FTR#453—Verges for the Defense—(One 30-minute segment) (Sources are noted
in parentheses.) (Recorded on 3/28/2004.)
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Summary of FTR#453—(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 book “Martin
Bormann: Nazi in Exile” is available at About
Paul Manning. 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. Key material from the book
is synopsized in an extended description for FTR#305.
Understanding the Bormann organization is essential to comprehending the
concept of “the Underground Reich.”) Returning to a
subject covered in several past broadcasts, this program highlights the
enigmatic career of French attorney Jacques Verges. Recently hired to assist
with the defense of Saddam Hussein in his projected war crimes trial, Verges
has represented terrorists, far-leftists and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in
the past. Much of the program centers on Verges’ relationship with Nazi
operative Francois Genoud—a very important Third Reich agent in both the
above-ground and underground phases of its existence. In particular, the
far-left Verges and Genoud have collaborated in the defense of Middle Eastern
and far-left terrorists, as well as the Barbie defense.
Program Highlights Include: Verges and
Genoud’s work on behalf of Carlos the Jackal; their mutual efforts on behalf of
the Algerian FLN; their efforts on behalf of far-left European terrorists in
the 1980’s; Genoud’s role in assisting the postwar Nazi diaspora—the escape of
SS war criminals in particular; Genoud’s role in the postwar distribution of
Nazi monies; Genoud’s efforts on behalf of the considerable Nazi presence in the
Middle East after World War II; Verges’ mysterious eight-year disappearance in
the 1970’s.
1.
Beginning with the subject of the individual for whom the program is
titled, the discussion notes that Jacques Verges will be assisting in the
defense of Saddam Hussein in his projected trial for war crimes. “One is an
international legal legend nicknamed ‘The Devil’s Advocate.’ The other is a
backstreet Iraqi lawyer who has never set foot in a criminal court in his life.
Next week, however, they will meet to consider forming an unlikely partnership
for one of the biggest legal circuses in modern history: the war crimes trials
of Saddam Hussein and his cronies.” (“The Barrister of Baghdad” by
Colin Freeman; San Francisco Chronicle;
3/27/2004; p. A1.)
2.
“Badie Izzat Izzat,
a Baghdad lawyer who represents nearly half of the ‘Deck of 55’ most-wanted
people from the Hussein era, will fly to Paris this weekend to confer with
Jacques Verges, the celebrated French defender of terrorist Carlos the Jackal
and Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie. The pair, who will be meeting for the first
time, will discuss possible legal strategies for what is likely to be a tough
case even for Verges: how to excuse more than three decades of state-sanctioned
killings involving up to a million people.” (Idem.)
3.
“But while
Verges, who is serving as a consultant on the war crimes trial of former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, will be on familiar territory, Izzat is
on a nearly vertical learning curve. Operating out of cramped offices in a
scruffy Baghdad side street, he is by trade a civil litigator who has never
defended anyone on criminal charges. The sum total of his knowledge of
international war crimes law, he admits, is what he has picked up from a human
rights law textbook he bought only a few months ago.” (Idem.)
4.
“ ‘It is true,
I have never done any kind of criminal defense work in the past, and under
Saddam, we had no such thing as war crimes law,’ said Izzat. ‘But I hope that
by linking up with Verges and taking his advice and help, he can put together a
proper legal defense.’” (Ibid.; pp. A1-A8.)
5.
“Meanwhile,
Verges, a former commander in the French resistance, has indicated he may focus
on the tacit involvement of Western powers, particularly the United States, in
many of Hussein’s acts of aggression. ‘Western countries encouraged the war
against Iran,’ he said in a recent interview. ‘Western countries were present
in Iraq through diplomatic delegations. They weren’t blind. In the course of a
trial, the fundamental element will be: ‘You treat me like a pariah, but I was
your friend. What we did, we did together. I fired the bullet, but you’re the
one who gave me the gun. You even pointed out the enemy.’” (Ibid.; p. A8.)
6.
“If Izzat does
eventually represent Hussein, he plans to subpoena numerous world leaders and
statesmen to ask them why they turned a blind eye to the former Iraqi leader’s
crimes for so long. ‘This tribunal will embarrass Bush the father, and that
will be bad for Bush the son,’ he told reporters. ‘Saddam will talk, and the
whole world will be able to listen.’” (Idem.)
