Was campaigning, found THE JK FACT that made people say: "I'm for Kerry"!

[Dems Will Win]

The fact that John Kerry closed the BCCI Bank with his Senate investigation and report and actually PUT OSAMA BIN LADEN'S BROTHER-IN-LAW, KHALID BIN MAHFOUZ, UNDER HOUSE ARREST AND HAD HIM FINED $225 MILLION. I added Bush will never prosecute his Saudi buddies like Bandar Bush AND BUSH'S OWN BUSINESS PARTNER MAHFOUZ (Harken Energy) but KERRY ALREADY HAS.

Every undecided I talked to yesterday said the same thing:

"THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO TELL ME. NOW I'M GOING TO VOTE FOR KERRY."

Who will help and make a nice desktop published flyer on JK having Osama's brother in law convicted and arrested?

We need a concise history, a picture of Mahfouz, a good layout person, etc.

Once we have the flyer, we PDF it and hand it out all around the country.

IT'S NOT WHO KERRY FOUGHT IN 1969, IT'S WHO KERRY FOUGHT IN 1991!

Who among you will REPORT FOR DUTY??

[Armstead]

1. Kerry isn't using his strengths

His role in BCCI shows he had fortitude and guts and knew the stakes in terrorism long before is became "cool."

I have no idea why he isn't pounding that into voters' heads.

"Kerry was fighting terrorism before anyone else cared about bin Laden."

[Dems Will Win]

2. If we all at DU focus on this, the DRAFT, and a couple of other issues

and put out or own flyers and LTTES and email the media we can raise the MAHFOUZ and DRAFT issue on the radar and get Kerry's attention.

[oasis]

3. The draft will definitely scare young voters away from Bush.

[Renew Deal]

4. Here is your man (or woman)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=797020&mesg_id=797020&page=

[crispini]

5. Great Find!

If someone else doesn't pounce on this opportunity I can, this evening or tomorrow when I get back from my precinct walk.

EXCELLENT!

[BeFree]

6. Hell yeah!

That oughtta do it.

Now, while I am familar with these items, anybody got some links to pass on?

Kerry: the first to put away someone named bin Laden
================

Also: anyone remember that Saudi guy Clinton put in jail in Tampa, @ 1996?
IIRC, Clinton said he was a threat to America and when boosh came in, boosh set the guy free?

[blondeatlast]

27. Here ya go...

(snip)
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.
(snip)
MORE

It's GREAT reading...

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

[BeFree]

32. You are right, blondie, thanks..

That was a great read. The more I read about JK, the better he gets.

Kerry is the right man, at the right time.

[demwing]

7. Not Related

IIRC, the story about Mahfouz being related by marriage to BinLaden was an error. Though there may be connections, they are not relatives.

This does not diminish Kerry's role in the BCCI Affair one bit, it just keeps it honest.

[Dems Will Win]

8. It is not an error, Mahfouz has simply threatened to sue any publisher

who says it is so.

Osama married Mahfouz's younger sister according to the CIA Director in 1998 Senate testimony of former CIA director James Woolsey, powerful financier Khalid bin Mahfouz' younger sister is married to Osama bin Laden. (US Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee, Federal News Service, 3 Sept. 1998, See also Wayne Madsen, Questionable Ties, In These Times,12 Nov. 2001 )

Under pressure, Woolsey later said he must have been mistaken, proving that Osama really did marry Mahfouz's sister, IMHO.

[demwing]

9. According to Worldhistory.com...

"In the libel trial against Wall Street Journal, Woolsey testified that bin Mahfouz had been misindentified. Woosley later stated "I don't know what to say other than there was some confusion, but I never meant to refer to Bin Mahfouz's sister."

http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/K/Khalid-bin-Mahfouz.htm

[Dems Will Win]

12. Thanks

That proves he's Osama's brother-in-law, as I said.

[demwing]

14. Please explain yourself

I'm not following how you think that Woolsey saying "Mahfouz had been misindentified" and "there was some confusion, but I never meant to refer to Bin Mahfouz's sister" proves your point.

It's a retraction.

If you have other evidence that proves you point, fine. I'm not invested in the idea that the two were unrelated, but you can't just say that it's dark, and when I say it's light, you say "That proves my point"

[Dems Will Win]

15. Unless you're dealing with the Bushes or the Mahfouzes

I am not a coincidence nut. Since the CIA Director denied by saying there was "confusion" and that was the end of it, never really explaining WHY or HOW he was confused, in my humble opinion, he was telling the truth the first time.

Do you think the 9/11 Commission Report exonerated Bush, just because they were led by a Saudi stooge Kean and said there is nothing to see here, even after they refused to ask about the many 9/11 drills that sent fighters hither and thither?

