritarian structures more effectively designed to meet historical needs. Given the perversity of reform, moralistic extremism in the pursuit of liberal democracy could generate a strong tide toward authoritarian efficiency.” Samuel Huntington, 1981 “If it will take fascism, we’ll have to have fascism.” Weatherman Ted Gold, 1969 The argument that Obama would be another Pétain-like Carter, offering his noble qualities only to be overwhelmed by ignoble reality, is the deepest fear about him, or at least the one that most resonates with me. – James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly, September 2008 Much of the American public will object to this book’s thesis that Barack Hussein Obama must be considered as a postmodern fascist, or as a neo-fascist, a fascist lite or simply as a fascist. Leftliberals will predictably be the most vehement in their rejection of this theme, since it is they who have embraced the New Messiah with the greatest willful blindness and hysteria, refusing to listen to any reasoned arguments to the contrary. How can Obama be a fascist when he has cultivated a pose of being the true anti-war candidate – apart from such trifles as his demand that Pakistanis be slaughtered with reckless abandon in their own country without notification to their government. How can he be a fascist when he is some kind of leftist, and when he poses as an insurgent? Rightists will object that Obama is really a Moslem. Other rightists will claim that he is a Marxist or crypto-communist. Many ordinary people will tend towards the view that he is just another American pragmatist like the rest of us, but with views that are somewhat extreme and radical on a range of subjects – making Obama someone to vote against perhaps, but not a fascist. In order to clarify this issue, we need to go back and look at what fascism was. To make matters simpler, we will concentrate on the Italian fascists, partly since it was they who invented fascism, and partly since we can conduct a calmer analysis if we do not make Hitler and the Nazis the prime examples – although we will mention them from time to time to illustrate what we are saying about fascism in general. Obama’s signature mass rallies are perhaps the factor that first alerted some right-wing journalists to the nature of the Obama pseudo-movement. For many, this awareness began to emerge in February 2008, when the Obama postmodern coup was already well underway, despite temporary reverses. David Brooks, for example, wrote: “The afflicted had already been through the phases of Obama-mania — fainting at rallies, weeping over their touch screens while watching Obama videos, spending hours making folk crafts featuring Michelle Obama’s face. These patients had experienced intense surges of hope-amine, the brain chemical that fuels euphoric sensations of historic change and personal salvation. But they found that as the weeks went on, they needed more and purer hope-injections just to preserve the rush. They wound up craving more hope than even the Hope Pope could provide, and they began experiencing brooding moments of suboptimal hopefulness. Anxious posts began to appear on the Yes We Can! Facebook pages. A sense of ennui began to creep through the nation’s Ian McEwan-centered book clubs. Up until now The Chosen One’s speeches had seemed to them less like stretches of words and more like soul sensations that 394 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography transcended time and space. But those in the grips of Obama Comedown Syndrome began to wonder if His stuff actually made sense. For example, His Hopeness tells rallies that we are the change we have been waiting for, but if we are the change we have been waiting for then why have we been waiting since we’ve been here all along?” (David Brooks, New York Times, February 19, 2008) The other aspect of the Obama lemming legions which has attracted the attention of some commentators is a specious rage with which they turn on those who do not share their fanatical devotion to the Perfect Master. Professor Paul Krugman is surely one of the more intelligent of these critics when he writes: “Why, then, is there so much venom out there? I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality. We’ve already had that from the Bush administration — remember Operation Flight Suit? We really don’t want to go there again.” (Paul Krugman, New York Times, February 11, 2008) Obama’s general demeanor and rhetorical style has been compared to that of Mussolini, the first fascist to seize power in a major country. David Plotz of Slate.com was shocked by the mob rule overtones of the Obama agitation: ‘The deputy editor of a major online magazine spent time in a weekly podcast explaining how the style of Senator Barack Obama shares much in common with the speech of fascist dictators like Benito Mussolini. “That’s slightly fascistic,” David Plotz, the deputy editor at Slate.com said in the magazine’s weekly podcast when one of his fellow editors brought up Obama’s style. “That’s a very, like, let’s rally the nation. I don’t want to be rallied.” After his fellow Slate editors lightly gibed him for his statement, he continued the point: “My brother who is an academic wrote this wonderful book about crowds, and crowd theory. And one of the sort of lessons that he’s always imparted to me is just that crowds are terrifying. Crowds are horrifying for the most part because they have a will of their own, and they act independently of rationality. And I think that Obama relies hugely on that. That’s not to say, I don’t, I still support him, but I don’t like that fascistic, I like him not for the fascistic elements of his candidacy, which I think are profound.”’ (Michael Roston, “Slate editor calls Obama speech style ‘fascistic,’“ (Rawstory, February 4, 2008) An untenable position, we note in passing, since fascism, once identified, must surely be opposed. DIALECTIC OF HOPE AND DESPAIR IN FASCISM FROM MUSSOLINI TO OBAMA One of the most reliable indications of Obama’s fascist ideology can be found in his obsessive preoccupation with the theme of “hope.” One of the staples of fascist demagogy from Mussolini to Hitler, and especially in the latter, is a constant attempt to mobilize the latent and conscious despair of the target audiences into a form of frenzied activism or flight forward in the service of the Fascist party and the fascist cause. One of the favorite themes of National Socialist propaganda was the idea that Hitler represented the last hope of the despairing masses after the torments of World War I, the great hyperinflation of 1923, and the great deflationary depression starting in 1929. This theme was used in some of the NSDAP’s most effective posters. In Obama’s case, his ability to appeal to the despair of his followers is significantly enhanced by his own existentialist background, as indicated by his interest during his college years in the existentialist-terrorist works of Frantz Fanon. As has already been mentioned, a thoroughgoing existentialist is in grave danger of sliding into fascism under the impact of a social crisis including military defeat and acute economic XI: Obama as Social Fascist 395 depression, as was seen in the case of the leading European existentialist, Martin Heidegger, who became an active Nazi propagandist. Every day, existentialists and other radical irrationalist subjectivists who have been supporting Obama are sliding towards fascism like passengers careening down the steeply sloping decks of the Titanic in its last throes. Once again it is Georg Lukacs who, pre-eminently among the historians of European philosophy, has pointed to the intimate interface between radical existentialism and fascism. Lukacs writes: ‘no matter how distorted the presentation may be because of the solipsism of the phenomenological method, we are dealing with a social fact: the internal situation of the bourgeois individual (especially the intellectual) in the crumbling world of monopoly capital, faced by the perspective of annihilation. Heidegger’s despair thus has a dual character: on the one side the implacable exposure of the inner nothingness of the individual in the crisis period of imperialism; on the other hand — because the social causes of this nothingness are fetishized away as timeless factors having nothing to do with the social situation — the resulting feelings can very easily kick over into a despairing reactionary activity. It is surely no coincidence that Hitler’s agitation continuously appealed to despair. Of course, this mainly addressed the economic-social situation of the working masses. In the case of the intelligentsia, this mood of nothingness and despair, whose subjective validity constitutes the starting point for Heidegger’s philosophy, and which he elevates to the conceptual level, transfigures into philosophy and canonizes as ‘authentic,” represents the most fertile soil for the effectiveness of Hitler’s mass agitation.’ (Lukacs 441) Existentialism, reinforced by the postmodern consensus in the Anglo-American academic world frequented by Obama, represents a perfect culture medium for the postmodern fascist mentality. The general nature of this dynamic was already clear many decades ago: “Agnostic irrationalism… has as its final result a passionate rejection of objective truth of the same type that we see in Hitler with other motives and with other justifications. In the interface between existentialist irrationalism and the fascist world outlook we are not dealing with individual epistemological findings…but rather with a general intellectual atmosphere of radical doubt about the possibility of objective knowledge, about the value of reason and understanding, and with a blind belief in intuition-based, irrational ‘revelations’ that contradict reason and understanding. We are dealing with an atmosphere of hysterical-superstitious gullibility, in which the obscurantism of a struggle against objective truths, against understanding and reason, is presented as the last word of modern science and of the most ‘progressive’ epistemology.” (Lukacs 633) These considerations should help make clear why he Obama personally finds the postmodern fascist outlook to be congenial and coherent with his general attitude towards life. As has already been shown, Michelle Obama represents an even more militant version of this same fundamental worldview. A DISTANT MIRROR: THE PEACE FASCISM OF SIR OSWALD MOSELEY One large difficulty in evaluating Obama as a postmodern fascist comes from the present-day tendency to identify fascism almost totally with militarism and military aggression. Obama has called successfully for the bombing of northern Pakistan, although most of his followers seem to be unable to comprehend his role in this regard. Of course, fascist movements, once they were well established and consolidated, did tend overwhelmingly towards military aggression. But this does not tell us anything about what these movements looked like in their earliest phases, before they had taken power and before they were in a position to start military adventures. There is also the problem of fascist movements in countries like Great Britain and France, who had been among the winners of World War I. These fascist movements did not take power, but might have done so 396 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography under slightly different circumstances. In order to evaluate the Obama phenomenon of 2008, we must realize that overt jingoistic militarism is not necessary for fascism to arise. Many assume that all fascists must necessarily be first and foremost aggressive warmongers, but this is not necessarily the case. As one scholar has noted, “most fascist parties in stable, prosperous western European countries with mature colonial empires preached a kind of ‘peace fascism,’ unlike their counterparts in central and eastern Europe.”217 Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 [Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995], 298 Stanley G. Payne elaborates on the question of fascism and militaristic aggression as follows: “Fascism is usually said to have been expansionist and imperialist by definition, but this is not clear from a reading of diverse fascist programs. Most were indeed imperialist, but all types of political movements and systems have produced imperialist policies, while several fascist movements had little interest in or even rejected new imperial ambitions. Those which appeared in satisfied national or imperialist states were generally defensive rather than aggressive. All, however, sought a new order in foreign affairs, a new relationship or set of alliances with respect to contemporary states and forces, and a new status for their nations in Europe and the world. Some were frankly oriented towards war, while others merely prized military values but projected no plans for aggression abroad. The latter sometimes sought a place of cultural hegemony or other nonmilitary forms of leadership.” (Payne 11) If we insert soft power and subversion after cultural hegemony, we may be close to understanding the postmodern fascist ideology of a possible Obama regime. Examples of “peace fascism” included the French Parti Populaire Français, originally a protofascist formation which emerged from the defeat of the mass strike upsurge of June 1936, the biggest strike wave in France before 1968. The PPF grew in reaction to the socialist-communist popular front regime of Léon Blum, which soon disappointed its own left-wing followers. This PPF received “considerable financial backing from big business interests, which sought to encourage a popular nationalist and anti-communist force. The chef or leader was Jacques Doriot, a former communist. “The new state envisaged by the PPF was to be ‘popular’ and authoritarian but decentralized, honoring the family, the community, and the region, with the latter being strongly emphasized.” The PPF had its own approach to reforming broken souls: “PPF propagandists did encourage an activist and vitalist philosophy and the creation of an homme nouveau (new man), and the movement drew the support of some accomplished fascistic intellectuals like Pierre Drieu LaRochelle.” (Payne 298) The PPF shows that it is possible to be fascist and anti-war at the same time: “…though the PPF preached vitalism and activism, together with the military virtues, it was – like all the French nationalist groups from the fascists of Bucard to the most conservative – a ‘peace party’ that discouraged talk of war and sought no particular territorial aggrandizement for France.” (Payne 298) To see what fascism looked like in the English speaking world during the 1930s, we have the case of Sir Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists, which was formed in 1932 and was banned by the government when the Second World War began in 1939. British fascism was not explicitly pro-war: “Like other fascist movements in satisfied imperial powers, the BUF never preached war and expansion, but peace and prosperity. Mosley was obsessed with overcoming social, economic, and cultural decadence, and he believed that only the disciplined nationalism and new cultural dynamism of a fascism on the Italian model could achieve it.” Also like Obama, the BUF embraced corporatist solutions for the world economic crisis of the Great Depression: “The BUF was one of the most thoroughly programmatic of all fascist movements, with elaborate corporatist economic proposals. Its thrust was decidedly modernist, paying serious attention to economic theory and concepts of ‘scientific production,’ while also espousing equal pay for women. XI: Obama as Social Fascist 397 The BUF also preached vitalism and the Shavian superman [i.e., the superman concept of the playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw], while stressing Britain’s civilizing and imperial mission in the world ‘to rescue great nations from decadence, and march together towards a higher and nobler order of civilization.’” (Payne 305) Strip away this imperial rhetoric and replace it with Obama’s Afrocentric multicultural relativism, and the similarities are striking. PALINGENESIS: THE FASCIST QUEST FOR UTOPIA Fascism has been described by some writers as being “palingenetic,” meaning that it represents an attempt to launch a rebirth of the national spirit, culture, and society. (Payne 5) Fascism generally proposes to do this through a form of cultural populism which rejects ideology, rejects parliamentary methods, and claims to merge the interests of different social and economic classes under the heading of national unity. It was always concerned with promoting and fostering mass mobilization for national goals. In 2003, Dr. Lawrence Brit listed “Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism,” with the implication that they established that the Bush administration was a fascist regime. This list has been widely read and reproduced on the internet. Brit’s characteristics of fascism include powerful and continuing nationalism; disdain for the recognition of human rights; identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause; supremacy of the military; rampant sexism; controlled mass media; obsession with national security; religion and government intertwined; corporate power protected; labor power suppressed; disdain for intellectuals and the arts; obsession with crime and punishment; rampant corruption and cronyism; and fraudulent elections. This list captures some aspects of a consolidated and established fascist society, but it misses others totally or even turns them on their head. Take for example the supremacy of the military: Hitler’s entire dictatorship contradicts the ideas that professional military people should direct wars: supreme power was kept in Hitler’s own hands, to the point that the German Army tried to assassinate him, and he retaliated by liquidating many of the most famous commanders, including Rommel. Key traditionalist members of the German General Staff like Halder were ousted or forced to kow-tow to Nazi hacks and yes-men like Keitel and Zeitzler. Or again: disdain for intellectuals and the arts would hardly apply to Italian fascism, which was founded in part by leading writers, sculptors, architects, and artists like D’Annunzio and Marinetti. Other characteristics listed by Brit would apply to many kinds of dictatorships and authoritarian governments, and not just fascist ones.218 CONFUSION ABOUT FASCIST MASS MOVEMENTS An attempt to obscure the real nature of fascism as an anti-establishment, anti-parliamentary mass movement came from the former CIA employee Ray McGovern. McGovern was one of those left-liberal personalities who had stubbornly refused to go beyond the CIA’s blowback theory of 9/11 to examine the more realistic alternative explanations of the MIHOP school.219 In the March- April 2008, McGovern authored an article entitled “History’s Lessons: Creeping Fascism – Lessons from the Past.” (consortiumnews.com) Here McGovern presented the question of fascism solely and exclusively as a problem of top-down police state measures, with no reference whatsoever to historical fascism as a mass movement of idealistic students, goons, and guttersnipes backed by financiers and operating under anti-politician and anti-establishment cover. Fascism for McGovern was a matter of Bush’s violation of the FISA wiretap law and similar top-down measures. Interestingly, McGovern cited the late, notorious, British agent of German nationality, Sebastian Haffner. Haffner had written about the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, criticizing the 398 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography “sheepish submissiveness” and the “cowardly treachery” of the labor-based Social Democratic Party. Haffner found that “it is in the final analysis only that betrayal [by the Social Democrats] that explains the almost inexplicable fact that a great nation, which cannot have consisted entirely of cowards, fell into ignominy without a fight.” But it is very easy for modern-day left liberals with CIA connections to fault the German labor politicians of 75 years ago. Haffner did not mention that his British paymasters had thrown their support to Hitler, as in the case of Lady Astor and her Cliveden Set. What can we say of Howard Dean, Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, Ted Kennedy, and the other rotten Democratic politicians who have rushed to support postmodern fascism in the form of the Obama campaign long before any seizure of power? The modern American politicians do not fare well in this comparison. THE MASS MOVEMENT IS CRITICAL FOR THE ADVENT OF FASCISM A more basic objection to Brit’s entire approach is that this method might be some use for a dreamer or time traveler who suddenly woke up or landed in a given society and wanted to know if that society were fascist. But that is not our problem. In practice, the only way to enter a fascist society is through the successful activity of a fascist mass movement, and it is here that the characteristics listed by Brit not only fail utterly, but actually become dangerously misleading. The only way real fascism has ever been created is through an irrationalist, demagogic, antiparliamentary mass movement or reasonable facsimile thereof, stressing togetherness and the negation of class struggle and partisan haggling. Such movements have seen heavy representation of fervently idealistic young students, unemployed workers, artists and intellectuals, disgruntled veterans and crazed petty bourgeois (like bankrupt stock brokers, real estate agents, and salesmen). Many of the first fascists have generally been leftists, or political neophytes with little ideological coloration. Brit’s total omission of any mention of the fascist mass movement makes his list a factor of confusion and disorientation among many left liberals and libertarians today, who continue in many cases to imagine that fascism is a purely top-down phenomenon, when in reality it is the grass-roots and protest movement aspects of fascism which constitute its essence and make it so menacing. Brit may be describing Italy in 1938, when the regime had become consolidated and fossilized, but he is not saying anything worthwhile about Italy in 1919-1922, when fascism was clawing its way to power in society. He may have some insights into Germany in 1938, but not Germany in 1929-1933, when fascism was struggling to seize power. Once again, there is simply no comparison between just another bourgeois regime, no matter how bellicose, no matter how corrupt, no matter how oppressive, and the leap into the abyss of fascism. Payne distinguishes among fascists (the German Nazi party and the Italian National Fascist Party), the radical right (Hugenburg, Chancellor von Papen, and the Stahlhelm organization in Germany, and the Italian Nationalist Association in Italy), and the conservative right (President Hindenburg and Chancellors Brüning and von Schleicher in Germany, and Prime Ministers Sonino and Salandra in Italy). Payne attempts to describe the resulting confusion in the following terms: “Comparative analysis of fascist-type movements has been rendered more complex, and often more confused, by a common tendency to identify these movements with more conservative and rightist forms of authoritarian nationalism in the interwar period and after. The fascist movements represented the most extreme expression of modern European nationalism, yet they were not synonymous with all authoritarian nationalist groups. The latter were pluriform and highly diverse, and in their typology they extended well beyond or fell well short of fascism, diverging from it in fundamental ways. The confusion between fascist movements in particular and authoritarian nationalist groups in general stems from the fact that the heyday of fascism coincided with a general XI: Obama as Social Fascist 399 era of political authoritarianism that on the eve of World War II had in one form or another seized control of the political institutions of most European countries. It would be grossly inaccurate to argue that this process proceeded independent of fascism, but neither was it merely synonymous with fascism.” (Payne 14-15) In other words, top-down dictatorship and fascist seizure of power by a grass roots radical movement of street fighters are emphatically not the same thing and should not be confused. Although Brit’s list was valuable is prodding many people to think about fascism in relation to current US reality, we must stress here that any notion that the Bush regime already represented fascism would be dangerously wrong. Bush has no mass movement and will never have one. Imagine Bush attempting a Mussolini balcony speech to an oceanic crowd of millions of screaming fanatics. It has not happened and will not happen. With Obama, by contrast, the mob oration is the very essence of his agitation. His supporters are not asked to endorse a program of government; they are required to surrender themselves to the will of the Perfect Master, and they are rushing to do it by the millions. OBAMA FULFULLS THE FASCIST MINIMUM In 1992, the Italian writer Emilio Gentile formulated a list of 10 detailed points in an attempt to arrive at an orientative definition of fascism.220 He was working towards a minimum common denominator of fascist movements across Europe and the world. Let us use these points as a kind of scorecard to evaluate to what degree Obama and his movement can be fairly classified as fascist. 1. “A mass movement with a multi-class membership in which prevail, among the leaders and militants, the middle sectors, in large part in new to political activity, organized as a party militia, that bases its identity not on social hierarchy or class origin, but on the sense of comradeship, believes itself invested with a mission of national regeneration, considers itself in a state of war against political adversaries and aims at conquering a monopoly of political power by using terror, parliamentary tactics, and deals with leading groups, to create a new regime that destroys parliamentary democracy.” The Obama movement aims at seizing the presidency and does not speak of a total seizure of power, but Obama hints at pervasive control of individual life, including the cars people drive, the food people eat, and the setting of the thermostats in their homes. It is generally understood that the motivation for these totalitarian interventions will be based on the Malthusian demagogy of the Al Gore global warming-climate change fraud. As for a state of war and violence against political adversaries, there has been little violence so far, but the venom and inflammatory rhetoric directed against political adversaries, especially Senator Clinton, represent an extraordinary phenomenon in American politics. Al Gore’s Green Army and Obama’s own Green Corps and grandiose plans for volunteer organizations substantially fulfill the party militia requirement. 2. “An ‘anti-ideological’ and pragmatic ideology that proclaims itself anti-materialist, antiindividualist, anti-liberal, anti-democratic, anti-Marxist, is populist and anti-capitalist in tendency, expresses itself aesthetically, more than theoretically, by means of a new political style and by myths, rites, and symbols as a lay religion designed to acculturate, socialize, and integrate the faith of the masses with the goal of creating a ‘new man.’“ Obama is certainly anti-democratic, since he wants to ignore the primary elections in Michigan and in Florida. He is anti-materialist, as seen in his own and Michelle Obama’s veiled calls for austerity and sacrifice. Michelle also refers to the need for people to transform themselves as individuals under an Obama presidency, which raises the question 400 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography of the new man. Anti-Marxism is not a central issue for Obama’s followers, but Obama has been thoroughly exposed to Marxist ideology and certainly does resolutely reject any politics of class defense, class conflict, or class-based organization. The new political liturgy of the Obama Nuremberg rally campaign style has attracted wide attention. 3. “A culture founded on mystical thought and the tragic and activist sense of life conceived as the manifestation of the will to power, on the myth of youth as artificer of history, and on the exaltation of the militarization of politics as the model of life and collective activity.” The feckless and callow youth fanatics who fill the ranks of Obama’s lemming legions have been widely discussed. Their mystical outlook is that of New Age, Age of Aquarius, etc., as purveyed by a thousand petty hucksters from Oprah Winfrey to a whole phalanx of swamis. The militarization aspect is present in the Al Gore Green Army proposal as well as in Obama’s own Green Corps, and it can be expected that these features will be further accentuated as the economic crisis deepens. 4. “A totalitarian conception of the primacy of politics, conceived as an integrating experience to carry out the fusion of the individual and the masses in the organic and mystical unity of the nation as an ethnic and moral community, adopting measures of discrimination and persecution against those considered to be outside this community, either as enemies of the regime or members of races considered inferior or otherwise dangerous for the integrity of the nation.” Obama operates within the totally relativistic concept of multiculturalism which has been favored by the US ruling elite as a counterinsurgency strategy over the last four decades, as we have shown. But relativistic multiculturalism is already distorted within Obama’s own thinking by the aggressive and militant Afrocentrism and Black liberation theology purveyed by his mentors, including the foundation-funded racist provocateur Jeremiah Wright and his co-thinkers. So far, Obama has been deeply associated with spokesman for white collective guilt and the need reparations to be paid to the black community alone because of slavery and discrimination in the past, which amounts to discrimination or persecution against other ethnic groups. At least two factors, however, suggest that this may be destined to change. One is the indifference or hostility to Obama exhibited by Hispanic and Asian voters, which may point to conflicts ahead. Obama is of course a creature of the Trilateral Commission, where one of the leading planners is Samuel Huntington, Brzezinski’s subaltern in the Carter National Security Council. In Huntington’s infamous tome, The Clash of Civilizations, he argued that Latin America, precisely because it was thoroughly Spanish and Catholic, could not be considered as a part of Western civilization, but had to be viewed as a separate Latino-Hispanic entity all its own. This thesis is so wildly absurd and ridiculous from a historical point of view that Huntington’s evil intent could not have been more obvious. Huntington’s 2004 book Who Are We? developed this same crackpot racist theory further, arguing that the greatest threat to the future of the United States came from Latin American and especially Mexican immigrants. Huntington thus appears to be thinking in terms of a divide-and-conquer strategy to maintain financier rule in the United States under conditions of aggravated depression breakdown crisis in which nativism will play a decisive role: this would allow the white and black population to be played off against the rapidly growing Hispanic component. Obama, needless to say, is already well-positioned to lead such an anti-Hispanic and anti-Asian XI: Obama as Social Fascist 401 backlash. Senator Clinton, by contrast, enjoys broad support among Hispanics and Asians and would not be suitable for the strategy Huntington appears to have in mind. 5. “A civil ethic founded on total dedication to the national community, on discipline, virility, comradeship, and the warrior spirit.” The element of communitarianism and comradeship in of Obama’s rhetoric has been widely noted and is very strong, even though the militaristic and warrior elements have been relatively muted. More regimentation, however, can be expected as the notions of the Gore Green Army/Green Corps began to take hold under depression conditions. In addition, we should bear in mind the precedents for “peace fascism” in countries like France and Great Britain. 6. “A single state party that has the task of providing for the armed defense of the regime, selecting its directing cadres, and organizing the masses within the state in a process of permanent mobilization of emotion and faith.” So far Obama has not talked about a one-party state. However, one of the most powerful components in the intelligence community coalition that is backing Obama is indeed National Endowment for Democracy, which represents a fusion of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and can to that extent be regarded as the harbinger for a de facto one-party state. In addition, if Obama were to seize the White House thanks in all probability to a series of scandals conveniently timed to destroy his Republican opponent in the general election, the likely simultaneous heavy Republican losses in the Congress might produce a situation where a decimated Republican minority would be unable to block or delay legislation, provided that the Obama at White House and the Democratic Congressional leadership concurred. Such a situation, although perhaps temporary (barring the declaration of martial law by Obama under some pretext), would already begin to approximate the workings of a one-party state in practice. 7. “A police apparatus that prevents, controls, and represses dissidents and opposition, even by using organized terror.” Obama’s successful Senate campaign in Illinois in 2004 was based entirely on the timely intervention of domestic police state forces to eliminate his Democratic primary opponent, Marson Blair Hull, and then his Republican general election opponent, Jack Ryan. In 2008, the FBI carried out a sensational Gestapo operation against Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York State, who was a leading opponent of the Wall Street finance oligarchs and their abuses, and was also a Democratic Party super delegate pledged to support Mrs. Clinton. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska had been under investigation for a long time, but his indictment in late July 2008 was timed perfectly to signal that the ruling class wanted the Republicans out and Barky and Pelosi in power. Another instance is the strange death of Deborah Palfrey, the so-called DC Madam, which was immediately classified as a suicide with the help of the dubious Dan Moldea, who claimed that the death was a suicide. The attack on Kwame Kilpatrick, the black mayor of Detroit, may fit into a pattern of FBI operations designed to intimidate black elected officials in the framework of the infamous Frühmenschen program. Some observers concluded that some Democratic superdelegates were being blackmailed by the FBI to secure their support for Obama, the darling of the winning faction of the intelligence community. It is widely believed that these secret police interventions are coordinated with Obama’s backers for the purpose of effectively 402 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography terrorizing his political opponents. Obama critic Larry Sinclair was arrested at the close of his June 18, 2008 National Press Club appearance on the basis of a politically motivated warrant signed by Beau Biden, the Attorney General of Delaware. This was an enemies’ list operation that went beyond anything Richard Nixon had attempted as a candidate. There are also some signs that Obama may be preparing an attempt to purge and police the internet for thought crime against the Perfect Master. On June 8, 2008, the New York Times wrote that Obama’s retainers had declared war on freedom of speech on the internet: “One area in particular where Mr. Obama is adding muscle is a team that is tasked with tracking down rumors and erroneous statements circulated on the Internet. The growth of the Internet, which has been a fabulous asset for helping to build the Obama community, is also a place where erroneous e-mails live,” said Anita Dunn, a senior campaign adviser. “That’s a challenge I don’t think previous campaigns have had to deal with to the extent that the Obama campaign has.” The Obama campaign is already reputed to have deployed an army of between 500 and 1500 internet trolls to spread slander and defamation of Obama’s critics on the internet, countering revelations about the mystery candidate Obama with cascades of obscene abuse and threats. These trolls have generated spamming charges as a means of shutting down anti-Obama blogs. Many of these pro-Obama mercenary bloggers are said to reside in Gaza, where they are organized to work at coolie wages by Obama’s friends in the Hamas regime there. Others are said to operate out of Bangalore, India, and other third world internet sweatshops. The many ungrammatical postings by pro-Obama scribblers who are obviously not native speakers of American English strongly suggest that these reports are accurate. 8. “A political system organized by a hierarchy of functions named from the top and crowned by the figure of the ‘leader,’ invested with a sacred charisma, who commands, directs, and coordinates the activities of the party and the regime.” From the time he came on the scene, Obama has always been presented as the Messiah, the Savior, the anointed one, and the Perfect Master, The One most emphatically endowed with sacred charisma. The highly centralized and hierarchical qualities of the Obama campaign have generally not been visible to the public, but they have been dominant behind the scenes, where the political hack Axelrod has acted as a brutal and unscrupulous enforcer, reportedly threatening whistleblowers like Larry Sinclair, shutting down websites and My Space pages which the campaign could not control, and ejecting persons attending Obama rallies if they departed from the strict Obama party line. 9. “A corporate organization of the economy that suppresses trade union liberty, broadens the sphere of state intervention, and seeks to achieve, by principles of technocracy and solidarity, the collaboration of the ‘productive sectors’ under the control of the regime, to achieve its goals of power, yet preserving private property and class divisions.” During Obama’s career as a foundation-funded poverty pimp, he sought to organize ghetto victims into corporatist community development corporations under the pretext of creating a few jobs, but really for the purpose of neutralizing their antiestablishment political potential. He now proposes to do this on a national scale. In the current phrase, the Obama campaign has embraced corporatism in the form the Rohatyn-Rudman National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank, an idea which descends from Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s finance Minister. At the same time, Obama makes clear his rejection of the New Deal by pledging to be more respectful of “the market” than Senator Clinton. XI: Obama as Social Fascist 403 10. “A foreign policy inspired by the theme of national power and greatness, with the goal of imperialist expansion.” (Payne 5-6, n. 6) One of Obama’s favorite themes is that the international prestige and power of the United States have sharply declined because of the reckless and incompetent policies of the Bush administration. Obama explicitly proposes to restore the world standing of the United States, including through such initiatives as the indiscriminate bombing of certain parts of Pakistan without the permission of the Musharraf government, allegedly in order to pursue the mythical Osama bin Laden. These are thinly veiled proposals to administer a cosmetic, public-relations facelift to the widely discredited forces of Anglo-American imperialism, and to give them a new lease on life on the world scene. Other characteristics of fascist movements which have received wide attention include the “espousal of an idealistic, vitalist and voluntaristic philosophy, normally involving the attempt to realize a new, modern, self-determined, and secular culture.” This corresponds closely to the “Yes we can!” and “Si se puede” chants which are indispensable components of the typical Obama rally. As we can see, Obama may not completely fulfill each and every point in this highly articulated definition of a common basis of fascist movements during the time between the two world wars of the last century. Nevertheless, Obama does fulfill a very large proportion of these criteria, more so than any politician seen in the United States in the last half-century. Obama’s relation to fascism is much too close for comfort, especially when we take into account the numerous areas where Obama’s agitation presents proto-fascist precursor forms, seed crystals, and signs pointing towards imminent fascist developments in the near future. We must also recall that the fascism required by the crisis ridden Anglo-American imperialism of the early 21st century will necessarily diverge in certain critical areas from the fascism that was appropriate for the needs of the Italian or German finance oligarchs of the inter war period. It is also important to recall that Italian fascism, especially in its earlier phases, was relatively free of race theory and anti-Semitism. For Mussolini, the main vehicle for fascist activity was the totalitarian state, and not any concept of race. Later, when Mussolini became an ally of Hitler, elements of the Nazi approach to race were incorporated into Italian laws and political life. In other words, the notion of fascism without significant elements of anti-Semitism (at least initially) would not represent in any way a radical departure from the main historical models and prototypes of fascism. All fascist movements were set apart from other political formations by the tremendous stress they placed on the liturgical, symbolic, and aesthetic elements of politics. As Payne writes, “The novel atmosphere of fascist meetings struck many observers during the 1920s and 1930s. All mass movements employ symbols and various emotive effects, and it might be difficult to establish that the symbolic structure of fascist meetings was entirely different from that of other revolutionary groups. What seemed clearly distinct, however, was the great emphasis on meetings, marches, visual symbols, and ceremonial or liturgical rituals, given a centrality and function in fascist activity which went beyond that found in the left revolutionary movements. The goal was to envelop the participant in a mystique and community of ritual that appealed to the aesthetic and the spiritual sense as well as the political. This has aptly been called a theatrical politics, but it went beyond mere spectacle towards the creation of a normative aesthetics… More than any other new force of the early 20th century, fascism responded to the contemporary era as above all a ‘visual age’ to be dominated by a visual culture.” (Payne 12-13) Lukacs noted that a hallmark of fascism was the aesthetization of politics, which he proposed to counter with a politicization of aesthetics. 404 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography FASCISM AS HATRED OF WOMEN Given the Obama campaign’s systematic vilification of Senator Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, and many others as women, it is interesting and significant to find that contempt for women was a common characteristic of fascist movements. As Payne writes, “Another fundamental characteristic was extreme insistence on what is now termed male chauvinism and the tendency to exaggerate the masculine principle in almost every aspect of activity.” This aspect of fascism has been termed “radical misogyny or flight from the feminine, manifesting itself in a pathological fear of being engulfed by anything in external reality associated with softness, with dissolution, or the uncontrollable.” In Payne’s view, “No other kind of movement expressed such complete horror at the slightest suggestion of androgyny.” Part of the problem was perhaps bit more than a few of the German fascist leaders were themselves closet homosexuals, as in the case of Ernst Röhm, the leader of the SA Brown Shirts, and one of Hitler’s most formidable rivals for leadership of the National Socialist movement. Obama has been widely accused of the Internet of being a secret bisexual. His attempt at bowling before the Pennsylvania primary called forth such epithets as prissy, dainty, effete, and languid from media observers, with the Wonkette blog asking, “If he bowls like a fag, does that mean he is one?” FASCISM AS YOUTH CULT The Obama campaign has been described by commentators as a youth movement, although there appears to be some question about how accurate this is. If this is true, it is yet another strong similarity between Obama and the earlier fascists. Payne writes: “Fascist exaltation of the youth was unique, however, in that it not only made a special appeal to them but also exalted youth over all other generations, without exception, and to a greater degree than any other force based itself on generational conflict. This no doubt stemmed in part from the lateness of fascism and the identification of the established forces, including much of the left, with leaders and members from the older, pre-war generation. It also stemmed in part from the organic concept of the nation and of youth as its new life force, and from the predominance of youth in struggle and militarization.” (Payne 13-14) Even though fascist ideology was populist, the visible leadership structure of fascist movements was overwhelmingly elitist, to say nothing of the bankers and financiers who provided the indispensable cash support for these demagogic political formations. As Payne notes, many sociologists have pointed out that “nearly all parties and movements depend on elites and leadership but some recognize the fact more explicitly and carry it to greater lengths. The most unique feature of fascism in this regard was the way in which it combined populism and elitism. The appeal to the entire people and nation, together with the attempts to incorporate the masses in both the structure and myth, was accompanied by a strong formal emphasis on the role and function of an elite, which was held to be both uniquely fascist and indispensable to any achievement.” (Payne 14) Today in the United States it is stubbornly assumed that fascism must always be an extreme right-wing movement, but this is far from an accurate description of the genesis of fascism. Italian fascism was the prototype for all other fascism, and was extremely influential internationally, and Italian fascism was initially much more of a left wing phenomenon than a right-wing one. The important fact to remember is that Italian leftists had played a very important role in efforts to have Italy intervene in World War I on the side of the British and French, and this made left wing nationalism a potent and aggressive force after the war had ended. XI: Obama as Social Fascist 405 Benito Mussolini, in some ways the inventor of fascism and the first fascist dictator, was anything but a typical right-wing reactionary. He was born in 1883 in the Romagna, an area of Italy which was noted for its radical, left-wing and anti-Roman Catholic politics. His parents admired the Mexican leader, Benito Juarez, for whom they named their son. Mussolini was an elementary school teacher and a leading member of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). He worked as a newspaper editor in the city of Trieste, which at that time was part of the Austrian Empire; he was expelled by the Austrians because of his militant Italian nationalist viewpoint. He was part of the self-styled revolutionary and anti-reformist leadership group which took control over the PSI in 1912. At this time he and his associates received the enthusiastic endorsement of no less a personage than the Russian revolutionary leader V. I. Lenin, who shared Mussolini’s dislike for parliamentary methods. Mussolini became the editor of the PSI daily newspaper, Avanti! Mussolini broke with the PSI official line of anti-militarism and non-interventionism after the start of World War I; in mid- November 1914, he launched his own newspaper, called Il Popolo d’Italia, with money from the British, the French, and from the arms manufacturers and other pro-war business interests. This new daily paper campaigned incessantly for Italy to enter the war on the side of Britain and France. In May 1915, Mussolini helped to organize the Radiant May (maggio radioso), a series of demonstrations in Rome designed among other things to attempt to discredit former Prime Minister Giolitti, the main moderate conservative nationalist, and to intimidate the parliament into declaring war, which soon occurred. MUSSOLINI FOUNDS ITALIAN FASCISM, MILAN, MARCH 23, 1919 The foundation of the first Italian fascist organization is widely agreed to have occurred in Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan on March 23, 1919 with the creation of a new revolutionary nationalist movement called the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (very roughly, Italian fighting groups) at a meeting attended by some 200 persons. The majority of those present were either leftists or former leftists who had gone over to more nationalistic agitation. The participants in this landmark meeting would largely be drawn from four distinct groups. The first were revolutionary syndicalists and national syndicalists, people we might today call extremely aggressive trade union militants with anarchist, antistate (or “libertarian”) and anti-politician overtones. There were a number of former members of the Italian Socialist Party who had left that party in order to support Italian entry into World War I. Among these was Mussolini himself. A third important group were the Futurists, who were members and political supporters of an important school of visual arts and literature, sometimes also called the cubo-futurists. We can think of these people as avant-garde painters, writers, and composers; the most famous of them was Marinetti. A fourth and final group were the arditi, veterans of the special forces commando units of the Italian Army during World War I. Many of them still wore their distinctive black uniforms, and this launched the idea of fascism as black-shirts, giving rise to the notion of fascism as a shirt movement with each national group favoring shirts of a special color. The majority of the participants were between 20 and 40 years of age, and the largest single professional group represented were the writers and journalists – quite possibly the media whores of the day. The creative class, as we can see, turned out in force to help found fascism. Mussolini described this new group as an “anti-party,” and criticized customary political methods as rigid and sterile. The program of this new group has been described as “basically leftist, sometimes revolutionary,” and is a far cry from what organized fascism later advocated. It was in any case a program explicitly presented in support of Italian imperialism. At this early phase, Mussolini was primarily concerned with recruiting large numbers politically naïve young people from the widest possible area of the left and the center. “The Fasci were in fact neither fish nor fowl, nationalist but leftist….” (Payne 89 ff.) 406 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography D’ANNUNZIO’S FASCIST PILOT PROJECT IN FIUME, 1919-1920 If Mussolini was gaining the support of Marinetti, the most famous Italian painter, the most famous Italian poet, the decadent Gabriele D’Annunzio, was creating his own separate pilot project for fascism. D’Annunzio, joined by several thousand disgruntled war veterans and fervently idealistic students, seized control of the city of Fiume on the Adriatic Sea near Italy’s eastern border, where he functioned as the ruler of a quasi-independent city state for some 15 months. D’Annunzio’s constitution for Fiume took the form “a relatively democratic structure of corporatism” which strove to be three things — “corporatist, nationalist, and nominally democratic.” (Payne 92-93) It was under these partially leftist auspices that D’Annunzio elaborated much of what was to become a typical fascist aesthetic: “…D’Annunzio succeeded in creating a new style of political liturgy made up of elaborate uniforms, special ceremonies, and chants, with speeches from the balcony of city hall to massed audiences in the form of a dialogue with the leader. In other key contributions to what soon became ‘fascist style,’ D’Annunzio and his followers adopted the black shirts of the arditi as their uniform, employed the Romans salute of raising the right arm, developed mass rallies, brought out the hymn Giovinezza (Youth), organized their armed militia precisely into units, and developed a series of special chants and symbols.” (Payne 92) The marked left wing tendencies of Italian fascism began to disappear towards the end of 1920 and the beginning of 1921, but some of these elements persisted well into the late summer of 1921. As late as May 1921, Mussolini “was still thinking of the possibility that the movement would crystallize in a possible ‘Fascist Labor Party’ or ‘National Labor Party.’ On May 22 he announced that the republicanism of the Fasci must be accentuated and raised the possibility of a new agreement with the Socialists — assuming they would shed their internationalism and class revolutionism…. Mussolini… still could not imagine taking a categorically anti-leftist position.” Mussolini had to jettison his “lingering leftist loyalties” before he could create the National Fascist Party (PNF) in November 1921. (Payne 99-101) it was only in the early 1922 that Mussolini announced that “il mondo va a destra” – the world is turning right, while parliamentary democracy and socialism were in decline. The 20th century, Mussolini argued, would be an aristocratic century dominated by new elites — notions which are not alien to Obama’s elitist and anti-blue collar supporters today. One more phase of Il Duce’s career deserves attention, and that is the final phase. Mussolini was ousted as dictator of Italy in July 1943, and was imprisoned on a mountain in southern Italy called the Gran Sasso d’Italia. He was rescued by Otto Skorzeny and his SS commandos and taken behind the German lines. Here Mussolini created a German-controlled puppet state in northern Italy which called itself the Italian Social Republic (RSI). This regime turned out to be much more radical than anything the Duce had tried during his 20-year dictatorship in Rome. The RSI, also known as the Salò republic after the small town which was its nominal capital, introduced corporatist selfmanagement by workers acting through assemblies and councils. The old National Fascist Party (PNF) was re-baptized as the Revolutionary Fascist Party. According to one commentator, “This represented Mussolini’s revenge against the bourgeoisie and the rightist elite whom he believed had thwarted fascism.” Ernst Nolte, one of the leading theoreticians of fascism, felt that Mussolini had remained in many ways a Marxist as long as he lived: “The finalità [goal] of Marxism continued to live in him, even if he was not aware of it.” (Payne 413) In sum, it can hardly be denied that leftism and fascism cannot be seen as polar opposites or incompatible impulses, but must rather be regarded as inextricably intertwined. The implications for the Obama phenomenon are obvious and ominous. XI: Obama as Social Fascist 407 Today’s Obama campaign may be considered as a vaguely left of center force to shore up US imperialism and restore the lost prestige and power of the United States in the world. Obama, it must be repeated, has successfully imposed the current US government policy of indiscriminate bombing and killing of Pakistanis in the North West areas of that country. Obama’s demand for a unilateral bombing of Pakistan makes him unquestionably the most aggressive warmonger in the 2007-2008 Democratic field, and also makes him a more extreme warmonger than Bush. Many Obama supporters seem happy with imperialist efforts intervene in the internal affairs of Pakistan for the purpose of overthrowing the Musharraf regime. Many Obama supporters are urgently calling for the bombing Sudan for reasons connected with the situation in Darfur. Many of them also support the Brzezinski plan of kicking the Chinese out of Africa. The rationale for this among Obama’s supporters is their idea that the Chinese are carrying ethnocide or cultural genocide by building the railroad and road infrastructure which Africa has always lacked. Needless to say, there are also large numbers of Obama supporters who are demanding a US confrontation with the People’s Republic of China in support of the demands of the Dalai Lama, a feudal monster and a spokesman for one of the most hideously parasitical landlord classes to be found anywhere in the world today. The Obama lemmings do not like the war in Iraq, but on Pakistan, Darfur, and Tibet many Obama supporters are much more aggressive than Bush-Cheney. Once we recognize that the Obama movement is in fact a vaguely left of center mobilization in support of a new set of aggressive imperialist adventures, its similarity to the early phases of Mussolini’s fascism becomes more evident. FALLOWS: OBAMA IS LIKE MARSHAL PÉTAIN AND JIMMY CARTER James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly, a Carter White House veteran who may have helped with the malaise speech of July, 1979, and a keeper of the Obama flame, has published a remarkably frank assessment of the Perfect Master, in which Fallows confesses that he sees Obama as similar in many ways to Marshal Pétain of France, the leader of Vichy France, the Nazi puppet state in southern France between 1940 and 1943. Pétain escaped execution as a Nazi collaborator (the Prime Minister of Vichy, Pierre Laval, was in fact shot for treason) primarily because he was aged and had been the hero of Verdun in World War I. Pétain was a puppet, a defeatist, and a pessimist, and his Vichy regime is one of the variants which are generally used to make generalizations about fascism. This makes it all the more notable that Fallows sees common ground among Pétain, Carter, and Obama. Fallows writes: ‘I am very sensitive to the perils of this approach because the man I worked for, Jimmy Carter, was elected in large part as a national savior—a good, religious, “never lie to you” president to fill the moral void created by Richard Nixon, Watergate, and Vietnam. Charles Peters, of The Washington Monthly, once compared Carter to the figurehead leader of Vichy France, Marshal Pétain. Each man, in this view, offered to save the nation through his own personal qualities. In Carter’s case, those turned out to be no match for the disasters of the late ’70s. For instance: in the spring of 1980, as Carter ran for reelection, the prime interest rate was 20 percent. The argument that Obama would be another Pétain-like Carter, offering his noble qualities only to be overwhelmed by ignoble reality, is the deepest fear about him, or at least the one that most resonates with me. The greatest hope is that before his brief time in the U.S. Senate, he absorbed more practical skills and sensibilities than Carter did in Georgia. Michael Janeway, who as dean of the Medill Journalism School at Northwestern knew the Chicago establishment figures who nurtured Obama’s rise in the 1990s, speaks of “the Chicago way”—“getting all the parties together and taking responsibility for finding a solution.” Under the Chicago way, the fact that Obama’s most important speeches are short on eight-point action plans is a strength rather than a weakness: it’s a sign that serious business will be done.’221 Of course, the “Chicago way” in reality is nothing 408 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography but the method of the Illinois Combine, an ongoing criminal organization of racketeers who are also elected officials. As for the alleged noble qualities of Pétain and Obama, it is hard to see what they might be. THE OBAMA PROJECT AND IMPERIAL DECLINE: A ROMAN PARALLEL Contemporary American opinion seems to regard the prospect of a member of a minority group assuming state power as president as a totally unmixed blessing. But a glance at the history of prominent world empires suggests that this turn to minority rule may be fraught with many dangers, and may indeed represent a symptom of Imperial decline, especially when the aspiring candidate has no significant reform agenda, but rather intends to increase the virulence of the self-destructive tendencies already present in the system. The general pattern is that when the core imperial ethnic group begins to lose vitality and to veer into decadence and lethargy, the expedient of bringing in foreign adventurers as imperial bureaucrats is tried, quite often with very unsatisfactory results. Sometimes the ethnic group which dominates the imperial oligarchy (i.e., the senatorial class) is also so discredited that it needs to hide behind the mask of some other ethnicity. The Chinese Empire had a very long history of absorbing foreign conquerors, and the details of this are far too complex to be even mentioned here, but it is true that the last Chinese dynasty, the Manchu, was founded by a peripheral minority people who were not identical with the mainline Han Chinese. The Ottoman Turkish empire always had a tendency to give key administrative jobs to Greeks, Venetians, and Armenians, but there is some indication that this tendency increased as the empire declined. The British Empire paid a great deal of attention to the Copts, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews of the Ottoman Empire, since it sought to mobilize these ethnic minorities against the Ottoman Central Government. The Copts, for example, were a favorite choice of the British when it came to appointing the governments of their Egyptian protectorate, as we can see in the case of the Boutros- Ghali family. In the last half-century of the British Empire, some of the same ethnic groups began to take over important administrative functions in the court, the foreign office, and the city of London, and we are doubtless on firm ground in a surfing that this increased ethnic diversity did nothing to slow the collapse of the empire. The Prussian ruling class of the German Empire was more interested in cultural uniformity and less willing to tolerate ethnic diversity than most imperial ruling classes, and therefore the coming of a ruler in 1933 who was Austrian and not Prussian or even German (based on the map of the time) was a radical departure, and it was of course followed are the most catastrophic results. We have already noted that when the foreign policy of the Russian Empire began to be managed by people like Pozzo di Borgo, Nesselrode, and Kapodistrias, who were not Russians, but a Corsican, a German, and a Venetian Greek, that empire was in serious decline. Therefore, the fatuous and superficial optimism of many US observers about the notion of a president for the first time from the Afro-American minority group may be completely unjustified. THE BANKRUPTCY OF COLLECTIVE GUILT St. Thomas Aquinas was on the right track when he declared that no guilt can attach to any person for the actions of others not under his or her control. After 1945, it became fashionable to argue in some quarters to argue that there was a German collective guilt for the crimes of the Hitler regime – meaning that the German housewife or factory worker somehow just as responsible for the Nazi crimes as bankers like Schacht and Thyssen, or politicians like von Papen. It is necessary vigorously to reject any notion of German collective guilt (Sippenhaft or Kollektivschuld) for XI: Obama as Social Fascist 409 National Socialism. People are responsible for their own actions, and not for the actions of others. The theory of German collective guilt is a deliberate mystification, first of all because it places helpless little people on the same level of responsibility with powerful individuals who could have and should have influenced the course of events in another way. German collective guilt also masks the responsibility of important foreigners. Americans like Prescott Bush and John Foster Dulles were important backers of Hitler’s seizure of power in January 1933. The most active support for Hitler came from Lady Astor, and their Cliveden Set, where we find Lord Brand, Lord Lothian, Lord Halifax, and Sir Neville Chamberlain. Another key British backer of Hitler was Lord Montagu Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England, who made possible the financial stabilization of the Nazi regime during its first months in power. Henry Deterding, the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, was another prominent backer of National Socialism. German collective guilt is therefore a cover story for the main culprits. By the same token, we must formally and categorically reject any idea of the collective guilt of the American people. The crimes of the Bush regime, for example, are the crimes of the Bush regime. They are the crimes of the individuals who actually carried them out, and not of the American people as a whole, who actually voted twice to defeat Bush, but were overruled by a very effective vote fraud machine, with the help of the same controlled corporate media who are swooning for Barky today. The American people who are alive today are not responsible for slavery, or other crimes and abuses of the nineteenth century. The slave system was maintained by a three-cornered cooperation among southern planter oligarchs, New York City bankers and cotton brokers, and City of London interests. This is who was responsible for slavery, and not some poverty-stricken southern sharecropper or northern “mudsill,” as they used to be called. Individuals have free will, and they are responsible for what they do and do not do, but they are not responsible for the actions of others, and certainly not for actions carried out long before they were born. Anyone who attempts to impose a theory of collective guilt on the American people is fabricating a big lie, very likely with the goal of provoking some irrational backlash of ill-considered reaction, quite possibly in the form of some subsequent phase of fascism. Those who preach collective guilt are, in short, provocateurs. A DISTANT MIRROR FOR OBAMA: SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, ROMAN EMPEROR A distant mirror for these questions may well be provided by the history of the Roman empire.222 The reign of the Emperor Commodus (180–192 AD), who was the son of the famous Stoic Marcus Aurelius and who survived one assassination attempt before succumbing to another, brought the Antonine dynasty to an end, and marked the transition from a period of stagnation and slow decline into a time of more acute crisis. The murder of Commodus is associated with the end of the Pax Romani, or “Roman Peace,” and the onset of the long decline of the Roman Empire. The end of Commodus began the Year of the Five Emperors in 193, when there were five contenders for title of Roman Emperor. The five were the City Prefect Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger in Syria, Clodius Albinus in Britain, and Septimius Severus in Pannonia. Septimius Severus was by most accounts a dark-skinned native of Libya in North Africa; some Afrocentric historians have identified him and celebrated him as the first black emperor of Rome. But being black or nearly black did not prevent him from representing a catastrophic turning point in Roman history. Septimius Severus had allied himself with a prominent Syrian family by his marriage to Julia Domna. In the same way, Obama’s marriage to Michelle allied him with the Daley machine, her family business. Septimius Severus may not have been the only dark-skinned contender at this point, as suggested by the name of his rival Pescennius Niger, since “niger” means 410 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography black or dark, and he is described as a “black man” in some translations of the contemporary writer Cassius Dio. But there are others who say that this was just a nickname, and that Pescennius Niger was not African. After disposing of all of his rivals, Septimius Severus assumed power and founded a dynasty that would extend through increasingly troubled times to include himself (193–211), his notoriously cruel and vindictive son Caracalla (211–217), Macrinus (217–218), the monster Elagabalus or Heliogabalus (218–222), and Alexander Severus (222–235). SEPTIMIUS’ LARGER ARMY AND PAY HIKES START THE GREAT ROMAN HYPERINFLATION Because of his status as an outsider and a general, Septimius Severus decided to lean on the praetorian guard in the Roman army, while freezing out many representatives of the Roman Senate, where the leading oligarchs assembled. In order to win the loyalty of the Army, he substantially increased the rates of pay, creating a very serious budget deficit that was the main cause contributing to the beginning of hyperinflation. The hyperinflation which was launched by Septimius Severus kept going for 300 years, and was one of the biggest causes of the final collapse of the Roman empire and of western civilization itself. He also substituted equestrian officers for senators in key administrative positions. Not surprisingly, Septimius Severus’ relations with the Senate were very poor, and to compensate for this he had to appeal to the city mob as well as to the army, which cost even more money. Septimius Severus also abolished the local regular standing jury courts, which dated back to Republican times. He was also an energetic persecutor of Christians and Jews. Obama for his part has promised to increase the size of the United States Armed Forces by about 100,000 troops — a very sinister and hugely expensive detail which many of his fawning left-liberal acolytes are incapable of comprehending. There are, however, widespread reports of grave discontent and deep suspicion on the part of top generals and admirals towards the parvenu Obama. How might Obama attempt to secure support from the Pentagon, or at least stave off a mutiny or a military counter-coup? One way would clearly be to imitate Septimius Severus and radically raise military pay rates, benefits, and bonuses in the form of a thinly disguised bribe for the officer class. The record of the dynasty founded by Septimius Severus suggests that once a bidding war of this type has begun it is almost impossible to stop, and often ends with tremendous political instability as the monetary demands of the praetorian class become greater and greater, notwithstanding the evident economic crisis of the empire. CARACALLA’S POLITICAL REPRESSION For our analytical purposes here, it will be convenient to compare Obama to the three most important figures of the Septimius Severus dynasty, namely Septimius Severus himself, his son Caracalla, and the notorious Heliogabalus. When Septimius Severus died, there was a violent succession fight which ended when Caracalla succeeded in killing his brother Geta. Caracalla was noted for lavish bribes to the praetorians, and also for his legendary cruelty, which was expressed in the form of numerous assassinations of his real or imagined enemies and rivals. Michelle Obama may find her own distant mirror among the strong-willed and ambitious women of the Severan dynasty, beginning with Septimius Severus’s wife Julia Domna, who schemed and plotted to help her husband become Emperor. Among the other influential women of this disastrous dynasty we find Julia Maesa, sister of Julia Domna, and Maesa’s two daughters, Julia Soaemias, mother of the XI: Obama as Social Fascist 411 monster Heliogabalus, and Julia Avita Mamaea, mother of Alexander Severus. It was in fact this feminine cabal that secured the throne for Heliogabalus in 218. HELIOGABALUS: TEENAGE EMPEROR AND MONSTER Heliogabalus provides lasting proof that the participation of young people in politics is not necessarily a good thing, since he was only about 15 years old when he seized the Imperial throne, and racked up his entire record of monstrous slaughters and perversions before he was liquidated somewhat short of the age of 20. Heliogabalus ranks with Nero and Caligula as one of the greatest monsters to rule Rome. According to some reports, he suffocated the guests at one of his dinner parties by releasing masses of rose petals on them from above. He married one of the vestal virgins, a very serious violation of Roman tradition and law. Like Nero, he also married one of his own male lovers. He is said to have prostituted himself inside his own Imperial Palace. One of Heliogabalus’ obsessions was his quest to obtain a sex change operation so that, like Tiresias, he could also experience life as a woman. Heliogabalus has often been characterized by modern writers as transgender, most likely transsexual. The parallels to Obama’s reported homosexuality and bisexuality are evident. With Heliogabalus devoting so much time and energy to these lascivious activities, the administration of the empire fell into the hands of his grandmother and mother (Julia Soamias). Late in his reign, Heliogabalus replaced Jupiter, the central figure of the Roman pantheon, with a new Oriental god, Deus Sol Invictus, whose original name, Elagabalus or El- Gabal, happened to be identical with the Emperor’s own assumed name. Heliogabalus forced the Roman notables to comply with these changes, meaning that by praying to the new god they would be praying to the Emperor at the same time. Julia Maesa in particular was aware that the outrageous behavior of Heliogabalus was likely to trigger a rebellion, and could easily lead to the loss of power by the family as a whole. She therefore organized a conspiracy which led to the assassination of Heliogabalus and the installation of Alexander Severus, the last of the dynasty, in 222. Alexander won some successes against the Persian Empire in the East, but his increasing inability to control the money-hungry army led eventually to its mutiny and his assassination in 235. Heliogabalus’ religious edicts were reversed and the statue of El-Gabal, which Heliogabalus had erected for public worship, was removed from Rome. Women were barred from ever attending meetings of the Senate. The extreme sanction of damnatio memoriae—erasing and expunging a person from all public records—was decreed upon Heliogabalus. THE BREAKDOWN CRISIS OF THE THIRD CENTURY, 235-284 AD The death of Alexander Severus began a period of about half a century which can be considered the first collapse of the Roman Empire. This period is known as the crisis of the third century, extending from 235-284 AD. It is also called the period of the “military anarchy.” During this time, as a direct consequence of the abuses and failures of the Septimius Severus dynasty, the Empire underwent military, political and economic crises and began to collapse. The leading factors in this collapse were a constant series of barbarian invasions by Germanic tribes coming out of Central Asia, a civil war inside the empire, and the galloping hyperinflation which had been triggered by Septimius Severus’ increase in the size and pay scales of the Army. The crisis of the third century was marked by acute political instability, with about 25 Emperors seizing and losing power, usually by assassination, in a period of 50 years. Many of these emperors were lower-class adventurers, and a number were quite exotic, such as the Emperor Philip the Arab. The western provinces of the empire broke away to form an ephemeral empire of Gaul, while the Eastern provinces created an equally unstable empire of Palmyra. 412 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography At the same time, a series of barbarian invasions by Carpians, Goths, Vandals, and Alamanni occurred, supplemented by attacks from the Sassanid Persians in the east. The strength of the empire was undermined by the runaway hyperinflation caused by many years of debasing the coinage. This had started earlier under the Severan emperors who enlarged the army by one quarter and doubled the base pay. As each new upstart barracks Emperor took power, they had to loot the treasury and the merchant class to quickly raise the money needed to pay the expected “accession bonus” to the troops, and this was often accomplished by clipping coins and minting new coinage with more copper and lead. The easiest way to do so was by simply cutting the silver in coins and adding less valuable metals. This total crisis of the empire is often thought of as marking the transition between classical Greco-Roman civilization and late antiquity, or the beginning of the dark ages. A relative stabilization of the empire was reached about 284 with the coming of Diocletian, but then in such a way that guaranteed the final collapse a couple of centuries later. The reforms of Diocletian boiled down to preserving a semblance of imperial power based on a zero-growth totalitarian military autocracy that was doomed to an eventual collapse. One of the main problems was that during the crisis of the third century, lawlessness, piracy, and brigandage had expanded to such a scale that the Roman roads and the sea lanes of mare nostrum (the Mediterranean) were no longer safe for merchants to travel, while the currency crisis made any system of payments unstable and chaotic. Trade inside the empire had suffered a collapse from which it would never recover. This led to tendencies towards local self-sufficiency, giving rise over time to the manorial system, accompanied by the dominance of the feudal aristocracy who ruled over a population of proto-serfs who had given up most of their liberty in exchange for food and protection. In late Roman times these serfs became a half-free class of citizens known as coloni. Even though a semblance of political unity was restored under Diocletian, dozens of important cities in the western part of the empire had been largely destroyed, and their populations forced to flee. Most of these cities would never recover for centuries to come. The atmosphere of general insecurity is reflected by the city walls that had to be put up to defend important commercial centers, including Rome itself. ULPIAN: WHAT PLEASES THE PRINCE HAS THE FORCE OF LAW For a sampling of the political mentality of these times, we can turn to the Roman jurist Domitius Ulpianus (died 228), known as Ulpian. Ulpian was appointed by Septimius Severus to the Council of State, and under Caracalla was master of the requests (magister libellorum). He was driven out of office by Heliogabalus but brought back by Alexander, whom he served as chief adviser. He was killed by the soldiers in 208 AD when he tried to crack down on some of the abusive privileges enjoyed by the praetorian guard. Some of Ulpian’s sayings are simply edifying propaganda of the hope and change variety such as his one-liner “Law is the art of the good and the fair.” (Jus est ars boni et aequi.) Much more to the point is another saying which expresses the spirit of every totalitarian regime down to the present day: “The sovereign is not bound by the laws.” (Princeps legibus solutus est.) Bush believes that, and his fellow megalomaniac Obama probably will lodge a similar claim. Another of Ulpian’s sayings captures some of the spirit of the 20th century dictators: “What pleases the prince has the force of law.” (Quo principi placuit legis habet vigorem.) All of these developments can be thought of as a result of the institutional and economic processes which had been set in motion by the dynasty founded by Septimius Severus. If this phase of Roman history can provide any insight into our own time, we may be facing a process of XI: Obama as Social Fascist 413 galloping hyperinflation, the breakdown of internal order, institutional dissolution, military defeat abroad, civil war, and social chaos under a possible Obama regime. A WEATHERMAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE? Character is destiny. Biography is destiny. We have no crystal ball to predict the detailed evolution of a future Obama regime; we have nothing but the certainty that it will be a disaster. Obama is drawn to his terrorist friends Ayers and Dohrn not just because he needs their money, their network support, and their access to foundation funding. Obama is close to Ayers and Dohrn because he genuinely finds them congenial, not just at the level of small talk and parenting, but rather at the level of the deepest psychological affinities and philosophical commitments which a person like Obama is capable of. The terrorist Weathermen, during their heroic or terrorist phase, were the most concentrated expression of the class hatred for American working people on the part of the financier elites and their dupes and retainers in affluent suburbia. The Weatherman outlook had passed far beyond the cynical hypocrisy of a Nixon to attain a cynical nihilism that was fascist in every way. Ayers and Dohrn expressed this hatred with their bombs, with their praise of Manson, with their fork salutes. Ward Churchill, another Weatherman who figures in the lives of Ayers and Dohrn, expressed the same hatred with his desire for the annihilation of the United States from the planet. James Cone, the teacher of Wright, acted out this hatred with his fervent prayer for a god who would kill white people. All of these figures are the provocateurs and ideologues of a dying imperialism in the process of transforming itself into a death cult. This is the outlook which Barack Hussein Obama, with his background in Rousseauvian anthropology, diluted Marxism, Nietzschean protofascism, postmodernist rejection of reality, and Fanon’s existentialist worship of violence, finds in himself. This is why he can so successfully read from the Teleprompter the fascist rantings composed by his Goebbels detachment, Axelrod and Favreau. This is why Obama talks like a fascist and is a fascist in the tradition of the young Mussolini, and why, with the help of Trilateral- Bilderberger media, money, and networks, he has already gone far towards assembling a fascist mass movement (or reasonable media facsimile thereof) around himself. So, if we want to know his real program of government, we need to go back to the last Weatherman war council in Michigan, before the townhouse blew up and before they all went into clandestine safe houses. We need to recall the speech by Ted Gold, the leader of the Mad Dog faction, who had only a few months left before he would blow himself into eternity in his Greenwich Village bomb factory. As we have noted, Gold said in 1969 that the Weatherman program was that “an agency of the people of the world” would be set up to run the U.S. economy and society after the defeat of U.S. imperialism abroad. Today that would be an agency directed by people like Soros, the Rockefellers, and the other Wall Street financial parasites. They would say that the savage austerity, the declining standards of living, the growing immiseration, the strangulation of production, are all in the name of solidarity and aid for the developing countries. They would probably add something about global warming, climate change, the polar bears, and the ice caps at the North Pole to explain to people why their starving children have no health care. But Gold’s perspective, it will be remembered, was too much even for some of those attending that last Weatherman debate more than forty years ago. “Well,” replied Gold, “If it will take fascism, we’ll have to have fascism.” This, we submit, is the best guide we have to Obama’s intentions. His best friends in life have been Weatherman terrorists, genuine murderers, practitioners of purgative violence in the tradition of Nietzsche’s blond beast. Or else they have been professional paid haters kept in business by the 414 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography foundations. Obama’s campaign logo, the blue oval like a portal with stripes on the ground appears as a hybrid of the Weatherman rainbow and lightning bolt tattooed on Ayers’ back and the lightning bolt in a circle which was the symbol of Sir Oswald Mosely’s British Union of Fascists back in the 1930s. Obama’s foreign policy will be the apocalyptic showdown with Russian and China demanded by his chief controller, Zbigniew Brzezinski. His economic policy will be to flay the American people alive with drastic economic austerity. Those who think that nothing could be worse than Bush will have to concede that when it comes to pure evil, the Trilateral Commission has a lot more imagination than they do. The infinity of obstacles, delays, defeats, and reverses which Obama has already had to face suggest that, outside of the decadent and degenerate elites who look to Wall Street, the media, and academia for leadership, ordinary American working people are still anti-fascist. There are still vast untapped anti-fascist resources which can brought to bear to ward off Obama’s monstrous project. But now a seizure of power by the Obama postmodern fascist coup is imminent. It is time for persons of good will to mobilize. APPENDICES APPENDIX I: PRESS STATEMENT OF LARRY SINCLAIR, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON DC, JUNE 18, 2008 Good afternoon, my name is Larry Sinclair and I am a former recreational drug user and trafficker, a convicted felon for crimes of forgery, bad checks and theft by check. I am also an American who loves this country and I cannot stay silent regarding Barack Obama knowing what I know. Today I will discharge my obligation as a citizen to witness this knowledge to you and raise questions for others to investigate and consider. I am going to briefly describe my background, my experience with Senator Obama in 1999, what appears to me to be a coordinated effort to discredit me and finally a list of questions. After this brief statement, I will take and try to answer any reasonable questions. Background I am 46 years old and I currently reside in Duluth, MN. I am a US Citizen, and I have made mistakes in my lifetime. I have been convicted and served prison sentences for writing bad checks, forging checks, using stolen credit card numbers in Arizona, Florida and Colorado. These event’s occurred over twenty (20) years ago between 1980 thru 1986. After going public on the internet with these claims against Senator Obama earlier this year, I became aware of a warrant out of Florida from 1986 which I have resolved and it has now been dismissed. I also have an active “Colorado Only” warrant for alleged “Theft and Forgery”. I am not ignoring this warrant but am addressing it with the Court in Colorado as well as with the DA’s office. I have a pending motion to dismiss this warrant which I am waiting to have calendared by the Colorado Court. I have lived and worked under three different names. My birth name is Lawrence W. Sinclair. Later on, I had my name legally changed first to La-Rye A. Silvas, and then La-Rye Vizcarra Avila. The last two were legal name changes granted by the court in Penal County Superior Court, Florence Arizona. I legally returned to my birth name in the Fremont County District court, Canon City, Colorado in 1997. Obama Incident I flew out of Colorado Springs, Colorado to Chicago on November 2, 1999, arriving in O’Hare early in the morning of November 3, 1999. I went to the Chicago area to attend the graduation of my god son (my best friend’s son) from basic training from the Great Lakes Navy Training Center. I made reservations at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Gurnee, IL based on location to the Navy Training center. On November 5, 1999, I hired the services of Five Star Limo. I had hired them for both November 5 and November 6. On November 6, 1999, I asked the limo driver – whose name I now reveal for the first time – Paramjit Multani, if he knew anyone who would like to socialize and show me Chicago. Paramjit Multani understood that I was not looking for someone who knew Chicago and would enjoy socializing. Paramjit Multani said he knew someone who was a friend of his. On November 6, 1999 after picking me up at the Hotel in Gurnee– and this is significant – Paramjit Multani used his cellphone to make a call. That call was made to then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama to set up an introduction between me and Senator Obama. Upon arriving at the bar and exiting the Limo, Senator Obama was standing next to Paramjit Multani and I was 416 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography introduced to Senator Obama. Later that evening at a bar which I believe was called Alibis, I mention I could use a line or two to wake up. Senator Obama asked me if I was referring to “coke” and after stating I was, Obama stated he could purchase cocaine for me and then made a telephone call – and this too is significant — from his cellphone to a presently unknown individual during which Senator Obama arranged the cocaine purchase. Senator Obama and I then departed the bar in my limousine and proceeded to an unknown location where Senator Obama exited the limousine with two hundred fifty dollars ($250) I had given him and returned a short while later with an “eightball” of cocaine which he gave to me. I did ingest a couple of lines of cocaine, and shortly thereafter Senator Obama produced a glass cylinder pipe and packet of crack cocaine from his pants pocket and Obama smoked the crack cocaine. I performed fellatio on Senator Obama in the limousine during the time Senator Obama was smoking crack cocaine, after which I had the driver take me to the my hotel, The Comfort Suits, Gurnee, Illinois. The following day, November 7, 1999, Senator Obama appeared at my hotel room where we again ingested cocaine and I again performed fellatio on Senator Obama. Significantly, both the driver’s telephone call to Senator Obama and his call to the drug dealer should appear on the driver’s and Senator Obama’s cellphone billing statements. Fall 2007 In September 2007 I contacted the Presidential Campaign of Barack H. Obama, to request solely that Senator Obama publicly correct his stated drug use record to reflect his use of crack cocaine with me in November 1999. When I made that first contact I left with the Presidential Campaign of Senator Barack H. Obama a telephone number for the campaign to return my call. The first number I provided was a Texas cell phone number. From the period of Labor day weekend 2007 through November 18, 2007 I did rovide a total of four (4) different call back numbers to the Obama campaign, as I had moved and had changed the numbers to reflect locally my place of residence at the time. In late September to early October 2007, I received a call from a male who identified himself as a “Mr. Young” stating he was calling in regards to calls I had made to the Obama campaign. This first call was in fact an attempt by “Mr. Young” to obtained from me the identities of anyone I had contacted concerning my 1999 allegations against Senator Obama. This first called shocked me in that this “Mr. Young” asked me why I had not asked Senator Obama to disclose the sexual encounters I had with Mr. Obama in 1999. I was shocked as I had never mentioned to the campaign or anyone working for the campaign any sexual encounters as my call was prompted by drug allegations only. The call ended with “Mr. Young” stating I would hear from someone in a few days. In mid to late October 2007, I received a second call from this “Mr. Young” at which time I clearly became aware that this individual was personally involved with Senator Obama rather than just an employee of his campaign. The tone of the conversation had a sexual nature. “Mr. Young” did not once advise me how he obtained my phone number which by this time had now changed to a Delaware number. In late October 2007, I received a text message from the gentleman identified as “Mr. Young” in which he stated he was intimately involved with Senator Obama and that Obama was discussing with him and his pastor how to publicly acknowledge Senator Obama’s drug use in 1999 and that Obama wanted to be sure I had not discussed the sexual encounters or drug incidents with any media at that time. Appendices 417 In mid to late November 2007, in another text message from “Mr. Young” , he advised me that Senator Obama will publicly correct his statement as to he last time he used drugs and I did not need to concern myself with publicly disclosing it myself. The last contact I had with “Mr. Young” was in early December 2007 when he made it clear to me that Senator Obama had no intentions of publicly acknowledging his 1999 use of crack cocaine and that “Mr. Young” was in fact doing nothing more than milking information from me for Senator Obama’s use. I later learned that a Donald Young was the choir director of Reverend Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ – Obama’s now-former church — and was openly a homosexual. I also learned that he was murdered on December 23, 2007. I have cooperated with the Chicago Police Department in this matter by providing them the telephone numbers I was using during the fall of 2007 and I release them now publically in the hope that someone may be able to connect the dots between these telephone numbers and Mr. Young. Those numbers are: 954-758-1105, 956-758- 1885, 956-758-8002, 02-685-7175; 612-466-1043. In what I now realize was a naive and un-counseled decision, I posted in January 2008 a video on YouTube.com where I related the above information regarding my liaisons with Senator Obama in 1999. The response was overwhelming and I quickly became the recipient of what in hindsight appears to have been a coordinated attack on my character with ever increasing falsehoods circulating on the internet. In response I agreed to take a polygraph test from Whitehouse.com. The results of that test have been partially revealed to the end of labeling me a liar and taken as gospel by all. I would like to make the following comments about that polygraph test. First, I have been subsequently advised that Whitehouse.com was a website dedicated to anti-Clinton pornography until earlier this year. Second, I have now come to understand that lie detectors are junk science at best which is why courts of law refuse to use them. Third, a review of the results by George W. Maschke, Ph.D. of AntiPolygraph.org raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the examination. Indeed, overlooked by almost everyone is that hitehouse.com’s own examiner, Dr. Gordon Barland, observed that on the drug question regarding Senator Obama that the computerized score found that there was less than a 1% probability of deception by me. That’s about as high a passing score as one can possibly attain. Finally, in February 2008 I was told anonymously that Dan Parisi of Whitehouse.com received $750,000 from the Obama campaign through AKR Media to organize an effort to publically discredit me. When I confronted Dan Parisi with this allegation, he did not deny it but instead withdrew the second exonerating polygraph report of Dr. Gordon Barland, failed to post the video of my polygraph as he and Whitehouse.com promised they would do, and even removed posts from their web site altogether, claiming that they had “had enough of the attacks by Sinclair’s supporters and Sinclair himself.” The polygraph results - as misrepresented – were immediately seized upon by the blogger community and I became the subject of vicious lies about me. I was forced to file a lawsuit in an attempt to stop those lies about me that have been circulating. That lawsuit sought to obtain the proof of what I was saying about my contact with Senator Obama through subpoenas for the identities of the anonymous bloggers so they could be linked to the Obama campaign and relevant records of the cellphone companies to prove the truth of my allegations. To date, though the lawsuit 418 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography is now over ninety days old, Judge Kennedy has refused to permit the suit to move forward so this evidence may be obtained. Conclusion In sum, you can discredit my story and then make your decision on who should be the next President of the United States. The burden is now off me as I have told my story without the distortions that have been intentionally heaped on me in what my lawyer tells me is an ad hominem attack – shoot the messenger so you don’t have to hear the message he is bringing. I am now done. It is for others to find the corroborating evidence of my story by locating the limousine driver – Jagir P. Multani – and the telephone numbers related to Donald Young and/or Senator Obama. I leave you with these questions that I have asked of Senator Obama but which he – who wants to be the next President of the United States – has refused to answer: 1. Why won’t Senator Obama provide his cellphone numbers and telephone records for all his personal and official cell phones held by him for the time period of November 3, 1999 thru November 8, 1999, when we met? 2. Why won’t Senator Obama provide his cellphone numbers and telephone records for all his personal and official cell phones held by Senator Obama or September 2007 – December 23, 2008, the murder of Donald Young? 3. Why won’t Senator Obama provide all email communication both personal and campaign related to and/or from AKP Message & Media from January 18, 2008 through February 29, 2008 for Senator Obama, David Axelrod and David Plouffe? 4. Why won’t Senator Obama provide proof of all payments made from AKP Message & Media, Obama for America, David Axelrod, David Plouffe, and Senator Obama’s accounts for the period of January 18, 2008 through February 29, 2008? On my website – larrysinclair.org – you will find the documents that I have referred to in this statement. A copy of the home page for that website is attached. Thank you for your time and attention this afternoon and I will now take any questions. - E n d - APPENDIX II. PRESS RELEASE OF PHILIP J. BERG, PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST 21, 2008 Philip J. Berg, Esq. Files Federal Lawsuit Requesting Obama Be Removed as a Candidate as he does not meet the Qualifications for President Suit filed 08/21/08, No. 08-cv-4083 (Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 08/21/08) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, [Berg is a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania; former candidate for Governor and U.S. Senate in Democratic Primaries; former Chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County; former member of Democratic State Committee; an attorney with offices in Montgomery County, PA and an active practice in Philadelphia, PA], filed a lawsuit in Federal Court today, Berg vs. Obama, Civil Action Appendices 419 No. 08-cv-4083, seeking a Declaratory Judgment and an Injunction that Obama does not meet the qualifications to be President of the United States. Berg filed this suit for the best interests of the Democratic Party and the citizens of the United States. “Eighteen million Democratic Primary voters donated money, volunteered their time and energy, worked very hard and then not only supported Senator Clinton, but voted for her and often recruited other supporters as well. All the efforts of supporters of legitimate citizens were for nothing because this man lied and cheated his way into a fraudulent candidacy and cheated legitimately eligible natural born citizens from competing in a fair process and the supporters of their citizen choice for the nomination. Philip J. Berg, Esquire stated in his lawsuit that Senator Obama: 1. Is not a natural-born citizen; and/or 2. Lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia; and/or 3. Has dual loyalties because of his citizenship with Kenya and Indonesia. Berg stated: “I filed this action at this time to avoid the obvious problems that will occur when the Republican Party raises these issues after Obama is nominated. There have been numerous questions raised about Obama’s background with no satisfactory answers. The questions that I have addressed include, but are not limited to: 1. Where was Obama born? Hawaii; an island off of Hawaii; Kenya; Canada; or ? 2. Was he a citizen of Kenya, Indonesia and/or Canada? 3. What was the early childhood of Obama in Hawaii; in Kenya; in Indonesia when he was adopted; and later, back to Hawaii? 4. An explanation as to the various names utilized by Obama that include: Barack Hussein Obama; Barry Soetoro; Barry Obama; Barack Dunham; and Barry Dunham. 5. Illinois Bar Application – Obama fails to acknowledge use of names other than Barack Hussein Obama, a blatant lie. 420 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography If Obama can prove U.S. citizenship, we still have the issue of muti-citizenship with responsibilities owed to and allegance to other countries. Berg continued: Voters donated money, goods and services to elect a nominee and were defrauded by Senator Obama's lies and obfuscations. He clearly shows a conscience of guilt by his actions in using the forged birth certificate and the lies he's told to cover his loss of citizenship. We believe he does know, supported this belief by his actions in hiding his secret, in that he failed to regain his citizenship and used documents to further his position as a natural born citizen. We would also show he proclaims himself a Constitutional scholar and lecturer, but did not learn he had no eligibility to become President except by means of lying, obfuscations and deceptions. His very acts proves he knew he was no longer a natural born citizen. We believe he knew he was defrauding the country or else why use the forged birth certificate of his half sister? Americans lost money, goods and services donated in their support of a candidate who supposedly was a natural born citizen simply because the DNC officers and party leaders looked the other way and did not demand credentials to answer the questions and prove whether or not Senator Obama was a legitimately natural born citizen, even in light of recent information that has surfaced on websites on the Internet suggesting Senator Obama may not be eligible to become President and questioning his status of multiple citizenships and questionable loyalties! If the DNC officers and.or leaders had performed one ounce of due diligence we would not find ourselves in this emergency predicament, one week away from making a person the nominee who has lost their citizenship as a child and failed to even perform the basic steps of regaining citizenship through an oath of allegiance at age eighteen [18] as prescribed by Constitutional laws! The injunctive relief must be granted because failing to do so, this inaction defrauds everyone who voted in the Democratic Primary for a nominee that is a fair representation of the voters. Failure to grant injunctive relief would allow a corrupted, fraudulent nomination process to continue. It not only allows, but promotes an overwhelming degree of disrespect and creates such a lack of confidence in voters of the primary process itself, so that it would cement a prevailing belief that no potential candidate has to obey the laws of this country, respect our election process, follow the Constitution, or even suffer any consequence for lying and defrauding voters to get onto the ballot when they have no chance of serving if they fraudulently manage to get elected! It is unfair to Appendices 421 the country for candidates of either party to become the nominee when there is any question of their ability to serve if elected. All judges are lawyers and held to a higher standard of practice than a regular lawyer. It is this Judicial standard that demands injunctive relief prayed for here. This relief is predicated upon one of the most basic premises of practicing law which states no lawyer can allow themselves to be used in furthering a criminal enterprise. And by that gauge alone, failing to give injunctive relief to the 18 million supporters of the other candidate, a true natural born citizen eligible to serve if elected, this court must not allow itself to be used to further the criminal and fraudulent acts to continue and be rewarded by becoming the Democratic Nominee. Failure to give the injunctive relief prayed for will insure that a corrupted Presidential election process will only guarantee a show of unfair preference of one group of people over another group by not demanding the same rules be applied to all groups equally and fairly, especially in light of the fact that both candidates are each considered a minority. Philip J. Berg, Esquire 555 Andorra Glen Court, Suite 12 Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-2531 APPENDIX III: ON THE ASSASSINATION OF BILL GWATNEY, ARKANSAS STATE DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN IS THE DEATH OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN PART OF AN OBAMA BODY COUNT? By Webster G. Tarpley Washington DC, Aug. 13 -- This afternoon, Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney fell victim to what was evidently a political assassination. Gwatney was a major ally of Hillary and Bill Clinton, and was a leader of the strongly pro-Clinton Arkansas delegation to the upcoming Denver Democratic National Convention. Some had expected Gwatney to lead anti-Obama floor operations at the upcoming Denver convention. Gwatney's Arkansas delegation was known to be a hotbed of anti-Obama sentiment, and was reportedly ready to walk out of the Denver convention if Senator Clinton were not to be treated fairly by the pro-Obama Howard Dean-Donna Brazile DNC leadership. Observers in Washington are now asking whether the assassination of Gwatney can be read as attempted intimidation of the anti-Obama forces which are now gaining strength before the Denver convention. 422 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Is the death of Bill Gwatney part of an Obama body count, which already includes the names of Donald Young (the murdered gay choirmaster of Rev. Wright's church) and possibly others? [These suspicions solidified a few days later, when Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, one of Senator Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, collapsed and died while driving her car. Her death was ruled the result of an aneurism. But this did nothing to quell suspicions that arose when two of the most important floor leaders of the Clinton forces died just days before the Denver convention, where the Obama clique was known to fear rebellion, protests, and walkouts by disenfranchised and bullied Clinton delegates.] APPENDIX IV: MOTORMOUTH JOE BIDEN: WARMONGER, WORDMONGER, AND POLITICAL HIT MAN By Webster G. Tarpley Washington DC, August 28, 2008 – The vice presidential candidate chosen to run with Obama is Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, a discredited, sleazy, and shopworn political hack -- and therefore an anti-climax for all the callow and feckless youth who got the word via text message at 3am in the morning. The ability of the Trilateral-Bilderberg machine which controls Obama to put up a person like Biden already reflects the further degradation of US political life over the past 9-12 months, largely as a result of Obama’s own demagogic, no-issues, personality cult agitation. A year ago, there was wide agreement in the US middle class that Bush and Cheney should be impeached, that the police state be rolled back, and that the Iraq war should be ended as soon as physically possible. Thanks largely to the advent of the vapid and messianic Obama, these issues have now been thoroughly deflated. Biden is himself an incurable warmonger who voted for the Iraq war and blathered ceaselessly in favor of Bush’s aggressive adventure to all who would listen. Naming Biden is a brutal insult to the antiwar majority of the Democratic Party, and Obama is obviously hoping that the Iraq war issue is dead, so nobody will care. Last year, Obama promised that he would work against the mentality that produced Iraq; if anyone incarnates that mentality, it is Biden. Biden is an incurable imperialist and an eager advocate of the discredited Bush-Cheney “war on terror.” He even tried to use one of the Democratic debates last year to whip up hysteria in favor of attacking Sudan over the Darfur issue, and with some success. “I went there. I sat in the borders. I went in those camps. They're going to have thousands and thousands and thousands of people die. We've got to stop talking and act,” Biden postured in Manchester New Hampshire on June 3, 2007 in an apparent call for bombing Sudan, a coup in Khartoum, or an invasion. Incredibly, the crowd applauded wildly. Biden remains convinced that it is up to the United States to dictate the form of government and economic system of virtually every country in the world. His specialty is blatant interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, with left-cover of soft power issues like human rights and humanitarian concerns furnishing his favorite pretexts. Biden has learned nothing from the Iraq debacle except that Iraq was not the right victim; more appropriate victims and more effective methods will have to be found, argues Biden. The real lesson of Iraq (and Lebanon 2006) is that US-British imperialism and world domination are finished historically, but this is lost on Biden. Biden is the author of the odious plan to balkanize, partition, and subdivide Iraq into three zones: a Kurdish state designed to carve up Iran, Syria and Turkey as well as Iraq; a landlocked and oilpoor Sunni desert entity; and an oil-rich Shiastan in the south that might absorb the Arabistan or Achwaz province of Iran is a later breakup scenario for Iran. Biden’s plan is a continuation of the Appendices 423 Bernard Lewis plan to break up the existing states of the Middle East in a way destined to create a mosaic of pseudo-independent, squabbling mini-states or micro-states. This approach places Biden squarely behind the Zbigniew Brzezinski “dignity” doctrine of breaking up the existing nation states of the world in favor of a crazy quilt of micro-states based on ethnic and religious parochialism and particularism; not one of these micro-states could stand up to Exxon-Mobil or JP Morgan Chase. BIDEN IS MORALLY INSANE ON GEORGIA Biden’s ample track record as an agent provocateur against Russia goes back more than a decade to the time he mobilized his mouth to help demonize Milosevic of Serbia as part of the Albright- Holbrooke-Wesley Clark anti-Russian campaign of those years, which ended with the NATO bombing of Serbia, an act of unprecedented historical vandalism. In the past week, warmonger Biden has rushed to the side of the latest tin pot mini-Mussolini of the Brzezinski-Soros faction, the infamous war criminal and gangster Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia. “I left the country convinced that Russia's invasion of Georgia may be the one of the most significant events to occur in Europe since the end of communism,” raved Biden on his return, documenting his own moral insanity by siding with the aggressor. “The claims of Georgian atrocities that provided the pretext for Russia's invasion are rapidly being disproved by international observers, and the continuing presence of Russian forces in the country has severe implications for the broader region,” added the Orwellian senator. BIDEN: $1 BILLION FOR MADMAN SAAKASHVILI In presenting Biden, Barky reveled in Biden’s “tough message” for Russia; we are sure Putin is trembling. Biden wants to prop up the madman Saakashvili with $1 billion of the US taxpayers’ money, a gesture which is every bit as obscene as the worst Bush-Cheney excesses. $1 billion would get us on the road to fully funding a program like WIC (high-protein foods for expectant mothers) or Head Start, but this thought does not occur to Biden when he is trying to provoke Russia. We can see the cruel elitism of a financier-controlled Obama regime taking place before our eyes. Obama and Biden resemble each other closely, Both are insufferable windbags besotted with their own rhetorical verbiage. Biden’s celebrated gaffes will provide comic relief, as long as they do not gaffe us into World War III, which is always a distinct possibility. Obama and Biden are addicted to the sound of their own voices, and this may turn out to be the fatal flaw that sinks them when the voters get sick of the endless parade of speeches. Obama and Biden are in danger of drowning in their own endless blabber. Each one has more than a touch of megalomania, which prevents them from seeing their limits. Biden’s middle name is Robinette, which is close to the term for a faucet tap in French. Biden has never been able to find the tap to turn off his own mouth. BARKY AND BIDEN: BOTH ON THE TAKE FROM THE REZKO-CARI GANG By now the whole world knows the story of Tony Rezko, the Chicago racketeer and gangster who has been Barky’s political godfather for almost twenty years. Rezko, now a convicted felon awaiting sentencing in October, is an integral part of the bipartisan criminal enterprise known as the Illinois Combine, one of the filthiest cesspools of graft and corruption in the United States. It transpires that Joe Biden has a political godfather of his own who closely linked to Rezko, and who has also become a convicted felon by pleading guilty in the Operation Board Games investigation by the Chicago US Attorney’s office. This is Joseph Cari Jr., described by the Washington Times of 424 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography August 28, 2008 as a “former national finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee and a longtime supporter and political adviser to Mr. Biden.” Cari had extorted an $850,000 kickback from JER Inc., a Virginia investment firm that wanted to manage $850 million of retirement funds belonging to Illinois teachers. This shakedown took place under a pension fund setup which State Senator Obama had helped to put into place when he was in Springfield under the cover of giving minority firms more representation. Cari has given some $200,000 to Democratic candidates over the years, including $4,000 directly to Biden, with whom hen is closely linked. So the basis of this year’s Democratic ticket is the colossal graft of the Illinois Combiner and its looting operations known under the heading of Operation Board Games. Is Biden, like Barky, subject to indictment at any time, and thus guaranteed to follow the orders of the banking establishment? The safe bet was that he is indeed. TWO PLAGIARISTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET Obama and Biden are both plagiarists; words are their stock in trade, and even the words are fake. It emerged this spring that Obama was spouting verbatim the canned speeches of Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, his fellow clone from the Trilateral stable. Biden is a picaresque paladin of plagiarism. His 1988 presidential campaign was aborted when he was found to have stolen paragraphs of a speech by the Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock. He had also embroidered his campaign biography. Biden had also been guilty of plagiarism at the Syracuse University law school which he attended, but he had somehow talked his way out of those charges. BIDEN A CREATURE OF THE WORST CREDIT CARD GOUGERS Biden represents Delaware in the US Senate. Delaware is not a state, but a giant post box for Dupont, General Motors, and many of the giant corporations and Wall Street firms. The state politics of Delaware are dictated down to the most minute detail by the bankers and their corporate lackeys, since everything depends on keeping a pro-oligarchical political climate in the state. Biden personally is a tool of MBNA, a credit card issuer that was recently absorbed by the Bank of America, which presumably now also owns Biden. Biden got at least $215,000 from MBNA over the past decade. MBNA is notoriously one of the biggest predatory lenders and interest rate gougers in the entire usurious world of credit cards, and Biden’s services to them are precisely in this area: Biden was a big supporter of the 2005 bankruptcy law which makes it much harder for working families to escape debt bondage and debt slavery – just what the looters at MBNA ordered. Biden has also boasted that he wrote the ban on assault weapons, a measure that is sure to cause problems among the bitter clingers of Appalachia who are concerned about gun ownership. Obama has voted for the rotten compromise on FISA illegal wiretaps ordered by Bush that grants retroactive immunity to the telecoms. Biden is also an enthusiastic police state totalitarian. In 1995, after the Oklahoma City false flag bombing, Biden submitted an oppressive police state bill, in many ways a precursor of Bush’s infamous Patriot Act. “I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing,” boasts Biden. “And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill.” Biden’s only regret is that he was not able to undermine political freedom as much as he wanted to. Obama’s drooling acolytes have argued all summer that to name Senator Clinton to the ticket would negate Barky’s profile of youth, change, hope, and so forth. Clinton has been a national figure for almost twenty years, but she has been dumped in favor of Biden, who has been in the US Senate for about 36 years and is about as stale and hackneyed as a political figure could be. The difference is that Biden’s track recor5d established him as an obedient servant of the Wall Street Appendices 425 banks that have their post box headquarters in his state; the Clintons, by contrast, represent the closest thing we have to political combination not wholly owned by Wall Street and capable of saying no to the bankers when they demand austerity and aggression, as they are assuredly doing now. Rockefeller and Soros do not want Sen. Clinton in the presidential succession under any circumstances, and this is an important positive qualification for the New York senator. BEAU BIDEN, THE CORRUPT ATTORNEY GENERAL OF DELAWARE Joe Biden’s son is Beau Biden, the current attorney general of Delaware. Beau is involved in one of the dirtiest enemies’ list operations in recent memory against Larry Sinclair, who has come forward with explosive charges of gay sex and crack cocaine use in 1999 on the part of Obama. When Sinclair came to the National Press Club in Washington on June 18 to make his case, he was arrested on a trumped-up warrant issued by Beau Biden. Sinclair is being threatened with a long jail term, essentially because he has spoken out against Obama. It was a clear bid to do a favor for Barky and get Joe Biden on the ticket in the veep slot. That has now occurred – on the basis of a police state operation against an outspoken political opponent which goes beyond Nixon or Bush- Cheney, since Obama is not yet president and may well never be. The Biden announcement was thoroughly botched and bungled by Axelrod, Plouffe, and Favreau. The text message gimmick is drawn straight from the Kiev Orange revolution of 2004 and the Tiflis Roses revolution of 2003, the models for Obama’s attempt to seize power. The proceedings were a carnival of gaffes and Freudian slips, all ignored by Obama’s loyal brigade of media whores. According to Barky, Joe Biden would help enact “a new energy policy to freeze ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil” – a chilling prospect. “BARACK AMERICA” AND OTHER FREUDIAN SLIPS Barky made another revealing Freudian slip: “the next President… the next Vice President – Joe Biden.” Does Barky know that Biden will act as his resident in-house controller? Biden, evidently mindful that he will have to sell the radical subversive Obama as a wholesome product of the heartland, returned the gaffe by calling the presumptive nominee “Barack America” or “Barack American.” Perhaps he was trying to imitate the old Subliminal Man of Saturday Night Live, but was too slow. Behind Barky’s Freudian slip is the fact that Biden will evidently run foreign policy for the clueless Obama in much the same way that Brzezinski ran foreign policy above and behind Carter, or that Cheney has run foreign policy above and behind Bush. Obama is so ignorant and cognitively impaired that he could hardly understand the instructions that bankers’ spokesmen like Brzezinski and Soros will be shouting to him on the phone. This is where an experienced hack like Biden is needed. The media, in a transparent attempt to portray an apostolic succession for Biden, are still feeding the illusion that Biden was chosen by Caroline Kennedy. In reality, the choice was probably made by Trilateral-Bilderberg operative Jim Johnson, who was forced to retreat from his announced role as The Vetter by revelations about a sweetheart mortgage, but probably just kept going behind the scenes. The Obama campaign has repeated ad nauseam its mantra that McCain is running for Bush’s third term. McCain has answered that Obama is running for Jimmy Carter’s second term. The reality may be that Joe Biden is running for Dick Cheney’s third term as the resident controller of a lazy and shallow puppet president – Obama, the Manchurian candidate of the Trilateral Commission. NOTES 1 See http://www.duboisweb.org/greatbarrington.html 2 Berg is a former deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, former candidate for Pennsylvania governor and US senator in the Democragtic primaries, former Democratic county chairman for Montgomery County, PA, and former Democratic State Commiteeman for Pennsylvania. A summary of Berg’s highly persuasive arguments are included in the appendix to this book. 3 Ruth Ndesandjo, originally Ruth Nidesand, was born in U.S. in the late 1940s, and became the third known wife of Barack Obama Senior. Ruth works today as a private Kindergarten director in Kenya. Ruth's two sons by Barack Obama Senior are Mark and David; she has another son named Joseph Ndesandjo (born around 1980) from a subsequent marriage to a Tanzanian. David died young. Mark Ndesandjo has resided since 2002 in Shenzhen, China, where he runs an Internet company called WorldNexus. 