Bank set for 'bloody BCCI battle' : London Evening Standard

[emad]

"22 present and former members of this country's central bank are accused of dishonesty."


Robert Lea, Evening Standard
24 September 2004

THE Bank of England has declared there will be no surrender in its £1bn landmark case brought by the liquidators of failed lender the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), despite a threat that the trial is set to get 'bloody' for the Bank and former senior officials. The trial of the Bank, accused of 'misfeasance' in its regulation of the fraud-ridden BCCI which it closed down in 1991, is set to restart on Monday.

After a record six-month opening earlier this year by the counsel for the liquidators of BCCI, who are seeking compensation for creditors who lost deposits in the shutdown, the Bank's legal team is set to present its case.This will lead to the calling to the witness stand of a blue-chip array of the Bank's senior staff over the past 20 years.

In addition to three former Governors, Sir Edward George, Lord Kingsdown (Robin Leigh-Pemberton) and Lord Richardson, it is understood eight other officials will be called, with examinations expected of two former heads of banking supervision, Peter Cooke and Brian Quinn.It will be the first public examination of the officials, who are likely to be quizzed closely on what happened during the regulation of BCCI.....................................

The cross-examinations of the Bank witnesses will be led by Gordon Pollock, the celebrity lawyer who has already laid several punches on the Bank in his opening address, aided by Clare Montgomery who is regarded in the legal world as one of the feistiest advocates since George Carman. Christopher Grierson, solicitor to the liquidators, said: 'These cross-examinations are going to be bloody.'

Cooke, head of supervision at the Bank of England from 1976 to 1985, is now a paid adviser to the Bank of China's London-based international investment banking arm. The Bank insisted today that it has no intention of settling the case out of court, reiterating a statement by the current Governor Mervyn King, who said in the summer: 'In any event it is impossible to contemplate settlement in an action in which 22 present and former members of this country's central bank are accused of dishonesty.'

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid82832?source=

[emad]

1. Key players:

THE role of Peter Cooke, head of supervision at the Bank of England from 1976 to 1985 - key years in the emergence of BCCI in the UK - is seen as vital to the liquidators' case.

Now 72, he left the Bank in 1988, subsequently working for Price Waterhouse, a joint auditor of BCCI which settled separately with the liquidators.

Cooke remains active in the banking world. A high-profile author of the Basle banking accord, he has been put forward as a non-executive director of the image-tarnished Bank of China.

Cooke's successor Brian Quinn, whose jobs since leaving the Bank have included the chairmanship of Celtic football club, will also come under the spotlight.

[CarolynEC]

2. Hmmm... maybe the JK campaign has been waiting for this...

... to start talking about his successes shutting down terrorist money pipelines?

[emad]

4. Kerry was instrumental in activating a UN Security Couuncil

investigation into BCCI operations in the US and in neighbouring Carribean offshore tax havens and deserves credit for that important role.

Bob Morgenthau, District Attorney for NYC, should also be extremely proud of his immense role in shutting down this house of cards.

But it ain't over until Thatcher is subpoenaed along with John Major and former heads of the security and intelligence services.

[Octafish]

11. Any chance the Queen could lose her job?

After all, she and the BFEEarelikethis. LMFAO. Their eyes show signs of such inbreeding!

BUSH FAMILY, American ROYALS!

Thanks to Anita Sands Hernandez for the following.

THOSE WHO DISMANTLED OUR CONSTITUTION

by Brian Downing Quig

It is commonly assumed that there is no aristocracy, let alone a nobility, in America. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In his work, Ancestors of American Presidents, Gary Boyd Roberts of the New England Historic Genealogical Society reveals nineteen presidents descended from Edward III.

John Galt (a pen name of a researcher fearing to be identified), in an unpublished manuscript (now in my possession), The Genealogy of the New World Order, has traced the royal ancestry of George Bush, which traces from Charlemagne and Alfred the Great, all the way down through George Bush's 32 presidential cousins!

Sadly, this manuscript may remain unpublished. Galt and I were scheduled to do a 2 hour radio interview on Tom Valentine's Radio Free America, a shortwave broadcast that reaches 250,000 listeners who are especially attuned to such topics. Just two days before the interview, a fire burned down the transmitting station. Unfortunately, this fire, which involved no foul play, according to Valentine, frightened Galt who now refuses to communicate with me or anyone else on these matters. Nonetheless, I am convinced of the soundness of Galt's conclusions.