I don't because I'm not a coincidence nut.

[Dems Will Win]

16. Although I believe Woolsey changed his story under threat of death or

worse, I agree it would take away from the original thrust, which is Kerry has already fought the terrorists and Mahfouz was fined.

[Bread and Circus]

10. Very interesting...He should use this.

[roseBudd]

11. That's great! Make a flyer that communicates that fact about BCCI

I work for print media so I cannot distribute these myself.

We the people can create an issue that brings the media to us using viral and guerilla marketing techniques. Guerilla marketing means we disseminate our message using non-traditional delivery systems. Viral marketing means that the message creates buzz and it propagates exponentially. The computer ushered in the age of print and web based media accessibility to the masses. We are paying a lot of attention to online media and ignoring the most far reaching: PRINT MEDIA.
An example of an effective 8 x 10 print piece highlighting Bush's failure and most importantly MOCKING him in the process:

Go here:
http://somnamblst.tripod.com/index.html
to download the 300 DPI TIF file for printing and distributing.



rosebud

[Dems Will Win]

13. Hey Rosebud!

I will work with you on this. I have 100 people here who will hand out and hang up your stuff.

[mahina]

17. I love that...it's going up around campus at University of Hawaii today.

Thank you! Great!

[Gold Metal Flake]

18. Are there online articles or info on this (Kerry, BCCI, 1991)?

I need some edjimacation, and I need some links to sling around.

[Dems Will Win]

21. From BLM/A Possum on another thread:

Submitted by A Possum:

"Bush did business with Bin Laden's bankers while Kerry...
was fighting to shut it down to terrorist and drug connections."

"Long before September 11, 2001, Bush got a 25 million dollar loan from the same bankers that dealt with bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, while John Kerry fought to stop this bank's global laundering of money for drug lords and terrorists. John Kerry shut it down. He's been fighting terrorism at its roots since before George Bush ran for office."


I likes it. It's based on the Washington Monthly article on Kerry and how he worked to stop the funding of terrorism and drug money laundering at BCCI.

This is an important area to pursue in this election. It also acts as a good rebuttal to those who enjoy SMEARING Kerry by accusing him of being a poll-driven political coward. They couldn't be MORE wrong.

excerpt:
>>>>>>
Bin Laden's bankers
Kerry's record in the BCCI affair, of course, contrasts sharply with Bush's. The current president's career as an oilman was always marked by the kind of insider cronyism that Kerry resisted. Even more startling, as a director of Texas-based Harken Energy, Bush himself did business with BCCI-connected institutions almost at the same time Kerry was fighting the bank. As The Wall Street Journal reported in 1991, there was a "mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding since George W. Bush came on board." In 1987, Bush secured a critical $25 million-loan from a bank the Kerry Commission would later reveal to be a BCCI joint venture. Certainly, Bush did not suspect BCCI had such questionable connections at the time. But still, the president's history suggests his attacks on Kerry's national-security credentials come from a position of little authority.

As the presidential campaign enters its final stretch, Kerry's BCCI experience is important for two reasons. First, it reveals Kerry's foresight in fighting terrorism that is critical for any president in this age of asymmetrical threats. As The Washington Post noted, "years before money laundering became a centerpiece of antiterrorist efforts...Kerry crusaded for controls on global money laundering in the name of national security."

Make no mistake about it, BCCI would have been a player. A decade after Kerry helped shut the bank down, the CIA discovered Osama bin Laden was among those with accounts at the bank. A French intelligence report obtained by The Washington Post in 2002 identified dozens of companies and individuals who were involved with BCCI and were found to be dealing with bin Laden after the bank collapsed, and that the financial network operated by bin Laden today "is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI." As one senior U.S. investigator said in 2002, "BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations."

Second, the BCCI affair showed Kerry to be a politician driven by a sense of mission, rather than expediency--even when it meant ruffling feathers. Perhaps Sen. Hank Brown, the ranking Republican on Kerry's subcommittee, put it best. "John Kerry was willing to spearhead this difficult investigation," Brown said. "Because many important members of his own party were involved in this scandal, it was a distasteful subject for other committee and subcommittee chairmen to investigate. They did not. John Kerry did."

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

[blm]

22. Send it on to the Kerry campaign, Dems.

The more who do the better.

[kimchi]

19. I'd love to have a flier with that.

Kerry was on the right track when he implied Bush was beholden to the Saudis. This is the perfect compliment to his speech. I'm PDF illiterate, but I have a large stapler and I'm up late enough to paste these bad boys all over town!

