FTR#422—True Lies: More About Conan the Republican—(Two 30-minute segments)
(Sources are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 8/25/2003.)
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Summary of FTR#422—(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.”) Detailing the power political connections and deceptive behavior that
characterize Arnold Schwarzenegger, the program sets forth the networking that is at the foundation of
his budding political career. After highlighting the reactionary and fascist
connections of the Opus Dei organization with which Schwarzenegger’s
father-in-law was associated, the broadcast touches on Der Terminator’s
deliberate association with the “dark side” of the Kennedys and his contact
with JFK’s widow, herself an individual with some interesting associations.
Schwarzenegger has long networked with the upper echelons of the Republican
party (the formidable Karl Rove apparently selected him to run for governor—see
FTR#421). He was coordinating his
behavior with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay in the spring of 2001, when Lay was at the
epicenter of the cynical manipulation of California’s electricity market, thus
placing Schwarzenegger “the outsider” in the middle of the destabilization of
California discussed in FTR#420.
Networking abroad, Schwarzenegger and billionaire (and now campaign adviser)
Warren Buffet were at a meeting of some of the world’s wealthiest and most
influential people at the ancestral manor of the Rothschilds. Much of the
program focuses on Schwarzenegger’s Machiavellian character-- cynical and
deceptive in a deliberate and far-sighted way. The program details his
manipulative behavior toward those bodybuilders against whom he has competed,
Lou Ferrigno and Frank Zane in particular. Much
has been made of Schwarzenegger’s support for Holocaust awareness and Israel.
This began after the publication of Wendy Leigh’s “Arnold: The Unauthorized
Biography.” In light of Schwarzenegger’s deliberate crafting of his political
persona, there is every reason to assume that his motives for doing so are
cynical.
Program Highlights Include: His psych-out
of Lou Ferrigno prior to their Mr. Universe contest; his deliberate misleading
of Frank Zane in the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest; the crowd outrage when the
verdict was announced in Schwarenegger’s favor; the allegation that
Schwarzenegger had business connections with the judges in the ’80 Olympia
contest; Schwarzenegger’s heavy-handed
attempts at suppressing the Wendy Leigh biography; Opus Dei’s connections to the
Vatican banking scandals and fascist dictatorships in Latin America; Aristotle
Onassis’ cooperation with residual elements of the Third Reich business
establishment.
1.
Beginning with discussion of the networking
that has helped to elevate Schwarzenegger to the position he is in, the
broadcast highlights an aspect of the Shriver family that is generally
overlooked—their association with the ultra-reactionary lay Catholic order Opus
Dei. (For more about Opus Dei, see—among other programs—RFA#21, available from Spitfire,
as well as FTR#98.) Schwarzenegger’s
association with the Kennedy family is generally cited as a litmus test for his
relative liberalism. Careful scrutiny of his involvement with the Kennedys
reveals that his association has been through networking with the darker side
of that remarkable family. “A final category consists of ‘co-operators,’ or
sympathizers, who can be Catholics or non-Catholics and who usually make
financial donations. Sargent Shriver, George McGovern’s running mate in the
1972 presidential election, was a co-operator [with Opus Dei] . . . .” (People of God; by Penny Lernoux;
Copyright 1989 by Penny Lernoux; [HC] Viking [Viking Penguin Publishing Inc.];
ISNB 0-670-81529-2; p. 310.)
2.
The broadcast sets forth some of the fascist connections of the Opus
Dei. “But it
was not only the inevitable intrigue in Rome that left its mark. Back in Spain,
Opus Dei members were making rapid advances in the Franco government under
Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, an Opus Dei sympathizer who, as premier, virtually
ran the country. Until Carrero’s assassination in 1973, Opus Dei leaders were
arguably the strongest conservative political influence in Spain.” (Ibid.;
p. 314.)
3.
“Matters changed
radically when John Paul became pope. Opus Dei had courted the pope since his
days as archbishop of Krakow. He had been invited to speak at various Opus Dei
centers in Europe and at an event in Rome. The speeches were later made into a
book, copies of which were sent by Wojtyla to the Vatican Secretariat of State.
In 1978, when he was in Rome for the funeral of John Paul I, Wojtyla visited
Opus Dei’s mansion to pray at the black marble crypt of ‘El Padre,’ who had
died three years earlier. Monsignor Portillo, his successor and, by some
accounts, the brains of Opus Dei, was welcomed at the Vatican by the new pope,
who in turn was invited to visit Opus Dei’s house and centers.” (Ibid.; p. 315.)