I attended the Southwest Genealogical Conference, which met last year at the Hyatt Regency, downtown Phoenix, during which Galt presented the most controversial aspects of his work to the top authorities there. Everyone acquiesced to the depths of his knowledge. Several of the attendees were close personal friends of Gary Boyd Roberts.

Both George Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush (of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith) are descended from the same Pierce family of England as President Franklin Pierce. Originally known as the enormously powerful Percy family of England, a name change to Pierce was required along with a quick immigration to America, when their involvement in the failed Gun Powder Plot to blow up Parliament became known. One of the Percy castles, where this plot was hatched was known as Sion House.

CONTINUED GENETIC HOOLIGANISM...

http://www.konformist.com/2002/bush-royals.htm

[emad]

12. The events following the bombing of Buckingham Palace in 1940

are shrouded under the UK Official Secrets Act. Anyone who has signed the OSA is bound by it during the official lifetime of "Queen Elizabeth II".

Let us just say however, that Prescott Bush and William Farish III's father played a far greater role in influencing the UK Tory Party AFTER a substantial wing of Buck House was razed to the ground.

AND that a temporary measure that was substituted for the bigger picture became a fictional bestseller that was allowed to run and run until the death in February 1952 of "George VI", and the death of Queen Mary, wife of George V, shortly before the 1953 coronation of "Queen Elizabeth II".

Winston Churchill made a decision after massive pressure from the right wing of his party, including Scottish Catholics and empoverished members of the aristocracy with links to investments in Nazi funding machines in Europe and the US.

He recanted after a significant event in late 1957 which is also still shrouded in official secrecy. However, he was present at a historic constitutional ceremony on 18 July 1963 in London (also archived under the OSA)which altered the post-1940 scenario significantly.

Continuing this theme it is important to note the huge role of Harry S Truman, whose support and unshakeable integrity made significant impacts into the UK constitutional schizms at that time. His presence in late December 1971 in Windsor Castle, along with the dying Duke of Windsor and his wife Wallis (a niece by marriage of Harry S's wife Bessie) and a plethora of UK government representatives & US political, judicial and constitutional personnel is also archived under the OSA.

[Octafish]

6. Kerry -- almost singlehandedly -- busted BCCI.

Practically no one else in either party in the US government wanted to touch it. The investigation led to uncovering the arms-for-hostages trading with terrorist treason of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Here's a good overview for those new to the subject:


Follow the Money

How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank.

By David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin

Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler's check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world.

All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed.

By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry's investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients--it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to "fight the evil influence of the West," and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry's investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America's first great post-Cold War security challenge.

More than a decade later, Kerry is his party's nominee for president, and terrorist financing is anything but a back-burner issue. The Bush campaign has settled on a new strategy for attacking Kerry: Portray him as a do-nothing senator who's weak on fighting terrorism. "After 19 years in the Senate, he's had thousands of votes, but few signature achievements," President Bush charged recently at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh; spin that's been echoed by Bush's surrogates, conservative pundits, and mainstream reporters alike, and by a steady barrage of campaign ads suggesting that the one thing Kerry did do in Congress was prove he knew nothing about terrorism. Ridiculing the senator for not mentioning al Qaeda in his 1997 book on terrorism, one ad asks: "How can John Kerry win a war if he doesn't know the enemy?"

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

[emad]

8. Thanks Octafish. Kerry's role emerged after discussions with

UN Security Council officers presented data to Morgenthau. Kerry was approached and the rest is excellent history as per your post above.

I expect more of this will emerge after the defense has finished its opening arguments but these are expected to be lengthy and may not finish until after the November election.

The Bank of England's defense team is wrigglingand squealing like piglets in an abattoir. Can't see them doing anything other than this bluff and bluster...

[blm]

15. Kerry took his research to Morgenthau after the feds refused to prosecute.

Morgenthau did what he could on a state level.

I really wonder if President Kerry plans to tap Eliot Spitzer to pursue and expose the whole damn crime.

[emad]

18. Morgenthau was briefed by senior UN Sec Council officers

after a series of raids on IRA money launderers led the trail to BCCI fraud in Florida. Kerry was briefed by UN personnel and agreed to take a pivotal role in the US.

The operation has continued quietly in the UK.

