FTR#412—The Engineer Intends to Wreck the Train—(Two 30-minute segments)
(Sources are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 6/2/2003.)
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Summary of FTR#412—(Note: The massive volume of “For The Record” programs
about 9/11 and related topics is summarized and analyzed in the
periodically-updated description for FTR#391. It
is recommended that listeners use this description and e-mail it to others.
Also: The “meat” of the book “Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile” has been digested
into an extended description for FTR#305.
Listeners can now e-mail this quintessentially important book to people around
the world. In addition, the professional history of the late Paul Manning, the
book’s author, is presented in the description “About
Paul Manning.” This enables listeners to acquaint others with Mr.
Manning’s journalistic credentials. Understanding the Bormann organization is
essential to comprehending the concept of “the Underground Reich.”) FTR#412 documents a frightening
political and economic scenario involving an impending fiscal catastrophe for
the United States that, in turn, portends a devastating political crisis. In
several recent broadcasts, Mr. Emory has used the phrase “the engineer intends
to wreck the train” in order to describe the economic and foreign policies
adopted by the Bush administration. Beginning with a column by brilliant New York Times economic columnist Paul
Krugman, the broadcast highlights his use of almost identical phraseology to
express the view that the radicals in the administration intend to produce “a
fiscal train wreck” with their suicidal tax cutting policies. This “fiscal
train wreck,” in turn, is designed to force the elimination of social programs
that the American people would not otherwise support. In this context, one
should not fail to note Mr. Emory’s past observations that this administration
is the point element of the deadly Bormann organization—quite literally a Third
Reich gone underground--s and is designed to subjugate or destroy the United
States of America. At the core of this gambit is the goal of bankrupting the
U.S. by slashing revenues and drawing the country into a protracted and costly
military struggle against the Muslim population of the Earth Island—themselves
serving as proxy warriors for the Underground Reich. (For more about the
concept of the Earth Island, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 396, 400 and the broadcasts noted in FTR#391.) Giving numerical substance to the dimensions of the
approaching economic debacle, the broadcast sets forth some truly daunting
numbers from a Financial Times
article—impending deficit totals of $44,200bn or ten times the publicly held
national debt. Comparing the behavior of the American power elite with that of
their French counterparts in the run-up to World War II, the program
recapitulates documentation that the French defeat in World War II was welcomed
and engineered by a political and economic Fifth column. That Fifth Column’s
ideological and structural economic affinity with the Third Reich disposed them
against the democratic interests of their own country. Similarly, the profound
structural economic ties of this country’s power elite to the Bormann group and
to the Saudi financiers of Al Qaeda are motivating their conscious rush to
ruin. The second side of the program deals with the issue of offshore tax
havens and their functional and historical relationship to the economic
subversion of democracy. In particular, the use of tax havens has facilitated
the collaboration of US corporations with rogue regimes such as that of Saddam
Hussein.
Program Highlights Include: The French
elite’s use of Swiss bank accounts to avoid taxes and the economic sacrifice
they were demanding of others; the Bush administration’s reversal of Clinton
policies that would have increased economic transparency and reduced the use of
offshore financial safehavens; Saddam Hussein’s use of offshore banking to hide
the ill-gotten gains he accumulated from Western corporations officially
enjoined from dealing with him; Donald Rumsfeld’s dodging of a reporter’s
question concerning the Saddam flight capital; Saddam’s use of an account with
the Banco del Gottardo (part of the Al Taqwa complex) as a repository for much
of his money; the mysterious death of a Swiss lawyer hired to help rectify the
accounting of Saddam’s money in the Banco del Gottardo account.
Correction: In
some of the ancillary discussion for FTR#412, Mr. Emory incorrectly identifies
Johann Von Leers as a member of the party that left the Fuehrerbunker with
Martin Bormann. It was Werner Naumann, not Von Leers, who was with Bormann and
Hitler Youth leader Arthur Axmann. Both Naumann and Von Leers were key aides to
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and Naumann was named to succeed Goebbels.
Both Naumann and Von Leers later worked for the post-war Nazi underground in
the Middle East and elsewhere. Von Leers is alleged to have told French
intelligence that Bormann was alive in Latin America. For more about Naumann,
Von Leers and company, see: Dreamer of
the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. (Autonomedia,
copyright 1999 [SC].)