7.
“Before going to
Paris, Izzat was scheduled to stop in Amman, Jordan, where many of his clients’
families live as fugitives after fleeing Iraq last April. ‘I will be seeing at
least eight families, including possibly Saddam’s daughters,’ he said. ‘It is
not clear yet whether they want me to represent them, but I will be able to
represent them, but I will be able to pass any messages on to Verges if need
be.’” (Idem.)
8.
The balance of the program deals with Francois Genoud, a pivotally
important (though little recognized) figure in 20th century fascism
and terrorism. (For more about Genoud, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 333, 343, 352, 354, 357, 371, 377,
378, 447, 450. In addition see the following articles by Kevin Coogan: “The Mysterious
Achmed Huber: Friend to Hitler, Allah and Ibn Ladin?” available at: www.oraclesyndicate.org/pub_e/k.coo_e/publ_05-02_1.htm
; “Report on
Islamists, The Far Right, and Al Taqwa” available at: www.oraclesyndicate.org/pub_e/k.coo_e/publ_09-02_1.htm,
as well as “The
Swastika and the Crescent” by Martin A. Lee; Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence
Report; accessed at: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=132.) “On May 30,
1996 an obscure Swiss banker named Francois Genoud committed suicide in Geneva,
Switzerland. From the brief mention of his death in the New York Times, one would not know that one of the most important
figures in the history of 20th-century terrorism had died. And how
many men can say that they were friends with both Adolf Hitler and Carlos the
Jackal?” (Dreamer of the Day:
Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International; by Kevin
Coogan; Autonomedia Inc.; Copyright 1999 [SC]; ISBN 1-57027-039-2; p. 584.)
9.
Genoud became infatuated with the Third Reich as a young man—an event
that determined the course of the rest of his life. (Note that the SD was the
SS intelligence service. For more about Dickopf, see RFA#2—available from Spitfire.)
In addition to his work as a Nazi spy before and during World War II, Genoud
became a very important agent for the postwar underground activities of the SS
and related elements of the Underground Reich. “A Swiss citizen born in Lusanne in 1915,
Genoud became rabidly pro-Nazi in the early 1930’s. After a trip to Germany as
a teenager, he never forgot the thrill he felt shaking Adolf Hitler’s hand.
During World War II, Genoud became extremely close to an SD lieutenant named
Paul Dickopf, who would later head the German federal police (the
Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA) before being elected president of Interpol in 1968.
The two men traveled together across occupied Europe. Dickopf would later claim
that he had defected from the German army in August 1942 and lived
clandestinely in Belgium, where he embraced the anti-Nazi cause. Curiously, the
‘traitor’s’ salary continued to be sent to his wife until January 1944.” (Idem.)
10.
Genoud was involved with the Third Reich’s (successful) approaches to
Allen Dulles and related elements of the OSS (the US intelligence agency during
World War II.) These approaches were to result in the incorporation of the
Gehlen spy outfit into US intelligence in the postwar period. (For more about
the Gehlen organization, see—among other programs--RFA#’s 1-3, 11, 15, 22, 36, 37—available from Spitfire—as well as FTR#’s
29, 44, 71, 72, 94, 95, 113, 120, 180, 332.) “Dickopf eventually ended up in Switzerland,
where he received support from Genoud. Dickopf went there to approach Allen
Dulles, head of the local OSS, pretending to be an anti-Nazi. At the time, his
boss, RSHA head Ernst Kaltenbrunner, was also sanctioning the ‘Free Austria
Movement,’ yet another group of ‘anti-Nazi’ Nazis intent on befriending Dulles.
Dickopf quickly established a working relationship with one of the most
mysterious American spies of World War II, the Japanese-born and Yale-educated
Paul Blum, a top Dulles lieutenant who would later vouch for Dickopf’s
anti-Nazi credentials.” (Ibid.; pp. 584-585.)
11.