The London BCCI class action centres around the collusion of UK security and intelligence agencies and their linkmemn in the CIA and FBI.

Ex-Bank of England Governor Robin Leigh Pemberton and his side kick Brian Quinn have been smug and overconfident for the last 14 years that their criminal activites have gone unnoticed, unrecorded and unprosecutable.

Racketeering, murder, property theft, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.....these are just the icing on the cake as far as their personal agenda is concerned.

[emad]

3. Some bloody questions the past and present BoE hierarchy

might like to comment on:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12419168&method=full&siteid=50143

Robert Maxwell and former CIA chief Richard McGarrach Helms were on the board od BCCI's parent company BCCI Holdings and for a while also held minority shareholdings.

Maybe former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and ex MI5 chief Dame Stella Rimington have some explaining to do as well.....

[emad]

5. From The Times:

Bank back in dock over BCCI scandal
By Jon Ashworth

Snip:

..........The trial began in January and is set to last until 2006. Outlining the case for the Bank before breaking for the summer, Nicholas Stadlen, QC, said that it was “fundamentally implausible” that 22 Bank of England officials would conspire over many years to conceal the truth.

Mr Stadlen told the court that misfeasance claims were like buses, saying: “You wait 300 years for one to come along and then there are 22 of them all at once.” He added: “Why would public servants act dishonestly and deliberately break the law, knowing there was a serious risk of harming the people they had spent their lives trying to protect?”

Former Bank of England governors including Lord George will be called to give evidence on behalf of the Bank. However, the protracted timetable means that they are unlikely to testify until early next year. BCCI’s liquidators allege that the Bank was “knowingly reckless” in endangering depositors’ money.

BCCI was set up in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani banker and mystic. The bank was registered in Luxembourg, but had a big UK presence. The Bank of England licensed BCCI as a deposit-taking institution, but did not take on its supervision. Gordon Pollock, QC, for the liquidators, has accused the Bank of relying on regulation from Luxembourg even though it was plain that London was BCCI’s main place of business.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1278816,00.html

[Octafish]

10. BCCI Funded Pakistani Nuke

Thanks to Reagan-Bush-Cheney, BCCI's founder helped fund the Pakistani H-bomb. That's really made the world a safer place.

Cheney helped cover-up Pakistani nuclear proliferation in '89 so US could sell country fighter jets

Tuesday, March 16 2004
Jason Leopold

When Pakistan's clandestine program involving its top nuclear scientist selling rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, blueprints for building an atomic bomb was uncovered last month, the world's leaders waited, with baited breath to see what type of punishment George W. Bush would inflict upon Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff. Bush has, after all, spent his entire term in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMD. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.

Remember, Bush accused Iraq of harboring a cache of WMD, which was the primary reason he gave for the United States launching a preemptive strike on that country a year ago, and also claimed that Iraq may have given its WMD to al-Qaeda terrorists and/or Syria, weapons that, Bush said, could be used to attack the U.S. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan's proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act. In fact, it was actually a coverup designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it.

Like the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration had mountains of evidence on Pakistan's sales of nuclear technology and equipment to nations vilified by the U.S.?nations that are considered much more of a threat than Iraq?but turned a blind eye to the threat and allowed it to happen. In 1989, the year Khan first started selling nuclear secrets on the black-market; Richard Barlow, a young intelligence analyst working for the Pentagon prepared a shocking report for Cheney, who was then secretary of defense under the Bush I administration: Pakistan built an atomic bomb and was selling its nuclear equipment to countries the U.S. said was sponsoring terrorism. But Barlow's findings, as reported in a January 2002 story in Mother Jones magazine, were "politically inconvenient."

"A finding that Pakistan possessed a nuclear bomb would have triggered a congressionally mandated cutoff of aid to the country, a key ally in the CIA's efforts to support Afghan rebels fighting a pro-Soviet government. It also would have killed a $1.4-billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad," Mother Jones reported. Ironically, Pakistan, critics say, was let off the hook last month so the U.S. could use its borders to hunt for al-Qaeda leader and alleged 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Cheney dismissed Barlow's report because he desperately wanted to sell Pakistan the F-16 fighter planes. Several months later, a Pentagon official was told by Cheney to downplay Pakistan's nuclear capabilities when he testified on the threat before Congress. Barlow complained to his bosses at the Pentagon and was fired.