4.
Among the many shores upon which the waters of Opus Dei have lapped is
that of the Banco Ambrosiano scandal and the P-2 Lodge. (For more about the
Banco Ambrosiano scandal, see—among other programs—RFA#’s 17-21, 32, 34, and Miscellaneous
Archive Shows M60, M61, available from Spitfire,
as well as FTR#’s #'s 43, 59, 70, 71,
80, 81, 98, 185, 213, 217, 221, 229, 237. For discussion of the
intersection of the P-2 milieu with that of Al Qaeda, see FTR#’s 342, 359, 360, 377.) “Opus Dei was drawn into that imbroglio [the P-2 lodge
scandal] by assertions that it had been negotiating with Roberto Calvi, head of
Milan’s Ambrosiano Bank and a key figure in P-2, regarding a possible bailout
for Ambrosiano that would save the Vatican Bank financial losses and
embarrassment arising from its dealings with Calvi. The banker’s body, either
murdered or a suicide, was later found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in
London. His widow maintained that he had been in touch with Cardinal Palazzini,
the Opus Dei sympathizer in charge of Escriva’s beatification process, about
the rescue operation, presumably to be carried out with the help of Opus Dei
members who owned or controlled banks in Spain. The trade-off, according to
Vatican observers, was to have been a takeover by Opus Dei members of the
Vatican Bank and the Vatican Radio controlled by the more progressive Jesuits.
Letters were found on Calvi from Francesco Pazienza, a Calvi aide with links to
Italian and U.S. intelligence, in which Pazienza referred to contacts between
Palazzini and Calvi.”(Ibid.; pp. 317-318.)
5.
“At the start of
1983, Opus seemed poised for a major expansion based on papal favor and its new
status as a prelature. Its main base remained in Spain, where it raised the
largest contributions and enjoyed the most substantial political and economic
influence, but the movement also gained members and influence in Italy . . .It
was also strong in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and
Chile. Opus Dei members and sympathizers supported the CIA-backed coup that
overthrew Chilean president Allende, and one of them Hernan Cubillos, became
General Pinochet’s foreign minister. Cubillos, who founded Que Pasa, a magazine under Opus Dei influence, was later identified
as an ‘important’ CIA agent by the Los
Angeles Times.” (Ibid.; p. 318.)
6.
“In Chile, Peru,
and El Salvador, Opus Dei provides invaluable support to right-wing political
groups through its religious courses and schools, and through newspapers,
magazines, and television outlets influenced or owned by members. ‘It serves a
function for the political right and power holders,’ said a student of Opus Dei
activities in Latin America. . . .A Spanish priest made a similar observation
about the influence of Opus Dei bankers and industrialists in Europe: ‘They
want to stop the growth of socialism and pacify the labor movement through
religion.” (Ibid.;
p. 319.)
7.
Interestingly (and perhaps significantly), Schwarzenegger had targeted
JFK’s widow Jackie as a point of introduction for the family. In addition to
the fact that Jackie’s mother (Janet Auchinschloss) was good friends with
[alleged] former German intelligence agent George De Mohrenschildt (also a
close friend of the elder George Bush), Jackie was married to Aristotle
Onassis. (For more about the Auchinschloss/De Mohrenschildt/Bush link,
see—among other programs—RFA#37,
available from Spitfire, as well as FTR#367.) “Mr. Schwarzenegger has climbed a social as
well as political ladder. He used his early fame to get acquainted with
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. When ‘Pumping Iron,’ was released, Mr.
Schwarzenegger told the film’s publicity agent, Bobby Zarem, that the one
person he wanted to meet was Mrs. Onassis. Mr. Zarem spoke to a friend who
worked for Mrs. Onassis. A luncheon meeting was arranged at Elaine’s in New
York to introduce the relatively unknown Mr. Schwarzenegger to Mrs. Onassis,
Andy Warhol and others. A photograph of Mr. Schwarzenegger talking to Mrs.
Onassis was widely distributed, and his celebrity grew.” (“Schwarzenegger’s
Next Goal on Dogged, Ambitious Path”; The
New York Times; 8/17/2003; accessed at www.nytimes.com .)
8.