1.
Beginning with the concept from which the title of the program is
developed, the broadcast sets forth a column by Paul Krugman of The New York Times (a professor of
economics at Princeton University.). In numerous recent broadcasts, Mr. Emory
has used the phrase “the engineer is out to wreck the train” to describe the
direction of the Bush administration and the forces that drive it. For some time,
the For The Record series has
advanced the working hypothesis that this administration is a front for the
Underground Reich, with the goal of the political, economic and/or physical
destruction and/or subjugation of the United States as its goal. By maniacally
reducing the federal budget and dramatically increasing federal expenditures,
the GOP extremists are going to destroy the country. Now, the notion that “the
engineer intends to wreck the train” is not just Mr. Emory’s refrain. (For more
about the economic implications of the 9/11 attacks and related events,
see—among other programs—FTR#’s 344-346,
365-367, 372, 390, 396, 401, 403, 405 and [in particular] 407.) “ ‘The lunatics are now in charge of the
asylum.’ So wrote the normally staid Financial
Times, traditionally the voice of solid British business opinion, when
surveying last week’s bill. Indeed, the legislation is doubly absurd: the
gimmicks used to make an $800-billion-plus tax cut carry an official price tag
of only $320 billion are a joke, yet the cost without the gimmicks is so large
that the nation can’t possibly afford it while keeping its other promises.” (“Stating
the Obvious” by Paul Krugman; The New
York Times; 5/27/2003; accessed at; www.NYTimes.com.)
2.
Mr. Krugman suggests that “a fiscal train wreck” is indeed intended. “But then maybe
that’s the point. The Financial Times suggests
that ‘more extreme Republicans’ actually want a fiscal train wreck: ‘proposing
to slash federal spending, particularly on social programs, is a tricky
electoral proposition, but a fiscal crisis offers the tantalizing prospect of
forcing such cuts through the back door.’ Good for The Financial Times. It seems that stating the obvious has now,
finally, become respectable.” (Idem.)
3.
“It’s no secret
that right-wing ideologues want to abolish programs Americans take for granted.
But not long ago, to suggest that the Bush administration’s policies might
actually be driven by those ideologues—that the administration was deliberately
setting the country up for a fiscal crisis in which popular social programs
could be sharply cut—was to be accused of
spouting conspiracy theories. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s] Yet by pushing
through another huge tax cut in the face of record deficits, the administration
clearly demonstrates either that it is completely feckless, or that it actually
wants a fiscal crisis. (Or maybe both.)” (Idem.)
4.
“Here’s one way
to look at the situation: Although you wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric,
federal taxes are already historically low as a share of G.D.P. Once the new
round of cuts takes effect, federal taxes will be lower than their average
during the Eisenhower administration. How, then, can the government pay for
Medicare and Medicaid—which didn’t exist in the 1950’s—and Social Security,
which will become far more expensive as the population ages? (Defense spending
has fallen compared with the economy, but not that much, and it’s on the rise
again.)” (Idem.)
5.
“The answer is that
it can’t. The government can borrow to make up the difference as long as
investors remain in denial, unable to believe that the world’s only superpower
is turning into a banana republic. But at some point bond markets will
balk—they won’t lend money to a government, even that of the United States, if
that government’s debt is growing faster than its revenues and there is no
plausible story about how the budget will eventually come under control.” (Idem.)
6.
“At that point,
either taxes will go up again, or programs that have become fundamental to the
American way of life will be gutted. We can be sure that the right will do
whatever it takes to preserve the Bush tax cuts—right now the administration is
even skimping on homeland security to save a few dollars here and there. But
balancing the books without tax increases will require deep cuts where the
money is: that is, in Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.” (Idem.)
7.
“The pain of
these benefit cuts will fall on the middle class and the poor, while the tax
cuts overwhelmingly favor the rich. For example, the tax cut passed last week
will raise the after-tax income of most people by less than1 percent—not nearly
enough to compensate them for the loss of benefits. But people with incomes
over $1 million per year will, on average, see their after-tax income rise 4.4
percent. The Financial Times suggests
this is deliberate (and I agree): ‘For them,’ it says of those extreme
Republicans, ‘undermining the multilateral international order is not enough;
long-held views on income distribution also require radical revision.’” (Idem.)