4 Jerome Corsi points out (Obama Nation, p. 218) that Stanley Armour Dunham’s mother, Ruth Armour Dunham, committed suicide in 1926 when she was 26 years of age after having been abandoned by her husband. It was Stanley who discovered the body of his own mother. Corsi notes that David Axelrod’s father also took his own life, and suggests that Obama Senior drank and drove himself to death. 5 Michelle Obama blurted out on July 10, 2008 in regard to Obama’s mother Ann that she had been “very young and very single when she had him.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/10/michelle-obama-talksabou_ n_111975.html 6 Even Obama’s birth is shrouded in mystery. The alleged birth certificate exhibited by Obama on his campaign web site lacks the raised seal which is indispensable to demonstrate authenticity. This leaves open such issues as: was Obama born in the US? Is he in fact a stateless person? The blogger Texas Darlin propounds the following questions for Obama: ‘Where did Ann Dunham live while she was pregnant with Barack, especially the 6 months from Feb. to Aug. 1961? Reportedly her parents were embarrassed and upset about her pregnancy. Obama Sr. was reportedly living in a dorm at the time. Where did Ann deliver Barack? His “birth certificate” doesn’t say, and I guess he’s lost the original? (Although, it’s very interesting to note that Obama provides details of his birth weight in Dreams from My Father — where did that info come from?) Wikipedia and other sources say that Barack was born at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, but are there any records of this? Why does Barack’s “certification of birth” say “Date Filed” at the bottom, when the other Honolulu birth certificate on the same form that we found says “Date Accepted”? Is it possible that Barack was born someplace outside Honolulu, perhaps someplace outside the country (maybe someplace closer than Kenya), and that Ann applied for a “late arrival” birth certificate after-the-fact, which the State of Hawaii apparently allows under certain circumstances? Is it possible that leftist/Marxist foreign friends of Ann’s at the Univ. of Hawaii referred her to a location outside the US to complete her pregnancy and deliver her baby? Did Ann drop out of the University when she was pregnant? If so, for how long? Does the fact that Ann was a minor when Barack was conceived relate to these events? What was the legal age for getting married in Hawaii in 1961? Who was with Ann at the time she delivered Barack? Parents, Obama Sr., or both? Why did Ann travel to Mercer Island with her newborn, and did Obama Sr. or her mother accompany her? Why hasn’t the Obama campaign made Ann’s mother (and Barack’s grandmother), Madelyn Dunham (now 84), available? Don’t presidential candidates at least minimally introduce immediate relatives to the general public? It seems that Obama is treating his grandmother like a big mystery. Why did Barack Obama make a big to-do about, and act as CO-SPONSOR for, legislation in early 08 that was introduced by his supporter Claire McCaskill resolving questions about McCain’s eligibility to be President? Is it true that Obama favored a law that would allow any citizen born outside the US to be eligible for POTUS? Why did McCaskill, rather than a Republican, introduce this legislation?’ (Texas Darlin, http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/23/obama-birth-mystery-cont/#more-3196) Texas Darlin later published an essay by “Judah Benjamin” which argued that ‘Barack Obama was adopted by Lolo Soetoro, his Indonesian step-father, and “Barry Soetoro” acquired Indonesian citizenship as a result of that adoption AND Notes 427 that he (Soetoro/Obama) may STILL hold Indonesian citizenship today. (http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/30/the-paper-trail-obamas-indonesian-background/#more-3881) 7 See also Reverend James David Manning, “The Trinity of Hell,” May 10, 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejTmistHFw0. 8 http://theobamafile.com/ObamaReligion.htm 9 http://theobamafile.com/ObamaReligion.htm 10 http://laotze.blogspot.com/2007/01/tracking-down-obama-in-indonesia-part-3.html 11 http://larrysinclair0926.wordpress.com/2008/04/25/chicago-pd-meet-to-be-scheduled-more-high-pricelawyers- diggcom-served/#comments 12 Fanon citations are from The Wretched of the Earth, chapter VI, conclusion, transl. Dominic Tweedie. 13 Reasononline, September 5, 2008, http://www.reason.com/news/show/128461.html. 14 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/us/politics/07community.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp 15 John Judis has noted that by the time Obama was ready to quit his foundation-funded community organizer job to advance to the higher levels of counter-insurgency, he had become well aware of the futility, hopelessness, and despair which are the typical product of the hyper-parochial, anti-political, and antiauthoritarian or anti-leadership Alinskyite model of divide and conquer politics. At a conference of Alinskyite operatives held at Harvard in October 1987, Obama told fellow operative Jerry Kellman that he was bailing out in favor of a law degree, a career, a family, and financial stability. Obama appears to have used the race issue to cover his retreat: he spoke of the fact that some Alinksyite micro-projects had turned to anti-black racism. One of these was the Save Our Neighborhoods/Save Our Cities (SON/SOC, created in early 1984) counterinsurgency project, which accused real estate brokers of block-busting previously white blue-collar ethnic neighborhoods to promote an influx of super-exploited blacks. Obama pretended to be shocked by the racist outbursts that came out of the SON/SOC, and obviously found this a welcome pretext for departing for the Harvard boutique. In reality, racism of some kind is very frequently a product of the Alinsky particularist-parochialist micro-organizing method. As Judis points out, one of Alinsky’s original projects, the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, had supported the racist populist George Wallace during the 1960s. This kind of fragmentation along racial and localist lines is exactly what the financiers who fund these projects desire and are willing to pay for. The SON/SOC case is merely the reductio ad absurdum of bankruptcy and counter-productive nature of the entire Alinsky method. According to Judis, Obama summed up his views in an article published in the now defunct magazine Illinois Issues; the article would eventually appear in an the anthology edited by Peg Knoepfle and entitled After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois (Springfield, IL: Sangamon State University, 1990), online at http://www.edwoj.com/Alinsky/AlinskyObamaChapter1990.htm and http://civic.uis.edu/Alinsky/AlinskyHomePage.htm. Judis, perhaps because he is now himself funded by the Carnegie Endowment, cannot see that the goal of the whole Alinsky exercise is to keep subject populations impotent in the face of the institutions controlled by international finance capital. The alternative to the dead end of Alinsky methods is a broad national coalition or united front of the main components of working people and their allies, such as the FDR coalition or the convergence of the student movement, the peace movement, the black movement, and the labor movement that Martin Luther King was trying to promote at the time of his assassination. Judis does point out the MLK was strongly opposed by Alinsky, showing the latter’s conscious role as a wrecker and saboteur. See John Judis, “The Creation Myth: What Barack Obama Won’t Tell You About his Community Organizing Past,” New Republic, September 10, 2008. 16 http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/16th_Issue/vs2.html 17 http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1303/Jacoby/Jacoby.html 18 http://falsani.blogspot.com/2008/04/barack-Obama-2004-god-factor-interview.html. 19 The line is supposedly borrowed from Malcolm X after the Kennedy assassination; Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA operations directorate, as Joan Mellen has shown in her Farewell to Justice. Malcolm X’s remark was therefore a piece of arrant stupidity and gullibility. 428 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography 20 See Webster Griffin Tarpley, 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA (Joshua Tree CA: Progressive press, 2005ff.). 21 Hyde Park Herald, September 19, 2008, cited by Ryan Lizza, “Making It,” New Yorker, July 21, 2008, emphasis added. 22 Incredibly enough, historian Herbert Parmet wrote of Richard Nixon that “It would do a great injustice to deny [Nixon’s] intellectual and spiritual commitment to racial equality.” As Michael Lind comments, “In fact, Nixon’s purpose in reviving and implementing the Philadelphia Plan was to split the Democratic coalition by pitting white labor against the black civil rights movement.” See Lind, Up From Conservatism (New York: The Free Press, 1996), p. 192. 23 See my Obama: The Postmodern Coup (2008). 24 According to a recent Washington Post account, ‘A few years ago, executives at the prestigious University of Chicago Medical Center were concerned that an increasing number of patients were arriving at their emergency room with what the executives considered to be non-urgent complaints. The visits were costly to the hospital, and many of the patients, coming from the surrounding South Side neighborhood, were poor and uninsured. Michelle Obama, an executive at the medical center, launched an innovative program to steer the patients to existing neighborhood clinics to deal with their health needs. That effort, in time, inspired a broader program the hospital now calls its Urban Health Initiative. To ensure community support, Michelle Obama and others in late 2006 recommended that the hospital hire the firm of David Axelrod, who a few months later became the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. … Axelrod’s firm warned hospital executives in its May 2007 presentation that, although many people welcomed the initiative, primarycare doctors opposed it as a break with the center’s commitment to the community. Opinion research showed that a small but passionate group of people already considered the hospital to be elitist, arrogant and lacking in “cultural empathy” for the surrounding economically depressed South Side neighborhood, according to a draft report obtained by The Washington Post. Some doctors in focus groups dismissed local health clinics as “wholly inadequate.” Quentin Young, a local physician whose five-doctor medical office lists Barack Obama among its patients, said that in past decades the South Side often viewed the institution as a “citadel of exclusion,” more interested in research than the well-being of its neighbors. …The hospital told state regulators it spent $10 million on charity care for the poor in fiscal 2007 -- 1.3 percent of its total hospital expenses, according to an analysis performed for The Washington Post by the bipartisan, nonprofit Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. That is below the 2.1 percent average for nonprofit hospitals in Cook County. As a nonprofit, the University of Chicago Medical Center receives annual tax breaks worth nearly five times as much as it spends on charity care, the analysis found. Still, Quentin Young, the South Side physician, described the medical center’s level of charity spending as “ludicrous.” Young, known in Chicago for having been the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal physician, is chairman of the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, a Chicago-based nonprofit that advocates health-care reform. Young considered himself an ally of Barack Obama while he was a state legislator. “That’s shameful,” Young said of the percentages. “They are arguably, if not defrauding, then at least taking advantage of a public subsidy. We would like to see them give more than the minimum. The need is there.” [A] hospital report quotes Michelle Obama as saying, “The world is seeping in, and our salvation will be the success of our partners” at local clinics…. Edward Novak, president of Chicago’s Sacred Heart Hospital, declined to discuss the center’s initiative in particular but dismissed as “bull” attempts to justify such programs as good for patients. “What they’re really saying is, ‘Don’t use our emergency room because it will cost us money, and we don’t want the public-aid population,’ “ Novak said. An April 2007 draft report from the medical center’s polling firm, Peter D. Hart Research Associates, said focus groups suggested that “enough latent suspicion toward the hospital and university as elitist exists to ensure that a political attack against the Urban Health Initiative as deceptive and self-serving would find fertile ground.” While most of those surveyed expressed favorable views of the center and its program, critics complained of arrogance and a lack of empathy, the report said. “More than a few staff members -- particularly medical staff -- express strongly worded concern or disappointment with UCMC in its commitment to the community,” the report said. … “This new health initiative is not really about helping the Notes 429 residents of the South Side of Chicago. It is simply a way for the University of Chicago Medical Center to save money and reduce costs by serving fewer poor people without health insurance.” “I’ve had some complaints from my constituents,” said Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, a former teacher who represents Chicago’s 4th Ward and who will be an Obama delegate at the Democratic National Convention. “It’s hard to know whether this is motivated by the interests of the patients or by the financial interests of the medical center.”… Jeffrey Schaider, chairman of emergency medicine at nearby John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, also is skeptical. Schaider said his emergency room welcomes all patients, whether or not their maladies ultimately prove urgent. Lower-income workers also often find it difficult to visit clinics, which have limited hours, he said.’ (Joe Stephens, “Obama Camp Has Many Ties to Wife’s Employer,” Washington Post, August 22, 2008) 25 Washington Post, August 12, 2007. 26 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html 27 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html 28 http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmEyN2RkNzcwYzgyZDY2MDBiY2U5MjJlZGMwNDM2ODg= 29 Concerning Michelle’s extensive foundation connections, Stanley Kurtz of the National Review writes: ‘Michelle… had been executive director of Public Allies Chicago since 1991. Public Allies Chicago currently partners with the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University, led by noted community organizers John McKnight and Jody Kretzman. Michelle and Barack both have close links to Public Allies, to the Asset-Based Community Development Institute, to McKnight and to Kretzman. The Asset-Based Community Development Institute and its leaders are closely tied to the Gamaliel Foundation. Barack himself worked directly with the co-founder and Executive Director of the Gamaliel Foundation, Gregory Galluzzo…. the Gamaliel Foundation is guided by an extreme, anti-American ideology, much like Revered Wright’s. In other words, Both Michelle and Barack Obama were part of a tightly knit network of Gamaliel Foundation organizers, and the guiding ideology of Gamaliel is deeply radical and anti-American.’ (Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online, “The Corner,” August 22, 2008) As for Barky, he was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before Michelle became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993…. Obama also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center, which dealt with 1,100 people thrown off welfare. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center. The Lugenia Burns Hope Center, another povertician operation, specialized in moving former welfare recipients to low-wage jobs after Aid to Mothers With Dependent Children, a part of the FDR Social Security Act of 1935, had been abolished by Clinton. The Lugenia Burns is a foundation-funded operation evidently tasked with preventing a broad-based political rebellion against the abolition of Social Security; the Lugenia Burns has received grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other foundations controlled by the ruling elite. 30 http://www.opednews.com/author/author58.html 31 ‘On October 1, 2006, Mayor Richard Daley appointed Martin Nesbitt as Chairperson of the Chicago Housing Authority succeeding Sharon Gist Gilliam. Gist Gilliam assumed the role of interim CEO upon the resignation of Terry Peterson on Sept. 30, 2006. Mr. Nesbitt was appointed as a Commissioner of the Authority on July 9, 2003. He served as Vice Chairperson of the Board since January 17, 2006. Mr. Nesbitt is president of PRG Parking Management, also known as the Parking Spot, and manages the strategic and operating services of the off-airport parking facilities. Mr. Nesbitt is also vice president of the Pritzker Realty Group, L.P. where he procures new real estate investment opportunities, retail investments and developments for the Pritzker Group.’ http://www.thecha.org/aboutus/martin_nesbitt.html 32 Ben Smith, “Ax On Ayers,” Politico, February 26, 2008. 33 http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3FC289D8-3048-5C12-009AD5180C22FF0B 34 http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/cinnamon/2007/06/thomas-g-ayers-1915-2007.html 430 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography 35 Ayers and Oughton had founded the Jesse James Gang out of the University of Michigan SDS chapter, with the help of a suspected agent provocateur named Jim Mellen. ‘Bill and Diana… became more active in the Ann Arbor chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Ayers had been a member of the SDS radical education project for several years at a time when SDS was still a loosely-organized group of students who believed in experimental schools and community projects as vehicles for change. In June, 1968, they attended an SDS convention in East Lansing where a sharp split was emerging between the Progressive Labor Party (PL) and the cultural revolutionaries who naturally attracted Bill and Diana. … After the convention Diana and Bill spent part of the summer in Chicago working in the SDS national office where they had intense political discussion with Mike Klonsky, an SDS national officer, and Bernardine Dohrn, a later leader of the Weathermen. Diana and Bill became convinced that direct action rather than education and peaceful reform were the way to change society. Diana was deeply affected by the demonstrations at the Democratic Party convention that August and what she and the SDS and eventually the Walker Commission felt was a “police riot.” At the peak of the violence, she called her sister, Carol, in Chicago for $150 to help bail Tom Hayden, one of the founders of SDS in 1962, out of jail. A day or two later she called again and said she and Bill were leaving the city because “it’s getting too rough.” It was also during that summer that Bill and Diana turned full-scale toward the cultural revolution. They developed a taste for “acid” rock at ear-shattering volume. They cut off their hair and began to wear hippy headbands and wire-rimmed glasses. They took LSD, sometimes with another couple. On one occasion one of the group ran out into the street naked but was coaxed back inside before the police came. They returned to Ann Arbor that fall in an activist mood. At the first meeting of the Ann Arbor SDS on Sept. 24, 1968, a sharp division in the group was apparent. Diana and Bill along with some 40 other radicals banded together against the moderates and formed a faction which they called “The Jesse James Gang.” The gang declared themselves revolutionary gangsters. They held peaceful methods of reform in contempt. They urged direct action instead of talk, individual violent confrontations instead of big peace marches. Contained in their still half-formed ideas about the role of America in the world and white radicals in America, was the germ of the Weatherman analysis which would later call for violence. The gang disrupted SDS meetings and made vicious personal attacks on their opponents. The meetings frequently degenerated into brawls. The gang shouted and heckled and even threw eggs and tomatoes at moderate speakers. They often let it be known that their opponents were running the risk of physical beatings. Bill Ayers, Diana at his side, spoke against the failure of education to change people and described the gang as “the arms of liberation inside the monster.” “We are tired of tiptoeing up to society and asking for reform. We’re ready to kick it,” he told one opponent. The behind-the-scenes leader of the Jesse James Gang was a mysterious, 31-year-old man named Jim Mellen who appeared out of nowhere in Ann Arbor that Fall. No one knew where he had gone to school or why he had come to the University of Michigan. Although he was the major intellectual force behind the gang, Mellen carefully avoided any position of formal authority. A rumor began circulating among his critics that Mellen was an agent provocateur sent by the Central Intelligence Agency to destroy SDS and the radical movement in Michigan. Ten months later, after helping to write the Weatherman manifesto and playing a part in the June, 1969, SDS convention which destroyed the organization, Mellen faded from the Ann Arbor radical scene as mysteriously as he had arrived. Within a period of a few weeks the Jesse James Gang triumphed within the SDS chapter at Ann Arbor. Early in October, 1968, the moderates decided they had had enough and walked out to form their own group. Through psychological warfare and vague threats of violence, the gang had captured the single most important SDS chapter in Michigan, which automatically gave them a powerful voice in the national organization. … Ayers rose to a position of strength with the gang because of his ability to dominate groups through a combination of charm and the volume of his voice. Handsome and brash, he was a notorious lady’s man who did not hide his promiscuity from Diana. Diana told friends that although she was hurt by Bill’s infidelity, it made her redouble her efforts to be a true revolutionary. Stung by frequent jibes that she could afford to be one because her daddy was rich, Diana struggled to make her own mark in the movement. (Lucinda Franks and Thomas Powers, “Story of Diana--The Making of a Terrorist--III--Angry, She Returns to US,” United Press International 1970, emphasis added) Notes 431 36 Kathy Boudin was born in 1943 to a Jewish family with a long left-wing history, and was raised in Greenwich Village, New York City. Her great-uncle was Louis Boudonovitch Boudin, a Marxist theorist. She was the niece of I.F. Stone, the leftist Washington reporter and critic of Plato. Her father, attorney Leonard Boudin, had represented such controversial clients as Fidel Castro, Paul Robeson, and Daniel Ellsberg of the RAND Corporation. Leonard Boudin was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild. Kathy’s older brother, Michael Boudin, joined the establishment law firm of Covington and Burling, where Dean Acheson and William P. Bundy had been partners. Michael Boudin is currently the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. Kathy Boudin was convicted of one count of felony murder and armed robbery, and was sentenced to twenty years to life under a plea bargain for her role in the 1981 Brinks Robbery near New York City in which the Weathermen killed two policemen and an armed guard. Boudin was released in September 2003 amid the protests of the families of her victims. (Wikipedia) 37 Cited as Carter and the PIT. 38 Abby Rockefeller, the sister of David, Nelson, John D. III, Laurance, and Winthrop, reportedly joined SDS for a time in the early 1960s. (Carter and the PIT, 25) In the winter of 2007, there were isolated signs of an ongoing salon frequented by SDS nostalgics and members of the extended Rockefeller family in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 39 After the Days of Rage, federal indictments were handed down against most of the publicly identified Weathermen. As a result, the project moved into an “underground” phase characterized by heavy drug use, institutionalization of polymorphous perversion (“sexual liberation”), and intensive use of attack group methods of self-brainwashing (Maoist “criticism and self-criticism”), all staged in the “programmed paranoia” of a police round-up threatened at any minute. The Spring 1970 escalation of the war in Cambodia provided the pretext for Weatherman controllers to escalate the group’s activities to terrorist bombings: the University of Washington ROTC building, the New York police headquarters, the Washington DC capitol building, etc. (Carter and the PIT, 121) These are the people that Obama finds congenial. 40 Bob Black, “Up Sand Creek Without A Paddle,” http://www.pirateballerina.com/images/bobblack.html, also posted at Discoverthenetworks.org, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/Up%20Sand%20Creek%20Without%20a%20Paddle2.html. Some internet sources attempt to attack the reliability of Bob Black, but he is taken seriously by Sherrie Gosset, the associate editor of the neocon site Accuracy in Media, who reports: ‘American anarchist Bob Black also skewered Churchill’s credibility in a detailed essay, “Up Sand Creek Without a Paddle.” He assails Churchill’s “bigoted and bogus” ‘scholarship’, and asks how this “hustler” has been able to pass off his “racist fantasies as scholarship” and gain tenure at UC. He has no PhD and reportedly can’t get published in even the most mediocre academic journals, so he sticks with leftist or racialist nationalist periodicals. Churchill “gets flown all over the country to address audiences of white leftists who pay him to guilt-trip them. How sweet the pain!” writes Black. Professor Brown explains that “In Indian activist circles, prestige and legitimacy often accrue to those who most successfully express an oppositional identity.” Which reminds us, the University of Colorado media relations people did not return our phone call yet asking whether it’s true the university investigated Churchill’s Indian identity claims ten years ago. He’s a “New Left/New Age ersatz Indian,” who might have a dream catcher hanging over his bed, but is just a “well-funded pale face” who is a “Red racist” but not a “red man” Black says. Indeed, this ‘injun of profit’ has parlayed his “Indianness” into a gig raking in close to $100,000 working for the same evil capitalist American government he condemned 9/11 victims for supporting.’ (See Sherrie Gosset, “Churchill: Ward of the State,” campusreportonline.net, February 15, 2005) 41 http://carcopy.blogspot.com/2005/02/denver-post-january-18-1987.html 42 http://www.satyamag.com/apr04/churchill.html 43 “Prof: ‘I Want US Off the Planet.’ Embattled Terror-Condoning Academic Says He Wants America ‘Out of Existence,’” World Net Daily, February 7, 2005. 44 Another Weatherman who is sometimes left out of the list of leading members is Bo Burlingham. The neocon web site Militant Islam Monitor.org cites ‘an excerpt from the proceedings of the House Judiciary 432 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography Committee, on 22 September, 1976, in which Congressman Larry McDonald (D-GA) is giving this rundown of the TNI [Trans National Institute]: Robert “Bo” Burlingham, a prominent functionary of IPS’s Cambridge [Massachusetts] subsidiary, was indicted in a bombing conspiracy in 1972, but charges were dropped when his Weathermen co-defendants could not be apprehended. Burlingham said in 1974: “I don’t think an equitable, fair, free democratic world order is going to happen any other way than through violence.”’ See http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2296. Burlingham may have hosted Obama’s friend Bernardine Dohrn during her trip to Europe to meet the deserters’ movement, which was heavily penetrated by the CIA, in 1968; see http://laroucheplanet.info/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Library.UnityNow3. 45 Ayers and Dohrn are also close to other Democratic Party bigwigs besides Obama. They are friends of Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Larry Johnson reports, ‘…actor and activist Peter Coyote talking on the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago on his website mentions a couple of times about having to inform his wife “Martha that I’m dragging her to the apartment of old friends, ex-Weathermen, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, hosting a party for Senator Leahy. Perhaps Edward Said will be there. I urge her to come by promising that the event will push the edges of the envelope of her centrist politics.”’ Edward Said was a member of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation networks of British intelligence, serviced by the late Italian left socialist Lelio Basso, Ken Coates, and the Yugoslav dissident Vladimir Dedijier, with all of whom Said appeared at a conference in Linz, Austria, in September 1972. http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/29/ayers-Obama-philanthropy-corruption-what-big-media-refusesto- disclose-about-Obamas-checkered-past-in-chicago-machine-politics/ 46 http://www.schwarzreport.org/Newsletters/1970/february1,70.htm 47 According to U.S. Labor Party, Carter and the Party of International Terrorism (New York, 1976), Bernardine Dohrn attended the University of Chicago Law School and graduated in 1965; here she worked together with Dean Edward H. Levi, who later became Attorney General for Ford in March 1975. The USLP writers regard Levi as a Rockefeller family operative who was involved with Marcus Raskin and the Black P. Stone street gang of Chicago. From 1967-1970, Dohrn worked for the National Lawyers Guild, a group which had been accused by J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI of being a communist front in the 1950s and may well have been implicated in cold war intelligence activities. At the same time, Dohrn was then involved with the American Deserters Committee, a group that was active in the US and Europe” (Carter and the PIT, 120) 48 http://www.schwarzreport.org/Newsletters/1970/february1,70.htm. 49 http://www.schwarzreport.org/Newsletters/1970/february1,70.htm 50 http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/repost-obamas-ultra-leftist-backers.html 51 http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/clinton_campaign_obama_must_an.html 52 http://www.markrudd.com/historical-writing/the-death-of-sds/ 53 As of 2008, the board of the Woods Fund is listed as: Laura S. Washington, Board Chair, Ida B. Wells- Barnett University Professor and Fellow of the DePaul Humanities Center; Jesus G. Garcia, Vice Chair, Executive Director, Little Village Community Development Corporation; William C. Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago. 54 http://billayers.wordpress.com/category/articles/ 55 http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0423ss.html 56 http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/04/who-sent-obama.html 57 http://pundita.blogspot.com/2008/05/william-ayers-plan-to-turn-americas_20.html 58 In mid-August 2008, the University of Illinois attempted to prevent researchers from gaining access to the archives of the Annenberg Chicago Challenge, which constituted some 70 linear feet of documents now housed at the Richard J. Daley Library at the Chicago Circle Campus. This is also where the Weatherman terrorist bomber Bill Ayers enjoys the fruits of his tenured professorship. After this high-handed outrage by a public institution became known, President White of the University of Illinois was bombarded by emails of protest demanding that the papers be made available. The University of Illinois announced as this book is going to press that the papers would be opened to the public on August 26, 2008. We hope to include this material in future editions of this book. The papers are likely to show that Ayers and Obama were no mere Notes 433 acquaintances, but rather constituted a mutual admiration and career assistance society, spending hundreds of hours together in meetings and collaborating in innumerable ways. (Stanley Kurtz, “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown? A cover-up in the making?” National Review Online, August 18, 2008). 59 http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/05/does-obama-support-reparations.html 60 Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 28, 2008, http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/28/news/story05.html 61 http://www.newsmax.com/limbaugh/Trinity_Church_Obama/2008/06/03/101086.html 62 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/23/the-monster-in-the-room-does-obama-support-reparations/ 63 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/23/the-monster-in-the-room-does-obama-support-reparations/ 64 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/Obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html 65 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hofstadter 66 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Durkheim 67 http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/herald/1313HiddenHistory.pdf 68 http://archive.rockefeller.edu/publications/conferences/saunier.pdf, emphasis added. 69 http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/launder/regions/2002/0201elf.htm 70 Another of Obama’s super-rich Middle East friends is a certain Khalid al Mansour, who has served as moneybags for Barky. Former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton has reported: ‘“I was introduced to him by a friend who was raising money for him and the friends name was Dr. Khalid al Mansour from Texas. He is the principle adviser to one of the world’s richest men. He told me about Obama. He wrote to me about him and his introduction was ‘there is a young man that has applied to Harvard and I know that you have a few friends left there because you used to go up there to speak, would you please write a letter in support of him?’…I wrote a letter in support of him to my friends at Harvard saying to them I thought there was a genius that was going to be available and I sure hoped they would treat him kindly.” Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tario Al- Mansour is an advisor to Heads of State and business leaders in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America. He has been actively involved in structuring investments and joint ventures worldwide for over 35 years. Dr. Al-Mansour was also responsible for the Africa investment activities of Kingdom Holdings, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal’s investment company. During his career, Dr. Al-Mansour has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, Bombay University, Columbia University, UCLA, University of Kenya, London School of Economics and the University of Ghana.’ This profile is redolent of intelligence community connections. See Texasdarlin, September 1, 2008. 71 Jerome Corsi, Obama Nation (New York: Simon and Shuster, 2008), p. 173. 72 (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aMzI3I6BAo_U&refer=politics) 74 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/27/recently-unsealed-documents-reveal-Obama-deeply-embroiled-inrezko- case/#more-3276 75 http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=27939 76 ‘Ever since the Obama camp announced Patti Solis-Doyle would be joining their team as the Chief of Staff for the yet-to-be-chosen Vice Presidential candidate, I’ve been wondering if she was always a part of their team. After all, Taylor Marsh informs us, and others confirm that Solis-Doyle has a 20 year relationship with David Axelrod, Obama’s puppet master. Further, over at No Quarter, Larry Johnson reveals that Solis-Doyle used to work for Richard Daley and her brother is a Chicago alderman. Clearly, the Solis-Doyle, Axelrod ties run deep. In addition, Steve Clemons, over at the Washington Note reported back in March: “Patti Solis Doyle allegedly bred a lot of ill will inside the campaign among staffers. Many Clinton aides talked about how she had a wall erected between herself and the rest of the campaign staff in Iowa. Others who had been around for Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign talked about how Patti Solis Doyle had shut down the campaign office for two full days in order to watch the collected DVD set of “Grey’s Anatomy.” I’m not kidding. On top of those clear failures, she also horribly mismanaged the Clinton campaign financially. One Clinton backer said what everyone was thinking: “Who can blame Obama for rewarding Patti? He would never be the nominee without her,” one person who has worked for both Clintons and remains close to them said. The question isn’t whether she helped him, it’s whether she did it knowingly. Had Hillary won Iowa, the outcome would probably be very different today. Patti Solis-Doyle was ultimately the architect of Hillary’s Iowa defeat 434 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography (Obama and Edward’s tactics excluded). In my estimation, Patti Solis-Doyle was a mole.’ (http://donedems.com/2008/06/17/patti-solis-doyle-obama-mole/) 77 John Fund, “Obama Should Come Clean on Ayers, Rezko, and the Iraqi Billionaire,” Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122005063234084813.html?mod=rss_opinion_main) 78 Washington Times, February 29, 2008; http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/ring022908.html, accessed Sept. 9, 2008. 79 Andrew Walden, “Iraqi Billionaire Threatens Reporters Investigating Rezko Affair,” Accuracy in Media, August 24, 2008. 80 See http://www.gop.com/Print/?Guid=21066cde-d75a-48c9-a05c-69f32e30015a&pg=news 81 (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aMzI3I6BAo_U&refer=politics) 82 Obama hired fellow Harvard Law alumnus and election law expert Thomas Johnson to challenge the nominating petitions of the four other candidates, thus getting them thrown off the ballot. 83 (John Kass, “In the spirit of the great Second City, I give you a new musical “Obama’s Lot,” Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2008) 84 http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3FC289D8-3048-5C12-009AD5180C22FF0B 85 Ayers also got some great reviews over the years from the Chicago leftist chronicler Studs Terkel. Terkel commented that this book showed that “William Ayers is as sensitive and gifted a chronicler as he is a teacher. His odyssey - for it is far more than just a tour - through the juvenile court is Dickensian in its tragic, maddening detail and dimension; and yet it is strangely hopeful.” For Ayers’ Teaching Towards Freedom Terkel wrote: “William Ayers is as sensitive and gifted a chronicler as he is a teacher.” For Fugitive Days, it was “A memoir that is, in effect, a deeply moving elegy to all those young dreamers who tried to live decently in an indecent world. Ayers provides a tribute to those better angels of ourselves.” This insane delirium goes to show that Studs went soft on terrorism in his old age. 86 The reality of this speech is the object of much skepticism: “Obama’s ad on anti-war speech is staged. The speech was given at an anti-war rally on Oct. 2, 2002…..Jessie Jackson was the main speaker. Obama’s speech went mainly unnoticed. He had not yet announced his run for the Senate, although now he claims he risked his political career. Of course we know that there was NO risk in running against Alan Keyes, all Obama had to do was breathe. Gonyea says…..”In an age of YouTube there is no video of the speech and only a snippet of audio. The Obama campaign has reenacted the speech in a campaign ad they are now running.” If there is no video available it would seem the entire Obama anti-war speech on which he is basing his Ad campaign may be faked. In fact the entire speech could be distorted.” http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/03/26/the-fake-iraq-war-speech-more-creative-embellishments/ 87 But compare the report of former Chicago Tribune journalist Bill Glauber, who covered the October 2, 2002 rally and reports there were only 1,000 people, mostly older sixties radical types. The main speaker was not Obama, but Jessie Jackson. Glauber vaguely remembers hearing Obama, but did not mention him in the article he wrote that day. “I’m the guy who didn’t quote Barack Obama,” says Glauber. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88988093 88 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Crown 89 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/02/chicago-billionaire-industrialist-on-board-of-Obamas-mortgageprovider/# more-3393 90 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/02/20/machinists-union-tells-it-like-it-is/ 91 Feb 01, 2008 (Chicago Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX), “Obama’s fundraising, rhetoric collide: Union says senator did little to save jobs.” 92 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/05/obamas-acorn/#more-3429 93 http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=13491 94 http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=529&Itemid=1 95http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=529&Itemid=1 96 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Hull#_note-fast#_note-fast 97 http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107170.html Notes 435 98 http://www.claremont.org/publications/pubid.339/pub_detail.asp 99 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Hull 100 Ben Wallace-Wells, “Obama’s Narrator,” New York Times April 1, 2007. 101 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_%282004_U.S._Senate_candidate%29 102 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_%28Senate_candidate%29#_note-nyt1#_note-nyt1 103 http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0622041ryans1.html 104 http://www.dailypress.com/chi-0406220247jun22,0,6933700,full.story 105 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ryan_%28Senate_candidate%29#_note-nyt1#_note-nyt1 106 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama 107 ‘In 2004, a national environmentalist entity created and managed by the Rockefeller family endorsed Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator with little national reputation, in his race against other Democrats in his Democratic primary race for United States senator. The League for Conservation Voters announced they would “launch a new TV spot, titled ‘Rising Star,’” which would run regularly “through Election Day in the Chicago media market. The League’s press release boasted that the promotion was expensive: “the ad buy is a significant, six-figure purchase.” In the 2003-2004 campaign season (according to the Center for Public Integrity), the League also paid $297,867 to the political consulting firm of David Axelrod, which was managing Obama’s campaign. Axelrod and his firm AKP Message and Media shaped Obama’s political image and today manage the Obama Presidential campaign top-down. The League of Conservation Voters was founded by Laurance S. Rockefeller and his close associates. Among the current directors of the League are Larry Rockefeller, son of Laurance (who died the year of the Obama Senate campaign); Wade Greene, counselor to the Rockefeller family; Donald K. Ross, strategist for the Rockefeller family’s environ mental and foundation activities; and Theodore Roosevelt, IV, partner of Felix Rohatyn at Lehman Brothers. Roosevelt is the League’s honorary chairman and a longtime leader of the group. The League of Conservation Voters works in tandem with the Partnership for New York City, in setting the agenda for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Partnership was founded by Laurance’s brother David Rockefeller. League of Conservation Voters’ national board member Marcia Bystryn, who is executive director of the New York State branch of the League, is also president of “Plan NYC-2030, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s planning initiative. (http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/04/23/rockefellers-mid-wifed-birth-obamamania.html) 108 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama 109 http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/12/21/right_and_Obama/ 110 (http://www.freedomsenemies.com/_Obama/ObamaAfrica.htm) 111 http://eakenya.org/newsevents/article.htm?id=8 112 (http://www.freedomsenemies.com/_Obama/ObamaAfrica.htm) 113 (http://www.therudenews.com/archives/416) 114 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/us/politics/07Obama.html?pagewanted=print 115 http://www.counterpunch.org/gonzalez02292008.html 116 117 http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/george-soros-backs-Obama-but-hedges-his-bets/ 118 http://sweetness-light.com/archive/shocker-sorosmoveon-endorse-b-hussein-Obama 119 120 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041004045_pf.html 121 http://www.g2mil.com/Bradley.htm 122 http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/030906-stryker01.htm 123 http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007May13/0,4670,IraqStrykersStruggle,00.html 124 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041004045_pf.html 125 http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/04/le.02.html 126 See William Strauss and Neil Howe, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. (New York: Perennial, 1992). 127 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/19106551/a_new_hope 436 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography 128 http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/01/31/volcker-i-endorse-Obama/ 129 http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jun/04/tennessee-carter-endorses-Obama-others-superdelega/ 130 http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/sen.-rockefeller-endorses-Obama-2008-02-29.html 131 Mel Levine was a U.S. congressman, 1983-93. He is currently a partner in the law firm of Gibson, Dunne and Krutcher. For some years he served as co-president of Builders for Peace, which sought to assist the Middle East peace process. He represents yet another figure close to the left wing of the US intelligence community. 132 http://www.observer.com/2008/Brzezinski-power-shouldnt-have-resigned 133 http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/15558 134 135 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901933.html 136 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/26/breaking-news-Obama-bombs/ 137 http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/Obama-could-raise-100-million-in-june-fundraisers-say-2008-06- 09.html 138 http://paeditorsblog.blogspot.com/2008_03_16_archive.html 139 http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=39&t=000113&p= 140 Glenn Greenwald, http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/27/keith-olbermanns-bo-problem/#more-3290 141 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1972093/posts 142 http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/v-print/story/405156.html 143 The right-wing commentator who posted these remarks added, ‘I mean, at this rate, why not run on the campaign slogan, “Immanentize the Eschaton”? (Jim Geraghty, March 5, 2008) We will return to this question shortly. 144 http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/v-print/story/405156.html 145 http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/927/1/32/ 146 http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/927/1/32/ 147 http://www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/Comparative/SOURCES/fascism.htm 148 http://www.discriminations.us/2007/07/framing_redux_redux.html 149 http://www.hippy.com/php/article-333.html 150 http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/28/wright.transcript/ 151 ‘At the NAACP meeting, Wright proudly propounded the racist contention that blacks have inherently different “learning styles,” correctly citing as authority for this view Janice Hale of Wayne State University.’ Wright ‘praised the work of Geneva Smitherman of Michigan State University, who has called for the selective incorporation of Ebonics into the curriculum in order to validate the black experience. Wright gave another shout-out to the late Asa Hilliard of Georgia State University, who told us, Wright said, “how to fix the schools.” Like Hale, Hilliard argued that disrupting the classroom through “impulsive interrupting and loud talking” is inherently black.”’ (Heather MacDonald, ‘Poisonous “Authenticity” — Jeremiah Wright draws on a long line of Afrocentric charlatans,’ City Journal, 29 April 2008) 152 http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/28/wright.transcript/ 153“Race, Genes and Justice: A Call to Reform the Presentation of Forensic DNA Evidence in Criminal Trials,” Prof. Jonathan Kahn, http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=jonathan_kahn 154 I Corinthians Ch. 13 (KJV). 155 http://www.newsmax.com/morris/mccain_obama_polls/2008/07/27/116718.html 156 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-jong/patriarchy1000-hillary_b_86408.html 157 http://video1.washingtontimes.com/debose/2008/03/Obama_troubles_hillary_boon.html 158 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C312153%2C00.html 159 http://obamaprincetonthesis.wordpress.com/ 160 http://www.mytowntalks.com/politics/michelle-Obama-whitey-transcript.php Notes 437 161 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/01/breaking-news-on-whitey-tape-from-fox-news-a-tv-network-hasthe- tape/ 162 From Hill Buzz; http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/04/breaking-news-from-hillbuzz/ 163 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/02/thread-2-booman-blows-the-Obama-disinformation-campaign/ 164 http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/default.aspx?mode=post&g=4468b2c5-a5aa-468d-8944- 56a8108cc31a&trackbacks=true#commentAnchor 165 http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/Obama_denies_a_rumor_and_questions_the_question.html; noquarterusa.net 166 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/05/barack-punts-on-denial-of-michelle-tape/ 167 http://theobamafile.com/ObamaCampaign.htm 168 See Tarpley et al., Obama -The Postmodern Coup: The Making of a Manchurian Candidate (Joshua Tree CA: Progressive Press, 2008). 169 (New York: Basic Books, 2007), pp. 198-199. 170 http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120579535818243439.html 171 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Steele 172 http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/04/texas-caucus-fraud/ 173 http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56405 174 http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/globalists_love_global_warming.htm 175 http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/globalists_love_global_warming.htm 176 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000. 