2/05/03
BNL SCANDAL REVEALS BUSH HYPOCRISY AND A GREATER CONSPIRACY
By J. Parnell McCarter
The following material
was obtained from the War and Peace Digest, a bimonthly international
newsletter on issues of disarmament, government secrecy, media accountability,
the nuclear threat (from both civilian power plants and the military weapons
complex), ecological destruction, and peaceful conflict resolution through the
structures of the United Nations. The
War and Peace Digest contact is Matthew Freedman [32 Union Square East, New
York, NY 10003-3295 (Tel: 212-777-6626)].
There are many
noteworthy aspects of this material and paths to pursue, but I will just
comment on two for now:
1. The BNL scandal
reveals President George W. Bush’s utter hypocrisy. His own family has been involved in illicit transactions to get
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Using WMD as an excuse for war with Iraq
is ironic in the extreme.
2. Psalm 2:2 tells
us that the rulers of this earth conspire against the Lord and his Anointed
Jesus. And information that is coming
out from the disclosure of this BNL scandal, as well as other scandals like the
Vatican Bank scandal and the Iran-Contra scandal, are beginning to reveal the
contours of this conspiracy. Their
motives include power and money. The
parties involved include the Vatican, high Masonry, the Bush family, the
Hussein family, the CIA, and many others.
Here is the
material:
--------------------
BNL - IRAQGATE SCANDAL
The Chicago Connection - Bush & Saddam Inc.
Key
documents - sought by Gonzalez - withheld
With George Bush ready to
take America into another war with Iraq to
destroy the nuclear,
chemical, biological and missiles weapons that Bush
himself helped Saddam
Hussein to build, Congressmen Henry Gonzalez, the
courageous Texas Democrat
who heads the House Banking Committee,
continues, single-handedly,
to peel back layer after layer of cover-up to reveal
the monumental proportions
of the Iraqgate-BNL (Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro)
scandal that now threatens
to bring down the Bush regime. But the most
explosive documents have
been withheld.
Over the past several months Gonzalez has shown
the
Iraqgate-BNL scandal to be
bigger than anyone had imagined. He has
uncovered and
reported incontestable
evidence that Bush and his associates secretly
sold nuclear, biological,
chemical and missile-related weapons materials to
Saddam Hussein; blocked
investigations into the use of such materials by
Hussein; suppressed memos
warning of the dangers of such sales;
deliberately falsified documents on such sales submitted
to Congress
and interfered illegally to
halt investigations into the criminal activities
of the BNL bank in secretly
diverting American agricultural loans to buy
the weapons for Hussein.
BNL-BCCI Chicago Branches
Gonzalez has revealed a Bush policy disaster that lead to
the
First Gulf War and a blunder
that is now costing the Americans $2
billion to
Pay off the loans Bush
guaranteed with U.S. taxpayersU money . Bush
Repeatedly ignored warnings
that Iraq would default on the loans.
Now, certain
Key documents - perhaps the
most revealing yet - are being withheld from
The Gonzalez
investigation. They are said to be the
records of the Chicago
branches of BNL and BCCI
(Bank of Credit and Commerce International),
through which, some
investigators say , George Bush and Saddam Hussein
may have been involved in a joint, private enterprise to
skim oil profits
arising from Reagan-Bush
policies toward Iraq. The documents have
been
impounded by a Chicago court
and Congressman Gonzalez Banking
Committee
has been denied access.
Bush's Pennzoil Profits
Between 1980 and 1990 the Gulf region exported a trillion
dollars
worth of oil to the West.
Hundreds of billions of dollars in kickbacks
were involved. Some of the
kickbacks were said to be handled by
the BNL/BCCI
banks for Pennzoil, an oil
company founded by George Bush The
Pennzoil
case was (is?) the target of Ross Perot’s
much-denied investigation of
the Bush family and friends.
Investigators believe the Chicago bank records
could help explain BushUs
massive, covert military support for Iraq in
the years between 1981-1990.
The Chicago BNL /BCCI records could also provide clues to
why
The Bush Administration
secretly - and possibly illegally - exempted eleven
members of the Bush cabinet
from conflict of interest restrictions in
their handling of the Gulf
war policy. Bush simply declared that the law
regarding conflict of
interest would cease to apply to his advisors on
the Gulf war policy. He then
ordered that his declaration would be not be
made public. Congressman
Gonzalez is now asking Bush to explain
the deal.
Bush has not responded.
According to some investigators, the BNL-BCCI bank documents
now impounded by a
Chicago judge could shed light not only on the
Iraqgate case, but on other
illegal transactions including Iran-Contra,
October Surprise and the
Inslaw case. In all instances monies passed
through the BNL/BCCI banking network.
BNL is an Italian
bank now under investigation by
Congress
for fraud in using loans
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to finance
IraqUs pre-war military
buildup. Over the past thirty years, BNL is
suspected of involvement in
a wide range of international criminal
activities. (French
Intelligence investigators have even linked the bank
to large payments to certain
individuals in Europe in late 1963, thought to
be associated with the John
Kennedy assassination.)