8.
“How can this
be happening? Most people, even most liberals, are complacent. They don’t realize how dire the fiscal
outlook really is, and they don’t read what the ideologues write. [Italics
are Mr. Emory’s.] They imagine that the Bush administration, like the Reagan
administration, will modify our system only at the edges, that it won’t destroy
the social safety net built up over the past 70 years. But the people now
running America aren’t conservatives: they’re radicals who want to do away with
the social and economic system we have, and the fiscal crisis they are
concocting may give them the excuse they need. The Financial Times, it seems, now understands what’s going on,
but when will the public wake up?” (Idem.)
9.
Highlighting the cataclysmic dimensions of what the administration is
doing, The Financial Times set forth
the deadly dimensions of the fiscal impact of the Bush tax cuts. One should not
overlook the fact that this information is from a report commissioned by the
Treasury Department, suppressed by the administration, and ignored by the US
media. “The
Bush administration has shelved a report commissioned by the Treasury that
shows the US currently faces a future of chronic federal budget deficits
totaling at least $44,200bn in current US
dollars. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] The study, the most comprehensive
assessment of how the US government is at risk of being overwhelmed by the
‘baby boom’ generation’s future healthcare and retirement costs, was
commissioned by then treasury secretary Paul O’Neill. But the Bush
administration chose to keep the findings out of the annual budget report for
fiscal year 2004, published in February, as the White House campaigned for a
tax-cut package that critics claim will expand future deficits.”(“Report
Warns of Chronic US Deficits” by Peronet Despeignes; The Financial Times; 5/29/2003; p. 1.)
10.
“The study
asserts that sharp tax increases, massive spending cuts or a painful mix of
both are unavoidable if the US is to meet benefit promises to future
generations. It estimates that closing the gap would require the equivalent of
an immediate and permanent 66 per cent across-the-board income tax
increase. . .” (Idem.)
11.
“Mr. O’Neill, who
was fired last December, refused to comment. The study’s analysis of future
deficits dwarfs previous estimates of the financial challenge facing Washington
It is roughly equivalent to 10 times the
publicly held national debt, four years of US economic output or more than
94 per cent of all US household assets. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Alan
Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, last week bemoaned what he called
Washington’s ‘deafening silence about the future crunch.’” (Idem.)
12.
“The estimates reflect
the extent to which the annual deficit, the national debt and other widely
reported, backward-looking data are becoming archaic and misleading as measures
of the government’s solvency. Mr. [Kent] Smetters, now a University of
Pennsylvania finance professor, said tax cuts were only a fraction of the
imbalance, and that the bigger problem ‘is the whole [budget] language we’re
using.’ Laurence Kotlikoff, an expert on long-term budget accounting alleged in
a recent Boston globe editorial that the Bush administration suppressed the
research to ease passage of the tax-cut plan.” (Idem.)
13.
The 9/11 attacks constitute an event as complicated as they are
important. In FTR#’s 344-346, Mr.
Emory presented his view that the attacks could be viewed as “Pearl Harbor
meets the Reichstag Fire.” They were, indeed, a sneak attack by a hostile
foreign power (the “virtual state” that is the Underground Reich.) It was also
utilized by an internal Fifth Column that was connected to the attackers
through structural economic relationships. The attacks have been used to
institute the foundations of fascism. Recapitulating discussion from FTR#366 and FTR#372, this broadcast compares the attacks to the German invasion
of France in World War II. The German invasion was not a “provocation” as such,
but it was used to implement fascism in France. (The Franco-German axis that
opposed the American invasion of Iraq is reflective of the foundations of the
events prior to, during, and after World War II.) The
first side of the program concludes with review of a passage written in 1944 by
Pierre Cot, the French minister of aviation in the period leading up to World
War II. “Enough
evidence has been published already to prove that France was stabbed in the
back by those who saw in Hitler the new St. George who would slay the Communist
dragon. When Pierre Lazareff, former editor-in-chief of Paris Soir (the French newspaper with the widest circulation),
reports royalists as saying: ‘We need the defeat to wipe out the Republic;’
when Elie Bois, former editor of the Petit
Parisien (the most influential political newspaper), reports great
industrialists admitting to him, during the winter of 1939-1940, that a plot
had been organized to replace the democratic regime by a ‘government of
authority’ and that this plot presupposed a Nazi victory; when Anatole de
Monzie writes, in a book passed by the censor of the Vichy government, that
Marshal Petain said in February, 1940: ‘They will appeal to me in the third
week in May’; when Genevieve Tabouis tells of the work accomplished in the
Parisian salons by the Fifth Column’s ‘brigade mondaine’; when Henri de
Kerillis, former officer and nationalist deputy, exposes the inroads of the
Fifth Column in the conservative and military circles which he knew; when Henry
Torres reveals to us what was going on in the offices of the official
propaganda . . . we have every reason to accept their affirmations, which tally
so perfectly with the events.” (Triumph of Treason; by Pierre Cot;
Copyright 1944 [HC]; Ziff-Davis; p. 63.)
