Taking Control
Taking Control
Unlike other presidential administrations, the Reagan administration was uniquely characterized by having the Vice President - who at that time was George H.W. Bush – in control of Foreign Policy. That control was established in an agreement between Bush and Reagan prior to their election.79 The agreement was later formalized with Executive Order 12333.80 As William Casey’s biographer pointed out, Reagan “knew little about foreign policy and cared less...” and as a result sharpies around the President took over and they ran him.”81
In November 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected to the White House on a slim margin of votes, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter. The few percentage points in votes which were responsible for giving Reagan and Bush the victory were attributed to President Carter’s inability to rescue and free hostages being held in Iran.82 The failed rescue attempt of the hostages was reported to be the responsibility of Oliver North, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim, who planned and controlled the rescue operation. 83 In the meantime, it is reported that the release of the hostages by Iran was deliberately delayed by negotiations led by George Bush, and David Kimche of the Israeli Mossad- the Israeli equivalent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi. For $40 million dollars, the Iranians would delay the release of the hostages until after the election.84 The men involved in this operation, referred to in the chapters of history as “the October Surprise” were:
George H.W. Bush
Adnan Khashoggi
Oliver North
David Kimche
Bob Gates
Richard Secord
William Casey
Sixty-nine days after the Inauguration, John Hinkley attempted to assassinate President Reagan. Eight days prior to that attempt, there were a series of unprecedented policy changes that put George Bush in charge of Foreign Policy and National Security. On March 22, 1981, Bush took control of the "Emergency Crisis Management Staff," in a Cabinet meeting. That role conferred new roles and powers on Bush, including "unprecedented powers for a vice- president."85 Vice President George Bush was named the leader of the United States ``crisis management '' staff, as a part of the National Security Council system.86 Then, on March 30, 1981, eight days after these powers were conferred on Bush, President Reagan was shot. On that day, there were actually two unsigned versions of National Security Directive 1 (NSDD1), one which made Al Haig and another which made George Bush the caretaker of the “red phone’ in case of National Emergency. The content of either version has never been released to the public.
Sixty nine days after the inauguration, the man whose operatives had bribed terrorists in violation of American policy and law, the man whose close colleagues and advisors planned a failed rescue attempt which cost the lives of US soldiers – all with the purpose of controlling the American Presidency, was now in control of US foreign policy.87
The father of the assassin that put Bush in power was John (a.k.a. Jack) Hinckley, Sr., who was the owner of Vanderbilt Oil. Hinckley had been giving maximum donations every year to George H.W. Bush since he started running for Congress. “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.” John Hinckley, Sr., had also been extensively involved in an executive position with U.S. Ministries for World Vision, a widely reported CIA front operation. After the Jonestown Massacre, World Vision took over Jonestown. . 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 to prevent disclosure.88
The assassin John Hinckley’s brother Scott Hinckley, and Neil Bush were not only friends, but had recently partied together and were scheduled to have dinner with each other that very day. Also, 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.89 George H.W. Bush, with his new found ‘Emergency’ powers, would deny Al Haig’s formal request for an investigation into the assassination attempt.
The covert business dealings with the Iranians and Israelis which originated with Kashoggi and Kimche in July 1980 in Hamburg with the October Surprise arrangement, would grow into a larger covert operation over the years, and provide an opening to the Soviet KGB that would allow the U.S. to fund a coup against Gorbachev in 1991. In this operation, a number of key Bush policy advisors and operatives would conduct what they collectively viewed should be the “honorable and right” foreign policy of the U.S., rather than what Congress had determined what that policy should be by law. The October Surprise operation would grow and be overshadowed by the larger Iran-Contra operation. Members of Bush’s covert intelligence cadre sold weapons to Iran, an avowed enemy of the U.S., and illegally used the profits to continue funding anti-Communist rebels, the Contras, in Nicaragua. Viewed as anti- communists, the CIA Director characterized them as being motivated by greed.90 The premise of using covert funding to fight the cold war would re-emerge a few short years later when the Bush cadre decided to take on the Soviet Union.
The entire Iran-Contra operation almost fell apart in 1986 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- Eugene Hasenfus. 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 in Hamburg and Paris which were 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 by that time their testimony had been blocked and discredited.