On December 28th 1990, when Gonzalez sought the records of the
Chicago branch of BNL (Case
number 90 C 6863 of the U.S. District Court
In Chicago: People of the
State of Illinois ex re; William C. Harris v. the
Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System), Gonzalez was
told
By Federal Judge, Brian Duff
that he could not have them. Duff, a friend of
both Bush and Reagan, works
closely with the Federal Reserve Bank. Duff
impounded the documents and
abused GonzalezU attorney for Rbehaving like
an 800 -pound gorilla.S That
is when Duff impounded the records.
Questions abound. Suspicions arise from the fact that
among
officials involved in the
BNL bank is Brent Scowcroft, BushUs National
Security advisor who,
Gonzalez has now revealed, maintained a million-
dollar financial interest in
40 of the biggest U.S. weapons companies
that profited from U.S.
policies toward Iraq, including General Electric,
General Motors, ITT, and
Lockheed. Gonzalez has also revealed that
Assistant Secretary of State
Laurence Eagleberger worked closely with
BNL when he and Scowcroft
were part of Henry KissingerUs consulting firm.
Kissinger was a member of
the board of BNL and his firm represents BNL
In the USA.
BNL, P2 and the Vatican Bank
The BNL bank was also used for secret arms trade by the
outlawed
P2 Masonic Lodge of Rome,
whose Grandmaster, Licio Gelli is thought to have
been the mastermind behind
BNLUs illegal, world-wide banking strategies,
until his arrest in 1981,
for embezzling $1.5 billion from the Vatican
Bank. The Vatican Bank had
close ties with BNL. Gelli was recently
sentenced to 18 years in
jail for his role in the case.
Gelli was involved with the Pope’s banker and bodyguard,
Bishop Marcinkus (formerly
of Chicago) in the Vatican Bank embezzlement. When
The Italian government
issued a warrant for the BishopUs arrest they were
blocked by the Vatican,
which claims separate city-state
authority.
(The Pope is still closely
involved with Marcinkus and the Vatican Bank is
still closely associated
with BNL.)
Bush and Gelli are friends. Gelli was guest of honor at the
1981 Reagan-Bush inaugural
ball. (N.Y. Times, June 4, 1981, page 7.)
Kissinger also knew Gelli.
When Gelli was arrested in March, 1981, Kissinger
immediately sent an agent to
Rome with $18,000 to try to buy some of the
documents in the P2 case to
keep them from becoming public ( In These
Times, Sept. 1982). It may be of interest that P2 had a lodge in
Chicago.
Chicago, it is now emerging, has been the central point
for
vast, international, illegal
transactions involving the BNL and BCCI banks and
secret deals with American
oil companies, military manufacturers, the
CIA, and possibly U.S.
politicians. (According to a London source, unreleased
BCCI documents in the
possession of the Bank of London list
the names
Of at least 105 members of
U.S. Congress - of both Houses and both parties
- who have received money
through the Chicago branch of BCCI. The U.S.
Federal Reserve is said to
have a copy of the same secret BCCI list).
The Octopus
Just as the P2 scandal in Italy brought down the government
and
destroyed hundred of careers
in politics, industry and banking, so
too
the BNL/BCCI - Penzzoil case
could bring down the Bush administration and
send dozens of top administration
officials to jail. Indeed the P2 and BNL
cases overlap in the October
Surprise case, and U.S. investigators
would do
well to examine the Italian
government documents in the P2 case as part of
their inquiry into the
October Surprise/BNL/BCCI/Penzzoil/Bush/Hussein links.
It is beginning to look as
though the late journalist, Danny Casselaro was
On the right track at the
time of his highly suspicious suicide last
year, when he was
investigating what he called The Octopus, a vast,
interlocking, international
criminal conspiracy.
Bush's Watergate
Congress is now calling for the appointment of a Special
Prosecutor to investigate
the ballooning BNL-Iraqgate case. In
his insightful and
relentless reporting on the case
in The New York Times, William Safire
says flatly that BNL will be
Bush’s Watergate. Saffire is now
investigating
the Chicago link to the
case. (Updates on the case now appear regularly on
the recorded telephone
hotlines of controversial Chicago investigator,
Sherman Scholnick of the
RCommittee to Clean Up the CourtsS, who
has
Spearheaded his own
investigation. Call: 312 - 731 1100 &
312- 731 1505 for five-
minute recorded updates.)
When appointed, the Special Prosecutor in the BNL/Iraqgate
case
should have immediate access
to all the records, including the crucial
documents now confiscated
and impounded by the Chicago court.
When the truth of the BNL case is finally revealed, the
War &
Peace foundation believes we
will see the extent to which politics
Around the world have been
corrupted by the arms trade. Iraqgate will serve as further
evidence of the need for
international monitoring by the United Nations
of all weapons traffic as a
first, essential step toward complete world
disarmament.
Ironically, as we go to press, joint efforts by both houses
Of Congress in the wake of
the Iraqgate revelations to tighten restrictions
On the sale of nuclear
weapons-related materials to nations like Iraq, Iran
and Syria, have provoked a
threat of veto by George Bush, who argues
that such non- proliferation
legislation would mean a loss of business for
American nuclear exporters!