14.
A very important article by investigative reporter Lucy Komisar
underscores the structural economic relationships maintained by the French
power elite in the pre-World War II period. (Again, listeners are referred to FTR#272 for an understanding of these
events.) One should in this context the significance of the Swiss tax haven for
the economic realpolitik of the French oligarchs. The possibility that the
American power elite’s ability to secret their capital abroad (while the
country is economically decimated) is not one to be too readily dismissed. It
is Mr. Emory’s view that the attitude of significant elements of the US
economic elite is similar to that of their French counterparts in the run-up to
World War II. (Lucy Komisar is interviewed in FTR#387. Her work is featured in FTR#’s 356, 357, 359, 386, as well.) It is worth noting that the title of Ms. Komisar’s article
characterizes the issue of offshore banking as a “Secret Threat to America.”
Amen. “In November 1932, deputy Fabien Albertin took
the floor of the National Assembly in Paris to denounce tax evasion by eminent
French personalities—politicians, judges industrialists, church dignitaries,
and directors of newspapers—who were hiding their money in Switzerland. ‘The
minister of finance knows very well that for ten years, the concern of all his
predecessors has been to track down this fraud . . .’ he declared. ‘However,
till now, the information one has gotten has been extremely vague. When
documents arrive, they are represented only as numbers. Employees of the banks
don’t know the names of account holders. These names are known only to the
director of the bank, who the clients forbid to correspond with them, so
anxious are they to preserve anonymity.’” (“Offshore Banking: the
Secret Threat to America” by Lucy Komisar; Dissent;
Spring/2003; p. 1.)
15.
“He said, ‘If one
reads the Swiss newspapers this morning, one sees that public opinion in
Switzerland dreads the massive shrinking of sums that have been deposited in
its banks—of which it enjoys exclusive profit.’ There had been a raid on a
building on the Rue de la Tremoille in the aristocratic district of the
Champs-Elysees, where officials of a Swiss bank had a five-room apartment.
Police had passed through a crowd of impatient clients in the waiting room,
entered the office, and seized all available documents. Albertin argued that
the operation should have occurred earlier, as the business had gone on without
interruption for ten days. Even so, the police collected 245,000 French francs,
2,000 Swiss francs, and even more important, an index, a cashbook, a file, and
ten large notebooks with two thousand names.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
16.
“A
parliamentarian shouted, ‘We want to know them!’ Albertin answered, ‘the
minister knows . . .’ But the finance minister declared, ‘Ah! No! Mr. Albertin,
I don’t know this list at all.’ And Albertin replied, ‘I am going to satisfy
your curiosity. Some will say, ‘Ah! You socialists are happy to dishonor
political adversaries and show that there are classes in society!’ Yes, there
are classes. And in this scandal, the ruling elite of society shows its
selfishness and unwillingness to obey French law!’” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
17.
“His list
included deputies, senators, and judges, whose role, he pointed out, was to
make and apply the laws. He called them men of ‘a particularly ticklish
patriotism’ who, he noted with irony, ‘probably are unaware that the money they
deposit abroad is lent by Switzerland to Germany.’ That Switzerland was
Hitler’s banker was already known. [Hitler did not actually assume the
chancellor’s position until his appointment
in January of 1933, a couple of months later.] Albertin noted sardonically that
such people never made loans to the French defense effort. He added that the
list included a dozen generals, even the comptroller of the army. He began to
name the names of the tax evader elite, including two bishops, who he said,
‘though their kingdom isn’t of this world,’ were able to reconcile their oaths
of poverty with the desire to shelter their fortunes. There were also
manufacturers of automobiles and furniture.” (Idem.)