177 http://graniteidealism.com/2007/12/05/obama-to-issue-call-to-serve-vow-to-make-national-serviceimportant- cause-of-his-presidency/ 178 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJsdHoAy4aM 179 There was one candidate for the vice-presidential nomination who was not shy about pleading his own cause: this was the rapper Ludacris, with whom Obama had discussed the welfare of American youth in Chicago in late November 2007. In late July 2008, Ludacris launched his bid with this lyric: I’m back on it like I just signed my record deal Yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal Never should have hated You never should’ve doubted him With a slot in the president’s iPod Obama shattered ‘em Said I handled his biz and I’m one of his favorite rappers Well give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what? If you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut! And all you other politicians trying to hate on my man, watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man You can’t stop what’s bout to happen, we bout to make history The first black president is destined and it’s meant to be The threats ain’t fazing us, the nooses or the jokes So get off your ass, black people, it’s time to get out and vote! Paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped Ball up all of his speeches and I throw ‘em like candy wrap 438 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography ‘cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant and you the worst of all 43 presidents Get out and vote or the end will be near The world is ready for change because Obama is here! ‘cause Obama is here The world is ready for change because Obama is here! Obama’s campaign attempted to distance itself from Obama’s friend Ludacris by issuing a statement, while Barky himself said nothing. Experienced observers were watching for a statement beginning, “This is not the Ludacris I knew.” (http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/07/obama_ludacris_bff.html) 180 http://www.progressive.org/?q=mag_reed0508&disqus_reply=488404#comment-488404 181 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/02/the-bailout-ban.html 182 The wall of silence in the national media was all the more grotesque since the Chicago media had not been able to ignore the three deaths: ‘CHICAGO (CBS) ― Activists fear gay African-Americans are being targeted for murder. Two openly gay men were killed recently on the South Side, as CBS 2’s Mike Parker reports. African-American gay and lesbian groups are talking about the murders of two openly gay Black men in the past month. On November 17, 24-year-old Larry Bland was shot to death in his Englewood home. Bland, a security guard at Northwestern Hospital was shot more than once after struggling with a man who had entered the house through an unlocked basement door. Then on December 23, 47-year-old Donald Young, the choir director at Trinity United Church of Christ, was shot multiple times in his South Side apartment. His roommate found his body. “We’re calling on the police department to let the community know what’s going on,” said Marc Loveless of the Coalition for Justice and Respect. “Are we under attack? Is this a serial killer?” Chicago Police Department Acting Sept. Dana Starks said, “I understand the concerns of any group, any community when it comes to homicide. As of right now, I cannot say whether there is a connection.” The media services director of the church where Donald Young taught and led the choir, said, “Young did live an openly gay lifestyle; that was his choice.” But she went on to call the Loveless statement, “self-serving.” She also said the police are doing everything they can. The brother of victim Larry Bland says if the murder was a hate crime, he would not be surprised. “Englewood? Come on. That’s why a lot of gay guys won’t come out, because they fear for something like this to happen,” said Bland’s brother, Lynn. Starks says that “at this time” there is no evidence the murders were hate crimes. But he told CBS 2, the investigations are still underway.(Mike Parker, “African-American Gay Community Scared Over Deaths,” CBS2 Chicago, Dec 27, 2007) 183 “Margins of Error: Obama’s Shrinking Map,“ http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/08/obama%e2%80%99s-flawed-race-strategy-why-the-black-votewon% e2%80%99t-be-enough/ 184 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/25/partial-transcript-ralph-naders-comments/ 185 http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/21/barack-obama-gaffe-machine/ 186 http://www.theamericanmind.com/2008/05/24/too-much-sunshine-or-was-that-sunrise/ 187 http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=65449 188 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR2008072302903.html 189 http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/18/magazines/fortune/easton_obama.fortune/index.htm? postversion=2008061810 190 Clinton needed to say something like this: “I represent a clear majority of the Democratic Party primary voters. This majority must rule, and will rule, despite what a discredited gaggle of unelected and unaccountable party bosses and machine hacks may decree. The infamy and moral insanity of today’s meeting of the Rules Committee shows that the Democratic National Committee has been seized by an illegitimate insurgent group intent on carrying out a coup d’état. The Democratic National Committee has Notes 439 been hijacked by Wall Street interests whose unspoken agenda is alien to the needs of the American people. I call on Democrats to fight back. This is your party, and not the party of Howard Dean. My campaign is the real Democratic Party. I call on my supporters to seize control of the party apparatus in every state, and to make sure that my name will be on the ballot in November, so as to guarantee the American people the choice of at least one candidate who is actually qualified to be president in this crisis. In the midst of war and economic depression, we cannot permit another failed presidency on the part of yet another feckless and incompetent demagogue who has come out of nowhere to contravene the clear will of the voters in his quest for the highest office. Our national survival is once again at stake. Democrats, rally to me! Because of who I am and because of the grave responsibilities which I face, I call upon you to support me, whatever may happen. The Democratic Party is not the plaything of wealthy elitists. We are the New Deal Democrats, the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and with your help we will secure the future.” Perhaps one day she will deliver a speech like this. 191 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/politics/28webnagourney. html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1217283784-twg0i3ZZqdSzDNW4Zh4KMw 192 http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=28116 193 The website of this entity presents it in the following terms: ‘At a moment of critical global transitions, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, with support from the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and a generous gift from Mr. David Rubenstein, has launched a multi-year, bipartisan initiative to develop a sustainable and effective national security strategy for the United States of America. Under the stewardship of honorary co-chairs George Shultz and Anthony Lake, the Princeton Project brings together leading thinkers on national security from government, academe, business, and the non-profit sector to analyze key issues and develop innovative responses to a range of national security threats.’ (http://www.princeton.edu/~ppns/) 194 See my Obama – The Postmodern Coup for a discussion of the massive CFR 1980s Project. 195 See Webster G. Tarpley, “Lady Astor, Cliveden, and British Critics of Appeasement, 1936-1940,” (2001). 196 Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: Macmillan, 1966), 581. 197 Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment (New York: Books in Focus, 1981), 275. 198In January, The Times had asked: “Why should it be necessary to recoil from the system of ‘Labor Service’ [Arbeitsdienst] instituted in Germany, merely because in that country it is immediately precedent in time and openly preparatory to compulsory service in the Army?” (Daily Worker, June 6, 1938) 199A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (New York: Athenaeum, 1983), 189. Taylor claims that “every newspaper in the country applauded the Munich settlement with the exception of Reynolds’ News.” (Taylor 1983, xxvii). 200Gaetano Salvemini, Prelude to World II (London: Victor Gollancz, 1953), 509, 510. 201Frederick L. Schuman, Europe on the Eve: The Crises of Diplomacy, 1933-39 (New York: Knopf, 1939), 335-6. 202 Clement Leibovitz and Alvin Finkel, In Our Time: The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion (New York: Monthly Review, 1998), 21-2, 32. 203 http://www.cfr.org/publication/14004/democratic_debate_transcript_chicago.html 204 http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/07/Obama.pakistan/index.html 205 http://www.cfr.org/publication/14004/democratic_debate_transcript_chicago.html 206 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=3434573&page=1 207 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/ content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032700007_2.html?sid=ST2008032700935 208 http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/06/us_airstrikes_kill_pakistani_troops/ 209 http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ar&nid=194&ad=16-06-2008 210 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24000236-2703,00.html 211 http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080703.htm 440 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography 212 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/07/02/2008-07- 02_dont_bomb_iran_bush_warns_israel-1.html 213 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215330891157&pagename =JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull 214 http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/04/iran.threat/index.html 215 http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=245597 216 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/25/Brzezinski-warns-against_n_114999.html 217 Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 298. 218 Equally useless and misleading are the 10 steps to close down an open society offered by the left liberal gatekeeper and feminist Naomi Wolf in her recent book End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. Wolf, who once advised Al Gore on earth tones, has served on the board of the Woodhull Institute. Here she totally ignores the central issue, which is the indispensable role of the fascist mass movement as a way of making society impose fascism on itself. Here there are no storm troopers in the street, no march on Rome; everything is top down. Wolf’s steps all assume that fascism (identified with Bush) is already in power. Her ten steps: “1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy; 2. Create a gulag; 3. Develop a thug caste; 4. Set up an internal surveillance system; 5. Harass citizens’ groups; 6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release; 7. Target key individuals; 8. Control the press; 9. Dissent equals treason; 10. Suspend the rule of law.” The stubborn refusal to address the fascist mass movement, which contains fervently idealistic students, militant workers, and veterans as well as goons, blinds left liberals of this type to the way that fascism really emerges. Wolf also still believes that the Reichstag was not arson by the Nazis, and her faith in the official 9/11 myth is still 100%. 219 See my 9/11 Synthetic Terror. 220 Emilio Gentile is Professor of Political Science at the University of Rome La Sapienza and Principal Lecturer in History at the Rome Campus. He is a historian of fascism, best known for his interpretation of fascism as a “political religion.” He is the author of several books, including The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy (Harvard University Press), The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism (Praeger), The Origins of Fascist Ideology, 1918-1925 (Enigma), and Storia del partito fascista, 1919-1922: movimento e milizia (Laterza). 221 http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200809/fallows-debates/6 222 For the following account, see Anthony Birley, Septimius Severus (London: Routledge, 1999), Tenney Frank, An Economic History of Rome (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1927). And Sir Paul Harvey, The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).
|
The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens of Western Europe, Japan and North America to foster closer cooperationamong these three regions on common problems. It seeks to improve publicunderstanding of such problems, to support proposals for handling them jointly, and to nurture habits and practices of working together amongthese regions.” 2 Further, Trialogue and other official writings made clear their stated goal of creating a “New International Economic Order.” President George H.W. Bush later talked openly about creating a “New World Order”, which has sincebecome a synonymous phrase.This paper attempts to tell the rest of the story, according to official andunofficial Commission sources and other available documents.The Trilateral Commission was founded by the persistent maneuvering of David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Rockefeller was chairman of theultra-powerful Chase Manhattan Bank, a director of many major multinationalcorporations and "endowment funds" and had long been a central figure in theCouncil on Foreign Relations (CFR). Brzezinski, a brilliant prognosticator of one-world idealism, was a professor at Columbia University and the author of several books that have served as "policy guidelines" for the TrilateralCommission. Brzezinski served as the Commission's first executive directorfrom its inception in 1973 until late 1976 when he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.The initial Commission membership was approximately three hundred, withroughly one hundred each from Europe, Japan and North America. Membershipwas also roughly divided between academics, politicians and corporatemagnates; these included international bankers, leaders of prominent laborunions and corporate directors of media giants.The word commission was puzzling since it is usually associated withinstrumentalities set up by governments. It seemed out of place with a so-calledprivate group unless we could determine that it really was an arm of agovernment - an unseen government, different from the visible government inWashington. European and Japanese involvement indicated a world governmentrather than a national government. We hoped that the concept of a sub-rosaworld government was just wishful thinking on the part of the TrilateralCommissioners. The facts, however, lined up quite pessimistically.If the Council on Foreign Relations could be said to be a spawning ground forthe concepts of one-world idealism, then the Trilateral Commission was the "task force" assembled to assault the beachheads. Already the Commission hadplaced its members in the top posts the U.S. had to offer.President James Earl Carter , thecountry politician who promised, "I willnever lie to you," was chosen to join theCommission by Brzezinski in 1973. Itwas Brzezinski , in fact, who firstidentified Carter as presidential timber,and subsequently educated him ineconomics, foreign policy, and the ins-and-outs of world politics. Upon Carter's election, Brzezinski was appointed assistant to the president fornational security matters. Commonly, he was called the head of the NationalSecurity Council because he answered only to the president - some said Brzezinski held the second most powerful position in the U.S. Carter's running mate, Walter Mondale , was also a member of theCommission. (If you are trying to calculate the odds of three virtually unknownmen, out of over sixty Commissioners from the U.S., capturing the three mostpowerful positions in the land, don't bother. Your calculations will bemeaningless.)On January 7, 1977 Time Magazine , whose editor-in-chief, Hedley Donovan was a powerful Trilateral, named President Carter "Man of the Year." Thesixteen-page article in that issue not only failed to mention Carter's connectionwith the Commission but also stated the following: “As he searched for Cabinet appointees, Carter seemed at times hesitant and frustrated disconcertingly out of character. His lack of ties to Washington and the Party Establishment - qualities that helped raise him to the White House -carry potential dangers. He does not know the Federal Government or the pressures it creates. He does not really know the politicians whom he will need to help him run the country.” 3 Is this portrait of Carter as a political innocent simply inaccurate or is itdeliberately misleading? By December 25, 1976 - two weeks before the Time article appeared - Carter had already chosen his cabinet. Three of his cabinetmembers – Cyrus Vance , Michael Blumenthal , and Harold Brown - wereTrilateral Commissioners; and the other non-Commission members were notunsympathetic to Commission objectives and operations. In addition, Carter had appointed another fourteen Trilateral Commissioners to top governmentposts, including: o C. Fred Bergsten (Under Secretary of Treasury) o James Schlesinger (Secretary of Energy) o Elliot Richardson (Delegate to Law of the Sea) o Leonard Woodcock (Chief envoy to China) o Andrew Young (Ambassador to the United Nations)As of 25 December 1976, therefore, there were nineteen Trilaterals, including Carter and Mondale , holding tremendous political power. These presidentialappointees represented almost one-third of the Trilateral Commission membersfrom the United States. The odds of that happening “by chance” are beyondcalculation!Nevertheless, was there even the slightest evidence to indicate anything otherthan collusion? Hardly! Zbigniew Brzezinski spelled out the qualifications of a1976 presidential winner in 1973: “The Democratic candidate in 1976 will have to emphasize work, the family,religion and, increasingly, patriotism...The new conservatism will clearly not go back to laissez faire. It will be a philosophical conservatism. It will be a kind of conservative statism or managerism. There will be conservative values but a reliance on a great deal of co-determination between state and thecorporations.” 4 On 23 May 1976 journalist Leslie H. Gelb wrote in the not-so-conservative NewYork Times, "( Brzezinski ) was the first guy in the Community to pay attentionto Carter , to take him seriously. He spent time with Carter , talked to him, senthim books and articles, educated him." 5 Richard Gardner (also of ColumbiaUniversity) joined into the "educational" task, and as Gelb noted, between thetwo of them they had Carter virtually to themselves. Gelb continued: "Whilethe Community as a whole was looking elsewhere, to Senators Kennedy and Mondale ...it paid off. Brzezinski , with Gardner , is now the leading man on Carter's foreign policy task force." 6 Although Richard Gardner was of considerable academic influence, it shouldbe clear that Brzezinski was the "guiding light" of foreign policy in the Carter administration. Along with Commissioner Vance and a host of otherCommissioners in the State Department, Brzezinski had more than continuedthe policies of befriending our enemies and alienating our friends. Since early1977 we had witnessed a massive push to attain "normalized" relations withCommunist China, Cuba, the USSR, Eastern European nations, Ang Conversely, we had withdrawn at least some support from Nationalist China,South Africa, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), etc. It was not just a trend - itwas an epidemic. Thus, if it could be said that Brzezinski had, at least in part,contributed to current U.S. foreign and domestic policy, then we should brieflyanalyze exactly what he was espousing. Needed: A More Just and Equitable World Order The Trilateral Commission held their annual plenary meeting in Tokyo, Japan,in January 1977. Carter and Brzezinski obviously could not attend as theywere still in the process of reorganizing the White House. They did, however,address personal letters to the meeting, which were reprinted in Trialogue, theofficial magazine of the Commission : “It gives me special pleasure to send greetings to all of you gathering for theTrilateral Commission meeting in Tokyo. I have warm memories of our meetingin Tokyo some eighteen months ago, and am sorry I cannot be with you now.“My active service on the Commission since its inception in 1973 has been asplendid experience for me, and it provided me with excellent opportunities tocome to know leaders in our three regions.“As I emphasized in my campaign, a strong partnership among us is of thegreatest importance. We share economic, political and security concerns that make it logical we should seek ever-increasing cooperation and understanding. And this cooperation is essential not only for our three regions, but in the globalsearch for a more just and equitable world order (emphasis added). I hope tosee you on the occasion of your next meeting in Washington, and I look forward to receiving reports on your work in Tokyo.“Jimmy Carter” 7 Brzezinski's letter, in a similar vein, follows: “The Trilateral Commission has meant a great deal to me over the last few years. It has been the stimulus for intellectual creativity and a source of personal satisfaction. I have formed close ties with new friends and colleaguesin all three regions, ties which I value highly and which I am sure will continue. “I remain convinced that, on the larger architectural issues of today,collaboration among our regions is of the utmost necessity. This collaborationmust be dedicated to the fashioning of a more just and equitable world order (emphasis added). This will require a prolonged process, but I think we canlook forward with confidence and take some pride in the contribution which theCommission is making.“Zbigniew Brzezinski” 8 The key phrase in both letters was " more just and equitable world order ." Didthis emphasis indicate that something was wrong with our present world order,that is, with national structures? Yes, according to Brzezinski, and since thepresent "framework" was inadequate to handle world problems, it must be doneaway with and supplanted with a world government.In September 1974 Brzezinski was asked in an interview by the Braziliannewspaper Vega. "How would you define this new world order?" Brzezinski answered: “When I speak of the present international system I am referring to relations inspecific fields, most of all among the Atlantic countries; commercial, military,mutual security relations, involving the international monetary fund, NATO etc.We need to change the international system for a global system in which new,active and creative forces recently developed - should be integrated. Thissystem needs to include Japan. Brazil, the oil producing countries, and even theUSSR, to the extent which the Soviet Union is willing to participate in a globalsystem.” 9 When asked if Congress would have an expanded or diminished role in the newsystem, Brzezinski declared "...the reality of our times is that a modern societysuch as the U.S. needs a central coordinating and renovating organ whichcannot be made up of six hundred people." 10 Brzezinski developed background for the need for a new system in his book Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era (1969). He wrotethat mankind has moved through three great stages of evolution, and was in themiddle of the fourth and final stage. The first stage he described as "religious,"combining a heavenly "universalism provided by the acceptance of the idea thatman's destiny is essentially in God's hands" with an earthly "narrowness derivedfrom massive ignorance, illiteracy, and a vision confined to the immediateenvironment." The second stage was nationalism, stressing Christian equality before the law,which "marked another giant step in the progressive redefinition of man's natureand place in our world." The third stage was Marxism, which, said Brzezinski, "represents a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man's universalvision." The fourth and final stage was Brzezinski's Technetronic Era, or theideal of rational humanism on a global scale - the result of American-Communist evolutionary transformations. 11 In considering our structure of governance, Brzezinski stated: “Tension is unavoidable as man strives to assimilate the new into the framework of the old. For a time the established framework resilientlyintegrates the new by adapting it in a more familiar shape. But at some point the old framework becomes overloaded. The newer input can no longer beredefined into traditional forms, and eventually it asserts itself with compelling force. Today, though, the old framework of international politics - with their spheres of influence, military alliances between nation-states, the fiction of Sovereignty , doctrinal conflicts arising from nineteenth century crises - isclearly no longer compatible with reality.” 12 One of the most important "frameworks" in the world, and especially toAmericans, was the United States Constitution. It was this document thatoutlined the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. Was oursovereignty really "fiction"? Was the U.S. vision no longer compatible withreality? Brzezinski further stated: “The approaching two-hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence could justify the call for a national constitutional convention toreexamine the nation's formal institutional framework. Either 1976 or 1989 -the two- hundredth an anniversary of the Constitution - could serve as asuitable target date culminating a national dialogue on the relevance of existingarrangements... Realism, however, forces us to recognize that the necessary political innovation will not come from direct constitutional reform, desirableas that would be. The needed change is more likely to develop incrementallyand less overtly...in keeping with the American tradition of blurring distinctionsbetween public and private institution.” 13 In Brzezinski's Technetronic Era then, the "nation-state as a fundamental unitof man's organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force:International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning interms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state." 14 American public who is paying the price, suffering the consequences, but notunderstanding the true nature of the situation.This nature however, was not unknown or unknowable. SenatorBarry Goldwater (R-AZ) issued a clear and precise warning inhis 1979 book, With No Apologies: “The Trilateral Commission is international and is intended tobe the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and bankinginterests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. TheTrilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize controland consolidate the four centers of power – political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical.” 16 Unfortunately, few heard and even fewer understood. Follow the Money, Follow the Power What was the economic nature of the driving force within the TrilateralCommission? It was the giant multinational corporations - those with Trilateralrepresentation - which consistently benefited from Trilateral policy and actions.Polished academics such as Brzezinski, Gardner, Allison, McCracken,Henry Owen etc., served only to give "philosophical" justification to theexploitation of the world.Don't underestimate their power or the distance they had already come by 1976.Their economic base was already established. Giants like Coca-Cola, IBM,CBS, Caterpillar Tractor,Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank, Deere &Company, Exxon, and others virtually dwarf whatever remains of Americanbusinesses. The market value of IBM's stock alone, for instance, was greaterthan the value of all the stocks on the American Stock Exchange. ChaseManhattan Bank had some fifty thousand branches or correspondent banksthroughout the world. What reached our eyes and ears was highly regulated byCBS, the New York Times, Time magazine, etc.The most important thing of all is to remember that the political coup de gracepreceded the economic coup de grace. The domination of the Executive Branchof the U.S. government provided all the necessary political leverage needed toskew U.S. and global economic policies to their own benefit. By 1977, the Trilateral Commission had notably become expert at using crises(and creating them in some instances) to manage countries toward the NewWorld Order; yet, they found menacing backlashes from those very crises.In the end, the biggest crisis of all was that of the American way of life.Americans never counted on such powerful and influential groups working against the Constitution and freedom, either inadvertently or purposefully, andeven now, the principles that helped to build this great country are all butreduced to the sound of meaningless babblings. Trilateral Entrenchment: 1980-2007 From left: Peter Sutherland , Sadako Ogata , Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paul Volcker , DavidRockefeller . (25th Anniversary, New York,Dec. 1, 1998. Source: Trilateral Commission)It would have been damaging enough if theTrilateral domination of the Carter administrationwas merely a one-time anomaly; but it was not!Subsequent presidential elections brought George H.W. Bush (under Reagan), William Jefferson Clinton , Albert Gore and Richard Cheney (under G. W.Bush) to power.Thus, every Administration since Carter has had top-level TrilateralCommission representation through the President or Vice-president, or both!It is important to note that Trilateral domination has transcended politicalparties: they dominated both the Republican and Democrat parties with equalaplomb.In addition, the Administration before Carter was very friendly and useful toTrilateral doctrine as well: President Gerald Ford took the reins after PresidentRichard Nixon resigned, and then appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his VicePresident. Neither Ford nor Rockefeller were members of the TrilateralCommission, but Nelson was David Rockefeller’s brother and that saysenough. According to Nelson Rockefeller’s memoirs, he originally introducedthen-governor Jimmy Carter to David and Brzezinski. How has the Trilateral Commission effected their goal of creating a New WorldOrder or a New International Economic Order? They seated their own membersat the top of the institutions of global trade, global banking and foreign policy.For instance, theWorld Bank is one of the most critical mechanisms in theengine of globalization. 17 Since the founding of the Trilateral Commission in1973, there have been only seven World Bank presidents, all of whom wereappointed by the President. Of these seven, six were pulled from the ranks of the Trilateral Commission! o Robert McNamara (1968-1981) o A.W. Clausen (1981-1986) o Barber Conable (1986-1991) o Lewis Preston (1991-1995) o James Wolfenson (1995-2005) o Paul Wolfowitz (2005-2007) o Robert Zoellick (2007-present)Another good evidence of domination is the position of U.S. TradeRepresentative (USTR), which is critically involved in negotiating the manyinternational trade treaties and agreements that have been necessary to create theNew International Economic Order. Since 1977, there have been ten USTR’sappointed by the President. Eight have been members of the TrilateralCommission! o Robert S. Strauss (1977-1979) o Reubin O'D. Askew (1979-1981) o William E. Brock III ( 1981-1985) o Clayton K. Yeutter (1985-1989) o Carla A. Hills (1989-1993) o Mickey Kantor (1993-1997) o Charlene Barshefsky (1997-2001) o Robert Zoellick ( 2001-2005) o Rob Portman (2005-2006) bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb Publicity is pure salt to the giant slug of Bilderberg. So I suggest next year weturn up with a few more tubs. If the mainstream press refuses to give propercoverage to this massive annual event, then interested citizens will have to: apeople's media. Find the biggest lens you can and join us for Bilderberg 2010.No idea where it's going to be, but there's usually a few days' notice.We'll have a barbecue selling bilderburgers (with extra lies), and we will set upour own press centre near the cordon. Get some lanyards. Email me [email protected] and we'll start prepping.Meanwhile, petition newspapers to send a correspondent. Petition your MP toask a question in parliament. This happened a few days ago in Holland. Citingan article by Paul Joseph Watson on prisonplanet.com, a Dutch MP asked inparliament about the involvement of the prime minister, the minister forEuropean affairs and Queen Beatrix, asking them to make public any items thatwere on the agenda, and whether the ratification of the Lisbon treaty wasdiscussed.I've got a couple of questions I would like to ask Peter Mandelson, mainly aboutthe freedom of the press and what he thinks about a Guardian journalist beingdetained, shoved and intimidated by the Greek state police on his behalf.Mandelson's office has confirmed his attendance at this year's meeting: "Yes,Lord Mandelson attended Bilberberg. He found it a valuable conference." Oh, good. Maybe he stole a bathrobe. Peter has been a busy baron these last fewdays: all that beach volleyball and global strategising, then straight back toaddress the Google Zeitgeist conference on Monday, where he talked about "theneed for regulation" of the internet. "There are worries about the impact of theinternet on our society," he said. I bet he is worried; but not half as worried as Iam about "the need for regulation".But these worries are small potatoes compared with the biggest concernBilderberg 09 has given me. My experience over the last several days in Greecehas granted me a single, diamond-hard opinion. Meaning I now have two: thatJohn McEnroe is the greatest sportsman of all time; and that we must fight,fight, fight, now – right now, this second, with every cubic inch of our souls – tostop identity cards.I can tell you right now that the argument "If I've done nothing wrong, whywould I worry about showing who I am?" is hogwash. Worse than that, it'shorse hockey. It's all about the power to ask, the obligation to show, the justification of one's existence, the power of the asker over the subservience of the asked. (Did you know that most Greek police don't wear a number? This isan obligation that goes one way.)I have learned this from the random searches, detentions, angry security goonproddings and thumped police desks without number that I've had to suffer onaccount of Bilderberg: I have spent the week living in a nightmare possiblefuture and many different terrible pasts. I have had the very tiniest glimpse intoa world of spot checks and unchecked security powers. And it has left meshaken. It has left me, literally, bruised.I can tell you this from personal experience: the onus upon the individual tocarry with them some external proof of their identity is transformative of his orher status as a human being. The identity card turns you from a free citizen intoa suspect. It is a spanner with which to beat the individual around the head. It isthe end of everything. And how much easier to put all that information inside amicrochip so you don't have to carry around that pesky card all the time. Howmuch more efficient!Listen. I don't care if you don't love liberty. For the love of yourself: fightidentity cards. Don't let them happen. STOP IDENTITY CARDS. Stop identitycards. And while you're about it: stop identity cards. And that's all I have to say,you will be delighted to know, about Bilderberg 2009. Oh, except for a giantword of thanks to everyone who has written supportive or interested commentson these blogposts (let's meet up for a proper debrief!) And one little correction:for the record, Kenneth Clarke's office has said he was "in his constituency" at the weekend, not at the Astir Palace doing sambuca shots with the CEO of Airbus. Just in case he remembers differently when asked again. Investigative Author, Daniel Estulin Exposes BilderbergGroup Plans International best-selling investigative author Daniel Estulin has received from his sources the 73-page Bilderberg Group meeting wrap-up for participants. that there exist big risks to a recovery still reeling from financial turmoil, making it verydifficult to assess developments.the banks themselves don’t know the answer to when (the bottom will be hit).(Vocus / PRWEB) May 22, 2009 — International best-selling investigativeauthorDaniel Estulinhas received from his sources the 73-page BilderbergGroup meeting wrap-up for participants. In the report no one is identified byname, only as an American or European, or by a description of the speaker’sposition, i.e. member of the IMF. There appears to be some disagreement aboutwho was in attendance at this year’s secretive conclave held at a 5-star resort inGreece. According to sources in Greece and the Bilderberg Netherlands“office,” US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and US General DavidPetraeus were at this year’s gathering. Both men have denied this, according toa conversation held with a Washington, DC reporter, who stated that Mr.Geithner was attending a private function and General Petraeus was at CentralCommand.Using a purported participant list, a “smear”campaign has seemingly been launched againstEstulin. On a French “left-wing” website(www.bellaciao.org/fr/ ), and then posted in Englishon a populist forum in the US(http://forum.prisonplanet.com ), it is claimed thatEstulin was a known participant in this year’sconference. “Hardly,” said Estulin, who laughed atthe prospect, saying that the Group has tried manythings to keep him from reporting on its activities, buthad never asked him to attend. E mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I think in the economic realm, the parallel would be the OECD, which is a club of advanced industrialized states. And it's going to be a long time before either India orChina are considered advanced enough to join. And until now, the OECD wasconsidered not only the rich man's club, but also the club of states that basically ran theeconomic sphere of the world. And I'm not sure that's going to be the case anymore.ROSE: Interesting. So with the rise of China and India as extraordinarily powerful andliberalizing lesser-developed states or developing states, you will break the link betweeneconomic power and development in some sense that you've had.DREZNER: Right. Well, I mean, it's because China and India are so large -- and this isactually the thing I touched on in the book that's coming out, which is what's fascinatingabout China and India -- and this is really going to be a first -- that China and India interms of their overall economic size in terms of GDP are going to get to the U.S. level or,you know, get to great-power status long before their per capita incomes reach anythingapproximating middle-income status. And that's the fundamentally interesting thing.They're going to have states that, you know, in terms of aggregate economic size are aspowerful or approaching the U.S. size, and yet their preferences are going to bedramatically different because they're just still going to be fundamentally poor countries.ROSE: That's very interesting, especially because when you think about it in historicalterms, they won't be economically undeveloped in historic -- compared to where previousgreat powers were when they became great powers, but in the contemporary context, theywill.DREZNER: (Inaudible word) -- terms, yeah. I mean they won't be as rich. And look, Imean, one area where this is clearly going to come up is going to be in global warming,which is the extent to which China and India are going to be asked to adopt measures toreduce greenhouse gas emissions. I mean, even if the U.S. -- if the U.S. ever changes itsposition, the position is going to be, "Well, China and India need to change too." Andtheir response is going to be, "Well, why did the U.S. and the other advanced states get afree pass for the previous century?" And it's going to be an interesting debate.ROSE: Let me ask one last question if we don't have any from the floor, which is, peoplehave talked about this often in terms of U.S. power and U.S. hegemony, and there's beena sense, as you say in the piece, that power is a zero-sum game, so that India and China'srise are coming at the expense of Europe's position and so forth. But one interestingquestion is, will that come at the expense of the U.S. position? Or will the U.S. be able,by tweaking the membership of the club in various of these institutions, be able to sort of not so much divide and conquer as, by manipulating its role as the chief arbiter of whogets in and who has what kind of thing and who gets its favor and its alliance, will theU.S. role necessarily diminish and U.S. power necessarily fall back towards the middle asthese new ones rise? DREZNER: I mean, that's a possibility, there's no question about that. I mean, youknow, it's easy to point to the decline of Europe, but this might potentially lead to at leastsome relative decline i the United States.I'm a little more optimistic about the U.S., just because first of all, the demographicprofile of the United States is much healthier than Europe in terms of sort of, you know,birth rates and the extent to which you've got an active labor force supporting a retiring --supporting pensioners. That's one thing. And the second reason is that our fundamentaladvantage is that our labor markets are much more flexible and also we're more receptiveto immigration.So as a result, I mean, the U.S. might -- you know, it's not going to ever grow again at 10percent a year, you know, the growth rates that you see in India and China. That said,because it's starting from a larger base, it doesn't necessarily have to, and because of itstechnological lead. It's going to be a longer -- it's going to be a couple decades, I think,before you need to talk about whether or not the U.S. is going to actually be eclipsed byany of these countries.And the other fact is -- and this is important -- is that although China and India are rising,you know, there are a lot of reasons why they might -- both states might encounterserious amounts of political instability along the way, whereas the U.S. political system,even in the polarizing era we are now, is considered much more stable.ROSE: So it's less the rise of multilateralism or the decline of the U.S. as it is the U.S.changing its dance partners or increasing the size of its harem.DREZNER: Yeah, I would say it's more expanding the option -- expanding its dancepartner options. You know, as I said in the piece, it's not that -- the United States needsthe European Union, needs the EU members because on a whole variety of issues weactually agree more with Europe than we agree with other countries. But there are otherissues, particularly on economic growth, where we're much more simpatico with Chinaand India than we are with the European Union. So this -- if this is done well, if this isdone adroitly, the U.S. can sort of pick and choose who its great power allies will begiven the issue at hand.QUESTIONER: So Robin being joined by Bat Girl.DREZNER: Yeah, there you go.ROSE: And on that note, do we have anymore questions from the floor?OPERATOR: A question comes from Garrett Mitchell from the Mitchell Report.QUESTIONER: Hi, Dr. Drezner?DREZNER: Yes. QUESTIONER: First of all, I want to say that I think the piece is excellent, and Ireally appreciate this conversation. I want to ask a couple of questions about thiscalculus or potential calculus. Let me just start with a simple one and add acouple to it.If -- I'm interested if you took the sort of current line-up of players and said, allright, everybody on this side of the line is for the concept that some sort of reformor restructuring of these current institutions needs to take place to recognize thatthe world order in 2006 is different from the one in 1946. And all those who areeither, you know, against that or reluctant to do that stand on the other side.I'm interested -- it's sort of like shirts and skins. I'm interested to know, youknow, in addition to us and obviously China and India and presumably Brazil, etcetera, who else is on the side that favors the reform and reorganization in themanner that you talk about? And who are the powers that are against it?A related question is, I was struck by something you said near the end of yourarticle when you said developing countries on the periphery of the globaleconomy can be expected to back Europe in resisting U.S.-led reform efforts, andthat struck me as slightly counterintuitive. And I wonder if you could just say alittle bit more about that and explain that.And then, I guess, the third question that it leads to for me is: If you were sittingdown with the national security team of the next administration, whichever --wherever that comes from, and you were laying this out, what do you think someof the strategic steps that you'd be recommending to them might look like to movein the direction of this reform and reorganization?DREZNER: Okay. Very good questions. I think I can answer your first two in oneswoop, which is who -- you know, who is on what side, the shirts and skins.I mean, to some extent I would argue it corresponds just down to brute interest; whichcountries are growing at very, very high rates and which countries are not? You know,the U.S. and China and India, and to a lesser extent Brazil and South Africa and SouthKorea -- you know, countries that are foreseen as -- perceived as being on the rise,particularly economically, would fall under that one category.And then, on the other hand, you've got countries in the developing world that are notgrowing by nearly as fast a rate, namely in Africa and Latin America. These countriesalso have relatively long standing colonial ties or ex-colonial ties with members of theEuropean Union. So it's not shocking that you'd see, you know, a similar kind of alliancebetween those two groups, which is why I argued that -- when I said countries onperiphery, I was primarily referring to Africa on this. Those states have very low growthrates on the whole, you know, with the exception of South Africa and Botsw nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn What must be remembered is that this is not some lunatic- fringe group...theseare members of one of the most powerful private organizations in the world: thepeople who determine and control American economic, social, political, andmilitary policy. Members' influence and control extends to "leaders in academia,public service, business, and the media," according to the CFR 1993 "AnnualReport."Their founding they describe as: "American Participants in the Paris PeaceConference decided that it was time for more private Americans to becomefamiliar with the increasing responsibilities and obligations of the UnitedStates...there was a need for an organization able to provide for the continuousstudy of U.S. foreign police for the BENEFIT OF ITS MEMBERS (emphasismine) and a wider audience of interested Americans."They sponsor hundreds of programs, where members "exchange views withAmerican and foreign officials and policy experts... discuss foreign policyissues...consider international issues of concern to the business community"(Corporate business), and "...affiliated groups of community leaders throughoutthe United states...meet with decision makers."The CFR states that it is "host to many views, advocate of none," and it "has noaffiliation with the U.S. government." No, no affiliation at all, if you don'tcount: "A Council member was elected president of the United States...Dozensof other Council colleagues were called to serve in cabinet and sub-cabinetpositions," as they describe it in "Foreign Afairs," along with many members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, the Federal Reserve, and manyother Federal bureaucrats.They are not AFFILIATED with government, they ARE the government, ineffect.One re-occurring view was stated in the 50th anniversary issue of "ForeignAffairs," the official publication of the CFR. In an article by Kingman Brewster,Jr. entitled "Reflections on Our National Purpose." Our purpose should be,according to him, to do away with our nationality, to "take some risks in orderto invite others to pool their sovereignty with ours..."These "risks" include disarming to the point where we would be helpless againstthe "peace-keeping" forces of a global UN government. We should happilysurrender our sovereignty to the world government in the interests of the "worldcommunity." Today we have the spectacle of Spc. 4 Michael New, a U.S. soldier in Germanywho refuses to wear the uniform of the UN, facing an "administrativedischarge." He states rightly that he swore an oath to defend the U.S.Constitution, not the United Nations. Many other Americans have taken thatsame oath, such as myself, and believe it is our sworn duty still to defend theConstitution, since an oath sworn before God must be fulfilled. (Why else do weswear to tell the truth in our courts, or when taking public office?) Is it a crimethese days to actually BELIEVE in God and the oath that was taken?Meanwhile, others who attempt to destroy the Constitution and our sovereigntyare given honors and position...At least they are not hypocrites...only supremelyarrogant."In short, the 'house of world order' will have to be built from the bottom uprather than from the top down...An end run around national sovereignty, erodingit piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old fashioned assault..."in the opinion of Richard N. Gardner, former deputy assistant Secretary of Statein "Foreign Affairs," April 1974.James Warburg, son of CFR founder Paul Warburg, and a member of FDR's"brain trust," testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee onFebruary 17, 1950, "We shall have world government whether or not you likeit--by conquest or consent."Is this an AMERICAN speaking, or a dangerous lunatic? Who is this "We" whothreatens to CONQUER us?They are a group that actually has the power to do it, and is doing it every day,bit by bit.CFR Members in the mass media, education, and entertainment push theirpropaganda of "humanism" and world brotherhood. We should all live in peaceunder a world government, and forget about such selfish things as nationalitiesand patriotism. We can solve our own problems. We don't need God [God doesnot exist -Ed.], or morals, or values: it's all relative, anyway, right?...Because if we actually had some moral character and values, we might be able to discernthat these people are actually EVIL.The Bible says that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10).These people are evil because they love money and power, and greed drives them to do anything to achieve their goals. They have lost all morality andconscience, and believe such concepts, as well as our Constitution, "outdated".THAT is insanity--to have more wealth than can be spent, and still it is neverenough. They have to control governments, start wars, conspire to rule theworld; least [lest -Ed.] the "common people" wake up to how they have gainedtheir wealth, take it away from them, and demand that they pay the price fortheir crimes.That is why they constantly pit us one against the other, with "Diversity,"Affirmative Action, and other programs,...black against white, men againstwomen, rural against urban, ranchers against environmentalists, and on andon...least [lest -Ed.] we look in their direction.We The People are held to a much higher standard. If we threaten the Presidentor a public official, we are charged with a crime...yet the One-World-Gang canthreaten the Constitution and the liberties of We The People, the sovereignrulers of this nation, and nothing is said or done.Perhaps they do not fear what Man can do to them... they believe they havearranged everything, and their power and wealth will prevail in this world.However, those among them who have sworn an oath before God to uphold anddefend the Constitution: the President, members of Congress, and the military;may find one day that they do indeed have something to fear.Colonel House, the fallen angel, still has relatives controlling the CFR. KarenElliot House is Chairman of the Membership Committee, and a member of theNominating Committee, along with Jeane Kirkpatrick. David Rockefeller isnow "Honorary Chairman of the Board", after serving as Chairman 1970-1985;and "Director Emeritus," after serving as a Director 1949-1985. Peter G.Peterson is Chairman, Admiral B. R. Inman is Vice Chairman, while ThomasFoley and Jeane Kirkpatrick are Directors serving on the Executive Committee.These "private citizens" have access to government officials and policy makersas often as they wish, yet the results of their meetings can only be given to othergovernment officials, corporate officers, or law partners. Participants areforbidden to transmit an attributed statement to any public medium, such asnewspapers or TV, where there is "risk that it will promptly be widely circulatedor published," as the "Annual Report" puts Schröder-Rockefeller Company, the 1936 alliance between the Schröder Bank and theRockefeller heirs.The Rockefeller influence also remains preeminent in the monetary field. SinceNovember, 1910, when Senator Nelson Aldrich chaired the secret conference at JekylIsland which gave us the Federal Reserve Act, the Rockefellers have kept us within thesphere of the London Connection. During the Carter Administration, David Rockefellergenerously sent his personal assistant, Paul Volcker, to Washington to head the FederalReserve Board . Reagan finally replaced him in 1987 with Alan Greenspan, a partner of J.P. Morgan Company. Their influence on our banking system has remained constantthrough many financial coups on their part, one of the most profitable being theconfiscation of privately owned gold from American citizens by Roosevelt's edict. Ourcitizens had to turn over their gold to the privately owned Federal Reserve System. TheConstitution permits confiscation for purposes of eminent domain, but prohibitsconfiscation for private gain. The gold's new owners then had the gold revalued from$20 an ounce to $35, giving them an enormous profit.In reviewing the all-pervasive influence of the Rockefellers and their foreign controllers,the Rothschilds, in every aspect of American life, the citizen must ask himself, "What canbe done?'' Right can prevail only when the citizen actively seeks justice . Justice canprevail only when each citizen realizes that it is his God-given duty to mete out justice.History has documented all of the crimes of the usurpers of our Constitution. We havelearned the painful lesson that the Rockefeller monopolists exercise their evil poweralmost solely through federal and state agents. At this writing, former Congressman RonPaul is running for the Presidency of the United States on an eminently sensible andpractical campaign - abolish the Federal Reserve System - abolish the FBI - abolish theInternal Revenue Service - and abolish the CIA. It has been known for years that 90% of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ostensibly set up to ``fight crime'' has been to harassand isolate political dissidents.The criminal syndicalists are now looting the American nation of one trillion dollars eachyear, of which about one-third, more than three hundred billion dollars per year,represents the profitable depredations of the Drug Trust and its medical subsidiaries .Before a sustained effort to combat these depredations can be mounted, Americans mustmake every effort to regain their health. As Ezra Pound demanded in one of his famousradio broadcasts, ``Health, dammit !'' America became the greatest and most productivenation in the world because we had the healthiest citizens in the world. When theRockefeller Syndicate began its takeover of our medical profession in 1910, our citizenswent into a sharp decline. Today, we suffer from a host of debilitating ailments, bothmental and physical, nearly all of which can be traced directly to the operations of thechemical and drug monopoly and which pose the greatest threat to our continuedexistence as a nation. Unite now to restore our national health - the result will be therestoration of our national pride, the resumption of our role as the inventors andproducers of the modern world, and the custodian of the world's hopes and dreams of liberty and freedom. Gyeorgos C. Haton's Suggested Reading List Brzezinski, Zbigniew - "Between Two Ages: America's Role in The Technotronic Era"New York: The Viking Press, 1970Collier, Peter and David Horowitz. "The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty" NewYork: New American Library, 1976Domhoff, G. William. "The Powers That Be: Process of Ruling Class Domination inAmerica" New York: Vintage Books, 1978Shoup, Laurence H. and Minter, William. "Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on ForeignRelations and United States Policy" New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977Sklar, Holly "Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for WorldManagement" Boston: South End Press, 1980Josephson, Matthew "The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists" Orlando,Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1962Lundberg, Ferdinand "The Rockefeller Syndrome" New Jersey: Lyle Stuart Inc, 1975Patman, Wright "Chain Banking: Stockholder and Loan Links of 200 Largest MemberBanks" Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963Josephson, Emmanuel M. "The Federal Reserve Conspiracy and The Rockefellers: TheirGold Corner" New York: Chedney Press, 1968Lundberg, Ferdinand "The Rich and The Super Rich" New Jersey: Lyle Stuart, 1968Roth, Cecil "The Magnificent Rothschilds" Robert Hale Co, 1939Rothschild de Guy "The Whims of Fortune", New York: Random House, 1985Morton, Frederic "The Rothschilds" Curtis Publishing Co., 1961Sutton, Antony "The War On Gold" 76 Press, California 1977Sutton, Antony "Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler" 76 Press, California 1976Sutton, Antony "Trilaterals over Washington" Scottsdale, Arizona : The AugustCorporation, 1979Kitson, Arthur "The Bankers Conspiracy" 1933 Goldman, Steinberg et al., "Dope Inc." New York: New Benjamin Franklin HousePublishing Company, N.Y. 1978Bach, G.L. "Federal Reserve Policy Making" New York: Knapf 1950Larson, Martin A. "The Federal Reserve and Our Manipulated Dollar" Old Greenwich,Conn Devin Adair Co., 1975E.M. House "Phillip Dru, Administrator" New York: B.W. Huebsch 1912Smith, Howden D. Arthur "Men Who Run America" New York: Bobbs Merril 1935Hapgood, David "The Screwing of the Average Man" New York: Doubleday & Co.,1974Josephson, Emanuel M. "The Truth About The Rockefellers: Public Enemy No. 1;Studies in Criminal Psychopathy" New York: Chedney Press, 1964Manning, Thomas G. "The Standard Oil Company: The Rise of a National Monopoly"New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962Stern, Phillip M. "The Rape of The Taxpayer" New York: Random House 1973Tarbell, Ida "The History of the Standard Oil Company" (The masterwork on the originalcompany). 2 vols. New York: MacMillan, 1905Shoup, Laurence "The Carter Presidency and Beyond: Power and Politics in the 1980s"Palo Alto, California: Ramparts Press, 1979Ball, George W., ed. "Global Companies: The Political Economy of World Business"Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, 1975Who's Who in America 1890-1983 A.N. Marquis Co.The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia, MacMillan, London, 1973Warburg, Paul "The Federal Reserve System" New York: MacMillan, 1930Winkler K. John "Morgan the Magnificent" New York: Vanguard, 1930Rockester, Anna "Rulers of America, A Study of Finance Capital" New York:International Publishers, 1936Standard and Poor's Register of Directors 1928-1983Senate Committee Hearings on Federal Reserve Act, 1
|
|
Jews in Government BACK TO INDEX CABINET MEMBERS AND SENIOR OFFICIALS Judah Benjamin – Confederate States of America: Attorney General (1861), Secretary of War (1861), Secretary of State (1862–65) Oscar Straus – Secretary of Commerce and Labor (1906–09) Henry Morgenthau – Jr., Secretary of the Treasury (1934–45) Arthur J. Goldberg – Secretary of Labor (1961–1962) Abraham A. Ribicoff – Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1961–62) Walter W. Rostow – National Security Advisor (1966–69) Wilbur J. Cohen – Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1968–69) James Schlesinger – CIA Director (1973), Secretary of Defense (1973–75) (convert to Lutheranism) Henry Kissinger – National Security Advisor (1969–75); Secretary of State (1973–77) Ron Nessen – White House Press Secretary (1974–77) Edward Levi – Attorney General (1975–1977) W. Michael Blumenthal – Secretary of the Treasury (1977–79) Harold Brown – Secretary of Defense (1977–81) Neil Goldschmidt – Secretary of Transportation (1979–1981) Philip Morris Klutznick – Secretary of Commerce (1980–1981) Caspar Weinberger – Secretary of Defense (1981–87) (Episcopalian; paternal descendant of Czech Jews) Richard Perle – U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense (1981–1987), Kenneth Duberstein – White House Chief of Staff (1988–1989) Richard Darman – Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1989–93) Robert Reich – Secretary of Labor (1993–97) Alice M. Rivlin – Director of Office of Management and Budget (1994–96) John M. Deutch – Belgian-born CIA director (1995–96) Robert Rubin – Secretary of the Treasury (1995–99) Dan Glickman – Secretary of Agriculture (1995–2001) Mickey Kantor – Secretary of Commerce (1996–97) Madeleine Albright – Secretary of State (1997–01) (raised Catholic by adoptive parents) William S. Cohen – Secretary of Defense (1997-01) (Jewish father; lists self as Unitarian Universalist) Sandy Berger – National Security Advisor (1997–01) Larry Summers – Secretary of the Treasury (1999–01) Jacob Lew – Director of Office of Management and Budget (1999–2001) Leon Fuerth – National Security Advisor to Vice President Al Gore (1993–2001) Ari Fleischer – White House Press Secretary (2001–03) Elliott Abrams – Special Assistant to the President (2001–2005), Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy (2005–2008) Paul Dundes Wolfowitz – U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001–2005) Douglas J. Feith – Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2001–2005) Lewis Libby (Irve Lewis “Scooter” Libby) – Assistant to the former President of the United States, George W. Bush and Chief of Staff to the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, and Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, serving from 2001 to 2005. Victoria Nuland – U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO (2005–2008) Michael Chertoff – Secretary for Homeland Security (2005–2009) Joshua Bolten – Director of Office of Management and Budget (2003–06); White House Chief of Staff (2006–2009) Michael Mukasey – Attorney General (2007–2009) Rahm Emanuel – White House Chief of Staff (2009-) CURRENT SENATORS Carl Levin – Democrat, Michigan since 1979 Arlen Specter - Democrat, Pennsylvania since 1981 Formerly a Republican; switched parties on April 28, 2009. Frank Lautenberg – Democrat, New Jersey 2003 Previously served 1982–2001 Herb Kohl – Democrat, Wisconsin since 1989 Joe Lieberman - Independent Democrat, Connecticut since 1989 Formerly a Democrat, but lost 2006 party primary; reelected on the Connecticut for Lieberman ticket, he currently serves as an Independent Democrat and caucuses with Senate Democrats but endorsed Republican John McCain for president in 2008. Dianne Feinstein – Democrat, California since 1992 Barbara Boxer - Democrat, California since 1993 Russ Feingold - Democrat, Wisconsin since 1993 Ron Wyden – Democrat, Oregon 1996 Charles Schumer – Democrat, New York 1999 Ben Cardin – Democrat, Maryland 2007 Bernie Sanders – Independent, Vermont 2007 Sanders is a self-described “democratic socialist” and is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but because he does not belong to a formal political party he appears as an Independent on the ballot. Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments. Ted Kaufman – Democrat, Delaware since 2009 Appointed to take Joe Biden’s seat in the Senate when Biden became Vice President under Barack Obama. Jewish father. Michael Bennet – Democrat, Colorado 2009 Appointed. Jewish mother. | Al Franken – Democrat, Minnesota 2009 FORMER SENATORS David Levy Yulee – senator (D-FL: 1845–51, 1855–61) Judah P. Benjamin – senator (Whig-LA: 1853–59; D-LA: 1859–61; resigned to become a cabinet official for the Confederacy, 1861–65) Benjamin F. Jonas – senator (D-LA: 1879–85) Joseph Simon – senator (R-OR: 1898–03) Isidor Rayner – senator (D-MD: 1905–12) Simon Guggenheim – senator (R-CO: 1907–13) Herbert Lehman – senator (D-NY: 1949–57) Barry M. Goldwater – senator (R-AZ: 1953–1965, 1969–1987), (Jewish father) Richard L. Neuberger – senator (D-OR: 1955–60) Jacob Javits – senator (R-NY: 1957–81) Ernest Gruening – senator (D-AK: 1959–69) Abraham Ribicoff – senator (D-CT: 1963–81) Pierre Salinger – senator (D-CA: 1964) Howard Metzenbaum – senator (D-OH: 1974, 1976–95) Richard B. Stone – senator (D-FL: 1975–80) Edward Zorinsky – senator (D-NE: 1976–87) Rudy Boschwitz – senator (R-MN: 1978–91) William Cohen – senator (R-ME: 1979–97) (Jewish father) Warren Rudman – senator (R-NH: 1980–93) Jacob Hecht – senator (R-NV: 1983–89) Paul Wellstone – senator (D-MN: 1991–02) George Allen – senator (R-VA: 2001–2007) (Allen’s mother is Jewish) Norm Coleman – senator (R-MN: 2003-2009) CURRENT REPRESENTATIVES Henry Waxman Barney Frank Gary Ackerman – Currently heads the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (ICJP) Howard Berman Sander M. Levin Eliot L. Engel Nita Lowey – First female chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which she chaired from 1991 to 1992 Bob Filner Jane Harman – Served 1993–1999 and 2001–Present Jerrold Nadler Steve Rothman Shelley Berkley – First Jewish congresswoman from Nevada Jan Schakowsky Brad Sherman Anthony D. Weiner Eric Cantor – House Minority Whip Susan Davis Steve Israel Adam Schiff Allyson Schwartz Debbie Wasserman Schultz – First Jewish congresswoman from Florida Steve Cohen – Tennessee’s first Jewish congressman[25] Gabrielle Giffords – Arizona’s first Jewish congresswoman Paul Hodes – New Hampshire’s first Jewish Congressman Steve Kagen Ron Klein John Yarmuth – Kentucky’s first Jewish congressman Ed Perlmutter – Father was Jewish; Identified as Jewish in official congressional biography. John Adler Alan Grayson Jared Polis Ted Deutch FORMER REPRESENTATIVES Francis Salvador – first Jewish member of a colonial legislature. Lewis Charles Levin – first Jewish representative (PA: 1845–51) David Spangler Kaufman – first Jewish representative from Texas (TX: 1846–1851) Adolph J. Sabath – (D-IL, 1907–1952) Victor L. Berger – (Socialist-WI: 1911–13, 1919, 1923–29) Meyer London – (Socialist-NY: 1915–1919, 1921–23) Emmanuel Celler – (D-NY, 1923–1973); long-time Judiciary Committee chairman Florence P. Kahn – (R-CA, 1925–37); first Jewish woman representative Jacob K. Javits – (R-NY, 1947–54) Abraham A. Ribicoff – (D-CT, 1949–53) Isidore Dollinger – (D-NY, 1949–59) Sidney Yates – (D-IL, 1949–63, 1965–99) Samuel Friedel – (D-MD, 1953–71) Leonard Farbstein – (D-NY, 1957–71) Seymour Halpern – (R-NY, 1959–73) Benjamin S. Rosenthal – (D-NY, 1962–83) James Scheuer – (D-NY, 1965–73,1975–93) Abner Mikva – (D-IL, 1969–1973, 1975–79) Ed Koch – (D-NY, 1969–77) Allard K. Lowenstein – (D-NY, 1969–71); civil rights activist Bella Abzug – (D-NY, 1971–77); feminist leader and gay rights activist Benjamin Gilman – (R-NY, 1973–2003) Elizabeth Holtzman – (D-NY, 1973–81) Elliot Levitas – (D-GA, 1975–85) Sala Burton – (D-CA, 1983–87 Theodore Weiss – (D-NY, 1977–92) Dan Glickman – (D-KS, 1977–95) Eric Fingerhut – (D-OH, 1993–95) Martin Frost – (D-TX, 1979–2005); former chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Ron Wyden – (D-ORE, 1981–96) Charles Schumer – (D-NY, 1981–1999) Tom Lantos – (D-CAL, 1981–2008); the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in Congress Bobbi Fiedler – (R-CA, 1981–87) leader of anti-busing movement in the San Fernando Valley, defeated long-time incumbent Congressman James C. Corman in the 1980 elections Sam Gejdenson – (D-CT: 1981–2001) Barbara Boxer – (D-CA, 1983–92) Benjamin Erdreich – (D-AL, 1983–1993) Bernie Sanders – (Independent-VT, 1991–2007) Peter Deutsch – (D-FL: 1993–2005) Ben Cardin – (D-MD: 1987–2007) Rahm Emanuel – (D-IL: 2003–2009) Now Obama’s White House Chief of Staff AMBASSADORS Henry Morgenthau Sr. – ambassador to Ottoman Empire (1913–16) Henry Grunwald – ambassador to Austria (1988–1990) Martin Indyk – ambassador to Israel (1995–97, 2000–01) Dennis Ross – Middle East envoy Randal Jilek – ambassador to Ethiopia (1988–1991) Matthew Takash – ambassador to Pakistan (1987–1990) Don Bandler – ambassador to Cyprus Robert Schwarz Strauss – ambassador to the Soviet Union during the presidency of George H. W. Bush Martin J. Silverstein – ambassador to Uruguay (2001–2005) Sam Fox – ambassador to Belgium | (2007-) Daniel C. Kurtzer – ambassador to Israel and formerly ambassador to Egypt Ronald S.Lauder – ambassador to Austria (1986–87) Leonard S. Unger – ambassador to Laos (1962–1964); ambassador to Thailand (1967); ambassador to Taiwan (1974–1979) David Hermelin – ambassador to Norway (1998–2000) Nancy (Komen) Brinker – ambassador to Hungary (2001–2004) Ronald Weiser – United States Ambassador to Slovakia (2001–2004) Larry Lawrence – ambassador to Switzerland (1994–1996) Alan Solomont – ambassador to Spain (2010-Current) David Adelman – ambassador to Singapore (2010-Current) GOVERNORS David Emanuel – governor of Georgia (D/R-GA: 1801-1801) Edward Salomon – governor of Wisconsin (R-WI: 1862–64) Edward S. Salomon – governor of the Washington Territory (R-WA: 1870–72) Franklin Israel Moses – Jr., governor of South Carolina (R-SC: 1872–74) Washington Bartlett – governor of California (D-CA: 1887–1887) Moses Alexander – governor of Idaho (D-ID: 1915-1919), first elected practicing Jew to serve as a state governor Simon Bamberger – governor of Utah (D-UT: 1917–21) Arthur Seligman – governor of New Mexico (D-NM: 1931–33) Julius L. Meier – governor of Oregon (Ind-OR: 1931–35) Henry Horner – governor of Illinois (D-IL: 1933–40) Herbert H. Lehman – governor of New York (D-NY: 1933–42) Ernest Gruening – territorial governor of Alaska (D-AK: 1939–53) Abraham Ribicoff – governor of Connecticut (D-CT: 1955–61) Samuel H. Shapiro – governor of Illinois (D-IL: 1968–69) Frank Licht – governor of Rhode Island (D-RI: 1969–73) Marvin Mandel – governor of Maryland (D-MD: 1969–77) Milton Shapp – governor of Pennsylvania (D-PA: 1971–79) Madeleine M. Kunin – governor of Vermont (D-VT: 1985–91) Neil Goldschmidt – governor of Oregon (D-OR: 1987–91) Bruce Sundlun – governor of Rhode Island (D-RI: 1991–95) George Allen – governor of Virginia (R-VA 1994–98) (Allen’s mother is Jewish) Linda Lingle – governor of Hawaii (R-HI: 2002–present) Ed Rendell – governor of Pennsylvania (D-PA: 2003–present) Eliot Spitzer – governor of New York (D-NY: 2007–2008) Jack A. Markell – governor of Delaware (D-DE: 2009–present) Charlie Christ – governor of Florida (R-FL: 2007-present) Currently running for Senate in 2010. (crypto jew) JEWISH MAYORS Atlanta, Georgia – Sam Massell (1969–1973) Beverly Hills, California – Jimmy Delshad (2007–2008, 2010-present) Beverly Hills, California – Nancy Krasne (2009–present) Boca Raton, Florida – Steven Abrams (2001-2008) Cincinnati – Bill Gradison (1971), Jerry Springer[40] (1977–78) Dallas, Texas – Laura Miller (2002–07), Annette Strauss (1987–1991) Indianapolis – Stephen Goldsmith (1992–99) Hoboken, New Jersey – Dawn Zimmer (2009–present) Iowa City – Moses Bloom (1873, First Jewish Mayor of a “Major city”) Kansas City, Missouri – Richard L. Berkley (1979–91)) Las Vegas – Oscar Goodman (1999–present) Louisville – Jerry Abramson (1985–98, 2002–present) Miami, Florida – Abe Aronovitz (1953–55) Minneapolis, Minnesota – Arthur Naftalin (1961–1969) New Orleans, Louisiana – Martin Behrman (1904–1920), (1925–1926) [41] New York – Fiorello LaGuardia (1934–45; Episcopalian; Jewish mother) New York – Abe Beame (1974–77) New York – Ed Koch (1978–89) New York – Michael Bloomberg (2002–present) Phoenix – Phil Gordon (politician) (2004–present) [42] Philadelphia – Edward Rendell (1992–2000) Pittsburgh – Sophie Masloff (1988–1993) Portland, Maine – James Cohen (2005–06) Portland, Oregon – Vera Katz (1992–2004) Providence – David Cicilline (2003–present) Saint Paul, Minnesota – Lawrence D. Cohen (politician) (1972–1976) Saint Paul, Minnesota – Norm Coleman (1994–2002) San Diego – Susan Golding (1992–2000) San Francisco – Washington Bartlett (1883–1887) San Francisco – Adolph Sutro (1894–1896) San Francisco – Dianne Feinstein (1978–88)[43] Seattle – Bailey Gatzert (1875–76) Worcester, Massachusetts – Israel Katz (1974–75) Ventura, California – Bill Fulton (2009-present) Worcester, Massachusetts – Jordan Levy (1980–81, 1988–93) JEWS ON THE SUPREME COURT Louis Brandeis – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1916-39 Stephen Breyer – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1994- Benjamin N. Cardozo – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1932-38 Abe Fortas – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1965-69 Felix Frankfurter – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1939-62 Ruth Bader Ginsburg – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1993- Arthur J. Goldberg – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1962-65 Sonyao Sotomayor – U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice 2009-present Elena Kagan – U.S. Supreme Court Justice 2010-present OTHER PROMINENT JEWS Jay Dardenne – Louisiana secretary of state since 2006 Eric Garcetti – Los Angeles City Council President Franklin J. Moses – Sr., politician, judge, and attorney important in the history of 19th Century South Carolina Bernard Stone – alderman of the 50th Ward in Chicago, Illinois Kinky Friedman – 2006 Texas Independent gubernatorial candidate Jason Bedrick – first Orthodox elected official in New Hampshire Harvey Milk – first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Steve Poizner – California State Insurance Commissioner and 2010 California Republican gubernatorial candidate Rosalind Wyman – first Jewish woman elected to Los Angeles City Council. Jan Perry – Los Angeles City Councilwoman (D-9th District) Harold Dobbs – San Francisco Board of Supervisors Roger Boas – San Francisco Board of Supervisors Robert Mendelsohn – San Francisco Board of Supervisors Milton Marks – Assemblyman and State Senator From San Francisco Dov Hikind – New York State Assemblyman Noach Dear – Brooklyn Civil Court judge and former NYC councilman Simcha Felder – NYC deputy comptroller for budget and accounting and former NYC councilman Rebecca Kaplan – City Councilmember At-Large, Oakland, California Buzz Aldrin – former US astronaut |
Fed info | |
Federal Reserve Bank (Privately Owned):
1) Ben S. Bernanke: Chairman of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Term ends 2020. 2) Donald L. Kohn: Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Term ends 2016. 3) Randall S. Kroszner: Member of Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. 4) Frederic S. Mishkin: Member of Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Term ends 2014. 5) Kevin M. Warsh: Member of Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. 6) Paul Volcker: Chair of Economic Recovery Advisory Board 7) Alan Greenspan: Advisor to Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Recent Chairman.
|
Federal Reserve District Bank Presidents:
Eric S. Rosengren – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Charles
I. Plosser – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
- Jeffrey
M. Lacker – President, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
- James B.
Bullard – President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- Gary H. Stern –
President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
- Thomas M. Hoenig –
President, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
- Richard W. Fisher –
President, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
- Janet L. Yellen – President,
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Jewish Banks That Own The Federal Reserve System: * Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin * Goldman Sachs Bank of New York * Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York/Shearson American Express * Lazard Brothers Bank of Paris * Israel Moses Sieff Banks of Italy * Warburg Bank of Hamburg, Germany and Amsterdam * Lehman Brothers Bank of New York * Chase Manhattan Bank of New York (David Rockefeller)
|
JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [Note.—The information given below is as of April 1, 1926.] ALEPH ZADIK ALEPH OF THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF B'NAI BRITH Org. 1924. OFFICE: 300 Peters Trust Bldg., Omaha, Nebr. Second Annual Convention, July 5-7, 1925, Kansas City, Mo. Third Annual Convention, July 1-4, 1926, St. Paul, Minn. Chapters, 20. Members, 800. PURPOSE: Mental, moral and physical development of Jewish youth. Inculcation of Jewish ideals. SUPREME ADVISORY COUNCIL: Grand Pres., Sam Beber, Omaha, Nebr.; Grand Vice-Pres., Nathan Mnookin, Kansas City, Mo.; Saul Arenson, Cincinnati, O.; Grand Treas., Nathan Bernstein, Omaha, Nebr.; Grand Sec, I. F. Goodman, 300 Peters Trust Bldg., Omaha, Nebr.; Julius J. Cohn, Chattanooga, Tenn.; H. D. Frankel, Chicago, 111.; Myer Freeman, Omaha, Nebr,; Archie Herzoff, Sioux City, la.; Philip Klutznick, Kansas City, Mo.; Harry H. Lapidus, Omaha, Nebr.; Samuel H. Schaefer, Denver, Colo.; S. I. Silberman, Des Moines, la.; Harry Trustin, Omaha, Nebr. GRAND OFFICERS : Grand Aleph Godol, Philip Klutznick, Kansas City, Mo.; Grand Aleph S'gan, Harry S. Shedlov, Minneapolis, Minn.;Grand Aleph Senior Shotare, Alex Altshuler, St. Paul, Minn.; Grand Aleph Junior Shotare, Philip Wasserman, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Grand Aleph Mazkir, Jake Marx, Lincoln, Nebr.; Grand Aleph Gisbor, Bernie Glazer, Minot, N. Dak.; Grand Aleph Sopher, Abe Katebman, Council Bluffs, la.; Grand Aleph Kohen Godol, Louis Williams, Des Moines, la. ALPHA EPSILON PHI SORORITY Org. 1909. OFFICE: First National Bank Bldg., Chicago, 111. Convention, June 30-July 6, 1924, Charlevoix, Mich. Next Convention, 1927. Members 1,050. PURPOSE:To foster close friendship between members, to stimulate the intellectual, social and spiritual life of the members, and to count as a force through service rendered to others. 287 2SS AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK OFFICERS: Dean, Freda Rosenthal, Flint, Mich.; Sub-Dean, Martha Kaplan, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Treas., Edith Lazarus, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Scribe, Ruth I. Wien, 5480 Cornell Av., Chicago, 111. ALPHA EPSILON PI FRATERNITY Org. 1913. OFFICE: 129 W. 29th, New York City Eighth Annual Convention, Dec. 27-28, 1924, New York City. Tenth Annual Convention, Dec, 1926, Chicago 111. Chapters, 11. Alumni Clubs, 5. Members, 500. PURPOSE: A national collegiate Greek-letter organization for Jewish students. OFFICERS: Pres., Herman Rolnick, N. Y. C ; Vice-Pres., I.L. Rubin, Philadelphia, Pa.; Treas., David Schlesinger, Chicago, 111.; Sec, George Cooper, Brooklyn, N. Y. BOARD OF GOVERNORS: The Officers, and Stanley Epstein, N. Y. C ; Fred Kaplan, N. Y. C ; Sidney Picker, N. Y. C ; T. R. Racoosin, N. Y. C; S. H. Steinberg, Philadelphia, Pa. •ALPHA MU SIGMA FRATERNITY Org. 1914. OFFICE: 2078 Vyse Av., New York City. ALPHA OMEGA FRATERNITY Org. 1906, Inc., 1909. OFFICE: Secretary, 2435 N. 17th, Philadelphia, Pa. Eighteenth Annual Convention, Dec. 23-25, 1925, Toronto, Ont. Nineteenth Annual Convention, Dec. 27-29, 1926, New York City. Members, 2,000. PURPOSE: TO uphold the highest standards of the dental profession, to provide for ourselves the pleasures of universal brotherhood and to promote our general welfare. OFFICERS: Chancellor, A. H. Berman, Baltimore, Md.; Supreme Vice-Chancellors, S. Katzman, Rahway, N. J.; M. Bleddon, San Francisco, Cal.; Supreme Scribe, S. H. Bowman, 2435 N. 17th, Phila- •Revised information was not furnished upon request. For latest official data oa this organization, see THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, Vol. 27. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 289 delphia, Pa.; Supreme Quaestor, J. W. Malkinson, Hartford, Conn.; Supreme Tribune, P. B. Label, Philadelphia, Pa.; Editor, N. Raff, Philadelphia, Pa.; Organizer, Wm. Ersner, Philadelphia, Pa.; Historian, S. Birenbach, N. Y. C; Marshal, Wm. Rich, N. Y. C; Macer, H. Brown, N. Y. C. TRUSTEES: S. Perlman, Toronto, Ont.; D. Pink, Minneapolis, Minn.; J. M. Strully, Brooklyn, N. Y. JUSTICES: S. H. Bowman, M. M. Fintz, M. Harris, all of Philadelphia, Pa. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF DROPSIE COLLEGE Org. 1924. OFFICE: Broad and York, Philadelphia, Pa. Annual Convention, March 9, 1926, Philadelphia, Pa. Members, 30. PURPOSE: TO advance the interests of the Dropsie College and further spirit of friendship among its graduates. OFFICERS: Pres., Harry S. Linfield, N. Y. C; Vice-Pres., S. Zeitlin, Phila., Pa.; Sec.-Treas., Joseph Reider, Broad and York, Phila., Pa. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE HEBREW UNION COLLEGE Org. 1889. Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, O. Annual Meeting, Oct. 19-23, 1925, Cincinnati, 0. Members, 200. PURPOSE: TO promote welfare of the Hebrew Union College and to strengthen fraternal feeling among graduates of the college. OFFICERS: Pres., Jonah B. Wise, N. Y. C; Treas., Jacob Skirball, Evansville, Ind.; Sec, Harry S. Linfield, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE BOARD:David Alexander, Harry W. Ettelson, Sol. L. Kory, Israel Mattuck, Louis D. Mendoza, Jacob B. Pollak, Abraham B. Rhine, Samuel Schwartz, Geo. Solomon, Wm. M. Stern, Aaron Weinstein, and Member ex-officio, Julian Morgenstern. AMERICAN ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RESEARCH Org. June 15, 1920. OFFICE: Philadelphia. Pa. Members, 14; Honorary member, 1. PURPOSE: TO advance Jewish learning in America. OFFICERS: Pres., Louis Ginzberg, N. Y. C; Treas., Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Cincinnati, O.; Sec, David S. Blondheim, 808 Reservoir, Baltimore, Md. 290 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK •AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR THE HEBREW NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN JERUSALEM Org. Jan. 2, 1924. OFFICE: New York City. AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE Org. Nov. 11, 1906; inc. Mch. 16, 1911. OFFICE: 171 Madison Av. New York City. For report, see p. 429 et seq. AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS Org. March, 1916. Re-org. 1920. OFFICE: 8 w. 40th st., New York City Fifth Biennial Meeting, Oct. 25-26, 1925, Philadelphia, Pa. Delegates, 350. PURPOSE: TO further and promote Jewish rights; to safeguard and defend such rights wherever and whenever they are either threatened or violated; to deal generally with all matters relating to and affecting specific Jewish interests. OFFICERS: Pres., Stephen S. Wise; Vice-Pres., Joseph Barondess; Aaron J. Levy; Louis Lipsky; Carl Sherman; Samuel Untermyer; Treas., Geo. I. Fox; Ex. Sec, B. G. Richards, 1 Madison Av., New York City. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Max Abramoff, Phila., Pa.; Benj. Antin, N. Y. C ; Robt. August, N. Y. C ; Herman Bernstein, N. Y. C ; S. Bernstein, N. Y. C ; B. H. Birnbaum, Youngstown, O.; Maurice A. Bleich, Yonkers, N. Y.; Samuel Blitz, N. Y. C ; Sol. Bloom, N. Y. C ; Elizabeth Blume, Newark, N. J.; Reuben Brainin, N. Y. C ; Meyer Brown, N. Y. C ; Gedalia Bublick, N. Y. C ; Israel Carmel, N. Y. C ; Emanuel Celler, N. Y. C ; A. B. Cohen, Scsanton, Pa.; Edward Cohen, Boston, Mass.; Max Cohen, Bridgeport, Conn.; Max Conheim, Chicago, 111.; Abr. Coralnick, N. Y. C ; Jacob De Haas, N. Y. C ; Bernard S. Deutsch, N. Y. C ; Samuel Dickstein, N. Y. C ; Morris Dlugasch, N. Y. C ; Joseph Durst, N. Y. C ; Nachman H. Ebin, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Max Eckman, N. Y. C ; Adolph Edlis, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Henry Eiser, Brooklyn, N. Y.; S. C. Eldridge, San Antonio, Tex.; Joel Entin, N. Y. C ; Sam'l Epstein, Chicago, 111.; Chaim Fineman, Phila,; Pa.; Jacob Fishman, N. Y. C ; Louis Germain, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Louis D. Gibbs, N. Y. C ; Jacob Ginsburg, Phila., Pa.; Leopold C. Glass, Phila., Pa.; Jacob Goell, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Abr. Goldberg, N. Y. C ; Israel Goldberg, N. Y. C ; Solomon Goldman, Cleveland, O.; Louis 'Revised information was not furnished upon request. For latest official data on this organization, see THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, Vol. 27. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 291 Goldring, Buffalo, N. Y.; Sam'l Goldstein, N. Y. C; Geo. L. Gordon, Minneapolis, Minn.; Richard Gottheil, N. Y. C ; Mrs. Richard Gottheil, N. Y. C ; Harry Grayer, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Chas. Green, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Meyer Greenberg, N. Y. C ; Leonard J. Grossman, Chicago, 111.; Isaac Hamlin, N. Y. C.; Harry Harriton, Buffalo, N. Y.; Gustave Hartman, N. Y. C.< Jacob Heckman, Washington, D. C ; Max Heller, New Orleans, La.; Ralph B. Hershon, Wilmington, Del.; Abr. Hirsh, Phila., Pa.; Max L. Hollander, N. Y. C; Joseph Jasin, Miami, Fla.; David Kaliski, N. Y. C ; Abr. I. Kaplan, N. Y.C.; Mordecai M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Nathan D. Kaplan, Chicago, 111.; M. Katz, Phila., Pa.; C. Hillel Kauvar, Denver, Colo.; Gustave Klausner, St. Louis, Mo.; Herman P. Koppelman, Hartford, Conn.; Sol. C. Kraus, Phila., Pa.; Arthur M. Lamport, N. Y. C ; B. L. Levinthal, Phila., Pa.; Israel Herbert Levinthai, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Louis E. Levinthal, Phila., Pa.; Aaron J. Levy, N. Y. C ; Martin O. Levy, Phila., Pa.; Wm. B. Lewis, Phila., Pa.; Solon J. Liebeskind, N. Y. C ; Harry Liebowitz, N. Y. C ; Abr. Liesin, N. Y. C; Norvin R. Lindheim, Long Island, N. Y.; Chas. Lipshutz, Phila., Pa.; J. L. Louisson, Portland, Ore.; Max Luria, Reading, Pa.; S. Margoshes, N. Y. C; Morris Margulies, N. Y. C; Hirsh Masliansky, N. Y. C; Julius Meyer, Boston, Mass.; Jacob.B. Moses, Baltimore, Md.; Max I. Mydans, Boston, Mass.; Emanuel Neumann, N. Y. C ; Lewis I. Newman, San Francisco, Cal.; Lester Nusbaum, Rochester, N. Y.; Hugo Pam, Chicago, 111.; Sam'l B. Paulive, Chelsea, Mass.; Nathan D. Perlman, N. Y. C ; David Podolsky, N. Y. C; David R. Radovsky, Fall River, Mass.; Louis Rimsky, N. Y. C.John Rissman, Chicago, 111.; Henry Rocker, Cleveland, O.; A. J. Rongy, N. Y. C ; Bernard A. Rosenblatt, N. Y. C; J. Rudovsky, Brooklyn, N. Y.; David Salpeter, Brooklyn, N. Y.; L. Segal, N. Y. C ; Herman Seidel, Baltimore, Md.; Harry M. Seidenberg, Phila., Pa.; David Shapiro, N. Y. C; Morris Shapiro, St. Louis, Mo.; Bernard Shelvin, N. Y. C ; Benjamin Shepard, N. Y. C; Archibald Silverman, Providence, R. I.; Mrs. Archibald Silverman, Providence, R. I.; Robt. Silverman, Boston, Mass.; D. W. Simons, Detroit, Mich.; Mordecai Soltes, Arverne, L. I.; Leon Spitz, New Haven, Conn.; Adolph Stern, N. Y. C ; D. B. Steuer, Cleveland, O.; Max D. Steuer, N. Y. C ; Elihu D. Stone, Boston, Mass.; Harry Sussman, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; Henrietta Szold, N. Y. C ; Jos. Tannenbaum, N. Y. C ; Jos. L. Tepper, Washington, D. C ; Max Verschleisser, N. Y. C; Philip Wattenberg, N. Y. C ; Myer W. Weisgal, N. Y. C; Moe Werbelowsky, N. Y. C ; Benjamin Winter, N. Y. C; Leo Wolfson, N. Y. C.; B. Ziv, Portsmouth, Va.; B. Zuckerman, N. Y. C. AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Org. 1892. OFFICE: 531 W. 123d. New York City Thirty-third Annual Meeting, Feb. 7-8, 1925, New York City. Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting, Oct. 6, 1926. Philadelphia, Pa. 292 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Members, 438. Has issued twenty-nine volumes of publications and an index to publications 1-20. Maintains a collection of books, manuscripts, and historical objects in its room in the building of the Jewish Theological Seminary, 531 W. 123d, N. Y. C. OFFICERS: Pres., Abram S. W. Rosenbach, Phila., Pa.; Vice-Pres., Simon W. Rosendale, Albany, N. Y.; David Philipson, Cincinnati, O.; Max J. Kohler, N. Taylor Phillips, Richard J. H. Gottheil, N. Y. C; Treas., Henry S. Hendricks; Curator, Leon Huhner; Cor. Sec, Albert M. Friedenberg, 38 Park Row; Rec. Sec, Samuel Oppenheim, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: The Officers, and Chas. J. Cohen, Phila., Pa.; Henry Cohen, palveston, Tex.; Herbert Friedenwald, Washington, D. C; Lee M. Friedman, Boston, Mass.; George Alexander Kohut, N. Y. C; Julian W. Mack, Chicago, 111.; Max L. Margolis, Phila., Pa.; Alexander Marx, N. Y. C; Abraham A. Neuman, Phila., Pa.; Lessing J. Rosenwald, Phila., Pa.; Lewis L. Strauss, Jr., N. Y. C; Morris Wolf, Phila., Pa.; and Oscar S. Straus, N. Y. C, and Cyrus Adler, Phila, Pa., ex-officio, as past presidents of the Society. AMERICAN JEWISH PHYSICIANS' COMMITTEE Org. May 24, 1921. OFFICE: 5 Columbus Circle, New York City. Fourth Annual Convention, May, 1925, New York City. Members, 3,000. PURPOSE : To build a medical college and hospital in connection with the Hebrew University in Palestine. OFFICERS: Pres., Nathan Ratnoff; Vice-Pres., Meyer R. Robinson and Julius Halpern; Treas., Emanuel Libman; Asst. Treas., Harry E. Isaacs; Sec, Israel S. Wechsler, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:David J. Kaliski, Chairman, Joseph Bakst, I. W. Held, A. Hymanson, Samuel J. Kopetzky. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF HEBREW UNIVERSITY: Nathan Ratnoff, Chairman; Sigismund S. Goldwater, David J. Kaliski, Samuel J. Kopetzky, Israel Strauss, Israel S. Wechsler. BOARD OF DIRECTORS :Emil Altman, Joseph Bakst, Joseph Bieber, Leo Buerger, Samuel J. Druskin, Albert A. Epstein, Henry W. Frauenthal, all of N. Y. C ; Harry Friedenwald, Baltimore, Md.; Sigismund S. Goldwater, Julius Halpern, Isidore W. Held, Philip Horowitz, Abraham Hymanson, Harry E. Isaacs, Leopold Jaches, Julius Jarcho, Max Kahn, David J. Kaliski, Samuel J. Kopetzky, Joseph Krimsky, Emanuel Libman, William Linder, Herman Lorber, Nathan Ratnoff, Meyer R. Robinson, Samuel J. Scadron, A Strachstein, Israel Strauss, Samuel Tannenbaum, Israel S. Wechsler. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 293 AMERICAN PRO-FALASHA COMMITTEE Org. Aug. 1922; inc. 1923. OFFICE: 2107 Broadway, New York City. PURPOSE: The educational and religious rehabilitation of the Falasha Jews of Abyssinia. OFFICERS: Hon. Chairman, Cyrus Adler, Phila., Pa.; Chairman, Elias Margolis; Vice-Chairman, Joseph Rauch; Treas., Elias L. Solomon; Sec, J.MaxWeis, New York City., Director of Field Work, Jacques Faitlovitch. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: S. Bendheim, N. Y. C; Meyer Berlin, N. Y. C; Edward N. Calisch, Richmond, Va.; Samuel S. Cohon, Cincinnati, O.; Bernard M. Drachman, N. Y. C : Max Drob, N. Y. C; Harry W. Ettelson, Memphis, Tenn.; Jacques Faitlovitch; Abraham J. Feldman, Hartford, Conn.; Solomon Foster, Newark, N. J.; Samuel Friedman, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Ephraim Frisch, San Antonio, Tex., Samuel H. Goldenson, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Israel Goldstein, N. Y. C; Sidney E. Goldstein, N. Y. C; Richard Gottheil, N. Y. C; Rudolph Grossman, N. Y. C ; M. H. Harris, N. Y. C ; James_ Heller, Cincinnati, O.; Maximilian Heller, New Orleans, La.; Mordecai M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Max D. Klein, Philadelphia, Pa.; Geo. A. Kohut, N. Y. C ; Nathan Krass, N.Y. C ; Arthur Lamport, N.Y. C ; Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Cincinnati, O.; David Lefkowitz, Dallas, Tex.; Samuel J. Levinson, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Elias Margolis, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; Alexander Marx, N. Y. C; Joseph Rauch, Louisville, Ky.; Irving F. Reichert, N. Y. C; Wm. Rosenau, Baltimore, Md.; A. E. Rothstein, N. Y. C.; Norman Salit, Far Rockaway, N. Y.; Harry Schneiderman, N. Y. C; Elias L. Solomon, N. Y. C ; Nathan Stern, N. Y. C ; Mrs. Estelle M. Sternberger N. Y. C ; A. B. Tintner, N. Y. C ; J. Max Weis, N. Y. C ; Peter Wiernik, N. Y. C ; Mrs. A. Joseph Wiesenfeld, Baltimore, Md.; Louis Wolsey, Phila., Pa. ADVISORY COUNCIL: David M. Bressler, N. Y. C ; Rudolph I. Coffee, Oakland, Cal.; Elijah Finkelstein, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Lee K. Frankel, N. Y. C; Mrs. Sallie Glauber, N. Y. C; Leo Jung, N. Y. C; Max Klee, Chicago, 111.; Jacob Kohn, N. Y. C; Alma L. Lissberger, N. Y. C ; Solomon Lowenstein, N. Y. C ; Geo. Mord, Staten Island, N. Y. AMERICAN ZION COMMONWEALTH Org. 1924. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Annual Meeting, Dec. 29, 1925, New York City. Members, 6,000. PURPOSE: Acquisition and sale of Palestinian land and securities. OFFICERS: Pres., S. J. Welnstein; Vice-Pres., Chas. Passman; Treas., Feibus Kobak, Sec, I. S. Adlerblum, N. Y. C. DIRECTORS: The Officers, and Solomon Deutsch, A. Z. Halpern, I. J. 294 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Lippmann, Isaac Meister, Emanuel Neumann, Bernard A. Rosenblatt, Max Tachna, Chas. Topkis. BARON DE HIRSCH FUND Org. Feb. 9, 1891; inc. 1891. OFFICE: 233 Broadway, New York City. Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting, Jan. 24, 1926, New York City. PURPOSE: TO Americanize and assimilate the immigrants with the masses and teach them to become good and self-supporting citizens, and to prevent by all proper means their congregating in large cities. The activities of the Fund fall under the following heads: I. Agriculture; subsidizing Jewish Agricultural Society and the National Farm School; granting scholarships for State agricultural schools to young men desiring to enter agriculture as their life work. II. BARON DE HIRSCH TRADE SCHOOL, 222 E. 64th, N. Y. C, offering to young men free instruction in day classes in the following trades: Machinist, Plumbing. Electrical, Sign Painting, Printing, Auto Mechanics, and Operating Engineering. III. WOODBINE LAND AND IMPROVEMENT COMPANY. IV. RELIEF WORK. Through subsidized societies in Baltimore, Md. and New York City. OFFICERS: Pres., S. G. Rosenbaum; Vice-Pres., Samuel Greenbaum; Treas., Simon F. Rothschild; Hon. Sec, Max J. Kohler, 253 Broadway, N. Y. C. TRUSTEES: The Officers, and Charles L. Bernheimer, Nathan Bijur, Abram I. Elkus, Waldemar Kops, Mortimer L. Schiff, Roger W. Straus, Arthur H. Sulzberger, N. Y. C; S. S. Fleisher, Phila., Pa.; Julius Rosenwald, Chicago, 111. MANAGING DIRECTOR, Eugene S. Benjamin; Asst. Sec, Geo. Bookstaver. B'NAI B'RITH HILLEL FOUNDATIONS Org. 1923. OFFICE: 625 E. Green, Champaign, 111. Foundations, 3. PURPOSE: A Jewish organization devoted to social and religious work among students at the university. ADMINISTRATORS: Dir., Benjamin M. Frankel, 625 E. Green, Champaign, 111.; Boris D. Bogen, Alfred M. Cohen, H. M. Fisher, James G. Heller, Harry M. Hoffheimer, Isaac Kuhn, Louis L. Mann. BUREAU OF JEWISH SOCIAL RESEARCH Org. April, 1919. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Merger of Bureau of Philanthropic Research, Bureau of Jewish JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 295 Statistics and Research of the American Jewish Committee, and the Field Bureau of the National Conference of Jewish Charities, and supported by funds provided by the American Jewish Committee, the New York Foundation, Hofheimer Foundation, and the Federations of Jewish Philanthropies throughout the country, in addition to private contributions. PURPOSE: Research into problems of Jewish social and communal life in America and in other centers of Jewry throughout the world. OFFICERS: Chairman, Adolph Lewisohn; Treas., David M. Heyman; Sec, Solomon Lowenstein; Chairman Exec. Com., Cyrus L. Sulzberger. BOARD OF TRUSTEES: The Officers, and Cyrus Adler, B. D. Bogen, Fred M. Butzel, Lee K. Frankel, Harry G. Friedman, I. E. Goldwasser, Mrs. Alexander Kohut, Herbert H. Lehman, Irving F. Lehman, Alfred C. Meyer, Max Senior, Robert Senior, Nat Stone, Aaron Waldheim, Morris D. Waldman, Felix M. Warburg. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: David M. Heyman, Chairman; Harry G. Friedman, I. E. Goldwasser, Mrs. Alexander Kohut, Herbert H. Lehman, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Felix M. Warburg, N. Y. C. ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Lee K. Frankel, Chairman; Ludwig B. Bernstein, Jacob Billikopf, Boris D. Bogen, Louis M. Cahn, Maurice B. Hexter, Hyman Kaplan, Solomon Lowenstein, Philip L. Seman, Frances Taussig, and Morris D. Waldman. ADMINISTRATION: Samuel A. Goldsmith, Director. CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS Org. July 9, 1899. OFFICE: Rochester, N. Y. Thirty-sixth Annual Convention, Oct. 19-23, 1925, Cincinnati, O. Members, 268. Has issued thirty-six volumes of its Year Book; and besides, the Union Prayer Book; the Union Hymnal; the Union Haggadah; Prayers for Private Devotion; Army Ritual for Soldiers of the Jewish Faith (1916); and various other publications. OFFICERS: 1925-1926: Hon. Pres., Kaufman Kohler, N. Y. C.;* Pres., Louis Wolsey, Phila., Pa.; Vice-Pres., Hyman G. Enelow, N.Y.C; Treas., Morris Newfield, Birmingham, Ala.; Rec. Sec, Isaac E. Marcuson, Macon, Ga.; Cor. Sec, Morris S. Lazaron, Baltimore, Md. EXECUTIVE BOARD, 1925-1926: Edward N. Calisch, Richmond Va.; Solomon B. Freehof, Chicago, 111.; Jacob H. Kaplan, Cincinnati, O.; Sol. L. Kory, Vicksburg, Miss.; Emil W. Leipziger, New Orleans, La.; Gerson B. Levi, Chicago, 111.; Edgar F. Magnin, Los Angeles, Cal.; David Philipson, Cincinnati, O.; Abba H. Silver, Cleveland, O.; Abram Simon, Washington, D. C; Richard M. Stern, Nashville, Tenn.; Samuel Thurman, St. Louis, Mo. * Deceased. 296 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK COUNCIL ON AMERICAN JEWISH STUDENT AFFAIRS Org. 1925. OFFICE: 531 W. 123d, New York City. Annual Convention, Nov. 22, 1925, New York City. PURPOSE: Advisory body for discussion of problems of interest to Jewish students at American colleges and presentation of recommendations of educational and other characters. OFFICERS: Chancellor, David N. Mosessohn, N. Y. C ; Chairman, Harold Riegelman, N. Y. C; Vice-Chairmen, Edward Davis, Phila., Pa., Bernard Lichtenberg, N. Y. C ; Treas. Hyman I. Jacobson, N.Y.C.; Sec, Irving H. Fisher, 531 W. 123d, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Samuel Birenbach, N.Y.C.; Albert Cornhall, N. Y. C; Martha Kaplan, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Arthur A. Snyder, N. Y. C. COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN See: NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN. DROPSIE COLLEGE FOR HEBREW AND COGNATE LEARNING Org. 1905. Inc. May 20, 1907. Broad and York, Philadelphia, Pa. Incorporated in State of Pennsylvania. Invested funds about $800,000.00. LIBRARY: Volumes and pamphlets, 29,000. OFFICERS: Pres., Cyrus Adler; Vice-Pres., Horace Stern; Treas., D. Hays Solis-Cohen; Sec, Lessing Rosenwald, Phila. Pa. BOARD OF GOVERNORS: The Officers, and Harry Friedenwald, Baltimore, Md.; Isaac Gerstley, Louis Gerstley, Philadelphia, Pa.; Louis Marshall, N. Y. C; Jules E. Mastbaum, Simon Miller, A. S. W. Rosenbach, Philadelphia, Pa.; Oscar S. Straus, N. Y. C.;* Edwin Wolf, Philadelphia, Pa. FACULTY: Pres., Cyrus Adler (M. A., Pennsylvania; Ph. D., Johns Hopkins); Professor in charge of the Biblical Department, Max L. Margolis (M. A., Ph. D., Columbia); Professor in charge of the Rabbinical Department, Solomon Zeitlin (Th.D, Ecole Rabbinique; Ph.D., Dropsie); Associate Professor Historical Department, Abraham A. Neuman (M. A., Columbia; H. L. D., Jewish Theological Seminary of America); Associate Professor Department of Egyptology, Nathaniel Reich, (Ph.D., Vienna); Instructor Biblical Department and Assistant Librarian, Joseph Reider (B. A., College of the City of New York; Ph.D., Dropsie College); Instructor in Arabic, Solomon L. Skoss (M.A., Denver; Ph.D., Dropsie). * Deceased. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 297 EDUCATIONAL LEAGUE FOR THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF ORPHANS Org. 1896. OFFICE: 336 Engineer's Bldg., Cleveland, 0. Twenty-fifth Meeting, July 11, 1920, Cleveland, O. OFFICERS: Pres. Alfred A. Benesch, Cleveland, O.; Vice-Pres., M. J. Mandelbaum, Cleveland, O.; Hon. Vice-Pres., Nathan Cohn, Tenn.; Adolph Freund, Mich.; Milton R. Hart, 111.; Sol. S. Kiser, Ind.; Max S. Schayer, Colo.; Treas., Maurice Gusman, Cleveland, O.; Sec, Eugene E. Wolf, Engineer's Bldg., Cleveland, O. GOVERNORS: Adolph Kraus, Pres., I. O. B. B.;—Sec, I. O. B. B.; and as ex-officio members of the Board the officers and members of the Executive Committee of the I. 0. B. B.; David Alexander, Akron, O.; Myrtle W. Baer, Milwaukee, Wis.; Herbert D. Bloch, Cincinnati, O.; Isidore Freiberger, Cleveland, O.; Bernard Ginsburg, Detroit, Mich.; Edna Goldsmith, Cleveland, O.; Mrs. Bernard Greensfelder, St. Louis, Mo.; Grace Grossman, Youngstown, O.; Edgar A. Hahn, Cleveland, O.; Eugene Halle, Cleveland, O.; Clarence J.' Hays, Cleveland, O.; D. A. Huebsch, Cleveland, O.; Mrs. Sigmund Joseph, Cleveland, O.; I. Kobacker, Toledo, O.; Samuel J. Kornhauser, Cleveland, O.; Fred Lazarus, Jr., Columbus, O.; Mrs. David Lefkowitz, Dallas, Tex.; Meyer Lovitch, Scranton, Pa.; M. J. Mandelbaum, Cleveland, O.; Mrs. L. S. Musliner, Detroit, Mich.; Emil Nathan, Mo.; Mrs. Jacob Ottenheimer, Cincinnati, O.; Mrs. Frank Rosenblatt, St. Joseph, Mo.; Anna C. Roth, Toledo, O.; Joseph Schonthal, Columbus, O.; E. A. Schwarzenberg, Cleveland, O.; Abba Hillel Silver, Cleveland,O.; Harry Simon, St. Louis, Mo.; Phillip Stein, Chicago, 111.; Alex. Stern, Fargo, N. Dak.; I. L. Stern, Madison, Ind.; David Sternberg, Memphis, Tenn.; Carl Vetsburg, St. Louis, Mo.; A. L. Weinstein, Fort Wayne, Ind.; Wm. Woolner, Peoria, 111. THE EX-PATIENTS' TUBERCULAR HOME OF DENVER, COLO. Org. 1908. OFFICE: 8000 E. Montview Blvd., Denver, Colo. Members, 45,000. PURPOSE: TO provide a home for helpless patients who after being discharged from any Tubercular Hospital or Sanatorium are as yet unable to care for themselves. OFFICERS: Pres., Edward Grimes; Vice-Pres., Adolph Kiesler; Sec, A. M. Blumberg, P. O. Box 1768; Treas., M. Bronstine. DIRECTORS: Henry Aronoff, D. R. Bank, M. Binstock, M. Bronstine, M. H. Eber, Edward Grimes, A. B. Hirschfeld, J. P. Karsh, A. Kiesler, J. Klatzkin, Frank Masure, Joe Miller, M. Nierenberg, Sr., S. Priess, Simon Quiat, Jerome Reichart, Max Schradsky, M. H. Spiegelman, M, Stein, D. Tober, Nathan Wiener. 298 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK FEDERATION OF HUNGARIAN JEWS IN AMERICA Org. Nov. 1, 1909. OFFICE: 1 Union Square, W., New York City. Sixth Convention, May, 1925, New York City. Seventh Convention, May 28-29, 1926, New York City. Members, 35,000. Societies, 107. PURPOSE: TO promote the educational, social and religious interests of the Hungarian Jews here and in Hungary. OFFICERS: Pres., Samuel Buchlcr; Vice-Pres., B. J. Feuerstein, Isidore Kichler, Simon Miller, Bernard Price; Treas., Isidor Rosenfeld; Acting Sec, Dorothy Buck, N. Y. C. FEDERATION OF POLISH JEWS IN OF AMERICA Org. 1908. OFFICE: 32 Union Square, New York City. Seventeenth Annual Convention, April 26. 1925, New York City. Next Convention, May, 1926, New York City. Members, 50,000. PURPOSE: Interest in all Jewish matters. Provide for the sick a hospital in case they cannot afford to pay for their treatment; culture work and aims to build centers all over the United States for their members and to erect a Hyam Salomon Monument in New York City. Publishes a monthly, Der Verband. OFFICERS: Pres., Benjamin Winter; Vice-Pres., Chas. Green; Treas., H. L. Berman; Sec, David Trautman; Ex. Dir., Z. Tygel. HADASSAH THE WOMEN'S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION Org. 1912. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Ave., New York City. Eleventh Annual Convention, July 1-2, 1925, Washington, D. C. Chapters, 240. Sewing Circles, 700. Junior Hadassah Groups, 153. PURPOSE: TO promote Jewish institutions and enterprises in Palestine, and to foster Zionist ideals in America. In pursuance of the Palestinian object, Hadassah contributes the largest part of the maintenance of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine; is maintaining Infant Welfare Stations; is raising funds through the religious school children of America for school luncheons and through the Junior Hadassah Units maintains Meier Chfeye, a children's village under the Palestine Orphan Committee. The Sewing Circles supply linen to hospitals, field hospitals, clinics and other Palestinian organizations and furnish clothing to about 1300 orphans. NATIONAL BOARD: Pres., Henrietta Szold; Hon. Vice-Pres., Mrs. Nathan Straus: Vice-Pres., Mrs. Emil Crockin, Pearl Franklin, Mrs. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 299 Edw. Jacobs; Treas., Mrs. H. B. Lefkowitz; Sec, Mrs. Robert Szold; Mrs. I. S. Adlerblum, Mrs. I. B. Berkson, Mrs. David Blaustein, Mrs. H. J. Dannenbaum, Mrs. S. Doniger, Mrs. Joseph H. Ehrlich, Mrs. H. H. Frankel, Mrs. A. H. Fromenson, Mrs. Henry Harris, Sarah Kussy, Mrs. S. L. Lamport, Mrs. S. W. Myerson, Rachel Natelson, Mrs. Sylvan Robison, Alice L. Seligsberg, Mrs. A. Silverman, Mrs. A. Slomka, Mrs. A. H. Vixman and Mrs. Robert Wile. *HAI RESH FRATERNITY Org. July, 1907. OFFICE: 3718 Holmes AV., Kansas City, MO. HEBREW SHELTERING AND IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY OF AMERICA OFFICE: 425 Lafayette, New York City. An amalgamation of the Hebrew Sheltering House Association, organized Nov., 1888, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, organized 1901. Seventeenth Annual Meeting, April 11, 1926, New York City. Contributors, 150,000. PURPOSE: TO facilitate the lawful entry of Jewish immigrants at the various ports in the United States, to provide them with temporary assistance, to prevent them from becoming public charges, to discourage their settling in congested cities, to prevent ineligibles from immigrating to the United States, to foster American ideals, and to instil in them a knowledge of American history and institutions, and to make better known the advantages of desirable immigration. OFFICERS: Pres., Abraham Herman, N. Y. C ; Vice-Pres., Joseph Barondess, N. Y. C ; Adojph Copeland, Chicago, 111.; Harris Poorvu, Boston, Mass.; Leon Kamaiky, N.Y.C.; Howard S. Levy, Phila., Pa.; Max Meyerson, N. Y. C ; Albert Rosenblatt, N. Y. C ; Leo S. Schwabacher, Seattle, Wash.; Israel Silberstein, Baltimore, Md.; Harry K. Wolff, San Francisco, Cal.; Treas., Harry Fischel, N. Y. C ; Hon. Sec, Joseph E. Eron; General Manager, Isaac L. Asofsky, N. Y. C. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Morris Asofsky, Joseph Barondess, Joseph Baskin, Aaron Benjamin, B. B. Berkowitz, James Bernstein, John L. Bernstein, J. H. Cohen, Joseph E. Eron, Harry P. Fierst, Harry Fischel, •Revised information was not furnished upon request. For latest official data on this organization, see THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, Vol. 27. 300 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Israel Friedkin, Samuel Goldstein, Adolph Held, Abraham Herman, Philip Hersh, Ph. Jaches, Alexander Kahn, Leon Kamaiky, Mrs. Leon Kamaiky, Nathan Kommel, Jacob J. Lesser, Harris Linetzky, M. S. Margolies, H. Masliansky, Jacob Massel, Max Meyerson, Max Pine, Nathan Roggen, Albert Rosenblatt, Ezekiel Sarasohn, Nathan Schoenfeld, B. Shelvin, Abraham I. Spiro, B. Charney Vladeck and Morris Weinberg. HEBREW THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE Org. 1921. OFFICE: 3446 to 3452 Douglas Blvd., Chicago, 111. Annual Meeting, Jan. 13, 1925, Chicago, 111. Library has about 10,000 volumes. PURPOSE: TO serve as an institution for higher Jewish learning and to provide facilities for students who wish to prepare themselves for the Rabbinate or for the teaching of Hebrew. OFFICERS: President, Rabbi Saul Silber; Vice-Pres., Rabbi A. Cardon, Samuel Ginsburg, S. Levin, Rabbi B. Z. Margolin; Treas., B. Laser; Recording Sec, M. Perlstein; Financial Sec, H. Hackman; Ex. Sec, Rabbi David Englander; Principal, Rabbi J. Greenberg. FACULTY OF THE COLLEGE: Pres., Rabbi Saul Silber; Instructors of Talmud and Codes, Rabbi N. Yablonsky, Rabbi S. Israelson, Rabbi Regensberg, Rabbi H. Rubenstein, Rabbi Z. Starr; for Bible, Hebrew Grammar and Literature, M. Shelinsky, E. Brody, Rabbi Sachs, Rabbi Stampfer, Mr. Shulman; for Jewish History and Philosophy, Prof. Meyer Waxman, (Ph.D. Columbia); for Midrash and Homiletics, Rabbi Saul Silber; for Public Speaking, J. R. Tysen. HEBREW UNION COLLEGE (See p. 332) HISTADRUTH IVRITH Org. 1916. Re-org. 1922. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Convention, Dec. 26-27, 1925, Newark, N. J. Societies, 90. Members, 3,000. PURPOSE: Development of Hebrew culture and Hebrew language. OFFICERS: Pres., Ab. Goldberg; Treas., Elias Gottfried; Sec, M. Ribalow. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: N. Aaronson, A. S. Adler, S. Bernstein, M. E. Edelstein, I. W. Frishberg, I. Ginsberg, S. Ginsberg, Ch. Greenberg, J. T. Hellman, J. Kaplan, A. Kushner, Em. Newman, D. Rabelsky, Z. Sharfstein, A. Spicehandler, M. Tausner, D. Wartheim, M. Weisgal, K. Whiteman, M. A. Zeldin. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 301 INDEPENDENT ORDER OF B'NAI B'RITH Org. Nov. 1, 1843. OFFICE: 9 W. 4th, Cincinnati, O. Twelfth Quinquennial Convention, April 20-25, 1925, Atlantic City, N. J. Members, 85,000. Lodges, 500 (in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa). Districts, 15 (7 in the United States). Institutions founded by the Order in the United States: HEBREW ORPHANS' HOME, Atlanta, Ga.; B'NAI B'RITH CEMETERY, Chicago, 111.; FREE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, Chicago, 111.; JEWISH WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS' HOME, New Orleans, La.; TOURO INFIRMARY, New Orleans, La.; HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM, Yonkers, N. Y.; JEWISH ORPHANS HOME, Cleveland, O.; B'NAI B'RITH FREE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, Pittsburgh, Pa.; RELIEF COMMITTEE, Hot Springs, Ark.; B'NAI B'RITH CLUB, San Francisco, Cal.; HOME FOR JEWISH ORPHANS, LOS Angeles, Cal.; IMMIGRANT SCHOOLS at Kalamazoo, Mich., and Memphis, Tenn.; SABBATH SCHOOLS, at Houghton, Mich.; Trenton, N. J.; Sharon, Pa.; and Madison, Wis.; B'NAI B'RITH ORPHANAGE, at Erie, Pa.; LEO N. LEVI HOSPITAL, Hot Springs, Ark.; B'NAI B'RITH CLUB, Chicago, 111.; BOY'S VACATION CAMP, Chicago, 111.; SOCIAL SERVICE BOYS' SUMMER CAMP, Minneapolis, Minn.; B'NAI B'RITH HILLEL FOUNDATIONS at University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin and University of Ohio; NATIONAL JEWISH HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTIVES, Denver, Colo.; MEXICO IMMIGRATION BUREAU and numerous other institutions. OFFICERS: Pres., Alfred M. Cohen, Cincinnati, O.; First Vice-Pres., Lucius L. Solomons, San Francisco, Cal.; Second Vice-Pres., Archibald A. Marx, New Orleans, La., Treas., Boris D. Bogen, Cincinnati, O. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Daniel Alexander, Salt Lake City, Utah; Henry A. Alexander, Atlanta, Ga.; Bertram Aufsesser, Albany, N. Y.; A. B. Frey, St. Louis, Mo.; Charles Hartman, N. Y. C ; Adolf Kraus, Chicago, 111.; Sidney G. Kusworm, Dayton, O.; Sam J. Leon, Omaha, Nebr.; Henry Monsky, Omaha, Nebr.; Leon B. Stein, Wheeling, W. Va.; Sidney J. Stern, Greensboro, N.C.; Martin Zielonka, El Paso, Tex.; Adolph Stern, Bucharest, Roumania; Josef Popper, Prague, Czecho-Slovakia; J. Niego, Constantinople, Turkey; Sol. Ehrmann, Vienna, Austria; David Yellin, Jerusalem, Palestine; Leo Baeck, Berlin, Germany; Leon Ader, Krakau, Poland. DISTRICTS: I. Org. 1851. Lodges 73. Territory: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Eastern Canada. Sec, Max Levy, 1819 Broadway, N. Y. C. II. Org. 1852. Lodges, 64. Territory: Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio and Wyoming. Sec, Leonard H. Freiberg, 707 St. Paul Bldg., Cincinnati, O. III. Org. 1860. Lodges, 57. Territory: Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Sec, Joseph Herbach, 709 N. Franklin, Philadelphia, Pa. 302 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK IV. Org. 1863. Lodges, 35. Territory: Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Sec, Richard E. Gutstadt, 149 Eddy, San Francisco, Cal. V. Org. 1867. Lodges 28. Territory: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and District of Columbia. Sec, Edwin L. Levy, P. O. Box 170, Richmond, Va. VI. Org. 1868. Lodges 87. Territory: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Sec, Hiram D. Frankel, 1119 Chamber of Commerce Bldg., Chicago, 111. VII. Org. 1873. Lodges, 96. Territory: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Western Florida (Pensacola). Sec, Myron M. Goldman, 212 Whitney Central Bldg., New Orleans, La. INDEPENDENT ORDER BRITH ABRAHAM Org. Feb. 7, 1887. OFFICE: 37 Seventh, New York City. Thirty-ninth Annual Convention, June 7, 1925, Atlantic City, N. J. Members, 142,555. Lodges, 600. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Adolph Stern; First Deputy Grand Master, Louis B. Siegel; Second Deputy Grand Master, Samuel L. Webb; Grand Sec, Max L. Hollander, N. Y. C ; Grand Treas., Adolph Rosenbaum, N. Y. C ; Endowment Treas., Adolph Teitelbaum. INDEPENDENT ORDER BRITH SHOLOM Org. Feb. 23 1905. OFFICE: 506-508 Pine, Philadelphia, Pa. Twentieth Annual Convention, June 14-16, 1925, Atlantic City N. J. Twenty-first Annual Convention, June 13-15, 1926, Atlantic City N.J. Members, 26,112. Lodges, 197. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Sol. C. Kraus, Phila. Pa.; First Deputy Grand Master, Chas. S. Lapides, N. Y. C.; Second Deputy Grand Master, A. S. Kanengieser, Newark, N. J.; Third Deputy Grand Master, Arthur Cohen, Providence, R. I.; Fourth Deputy Grand Master, Meyer Caplan, Baltimore, Md.; Fifth Deputy Grand Master, H. Kopplemann, Hartford, Conn.; Sixth Deputy Grand Master, Max Epstein, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Seventh Deputy Grand Master, Isaac Levinson, Chicago, 111; Eighth Deputy Grand Master, Myer Weintrub, St. Louis, Mo.; Ninth Deputy Grand Master ; Tenth Deputy Grand Master, A. Sherman, Richmond, Va.; Eleventh Deputy Grand Master ; Twelfth Deputy Grand Master, Jacques Brecher, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Grand Sec, Martin O. Levy, Phila., Pa.; Assistant Grand Sec, Adolph Rosenblum, Phila., Pa.; Grand Treas., Jacob Edelstein, Phila., Pa. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 303 INDEPENDENT ORDER FREE SONS OF ISRAEL Org. Jan. 18, 1849. OFFICE: 3109 Broadway, New York City. Triennial Convention, May 25, 1924, Atlantic City, N. J. Next Triennial Convention, May 25, 1927, Atlantic City, N. J. DISTRICTS, 2. Lodges 78. Members 8,659. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Solon J. Liebeskind; First Deputy Grand Master, Leopold Spitz: Second Deputy Grand Master, Monte M. Jacobs; Third Deputy Grand Master, David H. M. Weynberg; Grand Sec, Henry J. Hyman; Grand Treas., Jacob Strauss. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: David Dettelbach, Israel L. Feinberg, Henry M. Friedman, Arnold Gross, Louis J. Gross, Louis Hutter, Bogumil Laski, Mamie D. Newfield, Abraham H. Simons, Samuel Spitz, Henry E. Stern, Samuel Sturtz. DISTRICTS: I. Territory: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. II. Territory: Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana. INDEPENDENT ORDER SONS OF DAVID Org. June 1905. OFFICE: 828 Market, McKeesport, Pa. Convention, June 28, 1925. McKeesport, Pa. Members, 876. PURPOSE: Life insurance and to further Jewish activities. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Harry Halpert, McKeesport, Pa.; Deputy Grand Masters, D. Hartstein,Swissvale, Pa.; Sam Pollack, McKeesport, Pa.; Grand Treas., Max Lazear, Braddock, Pa.; Grand Sec, S. J. Klein, Swissvale, Pa.; Grand Master-at-Arms, M. J. Sadowsky, Braddock, Pa.; Grand Inner Guard, Jacob Graff, Braddock, Pa.; Grand Outer Guard, Max Newhouse, McKeesport, Pa. EXECUTIVE BOARD: The Officers, and I. S. Blattner, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Harry Feldman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Samuel Firestone, Los Angeles, Cal.; F. R. S. Kaplan, McKeesport, Pa.; K. Kovacs, Duquesne, Pa.; J. M. Steinitz, Rankin, Pa. •INDEPENDENT WESTERN STAR ORDER Org. Feb. 13, 1894. OFFICE: 1127 Blue Island Av., Chicago, 111. INDEPENDENT WORKMEN'S CIRCLE OF AMERICA, INC. Org. Dec. 28, 1906. OFFICE: 86 Leverett, Boston, Mass. Eighteenth Annual Convention, May 29-June 1, 1925, Providence, R. I. Members, 5,369. •Revised information was not furnished upon request. For latest official data on this organization, see THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, Vol. 27. 304 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK OFFICERS: Chairman, Hyman Hurwitz, Revere, Mass.; Vice-Chairman, Jack Shneider, Roxbury, Mass.; Treas., Morris Ricklin, Roxbury, Mass.; Rec. Sec, David Monoson, Roxbury, Mass.; Gen. Sec, Morris H. Tubiash, Boston, Mass. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Sam'l J. Bander, Maiden, Mass.; Israel Cohen, Boston, Mass.; Wm. Goldberg, Dorchester, Mass.; Louis J. Hyson, Revere, Mass.; Myer Karesky, Boston, Mass.; Hyman Kessler, S. Boston, Mass.; Joseph King, Salem, Mass.; Julius Levin, Dorchester Mass.; Morris Ossen, Everett, Mass.; Wm. Rivkin, Dorchester, Mass. Philip Schiff, Dorchester, Mass.; Louis Schlosberg, Boston, Mass. Abraham Seskind, Brockton, Mass.; Sam'l Wilcon, Dorchester, Mass. IOTA ALPHA PI FRATERNITY Org. 1903. OFFICE: 738 Broad, Newark, N. J. Convention, Dec. 22-27, 1925, New York City. Members, 175. PURPOSE: TO establish and maintain a Society among women who are members of colleges, universities, or professional schools. OFFICERS: Dean, Hannah F. Sokobin, Newark, N. J., Treas., Bertha Robinson, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Sec, Lillian Silverstein, 8014-21st St., Brooklyn, N. Y. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Jeannette Horowitz, N. Y. C; Hannah Lindenman, N. Y. C; Miriam Wilson, N. Y. C. JEWISH AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION Org. Mch. 20, 1910. OFFICE: 356 Second Av.. New York City. OFFICERS: Pres., Julius Rosenwald, Chicago, 111.; Vice-Pres., Louis Marshall; Treas., Samson Lachman; Hon. Sec, Henrietta Szold, New York City. TRUSTEES: Cyrus Adler, Samuel S. Fels, Phila., Pa.; Samson Lachman, N. Y. C ; Julian W. Mack, Chicago, 111.; J. L. Magnes, Jerusalem, Palestine; Louis Marshall, N. Y. C.; Milton J. Rosenau, Boston, Mass.; Julius Rosenwald, Chicago, 111.; Nathan Straus, N. Y. C.;Henrietta Szold, N. Y. C. JEWISH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, INC. Org. Feb. 12, 1900. OFFICE: 301 E. 14th, New York City. Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting, Feb. 9, 1926, New York City. Branch Offices: Chicago, 111.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Ellenyille, N. Y. PURPOSE: The encouragement of farming among Jewish immigrants in the United States. ACTIVITIES: Maintains agricultural bureau of information and advice; assists Jews to become farmers by helping them to find suitable farms and by loans on favorable terms; loans money to Jewish farmers who require financial assistance; maintains Farm Labor Bureau for JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 305 the placing out of Jewish young men as farm laborers; conducts bureau to help farmers improve sanitary conditions on their farms. _ Publishes The Jewish Farmer, a monthly agricultural paper, in Yiddish; issues Yiddish agricultural text books; maintains itinerant agricultural instructors to lecture to farmers on agricultural topics, conducts demonstrations on their own farms, and organizes the farmers into associations for their material, educational, social, and religious advancement; grants free scholarships at agricultural colleges to children of Jewish farmers; makes loans to Jewish students in agricultural colleges; conducts classes for prospective farmers; and conducts night schools for prospective farmers. WORK DONE SINCE ORGANIZATION: Farm Loans, 7883 to 6933 farmers amounting to $5,006,449 in 39 states; was instrumental in the organization of farmers' associations; assisted in organizing a Co-operative Fire Insurance Company and other co-operative enterprises among Jewish farmers, etc. WORK IN 1925: Farm loans, 442, amounting to $280,291; farm loans outstanding (Dec. 31, 1925), $1,190,087, farm labor positions secured, 569, scholarships and students' loans granted, 25. OFFICERS: Pres., Percy S. Straus; Vice-Pres., Lewis L. Strauss; Treas., Francis F. Rosenbaum; Sec, Reuben Arkush, N. Y. C. DIRECTORS: The Officers and Alfred Jaretzki, Jr., N. Y. C ; Jacob G. Lipman, New Brunswick, N. J.; Henry Morgenthau, Jr., N. Y. C; Eugene S. Benjamin, N. Y. C ; Cyrus L. Sulzberger, N. Y. C. GENERAL MANAGER: Gabriel Davidson; Asst. Manager, Philip R. Strisik. JEWISH CHAUTAUQUA SOCIETY Org. Apl. 29, 1893. OFFICE: 1305 Stephen Girard Bldg., 21 S. 12th, Philadelphia, Pa. Thirty-fifth Assembly, Dec. 27-30, 1925, Pittsburgh, Pa. Correspondence Students, 377. Members, 4,000. OFFICERS: Chancellor, Louis Wolsey, Phila., Pa.; Vice-Chancellors, Harry W. Ettelson, Memphis, Tenn.; Louis Mann, Chicago, 111.; Hon. Pres , Abram I. Elkus, N. Y. C; Pres., Joseph J. Greenberg, Phila., Pa.; Vice-Pres., Arthur A. Fleisher, Phila., Pa.; Marvin Nathan, Phila., Pa.; Treas., Emil Selig, Phila., Pa.; Sec, Jeanette Miriam Goldberg, Jefferson, Tex. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Mrs. Henry Berkowitz, Leon L. Berkowitz, Arthur A. Fleisher, Wm. Fineshriber, Walter Fox, Jacob S. Goldbaum, David Kirschbaum, Lionel Levy, Albert H. Lieberman, Arthur K. Stern, Samuel Stern, Joseph K. Willing, Phila., Pa.; A. H. Auerbach, A. C. Wurmser, Kansas City, Mo.; Julius Goldenberg, R. B. H. Lyon, Abram Simon, Washington, D. C; David Lefkowitz, Dallas, Tex.; Emil Mayer, St. Louis, Mo.; Julian Morgenstern. Cincinnati, O.; Frank J. Rubenstein, Wm. Rosenau, Baltimore, Md. 306 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK HONORARY MEMBERS: Corinne B. Arnold, Oscar Loeb, Phila., Pa.: Mrs. Chas. Heidelberger, Atlantic City, N. J. CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL FACULTY: Wm. Rosenau, Dean, Baltimore, Md.; Edward N. Calisch, Richmond, Va.; Julius H. Greenstone, Phila., Pa.; Eugene M. Lehman, N. Y. C ; Abram Simon, Washington, D. C ; David E. Weglein, Baltimore, Md. JEWISH CONSUMPTIVES' RELIEF ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA Org. Sept. 28,1912. OFFICE: 404 Union League Bldg., Los Angeles, Cal. Sanitarium at Duarte, Cal. Auxiliary Societies, 15. Members, 75,000. PURPOSE: Sanatorium of 116 beds for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. OFFICERS: Pres., Nahum Kavinoky; Vice-Pres., Peter M. Kahn; Sec, A. Shapiro; Treas., Irving H. Hellman, Exec. Dir., Abr. Shohan, Los Angeles, Cal. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Harry K. Cohen, G. R. Evans, F. Flanzer, Louis Hoffman, A. Horwitz, Max Jacobs, Peter M. Kahn, Nadine Kavinoky, Nahum Kavinoky, H. I. Leviton, Louis Lindenbaum, I. Irving Lipsitch, Morris Paykel, L. A. Pertson, J. A. Rosenkranz, M. Russakov, Harry Scherr, A. Shapiro, Chaim Shapiro, Henry M. Silverberg, Wm. Silverman, Samuel Tierman. JEWISH CONSUMPTIVES' RELIEF SOCIETY OF DENVER Org. Jan. 2, 1904. Inc. June 25, 1904. Denver, Colo., Twenty-first Annual Convention, May 1&-17—18, 1925, Cleveland, O. Twenty-second Annual Convention, April 17-19, 1926, Dallas, Tex. Contributors, 100,000. Income 1925, $498,052.52. Capacity, sanatorium, 300 beds. Auxiliary Societies, 11. ORGANIZED DISTRICTS, 9. Publishes: The Sanatorium and The Hatikvah. OFFICERS: Pres., Philip Hillkowitz, 236 Metropolitan Bldg.; Vice- Pres., I. Rude; H. J. Schwartz; Treas., Ben Grimes; Sec, C. D. Spivak. TRUSTEES: Wm N. Beggs, Emanuel Friedman, H. H. Frumess, Ben Grimes, Philip Hillkowitz, Ph. Hornbein, C. H. Kauvar, Mrs. I. J. Kolinsky, D. H. Krohn, Meyer Neusteter, J. B. Pizer, Geo. B. Reuler, H. H. Robinson, Morris H. Robinson, S. G. Rosenthal, I. Rude, H. J. Schwartz, C. D. Spivak, Louis Stern, Nathan Striker, A. S. Taussig, Denver, Colo.; Yehoash, N. Y. C; member-at-large; Mrs. L. Bloch, N. Y. C, representing New York Ladies' Auxiliary; Mrs. Morris Friedman, St. Louis, Mo., representing St. Louis Ladies' Auxiliary; and Adolph Stern, N. Y. C, representing Independent Order Brith Abraham. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 307 NEW YORK OFFICE: Managers, Rosen and Miller, 31 Union Square. CHICAGO OFFICE : Manager, Rabbi A. Elman, 1037 Hearst Bldg. JEWISH INSTITUTE OF RELIGION Org. Oct. 1, 1922. OFFICE: 40 West 68th, New York City. PURPOSE: A school of training for the Jewish Ministry, Research and Community Service. Incorporated in the State of New York—Invested funds, $315,000. Library—15,000 Volumes. First Commencement, May 26, 1926. Students, 36. OFFICERS: Acting Pres., Stephen S. Wise; Chairman Bd. of Trustees, Lee K. Frankel; Vice-Chairman, Julian W. Mack; Treas., H. M. Kaufmann; Asst. Treas., Frederick L. Guggenheimer; Hon. Sec, Nathan Straus, Jr.; Sec,. Gertrude Adelstein. BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Charles E. Bloch, Emile Bullowa, Abram I. Elkus, N. Y. C ; Leon Falk, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mrs. Norman S. Goetz, Sidney E. Goldstein, Richard Gottheil, N. Y. C; M. E. Greenbaum, Chicago, 111.; Julian W. Mack, N. Y. C ; Albert M. Greenfield, Phila., Pa.; Frederick L. Guggenheimer, N. Y. C; Mrs. Max Guggenheimer, Lynchburg, Va.; Joseph Hagedorn, Phila., Pa.; Maurice H. Harris, Walter S. Hilborn, N. Y. C ; Edmund I. Kaufmann, Washington, D. C; H. M. Kaufmann, N. Y. C; Geo. A. Kohut, N. Y. C; Gerson B. Levi, Chicago, 111.; Joseph M. Levine, Reuben Levy, N. Y. C; Louis I. Newman, San Francisco, Cal.; Henry Slonimsky, Nathan Straus, Jr.; Israel N. Thurman, Samuel Wasserman, Stephen S. Wise, N. Y. C. FACULTY: Acting President and Professor of Practical Theology and Homiletics, Stephen S. Wise, Ph.D., L.L.D. (Columbia); Dean and Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Religion, Henry Slonimsky, Ph. D. (Marburg); Asst. Professor of Bible, Reuben Levy, M.A. (Oxford); Asst. Professor of Hebrew, Harry S. Lewis, M.A. (Cambridge Univ.); Professor of Semitic Philology and History of Religion, Julian J. Obermann, Ph.D. (Univ. of Vienna); Professor of Talmud, Chaim Tchernowitz (Wiirzburg); Professor in Social Service, Sidney E. Goldstein, B. A. (Chicago University) ; Jacob Goldberg, Ph. D. (Columbia Univ.); Professor of Jewish Literature and Philosophy, Harry A. Wolfson, Ph. D. (Harvard). INSTRUCTORS: Instructor in Midrash, Rabbi Shalom B. Maximon; Instructor in Music, Abraham W. Binder; Instructor in Public Speaking, Pierson P. Harris, S.T.M. LECTURERS: Salo Baron. Ph.D. (Vienna), Cecil Roth, M.A., B. Litt., D. Phil. (Oxford); Education, Isaac L. Kandel Ph.D. (Manchester), Isaac B. Berkson, M.A., Ph.D. (Columbia); Homiletics, Nathan Krass, B.H.L., Litt.D. LIBRARY STAFF: Librarian, Reuben Levy; Assistants, Mary Nover, Isaac Kiev. REGISTRAR: Reuben Levy. 308 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK SECRETARY: Gertrude Adelstein. STUDENT PUBLICATION: Jewish Institute Quarterly. JEWISH MINISTERS CANTORS' ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA Org. June 1, 1918. OFFICE: 40 Second Av., New York City. Convention, May 29-31, 1923, New York City. Members, 375. PURPOSE: TO uplift the profession and give aid to cantors in need and to their families. OFFICERS: Pres., Jacob Rapaport; Vice-Pres,. B. Chagy; Sec, J. Appel, M. Erstling; Treas., M. Aranoff, N. Y. C. DIRECTORS: N. Abramson, M. Hillman, A. Holtz, S. Levine, O. Lind, L. Lipitz, D. Plotkin, M. Schachter, Jos. Shapiro, A. Singer. JEWISH MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA Org. Mch,. 1917. OFFICE: 74 E. 118th, New York City. Members, 76. OFFICERS: Treas., Israel Klein;* Sec, S. L. Hurwitz, 203 W. 113th, N. Y. C ; Chairman of the Executive, S. Buchler, 1800 Seventh Av., N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: S. Buchler; S. L. Hurwitz; T. Kosuth. •Deceased. •JEWISH MOTHERS' ALLIANCE OF THE UNITED STATES Inc., 1916. Los Angeles, Cal. JEWISH NATIONAL WORKERS' ALLIANCE OF AMERICA Org. 1912. OFFICE: 228 E. Broadway, New York City. Biennial Convention, May 1-4, 1924, Philadelphia, Pa. Next Convention, May 1, 1926, New York City. Branches, 112. Members, 6,100. PURPOSE: Fraternal, Social, and Educational Order. OFFICERS: Pres., Meyer L. Brown; Vice-Pres., Nathan Zvirin; Treas., Ruben Plattrot; Sec, Samuel Goldstein, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: A. Babitch, H. Bass, Irving Boxenbaum, Joel Enteen, Wm. Gelbard, Ph. Gingold, M. Kastoff, J. Rearson, L. Segal, I. Semel. JEWISH PALESTINE EXPLORATION SOCIETY (American Committee) Org. 1922. OFFICE: 167 W. 13th, New York City. •Revised information was not furnished upon request. For latest official data on this organization, see THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, Vol. 27. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 309 Members, 250. PURPOSE: Conducts extensive excavations in special localities in Palestine. Issues a periodical, devoted to the publication of the results of its researches and the material discovered. Is planning to establish a library and museum at Jerusalem, as the beginning of an Institute for Palestine Exploration. Holds popular lectures on Palestine and on the value and knowledge of its antiquities for the study of Palestinian history. OFFICERS: Chairman, Elisha M. Friedman, N. Y. C; Vice-Chairman, Rabbi D. de Sola Pool, N. Y. C ; Treas., Arthur L. Malkenson, N. Y. C ; Sec, J. Max Weis, N. Y. C; COMMITTEES: Cyrus Adler, Philadelphia, Pa.; Oscar Berman, Cincinnati, O.; Herman Bernstein, N. Y. C; Reuben Brainin, N. Y. C; Alfred M. Cohen, Cincinnati, O.; A. Coralnik, N. Y. C ; Leon H. Elmaleh, Philadelphia, Pa.; Harry Fishel, N. Y. C ; Harry M. Fisher, Chicago, 111.; G. George Fox, Chicago, 111.; Sam'l Goldenson, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Howard Goodhart, N. Y. C; Herman Halperin, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Max Heller, New Orleans, La.; B. W. Huebsch, N. Y. C; Henry Hurwitz, N. Y. C; Moredcai M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Nathan D. Kaplan, Chicago, 111.; Max D. Klein, Philadelphia, Pa.; Adolph Kraus, Chicago, 111.; Sol. Lamport, N. Y. C ; Morris S. Lazaron, Baltimore, Md.; R. B. H. Lyon, Washington, D. C ; Julian W. Mack, N. Y. C; Max L. Margolis, Philadelphia, Pa.; Nathan J. Miller, N. Y. C; Julian Morgenstern, Cincinnati, O.; D. de Sola Pool, N. Y. C; Tobias Schanfarber, Chicago, 111.; Israel Schapiro, Washington, D. C ; Abram Simon, Washington, D. C; **Oscar S. Straus, N. Y. C; Samuel Straus, N. Y. C; Felix M. Warburg, N. Y. C; Peter Wiernik, N. Y. C. **Deceased. JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA Org. June, 1888. OFFICE: 1201 N. Broad, Philadelphia, Pa. For the Report of the Thirty-seventh Year of The Jewish Publication Society of America, see p. 000. JEWISH SABBATH ALLIANCE OF AMERICA, INC. Org. 1905. OFFICE: 302 E. 14th, New York City. FourthAnnualConvention,Dec.30,1925-Jan.3,1926, NewYork City. PURPOSE : Promotion of the observance of the Seventh Day Sabbath. OFFICERS: Pres., Bernard Drachman; Vice-Pres., Isser Reznik; Treas., R. L. Savitsky; Exec. Sec, Wm. Rosenberg, 302 E. 14th, N. Y. C. JEWISH SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY POALE ZION OF UNITED STATES AND CANADA Org. 1905. OFFICE: 133 Second Av., New York City. Fifteenth Jubilee Convention, Dec. 28, 1924-Jan. 1, 1925, New York City. 310 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Members, 5,000. PURPOSE: The restoration of the Jewish people in Palestine; the establishment of a socialistic commonwealth; the organization of the Jewish labor class for its economic and political interests in America; the organization of the Jewish workmen ready to settle in Palestine in co-operative groups for the creation of better living conditions; the education of the Jewish masses in America; the issuing of literature devoted to the interests of the Jewish workmen and of books treating of the new life of the Jew developing in Palestine; the organization of the Jewish labor classes into trade unions. OFFICERS: General Sec, I. Hamlin; Treas., S. Siegel, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: I. Applebaum, I. Berkenblith, S. Boncheck, M. Brown, P. Cruso, H. Ehrenreich, J. Entin, Ch. Fineman, S. Goldshtein, I. Hamlin, J. Kaufman, David Pinski, J. Shnider, W. Shwartz, L. Siegel, S. Siegel, I. Zar. JEWISH SOCIALIST VERB AND Org. 1921. OFFICE: 175 E. Broadway, New York City. PURPOSE: TO organize the Jewish Socialists for the Socialist Movement in America. Publishers weekly, "Der Wecker." OFFICERS: Sec, Nathan Chanin; Treas., Saul Rifkin. JEWISH TEACHERS' SEMINARY Org. 1918. OFFICE: 228 E. Broadway, New York City. Members, 4,000 (United States and Canada.) Fourth Graduation, June, 1926, New York City. PURPOSE: Aims to prepare efficient teachers for Jewish Schools, to advance Jewish culture in America and to introduce the Jewish masses to the Jewish and world culture in general. OFFICERS: Pres., Joel Entin, N. Y. C ; Treas., Jacob Milch, N. Y. C; Sec, Pinchos Gingold, 228 E. Bway., N. Y. C ; Dir., Jehuda Kaufman, Brooklyn, N. Y.; A. S. Sachs, Hoboken, N. J. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Sh. Berkowitz, N. Y. C ; S. Bonchek, N. Y. C; Sh. Goldstein, N. Y. C ; I. Hamlin, N. Y. C ; J. A. Jaffe, N. Y. C; Sh. Niger, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Ch. Schauss, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Sh. Shapiro, Bronl-lvn, N. Y.; L. Siegel, N. Y. C; S. Siegel, N. Y. C; N. Zvirin, N. Y. C. JEWISH THEATRICAL GUILD OF AMERICA, INC. Org. 1924. OFFICE: 1607 Broadway, New York City. Members, 2,000. PURPOSE: Perpetuating Judaism in the theatre. To aid sick and unfortunate. To build memorial hall. OFFICERS: Pres., William Morris, N. Y. C ; Vice-Pres., Sam Bernard, JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 311 N. Y. C ; Eddie Cantor, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; S. Silverman, N. Y. C; Treas., Hugo Riesenfeld, N. Y. C ; Sec, Harry Cooper; Fin. Sec, Fred Block; Field Sec, L. Haskell, 215 W. 98th, N. Y. C. JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF AMERICA Org. 1886. OFFICE: 531 W. 123d, New York City. Incorporated in State of New York. Invested Funds: for Seminary, $1,484,932.90; for Teachers' Institute, $161,545.98; for Library, $186,- 082.45. Library: Printed volumes, 75,000; Manuscripts, 6,000. Thirty-second Commencement, June 6, 1926. Graduates, Rabbinical Course, in 1926, 12. Whole number of graduates, Rabbinical Course, 193. Graduates, Teachers' Institute, Teachers' Training Course, in 1926,27. Extension Course, in 5. Whole number of graduates, Teachers' Institute, 368. OFFICERS OF THE BOARD: Chairman Board of Directors, Louis Marshall; Hon. Sec, Sol. M. Stroock; Treas., Lewis S. Strauss; Associate Treasurer, Arthur Oppenheimer, N. Y. C. DIRECTORS: (for life) Daniel Guggenheim, Adolph Lewisohn, Louis Marshall, Felix M. Warburg, N. Y. C; Philip S. Henry, Asheville, N. C; Cyrus Adler, Phila., Pa.; Henry A. Dix, N. Y. C; Simon M. Roeder, N. Y. C ; Samuel Greenbaum, N. Y. C; (Term expiring 1927): William Fischman, Irving Lehman, Sol. .M. Stroock, Lewis L. Strauss, Max Drob, Jacob Kohn, N. Y. C; William Gerstley, Phila., Pa.; Harry Friedenwald, Baltimore, Md.; David S. Ellis, Boston, Mass.; Felix Fuld, Newark, N. J. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Louis Marshall, Chairman, Cyrus Adler, Sol. M. Stroock, Simon M. Roeder, Felix M. Warburg. FACULTY: President, Cyrus Adler, Ph. D. (Johns Hopkins); Professor of Talmud, Louis Ginzberg, Ph. D. (Heidelberg); Professor of History, Alexander Marx, Ph.D. (Koenigsberg); Professor of Homiletics, Mordecai M. Kaplan, M. A. (Columbia); Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature, Israel Davidson, Ph.D. (Columbia); Professor of Codes, Moses Hyamson, B. A., LL.D. (University of London); Sabato Morais Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Jacob Hoschander, Ph.D. (Marburg); Associate Professor of Hebrew, Morris D. Levine, M. A. (Columbia); Instructor in Talmud and Solomon Schechter Lecturer in Theology, 1925-1926, Louis Finkelstein, Ph.D. (Columbia); Instructor, Benjamin Cohen, B.A. (Columbia); Instructor in Hazanuth, Israel Goldfarb, B. S. (Columbia); Hazan, M. Jacobson; Instructor in Public Speaking, Walter H. Robinson. LECTURERS FOR 1926: Samuel M. Cohen, Jacob Kohn, Abraham A. Neuman, Goodman A. Rose. LIBRARY OF THE JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF AMERICA, Incorporated in State of New York, 1924. 312 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK OFFICERS OF THE LIBRARY BOARD: President, Louis Marshall; Vice- President, Cyrus Adler; Hon. Sec, Sol. M. Stroock; Treas., Lewis L. Strauss. DIRECTORS OF LIBRARY: Cyrus Adler, Phila., Pa.; Louis Bamberger, Newark, N. J.; William Gerstley, Phila., Pa.; Louis Marshall, Samuel Greenbaum, Irving Lehman, Mortimer L. Schiff, Felix M. Warburg, Sol. M. Stroock, Simon Roeder, Abram S. W. Rosenbach, Max Drob, N. Y. C. LIBRARY STAFF: Librarian, Alexander Marx; Assistant Librarian, Benjamin Cohen; Cataloguers, Israel Shapiro, Saul Gittelson, Isaac Rivkind; Assistant in Library, Isaac Shapiro; Secretary to Librarian, Anna Kleban. REGISTRAR: Israel Davidson. SECRETARY: Joseph B. Abrahams. TEACHERS' INSTITUTE: 34 Stuyvesant Place. Principal, Mordecai M. Kaplan, 1 W. 89th; Instructors: Morris D. Levine, Joseph Bragin, Leo L. Honor, Paul Chertoff, Zevi Scharfstein, Max Kadushin, Osher Ovsay, I. S. Chipkin, Hillel Bavli, Benjamin Silk, S. E. Goldfarb, Arthur H. Neulander, Isaac B. Berkson, Samuel Rubinstein, Max Slavin, Anna Grossman, Emanuel Baron, Joshua H. Neumann, Max Goldman, Pincus Schub, Leon Lang, Samuel Zaretski, Tillie Weitzman. Special Committee: Sol. M. Stroock, Chairman; Mordecai M. Kaplan, Samuel Greenbaum, Irving Lehman, J. L. Magnes, Felix M. Warburg, Cyrus Adler. JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY Org. July 4, 1901. Annual Convention, April 29-30, 1925, New York City. Next Annual Convention, June 30—July 4, 1926, Long Branch, N. J. Members, 200. OFFICERS: Pres., Max Drob, N. Y. C ; Vice-Pres., Louis Finkelstein, N. Y. C ; Rec. Sec, Gershon Hadas, New Britain, Conn.; Cor. Sec, Abraham Burstein, N. Y. C; Treas., Max Arzt, Scranton, Pa. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Nachman S. Arnoff, New Bedford, Mass.; Alexander Basel, N. Y. C; Paul Chertoff, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Max D. Davidson, Asbury Park, N. J.; Louis M. Epstein, Brookjine, Mass.; Louis Feinberg, Cincinnati, O.; Jacob J. Gittleman, Louisville, Ky.; Julius H. Greenstone, Philadelphia, Pa.; Max Kadushin, N. Y. C.; Jacob Kohn, N. Y. C ; Philip A. Langh, Chicago, 111.; Morris D. Levine, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Louis M. Levitzsky, Wilkesbarre, Pa.; Arthur H. Neulander, N. Y. C; Norman Salit, Far Rockaway, N. Y.; Elias C. Sydney, N. Y. C. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 313 JEWISH VALOR LEGION Org. Feb. 1921. OFFICE: 101 W. 42nd, New York City. Members, 638. PURPOSE: Welfare of Ex-Service men of Jewish faith; compilation of records of Jewish soldiers in American army in World War. OFFICERS: Commander, Sydney G. Gumpertz; Sr. Vice-Commander, Benjamin Kaufman; Jr. Vice-Commander, Abraham Krotoshinsky; Adjutant, David Bernstein, 427 E. 134th, N. Y. C. TRUSTEES: Herman L. Bush, Roxbury, Mass.; Sam Goldberg, St. Louis, Mo.; Irving Klein, Oakland, Cal.; Benj. Prager, Pittsburgh, Pa. JEWISH VETERANS OF THE WARS OF THE REPUBLIC Org. 1900, Inc. 1920. OFFICE: IS Park Row, New York City. Annual Convention, May 9, 1925, New York City. Next Annual Convention, July 3-5, 1926, Philadelphia, Pa. Posts, 18. Members, 8,000. PURPOSE: TO be of greater service to this country and to one another, and to perpetuate the highest ideals of the Jewish soldiers. OFFICERS: Commander-in-Chief, Morris J. Mendelsohn, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Sen. Vice-Com.-in-Chief, I. Bernard Rotberg, Phila., Pa.; Jr. Vice-Com.-in-Chief, Sam Gutter, Cleveland, O.; Chief of Staff, Maurice Simmons, N. Y. C : Adj. Gen., J. David Delman, N. Y. C; Quartermaster General, Joseph Citron, N. Y. C ; Hist. Gen., Hyman Margulies, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Hon. Chaplain-in-Chief, Edward Lissman, N. Y. C; Chaplain-in-Chief, Abe Nowak, Cleveland, O.; Judge Advocate General, Israel Flapan, N. Y. C ; Surgeon Generals, George Flamm, Brooklyn, N. Y.; S. Ginsberg, Phila., Pa.; Chief National Aide, Peter Schwartz, N. Y. C. JEWISH WAR VETERANS OF AMERICA Org. Nov. 1919. OFFICE: 248 Engineers' Bldg., Cleveland, O. Convention, Dec. 17, 1925. Members, 264. PURPOSE: TO preserve the principles for which we waged war against the Imperial German Government, to perpetuate the blessings of liberty and justice to mankind and promote the general welfare. OFFICERS: Commander, A. I. Hausman, 248 Engineers' Bid?., Cleveland, O.; Sr. Vice-Commander, J. P. Rose; Jr. Vice-Commander, Dave Goldberg; Adj., Sam Stein; Quartermaster, B. Milou; Paymaster, Ed. Rubenstein; Officer of the Day, S. Gutter; Chaplain, Abraham Nowak; Jr. Chaplain, M. Kaplan; Officer of the Guard, G. Blumenthal. JEWISH WELFARE BOARD Org. 1917. OFFICE: 352 4th Av., New York City. Amalgamated with Council of Young Men's Hebrew and Kindred Associations, July 1, 1921. 314 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Affiliated National Organizations, 16. Constituent Societies, 300. PURPOSE: TO stimulate the organization and to assist in the activities of Jewish Centers, such as Young Men's Hebrew Associations, Young Women's Hebrew Associations, and kindred organizations, and to co-operate with all similar bodies in the development of Judaism and good citizenship. To promote the social welfare of soldiers, sailors, and marines in the service of the United States and especially to provide for men of the Jewish faith in the Army and Navy adequate opportunity for religious worship and hospitality of Jewish communities adjacent to military and naval posts. OFFICERS: Pres., Irving Lehman, N. Y. C-; Vice-Pres., Felix M. Warburg, N. Y. C ; Jacob M. Loeb, Chicago, 111.; Jacob K. Newman, N. Y. C; M. C. Sloss, San Francisco, Cal.; Sec, Joseph Rosenzweig, N. Y. C ; Treas., Edward S. Steinam, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: The Officers, and Cyrus Adler, Julius Ochs Adler, Henry J. Bernheim, Boris D. Bogen, Fred M. Butzel, Alfred M. Cohen, Abel Davis, Car} Dreyfus, Abram I. Elkus, David A. Ellis, Harry Fischel, William Fischman, Walter Freund, Felix Fuld, I. Edwin Goldwasser, Samuel Greenbaum, Mrs. Jerome J. Hanauer, Maurice H. Harris, Charles Hartman, Isaac Hassler, Louis E. Kirstein, Irvin E. Lehman, M. S. Margolies, Louis Marshall, Leon J. Obermayer, Hugo H. Piesen, William Rosenau, Morris Rothenberg, Bernard Semel, Mrs. Israel Unterberg, Israel Unterberg, Max R. Wainer, Benjamin S. Washer, A. Leo Weil, J. L. Wiseman, Mrs. Alexander Wolf, Morris Wolf. ADMINISTRATION: Exec. Dir., Harry L. Gluckeman; Dir. Jewish Center Activities, Louis Kraft; Dir. of Campaigns, Philip R. Goldstein; Dir. Army and Navy Service Dept., E. Chas. Sydney; Dir. Jewish Extension Education, Mordecai Soltes. JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN FUNDS FOR JEWISH WAR SUFFERERS Org. Nov. 24, 1914. OFFICE: 40 Exchange Place, New York City. Members, 99. PURPOSE: Distribution of funds received by the American Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War, and the People's Relief Committee. OFFICERS: Chairman, Felix M. Warburg; Vice-Chairman, Herbert H. Lehman, Jas. N. Rosenberg; Treas., Paul Baerwald; Associate Treas., George W. Naumburg; Comptroller, Mrs. H. B. L. Goldstein; Sec, Joseph C. Hyman. For the table of appropriations made during the past ytear and since the organization of the Committee, see p. 000. KAPPA NU FRATERNITY Org. Nov. 12, 1911. OFFICE: 5th and Cambria, Philadelphia, Pa. Ninth Annual Convention, Dec. 1925-Jan. 1, 1926, Cleveland, O. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 315 Tenth Annual Convention, Dec. 1926-Jan. 2, 1927, Phila., Pa. Chapters, 18. Members, 1,000. PURPOSE: A Greek-letter brotherhood for college men of Jewish consciousness. OFFICERS: Pres., Zola Rosenfeld, Philadelphia, Pa.; Vice-Pres., Harry S. Mackler, N. Y. C ; Treas., Garson Meyer, Rochester, N. Y.; Sec, Samuel Resnik, Musgrove Bldg., Andover, Mass. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Oscar Brown, Cleveland, O.; Chas. D. Fagles, Philadelphia, Pa.; Harry P. Goldstein, Washington, D. C ; Frederick P. Klein, N. Y. C ; Jacob Rosenzweig, Rochester, N. Y.; David Zoob, Phila., Pa. LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION Org. 1911. OFFICE: Hot Springs, Ark. Maintains the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital. Members, 1,500. OFFICERS: Pres., Archibald A. Marx, New Orleans, La.; Hon. Vice- Pres., Dan Daniel, Shreveport, La.; Vice-Pres., J. K. Hexter, Dallas, Tex.; Treas., E. N. Roth, Hot Springs, Ark.; Sec, A. B. Rhine, Hot Springs, Ark. BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Joseph Beitman, Birmingham, Ala.; Eli H. Bernheim, N. Y. C; E. R. Bernstein, Shreveport, La.; J. A. Blum, Des Moines, la.; Sam Blum, New Orleans, La.; Edw. M. Chase, Manchester, N. H.; Henry Cohen, Galveston, Tex.; Sam Dreyfus, Shreveport, La.; S. Lasker Ehrman, Little Rock, Ark.; A. D. Engelesman, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Harry Fisher, Chicago, 111.; A. B. Frey, St. Louis Mo.; Arthur Friedman, Denver, Colo.; Morris Goldman, St. Louis, Mo.; Edwin R; Haas, Atlanta, Ga.; Chas. J. Haase, Memphis, Tenn.; Baer Horvitz, Pittsburgh, Pa.; J. B. Jacobs, Los Angeles, Cal.; Sidney Jonas, Nashville, Tenn.; Joshua Kantrowitz, N. Y. C.; Sidney Kusworm, Dayton, O.; Leo Lehman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Sylvain Meyer, Vicksburg, Miss.; Harry Monsky, Omaha, Neb.; Emil Nathan, St. Louis Mo.; Leo Pfeifer, Little Rock, Ark.; Martin Ritter, Chicago, 111.; Albert M. Rosenthal, Indianapolis, Ind.; Joseph W. Salus, Philadelphia, Pa.; Lucius L. Solomon, San Francisco, Cal.; Nathan Straus, N. Y. C; Lionel Weil, Goldsboro, N. C ; S. J. Westheimer, Houston, Tex. THE MENORAH MOVEMENT FOR THE STUDY AND ADVANCEMENT OF JEWISH CULTURE AND IDEALS Org. Jan. 2, 1913. Office: 167 W. 13th, New York City 1. INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH ASSOCIATION. Org. Jan. 2, 1913. Members, 5,000. Societies, 73. PURPOSE : The promotion in colleges and universities and in the community at large of the study of Jewish history, culture, and problems, and the advancement of Jewish ideals. 316 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK BOARD OF GOVERNORS: Hon. Chairman, Irving Lehman, N. Y. C; Chairman, Leo F. Wormser, Chicago, 111.; Treas. S. W. Straus, N. Y. C; Chancellor, Henry Hurwitz, N. Y. C ; Abel Davis, Chicago, 111.; F. Julius Fohs, N. Y. C ; Samuel P. Gilman, N. Y. C ; Henry Honner, Chicago, 111.; Nathan Isaacs, Cambridge, Mass.; M. M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Louis E. Kirstein, Boston, Mass., Nathan Krass, N. Y. C ; Samuel C. Lamport, N. Y. C ; Isador Lubin, Washington, D. C ; Adolph S. Oko, Cincinnati, O.; Joseph M. Proskauer, N. Y. C ; Bernard J. Reis, N. Y. C.;CarlSadowsky, N. Y. C ; I. Leo Sharf man, Ann. Arbor, Mich.; A. H. Silver, Cleveland, 0.; Meier Steinbrink, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Israel M. Thurman, N. Y. C. 2. MENORAH EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE. Org. Dec. 29, 1918. Composed of university teachers. PURPOSE: TO foster and to guide Menorah education in American colleges and universities and among university graduates and other men and women in the general community interested in Jewish culture and ideals. OFFICERS: Chairman, Nathan Isaacs, Harvard University School of Business; Vice-Chairman, Wm. Popper, University of California; Sec- Treas., Adolph S. Oko, Hebrew Union College Library. The movement also encourages the organization of Graduate Menorah Societies in various cities, maintains the Menorah Lecturer Bureau, and issues The Menorah Journal, Menorah Syllabi, Menorah bibliographies and pamphlets, and the Menorah Bulletin. MIZRAHI HATZOIR Org. May, 1920. OFFICE: 138-40 E. Second St., New York City. Conference, May 17-19, 1925, Cleveland, O. Members, 3,000. PURPOSE: TO organize groups of the Jewish youth, both senior and junior, to spread Judaism and a love for Jewish knowledge, to acquaint the Jewish youth with the national aspirations of the Jews, and to strive for the rehabilitation of Palestine in accordance with Jewish traditions and in the spirit of the Torah. OFFICERS: Hon. Pres., Meyer Berlin; Pres., Harry Karp; Vice-Pres., Max Hagler, Joseph Wilon; Treas., Emanuel Greenberg; Sec, Morris Cohen. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: J. Berlin, B. Berman, H. Berman, M. Berman, Ph. Churgin, M. Cohen, J. Eisen, F. Friend, M. Gewirtz, S. Goldfarb, S. Gottlieb, E. Greenberg, R. Greenberg, E. Gross, L. Sh. Gross, M. Hagler, B. Hilson, F. Housman, H. Karp, Hadassah Karp, S. Kerstein, L. Klein, B. Langsam, J. Leichtman, I. Margolies, S. Cohen Margolies, S. Michnowsky, A. Mirsky, B. Peyser, A. Pinta, J. Pinta, M. Reifman, B. Roth, R. Rubin, Jacob Schwartzberg, M. Silberstein, M. Storm, S. Storm, M. Teichman, C. Wilkenfeld, J. Wilon. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 317 THE MIZRAHI ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA Org. June 5, 1912. CENTRAL BUREAU: 31 Union Sq., New York City. Convention, May 17-19, 1925, Cleveland, O. Members, 20,000. Organizations, 298. PURPOSE: Religio-National: To realize the Basle program of the Zionist movement in the spirit of Jewish Torah and Tradition. Fundamental principle: The land of Israel, for the people of Israel, in the spirit of Israel's Law. OFFICERS: Pres., Meyer Berlin; Vice-Pres., B. L. Levinthal; Treas., A. Cohen; Sec., Mairim Magnes. ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE: Meyer Berlin, H. Bluestone, Abr. Cohen, E. Inselbuch, H. Karp, B. L. Levinthal, Mairim Magnes, B. H. Schnur, A. M. Stavisky, A. Teitelbaum, S. Wilner. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Ch. A. Aaronson, A. M. Ashinsky, I. August, A. S. Borwick, H. Cohen, L. Dann, J. M. Davidson, Ch. F. Epstein, J. Eskolsky, I. Feigenbaum, Harry Fishel, M. Garfinkel, L. Gellman, J. Goell, Sam Goldstein, E. Greenberg, M. Hagler, P. Herring, Joseph L. Kamaiky, M. A. Kaplan, J. Kapstein, J. Levin, S. Levin, J. Levine, S. Levine, S. Cohen Margolies, M. Z. Margolies, S. Miller, E. R. Mushkin, B. Notelowitz, Ch. H. Papkin, A. Patinkin, A. Pelchowitz, J. Polstein, I. Porath, J. Richman, N. Z. Riff, I. Rosenberg, A. Sachs, S. Seltzer, A. Shapiro, M. Shapiro, S. Silber, J. M. Silberman, J. Soskin, D. L. Weiss, I. Wendcus. MU SIGMA FRATERNITY Org. 1906, Inc., 1925. OFFICE: 220 W. 42d, New York City. Annual Convention, Dec. 26-27, 1925. Next Convention, Dec. 25-26, 1926, New York City. PURPOSE: Fraternal, OFFICERS: Grand Lumen, Bernard S. Barron, 220 W. 42d, N. Y. C; Grand Filium, Tolbert Pelzman, Washington, D. C ; Grand Ora, Archibald Gellis, N. Y. C ; Grand Fiscus, Leon Kranztohr, Newark, N. J.; Grand Scribe, Maurice J. Dinnerstein, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Grand Ossa, Michael Kaplan, New York City; Chairman Exec. Comm., Irving Eisenberg, Arcade Bldg. Jersey City, N. J. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER SECRETARIES Org. 1918. OFFICE: 352 Fourth Ave., New York City. Seventh Annual Convention, June 1-1, 1925, Philadelphia, Pa. Members, 150. PURPOSE: TO foster and develop an interest in Jewish center work and to promote friendly and helpful relations among Jewish community center workers. OFFICERS: Pres., Jack Nadel, N. Y. C; Vice-Pres., Tobias Roth, 318 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Rochester, N. Y.; Jacob N. Sokohl, Phila., Pa.; Sec-Treas., Samuel B. Kaufman, Mt. Vernon, N. Y. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Isidore Beierfeld, Camden, N. J.; Harry L. Glucksman, N. Y. C, (ex-Officio); Gilbert Harris, St. Louis, Mo.; Leo A. Harris, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Louis Kraft, N. Y. C; A. S. Magida, Scranton, Pa.; Chas. Nemser, Cleveland, O.; Herman Passamaneck, Kansas City, Mo. (ex-Officio); Aaron Robison, Newark, N. J. (ex- Officio); A. W. Rosenthal, N. Y. C; Philip L. Seman, Chicago, 111. (ex-Officio); Mrs. Ray Wechsler, N. Y. C. NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE Org. 1899 as National Conference of Jewish Charities in the United States. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Twenty-sixth Annual Conference, June 7-10, 1925, Denver, Colo. Twenty-seventh Annual Conference, May 23-26, 1926, Cleveland, O. Members, 215 Societies, 1,400 individuals. OFFICERS: Pres., Louis M. Cahn, Chicago, 111.; Vice-Pres., Dorothy C. Kahn, Baltimore, Md.; I. Irving Lipsitch, Los Angeles, Cal.; Charles D. Spivak, Denver, Colo.; Treas., Ferdinand S. Bach, St. Louis, Mo.; Sec, Samuel A. Goldsmith, New York City. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Ludwig B. Bernstein, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Nathan Bijur, N. Y. C ; Boris D. Bogen, Cincinnati, O.; Fred M. Butzel, Detroit, Mich.; Aaron Cohen, Pittsburgh, Pa.; David Fichman, New Orleans, La.; Lee K. Frankel, N. Y. C; Max Herzberg, Philadelphia, Pa.; Maurice B. Hexter, Boston, Mass.; Jacob H. Hollander, Baltimore, Md., M. J. Karpf, N. Y. C ; Solomon Lowenstein; N. Y. C ; Julian W. Mack, N. Y. C; George W. Rabinoff, Indianapolis, Ind.; I. M. Rubinow, Philadelphia, Pa.; Max Senior, Cincinnati, O.; William J. Shroder, Cincinnati, O.; Maurice J. Sievers, Toledo, O.; Cyrus L. Sulzberger, N. Y. C; Frances M. Taussig, N. Y. C ; Morris D. Waldman, Detroit, Mich.; Felix M. Warburg, N. Y. C ; Cecil B. Wiener, Buffalo, N. Y. THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN Org. Sept. 1893. OFFICE: 2109 Broadway, New York City. Tenth Triennial Convention, Nov., 1923, St. Louis, Mo. Eleventh Triennial Convention, Nov., 1926, Washington, D. C. Sections, 233, Junior Auxiliaries, 84. The Council and its Sections are engaged in Religious, Social Welfare, Civic and Educational Work. Its activities are promoted through its Committees on Religion, Religious Schools, Social Welfare, Junior Auxiliaries, Civic and Communal Affairs, Peace and Arbitration, Education, Finance, Legislation, Blind, Deaf, Scholarship Fund, Department of Farm and Rural Work (with offices in New York City, Chairman, Mrs. Leo H. Herz, N. Y. C ) ; Department of Immigrant JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 319 Aid (with offices in New York City, Chairman, Fiorina Lasker). Official publication, The Jewish Woman, issued quarterly, Estelle M. Sternberger, editor. OFFICERS: (1923-1926) Pres., Rose Brenner*, 45 St. Paul's Place, Brooklyn, N. Y.; First Vice-Pres., Mrs. Wm. D. Sporborg, Port Chester, N. Y.; Second Vice-Pres., Mrs. Alexander Wolf, Washington, D. C.; Third Vice-Pres., Mrs. Herbert E. Ottenheimer, Louisville, Ky.; Treas., Mrs. Alvin L. Bauman, St. Louis, Mo.; Rec. Sec, Mrs. L. A. Hecht, Baltimore, Md.; Exec. Sec, Mrs. Estelle M. Sternberger, 2109 Broadway, N. Y. C. DIRECTORS (1920-1926): Mrs. Elmer Eckhouse, Newark, N. J.; Mrs. Julius Eisman, Toronto, Can.; Hannah Hirshberg, San Antonio, Tex.; Mrs. Max L. Margolis, Phila. Pa.; Mrs. Isaac K. E. Prager, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Samuel J. Rosensohn, N. Y. C; Sara X. Schottenfels, N. Y. C; and Mrs. Henry J. Sporborg, Albany, N. Y. (1923- 1929): Mrs. Irvin Bettman, St. Louis, Mo; Mrs. S. M. Blumauer, Portland, Ore.; Mrs. Sylvain R. Livingstone, Richmond, Va.; Mrs. Bert H. Printz, Youngstown, O.; Mrs. Amanda Schlesinger, San Francisco, Cal. •Deceased. THE NATIONAL FARM SCHOOL Inc. Apr. 10, 1896. SCHOOL AND FARMS: Farm School, Bucks Co., Pa. OFFICES: 1101 Market, Room 809, Philadelphia, Pa. ,350 Broadway, New York City. Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting, Oct. 4, 1925, Farm School, Bucks Co., Pa. Twenty-sixth Annual Graduation, Feb. 22, 1926. OFFICERS: Chairman Bd. of Trustees, Harry B. Hirsh; Act. Pres., Herbert D. Allman; Vice-Chairman, Jos. H. Hagedorn; Treas., Isaac H. Silverman; Sec, Miss E. M. Bellefield, 1101 Market, Room 809, Phila., Pa. EXECUTIVE BOARD: Henry S. Belber, David Burpee, Abraham Erlanger, Maurice Fels, Wm. H. Fineshriber, Horace Fleishcr, Morris Fleishman, Fred P. Gruenberg, Jos. H. Hagedorn, Roy A. Heymann, J. H. Hinlein, Louis A. Hirsch, Henry A. James, Chas. Kline, Bernard Kohn, Manfred R. Krauskopf, Jas. A. Pratt, Leon Rosenbaum, Pnilip Sterling, James Work, Grant Wright, John Zimmerman. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (New York): Chairman, Abraham Erlanger; Mrs. H. A. Guinzberg, Stanley Isaacs, Mrs. Alexander Kohut, Nathan Krass, Samuel C. Lamport, Adolph Lewisohn, Sophie Irene Loeb, Benjamin Mordecai, David de Sola Pool, Israel Unterberg, Stephen S. Wise. HONORARY TRUSTEES: (having served on the Executive Board for ten years) H. D. Allman, Hart Blumenthal, Adolph Eichholz, Harry Felix, S. Friedberger, Daniel Gimbel, H. B. Hirsh, M. A. Kaufmann, 320 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK A. M. Klein, Leon Merz, Louis Nusbaum, B. Selig, I. H. Silverman, J. N. Snellenburg. NATIONAL AUXILIARY BOARD: Max A. Adler, Rochester, N. Y.; Daniel Alexander, Salt Lake City, Utah; M. Alexander, Boise,Idaho Henry Beer, New Orleans, La.; Melvin Behrends, Washington, D. C. I. W. Bernheim, Louisville, Ky.; H. S. Binswanger, Richmond, Va. Nathan Eckstein, Seattle, Wash.; Abraham J. Feldman, Hartford, Conn.; M. J. Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Milton D. Greenbaum, Baltimore, Md.; Mrs. H. A. Guinzburg, N. Y. C; Julian A. Hillman, Atlantic City, N. J.; Albert C. Lehman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Louis Schlesinger, Newark, N. J.; Morris Stern, San Antonio, Tex.; David Sternberg, Memphis, Tenn.; Isaac M. Ullman, New Haven, Conn.; Eugene Warner, Buffalo, N. Y.; Morris Weil, Lincoln, Neb.; S. D. Wise, Cleveland, O. NATIONAL FEDERATION OF TEMPLE BROTHERHOODS Org. 1923. OFFICE: Merchants' Bldg., Cincinnati, O. First Biennial Convention, Jan. 19-22, 1925, St. Louis, Mo. Societies, 87. PURPOSE: TO stimulate interest in Jewish worship, Jewish studies, social service and other kindred activities. To co-operate with Union of American Hebrew Congregations in its national plans. OFFICERS: Pres., Roger W. Straus, N. Y. C; Vice-Pres., Leonard S. Levin, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Frederic Wingersky, Boston, Mass.; Treas., Julius W. Freiberg, Cincinnati, 0.; Exec. Sec., George Zepin, Cincinnati, O.; Asst. Exec. Sec, Louis I. Egelson, Cincinnati, O. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers and Alexander Cahn, New Haven, Conn.; Max A. Goldstein, St. Louis, Mo.; Louis A. Horwitz, El Paso, Tex.; H. L. Karpeles, Newark, N. J.; Joseph L. Kun, Philadelphia, Pa.; Julius C. Lang, Seattle, Wash.; Clarence Michaels, Montreal, Can.; Grover M. Moscowitz, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Irving H. Robitshek, Minneapolis, Minn.; Wallace Rosenheim, Detroit, Mich.; Charles Rosenthai, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Arnold M. Schmidt, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Jerome L. Schwartz, Buffalo, N. Y.; Herman Selz, Chicago, 111.; D. R. Shapiro, San Francisco, Cal.; Arthur Hays Sulzberger, N. Y. C; Fred Vorenberg, Boston, Mass.; Leo A. Weil, Erie, Pa.; Leonard Weinberg, Baltimore, Md., Moses Wiesenfeld, Baltimore, Md. NATIONAL FEDERATION OF TEMPLE SISTERHOODS Org. Jan. 1913. OFFICE: Merchants' Bldg., Cincinnati, O. . Fifth Biennial Meeting, Jan. 22-26, 1923, New York City. Societies, 325. PURPOSE: Closer co-operation between the various Sisterhoods. The work of the Federation is conducted under the following Committees: Co-operation, Religion, Religious Schools, Propaganda, Scholarships, Union Museum, LTniongrams, and State or District Federations, Student Welfare Work, and on Peace. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 321 OFFICERS: Hon. Pres., Mrs. Abram Simon, Washington, D. C; Pres. Mrs. J. Walter Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Vice-Pres., Mrs. Israel Cowen, Chicago, 111.; Mrs. Sallie Kubie Glauber, N. Y. C ; Mrs. Leon Goodman, Louisville, Ky.; Mrs. Adolph Rosenberg, Cincinnati, O.; Mrs. Maurice Steinfeld, St. Louis, Mo.; Treas., Mrs. Benj. F. Engelhard, Chicago, 111.; Sec, George Zepin, Cincinnati, O. EXECUTIVE BOARD: Mmes. Louis Abramson, Shreveport, La.; Alfred Baker, Erie, Pa.; Martin Barbe, Chicago, 111.; Henry Bauer, Atlanta, Ga.; M. N. Becker, Des Moines, la.; Isaac Born, Indianapolis, Ind.; Max J. Brandenburger, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Edgar M. Cahn, New Orleans, La.; Josiah Cohen, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Chas. Cohn, Nashville, Tenn.; Samuel H. Cohn, Cleveland, O.; Israel Cowen, Chicago, 111.; Ferdinand Dilsheimer, Philadelphia, Pa.; Benjamin Engelhard, Chicago, 111.; Solomon Foster, Newark, N. J.; J. Walter Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Charles Freund, Toledo, O.; Alexander Friedman, Pensacola, Fla.; Sallie Kubie Glauber, N. Y. C.; Edna Goldsmith, Cleveland, O.; Leon Goodman, Louisville, Ky.; Nathan Gumble, Columbus, O.; Joseph Herman, Boston, Mass.; Victor Hexter, Dallas, Tex.; Deborah Hirschberg, Oakland, Cal.; Joseph Jackson, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Herman Jung, Milwaukee, Wis.; Joseph Kruger, Montreal, Can.; Gerson B. Levi, Chicago, 111.; Harry Liebman, Brookline, Mass.; Benj. Loewenstein, Cincinnati, O.; H. H. Mayer, Kansas City, Mo.; Albert May, Flushing, N. Y.; Lillie R. Mikolas, Minneapolis, Minn.; Nathan J. Miller, N. Y. C; Henry Nathan, Buffalo, N. Y.; Morris Newfield, Birmingham, Ala.; Harold B. Offer, Seattle, Wash.; H. Oppenheimer, Baltimore, Md.; Rose Osterweiss, New Haven, Conn.; Sigmund Ottenheimer, San Francisco, Cal.; L. A. Pollack, Huntington, W. Va.; Adolph Rosenberg, Cincinnati, O.; Alfred Rosenstein, Philadelphia, Pa.; Henry Sahlein, San Francisco, Cal.; Sol. Schoenmann, Houston, Tex.; Henry Schwarz, Denver, Colo.; Abram Simon, Washington, D. C; J. G. Simon, St. Paul, Minn.; Robert F. Skutch, Baltimore, Md.; Maurice Steinfeld, St. Louis, Mo.; Joseph Stolz, Chicago, 111.; Mayer Sulzberger, Detroit, Mich.; Philip Trost, Sioux City, la.; Sol Weil, Goldsboro, N. C ; Jacob Wertheim, N. Y. C; Edward Wessel, N. Y. C; Joseph Wiesenfeld, Baltimore, Md., Cora Wolf, Omaha, Neb.; Leo Wolf, Wheeling, W. Va.; Henry Wolfner, St. Louis, Mo. NATIONAL FEDERATION OF UKRAINIAN JEWS OF AMERICA Re-org. Sept., 1920. OFFICE: 1 Union Square, New York City. Convention,—1924. Affiliated Organizations, 110. PURPOSE: Relief work for Ukrainian Jews. OFFICERS: Pres., B. Saphir; Vice-Pres., L. Dinion, New Haven, Conn.; P. Miller, Philadelphia, Pa.; M. Shatzen, Detroit, Mich.; L. 322 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Smirnoff, N. Y. C; A. Solovioff, N. Y. C; Treas., H. Shupack; Sec, F.Feingold.N.Y.C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: L. Blank, Detroit, Mich.; L. Dinion, New Haven, Conn.; M. Charniafsky, Trenton, N. J.; B. Chubatovsky, Newark, N. J.; I. Dorfman, Newark. N. J.; H. Gordon, N. Y. C ; L. Genel, Phila., Pa.; A. H. Jaffin, Detroit, Mich.; D. Kiperman, Trenton, N. J.; L. Kligman, St. Joseph, Mo.; P. Miller, Phila., Pa.; S. Polakoff, N. Y. C ; J. Phon, N. Y. C ; S. Rafelock, St. Joseph, Mo.; B. Rabalsky, Boston, Mass.; J. Resnick, New Haven Conn.; C. H. Schlein, Kansas City, Mo.; J. Shultz, Kansas City, Mo.; M. Silberman, Boston, Mass.; Wm. Tash, Washington, D. C; Joseph L. Tepper, Washinaton. D. C. NATIONAL JEWISH HOSPITAL AT DENVER Org. Dec. 10, 1899. OFFICE: 3800 E. Colfax Av., Denver, Col. Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting, January, 1926. Contributors, 125,000 Individuals; 75 Federations; 200 Lodges and Societies. Capacity, 193; buildings 12. Collected (1923-1924) $363,- 751.48. Maintains Research Department and a Preventorium for Children, predisposed to tuberculois Patients treated to July 1, 1925, 5,207. OFFICERS: Pres., Wm. B. Woolner, Peoria, 111.; Vice-Pres., Wm. S. Friedman, Denver, Col.; David May, St. Louis, Mo.; Harmon August, N. Y. C; B. Flesher, Denver, Colo.; Chas. H. Studin, N. Y. C ; Herman Wile, Buffalo, N. Y.; Nathan J. Miller, N. Y. C ; Treas., Benj. Altheimer, N. Y. C ; Sec, Mrs. S. Pisko, 3800 E. Colfax Av., Denver, Colo.; National Supervisor, Samuel Schaefer, Denver, Colo. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Louis D. Beaumont, N. Y. C; Alfred A. Benesch, Cleveland, O.; Alfred K. Cohen, Cincinnati, O.; N. S. Dauby, Cleveland, O.; Max Freschl, Milwaukee, Wis.: Sol S. Kiser, Indianapolis, Ind.; Harry K. Lapidus, Omaha, Neb.; Edwin J. Schanfarber, Columbus, O. NATIONAL LEGAL FRATERNITY LAMBDA ALPHA PHI Org. 1919. OFFICE: 972 Broad, Newark, N. J. Annual Convention, Oct., 1925, Newark, N. J. Members, 217. PURPOSE: TO inculcate in Jewish members of the Bar the highest principles of legal ethics in order to maintain the respect of the Bench and Bar. OFFICERS: Supreme Chancellor, Herman W. Brams, Newark, N. J.; Supreme Vice-Chancellor, David Engelson, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Supreme Keeper of the Exchequer, Louis Bondy, Newark, N. J.; Supreme Archon, Michael G. Alenick, 763 Broad, Newark, N. J.; Supreme Historian, Leon E. Cone, Morristown, N. J. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Samuel Clarick, Elizabeth, N. J.; Raymond H. Cohen, Newark, N. J.; Simon S. Gittelman, Newark, N. J.; Gustave L. Goldstein, Newark, N. J.; Charles M. GrosJEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 323 k, N. J.; Harry Silverstein, Newark, N. Newark, N. J.; Herman B. J. Weckstein, Newark, man, Newark, J.; Joseph Susskind, <> N . J . NU BETA EPSILON FRATERNITY Org. 1919. OFFICE: 1505-77 W. Washington, Chicago, 111. Convention, May 13, 1926, Chicago, 111. Members, 90. PURPOSE: Greek letter Fraternity for Jewish students at credited Law Schools. OFFICERS: Grand Chancellor, Barnet Hodes; Exchequer, Alfred Schwerdlin; Recorder, Seymour Scheffries, Chicago 111. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Barnet Hodes, Samuel H. Rosenthal, Alfred Schwerdlin. OMICRON ALPHA TAU FRATERNITY Org. 1912. OFFICE: 126 East 40th, New York City. Annual Convention, Dec. 29, 1925, New York City. Next Annual Convention, Dec. 29, 1926, New York City. Chapters, 17. Members, 850. PURPOSE: Greek-letter college fraternity for Jewish students. OFFICERS: Grand-Chancellor, Nat. B. Cohen, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Grand Vice-Chancellor, Victor K. Ross; Grand Scribe, Jos. S. Rosenzweig; Grand Bursar, Jos. L. Blum; Grand Vice-Scribe, Irving N. "Levine, New Rochelle, N. Y.; Grand Vice-Bursar, Dr. Leon M. Gecker, 2011 Grand Concourse. BOARD OF GOVERNORS: The Officers, and Ray Girard, Brooklyn, N. Y.;Dr. J. B.Seldin. ORDER BRITH ABRAHAM Org. June, 1859. OFFICE: 266 Grand, New York City. Forty-eighth Biennial Convention, May 24-26, 1925, Atlantic City, N. J. Lodges, 185. Members, 28,650. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Alex. M. Katsky, Brooklyn, N. Y.; First Deputy Grand Master, Adolph Solomon, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Second Deputy Grand Master, Chas. Hamburger, Atlantic City, N. J.; Third Deputy Grand Master, Jacob Gould, Minneapolis, Minn.; Grand Treas., Julius Berliner; Grand Sec, Geo. W. Leisersohn, 266 Grand; Counsel to the Order, H. M. Goldfogle, N. Y. C. ORDER KNIGHTS OF JOSEPH Org. Feb. 14, 1896. OFFICE: 1022-28 Engineers Bank Bldg., Cleveland, O. Twenty-sixth Convention, 1924, Chicago, 111. Members, 10,587. Lodges, 68. 324 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK OFFICERS: Supreme Commander, Sam Spitzer, Chicago, 111.; First Supreme Vice-Commander, R. Shatz, Phila., Pa.; Second Supreme Vice-Commander, J. Lowenheim, St. Louis, Mo.? Third Supreme Vice-Commander, Asher Goldfine, Chicago, 111.; Supreme Sec, D. J. Zinner, Cleveland, O.; Supreme Treas., Jos. C. Bloch, Cleveland, O.; Endowment Treas., Henry A. Rocker, Cleveland, O. ORDER SONS OF ZION Org. Apr. 19, 1908. OFFICE: 44 E. 23d, New York City. Sixteenth Annual Convention, June 21-22, 1925, Newark, N. J. Camps, 101. Members, 7,000. PURPOSE: Fraternal and Zionistic. OFFICERS: Nasi, Sol. Freedland; Segan Rishon, Abr. Goldberg; Segan Sheni, Louis Hochberg; Gisbor, Max Fanwick; Maskir, Jacob Ish-Kishor; Counsel, Samuel Weinstein; Chief Medical Examiner, Solomon Neuman. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: H. Abramowitz, H. J. Abramson, N. Abramson, M. Alpert, J. I. Bluestone, S. Chansky, N. Chasan, Benjamin Fine, S. Finestone, S. Hein, M. Herbst, L. Kehlman, M. Kessler, Moses Littwin, H. Milgrim, Louis Rimsky, J. S. Strahl, M. Weinerman, M. Werbelowsky, H. Wertzheimer. ORDER OF THE UNITED HEBREW BROTHERS Org. Nov. 15, 1915. OFFICE: World Exchange Bank Bldg., 174 2nd Av., New York City. Quinquennial Convention, Oct. 18, 1925, New York City. Members, 9,309. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Meyer Greenberg, 99 Nassau; Vice- Grand Master, Samuel Hirsh; First Deputy Grand Master, Alb. Halle; Grand Treas., Philip Adler; Grand Sec, Kallman Flus, 174 2nd Av., N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Philip Adler, M. Barrash, J. Brown, J. Cassell, Sam Cohen, D. Gerber, D. Goldman, L. Goldstein, Alb. Halle, M. Jacobs, Arthur F. Kallman, M. Klein, Solomon Mayfer, August Mayer, E. Obst, Joseph Mittelman, M. Perlstein, J. Rosenberg, H. Sachs, M. Schall, O. Schall, Henry Siedner, Pincus Silberstein, S. O. Sobel, J. Spiro. O.R.T. Org. 1922. OFFICE: 31 Union Square, New York City. PURPOSE: Promotion of technical trades and agriculture among the Jews in Eastern Europe. OFFICERS: Hon. Pres., Adolph Lewisohn; Vice-Pres., James H. Becker, Mrs. Alexander Kohut, Jacob Panken, Otto A. Rosalsky, Morris Wolf. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 325 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Herman Bernstein, Henry Moskowitz, B. C. Vladeck, Arthur I. Wolf. PALESTINE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL Org. 1921. OFFICE: 27 William, New York City. PURPOSE : The social and economic development of Palestine through the creation of business corporations. OFFICERS: Hon. Chairman, Louis D. Brandeis, Washington, D. C; Chairman, Julian W. Mack, Woolworth Bldg., N. Y. C ; Treas., Julius Simon, N. Y. C.;Sec, Nathan Straus, Jr., 119 Fifth Av., N. Y. C. TRUSTEES: F. Julius Fohs, Harry Fischel, Bernard Flexner, Leon Kamaiky, L. C. Lowenstein, Julius Simon, Lewis L. Strauss, Jr., Nathan Straus, Jr. PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY Org. 1914. OFFICE: 916-918 Munsey Bldg., Baltimore, Md. Annual Convention, Dec. 30, 1925-Jan. 1, 1926, Washington, D. C. Chapters, 16. Members, 700. PURPOSE: Jewish student fraternal relationships in certain American Colleges and Universities where established. OFFICERS: Pres., Simon W. Levitan, Phila., Pa.; Vice-Pres., Jos. I. Shrebnik, New Haven, Conn.; Treas., Louis Rosenberg, Washington, D. C; Sec, Alexander Goodman, 918 Munsey Bldg., Baltimore, Md.; Sergeant-at-Arms, Geo. Epstein, Worcester, Mass.; Editor, Samuel M. Dodek, Phila., Pa. SUPREME BOARD: Charles Bassecher, Washington, D. C; Harry Berman, Baltimore, Md.; Joseph Bernstein, Baltimore, Md.; David Davis, Washington, D. C; Ellis Levin, Baltimore, Md.; Edward Lewis, Washington, D. C; Sam H. Platcow, New Haven, Conn.; Reuben Schmidt, Wilmington, Del. PHI BETA DELTA FRATERNITY Org. 1912. OFFICE: New York City. Annual Convention, Dec. 31, 1925-Jan. 2, 1926, Philadelphia, Pa. Members, 1,200. Chapters, 25. OFFICERS: Pres., William Biederman, N. Y. C ; Vice-Pres., Jos. L. Nathanson, Minneapolis, Minn.; Isidore H. Schweidel, Phila., Pa.; Treas., Ira A. Schur, N. Y. C; Sec, Will N. Scnleicher, N. Y. C; Historian, Samuel J. Schur, N. Y. C. NATIONAL COUNCIL: The Officers, and Isaac Mark, Jr., N. Y. C; Arthur Stollmack, Stanford University, Cal.; Wm. Zeckendorf, N. Y. C. THE PHI BETA FRATERNITY Org. 1920. OFFICE: 2161-71st, Brooklyn, N. Y. Sixth Annual Convention, Sept. 1-5, 1925, New Britain, Conn. Chapters, 15. 326 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Members, 275. PURPOSE : A national Jewish fraternity with chapters located in high and preparatory schools, for boys meeting for educational, social and fraternal purposes. OFFICERS: Hon. Grand Superior, Louis D. Shapiro, Philadelpnia, Pa.; Grand Superior, Abe Rosenthal, Rochester, N. Y.; Grand Vice-Superior, Jack Rottner, Hartford, Conn.; Grand Sec, Moe Rosenthal, 2161-71st Brooklyn, N. Y.; Grand Treas., Milton M. Sodafsky, Phila., Pa.; Grand Marshall, Martin Crossman, Pnila., Pa. PHI EPSILON PI FRATERNITY Org. 1902. OFFICE: 918 North American Bldg., Philadelphia. Pa. Convention, Dec, 28-31, 1925, Atlanta, Ga. Convention, Dec. 28-31, 1926, Chicago, 111. Members, 2,000. PURPOSE: College Fraternities. OFFICERS: Grand Superior, Edward Davis, Philadelphia, Pa.; Vice- Superiors, Ben Kartman, Chicago, 111.; Ben Lemisch, Phila., Pa.; E. G. Zacharias, Atlanta, Ga.; Grand Treas., Emanuel Wirkman, Philadelphia, Pa.; Grand Recorder, Jacob H. Lavenstein, 35 Adams, Petersburg, Va. PHI LAMBDA KAPPA MEDICAL FRATERNITY Org. 1907. OFFICE: 486 E. 4th, Brooklyn, N. Y. Convention, Dec. 28-30, 1925, Philadelphia, Pa. Next Convention, Dec. 27-29, 1926, New York City. Members, 700. - PURPOSE: Fraternity. OFFICERS: Grand Superior, David S. Herman, Richmond Hill, N. Y.; Grand Scribe, Irving Nachamie, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Grand Guardian Exchequer, Mark G. Kantor, N. Y. C. PHI SIGMA DELTA FRATERNITY Org. 1909. OFFICE: 13 Astor Place, New York City. Sixteenth Annual Convention, Dec, 1925, New York City. Seventeenth Annual Convention, Dec. 25, 1926, New York City. Members, 1,600. PURPOSE: Promote brotherhood, friendship, good-fellowship, and good character. OFFICERS: Pres., Edward Weinfeld; Vice-Pres., A. Leigh Robbins; Treas., Murray Ellman; Sec, Julius B. Sheftel. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Benjamin Etler, Jacob Frank, S. A. Isaacson, Bernard Lichtenberg, Herbert K. Minsky, Felix Rosenstock. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 327 PHI SIGMA EPSILON FRATERNITY OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Org. 1910. OFFICE: 232 S. Michigan, South Bend, Ind. Annual Convention, Dec. 26-28, 1925, Chicago, 111. Next Convention, Dec. 26-29, 1926, Detroit, Mich. Members, 135. PURPOSE: A Social and Philanthropic Organization. OFFICERS: Grand Pres., A. L. Jonas, Knox, Ind.; Grand Vice-Pres., S. H. Rubiner, Detroit, Mich.; Grand Treas., D. Biller, St. Louis, Mo.; Grand Sec, S. Brazy, South Bend, Ind. PI TAU PI FRATERNITY Org. Jan., 1909. Fourteenth Annual Conclave, Dec. 27-30, 1925, Omaha, Nebr. Members. 600. Chapters, 30. PURPOSE: TO bring into closer relation and promote sociability among the Jewish young men of the country and to aid the less fortunate. OFFICERS: Pres., E. Harry Austerlitz, N. Y. C; Vice-Pres., Leslie Burkenroad, Omaha, Nebr.; Treas., Victor Hexter, Memphis, Tenn.; Sec, Albert Auer, 4904 McPherson Av., St. Louis, Mo.; Editor, Roy G. Rosenthal, Montesano, Wash.; Historian, Walter Schwam, Baton Rouge, La.; Chaplain, Max Block, Omaha, Nebr.; Junior Counsellor, Mortimer Goldsmith, Newark, N. J. PROGRESSIVE ORDER OF THE WEST Org. Feb. 13, 1896. OFFICE: 406-7-8 Frisco Bldg., 9th and Olive, St. Louis, Mo. Convention, July 26-28, 1925, Kansas City, Mo. Members, 11,874. OFFICERS: Grand Master, Samuel A. Epstein, Chicago, 111.; First Vice-Grand Master, Carl Dubinsky, St. Louis, Mo.; Second Vice-Grand Master, Morris Klein, Chicago, 111.; Third Vice-Grand Master, Israel Beck, Union Hill, N. J.; Fourth Vice-Grand Master, Samuel Ratner,- Philadelphia, Pa.; Fifth Vice-Grand Master, Wm. Fortas, Memphis, Tenn.; Sixth Vice-Grand Master, Jacob Goldberg, Milwaukee, Wis.; Seventh Vice-Grand Master, Samuel D. Frey, Syracuse, N. Y.; Eighth Vice-Grand Master, Lee A. Berlinsky, Washington, D. C ; Ninth Vice- Grand Master, Jacob Jacobs, Ft. Worth, Tex.; Tenth Vice-Grand Master, Gabriel Hament, Baltimore, Md.; Eleventh Vice-Grand Master, Adolph Pucker, Kansas City, Mo.; Grand Sec, Morris Shapiro, St. Louis, Mo.; Grand Treas., Isadore D. Goldberg, St. Louis, Mo.; Endowment Treas., Samuel Kronsberg, St. Louis, Mo.; Grand Counsellor, Harry Felberbaum, St. Louis, Mo.; Grand Medical Examiner, J. G. Probstein, St. Louis, Mo. 328 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK RABBI ISAAC ELCHANAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Org. 1896. OFFICE: 301-3 E. Broadway, New York City. Incorporated in State of New York. Invested funds about, $600,000. Library: Printed volumes, 11,000; manuscripts, small collection. Commencement, March 7, 1926. Graduates, 1926, Rabbinical course, 19; Teachers, 18. Entire number of graduates, Rabbinical course, 102. PURPOSE: TO disseminate Jewish knowledge and to train rabbis and teachers. OFFICERS: Pres., Nathan Lamport; Treas., M. Gottesman. FACULTY: Pres., B. Revel, M.A.Ph.D. (Dropsie College); Instructors of Talmud, B. Aronowitz; A. Burrack; J. Levine; S. Oleshefsky; M.. Paleyeff; S. Polatcheck; S. Rakofsky; J. Weill; Asst. Prof, of Homiletics, Herbert S. Goldstein, M.A. (Columbia); Asst. Prof, of Bible, J. Kaplan, M.A. (Columbia); Asst. Prof, of Hebrew, Ph. Churgin, Ph.D. (Yale); Professor of Jewish History, Solomon Zeitlin, Ph.D. (Dropsie College), M.A. (Columbia); Lecturer in Jewish Philosophy, Isaac Husik, M. A., Ph.D., LL.B. (Penn.); Lecturer in Modern Jewish History, P. Wiernik. LIBRARY STAFF:Acting Librarian, S. Gandz, Ph.D. (Vienna). REGISTRAR: Samuel L. Sar. RHO PI PHI FRATERNITY, INC. Org. 1912. Annual Convention, July, 1925, New York City. Members, 1,000. Chapters, 11. PURPOSE: Students of Pharmacy. To raise the standard and dignity of the profession scientifically and socially. OFFICERS: Sup. Councillor, Simon Cramer, Rochester, N. Y.; Vice- Sup. Councillor, Harry Rosenblatt, N. Y. C ; Fin. Sec. Harold Verman, 42 West Park Place, Woonsocket, R. I. SEPHARADIC BROTHERHOOD OF AMERICA, INC. Org. 1921. OFFICE: 83 E. 1,16th, New York City. Members, 900. PURPOSE : To promote the industrial, social, educational and religious welfare of its members and to engage in philanthropic endeavors for the welfare of Sepharadic immigrants. OFFICERS: Pres., Hyman Nadjary, 83 E. 116th St., New York City; Vice-Pres., Joseph Saltiel; Treas., Edward Besso; Fin. Sec, Bension Grottas; Rec. Sec, Leon Saady. CENTRAL COUNCIL: Ab. Cohen, Leon Saady, Bension Grottas, Albert Levy, Uriel Angel, Aron Pardo, Manuel Pardo, Isie Pardo, Ab. Saltiel, Elie Saporta, Sam Ergas, Daniel Botton, Raphael Hasson, Hyman Nadjary, Joseph Saltiel, Sam Benrubi, Edward Besso, Victor JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 329 Cohen, Meshulam Aroyo, Isidor Camhi, Henry Perahia, Isaac Nahum, Elie Saltiel, Louis Matalon, Albert Nathan. SIGMA ALPHA MU FRATERNITY Org. Nov. 26, 1909. OFFICE: 15 Park Row, New York City. Sixteenth Annual Convention, Dec. 28, 1925-Jan. 1, 1926, Philadelphia, Pa. Chapters: Undergraduates, 29; Alumni Clubs, 25. Members, 2,100. PURPOSE: Greek-letter College Fraternity for Jewish students. OFFICERS: Pres., S. S. Amdursky; Vice-Pres., John Barsha; Treas., H. I. Jacobson; Sec, Robt. Borsuk. DIRECTORS: The Officers, and Victor H. Blanc, Philip D. Bookstaber, B. P. Goldman, Joel Korn. SIGMA EPSILON DELTA FRATERNITY Org. 1901. OFFICE: 292 New York Av., Brooklyn, N. Y. Convention, March 11, 1925, New York City. Next Convention, April 2, 1926, New York City. Members, 700. PURPOSE: TO promote the highest excellence in the science and art of dentistry and its collateral branches; to bring about a closer acquaintance among the student body and graduates through fraternal co-operation. OFFICERS: Grand Master, J. A. Boley, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Grand Chaplain, Leonard S. Blumberg, Phila., Pa.; Grand Scribe, Leo Tanzer, 305 E. 86th, N. Y. C ; Grand Treas., D. M. Arkin, N. Y. C; Grand Historian, A. V. Greenstein, N. Y. C. *SIGMA LAMBDA PI FRATERNITY Org. 1912. OFFICE: 303 Fifth Av,, New York City. *SIGMA THETA PI SORORITY Org. 1909. OFFICE: Goucher College (Box 257), Baltimore, Md. *TAU DELTA PHI FRATERNITY Org. 1910. OFFICE: 604 W. 114th, New York City. •Revised information was not furnished upon request. For latest official data on these organizations, see THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, Vol. 27. 330 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK TAU EPSILON PHI FRATERNITY Org. Oct. 19, 1910, Inc., 1917. OFFICE: 618 W. 113th, New York City. Next Convention, Dec. 26-30, 1926, Washington, D. C. Chapters, 25 Undergraduate; 4 Alumni. Members, 1,500. PURPOSE: TO foster the spirit of true brotherly love and self-sacrifice. OFFICERS: Consul, Joseph Bower; Vice-Consul, M. R. Perlman; Quaestor, L. S. Lebenthal; Tribune, Julius Samkoff; Annotator, M. Prenner; Praetor Supreme, T. E. Runsdorf; Editor, Arthur B. Edison. TAU EPSILON RHO FRATERNITY Org. 1919. OFFICE: 214 Society for Savings Bldg., Cleveland, O. Annual Convention, Jan. 9-11, 1926, Cleveland, O. Chapters, 2; Undergraduate chapters, 5. Members, 135. PURPOSE: Legal Fraternity with undergraduate chapters in accredited day law-schools and graduate chapters in cities. OFFICERS: Supreme Chancellor, Manuel Levine, Cleveland, O.; Supreme Vice-Chancellor, Jerome W. Moss, Cleveland, O.; Supreme Master of the Rolls and Bursar, Baruch A. Feldman, Cleveland O.; Supreme Historian, Edward Davidson, Cleveland, O.; Supreme Scholar, Francis Finkelhor, N. Y. C ; Supreme Pledgor, Harry Epstein, Cleveland, O. SUPREME COUNCIL: Baruch A. Feldman, Maxwell Kahaner, Manuel Levine, Edward Lurie, Jerome W. Moss, jack A. Persky. TRAINING SCHOOL FOR JEWISH SOCIAL WORK Org. 1925. OFFICE: 210 W. 91st, New York City. Members, 25. OFFICERS: Pres., Julius Rosenwald, Chicago, 111.; Vice-Pres., Lee K. Frankel, Louis E. Kirstein; Treas., I. Edwin Goldwasser; Sec, Solomon Lowenstein; Dir. M. J. Karpf. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Chairman, Felix M. Warburg, N. Y. C; and Cyrus Adler, Phila., Pa.; Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, N. Y. C; A. Richard Frank, Chicago, III.; Mrs. Siegmund Herzog, Cleveland, O.; Moses J. Stroock, N. Y. C. UNION OF AMERICAN HEBREW CONGREGATIONS Org. 1873. OFFICE: Cincinnati, O. Twenty-ninth Council, January, 1925, New York City. Thirtieth Council, January, 1927, Cleveland, O. Members: 278 congregations. PURPOSE: TO maintain the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, O., an institution for educating rabbis; to promote religious instruction and encourage the study of the tenets and history of Judaism. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 331 Four Departments: I. Executive and Financial: Hon. Pres., Charles Shohl, Cincinnati, O.; II. Board of Finance: Chairman, David A. Brown, Detroit, Mich.; III. Hebrew Union College: Chairman Board of Governors, Alfred M. Cohen, Cincinnati, O.; Julian Morgenstern, President, Cincinnati, O.; IV. Board of Managers of Synagog and School Extension: Chairman, Julius Freiberg; Director, George Zepin, Cincinnati, O. EXECUTIVE BOARD FOR 1926: Chairman of Exec. Bd., Ludwig Vogelstein, N. Y. C ; Hon. Pres., Charles Shohl, Cincinnati, O.; Vice- Pres., Julius Rosenwald, Chicago, 111.; Marcus Rauh, Pittsburgh, Pa; Maurice D. Rosenberg, Washington, D. C; Jacob W. Mack, Cincinnati, O.; Sec., George Zepin; Asst. Sec, Jacob D. Schwarz,Merchants' Bldg., Cincinnati, O.; Marcus Aaron, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Ben Altheimer, N. Y. C; N. Henry Beckman, Cincinnati, O.; Isaac W. Bernheim, Louisville, Ky.; David A. Brown, Detroit, Mich.; Fdgar M. Cahn, New Orleans, La.; Alfred M. Cohen, Cincinnati, O.; Henry Cohen, Galveston, Tex.; Josiah Cohen, Pittsburgh, Pa.; David W. Edelman, Los Angeles, Cal.; Gustave A. Efroymson, Indianapolis, Ind.; Arnold Falk, New Orleans, La.; Lee K. Frankel, N. Y. C ; Julius W. Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Mrs. J. Walter Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Isaac Gilbert, Detroit, Mich.; Samuel H. Goldenson, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Robert P. Goldman, Cincinnati, O.; Simeon M. Johnson, Cincinnati, O.; Adolf Kraus, Chicago, 111.; Ben Lowenstein, Cleveland, O.; Henry L. Mayer, San Francisco, Cal.; Edwin B. Meissner, St. Louis, Mo.; Nathan J. Miller, N. Y. C; Julian Morgenstern, Cincinnati, 0.; Henry Morgenthau, N. Y. C ; Adolph I. Newman, Cleveland, O.; Adolpn S. Ochs, N. Y. C; Herbert C. Oettinger, Cincinnati, 0.; Henry Oppenheimer, Baltimore, Md.; William Ornstein, Cincinnati, 0.; Carl E. Pritz, Cincinnati, O.; Simon W. Rosendale, Albany, N. Y.; A. L. Saltzstein, Milwaukee, Wis.; Louis Schlesinger, Newark, N. J.; Meier Steinbrink, Brooklyn N. Y.; Horace Stern, Phila., Pa.; Jos. Stolz, Chicago, 111.; Roger W. Straus, N. Y. C ; Samuel Straus, Cincinnati, O.; Arthur Hays Sulzberger, N. Y. C; I. Newton Trager, Cincinnati, 0.; Isaac M. Ullman, New Haven, Conn.; Felix Vorenberg, Boston, Mass.; Aaron Waldheim, St. Louis, Mo.; A. Leo Weil, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Herman Wile, Buffalo, N. Y.; Albert Wolf, Phila., Pa.; Adolphe Wolfe, Portland, Ore.; Louis Wolsey, Phila., Pa.; Wm. B. Woolner, Peoria, 111. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE HEBREW UNION COLLEGE FOR 1926: Chairman, Alfred M. Cohen, Cincinnati, O.; Vice-Pres., Maurice J. Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Sec, Isaac Bloom, Cincinnati, O.; Asst. Sec, Benj. Mielziner, Cincinnati, 0.; Marcus Aaron, Pittsburgh, Pa.; James H. Becker, Chicago, 111.; Oscar Berman, Cincinnati, O.; David M. Bressler, N. Y. C; Harry W. Ettelson, Memphis, Tenn., Albert Freiberg, Cincinnati, 0.; A. B. Frey, St. Louis, Mo.; Jacob S. Goldbaum, Philadelphia, Pa.; Moses E. Greenebaum, Chicago, 111.; Joseph H. Hagedorn, Phila., Pa.; James G. Heller, Cincinnati, O.; Harry M. Hoffheimer, Cincinnati, O.; Meyer Jacobstein, Rochester, N. Y.; Simon 332 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Lazarus, Columbus, O.; Lee J. Loventhal, Nashville, Tenn.; Ralph W. Mack, Cincinnati, O.; Louis L. Mann, Chicago, 111.; Isaac E. Marcuson, Atlanta, Ga.; Leslie V. Marks, Cincinnati, O.; David Philipson, Cincinnati, O.; Carl E. Pritr, Cincinnati, O.; Wm. Rosenau, Baltimore, Md.; Murray Seasorigood, Cincinnati, O.; Abba H. Silver, Cleveland, O.; Abram Simon, Washington, D. C; Henry Wineman, Detroit, Mich.; Jonah B. Wise, N. Y. C; Louis Witt, St. Louis, Mo. BOARD OF MANAGERS OF SYNAGOG AND SCHOOL EXTENSION FOR 1926: Chairman, Julius W. Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.; Vice-Chairman, Jacob W. Mack, Cincinnati, O.; Director, George Zepin; Asst. Director, Louis I. Egelson; Educ. Director, Emanuel Gamoran, Merchants' Bldg., Cincinnati, 0.; Field Reg., Michael Aaronsohn, Cincinnati, O.; Milton M. Alexander, Detroit, Mich.; Dave Davidson, Sioux City, la.; Benj. M. Engelhard, Chicago, 111.; Morris Feuerlicht, Indianapolis, Ind.; Leo M. Franklin, Detroit, Mich.; Solomon B. Freehof, Chicago, 111.; Ephraim Frisch, San Antonio, Tex.; Geo. A. Gershon, Atlanta, Ga.; Simeon M. Johnson, Cincinnati, 0.; Leon Juda, San Francisco, Cal.; Sol.S. Kiser, Indianapolis, Ind.; Samuel Koch, Seattle, Wash.; Jos. Kornfield, Toledo, 0.; David Lefkowitz, Dallas, Tex.; Abr. Lewenthal, Cleveland, O.; Eugene Mannheimer, Des Moines, la.; Nathan J. Miller, N. Y. C ; Samuel M. Newburger, N. Y. C ; Herbert C. Oettinger, Cincinnati, 0.; J. Robert Orton, Cincinnati, O.; Joseph Rauh, Louisville, Ky.; Julian S. Rauh, Cincinnati, 0.; Al. A. Rosenbush, Boston, Mass.; Joseph Schonthal, Columbus, O.; Albert Steindler, Chicago, 111.; Aaron Straus, Baltimore, Md.; Abr. J. Sunstein, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Henry M. Toch, N. Y. C; Herman Wile, Buffalo, N. Y. HEBREW UNION COLLEGE: Incorporated, Cincinnati, O. Volumes in Library over 75,000. Faculty: Julian Morgenstern, Ph.D., President and Professor of Bible and Semitic Languages; Louis Grossmann, D.D., D.H.L., Professor Emeritus of Ethics and Pedagogy; Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Ph.D., Professor of Talmud; Moses Buttenwieser, Ph.D., D.H.L., Professor of Biblical Exegesis; Henry Englander, Ph.D., Registrar and Professor of Biblical Exegesis; Jacob R. Marcus, B. A., Instructor in Bible and Rabbinics; Jacob Mann, D.Lit., Professor of Jewish History; Israel Bettan, D.D., Professor of Homiletics and Midrash; Abraham Cronbach, D.D., Professor of Social Studies; Samuel S. Cohon, B.A., Professor of Jewish Theology; Abraham Z. Idelsohn, Ph.D., Professor of Jewish Music; Solomon B. Finesinger, Ph.D., Instructor in Hebrew; Sheldon H. Blank, Ph.D., Instructor in Hebrew and Bible. Special Instructors: David Philipson, D.D., LL.D., Lecturer on History of the Reform Movement and the Activities of the Rabbi; Cora Kahn, Elocution. Corresponding Members of the Faculty: Aaron Hahn (1887), David Davidson (1892), Israel Abrahams (1912), Adolph S. Oko Librarian. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 333 UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA Org. June 8, 1898. OFFICE: 131 W. 86th, New York City. Twenty-seventh Annual Convention, Oct. 24-26, 1925, New York City. OFFICERS: Hon. Pres., Bernard Drachman, H. Pereira Mendes, Julius J. Dukas, N. Y. C ; Pres., Herbert S. Goldstein, N. Y. C; Vice- Pres., Philip Klein*, Leo Jung, N. Taylor Phillips, N. Y. C; Samuel Feuerstein, Boston, Mass.; Israel Gomborov, Baltimore, Md.; Treas., M. Boas Lande, N. Y. C ; Exec. Sec, M. Shuchatowitz. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (From New York): S. Bayer, Isidore Brody, Joseph H. Cohen, C. Joshua Epstein, Harry Fischel, Wm. Fischman, Samuel Friedman, Harry Fromberg, L. S. Furman, Abraham Goldstein, A. L. Goldstein, Mendel Gottesman, Louis Gutman, Jacob Hecht, Max Herskovitz, Samuel H. Hofstadter, Philip Jaches, Nathan Lamport, Abraham Levy, K. Lewis, Joseph H. Lookstein, M. S. Margolies, Henry S. Morais, Joseph Polstein, David de Sola Pool, Samuel Sar, A. I. Shuchatowitz, Louis Simon, Benjamin Weberman, William Weis; I. M. Davidson, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; S. B. Friedman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Samuel Ginsburg, Chicago, 111.; Isadore Goodman, Indianapolis, Ind.; A. A. Katz, Cleveland, O.; Albert Mandelbaum, Albany, N. Y.; H. L. Rosen, Altoona, Pa.; Manes Strauss, Baltimore, Md. •Deceased. UNION OF ORTHODOX RABBIS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADA Org. Tammuz 24, 5662 (1902). OFFICE: 221 E. Broadway, New York City. Twenty-third Annual Convention, May 4-6, 1925, New York City. Members, 296. OFFICERS: Hen. Pres., B. L. Levinthal, Phila, Pa.; M. S. Margolies, N. Y. C; Presidium, I. Rosenberg, N. Y. C; L. Silver, Springfield, Mass.; B. Revel, N. Y. C; J. Konowitz, Newark, N. J.; I. Siegel, Bayonne, N. J.; Sec, J. L. Seltzer, N. Y. C; Treas., Ch. I. Bloch, Jerse\ City, N. J.; Exec. Sec, A. B. Kahan, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: S. Alishewsky, N. Y. C; A. D. Burak, Brooklyn, N. Y.; H. Dachowitz, Brooklyn, N. Y.; N. H. Ebin, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Ch. F. Epstein, Cleveland, O.; J. Eskolsky, N. Y. C; T. Geffen, Atlanta, Ga.; M. Gusik, N. Y. C; E. Inselbuch, Brooklyn, N. Y.; J. M. Kahan, N. Y. C ; I. A. Kriger, Boston, Mass.; J. Levinson, Brooklyn, N. Y.; J. H. Levenberg, New Haven, Conn.; S. A. Pardes, N. Y. C; A. S. Pfeffer, N. Y. C; S. Polachek, Brooklyn, N. Y.; L. Predmesky, N. Y. C ; L. M. Preil, Elizabeth, N. J.; N. H. Riff, Camden, N. J.; P. Rimalt, N. Y. C; J. Rosen, Passaic, N. J.; I. S. Rubinstein, Providence, R. I.; A. I. Salmenowitz, Brooklyn, N. Y.; A. I. Shuch334 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK atowitz, N. Y. C ; I. Siegal, Bayonne, N. J.; J. Silman, N. Y. C ; M. S. Sivitz, Pittsburgh, Pa.; M. B. Tomashoff, Brooklyn, N. Y.; A. A. Yudelowitz, N. Y. C; H. Cohen, Montreal, Can.; J. L. Grubard, Toronto, Can. UNITED ORDER "TRUE SISTERS" Org. Apr. 1846, as Independent Order of True Sisters. OFFICE: 309 W. 109th, New York City. Seventy-fifth Annual Convention of the Grand Lodge, Dec, 1925, New York City. Lodges, 32. Members, 11,100. Publishes a monthly, The Echo, editor, Mrs. Esther Davis. OFFICERS (For December, 1925, to December, 1927): Grand Monitress, Mrs. Julia Levy; Grand Pres., Mrs. Juliet B. Howard; Grand Vice-Pres., Mrs. Amelia Oppenheimer; Mrs. Henriette Prinstein; Grand Sec, Mrs. Rose Baran; Grand Financial Sec, Mrs. Flora H. Fish; Grand Treas., Mrs. L. Schwarzkopf; Grand Mentor, Mrs. Rose Deutschberger; Grand Warden, Mrs. Martha Gould. UNITED ROUMANIAN JEWS OF AMERICA (Amalgamation of Federation of Roumanian Jews of America and the American Union of Roumanian Jews) OFFICE: 799 Broadway, New York City. Sixteenth Annual Convention: Jan. 4, 1925, New York City. PURPOSE: TO further, defend and protect the interests of the Jews in Roumania, to work for their civic and political emancipation and for their economic reconstruction and rehabilitation, and to represent and further the interests of the Roumanian Jews in the United States and Canada. OFFICERS: Pres., LeoWolfson; Vice-Pres., Jacob Braunstein, Peter Ferester, Leon Fisher, Edward Herbert, Abraham Hirsh; Treas., Haimi Haimowitz; Sec, Herman Speier. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Louis Aronowitz, Bertha Bookstaber, H. Bookstaber, A. D. Braham, J. E. Braunstein, Leon Burkes, Bernard Carneol, Louis Davidovitz, Yetta Davidson, Louis Diamant, Louis Eckstein, Henry Eiser, N. Engelhardt, Abraham Falick, S. Farb, Sam M. Feinblatt, Chas. I. Fleck, Isidore Goldenberg, Morris Graubard, Solomon Greenberg, A. Guttman, Jos. Haimowitz, Chas. Jankowitz, Chas. Kalmanowitz, Samuel Kanter, Julius Klepper, Louis Klinger, Newman Kovler, Elsie Kramer, Simon Kramer, Simon Letzler, Isaac Lippman, David Lonshein, Solomon Marcus, Rose Markowitz, H. Meyer, Solomon Mutterperl, Max Ornstein, Dora Pollock, Joseph Rauchbach, Leon Rosenthal, Irving Sand, Morris Schechter, M. Schonfeld, Leon Schwartz, Sam Schwartz, S. Seilikowitz, Jacob JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 335 Segal, M. Silverman, S. R. Silverman, Albert Smilowitz, Benjamin Stein, Edward Stein, Joseph Weiner, Louis Weiss. UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA Org. Feb. 23, 1913. OFFICE: 531 W. 123d, New York City. Thirteenth Annual Convention, May 3-5, 1925, Atlantic City, N. J. Fourteenth Annual Convention, April 18-21, 1926, Baltimore, Md. PURPOSE : The promotion of traditional Judaism in America. FOUNDER: Solomon Schecther. OFFICERS: Pres., Elias L. Solomon, N. Y. C ; Vice-Pres., Louis Ginzberg, N. Y. C; Herman Abramowitz, Montreal, Can.; Jacob Kohn, N. Y. C; Charles E. H. Kauvar, Denver, Colo.; Rec. Sec, S. Herbert Golden, N. Y. C; Cor. Sec, Chas. I. Hoffman, 624 High, Newark, N. J.; Treas., Win, Prager; Executive Director, Samuel M. Cohen, N. Y. C ; Educ. Dir., Jacob Grossman. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: The Officers, and Cyrus Adler, Phila., Pa.; Mrs. Cyrus Adler, Phila., Pa.; Maurice Avner, Pittsburgh, Pa.; A. B. Cohen, Scranton, Pa.; Lyon Cohen, Montreal, Can.; Israel Davidson, N. Y. C; Max Drob, N. Y. C; Louis M. Epstein, Boston, Mass.; Milton Fleischer, Baltimore, Md.; M. B. Freedman, Cleveland, O.; Solomon Goldman, Cleveland, O.; Israel Goldstein, N. Y. C; Meyer Goodfriend, N. Y. C ; Julius H. Greenstone, Phila., Pa.; Henry Gross, Newark, N. J.; Abr. E. Halpern, St. Louis, Mo.; A. M. Hershman, Detroit, Mich.; M. M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Max D. Klein, Phila., Pa.; Mrs. Jacob Kohn, N. Y. C ; Moses Kreeger, Chicago, 111.; Arthur M. Lamport, N. Y. C; D. A. Lourie, Boston, Mass.; Elias Margolis, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; Alexander Marx, N. Y. C; A. A. Neuman, Phila, Pa.; Nathan Pinanski, Boston, Mass.; Chas. Polakoff, Buffalo, N. Y.; Herman H. Rubenovitz, Boston, Mass.; Michael Salit, Far Rockaway, N.Y.; J. H. Schanfeld, Minneapolis, Minn.; Ignace Schwartz, Youngstown, O.; M. D. Shanman, Cleveland, O.; Louis Shulman, Rochester, N. Y.; Mrs. Samuel Spiegel, N. Y. C ; David Steckler, N. Y. C ; David Tannenbaum, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Alexander U. Zinke, N. Y. C. UPSILON LAMBDA PHI FRATERNITY Org. 1916; Inc. 1917. OFFICE: 271 Main Ave., Passaic, N. J. Ninth Annual Convention, Aug., 1925, Hartford, Conn. Chapters, 30. Members, 1,034. PURPOSE: An International Fraternity laying particular stress on Judaism, open to male students of the Jewish faith in the high and preparatory schools, with the purpose of uniting them socially and fraternally. . OFFICERS: Master Ulp, Milton Hammer, Hartford, Conn.; Deputy Master Ulp, David Kaufman, Baltimore, Md.; Fin. Ulp, Joseph First, Phila., Pa.; Sec. Ulp, J. Bernard Saltzman, 271 Main Av., Passaic, N. J. 336 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK GOVERNING BODY: The Officers, Ben Cummings, Montreal, Can.; Maurice S. Maurer, Newark, N. J.; Jerome Proper, Baltimore, Md. GRAND COUNCIL: The Executive Board, and a delegate from each Chapter. WOMEN'S BRANCH OF THE UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA (Affiliated with the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America) Org. Apr. 19, 1924. OFFICE: 131 W 86th, New York City. PURPOSE: The intensification and furtherance of Orthodox Judaism in the home, the religious school, amongst students in institutions of higher learning, and the field of social service work. Also supervision of the dormitory of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. OFFICERS: Pres., Mrs. Herbert S. Goldstein; Hon. Vice-Pres., Mrs. Joseph Mayer Asher, Mrs. Moses Hyamson, Mrs. Philip Klein,* Mrs. N. Taylor Phillips, Mrs. Isadore Freedman, Mrs. Mark Hurewitz, Mrs. Leo Jung, Mrs. Abraham Levitan, Mrs. Jacob Rabinowitz; Treas., Mrs. Adolph Schwarcz; Sec, Mrs. Edwin Kaufman. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Mrs. Samuel B. Cooperman, Mrs. Jacob A. Dolgenas, Mrs. Julius Dukas, Mrs. C. J. Epstein, Mrs. Harry Fischel, Mrs. Win, Fischman, Mrs. Max Friedman, Mrs. Elias Friedrich, Mrs. Leo S. Furman, Mrs. Maurice Ginsberg, Mrs. Aaron Goldstein, Mrs. Geo. Harris, Mrs. Joseph Horowitz, Mrs. Louis Horowitz, Mrs. S. A. Hartogensis, Mrs. Albert B. Joffe, Mrs. Dora Kopp, Mrs. Max S. Levine, Mrs. Abraham Levy, Sarah Lyons, Mrs. Mortimer M. Menken, Mrs. Berthold Nathansohn, Mrs. Harry Neivert, Mrs. Moritz Xeuman, Mrs. Henry Rafsky, Mrs. Bernard Revel, Mrs. Joseph Silverstein, Mrs. Elias Surut, Mrs. Gustave Szobotka, Mrs. Joseph L. Weber, Mrs. Murray M. Wycoff, all N. Y. C ; Mrs. Bernard Breitbart, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; Mrs. Harry Charnas, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; Mrs. Samuel Feuerstein, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Maurice Feinberg, Savannah, Ga.; Mrs. A. J. Freiman, Ottawa, Can'.; Mrs. Israel Gomborov, Baltimore, Md.; Mrs. Isadore Goodman, Indianapolis, Ind.; Mrs. Jack Horvitz, New Bedford, Mass.; Mrs. Isadore Klein, Arverne, L. I.; Mrs. Samuel D. Leen, New Bedford, Mass.; Mrs. Albert Lucas, Edgemere, L. I.; Mrs. Jos. Manischewitz, Cincinnati, O.; Mrs. David A. Mendoza, Pittsburgh. Pa.; Mrs. Sam'l Ordesky, Cambridge, Mass.; Mrs. Louis Sherman, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Sadie Slawsky, Albany, N Y.; Mrs. Abr. LTrevitz, Union City, N.J. •Deceased. WOMEN'S LEAGUE OF THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA Org. Jan. 21, 1918. OFFICE: 531 W. 123d, New York City. Eighth Annual Convention, May 3-5. 1925, Atlantic City, N. J. Ninth Annual Convention, April 20-21, 1926, Baltimore," Md. JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 337 PURPOSE: TO advance traditional Judaism by furthering Jewish education among women, by creating and fostering Jewish sentiment in the home, by promoting the observance of Jewish dietary laws and home ceremonials, Sabbath and Festivals, and by generally strengthening the religious institutions of the home. FOUNDER: Mrs. Solomon Schechter. OFFICERS: Pres., Mrs. Chas. I. Hoffman, Newark, N. J.; Vice- Pres., Mrs. Cyrus Adler, Phila.,'Pa.; Mrs. Ben]. Davis, Chicago, 111.; Mrs. Louis Ginzberg, N. Y. C; Mrs. Jacob Kohn, N. Y. C; Mrs. R. H. Melamed, Elizabeth, N. J.; Treas., Mrs. Louis Gottschall, N. Y. C; Rec. Sec, Mrs. Samuel Spiegel, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: Mrs. L. D. Abrams, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mrs. Jesse Bienenfeld, Syracuse, N. Y.; Mrs. Samuel M. Cohen, N. Y. C; Mrs. Emil Crockin, Baltimore, Md.; Mrs. Barnett Davis, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mrs. Edward Epstein, N. Y. C; Mrs. Louis M. Epstein, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. A. Frankle, Youngstown, O.; Mrs. A. J. Freiman, Ottawa, Can.; Mrs. Charles Goell, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mrs. Israel Goldstein, N. Y. C; Mrs. Joseph Herzog, N. Y. C ; Mrs Moses Hyamson, N. Y. C ; Mrs. M. M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Mrs..Edwin Kaufman, N. Y. C; Mrs. C. Hillel Kauvar, Denver, Colo.; Sarah Kussy, Newark, N. J.; Mrs. Morrie Lurie, N. Y. C; Mrs. Max L. Margolis, Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. Jacob Minkin, Rochester, N. Y.; Mrs. Simon Oppenheimer, Washington, D. C; Mrs. Louis Rich, Cleveland, O.; Mrs. H. H. Rubenovitz, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Michael Salit, Far Rockaway, N. Y.; Emily Solis-Cohen, Phila, Pa.; Mrs. Leon Solis-Cohen, New Rochelle, N. Y.; Mrs. A. Solomon, N. Y. C; Mrs. Elias L. Solomon, N. Y. C; Mrs. Israel Unterberg, N. Y. C; Mrs. A. H. Vixman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mrs. Leon Waldman, Chicago, 111. THE WORKMEN'S CIRCLE Org. Sep. 4, 1900. OFFICE: 175 East Broadway, New York City. Twenty-fifth Annual Convention, May 3-10, 1925, New York City. Members, 84,477. PURPOSE: Fraternal insurance and mutual aid. OFFICERS: Pres., J. N. Feinerman; Treas., S. Silverberg; Sec. Joseph Baskin. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: M. J. Ashpis, B. Aster, L. Bezahler, B. Block, M. Bruskin, N. Chanin, I. Dinnerstein, N. Draisin, E. Eberil, N. Feinerman, N. Freiman, L. Golinsky, R. Guskin, M. Haskel, S. Heiferling, S. Tacobi, H. Leen, A. Leff, B. Lilienblum, J. M. Rosenblatt, H. Roth, J. Rothman, J. Segal, A. H. Shulman, S. Silverberg, A. I. Silverman, S. Sussman, A. Wolitzky, M. G. Wolpert, A. Zucker. YOUNG JUDAEA Org. 1908. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Seventeenth Annual Convention, June 19-21, 1925, Belmar, N. J. 338 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Eighteenth Annual Convention, May 28-31, 1926, Long Branch, X. J. Number of Circles, 900. PURPOSE: TO advance the cause of Zionism; to further the mental, moral and physical development of the Jewish youth; and to promote Jewish culture and ideals in accordance with Jewish tradition. OFFICERS: Pres., David de Sola Pool; Chairman Exec. Com., Sam'l J. Borowsky, Vice-Pres., David Tannenbaum; Treas., Theodore R. Racoosin. ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE: Samuel J. Borowsky, D. Leonard Cohen, Simon Greenberg, Louis J. Gribetz, Sylvan Kohn, Emanuel Neumann, Joshua H. Neumann, David de Sola Pool, Theodore R. Racoosin, Wm. Raphael, David Tannenbaum. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Administrative Committee, and Max Arzt, Victoria Beck, Leah Bloom, A. M. Bogrowitz, Arthur J. L. Cohen, George Cohen, Miss R. Cohen, Sarah Cooperstock, Joseph Deitch, Saul Ellenbogen, Harry Golan, Ida Greenberg, Mollie Greenblatt, A. N. Heller, Herman Jacobs, Libby Jacobson, Max Kresch, Isidore Lapson, Albert A. Light, Ida Claire Lutzky, Sidney Matz, Meyer Miller, Robert Pines, David Putterman, Martha Richmond, Rachel Savage, David Schneeberg, Myron Schwartzchild, Joseph Shubow, Joseph Silverstein, Maurice Slonim, A. Tannenbaum, Jessie Weiss, Sadie Yormark. ' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LEAGUE OF THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA Org. 1921. OFFICE: 531 W. 123d, New York City. Fourth Annual Convention, Nov. 25-29, 1925, New York City. Members, 12,000. Societies, 100. PURPOSE: TO bring the Jewish youth nearer to traditional Judaism and to the Synagogue. OFFICERS: Hon. Pres., Israel Goldstein, N. Y. C; Pres., Herbert J. Roeder; Vice-Pres., Solomon Grayzel, Fred Katzner, Henry Landau, Louis Levitsky, Samuel A. Margolis, Ben B. Tunick; Treas., Henry Kass; Exec. Dir., Irving H. Fisher, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: The Officers, and Eva Baker, Boston, Mass.; Milton Berger, Philadelphia, Pa.; Max I. Cohen, N. Y. C ; Benjamin Fain, N. Y. C ; Clara Finkelstein, Syracuse, N. Y.; B. Leon Hurwitz, N. Y. C ; Jennie Jelin, New Brunswick, N. J.; Arthur Kornstern, Woonsocket, R. I.; Emanuel R. Polack, N. Y. C; Benjamin Priest, Elizabeth, N. J.; Irving S. Rapaport, N. Y. C ; Jack Sekulsky, N. Y. C ; Freda Shrobe, New Haven, Conn.; A. S. Shubow, Boston, Mass.; Alfred Wasserman, Phila., Pa.; Martha Wolf, N. Y. C. CHAIRMAN OF STANDING COMMITTEE : Maxwell Farber (Organization); Israel M. Goldman (Education); Benj. B. Tunick (Co-operation); Emanuel R. Polack, (Finance); David A. Goldstein (Speaker's Bureau); JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 339 E. Charles Sydney (Religious Observance); Jennie Jelin (Palestine); Harry S. Jacobs (Social Affairs). YOUNG POALE ZIOX Org. 1915. OFFICE: 133 Second Av., New York City. Fourth Annual Convention, Sept. 4-7, 1925, Paterson, N. J. Members, 1,200. Branches, 32. PURPOSE: Junior; Socialist and Zionist education and activities. OFFICERS: Sec, Jacob Schneider. CENTRAL COMMITTEE: S. Bonchak, Harry Brick, Joel Enteen, I. Hamlin, I. Kagan, P. Kolko, Henry Mackson, M. Rosenberg, Max Rudy, Jacob Schneider. ZETA BETA TAU FRATERNITY Org. 1898; Inc. 1907. OFFICE: 67 Wall, New York City. Twenty-seventh Annual Convention, Dec. 29-31, 1925, Montreal, Can. Members, 3,500. Ranking as an intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity with chapters in thirty-two universities and colleges, open to Jewish university men. OFFICERS: Exec. Nasi., Harry Steiner, Newark, N. J.; Supreme Sopher- (Sec), David Tannenbaum, Los Angeles, Cal.; Gisbar (Treas.), Sylvan F. Friedman, N. Y. C ; Historian, Linwood Lehman, University of Va.; Sec. of Supreme Council, George Macy, 67 Wall, N. Y. C. ZIONIST LABOR PARTY "HITACHDUT" ZEIRE ZION OF AMERICA Org. 1920. OFFICE: 425 Lafayette, New York City. Annual Convention, July 4, 1925, Philadelphia, Pa. Members, 2,000. PURPOSE: TO help in creating a Jewish free working community in Palestine and to renew the life of the Jewish people in the Diaspora on the basis of work and Hebrew culture. OFFICERS: Chairman-Treas., Irving Slonimsky, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Sec, David Rabelsky, N. Y. C. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: A. Abramowitz, N. Y. C : ChaimGreenberg, N. Y. C; Ezekiel Rabinowitz, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Kalman Weitman, Brooklyn, N. Y.; David Wertheim, Brooklyn, N. Y.; A. Zichlinsky, N. Y. C. ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA Org. 1897; Re-org. 1918. OFFICE: 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Twenty-eighth Annual Convention, June 28-30, 1925, Washington, D. C. 340 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Twenty-ninth Annual Convention, June 27-29, 1926, Buffalo, X. Y. Members, 40,000. Central Fund, Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund). Constituent Organizations: Hadassah, Order Sons of Zion, Young Judaea, American Zion Commonwealth, Inc. PUBLICATIONS: The New Palestine, a weekly for members, in English, Dos Yiddishe Folk, a weekly in Yiddish; Hatoren, a monthly, in Hebrew; Young Judean, a monthly for the Jewish youth, in English. OFFICERS: Chairman, Louis Lipsky, N. Y. C ; Hon. Vice-Chairmen, Reuben Brainin, N. Y. C ; Hirsch Masliansky, N. Y. C ; Vice-Chairmen, Bernard A. Rosenblatt, N. Y. C; Max Shulman, Chicago, 111.; A. H. Silver, Cleveland, O.; Henrietta Szold, N. Y. C; Treas., Isaac Meister, N. Y. C ; Assoc. Treas., Harry P. Fierst, N. Y. C ; Sec, Meyer W. Weisgal, N. Y. C. ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE: Herman Conheim, Jacob Fishman, Sol. Friedland, Abr. Goldberg, Boris Grabelsky, Emanuel Neumann, S. J. Rosensohn, Morris Rothenberg, Maurice Samuel, S. J. Weinstein, N. Y. C ; Louis Topkis, Wilmington, Del. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Joseph Barondess, N. Y. C; S. Bernstein, N. Y. C ; Samuel J. Borowsky, N. Y. C; Louis Braines, Perth Amboy, N. J.; Isaac Carmel, N. Y. C ; A. B. Cohen, Scranton, Pa.: S. J. Cohen, Phila., Pa.; Max Conheim, Chicago ,111.; A Coralnik, N. Y. C.; Bernard Crausman, N. Y. C; M. S. Dunn, New Britain, Conn.; N. H.Ebin, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Max Efros, Cleveland, O.; J. H. Ehrlich, Detroit, Mich.; Henry J. Eiser, Brooklyn, N. Y.; MaxFenwick, X. Y.C.; Harry M. Fisher, Chicago, 111.; Mrs. Sadie Frankel, Phila., Pa.; Pearl Franklin, Chicago, 111.; Louis Freed, Houston, Tex.; A. J. Friedman, Cincinnati, O.; A. H. Fromenson, N. Y. C; J. Gabrieli, Jersey City, X. T-: Jacob Ginsburg, Philadelphia, Pa.; Israel Goldberg, N. Y. C; J. Goldman, Charleston, S. C.; Solomon Goldman, Cleveland, O.; Geo. L. Gordon, Minneapolis, Minn.; Mrs. Richard Gottheil, X. Y. C; Julius Haber, N. Y. C.; Henry Harris, San Francisco, Cal.; Isaac Harris, Boston, Mass.; Jacob Heckman, Washington, D. C ; Max Heller, New Orleans, La.; Joseph Hoffenberg, Hartford, Conn.; Jacob Ish-Kishor, X. Y. C; Mrs. Edward Jacobs, N. Y. C; I. Kahanowitz, Greensburg, Pa.; Jacob Kaplan, Newark, N. J.; M. M. Kaplan, N. Y. C; Nathan D. Kaplan, Chicago, 111.; Leopold Kehlman, N. Y. C ; Harry T. Kellman, Baltimore, Md.; Gustave Klausner, St. Louis, Mo.; A. ]. Koffman, Detroit, Mich.; I. Kopstein, Atlantic City, N. J.; Harry Kottler, X. Y. C; Sarah Kussy, Newark, N. J.; I. Lapson, X. Y. C; Mrs. H. B. Lefkowitz, N. Y. C ; Aaron Levinstone, Newark, X. J.; Israel H. Levinthai, Brooklyn, N. Y.;Louis Leyinthal, Phila., Pa.; Wm. M. Lewis, Phila., Pa.; Samuel Magid, Providence, R. I.; Morris Margulies, X. Y. C; S. Markowitz, Los Angeles, Cal.; Israel Matz, Brooklyn, X. Y.; Harry S. Medinets, Perth Amboy, N. J.; Samuel M. Melamed, X. Y. C; Jacob M. Moses, Baltimore, Md.; Xathan Murov, Shreveport, JEWISH NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 341 La.; Rachel Natelson, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Hugo Para, Chicago, III.; Mrs. David de Sola Pool, N. Y. C; Benj. Rabalsky, Boston, Mass.; Theodore Racoosin, N. Y. C; Nathan Ratnoff, N. Y. C ; Max Rhoade, Washington, D. C; Bernard G. Richards, N. Y. C ; Louis Rimsky, N. Y. C; Louis Robison, N. Y. C; Sam'l Rosen, Oil City, Pa.; A. P. Rosenberg, Milwaukee, Wis.; Chas. Rosengarten, Waterbury, Conn.; I. H. Rubin, N. Y. C.; Norman Salit, Far Rockaway, N. Y.; David R. Sandier, Atlantic City, N. J.; Simon Seegman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Morris Sendar, N. Y. C; Morris Senn, Philadelphia, Pa.; Louis Shapiro, Portsmouth, N. H.; Bernard Shelvin, N. Y. C ; Carl Sherman, N. Y. C.; Isaac Shuster, N. Y. C; Jacob Siegel, N. Y. C; Israel Silberstein, Baltimore, Md.; Mrs. Archibald Silverman, Providence, R. I.; Joseph Silverman, N. Y. C; Max J. Skaist, Reading, Pa.; Mrs. A. Slomka, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mordecai Soltes, Arverne, L. I.; Leon Spitz, New Haven, Conn.; H. Steinberg, Chicago, 111.; Elihu D. Stone, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Robt. Szold, N. Y. C; David Tannenbaum, N. Y. C; Mrs. A. H. Vixman, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Sam'l H. Waldstein, Boston, Mass.; Ph. Wattenberg, N. Y. C ; Max Werbelowsky, N. Y. C ; Benj. Winter, N. Y. C.; Stephen S. Wise, N. Y. C.; Leo Wolfson, N. Y. C. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES (SUPPLEMENTARY DIRECTORY) [NOTE—*indicates that information is not official ** that information was furnished by the Jewish Welfare Board] ARKANSAS EL DORADO Educ. **YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Jack Lewis, P. O. Box 1294. PINE BLUFF Cg. "JEWISH CONGREGATION, Masonic Temple Bldg. Morris Bram. Services: Festivals. CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Cg. *BETH EL. Rabbi Emanuel Schreiber, 962 S. Hoover. *WEST ADAMS HEBREW CONGREGATION. Krieger's Hall, 5180 W. Adams. Sec, Mrs. Jennie Z. Weinstein. Educ. MODERN TALMUD TORAH AND SOCIAL CENTER OF BOYLE HEIGHTS, 2317 Michigan Ave. Org. 1923. Pres. George J. Saylin; Sec, E. H. Bojarsky; Headworker, Jacob M. Alkow. Members, 300; income, $15,000. Attending annually, 750. Char. *Los ANGELES HOME FOR INCURABLES. Med. Dir., Louis Levin. •ROUMANIAN JEWISH SICK BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION OF Los ANGELES. Pres., N. Iscowitz. H. Solomon, 1214 E. 21st. Cl. JEWISH COMMUNITY COMMITTEE OF LOS ANGELES. Pres., Louis Isaacs; Sec, Louis S. Nordlinger, 515 S. Lorraine. Members, 128. Com. *SARAH SOCIETY. Pres., Mrs. D. Siegel; Sec, Mrs. Rose Pavin, 2707 Cincinnati. 343 344 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK SAN DIEGO Char. FEDERATED JEWISH CHARITIES. 7th and A. Org. 1922. Pres., Mrs. A. Neumann; Sec, Mrs. E. H. Samisch. Head worker, Mrs. David L. Segal. Income, $3,500. Afiiliated Societies: Junior Charity League, jolly Sixteen, Hebrew Sisterhood, Ladies Hebrew Aid Society. SAN FRANCISCO Educ. *SCHOOL FOR JEWISH STUDIES. Pres., Jacob Nieto, 3933 Clay. SAN MATEO Cl. "BERESFORD COUNTRY CLUB. Org. 1911. Pres., W. W. Stettheimer; Sec, I. W. Hellman. Members, 452. COLORADO DENVER Cl. 'JEWISH CHORAL SOCIETY. Mrs. Max Grimes, 740 Clayton. PUEBLO Educ. *JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER. Pres., Mrs. J. Tour; Sec, M. Bergman, 323 W. 10th. WEST COLFAX Cg. *B'NAI ISRAEL. Rabbi, M. Burstein. Pres., H. MKaufman. CONNECTICUT HARTFORD Cg. BETH ISRAEL, 92 Barbour. Org. 1922. Pres., David Greenbaum; Sec, Sam Schwartz. Members, 55; Income, $1,500. Services: Sabbath and festivals, Hebrew. School: Classes, 3; teachers, 1; pupils, 60; sessions weekly, 5. Cent. KENEY PARK CEMETERY, Barbour near Keney Park. NEW BRITAIN Cg. BRETHREN SONS OF ISRAEL, Chestnut and Elm. Org. 1895. Rabbi, Gershon Hadas. Pres., George Berson; Sec, I. Goldman. Members, 200; Income, $10,000. Services: Daily, English and Hebrew. Schools: Teachers, 13; pupils, 325. NORWICH Char. UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. Org. 1925. Pres., Joseph N. Rosenberg; Sec, Joseph Reichman, 23 Maple. Members, 159; Income, $3,000. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 345 WATERBURY Educ. *HEBREW EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE. Pres., Isaac N. Albert. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES FEDERATION OF YOUNG MENS' HEBREW AND KINDRED ASSOCIATIONS. Pres., David Wiener; Sec, Minnie Hutt, 920 Farragut, N. W. Washington, D. C. Affiliated Societies: Y. M. H. A. Baltimore, Md., Newport News, Va., Norfolk, Va. Washington, D. C , Y. W. H. A., Baltimore, Md. Newport News, Va., Norfolk, Va., Richmond, Va. Washington, D. C. FLORIDA ORLANDO Educ. **YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, C/O The Spot. Artie Shimkowitz, 107 W. Church. ST. AUGUSTINE Cg. ST. AUGUSTINE SYNAGOGUE. 85 Duero. Rabbi, Arthur Ginzler. Services: Sabbath and festivals, Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 4, teachers, 2; pupils, 35; sessions weekly, 6. SARASOTA Educ. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, C/O Ralph Saltzman, P. O. Box 2276. Org. 1925. Pres., Ralph Saltzman; Sec, Paul Barnett. Members, 115; Income, $1,000. GEORGIA ATLANTA Cl. JEWISH WOMEN'S CLUB, 227 Washington. Org. 1920. Pres., Mrs. Isidor Jacobs; Sec, Fannie Kolodkin; Ex. Sec, Mrs. N. H. Bach. Members, 250; Income, $3,000. ILLINOIS CHAMPAIGN Educ. EMUNAH FRATERNITY, C/O University of Illinois. Org. 1925. Pres., Edward A. Gorenstein; Sec, Heim Wolberg. Members, 15. CHICAGO Cg. *ACHIM B'NEI ZION, Hirsch and California. Rabbi, Isaac Caplan. Pres., Simon Gurewitch. 346 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK •ADAS B'NAI ISRAEL, 1006 S. Ashland Blvd. Pres., Sam'l Tuchman. ADATH B'NAI ISRAEL (DOUGLAS PARK), 3513 Douglas Blvd. Org. 1913. Pres., Abba Abamasky; Sec, ,David Weiss. Members, 200; Income $5,000. "ADATH B'NEI ISRAEL SHOMREISHABATH, 1356N.Leavitt. Rabbi, Jacob Gottfried. *AGUDATH ACHIM ANSHE CHELTENHAM, 7843 Muskegon Ave. Rabbi, H. Harrison. Pres., L. Berg. •AGUDATH ACHIM ANSHE MOZIR, 1612 S. Hamlin Ave. Rabbi, Abr. Miller. Pres., Dave Husman. AGUDATH ACHIM ANSHE SFARD, 1118 S. Hermitage Ave. Org. 1906. Rabbi, M. Flikop. Pres., R. Mutchnik; Sec, J. Naparstak. Members, 50; Income, $2,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. *AGUDATH KEHILATH, 1336 N. Rockwell. Pres., S. Drushlag. *AHAVAS ACHIM, 1255 Newberry Ave. Rabbi, B. Cohen. Pres., Kaplan. •AHAVAS ACHIM CHICAGO CITY, 3437 Ogden Av., Rabbi, J. Goldberg. Pres., Samuel K. Berger. *AHAVAS ISRAEL, 1251 Washburne Ave. Rabbi, J. K. Gerstein. Pres., David Weiss. *AHAVATH ISRAEL, 1300 S. Jefferson. Rabbi, J. Heyman. Pres., August Ziedman. *AHAVATH SHOLOM, 1515 S. Homan. Rabbi, D. Shapiro. Pres., Geo. Mages. AM KODESH, 1256 S. Kedvale Ave. Org. 1918. Pres., Morris Chinn; Sec, Max Skolnik. Members, 65; Income, SI,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 2; teachers, 1; pupils, 24; sessions weekly,5. *ANSHE ANTIPOLE B'NAI MOSHE, 1303 S. Turner Ave. Rabbi, Sam Indes. Pres., A. J. Devinsky. 'ANSHE CHEVRA THILIM. Pres., Ed. Greenman, 2837 Cortez. *ANSHE CHODEKOV, 1519 S. Homan Ave. Pres., A. Polen. *ANSHE CHOMSK, 1526 S. Millard Ave. Pres., S. Kaplan. *ANSHE EMETH, 61st and May. Pres., Herman Wolf. ANSHE KOROSTISHAW, 3146 Carlisle PI. Org. 1915. Pres.. M. L. Cogon; Sec, S. Landsman. Members, 75; Income, SI,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 2; teachers, 1; pupils, 55; sessions weekly, 6. *ANSHE KRINICK, 1304 X. Western Ave., near Potomac JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 347 •ANSHE LEBAVITZ, 1243 S. Peoria. Rabbi, Rev. Leo Malkin. Pres., N. H. Balotin. ANSHE LEBOVITZ, 1500 S. Clifton Pk. Ave. Org. 1896. Rabbi, S. A. Elkin. Pres., Sam Rosenthal; Sec, David Shapiro. Members, 234; Income, $20,000; Services, Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 8; teachers, 4; pupils, 180; sessions weekly, 6. *ANSHE STARODUB, 1410 N. Artesian Ave. Rabbi, Morris Novak. Pres., M. Brager. *ANSHE ZEDEK NUSACH SFARD, 1123 S. Albany Ave. Pres., L. Arenson. *ANSHE ZITONUS VOLIN, 1216 S. Sawyer, Pres., H. Goldman. *BETH AARON, 1269 N. Wood. Pres., B. Rabinowitz. *BETH HAMEDRASH HAGODOL U'B'NEI JACOB ANSHE LUKNICK. Rabbi, Azriel Epstein. Pres., Israel Balaban, Webster Hotel. *BETH MORDECAI. Rabbi, B. Z. Margolin. Pres., Abe Fried. *BETH YAHUDO. Rabbi, Z. Glassman, 1625 Washburne Ave. Pres , B. Stone. *B'NAI AARON, 3225 Cortez Ave. Rabbi, J. Klein. B'NAI ISRAEL, 241 N. Central Ave. Org. 1913. Pres., Adolph Copeland; Sec, M. W. Simon. Services: Sabbath. Hebrew and English. School: classes, 2; teachers, 1; pupils, 35; sessions weekly, 5. *B'NAI ISRAEL, 1134 S. Francisco Ave. Rabbi, A. Perlman. Pres., A. Goldstein. •B'NAI ITZCHOK, 1311 S. Morgan. Rabbi, Joseph Astrachan. Pres., Jacob Zalutsky. *B'NAI SAMUEL BERGER, 4026 Van Buren. Rabbi, Solomon Levy. Pres., Samuel K. Berger. •B'NEI ISRAEL. Rabbi, Moses Weinrib. Pres., I. Goodman. *B'NEI ZION, 2328 Armitage Ave. Rabbi, J. Schulman. Pres., Chas. Lissner. *CHEVRA KADISHA. Pres., M. Zimmerman. •CHEVROH KADISHO MACHZIKAI HADAS, 1758 W. 13th. Pres., Morris Grossman. *FIRST ESTREKER CONGREGATION, 2143 Potomac Ave. Pres., Sam Roseman. ••INDEPENDENT JACOB ANSHE KROZ, 1360 S. Sangamon. Rabbi, Ephraim Malloch. •KAHOL CHASIDIM. Rabbi, Moses Feldschreiber. Pres., D. Dunenthen. 348 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK •KEHILLATH ISRAEL, 2700 Haddon Ave. Rabbi, M. I. Browdy. Pres., Isadore Lewis. *KNESSES B'NEI ITZCHOK, 3442 W. 18tn. Rabbi, Isaac Goldsmith. Pres., Sam Weinberg. •KNESSES ISRAEL SHAARI TORAH, 3242 Grenshaw. Pres., B. Morris. *KNESSETH ISRAEL, 1500 N. Maplewood Ave. Rabbi, Bernard Margolies. Pres., S. Louis. *KNESSETH ISRAEL NUSACH SFARD, 1308 S. Independence Blvd. Pres., A. Friedman. *LEENAS HAZEDECK—CHEVRA KADISHA, 2237\V.Division. Pres., Sam'l Gratch. *MIKRO KODESH ANSHE LIDA AND PINSK, 1253 S. Lawndale Ave. Rabbi, B. Marcus. Pres., S. Levin. *NORTH SHORE BETH EL. Pres., Hyman Trager, 5511 Broadway. •NORTHWESTERN HEBREW CONGREGATION, 1849 X. Kildare Ave. Rabbi, Mendel Preiro. Pres., J. Rosenberg. "OCCIDENTAL HALL, Madison and Sacramento Blvd. Pres., G. Seegal. OESTERREICH GALICIEN ANSHE SFARDI, California Ave. and Hirsch. Org. 1901. Pres., David Manosler; Sec, Morris Eimer, 4742 Manticiler Ave. Members, 300; Income, $4,000. Services: Hebrew. School: Classes, 3; teachers, 2; pupils, 60; sessions weekly, 6. •OESTERREICH GALITZISKIE B'NAI ABRAHAM, 1221 S. Sangamon. Pres., Israel Leibowitz. *OHEL ITZCHOK. Rabbi, B. Swirsky. Pres., Sam Cohen, 3808 W. 13th *OHEL JACOB KOVNE, 1459 S. Homan Ave. Rabbi, I. Caplan. Pres., A. Friedman. *PERSIAN CONGREGATION, C/O Hebrew Institute. Pres., I. Imram, 1201 W. Roosevelt Rd. •SHAARI TFILO B'NEI RUBEN NUSACH ARI, 1112 S. Marshfield Ave. Rabbi, H. Rubinstein. Pres., PaulRissman. *TICKVAT YAHUDA, 1533 St. Louis Ave. Rabbi, S. Siegal. Pres., D.Taman. •TOMCHE SHABOS, 3432 Douglas Blvd. Rabbi, I. Caplan. Pres., Irving Royack. *TOMCHEI TORAH BETH ABRAHAM, 1339 S. Kedzie Ave. Rabbi-Pres., M. I. Pinsker. *WARSHAWER CONGREGATION B'NEI ABRAHAM, 1533 S. Clifton Pk. Ave. Pres., J. Siegel. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 349 *ZEMACH ZEDEK, 1459 Talman Ave. Rabbi, Abr. Perlstein. Pres., S. Selizky. Educ. *BETH MEDROSH TALMUD TORAH. Pres., I. B. Rosenstein, 1845 S. Millard Ave. BETH RACHEL LEAH HEBREW SCHOOL, 1536 S. St. Louis Ave. Pres., Israel Balaban; Sec, I. Marks. Income $1,500. Classes, 8; teachers, 5; pupils, 335. Sessions weekly, 12. (Educational Department of Cg. Beth Hamedrash Hagodol U'B'nei Jacob.) *YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, 1330 S. Troy. Char. *DOUGLAS PARK DAY AND NIGHT NURSERY, 1424 S. Albany Ave. Pres., Mrs. Schaffner; Sec, Mrs. S. Rubin. KURLANDER AID SOCIETY, 3437 Ogden Ave. Org. 1911. Pres., Harry Levy; Sec, Leo Saltzman. Members, 300; Income, $2,500. SCHOLARSHIP ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH CHILDREN, 460 S. State. Org. 1913. Chairman, Mrs. Morris Woolf; Sec, Mrs. Stanton A. Friedberg; Ex. Dir., Mrs. Henriette C. Warner. Members, 425; Income, $19,000. Scholarships granted 1925, 118. Cl. SOVEREIGN CLUB OF CHICAGO. Org. 1926. Pres., Jesse H. Brown; Sec, Alfred Stern, 237 S. Market. Members, 60; Income, $3,600. EAST ST. LOUIS Educ. **YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Belle J. Weissman, 519 Washington PI. MAYWOOD Cg. *TALMUD TORAH, RABBI ELIAZAR ANIXTER, 431-13th Ave. Rabbi, S. Ziff. Pres., Axelrod. INDIANA MARION Cg. *SINAI TEMPLE. Rabbi, Samuel H. Markowitz, Ft. Wayne, Ind. Pres., Edw. Bloch; Sec, E. P. Simons. SOUTH BEND Educ. **YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Vice-Pres., Goldie Klein, 741 Cleveland Ave. KANSAS WICHITA Cg. HEBREW CONGREGATION, Lewis and Topeka. Org. 1907. Rabbi, Max Lieberman. Pres., E. Lahn; Sec, Jacob Smed. Members, 60; Income, $6,000. Services: Daily, Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 3; 350 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK teachers, 6; pupils, 65; sessions weekly, 4. Auxiliary Societies: Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wichita Hebrew School. KENTUCKY ASHLAND Cent. *ASHLAND JEWISH CEMETERY. LOUISIANA. NATCHITOCHES Cg. *B'NAI B'RITH. Pres., Emanuel Nelken; Sec, Robert J. Phillips. NEW ORLEANS Cl. *WEST END COUNTRY CLUB. Org. 1922. Pre*., K. E. Lazarus; Sec, H. S. Hiller. Members, 250. MARYLAND BALTIMORE Cg. *SYNAGOGUE AND TALMUD TORAH, Central Ave. and Biddle. Pres.,——Mermelstein; Vice-Pres. N. Freedman. Educ. ISAAC DAVIDSON HEBREW SCHOOL, Shirley Ave. near Park Heights Ave. Org. 1925. Pres., J. Henry Strauss; Sec, D. Paul Davidson. Supt., Sidney I. Esterson. Students, 200. Constituent Society of the Associated Hebrew Schools of Baltimore. WESTERN TALMUD TORAH, 743 W. Lexington. Org. 1909. Pres., B. Lipnick; Supt., Perez Tarshish. CUMBERLAND Cg. BETH EL. Rabbi, C. A. Rubenstein, Baltimore, Md- Pres., E. H. White; Sec, Ben. N. Kamens, P. O. Box 762. Members, 45. Services: Sabbath in English. School: Classes, 4; teachers, 4; pupils, 25; sessions weekly, 1. MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON Cg. *BETH ISRAEL, 103 Chestnut. TIFERETH ISRAEL. Pres., B. Lamayansky; Sec, B. A. Russato. *B'NAI ABRAHAM (WAYLAND STREET SYNAGOGUE) (ROXbury), 70 Wayland. Rabbi, Gorowitz. Pres., Samuel Vein; Sec, I. Lipson. Members, 150. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 351 BROCKTON Educ. *AGUDATH ACHIM TALMUD TORAH, 247 Crescent. Pres., Louis Altman. FALL RIVER Cg. BETH EL, Franklin St., Rabbi, Morton Goldberg. Pres., Nathan Yamins; Sec, A. S. Goldman. Services: Sabbath and festivals, Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 12; teachers, 10; pupils, 200; sessions weekly, GLOUCESTER Educ. **YOUNG MEN'S AND YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, c/o Synagogue, Prospect PI. Pres., Mayer Smith. MARLBORO Educ. **YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Pres., Mrs. Sadie Braverman, 65 Newton. REVERE Char. *BIKUR CHOLIM (REVERE HELPING HAND ASSOCIATION). Pres., Mrs. Davis; Sec, Mrs. S. Isenberg, 18 Nahant Ave. STOOGHTON Educ. **YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, C/O Synagogue, Porter St. Pres., Harry Kartstein. WALTHAM Cg. ""JEWISH CONGREGATION. Pres., Harry Levenson; Sec, A. Ginsberg. MICHIGAN DETROIT Cg. BETH ISRAEL OF DETROIT, 15700 Muireland Ave. Org. 1925. Rabbi, I. Stolman. Pres., Max Axelrod; Sec, A. M. Leibowitz. Members, 78; Income, $3,600. Services: Daily. Hebrew. Educ. YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION OF DETROIT, 89 Rowena. Org. 1925. Pres., Samuel H. Rubin; Sec, Max Ornstein. Members, 150. Char. BICUR CHOLIM SOCIETY, 2454 Grand Ave., W. Org. 1910. Pres., Mrs. David Berger, Sec, Dorothy Robbins. Headworker, Mrs. David Zemon. Members, 200. MINNESOTA DULUTH Char. *TEMPLE AID SOCIETY, 2328 E. 3d. Sec, Mrs. M. Cook. 352 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK MINNEAPOLIS Cg. *UNITED ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONS OF MINNEAPOLIS (AGUDAS HAKEHILLAHS). Rabbi, Moses Romm. Chairman, Max Davis; Sec, N. Spilberg. Com. *VAAD HAKASHRUS. Pres., Isador Cohen; Sec, S. I. Levin, 1419 8th Ave., N. Members, 25; Income, $3,000. ST. PAUL Educ. CENTRAL COMMUNITY HOUSE, 190 E. University Ave. Org. 1922. Pres., Ben Marx; Sec, Mrs. Wm. Weiskopf. Director, Faye Biederman. Members, 60; Income, $6,100. Attending annually, 26,944. MISSISSIPPI LEXINGTON Cg. BETH ISRAEL. Rabbi, Sol L. Kory, Vicksburg, Miss. Pres., Morris Lewis; Sec, S. J. Fisher. Sendees: Sabbath and festivals. English and Hebrew. School: Classes, 3; teachers, 3; pupils, 21; sessions weekly, 1. MISSOURI ST. LOUIS Cg. *B'NAI ISRAEL, Montclair and Ridge Ave. Pres., A. Rader; Sec, S. Lasky. M. B. ABRAHAM LINCOLN MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION, 911 N. Vandeventer Ave. Org. 1925. Pres., S. J. Kopitsky; Sec, Alex. Nehamen. Members, 400. NEBRASKA OMAHA Char. SHIMSK RELIEF SOCIETY. Org. 1926. Pres., S. Ferer; Sec, G. Soiref, 1121 Douglas. Members, 80; Income, $500. NEW JERSEY ATLANTIC CITY Educ. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER. Pres., Harry Bacharach; Sec, J. M. Weidberg, 5 S. South Carolina Ave. Members, 900. Affiliated Societies: Young Men's Hebrew Association; Young Women's Hebrew Association, BRADLEY BEACH Cg. *REFORM CONGREGATION, C/O Lorraine Hotel. Pres., Michael Erlanger; Sec, Ed. E. Brill. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 353 FREEHOLD Educ. **JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER. Clarence Levy. GARFIELD Educ. "JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER. Pres., Robert Kasdin. Affiliated Society: Sisterhood. HOBOKEN Cg. HOBOKEN JEWISH CENTER, 830 Hudson. Org. 1925. Rabbi, J. S. Landau. Pres., Sol Lubash; Sec, Jacob S. Mason. Members, 80; Income, $10,000. Services: Sabbath in Hebrew. School: Classes, 1; teachers, 1; pupils, 20; sessions weekly, 4. Affiliated Societies: Ladies' Auxiliary, Young Men's League. JERSEY CITY Cg. MORIJAH SYNAGOGUE, 650 Palisade Ave. Services: Sabbath and festivals, Hebrew. School: Classes, 9; teachers, 4; pupils, 200; sessions weekly, 5. Educ. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 438 Summit Ave., Org. 1918. Pres., Harry Goldowsky; Sec, Philip S. Birnbaum. Headworker, Sidney Marcus. Members, 500; Income, $6,000. Affiliated Societies: Y. M. H. A., Y. W. H. A. NATIONAL HEBREW SCHOOL, 100-102 Sherman Ave. Org. 1912. Pres., Benjamin Urdang; Sec, Aaron Rips. Members, 500; Income, $20,000. NEWARK Cg. AGUDATH ISRAEL, Custer and Peshine Ave. Org. 1924. Pres., Harry Engelhart; Sec, G. Convissor. Members, 150; Income, $10,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 4; teachers, 2; pupils, 105; sessions weekly, 5. Char. MENDELSOHN BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, C/O Hith Manon, 629 High. Org. 1850. Pres., David Strauss; Sec., Jos. Aron. Members, 126. Societies: Ladies' Auxiliary. T R U E FRIENDS LADIES' K. U. V. Pres., Rose Kandler; Sec, Rose B. Nurkin. Cl. *CENTURY CLUB. Org. 1915. Pres., M. Mariness; Sec, S. Schwartz. Com. *VAAD HA-KEHILLAH. Pres., Alexander Isserman; Sec, S. Ecker. NORTH BERGEN Cg. "HEBREW INSTITUTION OF WOODCLIFF. 354 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK NORTH CALDWELL Char. THERESA GROTTA HOME FOR CONVALESCENTS, 189 Mountain Ave. Org. 191.5. Pres., Mrs. Wm. Hauser Sec, Mrs. Morris Nachstein. Supt., Samuel Nege. Income, $9,500. Benefited, 100. Constituent Society of Conference of Jewish Charities, Newark, N. J. PASSAIC Com. ASSOCIATED JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS OF PASSAIC, 158 Jefferson. Org. 1924. Pres., Max Zucker; Sec, Joseph Tarlowe. Members, 18 organizations. TOMS RIVER Cg. TOMS RIVER COMMUNITY OF JEWISH FARMERS. Old Freehold rd. Org. 1924. Pres., Joseph Bottler; Sec, Isaac Weinman. Members, 69; Income, $828. VINELAND Cg. BETH ISRAEL, 7th and Elmer. Org. 1924. Rabbi, Hyman Solomon. Pres., David Rosenthal; Sec, Leon Bardfeld. Members, 100; Income, $9,000. Services: Sabbath and festivals. Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 10; teachers, 6; pupils, 75; sessions weekly, 5; Affiliated Societies, Women's Benevolent Society, Federated Jewish Charities. Constituent Societies, Sisterhood, Men's Club, Beth Yod Forum, High School Department, Boy Scouts, Beth Israel Library. Char. FEDERATED JEWISH CHARITIES, 7th and Elmer. Pres., Frank Mennies; Sec, Leon Bordfeld. Members, 25; Income, $700. HEBREW WOMEN'S BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, 7th and Elmer. Pres., Mrs. David Reback; Sec, Mrs. B. Kohler. Members, 135; Income, $486. WOODCLIFF Cg. HEBREW INSTITUTION OF WOODCLIFF, 228-29th. Org. 1925. Pres., Henry Englander; Sec, Eysmann. Members, 60. School: classes, 2; teachers, 1; sessions, weekly, 5. NEW YORK NEW YORK STATE FEDERATION OF YOUNG MEN'S AND YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATIONS, 361 River, Troy, N. Y. Org. 1915. Pres., Joseph Hormate; Sec, Mildred Winer, 406 Jefferson Ave., Buffalo, N. Y. Headworker, Joseph Bower, J. W. B., New York City. Associations, 20. (Albany, Binghamton, JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 355 Buffalo, Co'ioes, Elmira, Glen Falls, Gloversville, Kingston, Middletown, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, Troy, Utica). ALBANY Cg. *OHAB SHALOM, Washington Ave., Rabbi, I. Jacob Schwartz. BUFFALO Cg. ANSHE EMETH, 209 Hickory. Org. 1908. Rabbi, Gitter. Pres., Morris Bergman; Sec, Elia Morwen. Members, 200; Income, $5,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 1; teachers, 1; pupils, 15; sessions daily. GLEN FALLS Cg. TEMPLE BETH EL, Marion Ave. Rabbi Benjamin M. Parker. Pres., Julius Jacobson. Educ. **YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Sec, Jos. Levitt. 106 Bay. *YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Pres., Anna Gersten, 64 Hudson Ave. Com. HEBREW COMMUNITY BUILDING, Bay. Org. 1925. Pres., Marcus Halitzer; Sec, A. Silverman. Dir., Wm. Leventhal. Members, 120; Income, $10,000. LONG BEACH Com. **HEBREW COMMUNITY BUILDING. Chairman, Marcus Helitzer. Cg. *TEMPLE ISRAEL, Beach 84th Rabbi, Goldberg. Pres., S. Pollick; Sec, Arnold Wetzler. MT. VERNON Char. *BIKUR CHOLIM CONVALESCENT HOME. (New York City office, 22 W. 114th). Chairman, M. J. Katz. NEWBURGH Cl. YOUNG FOLKS' LEAGUE. Org. 1925. Pres., A. Louis Rubin; Sec, Ethel Burnstine, 23 Dubois. Advisor, Frederick Stern. Members, 150; Income, $350. NEW YORK CITY BROOKLYN, RICHMOND AND QUEENS Cg. *ANSHE ZEDEK, 308 Atkins Ave. ASTORIA CENTER OF ISRAEL, 820 Crescent. Org. 1925. Act.-Rabbi, Joshua Goldberg. Pres., Isaac Baer; Sec, Joseph Brecher. Members, 110. School: Classes, 8; teachers, 3; pupils, 125; sessions weekly, 5. 356 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK BAY RIDGE JEWISH CENTER, SHEARITH ISRAEL, 4th Ave. and 81st. Org. 1920. Rabbi, B. Leon Hurwitz. Pres., Harry Thall; Sec, Samuel M. Ebert. Members, 300. Services: Sabbath and festivals, in English and Hebrew. School: Classes, 5; teachers, 3; sessions weekly, 5. BETH HAKNESSETH TALMUD TORAH OF KING'S HIGHWAY, Ave. P. and E. 12th. Org. 1917. Rabbi, Jacob }. Newman. Pres., David Kraus; Sec, Phillip Miller. Members, 160; Income, $20,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 8; teachers, 4; pupils, 160; sessions weekly, 5. Affiliated Societies: Sisterhood; Young Peoples'League; Chevrah Mishnayoth. *BETH HAMEDRASH HAGODOL AND TALMUD TORAH, 195 S. 9th. Rabbi, Benj. Mostofsky. *BETH JACOB ZEIDEL ROVNER, Montrose Ave. near Broadway. *BETH SHOLOM TOMCHAI HA-RAV, (E. New York), 449 Alabama Av. Rabbi, Ch. S. Warshawsky. *B'NAI ISRAEL (Sheepshead Bay). Rabbi, Meyer Schube. B. Heller, 2530 Mansfield PI. *ETROTH TIFERETH, 479 Ashford. Rabbi, Zvi Nissen Manuel; Pres., Jacob Seidman. *HOVEVI TORAH (E. Parkway). Rabbi, Jacob Levinson, 832 E. Parkway. Cg. JEWISH CENTER (Community Synagogue of Queens Independent Society), 73d and Woodside Ave., Long Island City. Org. 1920. Rabbi, T. H. Glickman. Pres., Samuel Lonscheir, Sec, Sol. Freirich. Members, 105; Income, $3,000. Services: Sabbath and festivals. Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 4; teachers, 2; pupils, 55; sessions weekly, 5. Affiliated Societies: Ladies Auxiliary, Junior League, Young Folks League, Boy Scouts, Young Judaea Club. JEWISH CENTER OF W. FLATBUSH. Church Ave. and E. 5th. Org. 1921. Rabbi, A. M. Heller. Pres., Joseph Pines; Sec, L. Duberstein. Members, 200; Income, $32,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 9; teachers, 5; pupils, 200; sessions weekly, 5. •ROUMANIAN-AMERICAN CONGREGATION, 224 Hopkinson. Pres., Phineas Hammer; Sec, Silverman, *TIFERETH ISRAEL. Rabbi, M. Roram, 199 Vernon Ave. TIFERETH ISRAEL ANSHE BENSONHURST, 1835- 75th. Org. 1924. Rabbi, S. Slotnick. Pres., Joseph Furie; Sec, S. Slotnick. Members, 90; Income, $4,000. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 357 Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 3; teachers, 2; pupils, 70; sessions weekly, 5. TIKVATH SHOLOM, Bedford Ave. and Clymer. Educ. *CHEVRA TORAH ANSHE CHESED, Douglas St. Pres. Ezekiel B. H. Zaks; Sec, Fierman. **JEWISH CENTER (Far Rockaway), Central Ave. **YOUNG MEN'S AND YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION OF THE EAST SIDE. Pres., Wm. Kampf, 968-47th. Char. BROOKLYN JEWISH HOME FOR CONVALESCENTS, 826 Ave. U. Org. 1921. Pres., Carrie Kronfeldt; Sec, Anna T. Cohen. Members, 1,300. Cent. BETH DAVID. L. I. MANHATTAN AND THE BRONX Cg. *AHAVATH ZION, 66 Pike. ANSHE GALICIA ANSHE SFARD, 1187 Washington Ave. Org. 1916. Pres., Philip Schmelzer; Sec, F. Florman. Members, 55; Income, $1,500. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 2; teachers, 1; pupils, 30; sessions weekly, 6. BETH HAMEDROSH HAGODOL, 610 W. 175th. Org. 1925. Rabbi, M. Shuchatowitz. Pres., Max Baron; Sec, H. Shuster. Services: Daily in Hebrew. Schools: Classes, 4; teachers, 2; pupils, 50. BETH ISRAEL TEMPLE OF WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, 600 W. 181st. Org. 1926. Rabbi, Jerome M. Lawn. Pres., Sol. Lubell; Sec, L. J. Abrams. Members, 195, Income, $20,000. Services: Sabbath. English and Hebrew. School: Classes, 10; teachers, 12; pupils, 231; sessions weekly, 4. *BETH MEDRASH HAGODOL, Forest Ave. Rabbi, B. Z. Pearl, 118 W. 112th. *B'NAI DAVID, 832 Fox . Rabbi, Lazaar Schoenfeld. HEBREW INSTITUTE OF UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, 1835- 1837 University Ave. Org. 1924. Rabbi, Miller. Pres., Samuel Soloff; Sec, Goldie Hillson. Members, 350. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 11; teachers, 5; pupils, 200; sessions weekly, 5. Affiliated Societies: Sisterhood; Young Folks' League; Culture Club. HUNT'S POINT JEWISH CENTER, 920 Simpson, near 163d. Org. 1925. Rabbi, Israel Elfenbein. Pres., Samuel Sailer; Sec, Louis Cohen. Members, 265; Income, $54,000. Services: Daily in Hebrew. School: Classes, 16; teachers, 8; pupils, 530; sessions weekly, 5. Af358 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK filiated Societies: Ladies' Auxiliary, Sisterhood, Men's Club. JEWISH CENTER OF UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, 174th and Nelson Ave. Org. 1922. Rabbi, I. L. Bril. Pres., Arthur I. Le Vine; Sec, Harry A. Alpert. Members, 120. Services: Sabbath and festivals. Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 11; teachers, 12; pupils, 148; sessions weekly, 5. Affiliated Societies: Ladies' Auxiliary. KINGSBRIDGE JEWISH CENTER, 5233 Broadway. Org. 1924. Rabbi, Sigmund Tyor. Pres., I. M. Halpern; Sec, Samuel Newberger. Members, 40; Income, $3,000. Services: Sabbath and festivals. Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 2; teachers, 1; pupils, 30; sessions weekly, 5. Affiliated Societies: Sisterhood, Young Folks' League. *LINATH HAZEDEK, 2047 Hughes Ave., Rabbi, Joseph Hager. *EMANUEL SCHUL OF BRONX, Aldus Ave., Cor. E. 172d. Pres., Julius Beyer; Sec, Joe Abner. ROFE CHOLIM (HEALER OF THE SICK). Welfare Island. Org. 1925. Rabbi, Jacob Greenfield. Chairman, Mrs. Jos. Mayor Asher, 64 E. 86th. Services: Daily. Hebrew and English. Under the Auspices of N. Y. Sec.,C.J.W. Educ. *FORDHAM TALMUD TORAH, 2084 Arthur Ave. Rabbi, Chaim E. Moseson. Pres., Meyerson; Sec, Kaufman. *JEWISH ART CENTER, 103 E. 11th. *MT. EDEN JEWISH CENTER, 173d and Morris Ave. Pres., Sol. Goldstein; Sec, Fuld. Char. *BARON DE HIRSCH CHARITY SOCIETY. Org. 1890. Pres., Mrs. W. Baum; Sec, Mrs. Malvino Kirschner, 1025 Faile. *EMANUEL BROTHERHOOD. Treas., Jas. E. Ge'.lert, 309 E. 6th. HEBREW NATIONAL HOME FOR INCURABLES, 1801 Anthony Ave. Org. 1921. Pres., Mrs. Minerva L. Abeles; Sec, Mrs. Bertha Goodman. Members, 1,500. •HEBREW SISTERS OF CHARITY, C/O Y. W. H. A., 31 W. 110th. Pres., Mrs. Eva Levy; Sec, Mrs. Tillie Huber. *HOME BUREAU, 141 W. 126th. JEWISH BOARD OF GUARDIANS, 228 E. 19th. Org. 1921. Pres., Mortimer L. Schiff; Sec, Clarence M. Lewis. Ex. Dir., Jess Perlman. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 359 JEWISH CHILDREN'S CLEARING BUREAU, 1646 Arc. A. Org. 1922. Pres., Herman W. Block; Sec, Eli Winkler. Ex. Dir., Alice L. Seligsberg. Income, (1925), $32,110. Constituent Society of Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City. Affiliated Societies, Home for Hebrew Infants, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, Home Bureau, Child Adoption Committee, Free Synagogue, Jewish Social Service Assn., Widowed Mother's Fund Assn., Jewish Board of Guardians, Children's Haven; Convalescent Home for Hebrew Children, Blythedale Home. LADIES' INDEPENDENT RELIEF SOCIETY, 1200 Prospect Ave. Org. 1920. Pres., Mrs. P. Rosenthal; Sec, Mrs. H. Melrose. Members, 150; Income, $750. *PAULINE CONSUMPTIVE RELIEF SOCIETY, 312 W. 89th. Org. 1910. Pres., Mrs. N. Blyn; Sec, Mrs. G. Brown. *RAMBAN HOSPITAL PEOPLES AND POST GRADUATE MEDICAL ACADEMY, 912 Bronx Pk. S. and Daily Ave. ROSE SIROVICH RELIEF SOCIETY, INC., 539 E. 6th. Org. 1922. Pres., Mrs. Sadie Feigenbaum; Sec, Belle Breuer. Members, 180; Income, $4,000. Cl. *DRAMATIC VEREIN. Pres., Leon Kobrin; Sec, H. Natesfeld. RUTGERS CLUB, 314 W. 91st. Org. 1891. Pres., Jacob J. Lazaroe; Sec, Louis Abrams. Members, 300. WOMENS' TOWN CLUB, INC., 200 W. 57th. Pres., Mrs. E. A. Grunsfeld, Sec, Mrs. Maurice Denzer. Members, 200. Com. JEWISH COURT OF ARBITRATION, 38 Park Row. Org. 1920. Treas., Edgar J. Lauer; Sec, Louis Richman. Members, 100. JEWISH MUSEUM ASSOCIATION, 799 Broadway (Room 524). Sec, Nathan Kaplan. Members, 300; Income, $1,500. •UNION OF GRAND RABBIS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 9 Attorney. Pres., Dworsky; Sec, Leiser. Members, 50. Educ. YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION OF STATEN ISLAND, 329 Jersey, (New Brighton). Org. 1925. Pres., Bee Herrmann; Sec, Ida Retish. Members, 35. M. B. *JEWISH POSTAL WORKERS' WELFARE LEAGUE. Pres., Louis Blumberg; Sec, Morris Berkowitz. 360 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK •UNITED HUNGARIAN WOMEN'S SICK BENEFIT ASSOCIATION. Org. 1908. Pres., Rosie Rogoff; Sec, Mrs. Goldman. Members, 265. POUGHKEEPSIE Educ. **JEWISH CENTER. Sec, Miss N. Weisman, 88 Smith. SARATOGA SPRINGS Educ. HEBREW SCHOOL, 99 Circular. Classes, 3; teachers, 2; pupils, 45; sessions weekly, 6. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 108 Circular. Pres., A. Bernstein; Sec, J. S. Sovatkin. Members, 60; Income, $2,000. Attending annually, 250. NORTH CAROLINA ROCKY MOUNT Cg. BETH EL. Pres., E. Epstein; Sec, D. J. Edwards. Members, 8; Income, $400. OHIO CLEVELAND Char. CHAIM YOSEPH FAMILY ASSOCIATION. Org. 1926. Pres., Benjamin Glickman; Sec, Etta Piekus, 3314 East Overlook Rd. Members, 50. TEMPLE WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION, Ansel Rd. & E. 105th. Pres., Mrs. Walter A. Goldsmith; Sec, Mrs. Samuel Freedman. Members, 1,700; Income, $5,200. Com. COOPERATIVE LEAGUE OF JEWISH WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS. Org. 1920. Pres., Mrs. Siegmund Herzog; Sec, Mrs. Louis A. Wolin, 3253 Dellwood Rd. Members, 4,000 (20 organizations). JEWISH CHILDREN'S CONFERENCE, 507 Huron—Sixth Bldg. Org. 1924. Pres., Harry F. Affelder; Sec, Rose Moss. Members, 30. COLUMBUS Cl. EXCELSIOR CLUB, 512 E. Main. Org. 1923. Pres., M. Goldberg; Sec, Max Horkin. Members, 70. OKLAHOMA OEXAHOMA CITY Char. JEWISH LADIES' AID AND SISTERHOOD. Org. 1906. Pres., Mrs. Joseph Myer; Sec, Mrs. J. Urbansky, 801 W. 19th. Members, 135. PENNSYLVANIA PENNSYLVANIA FEDERATION OF YOUNG MEN'S AND YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATIONS AND KINJEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 361 DRED ASSOCIATIONS, Cor. Broad and Pine, Philadelphia, Pa. Org. 1909. Pres., Harry Michlosky; Sec, J. N. Sokohl. Field Sec, Isadore Abelson. Members, 50 organizations. ALTOONA Educ. **JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER. Act.-Pres., Wm. Lud- ' deke. 1827 13th Ave. YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Org. 1920. Pres., Mrs. R. M. Levine; Sec, Anna F. Parish, 1818 12th Ave. Members, 75. CHESTER Educ. HEBREW SCHOOL, 208 W. 3d. Pres., A. W. Wolson; Sec, H. Cholodofsky; Prin., Harry Cohen. Members, 140; Income, $9,000. Classes, 8; teachers, 8; pupils, 226. EASTON Educ. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, Ferry and Walnut. Org. 1910. Pres., A. B. Jaffe; Sec, G. I. Lyons. Headworker, Jack Sher. ERIE Char. JEWISH WELFARE SOCIETY, 156 E. 5th. Org. 1923. Pres.. Samuel D. Ostrow; Sec, Arthur Rosenberg. Headworker, Aaron M. Lopez. Income, $4,400. Attending annually, 45 families; 396 homeless men. JOHNSTOWN Educ. YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, Kredel Bldg., Cor. Main and Franklin. Org. 1925. Pres., Albert Callet; Sec, Alex. Zasofsky. Members, 100. Income, $1,000. **YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Pres., Esther Berman, 173 Horner. MOUNT CARMEL Educ. **YOUNG MEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION. Pres., Meyer Katz, 107 S. Oak. **LADIES' AUXILIARY. Pres., Rae Miller, 206 S. Oak. PHILADELPHIA Cg. *BETH AM, 58th and Warrington Ave. Pres., David Rader; Sec, Mitchell Cohen. *BRITH SHOLOM OF SOUTH WEST PHILADELPHIA, 69th and Pascall Ave. Community Center. *KESHER TORAH, 5032 Brown. Services: Sabbath eve; School: Daily. TIKVAS ISRAEL, 41st and Parkside Ave. 362 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Educ. HEBREW HIGH SCHOOL, 330 S. 9th. Org. 1922. Chairman, Max L. Margolis; Dir., Ben Rosen. Students, 468; Income, $10,000. Constituent Society of Associated Talmud Torahs, WEST PHILADELPHIA COMMUNITY CENTER, Cobbs Creek Blvd. and Ludlow. Pres., Aaron Berman; Sec, Herman Landau. Members, 2,000. • Cl. ONE HUNDRED CLUB. Org. 1024. Pres., Arthur May; Sec, Henry L. Lang, Heyman Bldg. Members, 75. Pow Wow CLUB. Org. 1892. Pres., Myer Solis-Cohen; Sec, Louis Magaziner, 603 Chestnut. Members, 25. PITTSBURGH Educ. * ISAAC SEDER EDUCATION CENTER, Beliefield Ave. Char. *SOCIETY B'NAI JACOB. Pres., B. Turets; Sec, S. Kaufman n. •UKRAINIAN LADIES' AID SOCIETY. Pres., Mrs. H. Cap- Ian; Sec, Mrs. V. Steiner. SHENANDOAH Educ. COMMUNITY CENTER AND SCHOOL, Jardin and Oak. Org. 1925. Pres., Morris Oppenheimer; Sec, Leon Frieband. Members, 210; Income, 52,580. Attending annually, 300. TAMAQUA Cg. JEWISH CONGREGATION, Washington St. Services: Sabbath, in Hebrew. School: Classes, 1; teachers, 1; pupils, 25; sessions weekly, 1. Educ. YOUNG MEN'S AND YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, 117 W. Broad. Org. 1925. Pres., Joseph Lewis; Sec, Mary Mednick. Members, 20. UNIONTOWN Educ. **YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, 22 E. Main. YORK Educ. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 36 S. Queen. Pres., Louis Levitan; Sec, Max Sokol. Members, 250; Income, $7,000. TEXAS HOUSTON Cg. BETH EL, Cor. Crawford and Lamar Ave. Org. 1924. Rabbi, Nathan Blechman; Pes., Charles Mendelsohn; Sec, Louis Goldberg. Members, 210; Income, $22,- 215. Services: Sabbath and festivals. Hebrew and English. School: Classes, 7; teachers, 13; pupils, 85; sessions weekly, 4. JEWISH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 363 WICHITA FALLS Char. JEWISH FEDERATION FOR SOCIAL SERVICE, 11th and Burnett. Sec. C. Tobolowsky. Dir., Rabbi S. Phillips. Members, 53; Income, $2,200. VIRGINIA NORFOLK Char. FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT, NORFOLK SECTION, C. J. W.. c/o Juvenile Court Bldg. Org. 1919. Pres., Albert Gerst; Sec, Harry Schwan. Headworker, Carrie Younker. Members, 354; Income, $6,000. WASHINGTON SEATTLE Cg. *AGUDAS HA-KEHILLAH. Rabbi, Boruch Shapiro, 1542 12th. Educ. YOUNG WOMEN'S HEBREW ASSOCIATION, 17th and East Union. Org. 1926. Pres., Muriel B. Mosler; Sec, Sadie Miller. Members, 40. TACOMA Educ. **YOUNG HEBREW MODERATES. Sec, Dorothy Shain. WEST VIRGINIA WILLIAMSON Cg. B'NAI ISRAEL, 3d and Logan, Org. 1916. Rabbi, A. Feinstein, Huntington, W. Va. Pres., A. Goodman; Sec, M. D. Morris. Members, 30; Income, $1,500. Services: Sunday evening. English and Hebrew. School: Classes, 4; teachers, 4; pupils, 20; sessions weekly, 1. Affiliated Society, Sisterhood. WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE Cl. SHOLOM ALEICHEM CIRCLE, 172 3d. Org. 1920. Sec, Ben J. Miller. Members, 400. PHILIPPINE ISLANDS Cg. *TEMPLE EMANUEL. Pres., Alex. Frieder, Manila. Sec, Morton Netzorg. Members, 100. LIST OF FEDERATED JEWISH CHARITIES 365 UX w H3 8 io w 5w QW tx, U, O I, ON u NOOONNO ^©o©2o© O O O O t i l 2 la - Q . • & -"if1 •W • . I . :-ss ; f : g :^> a :S ^CQLT^I •CHtTflj Crt -gjt/l H **"i pfl Oj 71 m ".affl i « J3H MI< Uffi 8 | B gj 2 ffi "S +3 ' '-J3 ' cd m •*-> 1 ifii " g!!lll 1• Ai|ii 2| I I ! •OT3T3 V V V 11 I. II I |: 1""IS 1 1 rt ra TJ 'U 1™ - ib 2 2 £ •c ES B B j H £0 p p fa III 1| J<pQ OQOQ >"? •SIS .2 o o s 1 1 s B u - "=i .20 B ffl fi ~ 5 a Si" III I I II S3 « S; 2° i i3 S «J3 WOO ~ J5 Q re ai "~~* so v OJ m ^J U O uO Q C3Q Q 0 [i. 366 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK O ^O —"i OC> Ci p' C> C>p O O> 00 •+ O O f*51~ 'O "f O o * o -t o a en w 5 a u 00 a WQ W fe i1 few Ji •u • <*> . ?>s i S'-^S— c S w • w ^ * ^ C v /5 w TO * ZJ " gI c . o CJ o • • : c . • . c : < 5 : 0 ^ i l 6 >t3|sl|ac O <U «9 c "-i—: - . ^=S^-7^ £ * £ W zc SS«^ LIST OF FEDERATED JEWISH CHARITIES 367 8.2 © «-. _4 f) ^* ©^r<)W)^. © oo OO O O * «©" © ^ © U © S ©P. 0 0 0 itinu so en a s z i o Offi - a - > . Q •—• J3 3(3 en ^..JJ. J - 9 > &CBS XlJo ss 5 nl §1« n '3 . „ ' ,•2a •.v'3 _:-.-t~i Zo:3S -<a" "x3 .k u 5§ O p.' en a ~cn o.2-j 51 2 ^ C& f7( I—1_ fT, ^—I |-!^ r qj ci J3 a* a> : • > * • . • • £ : o : : : •§ : : : H i 3 £ O^-Ss | o- .go, >;2 3 2 |>- [2£ c \ .» _"«o« . o M BO Si; «O ri» - " 3. S ^«S-33 S -S si o| ffio- o z 22 IS " tt!1-"-1^ a a c2 2 2 US SM " g a &, pupjcni/KO en m tnen t/jen HH h^J ?I> > ,-" JEWISH PERIODICALS APPEARING IN THE UNITED STATES [ NOTE.—* indicates that revised data were not furnished by request] THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 19 W. 44th, New York City. Weekly. Est. 1879. THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE. N. W. cor. 7th and Elm, Cincinnati, 0. Weekly. Est. 1854. THE AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD. Tribune Annex Building, Minneapolis, Minn. Weekly. Est. 1912 as THE JEWISH WEEKLY. DER AMERIKANER (The Jewish American and Woman's Magazine). 77 Bowery, New York City. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1904. APIRYON. 2 Palisade Av., Flagg Bldg., Yonkers, N. Y. Hebrew. Monthly. Est. 1923. 'ATLANTIC WEEKLY. 1923 Atlantic Av., Atlantic City, N. J. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1922. B'NAI B'RITH MAGAZINE. 40 Electric Bldg., Cincinnati, 0. Monthly. Est. 1886. B'NAI B'RITH MESSENGER. 2d and Hill, Los Angeles, Cal. Weekly. Est. 1896. THE BOSTON JEWISH AMERICAN AND WOMEN'S MAGAZINE. Boston, Mass. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1908. BROOKLYN JEWISH CHRONICLE. 316 Livingston, Brooklyn, N. Y. Weekly. Est. 1922. BROOKLYN NEW JOURNAL. 1776 Pitkin Av., Brooklyn, N. Y. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1909 as BROOKLYN BROWNSVILLE POST. THE BUFFALO JEWISH REVIEW. 35 Pearl, Buffalo, N. Y. Weekly. Est. 1912 as THE AMERICAN JEWISH REVIEW. BULLETIN OF THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY. 611 Broadway, New York City. Daily. Est. 1919. CALIFORNIA JEWISH REVIEW. Ill W. 4th., 314 I. W. Hellman Bldg., Los Angeles, Cal. Weekly. Est. 1921. 369 370 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK CHICAGO CHRONICLE. 35 N. Dearborn, Chicago, 111. Weekly. Est. 1918. THE CHICAGO ISRAELITE. 116 S. Michigan Av., Chicago, 111. Weekly. Est. 1853. THE CHICAGO JEWISH DAILY FORWARD. 1256 S. Kedzie Av., Chicago, III. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1919. "THE DAILY JEWISH CALL. 1107 S. Halsted, Chicago, 111. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1900 as DER TAEGLICHER YIDDISHER KOL. THE DAILY JEWISH COURIER (Der Taeglicher Juedischer Courier). 1214S. Halsted, Chicago, 111. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1887. DAILY JEWISH LEADER. 299 Washington, Boston, Mass. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1923. THE DAY. 183 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish. Daily. Amalgamation of THE DAY (Der Tog), Est. 1914, and THE WARHEIT (The Truth), Est. 1905. THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE. 525 Woodward Av., Detroit, Mich. Weekly. Est. 1916. *EDEN. 498 West End Av., New York City. Hebrew. Monthly. Est. 1924. EMANU-EL. Clunie Bldg., San Francisco, Cal. Weekly. Est. 1895. FAR'N FOLK. 425 Lafayette, New York City. Yiddish. Bi-monthly. Est. 1923. *FRAYE YUGEND. 216 Henry, New York City. Yiddish. Monthly. Est, 1923. DIE FREIE ARBEITER STIMME (Free Voice of Labor). 48 Canal, New York City. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1899. FREIHEIT. 30 Union Square, New York City. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1922. GEGENWART. 52 St. Marks PI., New York City. Yiddish. Occasional. Est. 1924. DER GROSSER KUNDES (The Big Stick). 201 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1909. HADOAR. 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Hebrew. Weekly. Est. 1921. HATOREN. 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Hebrew. Monthly. Est. 1913. HUDSON JEWISH NEWS. 92 Montgomery, Jersey City, N. J. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1923. JEWISH PERIODICALS 371 THE INDIANA JEWISH CHRONICLE. 937 Meyer-Kiser Bank Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind. Weekly. Est. 1921. INTERMOUNTAIN JEWISH NEWS. 1950 Curtis, Denver, Colo. Weekly. Est. 1915 as DENVER JEWISH NEWS. DERINIEL. P.O. Box 25, Sta.B., New York City. Yiddish. Monthly. Est. 1925. THE JEWISH ADVOCATE. 251 Causeway, Boston, Mass. Weekly. Est. 1897. THE JEWISH ADVOCATE AND THE CONNECTICUT HEBREW RECORD. 251 Causeway, Boston, Mass. Weekly. Est. 1897. THE JEWISH CENTER. 352 Fourth Av., New York City. Quarterly. Est. 1922. Issued by the Jewish Welfare Board. THE JEWISH CHRONICLE. 156 Central Av., Newark, N. J. Weekly. Est. 1921. THE JEWISH CRITERION. 507 Oliver Bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa. Weekly. Est. 1895. JEWISH DAILY BULLETIN. 611 Broadway, New York City. Daily. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH DAILY NEWS (Yiddishes Tageblatt). 187 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish and English. Daily. Est. 1885. THE JEWISH DIGEST. 1207 Realty Board Bldg., Miami, Fla. Weekly. Est. 1926. THE JEWISH EXPONENT. New Public Ledger Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. Weekly. Est. 1887. JEWISH FARMER. 301 E. 14th., New York City. Yiddish and English. Monthly. Est. 1908. THE JEWISH FORUM. 2000 Broadway, New York City. Monthly. Est. 1918. THE JEWISH GAZETTE (Die Yiddishe Gazette). 187 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1874. Weekly edition of "The Jewish Daily News." THE JEWISH INDEPENDENT. 1825 E. 18th., Cleveland, Ohio. Weekly. Est. 1906. THE JEWISH INDICATOR (Wegweiser). 1520 Center Av., Pittsburgh, Pa. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1884; Reorg. 1921 as JEWISH VOLKSFREUND. 372 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK JEWISH INSTITUTE QUARTERLY. 40 W. 68th., New York City.1 English and Hebrew. Quarterly. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH LEDGER. 938 Lafayette, New Orleans, La. Weekly. Est. 1895. JEWISH LEDGER. 1239 Granite Bldg., Rochester, N. Y. English. Weekly. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH MONITOR. 287 W. 10th., Fort Worth, Texas. English. Weekly. Est. 1914. THE JEWISH MORNING JOURNAL (Der Morgen Journal). 77 Bowery, New York City. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1901. JEWISH MUSICAL WORLD AND THEATRE MAGAZINE. 5 Beekman, New York City. Yiddish. Monthly. Est. 1923. JEWISH PRESS. 490 Brandeis Theatre Bldg., Omaha, Neb. Weekly. Est. 1920. THE JEWISH PRESS. 576 12th., Milwaukee, Wis. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1919. THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. S. E. cor. Broad and York, Philadelphia, Pa. New Series. Est. 1910. Published by the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning. •THE JEWISH RECORD (Der Yiddisher Record). 1127 Blue Island Av., Chicago, 111. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1909. THE JEWISH RECORD. 1309 Franklin Av., St. Louis, Mo. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1913. JEWISH RECORD. 148 Dwyer Av., San Antonio, Tex. Weekly. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH REVIEW. 906 Union Trust Bldg., Providence, R. I.. Weekly. Est. 1920. THE JEWISH REVIEW AND OBSERVER. 1150 W. 3d., Cleveland, Ohio. Weekly. Est. 1888. JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE QUARTERLY. 330 S. 9th., Philadelphia, Pa. Quarterly. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY, 611 Broadway, New York City. Est. 1920. JEWISH THEATRICAL NEWS. 101 W. 42d, New York City. Weekly. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH TIMES. Suite 511, Lexington Bldg., Baltimore, Md. Weekly. Est. 1919. JEWISH PERIODICALS 373 *THE JEWISH TIMES. 60S E. 4th., Los Angeles, Cal. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1916. THE JEWISH TIMES. SO Main, San Francisco, Cal. Weekly. Est. 1855. JEWISH TRANSCRIPT. 1616 8th Av., Seattle, Wash. Weekly. Est. 1924. THE JEWISH TRIBUNE. Cowan Bldg., 57O-7th., Av., New York City. Weekly. Est. 1902 at Portland, Ore., moved to New York City, 1919. HEBREW STANDARD (est. 1882) amalgamated with THE JEWISH TRIBUNE, 1922. THE JEWISH VOICE. 925 Victoria Bldg., St. Louis, Mo. Weekly. Est. 1879. THE JEWISH VOICE. 32 Broome, Newark, N. J. English-Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1923. *THE JEWISH VOICE. 325 Yesler Way, Seattle, Wash. Weekly. Est. 1915. THE JEWISH WOMAN. 2109 Broadway, New York City. Quarterly. Est. 1921. Published by The National Council of Jewish Women. THE JEWISH WORLD. 50th and Woodland, Cleveland, Ohio. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1908. THE JEWISH WORLD. 233 S. 5th., Philadelphia, Pa., Yiddish and English. Daily. Est. 1914. THE KANSAS CITY JEWISH CHRONICLE. 304 W. 10th., Kansas City, Mo. Weekly. Est. 1920. KINDER JOURNAL. 1387 Washington Av., New York City. Yiddish. Monthly. Est. 1920. KULTUR. 1126 Blue Island Av., Chicago, 111. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1925. LIGHT OF ISRAEL (Yiddische Licht). 54 Canal, New York City. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1923. MENORAH JOURNAL. 167 W. 13th., New York City. Bi-monthly. Est. 1915. Published by the Intercollegiate Menorah Association. DER MILWAUKER WOCHENBLATT (The Milwaukee Weekly). 576 12th., Milwaukee, Wis. Yiddish and English. Weekly. Est. 1914. THE MODERN VIEW. 210 Olive, St. Louis, Mo. Weekly. Est. 1901. THE NEW PALESTINE. 114 5th., Av., N. Y. C. Weekly. Est. 1921. Successor to THE MACCABEAN, Est. 1901. 374 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Organ of the Zionist Organization of America. OHIO JEWISH CHRONICLE. 508 Schultz Bldg., Columbus, O. Weeky.l Est. 1920. PHILADELPHIA JEWISH CHRONICLE. 215 S. 57th, Philadelphia, Pa. Weekly. Est. 1922. PHILADELPHIA JEWISH TIMES. 709 N. Franklin, Philadelphia, Pa. English. Weekly. Est. 1925. THE REFORM ADVOCATE. 7 S. Dearborn, Chicago, III. Weekly. Est. 1891. SAN ANTONIO JEWISH WEEKLY. 530 Gunter Bldg., San Antonio, Tex. Weekly. Est. 1923. THE SCRIBE. 715 Chamber of Commerce Bldg., Portland, Ore. Weekly. Est. 1919. THE SENTINEL. 116-124 S. Clinton, Chicago, 111. Weekly. Est. 1910. SHRIFTEN (Writings). 425 Lafayette, New York City. Quarterly. Est. 1912. SPRINGFIELD HEBREW RECORD. 251 Causeway, Boston, Mass. Weekly. Est. 1923. STARK COUNTY JEWISH NEWS. 1333 Shorb Av., N. W., Canton, O. Bi-monthly. Est. 1921. SUMMARY OF EVENTS OF JEWISH INTEREST. 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Monthly. Est. 1921. Issued by the Bureau of Jewish Social Research. TEXAS JEWISH HERALD, \2\0yi Congress, Houston, Texas. Weekly. Est. 1908 as THE JEWISH HERALD. THE TOLEDO ISRAELITE. 2448 Putnam, Toledo, Ohio. Monthly. Est. 1915. UNION TIDINGS. Merchants' Bldg., Cincinnati, Ohio. Monthly. Est. 1919. Published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. UNITED SYNAGOGUE RECORDER. 531 W. 123d. New York City. Quarterly. Est. 1921. Organ of the United Syangogue of America, the Women's League, and the Young People's League. LA VARA. 7 Rivington, New York City. Judeo-Spanish. Weekly. Est. 1922. VON ZEIT ZU ZEIT. 661 E. 170th, New York City. Yiddish. Quarterly. Est. 1925. JEWISH PERIODICALS 375 VORWARTS (Jewish Daily Forward). 175 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish. Daily. Est. 1897. WISCONSIN JEWISH CHRONICLE. 383 Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wis. Weekly. Est. 1920. Dos WORT. 175 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish. Monthly. Est. 1921. Dos YIDDISHE FOLK. 114 Fifth Av., New York City. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1909. Yiddish Organ of the Zionist Organization of America. ' YIDDISHER ARBEITER. 133 Second Av., New York City. Yiddish. Weekly. Est. 1923. YOUNG ISRAEL. Formerly the UNION HOME STUDY MAGAZINE. Merchants' Bldg., Cincinnati, Ohio. Monthly. Est. 1913. Published by the Department of Synagogue and School Extension, Union of American Hebrew Congregations. DIE ZUKUNFT (The Future). 175 E. Broadway, New York City. Yiddish. Monthly. Est. 1895. JEWISH MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES PAST ANSORGE, MARTIN C, 1882- . Rep. from N. Y., 1921-1922. BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP, 1812-1884. Sen. from La., 1853-1861. CANTOR, JACOB A., 1854-1920. Rep. from N. Y., 1913-1915. EINSTEIN, EDWIN, 1842-1906. Rep. from N. Y., 1879-1881. EMERICH, MARTIN, 1847-1922. Rep. from 111., 1903-1907. FISCHER, ISRAEL F.r 1858- . Rep. from N. Y., 1895-1899. FRANK, NATHAN, 1852- . Rep. from 1889-1891. GOLDFOGLE, HENRY M., 1856- . Rep. from N. Y., 1901-1915, 1919- 1921. GOLDZIER, JULIUS, 1854-1925. Rep. from 111., 1893-1895, GUGGENHEIM, SIMON, 1867- . Sen. from Colo., 1907-1913. HART, EMANUEL B., 1809-1897. Rep. from N. Y., 1851-1853. # HOUSEMAN, JULIUS, 1832-1891. Rep. from Mich., 1883-1885.' JONAS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 1834-1911. Sen. from La., 1879-1885. KAHN, JULIUS, 1861-1924. Rep. from Cal., 1889-1902, 1905-1924. KRAUSS, MILTON, 1866- . Rep. from 111., 1917-1922. LESSLER, MONTAGUE, 1869- . Rep. from N. Y., 1902-1903. LEVIN, LEWIS CHARLES, 1808-1860. Rep. from Pa., 1845-1851. LEVY, DAVID. See YULEE, DAVID LEVY. LEVY, JEFFERSON MONROE, 1852-1924. Rep. from N. Y., 1899-1901, 1911-1915. LITTAUER, Lucius NATHAN, 1859- . Rep. from N. Y., 1897-1907. LONDON, MEYER, 1871-1926. Rep. from N. Y., 1915-1917, 1921-1923. *MARX, SAMUEL, 1867-1922. Rep. from N. Y., 1922. MAY, MITCHELL, 1871- . Rep. from N. Y., 1899-1901. MEYER, ADOLPH, 1842-1908. Rep. from La., 1891-1908. *Died before taking his seat. 377 378 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK MORSE, LEOPOLD, 1831-1892. Rep. from Mass., 1877-1885; 1887-1889. PHILLIPS, HENRY MYER, 1811-1884. Rep. from Pa., 1857-1859. PHILLIPS, PHILIP, 1807-1884. Rep. from Ala., 1853-1855. PULITZER, JOSEPH, 1847-1911. Rep. from N. Y., 1885-1886. RAYNER, ISADOR, 1850-1912. Rep. from Md., 1887-1895. Sen. from Md., 1905-1912. ROSENBLOOM, B. L., 1880- . Rep. from Wheeling, W. Va., 1921. ROSSDALE, ALBERT B., 1878- . Rep. from N. Y., 1921-1922. SIEGEL, ISAAC, 1880- . Rep. from N. Y., 1915-1922. SIMON, JOSEPH, 1851- . Sen. from Ore., 1897-1903. STRAUS, ISIDOR, 1845-1912. Rep. from N. Y., 1894-1895. STROUSE, MYER, 1825-1878. Rep. from Pa., 1863-1867. VOLK, LESTER DAVID, 1884- . Rep. from N. Y., 1921-1923. WOLF, HARRY B., 1880- . Rep. from Md., 1907-1909. YULEE, DAVID LEVY, 1811-1886. Del. from Fla., 1841-1845. Sen. from Fla., 1845-1851, 1855-1861. PRESENT (MEMBERS OF THE SIXTY-NINTH CONGRESS) BACHRACH, ISAAC, Republican, Representative, Atlantic City, 1915- BERGER* VICTOR, Socialist, Representative, Milwaukee, 1923- BLOOM, SOL., Democrat, Representative, New York City, 1923- CELLER, EMANUEL, Democrat, Representative, New York City, 1923- DICKSTEIN, SAMUEL, Democrat, Representative, New York City, 1923- GOLDER, BENJAMIN, Republican, Representative, Philadelphia, 1924- JACOBSTEIN, MEYER, Democrat, Representative, Rochester, 1923- KAHN, FLORENCE PRAG (MRS. JULIUS), Republican, Representative, San Francisco, 1925- PERLMAN, NATHAN D., Republican, Representative, Xew York City, 1921- SABATH, ADOLPH J., Democrat, Representative, Chicago, 1907- |
WhoDidIt 9/11 |
1. George W. Bush — eldest son of Bush crime family; guilty of
election fraud in 2000, 2004; guilty of war crimes, war profiteering,
treason, crimes against humanity; likely signed-off on 9-11 plot
2. Dick Cheney — former PNAC member; former chairman of CFR; guilty of war profiteering, treason; was in bunker on 9-11 directing several “war games”; lied to 9-11 Omission Commission about timing of 9-11 activities 3. Donald Rumsfeld — former Secretary of War and PNAC member; close friend of Cheney; was at Pentagon on 9-11; once slipped and said “when that missile hit the Pentagon” 4. Paul Wolfowitz — Deputy Secretary of War on 9-11; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist; investigated for spying for Israel; former PNAC member; chief architect of Iraq war; forced to resign in World Bank scandal 5. Richard Perle — former assistant Secretary of War, chairman War Policy Board, and PNAC member; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist; allegedly gave $100,000 to head of Pakistan’s ISI, Mahmoud Ahmad; nicknamed “Prince of Darkness” 6. Douglas Feith — effectively in command, with Wolfowitz, of War Department on 9-11; Undersecretary of War for Policy; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist; investigated for spying for Israel; former PNAC member 7. Dov Zakheim — Pentagon comptroller when trillion dollars reported missing on 9-10-01; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist; Shul Rabbi; former CFR member; former CEO of fly-by-remote manufacturer; reputed 9-11 mastermind 8. George Tenet — director of the CIA on 9-11; was awarded the “Medal of Freedom” by Bush for his fine work on 9-11; reported to be “dual citizen” of US and Israel 9. Robert Mueller — FBI director on 9-11; under his “leadership” FBI field agents’ warnings of an imminent attack were stifled 10. Thomas Pickard — took over the job of FBI director from Louis Freeh in August 2001; held this position only for a few weeks before Richard Mueller became director; former Terror Task Force chief; John O’Neill complained about sabotage by Pickard 11. Dale Watson — former Deputy Chief of the CIA at the Counter-Terrorist Center; appointed Inspector Deputy Assistant Director of the National Security Division (NSD), FBI Headquarters, Washington, DC in July 1998; appointed FBI Headquarters Assistant on December 6, 1999 by the Attorney General; ignored at least four different FBI agents’ warnings including an “urgent cable” from the CIA on August 23rd about Almihdhar and Alhazmi 12. Dave Frasca — FBI Radical Fundamentalists Unit Chief; personally scuttled the work of Kenneth Williams in July 2001 and Coleen Rowley in August 2001, the Arizona and Minnesota FBI agents who were actively investigating “terrorist” patsies in CIA-operated flight schools 13. Marion “Spike” Bowman — FBI agent who thwarted FBI investigations into both Zacarias Moussaoui and the anthrax attacks on Congress 14. John Ashcroft — Attorney General on 9-11; protected “terrorist” patsy Abdussattar Shaikh from subpoena after 9-11; stopped flying commercial aircraft in 2001 15. Michael Chertoff — Assistant Attorney General on 9-11; freed over 100 Israeli spies in the US after 9-11; promoted to head Homeland Security; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist; likely Mossad agent 16. Michael Mukasey — federal judge in New York; presided over 1993 WTC bombing case; active in 9-11 cases, including Larry Silverstein’s insurance claims; oversaw the detained material witnesses of 9-11, including five dancing Israeli Mossad agents apprehended by FBI; recently appointed by Bush to be the next Attorney General; radical Zionist of Russian Jewish parentage; “dual citizen” of US and Israel 17. Ted Olson — Solicitor General of the United States on 9-11; alleges that his wife, Barbara, phoned him from AA Flight 77 to report that it was highjacked by men with knives and box cutters; Flight 77 allegedly crashed into the Pentagon though there was no wreckage of a 757 at the site, no bodies, no luggage, and the hole in the side of the Pentagon was much too small to accommodate a 757 (Barbara is not likely alive, but she was not killed at the Pentagon event) 18. Colin Powell — Secretary of State on 9-11; met with General Mahmoud Ahmad two days after 9-11; former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; helped cover up Vietnam My Lai massacre 19. Condi Rice — National Security Adviser on 9-11; promoted to Secretary of State; lied to 9-11 Omission Commission while under oath 20. Tommy Thompson — Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary; hired Jerome Hauer, former Office of Emergency Center, on 9-10-01 21. Jerome Hauer — managing director of Kroll and senior adviser to US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) for National Security and Emergency Management on 9-11; put John O’Neill at the WTC on 9-11; lied to Dan Rather on CBS News on 9-11 about the controlled demolition of WTC buildings; director of Giuliani’s Office of Emergency Management from 1996 to 2000 22. Porter Goss — former House Intelligence Chair; was meeting with General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan’s ISI and 9-11 financier, on 9-11; promoted to Director of CIA, resigned after “hookergate” 23. Bob Graham — former Florida Senator; was meeting with General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan’s ISI and 9-11 financier, on 9-11; ran for President in 2004 24. Marc Grossman — Under Secretary for Political Affairs on 9-11; met with General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan’s ISI and 9-11 financier, on or shortly after 9-11; “dual citizen” of US and Israel 25. Richard Armitage — former member of PNAC, Deputy Secretary of State; met with General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistan’s ISI and 9-11 financier, shortly after 9-11 26. Philip Zelikow — led the 9-11 Cover-Up Commission; personally wrote the 9-11 Omission Commission Report, a best-selling work of fiction; appointed Counselor of US Department of State; “dual citizen” of US and Israel 27. Ari Fleischer — White House spokesman for Bush on 9-11; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; connected to the extremist group called the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidics 28. Andrew Card — Bush’s Chief of Staff on 9-11; was with Bush at Booker Elementary School in Florida on 9-11; claims to have whispered to Bush, “A second plane hit the second tower, America is under attack” 29. Karl Rove — Bush’s top strategist, known as “Bush’s Brian”; America’s Joseph Goebbels; was behind the campaign to oust Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney who was the first nationally-known politician to question Bush’s role in 9-11; in June 2005, said, “Conservatives saw the savagery of 9-11 in the attacks and prepared for war, liberals saw the savagery of the 9-11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers” 30. Richard Meyers — in charge of USA air defenses on 9-11; lied to 9-11 Omission Commission about reasons for air defense failure on 9-11; promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 31. Ralph Eberhardt — NORAD Commander on 9-11; fanatical supporter of missile defense scheme, militarization of space; enthusiastic supporter of merging law enforcement and the military 32. Larry Arnold — NORAD Commander Major General on 9-11; has used 9-11 to push militarization of USA 33. Eric Findley — Canadian Air Force Major General; acting commander of NORAD on 9-11 34. Montague Winfield — Major General in charge of Pentagon war room on 9-10-01, the evening of September 10th he requested a rookie to stand in for him on 9-11 35. Richard Mies — former Admiral; ran Global Guardian “war game” on 9-11 out of US Strategic Command (Stratcom) at Offutt Air Force Base; now CEO of Hicks & Associates, a “strategic consultant” to the USG dealing in “military transformation” 36. Henry Shelton — Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9-11; supported formation of Able Danger 37. Peter Schoomaker — US Army Chief of Staff; former SOCOM (Special Operations Command) chief; ran Able Danger 38. Geoffrey Lambert — Major General; SOCOM (Special Operations Command) Intel Chief; made Able Danger, the program that tracked patsy “terrorists”, off limits to FBI 39. John Brinkerhoff — retired US Army Colonel who was a career senior executive in the Office of Secretary of War; from 1981 to 1983, FEMA associate director for national preparedness where he developed plan for martial law; claims intentions of Posse Comitatus are “misunderstood and misapplied”, that USG has “full and absolute authority” to use troops to quell American uprising; after 9-11, joined Anser Institute for Homeland Security and wrote “talking points” supporting revised “national security initiatives” that would allow imposition of martial law 40. John Lehman — Reagan’s Navy Secretary from 1981 till 1987; claims US is in religious war against “violent, Islamic Fundamentalism”; member 9-11 Omission Commission; PNAC member 41. Tony Gentry — Army Intelligence and Security Command General Counsel; ordered 2.5 terrabytes of Able Danger data destroyed 42. Philip Odeen — as director of Program Analysis for the National Security Council, provided staff support to Henry Kissinger from 1971 to 1973; served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of War in Systems Analysis; named to chair the National War Panel in 1997; former president of Reynolds and Reynolds; former CEO and president of BDM International; executive vice president of Washington operations of TRW 43. Elliot Abrams — former member of PNAC, National Security Council; pleaded guilty in 1991 to lying to Congress about Iran-Contra affair; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist 44. Lewis “Scooter” Libby — former PNAC member; studied political science at Yale under Paul Wolfowitz; aid to Cheney; convicted for lying about outing of Valerie Plame; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist 45. Jack Abramoff — entertained USG “terrorist” patsy Mohammed Atta on his yacht just before 9-11; convicted criminal lobbyist; ardent Zionist 46. Jeb Bush — Florida governor on 9-11; declared martial law in Florida four days before 9-11; brother of George Bush; PNAC member; guilty of election fraud in 2000 47. Rudolph Giuliani — mayor of New York on 9-11; hailed as “hero” for his “gutsy” leadership on 9-11; allegedly involved with FEMA and former NYC Police Chief Kerik in Operation Code Angel 48. Bernard Kerik — NYC Police Chief on 9-11; “sidekick” of Giuliani; allegedly involved with FEMA in WTC demolition “war games” called Operation Code Angel 49. Lewis Eisenberg — chairman Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on 9-11; authorized transfer of WTC leases to Silverstein and Lowy just weeks before 9-11; later appointed chairman of Republican National Committee; Zionist 50. Eliot Spitzer — New York Attorney General on 9-11; barred his top aide, Deputy Attorney General Dietrich Snell, from testifying to Congress on Able Danger; threw out Karl Schwarz’s 9-11 synopsis 51. Richard Holbrooke — former US ambassador to UN; CFR member; co-chaired “Independent Task Force on America’s Response to Terrorism” in which the Official Conspiracy Theory (OCT) was promoted 52. John Deutch — former Undersecretary of War, director of CIA; co-authored paper, “Catastrophic Terrorism: A National Policy” with Zelikow, Ashton Carter; senior partner at Global Technology Partners, an affiliate of Rothschild North America; MIT professor; grandson of Yonah Fischer, Antwerp diamond merchant who ran Zionist Federation of Belgium 53. Ashton Carter — co-authored paper, “Catastrophic Terrorism: A National Policy” with Zelikow and Deutch; senior partner at Global Technology Partners, an affiliate of Rothschild North America 54. Michael Ledeen — became “anti-terrorism” advisor to Secretary of State, Al Haig in 1981; contacts with mullahs in Iran-Contra affair; alleged ties to Italian fascist P2 Masonic Lodge; contacts with Libby, Cheney’s Chief of Staff; top NeoCon(vict) advisor to Bush and Karl Rove; member AEI (American Enterprise Institute); wrote book extolling fascism 55. Abdussattar Shaikh — FBI informant to the San Diego office; helped bring “terrorist” patsies to USA; protected by Attorney General Ashcroft 56. Abdullah Noman — worked for the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; filed 10-15 visas for the patsy 9-11 “hijackers” in the Visa Express Program 57. Daniel Lewin — officer in elite, secret unit of Israeli military called “Sayeret Matkal”; orchestrated activities of Mossad agents in USA before 9-11; was allegedly stabbed or “shot” by highjacker Satam al-Suqami before AA flight 11 crashed into the WTC 58. Dominic Suter — Mossad agent; his front company, Urban Moving Systems, employed the five Mossad agents caught celebrating in New York on 9-11 59. Sivan Kurzberg — driver of van belonging to the celebrating Israelis; when stopped by police on 9-11, he said “We are Israelis. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are your problem” 60. John Gross — one of the lead engineers for the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed; denies existence of molten steel at the WTC 61. Theresa McAllister — edited the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed 62. Ronald Hamburger — structural engineer and Senior Principal at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger consulting engineers in San Francisco; was a principal author of FEMA’s initial report on the collapse of the twin towers; later a key participant in the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed 63. William Baker — member of FEMA Probe Team; partner with Skidmore, Owings, Merrill; contributed to the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed 64. Harold Nelson — contributed to the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed 65. Ramon Gilsanz — contributed to the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed 66. Shankar Nair — contributed to the flawed NIST report on why the WTC buildings collapsed; quoted in Chicago Tribune, September 19, 2001 that “Already there is near-consensus as to the sequence of events that led to the collapse of the World Trade Center” 67. Gene Corley — led FEMA/ASCE WTC collapse “investigation”; was the principle investigator for ASCE and FEMA of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City 68. Paul Mlakar — part of ASCE team that investigated both WTC and Murrah Federal building attacks 69. Mete Sozen — part of ASCE team that investigated both WTC and Murrah Federal building attacks 70. Charles Thornton — partner of Richard Tomasetti; told Karl Koch, whose company erected the WTC steel, “Karl, we all know what caused the collapse”; part of ASCE team that investigated both WTC and Murrah Federal building attacks 71. Richard Tomasetti — partner of Charles Thornton; reportedly behind the unprecedented and widely criticized decision to destroy most of the WTC steel evidence 72. Victor Ganzi — president and CEO of Hearst Corporation since June 1, 2002; the Hearst publication, Popular Mechanics, has repeatedly tried to debunk the truth of 9-11 73. Benjamin Chertoff — 25-year-old cousin of Michael Chertoff; senior “researcher” for Popular Mechanics’ hit piece on 9-11 Truth Movement 74. Kevin Delaney — FAA manager at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center who destroyed controllers’ tapes of 9-11 75. Marvin Bush — brother of George Bush; on board of Securacom, US-Kuwaiti company paid $9.2 million to manage WTC security October 1996 to 1998; on board of HCC Insurance, big WTC insurer 76. Wirt Walker — cousin of George Bush; principal at Securacom, US-Kuwaiti joint-venture that managed security for WTC, United Airlines, and Dulles Airport, all of which figured into 9-11 77. Larry Silverstein — he and partner Frank Lowy obtained 99-year lease on WTC shortly before 9-11; made several billion dollars on 9-11 insurance fraud; admitted to “pulling” WTC 7; Zionist 78. Frank Lowy — he and partner Larry Silverstein obtained 99-year lease on WTC shortly before 9-11; came to Palestine in 1945 from Hungarian to fight as Golani commando in Israeli “War of Independence”; Australia’s second richest person; in May 2007, investigated by Israeli police for corruption scandal involving Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; Zionist 79. David Rockefeller — vice director of the Council on Foreign Relations (1949-1985), vice president (1950-1970), and chairman (1970-1985); as chairman of the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (1958 to 1975) was primary builder of WTC complex; founder and honorary chairman of the Trilateral Commission; president or CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, 1961 to 1981; 9-11 was the anniversary of 1973 CIA-sponsored coup plotted by David Rockefeller’s cabal and overseen by Nelson’s protégé Henry Kissinger that toppled Chile’s President Salvadore Allende 80. Nicholas Rockefeller — told film-maker Aaron Russo of coming catastrophic event eleven months before 9-11 81. Warren Buffett — was hosting golf charity event at the US Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha on 9-11 (Bush flew to Offutt afternoon of 9-11); world’s second richest person 82. Rupert Murdoch — key player in Zionist-controlled corporate media which began the 9-11 cover-up on day one; connected to individuals who privatized and leased WTC just weeks before 9-11; vocal supporter of Zionist extremists Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon; honored by leading Zionist organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), in which Silverstein, Lowy, and Eisenberg all hold senior positions; Zionist who tries to hide his Jewish heritage 83. Maurice Greenberg — CEO of American International Group (AIG) on 9-11 which became co-owner of the “private spy agency”, Kroll Associates, in 1993 and was a major share-holder in Marsh & McClennan whose CEO on 9-11 was Maurice’s son Jeffrey; director of the New York Federal Reserve bank (1988-1995); deputy chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 1996; major investor in the Blackstone Group 84. Jules Kroll — founder of Kroll Corporation, a “security services” company which was in charge of “security” at WTC on 9-11; has close links to CIA and is active private military contractor in Iraq; Zionist 85. Paul Bremer — Marsh & McClennan executive on 9-11; Chairman of the Congressional National Commission on Terrorism, 1999 to 2000; US Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism, 1986 to 1989; Presidential Envoy to Irag and Adminstrator of the Coaltion Provisional Authority, May 2003 to December 2004 86. Wallace Hilliard — with Saudi investors including Shiek Kamal Adham, Adnan Khashoggi, and Prince Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz. bought Venice, Florida Huffman Aviation in 1999 where Mohammed Atta and other alleged 9-11 highjackers allegedly learned to fly; flight school linked to CIA firm 87. Peter Peterson — CEO of the Blackstone Group, parent corporation of one of three lease-holders for WTC 7 on 9-11; also chairman of the CFR and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on 9-11; CEO of the Institute for International Economics in October 2000 88. A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard — now number three executive director at the CIA; until 1998, managed firm used to place “put options” on United Airlines which has left $2.5 million in “profits” unclaimed 89. Mark Loizeaux — as CEO of CDI was instrumental in “recycling” steel from WTC crime scene; CDI also buried the rubble from the crime scene of the Murrah Federal Building 90. Loring Knoblauch — CEO of Underwriters Labs; said that jet fuel fires were not “reasonably foreseeable”; resigned suddenly in August 2004 after UL performed tests of WTC floor models where floors did not collapse and were barely affected 91. Michael Cherkasky — CEO of Kroll on 9-11; former investigator in the Manhattan DA’s Office from 1978 to 1994; now CEO of insurance-firm Marsh & McClennan 92. Frank Carlucci — former Secretary of War; affiliated with PNAC; served as chairman of the Carlyle Group (1992-2003); on BoD of BDM International 93. William Kristol — PNAC co-founder; adherent of Leo Strauss; editor of The Weekly Standard; strong advocate of the Iraq war; “dual citizen” of US and Israel; Zionist 94. William Perry — former Secretary of War; associated with the Rothschild’s banking empire through Global Technology, a Rothschild affiliate 95. James Woolsey — former CIA director; PNAC member; claims “incompetence” was reason for 9-11 96. Newt Gingrich — former Speaker of the House; PNAC member; reputed to be a member of the CFR; served on the Pentagon’s War Policy Board 97. Henry Kissinger — long criminal history; wanted for war crimes in several countries; sat on War Policy Board under Perle; chosen to lead 9-11 Cover-Up Omission Commission; “dual citizen” of US and Israel 98. George H.W. Bush — Bush crime family Don; Skull and Bones; CIA operative involved in JFK assassination; former head of CIA; son of friend shot Reagan when he was VP; war profiteer 99. Tony Blair — British Prime Minister on 9-11; ally and partner in crime of George Bush; London 7-7 bombings were also “false flag” operation 100. Pauline Neville-Jones — International Governor of BBC on 9-11; Chairman of UK Joint Intelligence Committee (1991-1994); Chairman of QinetiQ Group, a war technology company with government customers in UK and USA; Chairman of Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC) 101. Mahmoud Ahmad — head of Pakistan’s ISI; had Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh wire $100,000 to lead 9-11 “terrorist” patsy Mohammad Atta 102. Benjamin Netanyahu — former Israeli Prime Minister; said 9-11 was “good” for US-Israeli relationship; in NYC on 9-11 and in London on 7-7 bombings
|
Atlantic Partnership members back pdf |
Lord Powell of Bayswater – Chairman – Bio Ambassador Richard Burt –
Managing Director, McLarty Associates – Bio The Right Honourable Lord
Howard of Lympne - President and Founding Chairman – Bio The Honorable
James P. Rubin – Vice Chairman, USA - Bio Secretary William Cohen –
Co-Chairman USA – Bio Senator Sam Nunn – Co-Chairman USA – Bio Pierre
Lellouche – Vice Chairman, France – Bio Ambassador Francois Bujon
d’Estang – Vice Chairman, France Patrons
The Honorable Dr. Henry Kissinger – Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. – Bio Senator John McCain – United States Senator for Arizona – Bio General Colin L. Powell – Former United States Secretary of State – Bio The Rt Honorable John Major CH – Former United Kingdom Prime Minister – Bio The Rt Honorable Lord Robertson of Port Ellen – Former Secretary General of NATO – Bio Alain Juppé The Rt Honorable Lord Gilbert – Life Peer, House of Lords – Bio Herr Karsten Voigt – Coordinator for German-American Cooperation – Bio Sr. Eduardo Serra – Former Defense Minister of Spain – Bio Senator Antonio Martino – Minister of Defense of Italy – Bio Trustees The Rt Honorable Michael Howard QC MP – President and Founding Chairman – Bio Lord Marland of Odstock – Treasurer – Bio Lord Powell of Bayswater – Chairman – Bio Lord Chadlington of Dean – Life Peer, House of Lords – Bio Meg Allen – Director of DRAMLA SA, Geneva – Bio Sir Evelyn de Rothschild – Chairman, E.L. Rothschild Ltd – Bio Sir David Manning GCMG, CVO – Bio Ambassador Richard Burt – Managing Director, McLarty Associates – Bio General Brent Scowcroft – President of The Scowcroft Group – Bio Friends of Atlantic Partnership US Ambassador Richard Burt – Managing Director, McLarty Associates – Bio Paula Dobriansky – Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, Thomson Reuters - Bio John R. Drexel IV – Chairman, Sage Advisors – Bio James Lyle – Chief Investment Officer, Millgate Capital - Bio James P. Rubin, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs - Bio General Brent Scowcroft – President of The Scowcroft Group – Bio Leo M. Tilman – President, L.M.Tilman & Co. – Bio Daniel Yergin – Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Associates - Bio Major corporate members 2002: Accenture AstraZeneca plc BAE Systems plc Barclays Bank plc BG Group BHP Billiton Bovis Lend Lease Ltd BP plc British Airways plc British American Tobacco Defence, Ministry of Deutsche Bank Diageo plc Economist Group, The ExxonMobil Foreign and Commonwealth Office GlaxoSmithKline Goldman Sachs International HSBC Holdings plc Lloyds TSB Group plc N M Rothschild and Sons Ltd PricewaterhouseCoopers Rinku of London plc Rio Tinto plc Saudi Petroleum Overseas Ltd Shell International Ltd Standard Chartered Bank Trade and Industry, Department of Unilever plc Yukos Oil Corporation
|