Onassis himself was no stranger to networking with people associated
with the Underground Reich. “Another key figure involved in German intrigue in the
Middle East was Hjalmar Schacht. He first came to Egypt as General Naguib’s
‘guest of honor’ after the coup against King Farouk. Schacht’s most daring
Middle East power-play was the ‘Jiddah Agreement’ between German industry and
Saudi Arabia in January 1954. Under the terms of the deal, Saudi Arabia agreed
to establish a fleet of supertankers to be built in German shipyards) that
would carry Saudi oil around the world. Aristotle Onassis was chosen to manage
the shipping side of the operation. Besides making the Ruhr industrialists
fantastically wealthy, Jiddah threatened to break the ‘Seven Sisters’ oil
companies’ hegemony over the distribution of Middle East oil. The Jiddah
Agreement was ultimately blocked by the Western oil cartel with help from the
CIA. Yet Allen Dulles’s CIA was surprisingly hesitant to confront Schacht.
Robert Maheu, one of the coordinators of the American attack on Jiddah, said of
the CIA: ‘You can’t imagine how hard it was to convince them that the national
interest was at stake.’” (Dreamer
of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International
Copyright 1999 [SC]; Autonomedia; ISBN 1-57027-039-2; p. 383.)
9.
Giving the lie to Schwarzenegger’s claim that some of his verbal
indiscretions were made before he intended to run for Governor, Schwarzenegger
had that move in mind decades ago. “In the early 1980’s, Mr. [Franco] Columbu, now a
chiropractor, invited one of his patients, Dana Rohrabacher, a speechwriter for
Ronald Reagan, to have dinner with the action hero. ‘When I first met him, he
talked about how much he loved America, how much he admired Reagan,’ said Mr.
Rohrabacher, now a congressman from Huntington Beach. ‘I remember him saying,
‘Dana, some day I’m going to be governor of California and I’m going to call
you.’ I knew he was a guy going places.’” (“Schwarzenegger’s Next
Goal on Dogged, Ambitious Path”; The New
York Times; 8/17/2003.)
10.
Networking with the Republican hierarchy has been something
Schwarzenegger has been at for a long time. “Mr. Schwarzenegger’s film stardom led him to
meet top Republicans like Mr. Reagan, Vice President George Bush and Pete
Wilson, then a senator from California and eventually the governor. Although he
keeps a bust of Mr. Reagan in his office, Mr. Schwarzenegger grew especially
close to Mr. Bush, admiring his pragmatism and world view and regular style of
speech.” (Idem.)
11.
“Mr.
Schwarzenegger’s campaign team for the run for governor consists of Mr. Wilson,
a Republican whose support for rigid measures to combat illegal immigration
contrasted with his moderate approach to abortion and other social issues, and
some senior members of his old Sacramento crew, including Bob White, his
longtime strategist. Mr. Schwarzenegger has drawn other powerful and well-known
figures to his cause. Warren Buffet, the billionaire financier and a friend of
Mr. Schwarzenegger, came aboard as a financial consultant, and George P.
Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan and friend of Mr. Wilson from
the Hoover Institute, is helping the campaign.” (Idem.)
12.
“Mr.
Schwarzenegger’s thin political resume includes a stint as chairman of the
President’s Council on Physical fitness under the first President George Bush,
and sponsor of last year’s successful California ballot initiative Proposition
49, which channeled state money into after-school programs. It also introduced
him into the Sacramento power clique.” (Idem.)
13.
Continuing the analysis of Schwarzenegger’s networking, it is apparent
that he is far from the “political outsider” that he professes to be. His
networking is international in scope and has been under way for a long time.
His association with his current campaign adviser Warren Buffet is nothing new.
“The world’s
second-richest man dropped into the English countryside with the Terminator at
his side on Monday, a day after warning the UK’s corporate big game his
elephant gun was loaded. Billionaire Warren Buffett and mean machine Arnold
Schwarzenegger touched down by helicopter on the immaculate lawns of Waddesdon
manor, a Renaissance-style chateau in the undulating hills of Buckinghamshire.
Buffett, 72, is guest of honor at a closed two-day meeting of some of the
world’s most powerful businessmen and financiers—the ultimate networking
opportunity.” (“Arnold & Buffett’s Loaded Elephant Gun?
Buffett’s Back, with the Terminator!”; Reuters;
9/24/2003; visit their web site at www.reuters.com
.)
14.
“The get-together
in the ancestral home of the Rothschild banking family will discuss economic
and political issues, the organizers said. But Buffett’s remark, made in a
weekend newspaper interview, that he is looking for a ‘big deal’ in Britain has
stolen the agenda. . . .Among those invited to Waddesdon Manor were the likes
of James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, Jorma Ollila, chief executive
of Nokia and De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer.” (Idem.)