[grasswire]

20. Michael Moore should have used this in F9-11.

It's astoundingly good.

Re: Woolsey. Isn't his testimony pretty much useless? Considering his sleazebucket status and conflicts of interest?

I hope to get the flier. I'll paper my state capitol complex with it.

[yardwork]

23. KIck - if somebody posts a flyer on this, I will print and distribute

Please make it simple! I need it for laundry-mats, small businesses, etc. I need it to be written on a 4th grade reading level or less. Big type. Short sentences. Lots of white space.

Sorry to sound so demanding :)

In my area, most of the educated people are already core Kerry supporters. I want to help increase turn-out among those who are less fortunate and those who feel that politics doesn't affect their lives.

They won't bother to read a lengthy or complicated message, but they will be impacted by short, memorable messages.

Thanks!

[Nordic]

24. kick

I think a lot of people would be impressed with his BCCI investigation.

The media's ignoring it

[liberal_in_GA]

25. Send this to the Kerry camp!

:kick:

[cheezus]

26. I want the flyer... why has there been NO mainstream talk of BCCI?

I mean, he busted the terrorist's bank. Is Kerry just sitting on it until the election gets closer?

[blondeatlast]

28. KICK!

:kick:

[DaveSZ]

29. Why the duce doesn't he use that in ads?

What's wrong with his campaign?

I need more info about this so I can use it also.

[blondeatlast]

30. Link to Washington Monthly article available in post 27. nt

[Octafish]

31. I’ll drive that tanker.

Here’s how John Kerry busted the BFEE via BCCI:

The largest transnational criminal enterprise ever discovered, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was shut down thanks largely to the efforts of one man — Senator John Kerry. He found the bank by chasing down the international drug running of former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.

BCCI was a bank set up by a Pakistani mystic, backed by Gulf Oil petro-billions and its deposits stolen and used for arch-criminality. Fueled by all its oil money, legitimate small depositors, and laundered drug billions, BCCI did Big Time business with the world’s main crooks and gangster governments.

The bank was used by terrorists, money launderers and criminals around the world. BCCI laundered money for drug smugglers and gun merchants. BCCI moved funds around the world for the KGB, the CIA, and terrorists of the right like Ollie North and left like Abu Nidhal. BCCI helped fund and arm the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden.

BCCI money was used to bribe and blackmail politicians worldwide, both liberal Democrat but especially conservative Republican. Worst of all, money from BCCI was used to build Pakistan's H-bomb, apparently with the full knowledge of then-president George Herbert Walker Bush.

In the early 1990s, then-private citizen George Walker Bush, son of the president, benefited financially from BCCI. The bank helped fund at least one of his failed oil exploration ventures.

W’s Texas Air National Guard friend, James R Bath, was reported to be a director of BCCI. Bath was kicked off the Texas ANG flight line, along with his fellow officer Bush Jr, who also was involved with BCCI through the bin Laden family.

The bank was protected by politicians the world over, including members of both parties in the United States. The record shows BCCI bought influence at the highest levels of the US Government, establishing a base of operations with the help Clark Clifford and those close to Jimmy Carter on the Democratic side.

BCCI did even BIGGER Business with the Repukes, using the services of Henry Kissinger and his crowd — and wherever there's a Kissinger, a Bush won't be far behind. Of course, president George HW Bush did all he could to bury the BCCI Affair. It was personal, after all, it involving his sons, family and closest friends and business associates all the way from the Middle East to Texas.

What America needs to learn: As a Freshman, Senator Kerry tried to do something about it. What's weird is how few Democrats supported him then. Democrats and free-thinking Americans can make up for “then” now. It may be our last chance.

— Octafish



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

[crispini]

33. So has someone else definitely signed up

to captain this ship, or am I it?

won't happen tonight, I'm exhausted from precinct walk today. If someone else wants to do it, GO FOR IT. I'll keep an eye on this thread and I will try to do something in the next few days if no one else does.

Takin Texas back one voter at a time.
C

[Octafish]

34. If you need help with the copy, I'd be glad to lend a hand.

There are many excellent writers on DU, but if needed I'd be glad to help out by writing a draft. At present I'm working on something BCCI for a DU friend's use and would be happy to customize it for a flyer. The thing could have terms that the good folk can GOOGLE for details and links to books they can try to find for the record. Just let me know and I'll get cracking.



SINK the BFEE!

[crispini]

35. Please! Consider the go-ahead given!

all help rocks. :)

I was thinking of target size, 8 1/2 x 11. commonly available and a decent size. Can have a few punchy graphics, a few punchy headlines, and some smaller text for details / websites with info.