Genoud helped in the Nazi diaspora after World War II. Genoud was
especially close to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. His (Genoud’s) links with the
Grand Mufti were the foundation of a profound relationship with the very
important Nazi émigré community in the Middle East. “Genoud, too, was in the thick of things,
having established a friendship with SS General Karl Wolff, leader of the
German team in Italy that negotiated Operation Sunrise with Dulles. Shortly
after the war, Genoud acquired the publishing rights to the works of Adolf
Hitler, Martin Bormann, and Joseph Goebbels. He also played a major, if murky,
role in aiding fugitive Nazi war criminals. Another key player in the postwar
Nazi underground resident in Switzerland was SD Colonel Eugen Dollmann, General
Wolff’s chief lieutenant in the talks with Dulles. Besides Wolff, Dollman and
Genoud had another friend in common: Haj Amin el-Hussein, the Grand Mufti of
Jerusalem. Genoud first met the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem in 1936, and again in
Berlin during the war. Dollman also maintained links to the Grand Mufti.” (Ibid.;
p. 585.)
12.
“After the July
23, 1952 Free Officers coup, Genoud established ties with an Egyptian
intelligence operative named major Fathi al-Dib. In post-coup Egypt he
experienced firsthand the strange mixture of left and right, when half of
Cairo’s most influential weekly Rose al
Yussef was filled with references to figures like the Soviet writer Ilya
Ehrenburg and the other half carried reprints from anti-Semitic hate sheets
like the American journal Common Sense.”
(Idem.)
13.
Genoud’s political presence in the Middle East led to his relationship
with the Algerian independence guerilla organization the FLN. As was the case
with many national liberation movements in the Middle East, Genoud and his
fellow Nazis assisted the FLN with money, arms and political support. This
support was in keeping with the Nazi geopolitical strategy of gaining control
of the “Earth Island” by forging political relationships with the Muslim
populations that dominate the center of that pivotally important landmass. (To
learn more about the concept of the Earth Island, see FTR#391 and the
programs noted there about the subject.) “In 1955, with the Grand Mufti’s friend Johann von Leers
helping to run Egypt’s Propaganda Ministry and its all-important ‘Institute for
the Study of Zionism,’ Genoud began to see Egypt as a base for the anti-French
FLN independence movement in Algeria. He worked in Tangier with an ex-SS
officer named Hans Reichenberg to create the Arabo-Afrika import-export
company, which supplied the FLN with weapons. Arabo-Afrika was actually a cover
enterprise established by Werner Naumann's network, and included Genoud’s
friend Dr. Hjalmar Schacht. In Damascus, General Otto Remer, Ernst-William
Springer, and an ex-SS captain and RSHA operative named Alois Brunner created
another gun-running operation, the Orient Trading Company (OTRACO), to ship
arms to the FLN militants.” (Idem.)
14.
Genoud’s
importance within the FLN increased when he became the group’s banker. In 1952
Ahmed Ben Bella, one of the founders of the Algerian Organisation Speciale(OS)
independence movement, escaped from a French jail. After spending several
months underground, he resurfaced in Cairo to be personally blessed by Nasser.
In the spring of 1954 Ben Bella left Cairo and traveled to Geneva, where he and
three of his OS comrades created the organizational basis for the FLN. In 1958
Genoud and a Syrian named Zouheir Nardam co-founded the Banque Commerciale
Arabe in Geneva to manage the FLN’s war chest. One of Genoud’s closest
collaborators, Mohammed Khider, was secretary general of the FLN’s Political
Bureau. Born in 1912, Khider had been the driving force behind the Egyptian
section of Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertes Democratiques (MTLD), which
helped launch the Algerian armed rebellion on 1 November 1954.” (Idem.)
15.
“After Algeria won
its independence, Genoud became head of the Banque Populaire Arabe in Algiers.
In October 1964 (during a time of intense political infighting inside the FLN)
Genoud was arrested and charged with transferring $15 million of FLN money to
his Swiss bank in Khider’s name. He only escaped an Algerian jail thanks to the
intervention of Egypt’s President Nasser. The Algerian government then spent
years fighting with Genoud over the FLN treasury. Khider was assassinated in
Madrid in 1967 by Algerian intelligence. Only in 1979 was the FLN ‘war chest,’
finally returned to Algeria. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 586.)
16.