15.
Among the most revealing and cynical of Schwarzenegger’s networking
moves is his powwow with Kenneth Lay, the CEO of Enron during the very time
period that Enron was helping to destabilize California with the
deliberately-constructed “Energy Crisis.” (For more about the destabilization
of California and the phony energy crisis, see FTR#’s 280, 420.) This puts Schwarzenegger “right smack dab in the
middle” of these shenanigans. “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t talking. The Hollywood action
film star and California’s GOP gubernatorial candidate in the state’s recall
election has been unusually silent about his plans for running the Golden
State. He hasn’t yet offered up a solution for the state’s $38 billion budget
deficit, an issue that largely got more than one million people to sign a
petition to recall Gov. Gray Davis. More important, however, Schwarzenegger
still won’t respond to questions about why he was at the Peninsula Hotel in
Beverly Hills two years ago where he, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan
and junk bond king Michael Milken, met secretly with former Enron Chairman
Kenneth Lay who was touting a plan for solving the state’s energy crisis.” (“Ahnuld,
Ken Lay, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Gray Davis” by Jason Leopold; CommonDreams.org; 8/17/2003; p. 1;
accessed at www.CommonDreams.org
.)
16.
“While
Schwarzenegger, Riordan and Milken listened to Lay’s pitch, Gov. Davis pleaded
with president George Bush to enact much needed price controls on electricity
sold in the state, which skyrocketed to more than $200 per megawatt-hour. Davis
said that Texas-based energy companies were manipulating California’s power
market, charging obscene prices for power and holding consumers hostage. Bush
agreed to meet with Davis at the Century Plaza Hotel in West Los Angeles on may
29, 2001, five days after lay met with Schwarzenegger, to discuss the
California power crisis.” (Idem.)
17.
“At the
meeting, Davis asked Bush for federal assistance, such as imposing federally
mandated price caps, to rein in soaring energy prices. But Bush refused saying
California legislators designed an electricity market that left too many
regulatory restrictions in place and that’s what caused electricity prices in
the state to skyrocket. It was up to the governor to fix the problem, Bush
said. However, Bush’s response appears to be part of a coordinated effort
launched by Lay to have Davis shoulder the blame for the crisis. It worked.
According to recent polls, a majority of voters grew increasingly frustrated
with the way Davis handled the power crisis. Schwarzenegger has used the energy
crisis and missteps by Davis to bolster his standing with potential voters.
While Davis took a beating in the press (some energy companies ran attack ads
against the governor), Lay used his political clout to gather support for
deregulation.” (Idem.)
18.
“A couple of
weeks before Lay met with Schwarzenegger in may 2001, the PBS news program
‘Frontline’ interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney, whom Lay met with privately
a month earlier. Cheney was asked by a correspondent from Frontline whether
energy companies were acting like a cartel and using manipulative tactics to
cause electricity prices to spike in California.” (Idem.)
19.
“ ‘No,’ Cheney
said during the Frontline interview. ‘The problem you had in California was
caused by a combination of things—an unwise regulatory scheme, because they
didn’t really deregulate. Now they’re trapped from unwise regulatory schemes,
plus not having addressed the supply side of the issue. They’ve obviously
created major problems for themselves and bankrupted PG & E in the
process.’” (Idem.)
20.
“The 90-minute
secret meeting Lay convened took place inside a conference room at the
Peninsula Hotel. Lay, and other Enron representatives at the meeting, handed
out a four-page document to Schwarzenegger, Riordan and Milken titled
‘Comprehensive Solution for California,’ which called for an end to federal and
state investigations into Enron’s role in the California energy crisis and said
consumers should pay for the state’s disastrous experiment with deregulation
through multibillion rate increases. Another bullet point in the four-page
document said ‘Get deregulation right this time—California needs a real
electricity market, not government takeovers.” (Ibid; p. 2.)
21.
“The irony of
that statement is that California’s flawed power market design helped Enron
earn more than $500 million in one year, a tenfold increase in profits from a
previous year and it’s coordinated effort in manipulating the price of
electricity in California, which other power companies mimicked, cost the state
close to $70 billion and led to the beginning of what is now the state’s $38
billion budget deficit. The power crisis forced dozens of businesses to close
down or move to other states, where cheaper electricity was in abundant supply,
and greatly reduced the revenue California relied heavily upon.” (Idem.)