CONTINUED...

http://www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/2004031621042158

[seemslikeadream]

14. From Outlaw Bank by Beatty and Gwynne.

from RainDog

They include this statement from Sheikh Kamal Adham, former head of Saudi intelligence, bro-in-law of late King Faisal, and shareholder in BCCI and First American Bank, who was speaking to an Arabic audience when admitted, in 1992, that "Pakistan had their own atomic bomb and that Abedi/BCCI had helped them get it.

...Kamal Adham was anticipating...indictment in the U.S. over BCCI fraud.

"So why would he want to call attention to all of this? The Western press aside, the wily old spy master certainly knew the intelligence agencies of the U.S. would pick up his remarks...He may have been sending a message directly to George Bush, reminding the president that Kamal Adham knew far too much to be trifled with.

in perspective...9-91. Morganthau was going after the powerful Saudi as one of the main culprits of the BCCI scandal. Morganthau kept quiet about his intentions to indict Adham AND SHEIKH KHALID BIN MAHFOUZ (in hopes to avoid state department inverventions.)

but when Kamal found out what was happening, he hired the former executive assistant of then White House Chief of Staff John Sununu...who had just (surprise...not) quit to go "private."

This publically brought the Bush administration into the BCCI scandal for the first time.

Beatty and Gwynne learned that Bush's White House was closely monitoring the BCCI investigation, insisting that a administration official sit in on congressional and justice dept. interviews with BCCI witnesses (does this sound familiar to anyone else?? ...the investigation into whistleblowing with Dubya).

some in the FBI complained the FBI probe was spinning its wheels because it was "too political" (again, sound familiar as an excuse to investigate the Bush lies to go to war with Iraq???)...and decisions were being held up in Washington.

A justice dept official complained Washington didn't really want the Atty Gen.'s office to actually return indictments. Washington (Bush) wanted to do an overall package deal, "'where we cut off the hands of a few Pakistanis and paint it as if they were really all the big folks.'"

Beatty and Gwynne go on to note that Bush Sr, lied and claimed he didn't know Adham. (who had been director of the CIA in 1976, WHEN GEORGE BUSH HEADED THE CIA).

The American agency had been "helping to modernize Saudi intelligence during Bush's tenure (oh, no conflict of interest there, huh, Zapata Oil?)

The authors also note that Bush was known as "the Saudi vice president" throughout the middle east. State dept said it was impossible for Bush not to have known Adham because he was the main man in S.A. when you making BIZ DEALS, as well as policy.

when asked about Bush's statement, Adham did not directly deny it, though Saudi's knew Adham's newphew, Sultan bin-Bandar was ambassador to the U.S. and was a frequent guest of Bush.

...but what about the nuclear weapons issue? Reagan, "intent on continuing military aid to Pakistan during the Afghanistan (mujahadeen/Osama bin Laden as Reagan's allies) war, turned a blind eye b/c U.S. law prohibited military aid or sale to nonnuclear countries known to be developing nuclear weapons.

In 88 and 89, Bush danced on the edge of truth about Pakistan, saying it did not "possess a nuclear explosive device" to justify continuing MASSIVE support for Pakistan, b/c Pak, bush said, only had "unassembled components."

As soon as Russia pulled out of Afghanistan, Bush said unassembled components violated the rules and cut off aid.

Beatty and Gwynne, in Time Magazine, were "the first to assert that BCCI was instrumental in Pakistan achieving unofficial Nuclear Club membership.

Via BCCI, Pakistan had received sophisticated American military technology that Congress NEVER AUTHORIZED. Adham's remarks re: an atmomic bomb may have been suggesting that it wouldn't be in the Bush administration's self-interest to probe too deeply into how Pakistan, and BCCI, came to possess such military capacity.

The Sheikh knew that BCCI was "the creation of a real life Dr. No, whose empire brokered ballistic missiles, illicit pharmaceuticals, stolen military secrets, heroin, and hot money, leaving a trail of corruption across two decades and seventy countries. And of all people, Adham had reason to know that the (Bush) White House knew it too, and had known about it for years."

pp 272-77

[Octafish]

7. May at least some of this make its way into the campaign.

In this forum -- starting in 2002 -- I urged John Kerry to use this information for political advantage. He has mentioned it in a few of the candidates' forums he participated in with the other DEMs, and he's brought it up in an interview or two, but American Corporate McPravda refuse to run with the story.