It was through his
relationship with the FLN that Genoud came in contact with Verges and began to
collaborate with him. “ . . . During the war in
Algeria, Genoud met an ultra-left French lawyer named Jacques Verges, who
represented a number of FLN militants accused of terrorist bombings in Algiers’
French section. Born in Thailand in 1925 to a French doctor and a Vietnamese
woman, Verges fought against the Nazis as a French Communist Party member in
World War II. While a law student after the war, he continued his
anti-colonialist agitation and became a good friend of Saloth Sar, a young
Cambodian student better known today as Pol Pot. Verges then spent 1951 to 1954
in Prague, where he became the director of the world Communist student group
the International Union of Students. (One of his colleagues, the Stalinist
youth leader Alexander Shelepin, would become had of the KGB in the late
1950’s.) Verges split with the French Communist Party because of its reluctance
to support Algerian independence. He became a Maoist of sorts in the early
1960’s, as well as a strong supporter of Cuba and the Tri-Continental Congress
because the Cubans stressed the need for worldwide anti-colonial revolts.” (Idem.)
17.
The Verges/Genoud relationship developed through the years and resulted
in their mutual efforts on behalf of Arab terrorist organizations, the
Palestinians in particular. “After the 1967 war Genoud and Verges would reunite to support
the Arab struggle against Israel. On 18 February 1969, members of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) attacked an El Al plane on the
tarmac of Zurich’s Kloten airport. When the trial of three of the PFLP
militants began in November 1969 in Winterthur, Switzerland, both Genoud and
Verges were in the courtroom serving as advisors to the defendants.” (Idem.)
18.
“Genoud’s closest
radical Arab friend was PFLP co-founder Dr. Waddi Haddad. A Greek Orthodox
Christian, Haddad fled Palestine in 1948. He then studied medicine with his
fellow Greek Orthodox colleague George Habash at the American University in
Beirut. In the early 1950’s, Haddad and Habash founded the Arab Nationalist
Movement (ANM), which published a small journal called Vengeance. Although their views were considered right-wing, they
received encouragement from American diplomats for their opposition to the
continued British and French colonial domination of the region. In 1955, when
Egypt turned to the East Bloc, the ANM followed. By 1958 the group, which by
now had established small branches in Egypt, Kuwait, Yemen, Syria, and other
Arab nations, ws calling itself socialist and demanding a united Arab response
against Israel. The ANM’s embrace of socialism eventually led to an internal
factional struggle in which Haddad and Habash represented the right while Nayef
Hawatmeh stood for the more ideologically orthodox left.” (Ibid.; pp. 586-587.)
19.
“After the 1967
war the ANM was reorganized and became the PFLP. Now the group praised Mao, Lin
Piao, Che Guevara, and the Tri-Continental Congress. Habash and Haddad declared
themselves leftists and embraced the Vietnamese Revolution because of U.S.
support for Israel. Hawatmeh’s more orthodox Marxist faction, however, believed
their ‘left turn’ was inspired less by ideology than by opportunism, and split
with the PFLP to become the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PDFLP).” (Ibid.; p. 587.)
20.
“Waddi Haddad,
who was far more a man of action than a theorist like Habash, took command of
the PFLP’s overseas operations. He soon attracted support from a variety of
allies including the Japanese Red Army, the Baader-Meinhof Group/Red Army
Faction, the Irish National Liberation Army (an IRA splinter group), and
individual volunteers like Ilich Sanchez Ramirez, better known as ‘Carlos the
Jackal.’ Another PFLP volunteer was a young Swiss man named Bruno Breguet. On
23 June 1970 Breguet was arrested in Haifa, Israel, while on a PFLP bombing
mission. After his arrest, Genoud organized a campaign for his release from
prison. Although he had been sentenced to 15 years, Breguet was allowed to
leave Israel in 1977. By the early 1980’s he was an important member of the
Carlos network in Europe. As for Haddad, he adored the Swiss banker and dubbed
him ‘Sheik Francois.’ After Haddad’s death from cancer in an East Berlin
hospital on 27 March 1978, Genoud continued to maintain close ties with his
terrorist network.” (Idem.)
21.
“Genoud also
worked with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), in particular its
‘Black September’ terrorist network headed by Ali Hassan Salameh (the ‘Red
Prince’), who was assassinated by the Israeli secret service on 22 November
1979. One of Genoud’s intermediaries to the PLO was Fouad el-Shemali, a former
student leader with the Syrian National-Social Party that had been destroyed
after a failed coup attempt in Lebanon. Genoud also developed excellent ties to
Libya through his Egyptian friend Fathi el-Dib, who introduced him to Abdel
Moumen el-Honi, the director of the Libyan secret service. He handled Libyan
contributions to the PLO and helped mediate relations between the Libyans and
the IRA through Jean (Yann) L’Hostellier, a Breton nationalist and former
Waffen SS volunteer.” (Idem.)
