PURITAN NEWS WEEKLY

www.puritans.net/news/

2/05/03

 

 

BNL SCANDAL REVEALS BUSH HYPOCRISY AND A GREATER CONSPIRACY

 

 

  

By J. Parnell McCarter

Puritan News Service

 

 

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!