18.
“ ‘Names!’
cried a deputy. ‘The Peugeot brothers,’ Albertin replied. The furniture maker
was Levitan. He moved on to Henriette Francois Coty, of the famous perfume
family, who ran a newspaper, L’Ami du
People (Friend of the People),
and a M. Sapetre, whom Albertin took for the publisher of Le Matin (Morning).
Albertin declared, ‘There is nothing more painful, saddening, and tragic,
nothing that can discourage the mass of French workers more deeply than to see
every day the men who direct and inspire French opinion in the columns of their
big dailies call for the nation’s financial patriotism, tell of sacrifices to
be asked of civil servants and war victims . . . and on their own part,
cheat.’” (Ibid.;
pp. 2-3.)
19.
“Swiss bankers
were stunned by the revelations of their clients’ names. They feared that
unless they could block future exposure, they might lose the deposits people
had stashed with them to avoid paying their own countries’ taxes. To make sure
that account owners’ names could never be made public again, in 1934, the Swiss
confederation made it a crime for a bank employee to violate the secrecy of
clients’ identities. Bank secrecy was born; even law enforcement on the track
of thieves could not pierce it. The elites of France and elsewhere could rest
easy. Taxes would burden only the poor and middle classes. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
20.
Further down in the text of the Dissent
article, Ms. Komisar discusses the amount of wealth of US-based multinationals
that is believed to be in tax havens, as well as the percentage of overall
world wealth secreted in these repositories. “ . . . The money involved is monumental.
Secrecy havens have 1.2 percent of the world’s population and hold 26 percent
of the world’s wealth, including 31 percent of the net profits of U.S.
multinationals. According to Merrill Lynch & Gemini Consulting’s ‘World Wealth Report’ for 2000, one third
of the wealth of the world’s ‘high net-worth individuals’ (as banks like to
call them), nearly $6 trillion out of $17.5 trillion, may now be held offshore.
Some $3 trillion is in deposits in tax haven banks and the rest is in
securities held by IBC’s and trusts. Experts believe that as much as half the
world’s capital flows through offshore centers. The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) says that between $600 billion and $1.5 trillion of illicit money is
laundered annually, equal to 2 percent to 5 percent of global economic output.
These offshore centers awash in money are the hub of a colossal, underground
network of crime, fraud, and corruption.” (Ibid.; p. 7.)
21.
The same tax havens and offshore financial repositories are mainstays
of corporate maneuvering, terrorist-financing, drug-dealing and weapons
trafficking. The remarkable Lucy Komisar—showing more moxie and character than
the overwhelming majority of American journalists—braced secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld about Saddam Hussein’s use of offshore havens to bank his
ill-gotten gains. “It hasn’t been reported in the U.S. press—until here,
now—but in Milan, Italy’s chief prosecutor has obtained thousands of documents
that show how for more than 20 years Saddam Hussein used the Western bank and
corporate secrecy system to launder bribes skimmed from oil revenues to pay his
security forces and buy Western arms during international embargoes. The key
countries—whose governments openly allow these money-laundering systems to
exist—were Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama and Nassau. Corporate
registrations and bank accounts there use ‘straw men’ and secrecy rules to
cover up true owners of companies and accounts.” (“Rumsfeld Queried
on Offshore Banking Reform” by Lucy Komisar; The American Reporter; 5/27/2003 [Vol. 9, No. 2112]; p. 1.)
22.
“On Tuesday
(May 27), Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was at the Council on Foreign
Relations in New York, and I asked him what the U.S. planned to do about this
system that financed and armed Washington’s latest nemesis. This was the
question: ‘It’s been shown by investigations by the prosecutor of Milan in Italy,
which has gotten thousands of documents about banks accounts in Europe,
particularly Switzerland and Liechtenstein and then also Panama, that these
were the accounts through which Saddam Hussein hid the rake-offs he was getting
from Western companies that were buying his oil—that allowed him to get money
for weapons over the 80’s and 90’s. This bank and corporate secrecy is what
allowed this to happen. I assume the Americans know about this. Are you going
to do anything about this system that allows them to get weapons illegally?’” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
23.