22.
“Lay asked the
participants to support his plan and lobby the state legislature to make it a
law. It’s unclear whether Schwarzenegger held a stake in Enron at the time or
if he followed through on Lay’s request. His Spokesman Rob Stutzman hasn’t
returned numerous calls for comment about the meeting. For Schwarzenegger and
the others who attended the meeting, associating with Enron, Particularly Ken
Lay, the disgraced chairman of the high-flying energy company, during the peak
of California’s power crisis in May 2001 could be compared to meeting with
Osama bin Laden after 9-11 to understand why terrorism isn’t necessarily such a
heinous act. A person who attended the meeting at the Peninsula, which this
reporter wrote about two years ago said Lay invited Schwarzenegger and Riordan
because the two were being courted in 2001 as GOP gubernatorial candidates.” (Idem.)
23.
In the context of Schwarzenegger’s veneer of Nazism, it is interesting
to note the politics of Schwarzenegger’s close friend and first director John
Milius. “Calling
himself ‘a zen fascist,’ Milius claims, ‘My politics are strange. I’m so far to
the right, I’m probably an anarchist.’ Milius also had his own motorcycle gang
of friends, aptly named Mobile Strike Force Paranoia. And according to one
source, on set, ‘Aides come and go with clicking heels and mock Nazi salutes.’
Working on a Milius film was a unique experience. Said Arnold, ‘He runs a set
like an army. So that’s the feeling everyone had—that this wasn’t a movie, it
was a battle. I felt like I was once again an army tank driver back home in
Austria. . . . It was a high-spirited
set and Milius took it all very well—the Nazi salutes, the drills, ‘General
Milius’ written on the back of his director’s chair.’ An interesting choice of
director for Arnold’s mainstream film debut, Milius soon became a firm friend
of Arnold.’s.” (Arnold: The
Unauthorized Biography; by Wendy Leigh; Copyright 1990 by Wendy Leigh;
Congdon & Weed [HC]; ISBN 0-86553-216-8; pp. 192-193.)
24.
If one were to describe Schwarzenegger’s personality in one word, it
would be Machiavellian. He has given
abundant evidence of this, even during his bodybuilding days. His signature
cinematic effort, “Pumping Iron,” showcased his cynicism. “The genuinely creepy moments [in “Pumping
Iron”] come two-thirds in. In one scene, he brags about missing his father’s
funeral in order to train for a competition. Talking about his chief rival, Lou
Ferrigno (who went on to become TV’s ‘Incredible Hulk’), Schwarzenegger tells
the documentary camera, ‘It doesn’t matter if he’s in shape or out of shape.’
He plans on messing with his mind. ‘I will mix him up. He will come so ready,
but the next morning, he will be ready to lose.’ Of this form of psychological manipulation,
he says, ‘All these things are available, and so if they’re available, you
might as well use them.’ He smiles, and at this point he looks downright
sinister.” (“Film Probes Beyond Muscles” by Mick LaSalle; San Francisco Chronicle; 8/15/2003; p.
D17.)
25.
“The movie
shows him putting his strategy to work on the morning of the competition. He
has breakfast with Ferrigno and Ferrigno’s parents and subtly undermines his
friend’s confidence. Behind a mask of affability, he says that Ferrigno, who is
huge, would have had a better chance of winning with another month’s training
(‘A month from now would be perfect for you’). He asks Ferrigno, ‘You look kind
of worried today.’ He consoles Ferrigno in advance for losing. Finally, he gets
up from the table and tells Ferrigno’s father, ‘Help him pump up. Calm him
down.’ By the end of breakfast, poor Ferrigno looks tied up in a psychological
knot. At the competition, we see him posing as though apologetic about his
body, when he could have just as easily won.” (Idem.)
26.
“Even after the
competition, Schwarzenegger—clearly having fun—continues his barrage, riding on
a bus with Ferrigno and his folks, talking about how he plans to come to New
York, eat spaghetti and date Ferrigno’s sister. Everything’s said with a smile,
but the whole time he seems to be laughing at this guileless, sweet family.
Frankly, it’s almost sickening. ‘I was always dreaming about very powerful
people—dictators and things like that,’ Schwarzenegger says of his childhood
early in the film. ‘Pumping Iron’ makes it plain that this is one fellow who
had the will to power at an early age.” (Idem.)