“Gunther Russbacher.. claimed to have videotape proof and sixteen witnesses to his having flown George Bush to one of the October Surprise meetings.”91
Ari Ben-Menashe a major Israeli coordinator of these deals, would also testify that he had personally seen George H.W. 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.”92
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.”93
Quite simply, the Iran-Contra team continued to violate the law even while being investigated by Congress. 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 that Bush was not involved. Robert Mueller, who as U.S. Attorney headed the Noriega (a related Iran-Contra inquiry)94 and the BCCI investigations,95 found no evidence pointing to illegal behavior by George H.W. Bush. His subsequent investigation into Enron found no wrong doing by Enron.96 Mueller would later be called up to head the WTC Investigation.
To support this cover-up of the Iran-Contra operations, witnesses had to be silenced.
“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. "Martin then said he was lying low.”97
“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.” 98
“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.”99
Ari Ben Menashe writes that Amiran Nir was assassinated to prevent his testimony at the trial of Oliver North. That testimony would have implicated George H.W. Bush.100 Senator John Heinz and Senator Towers would later meet the same fate as Amiran Nir – death by plane crash. The pattern of taking the lives of anyone who created a risk of exposure of these National Security operations was repeated in 1991, and again in 2001.
The names of the individuals involved in the Iran-Contra scandal include:
George H.W. Bush
Adnan Khashoggi
Oliver North
David Kimche
Richard Secord
Richard Armitage
Russell Hermann
Bob Gates
Shiek Kamal Adham
Khalid bin Mahfouz
Dick Cheney
Farhad Azima
Alton G. Keel Jr.
Bruce Rappaport
Alfred Hartmann
Porter Goss
Shaul Eisenberg
Robert Mueller
Most of these would become the key operatives in the secret war against the Soviet Union.
As the Iran-Contra operation was unfolding, on the other side of the world, another important development was occurring. Ferdinand Marcos, the pro-U.S. dictator of the Philippines was being muscled by the Bush foreign policy machine to hand-over to the U.S. by what is estimated by some to be possibly as high as an additional 73 thousand tonnes of the remaining Golden Lily Treasure. At that time, the treasure had an estimated value of $500 to $600 billion. 101
The individuals associated with this operation were:
George HW Bush
Adnan Khashoggi
Oliver North
Russell Hermann
Paul Wolfowitz
U.S. intelligence operations had been siphoning off the Marcos gold for three decades. Ferdinand Marcos, however, continued to discover even more of the buried treasure. Marcos had started to sell it on the market during the 1970s in bits and pieces, with the assistance of Adnan Khashoggi.102 For some unknown reason, the Enterprise decided they wanted it all in 1986. That reason is now known – being to fund a war against the Soviet Union. Vice President George Bush ultimately took the gold from Marcos in 1986 when Marcos was forced out of office. It is estimated that Marcos was in possession of 73,000 tonnes of gold at that time.103 In removing Marcos from office, the U.S. was supported by his General Fidel Ramos, who defected from Marcos’s ranks to support Corazon Aquino. Fidel Ramos was later made a Board member of the Carlyle Group. The Marcos gold was removed to a series of banks, most notably Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, UBS and Banker’s Trust, and held in a depository in Kloten Switzerland. Bush administrators involved in the forced departure of Marcos were Richard Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz. Adnan Khashoggi was also involved, helping move the gold. It was at this time that Khashoggi , Shiek Kamal Adham, Khalid bin Mahfouz, and Peter Munk would create a Canadian gold mining company called Barrick Gold.
Adnan Khashoggi was the international arms merchant that has supported the October Surprise and Iran-Contra deals and helped Marcos sell his gold on the market;
Shiek Kamal Adham was Chief of Saudi Intelligence;
Khalid bin Mahfouz was a Saudi investor in several Bush family companies…notably Harken Energy, and a 20% owner of the BCCI.
Much later, Kashoggi and Adham would be primary investors in a Dubai base company named Oryx. Oryx, along with U.S. investor Wally Hilliard would be the owner of Huffman Aviation where Mohammad Atta and several September 11 hijackers would do their flight training.104 105 Hilliard would later be shown to have the backing of the Bush family, Jeb Bush in particular. 106
Barrick would become a quiet gold producing partner for a number of major banks, and its activities subject to an FBI investigation into gold-price-fixing. The records on this investigation were kept in the FBI office on the 23rd floor of the North Tower which was destroyed by bomb blasts shortly before the Tower collapsed. The ultimate destination of the Golden Lily Treasure, and the source of the ‘loaned’ gold that flooded the market for 10 years has never been officially explained.