“For the record,
Rumsfeld’s answer: ‘The Department of the Treasury has been working with other
countries and attempting to locate the assets that the Saddam Hussein family
and regime have placed in other countries. They found some, and I’m sure they
have not found additional sums, and I’m sure they’re working on it.’” (Ibid.;
p. 2.)
24.
Ms. Komisar notes that the
Bush administration has quietly reversed the Clinton administration’s efforts
at lifting the curtain of secrecy on this curtain of financial secrecy. “Rumsfeld clumsily side-stepped the question, because the
Bush administration has reversed the Clinton-era policy that attempted at least
minimal reforms of the offshore system. It has blocked European efforts to
pierce bank secrecy by allowing tax authorities to share information on
non-residents’ bank accounts. It does not want to change the offshore system
because its corporate and wealthy supporters use it to evade taxes.” (Idem.)
25.
“Drumsfeld would
know how that works, because he was CEO of G.D. Searle & Co. a worldwide
pharmaceutical company, and of General Instrument Corporation, which deals in
broadband technologies. International corporations routinely use the offshore
system for ‘transfer pricing’—corporatespeak for the practice of moving
bookkeeping entries around the globe so they can report near-zero profits to
the IRS. He said that when funds are needed in Iraq, the U.S. ‘will rely on
frozen assets in the U.S. and other countries.” But to be frozen, they have to
be found. And to be found, the U.S. will have to follow the trails set out in
the Milan documents—to challenge the bank and corporate secrecy of friendly
allies such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama and Nassau.” (Idem.; p. 3.)
26.
“Rumsfeld says
that in the new Iraq, ‘Market systems will be favored,’ the U.S. ‘will
encourage moves to privatize state-owned enterprises’ and that it is developing
a plan for the oil industry based on transparency.’” The international oil
business is notorious for using secret offshore accounts to move profits and
also to bribe government officials for access to oil fields. Transparency would
make that difficult.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
27.
“Earlier this
month, Rep. Henry Wax man (D-California) released documents showing that
Halliburton, while it was headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney, set up offshore
subsidiaries in places such as the Cayman Islands to guide its dealings with
Iraq, Iran and Libya, which were under US embargo.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
28.
“If the Bush
administration is serious about transparency, if it’s serious about not wanting
Iraq’s new oil barons to use the same offshore system that skimmed profits for
their predecessors, it had better reconsider its protective attitude toward
shell companies and secret bank accounts.” (Idem.)
29.
The program concludes with a look at a man characterized in a recent
book as the “Cashier of Saddam.” This individual—Elio Borradori-- deposited
much of Saddam’s wealth through a bank account in the Banca del Gottardo,
intimately linked to the Bank Al Taqwa complex. (For more about the Al
Taqwa/Banca del Gottardo connection, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 358, 359, 387.) “A financial
adviser to Saddam Hussein has revealed how the Iraqi dictator channeled
hundreds of millions of pounds into secretive offshore companies. For more than
10 years Elio Borradori, a company trustee in the tax havens of Liechtenstein
and Lugano, Switzerland, managed the huge commissions’ and ‘consultancy fees’
from the Iraqi dictator’s arms deals and development contracts. The money was
funneled into companies controlled by Saddam’s appointees through Panama, the
Bahamas and Switzerland. It is thought to have partly funded the Dictator’s
palaces and lavish lifestyle.” (“Banker Who Hid Saddam’s Millions”
by Stephen Grey, Nick Fielding, Jon Ungoed-Thomas, Edin Hamzic, Paolo Fusi,
Eben Black; Sunday Times [London];
4/13/2003; .)
30.
“Many of the
millions moved in and out of an account codenamed ‘Satan”, which was originally
overseen by a relative of Saddam. He was Saad al-Mahdi. But he made the mistake
of falling out with Saddam and was executed, possibly for pilfering from the
Satan account. A Swiss lawyer took over some of the companies; others went into
the hands of Barzan Ibrahim Hassaan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother.” (Idem.)
31.