27.
Equally revealing of Schwarzenegger’s character is his Machiavellian,
cynical behavior toward Frank Zane, one of his successors as Mr. Olympia. “In August 1980,
Arnold, now known in the bodybuilding community chiefly as CBS commentator and,
along with Jim Lorimer, producer of bodybuilding shows, attended the Miss
Olympia contest at the Philadelphia Sheraton. Rick Wayne, there to cover the
show for a [Joe] Wieder magazine, interviewed Arnold afterward. Casually, Rick
asked Arnold, who had now been retired from bodybuilding for five years, if he
would ever consider making a comeback. ‘No,’ Arnold said firmly. ‘No amount of
money could tempt me out of retirement.’ The only reason he had been training,
he told Rick, ws that he was rehearsing for his part as bodybuilder Mickey
Hargitay in the upcoming The Jayne
Mansfield Story. As an aside he mentioned that he was planning to be in
Australia for the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest, having just been signed by CBS as
commentator for the event. Rick, ending the interview, believed every word that
Arnold had said.” (Arnold: The
Unauthorized Biography; pp. 178-179.)
28.
“Meanwhile, back
on the West Coast, the reigning Mr. Olympia, Frank Zane, had suffered a severe
setback. Eight weeks before the contest in which he expected to win his fourth
Mr. Olympia title, Frank met with a terrible accident that almost killed him.
After a spell in the hospital, on the verge of withdrawing from the contest,
Frank approached Arnold and asked his advice. The accident, he said, had
weakened him, interrupted his training, and left its mark. Should he still
compete in the 1980 Mr. Olympia or back out of the whole thing? Arnold, whom
Frank habitually viewed as a friend and coach, thought for a moment, then said
that he strongly believed that Frank should go to Australia and defend his Mr.
Olympia title. As an afterthought, Frank, a man who is nobody’s fool and had
been Arnold’s friend for more than twelve years, casually asked him if he
planned to compete. No, said Arnold. He was going to Australia to do commentary
on the Olympia for CBS—that was all.” (Ibid.; p. 179.)
29.
“Two weeks
before the 1980 Mr. Olympia Arnold fell ill, losing ten pounds. That didn’t deter
him from giving an interview to Austrian journalist Roman Schliesser, who wrote
about Arnold on a regular basis in his column ‘Adabei’ for the Viennese paper Die Kronen Zeitung. And if
[Schwarzenegger rival Mike] Mentzer, Zane, et
al, had subscribed to Die Kronen
Zeitung and had been fortunate enough to understand German, they would not
have been at all surprised by the events that took place subsequently in
Sydney, Australia. For Arnold had quite openly revealed to Schliesser, ‘On
October 4th the next Mr. Olympia will be chosen In Sydney. I’m a
sports commentator for CBS television. But I’m doing it. I’ve trained for six
weeks. . . . I’m against Frank Zane who was Mr. Olympia three times, but they
will all cry when I win again.’ Schliesser’s article was published on September
28th, just six days before Arnold dropped his bombshell on the 1980
Mr. Olympia contest.” (Ibid.; pp. 180-181.)
30.
“The night before
the contest Boyer Coe discovered that Arnold ws planning to make a comeback.
After watching Arnold strip down, he took Frank Zane aside and, with a degree
of concern for Arnold, wondered out loud, ‘Why is Arnold doing this to himself?
He doesn’t have a prayer.’ Not only had he been out of competition for the past
five years; bodybuilding had also changed. In Arnold’s day only three or four
other bodybuilders had come close to approaching his standard. Now there were
many. Moreover, the level of competition was far higher and the bodybuilder’s
routines were less haphazard and more choreographed. Later that night Arnold
approached Zane and asked if he wanted to share a dressing room with him. Frank
replied, “Arnold, are you trying to psych me out?’ ‘Oh, no,’ replied Arnold. ‘I
wouldn’t try and do that.’” (Ibid.; pp. 182-183.)
31.
“Frank Zane was
Arnold’s next target. A year later Arnold described his tactics in an
interview: ‘I knew Frank Zane would be tense at the moment of the competition,
because he hadn’t laughed once in the last six weeks. So if I could crack him
up with a good joke, all the laughter that he had stored would come out in a
torrent. So I prepared a joke and told it to him during the prejudging. He
cracked up so much that he leaned back and bent over. And of course the judges
are always looking and making notes. They probably thought, ‘He is not taking
this seriously.’ After five years away from competition it was wonderful to use
psychological warfare again.’” (Ibid.; p. 183.)