22.
“On 5 September
1972 Black September terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic
games in Munich. The head of Interpol at the time of the attack was Genoud’s
old friend Paul Dickopf; Genoud had lobbied the secret services of the Middle
East to support Dickopf’s bid to become Interpol president. Dickopf’s Interpol
spokesman argued, the Arab-Israeli conflict was a political question and
Interpol spokesman argued, the Arab-Israeli conflict was a political question
and Interpol was an agency designed to handle criminal, not political,
matters.” (Ibid.;
p. 588.)
23.
Verges disappeared mysteriously for a period of eight years. He only
says (enigmatically) that he went “though the looking glass”, where he served
an “apprenticeship.” (One should note that a mirror reverses right and left—an
interesting point to consider as one reflects on the far-left orientation of
Verges and the Nazi orientation of Genoud.) “The early 1970’s saw a series of terrorist
attacks throughout Europe. Genoud’s friend Jacques Verges, however, was not
involved in giving legal assistance to captured militants. One day in February
1970 he disappeared from Paris after announcing that he was going on a business
trip to Spain. Then, just as mysteriously, he showed up on the streets of Paris
eight years later, in the winter of 1978. Asked where he had been, he
explained: ‘I stepped through the looking glass, where I served an
apprenticeship.’” (Idem.)
24.
Verges and Genoud renewed their collaboration in the early 1980’s, when
they worked together in defense of far-left German terrorists, Carlos the
Jackal and Klaus Barbie. “In the early 1980’s, Genoud and Verges returned to
center-stage. On 16 February 1982 Genoud’s friend Bruno Breguet and a German
woman named Magdalena Kopp were arrested in Paris after police discovered guns,
hand grenades, and four kilos of explosives in their car. Kopp, it turned out,
was a member of the German Revolutionary Cells created by Johannes Weinrich.
She was also Carlos’s common-law wife. Verges took charge of their legal
defense while Genoud paid the bills. Meanwhile, Carlos began writing
threatening letters to French Interior Minister Gaston Defferre, while a series
of bombs went off in different parts of the country.” (Idem.)
25.
Verges represented Klaus Barbie—the Butcher of Lyons. (For more about
Barbie, see—among other programs—RFA#’s
1, 3, 17, 19, 27—available from Spitfire.)
“The
Kopp-Breguet trial proved to be a warmup for another, even more spectacular
Genoud and Verges operation—the legal defense of Klaus Barbie, a Nazi war
criminal who had been extradited from Bolivia to France in 1982. While engaged
in his Arab adventures, Genoud continued to maintain excellent relations with
top Nazis like General Degrelle, General Wolff, and General Remer. He was also
close to New European Order founder Guy Amaudruz, who ran the NEO’s main branch
out of Lusanne, which happened to be Genoud’s hometown. Asked his opinion of
Amaudruz, Genoud said that his ‘grande vertu, il est extremement fidele,
courageux. C’est un saint.’ [His ‘great virtue, he is extremely loyal,
courageous. He is a saint.’]” (Idem.)
26.
Verges’ representation of Barbie is set forth: “Genoud and Verges used Barbie’s trial to
condemn France for its crimes against Algeria. Although Barbie was easily
convicted, many questions about him remained. During his time in Bolivia,
Barbie regularly fed the CIA information on the left throughout Latin America,
using a contact in Bolivia’s Interior Ministry. Yet Barbie and Hans-Ulrich
Rudel, his partner in the weapons business, were believed to have had Cuban
ties. Barbie was also reportedly involved in supplying weapons to the Italian
ultra-leftist millionaire Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. It remains an open question
whether Genoud helped Barbie simply out of abstract principle or because he
himself had been a player in Barbie’s arms and intelligence operation.” (Idem.)
27.
One should note
that Genoud’s name comes up in connection with the events of 9/11 and the Al
Taqwa milieu, and that Verges’ law partner Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, is the
French counsel for Zaccharias Moussaoui—the accused “20th hijacker.”
For more information about Genoud, 9/11 and Coutant-Peyre, use the search
engine on the Spitfire website.