“Just before the
first Gulf War in 1991, almost 1 billion pounds was moved from Satan and other
accounts to be hidden around the world. Italian police last month identified
300 million pounds in one account in Geneva. The network of offshore companies
remained active long after United Nations sanctions were imposed on Ira at the
end of the war. The Sunday Times has
uncovered more than 1,000 documents, some of which confirm Borradori’s role.
They also provide indications of export deals relating to Dassault and
Thomson-CSF, two French arms companies (then state owned), and to Russian
firms. Although many of the documents relate to the 1980’s, others suggest
activity in the mid-1990’s. The material will be a fillip to investigators in
Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein trying to untangle the web of transactions
in the hunt for Saddam’s billions.” (Idem.)
32.
“Borradori, who
said he met Saddam in person several times retired some years ago to live
quietly in Switzerland. But a Lugano court case brought by the al-Mahdi family,
and the mysterious death of one of the lawyers involved, revealed documents
relating to Saddam’s secret network of companies. Now 75 and living on the
southern shores of Lake Lugano, Borradori admitted he was Saddam’s banking adviser.
. . .” (Idem.)
33.
“ . . . By 1977
the network of companies and number of deals had grown so extensive—with both
overt and covert operations—that al-Mahdi was sent to Europe to oversee them,
under the control of al-Tikriti, who was then the overall head of Saddam’s
financial network . . . The main entity was Mediterranean Enterprises
Development Projects (Lugano), which had branches in New York, Tokyo, London,
Paris and other centers. It in turn controlled about 300 other companies,
mainly in Liechtenstein and Panama.” (Idem.)
34.
“Three key
companies, called Dumynta, Radistal and Technoservice International (Vaduz),
were among those that received commissions and consultancy fees, handling at
least 300 million pounds in the 1980’s. Some payments, however, were staggered
over the life of the contracts and stretched into the 1990’s. There were, for
example, commission payments related to a missile site near Mosul, in northern
Iraq, which, according to Italian authorities, was not completed until the
mid-1990’s—even though such work was supposed to stop after the Gulf War.” (Idem.)
35.
“To cover the
tracks, much of the money passed through account number 70513 at the Banca del Gottardo in Nassau in the
Bahamas—the Satan account. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s] One banking slip indicated
a payment as recently as December 1998. There were 47 other bank accounts
linked to the offshore network. Borradori was usually president and signatory
for the companies, and the day-to-day transactions were handled by an
accountant for him. But the man in control for the Iraqi regime was al-Mahdi.
Something of a playboy, al-Mahdi jetted around Europe, while in Iraq, Saddam
used some of the millions to build extravagant palaces . . . Saddam, however,
appears to have suspected al-Mahdi of stealing from the accounts. He was
summoned to Baghdad and beheaded for theft and behavior disrespectful to Islam
. . . .” (Idem.)
36.
After the death of Al-Mahdi, his family hired a lawyer to investigate the
missing money in the Satan account. That lawyer, Gianluca Boscaro, died under
suspicious circumstances. “ . . . Years after the death of al-Mahdi, his family
decided to pursue some of the millions that had washed through the network of
offshore companies. They hired Gianluca Boscaro, a Swiss lawyer, to bring a
case which named, among others, Borradori’s accountant and other trustees . . .
Through the legal action, Boscaro secured evidence of how, at least in part,
Saddam had siphoned off a fortune and hidden it around the world. Increasingly
paranoid about his own safety, Boscaro told one friend that should anything
untoward happen to him, the documents should be brought to public attention.” (Idem.)
37.
“In the midst of
the legal action in August last year, Boscaro, an adventurous man in his
forties, died while taking time off from the case to relax in the foothills of
the Piedmont mountains. At around 7:30 pm on a clear sunny evening, he was
floating high in the sky beneath a paraglider. Suddenly the canopy seemed to
stall. Boscaro plunged to his death. It is a dangerous sport and such accidents
are not uncommon, but officials who examined the canopy noticed cords were
damaged. Police concluded it was an accident, although friends of Boscaro
dispute their findings. Accident or murder? It may never be known. But for
Saddam, the end was nearing. Within months coalition troops ere on their way to
Kuwait. However, the many millions Saddam siphoned off for his own purposes may
never be fully traced, let alone recovered.” (Idem.)