Why? The Truth would bring down the house of Bush: BCCI is THE roadmap to the BFEE.

Those interested in the subject might want to visit a DU thread or two:


9-11: The BCCI Connection

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=658476


The Kerry/Brown BCCI report in 2 pdf files, ready for print-out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1568810


BCCI class action begins January 13th, London, UK


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=977792


George W Bush Connection to the BCCI Scandal?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=157573


Kissinger & BCCI spells BUSH & 9-11

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=377323


Guess who ties ENRON to BCCI?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=7548&forum=DCForumID70&archive=

BCCI redux? bank failure in CA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=35668&forum=DCForumID60&archive=


Call to Octafish: We need massive linkage on BCCI and IranContra.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2118878


PS: Thanks for the reportage, enad aisat sana! Very much obliged.

[emad]

9. A pleasure! Some of the most sensitive documents refer to the

role of Richard McGarrach Helms and Robert Maxwell (RIP hehehe)in the direction of BCCI Holdings. The US press may be too cowed to want to focus on any of this so close to the November election. Helms and Poppy like two bad apples infecting the whole crop.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Kerry Stood Up To BCCI Death Threats

Fri Sep 24th, 2004 at 05:32:58 GMT

Maybe this is in "Tour of Duty," but, sorry, I haven't bought "Tour of Duty" yet, and I've been looking for awhile for an online article about the pressure Kerry faced when he was shutting down BCCI in the early 1990s.
It seems to me that the BCCI investigation is evidence (for anyone who is still skeptical about Kerry's service record and unfamiliar with the challenges of kite sailing) that Kerry really is physicially courageous and decisive as well as intelligent.

Anyhow, here's a February U.S. News & World Report article about BCCI that mentions the death threats Kerry got and the bodyguards he had during the investigation. (The link might not work because you have to sell your e-mail address to Satan to get into the site.)

Diaries :: sclminc's diary ::

Excerpts:


by Dan Gilgoff | Feb 16 '04
Sure, Kerry said, senators can write legislation. "But if you're smart about it," he explained, "you can get your bill passed on someone else's bill that doesn't carry your name."...

In April 1985, Kerry jetted to Central America on a fact-finding mission and then lobbied for a formal investigation, but he was kept off the congressional Iran-contra committee.

Instead, he was tapped to chair the subcommittee on narcotics, terrorism, and international operations, where he launched an investigation into contra ties to drug traffickers--a probe that widened to include Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. "Kerry got death threats from drug traffickers and needed security guards when he traveled," says former chief of staff Frances Zwenig. Even in Washington, the "Kerry Committee" wasn't popular....

And the Reagan administration wasn't pleased that Kerry was uncovering links between U.S.-supported contras and the drug trade. "The assault from the White House was unbelievable," says Blum. "They tried to discredit any way they could."

Democrats, meanwhile, were aghast when Kerry's investigation veered toward the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, an Arab-owned money-laundering operation used by Noriega, arms merchants, and drug traffickers--and linked to former members of the Carter administration, including Defense Secretary Clark Clifford...

more
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/24/13258/9996

[Octafish]

16. Kerry also found Ollie NORTH was Selling Dope

... and Ollie North worked for un-admirable Poindexter who worked for Lt. Col. Valium McFarland who worked for President Geritol who worked for Vice President George Herbert Walker "Poppy" Bush. For working to destroy the Constitution of the United States, they are traitors.

So, here's a nice recap of why the traitor Oliver North got so mad at Sen. Kerry (The link below goes to the National Security Archives at George Washington University where there's links a-plenty.):



The Oliver North File:
His Diaries, E-Mail, and Memos on
the Kerry Report, Contras and Drugs

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 113

February 26, 2004

Washington D.C., 26 February 2004 - Diaries, e-mail, and memos of Iran-contra figure Oliver North, posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive, directly contradict his criticisms yesterday of Sen. John Kerry's 1988 Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee report on the ways that covert support for the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s undermined the U.S. war on drugs.

Mr. North claimed to talk show hosts Hannity & Colmes that the Kerry report was "wrong," that Sen. Kerry "makes this stuff up and then he can't justify it," and that "The fact is nobody in the government of the United States, going all the way back to the earliest days of this under Jimmy Carter, ever had anything to do with running drugs to support the Nicaraguan resistance. Nobody in the government of the United States. I will stand on that to my grave."