32.
“In interviews
filmed for The Comeback, conducted
before and during the contest, Arnold would allege that he was insecure about
stepping on stage for the first time in five years. But as he began to pose to
the strains of ‘Exodus,’ he enthused that nothing had changed. Waiting for the
results, he was exultant: overflowing with enthusiasm and self-confidence,
impatient to hear the outcome of the 1980 Mr. Olympia, convinced that he had
won. As Dan Howard, one of the 1980 judges, says, ‘Arnold beats people before
they go onstage.’ He was right. Although Arnold had trained for only eight
weeks, while all the other contestants had trained for a year, he was
nevertheless declared the 1980 Mr. Olympia. The audience went wild. Though not
in the way to which Arnold was accustomed.” (Ibid.; pp. 183-184.)
33.
“Paul Graham,
executive producer of The Comeback,
with the help of film editor Geoff Bennett, didn’t include in the film’s sound
track the subsequent eruption that greeted the announcement of the 1980 Olympia
winner. In the words of an eyewitness, ‘The audience was furious, throwing
things, swearing. A great chorus of ‘Rigged, rigged, rigged’ flared up. There’s
never been anything like it in any bodybuilding contest ever. Everyone in the
place was booing Arnold, shouting ‘bullshit,’ and brawling in disgust. Arnold
was enraged and went red in the face.’” (Ibid.; p. 184.)
34.
“Seething with
anger, Arnold stormed out of the Sydney Opera House with a group of reporters
in hot pursuit. Almost running toward the exit, he avoided answering their
questions, tossing his head in a combination of anger and disdain. Close to the
exit, he suddenly realized that Maria, far from being by his side, was talking
to some reporters behind him. According to Helmut Cerncic, at the top of his
voice Arnold Screamed, ‘You stupid bitch, I’m waiting for you. Come here.’
Witnessing the scene, Helmut, who had known Arnold since he was a teenage
misfit all those years ago in the Athletic Union, thought to himself, ‘This boy
from Austria, who never had a penny, couldn’t speak English, now knows someone
from the Kennedy family and speaks to her like that. It was amazing.’” (Idem.)
35.
Schwarzenegger’s victory may not have been the result of objective
viewpoints on the part of the judges. “Among the more serious allegations was the one claiming
that all the judges of the 1980 Mr. Olympia either were Arnold’s friends or had
business relationships with him. And although no one accused the IFBB of having
fixed the contest in Arnold’s favor, it seemed as if the judges had had eyes
only for him.” (Ibid.; p. 185.)
36.
The Wendy Leigh book caused considerable stir in the Schwarzenegger
camp, and he has gone to considerable lengths to have it marginalized. It is worth noting in this regard, that
Schwarzenegger’s much-publicized support for the Museum of Tolerance and the
Wiesenthal Institute began in 1990, AFTER the Leigh book came out. There is reason
to believe that his motives in so doing were politically motivated and every
bit as cynical as his other carefully- crafted gestures. In that context,
it is worth noting that the Bormann organization has made a point of funding
Israel, and incorporating Jews in its business structure. (For more about this,
see—among other programs—FTR#’s 294,
305, 397, 399.) “Throughout his 33-year career, Schwarzenegger has been
crafty in his dealings with the press: He’s known for showing a warm demeanor
toward journalists while hiring controlling publicists. As a result
Schwarzenegger’s most sensational controversies have often been virtually
ignored. The biggest bump in the road came after the publication of the
320-page ‘Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography’ by Wendy Leigh. The 1990 book
explored in detail Schwarzenegger’s alleged womanizing, abusive practical jokes
and admiration for Kurt Waldheim (the politician, who had been accused of being
a Nazi war criminal, had been invited to the actor’s wedding).” (“Before
He Was a Candidate Schwarzenegger Openly Flexed His Vocal Chords” by Peter
Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle;
8/15/2003; p. D17.)
37.
“But Leigh and
her book got very little coverage in mainstream U.S. media. A 1992 Spy magazine article on the actor
describes his publicity machine as a heavy-handed group that resorted to
threats to keep Leigh’s accusations from being widely repeated. According to
the article, reporters were told that Schwarzenegger interviews would end after
any mention of the book or its contents, and journalists at the Cannes Film
Festival in 1990 were asked to sign documents promising not to ask the actor
certain questions.” (Idem.)