A key player in the Marcos gold would be Banker’s Trust, which was taken over by Alex Brown & Sons, after Banker’s Trust floundered financially on its Russian loans in the mid 1990s. These Russian loans were facilitated by Enron, starting in August of 1993, and very possibly were part of the Project Hammer takeover of Soviet industry. Alex Brown‘s involvement would bring to the forefront the names of three names of individuals who would play multiple roles in this mystery:
Buzz Krongard
Mayo Shattuck
J Carter Beese Jr.
Buzz Krongard is reported as the mentor of Beese and Shattuck from their years together at Alex Brown. Additionally, he managed the merger between Bankers Trust and Deutschebank Alex Brown. Bankers Trust, Zurich was a key Marcos gold holder. Krongard would move on to become Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown, Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust, and Executive Director of the CIA at the time of September 11.
Mayo Shattuck would be reported to be the personal banker for Adnan Khashoggi and Edgar Bronfmann during their partnership at Barrick Gold.107 He would move on to become the CEO of Deutschebank who would resign as CEO for unexplained reasons the day after September 11, and would not be at the WTC office that day when the tower collapsed. It was his bank that was identified as the source of the illegal stock options that indicated there was insider trading taking advantage of the September 11 tragedy. After September 11, he would immediately move over to the firm that would replace Enron as the primary oil and gold derivatives trader – Constellation Energy.
Carter Beese, before showing up to work at Alex Brown was schooled at the CIA training facilities of the U.S. War College and John Hopkins. George H.W. Bush appointed him to the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation in 1992. Since 1992, OPIC has provided more than $4.5 billion in finance and insurance to more than 140 projects in Russia. He was also Chairman of Riggs Bank, as well as an SEC Commissioner (appointed by Bush.) Additionally, he was Chairman at Alex Brown from 1994 to 1997, and would move from there to also be vice-Chairman of Bankers Trust. He was also President of Riggs Capital Partners. Riggs controlled the famous Riggs-Valmet consultants who set up the international financial apparatus for the Russian oligarchs and rogue KGB allowing them to steal the Soviet treasury and destroy the Russian economy. Carter Beese’s death was reported as a suicide in 2006.
What happened to the Marcos gold after it was confiscated by U.S. agents in 1986 has never been reported, but throughout the early 1990s, the world gold market would be befuddled by the mysterious appearance of thousands of tonnes of gold which appeared to suppress the price of gold. An initial lawsuit was opened against the U.S. Government by renowned lawyer Mel Belli, who represented a relative of the deceased Santa Romana, attempting to claim his gold from Citibank.108 That suit remained open in 2007. There were two subsequent lawsuits introduced in the U.S. against a number of financial institutions and Alan Greenspan to determine the source of this gold. Gold traders suspected the U.S. Treasury was the source of this gold, and contended that U.S. gold stock was being illegally manipulated for private gain by the bullion banks. The first lawsuit by Reginald Howe was seen as having merit and cause, but was denied by the court for jurisdictional reasons. A second suit by Donald W. Doyle of Blanchard in which Barrick Gold was a primary defendant was settled out-of-court in 2006 and sealed under agreement. Barrick was also mentioned in the Howe suit as a knowledgeable party.
In 1992, Barrick had received special treatment from George H.W. Bush during the last several days of his Presidency, when for a nominal $10,000, Barrick received rights to mine deposits ‘valued’ at $10 billion on public domain lands in Nevada.109 While there was nothing illegal to the arrangement, a special process put in place by President Bush allowed Barrick to use outside specialists to determine the value of the claim, allowing them to control the appraised value of the deposit. That special process was not made available to other mining applicants. Shortly thereafter, George H.W. Bush served on the Advisory Board of Barrick Gold. In the long term, the Barrick operation would create billions of dollars of paper gold by creating ‘gold derivatives’, under the reports that a Nevada claim whose potential was doubted by industry experts had actually produced a fortune.110 A major distribution channel for the sale of Barrick’s gold futures would be Enron. Enron would also become the vehicle by which oil and gas contracts from the former Soviet Union (vehicles for Soviet money-laundering) were processed, and it too would become collateral damage of the Cold War.
Interestingly, Barrick, which has no mining operations in Europe, uses two refineries in Switzerland: MKS Finance S.A. and Argor-Heraeus S.A. – both on the Italian border near Milan, a few hours away from the gold depository in Zurich. The question that Barrick and other banks needed to avoid answering is: what gold was Barrick refining in Switzerland, as they have no mines in that region?