The Kerry subcommittee did not report that U.S. government officials ran drugs, but rather, that Mr. North, then on the National Security Council staff at the White House, and other senior officials created a privatized contra network that attracted drug traffickers looking for cover for their operations, then turned a blind eye to repeated reports of drug smuggling related to the contras, and actively worked with known drug smugglers such as Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to assist the contras. The report cited former Drug Enforcement Administration head John Lawn testifying that Mr. North himself had prematurely leaked a DEA undercover operation, jeopardizing agents' lives, for political advantage in an upcoming Congressional vote on aid to the contras (p.121).

Among the documents posted today are:

* Mr. North's diary entries, from the reporter's notebooks he kept in those years, noting multiple reports of drug smuggling among the contras. A Washington Post investigation published on 22 October 1994 found no evidence he had relayed these reports to the DEA or other law enforcement authorities.

* Memos from North aide Robert Owen to Mr. North recounting drug-running "indiscretions" among the contras, warning that a known drug-smuggling airplane was delivering taxpayer-funded "humanitarian aid" overseen by Mr. North.

* Mr. North's White House e-mails recounting his efforts to spring from prison a Honduran general who could "spill the beans" on the secret contra war, even though the Justice Department termed the Honduran a "narcoterrorist" for his involvement in cocaine smuggling and an assassination plot.

* Mr. North's White House e-mails and diary entries on his personal meeting on 22 September 1986 with Noriega, following up Noriega's offer to "take care of" the Sandinista leadership if the White House would help "clean up his image."

* The text of the Kerry subcommittee report. Pages 145-146 directly quote 15 North notebook entries related to drug trafficking.

Also in the posting is Peter Kornbluh's detailed critique - the January/February 1997 cover story in the Columbia Journalism Review - of news coverage of the contra-drug allegations, including the controversial San Jose Mercury News series.

CONTINUED CHRONOLOGY OF TREASON ...

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB113/

[Karenina]

17. Kick!

:kick:

[emad]

19. BCCI, THE CIA AND FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE - must read

The relationships involving BCCI, the CIA, and members of the United States and foreign intelligence communities have been among the most perplexing aspects of understanding the rise and fall of BCCI. The CIA's and BCCI's mutual environments of secrecy have been one obvious obstacle. For many months, the CIA resisted providing information to the Subcommittee about its involvement with and knowledge of BCCI. Moreover, key players who might explain these relationships are unavailable. Some, including former CIA director William Casey, and BCCI customers and Iranian arms dealers Ben Banerjee and Cyrus Hashemi, are dead. Others, including most of BCCI's key insiders, remain held incommunicado in Abu Dhabi. While promising in public hearings to provide full cooperation to the Subcommittee, to date the Abu Dhabi government has refused to make any BCCI officers available for interview by the Subcommittee. Former BCCI chairman Agha Hasan Abedi remains severely incapacitated due to a heart attack. Finally, some persons in a position to know portions of the truth have denied having any memory of events in which they participated and of documents which they reviewed.

A baseline for assessing the BCCI-CIA story is the CIA's official record of its use of BCCI and its targeting of the bank, as set forth in several hundred CIA records created from 1982 through 1992. That record was, by and large, accurately represented by CIA acting director Richard Kerr in public testimony on October 25, 1991, supplemented by more detailed, classified testimony on October 31, 1991. Unfortunately, that record also contains ostensible gaps in knowledge on the part of the CIA about the activities of key contacts in the Middle East for U.S. intelligence -- including BCCI shareholders Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil, and BCCI customer and Iran/Contra arms merchant Adnan Khashoggi -- which strain belief.

Outside the documentary record provided to the Subcommittee by the CIA, there is additional material, consisting of BCCI documents, testimony from BCCI officials and insiders, and extrinsic, circumstantial and historic information describing other substantial contacts between BCCI and the intelligence community. These include contacts between BCCI and:

** former U.S. intelligence officials, including a former head of the CIA;

** former and current foreign intelligence officials; and

** individuals engaged in covert operations on behalf of the United States government, including in the Iran/Contra affair.

In addition, the Subcommittee has received allegations of meetings between former CIA director William Casey and BCCI's head, Agha Hasan Abedi.

MORE MORE MORE:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm