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men were busy ‘burning out" the odd couple of dozen Savings & affair. Loans, Beebe was transferring US$3 million in ‘seed’ money from While George Bush was wearing his S&L hat on his off-days, his bank, Bossier Bank & Trust, to Harvey McLean, Jr to establish _ his all-singing, all-dancing, gun, dope 'n' money-laundering opera- the small Washington, DC-based Palmer National Bank that _ tions were about to receive a damaging blow as yet another mas- boasted a board which at one time or another largely featured in _ sive financial scandal hit the front pages. Half a dozen regional the White House telephone directory. The board chairman, Stefan _ offices of the Italy-based Banca Nazionale del Lavoro were raided Halper, was a member of the Nixon White House. His father-in- by FBI agents following a tip-off from two junior officers of BNL law, Ray S. Cline, formerly Deputy Director of Intelligence at the Atlanta.’ The BNL affair seamlessly follows the well-oiled tem- CIA and one of the old OSS 'China' veterans, was a top foreign plate with the involvement of the CIA, Britain's SIS, US policy and defence adviser in the Bush presidential campaign. Presidents Reagan and Bush, British Prime Minister Thatcher, and Other board members included two of Italy's most corrupt senior politi- John Barnum (Deputy Secretary of cians, Bettino Craxi and the Mafia- the Department of Transportation, linked Giulio Andreotti. It was to 1974-77), Frederick V. Malek While George Bush was wearing reveal the international covert net- his S&L hat on his off-days, his all- JB work that was engaged in illegally shipping arms to Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein. Even during the money-laundering operations were height of Operation Desert Storm, and member of the Reagan-Bush CIA operatives were frantically transition team), and John A. about to receive a damaging. blow attempting to put together an urgent Knebel (President Ford's Secretary as yet another. massive fi fi nancial assignment of US-made SAM mis- of Agriculture). j ee siles destined for Iraq's bloody war- sd ate Palmer National was the bank of scandal hit the front pages. machine. By a happy coincidence, choice for the National BNL, owned by the Italian Treasury, Endowment for the Preservation of was run by a close friend and Lodge Liberty's fund-raising activities that brother of Andreotti. Alberto Ferrari, provided US$10 million to Col. Oliver North's covert gun-running —_ who reigned as BNL's Director-General, was a notorious member programme that saw weapons shipped south to Nicaragua and east of P2. Nor was he alone in his Masonic affiliations. BNL, dubbed to Iran. This operation was essentially the brainchild of former “the bank of the P2", "was quickly shown to have among its upper DCI William Casey who cunningly revived the old ‘conduit’ sys- echelons a veritable nest of P2 operatives..." with intimate con- tem of money laundering that had been used with great success _ nections to the most powerful figures in successive US administra- during the ‘50s to fund secretly the Nazi war criminals recruited to __ tions. spearhead the ex-SS ‘freedom fighters’ scheduled for deployment behind enemy lines in the event that the Soviets invaded Europe." THE COCAINE CONNECTION Casey used North as his cut-out, thus kick-starting the ongoing Weapons-dealing is a highly lucrative ‘inter-government’ busi- tow between the Pentagon and the CIA about who should conduct ness and hundreds of billions of dollars are involved annually. ‘covert ops’. North's superiors in the Pentagon have never forgiv- | Equally lucrative is the narcotics trade which generates a stagger- en him for being the CIA's manikin. At the same time, Ray Cline, ing US$500 billion per annum. who had retired from the CIA and formed a family-owned compa- As well as having a peripheral role in the Iraqi weapons affair, ny called SIFT Inc., was ‘advising’ Major General John _ the Bank for Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)—known Singlaub—the principal operations officer in the Nicaraguan arms _as the “Bank for Crooks and Criminals International"—became ane af tha maine mana laundarina (Nixon's White House personnel chief and the Bush-Quayle cam- paign manager), William Kilberg singing, all- dancing, gun, dope ' n' (Department of Labor, 1973-77, THE COCAINE CONNECTION Weapons-dealing is a highly lucrative ‘inter-government’ busi- ness and hundreds of billions of dollars are involved annually. Equally lucrative is the narcotics trade which generates a stagger- ing US$500 billion per annum. As well as having a peripheral role in the Iraqi weapons affair, the Bank for Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)—known as the "Bank for Crooks and Criminals International"—became one of the major money-laundering operations for the Colombian cartels. Many of the same old cast of players are found picking the bones out of this bank that collapsed with estimated debts in excess of $10 billion. "BCCI was oper- ated as a corrupt and criminal organisa- tion throughout its entire 19-year history. It systematically falsified its records. It knowingly allowed itself to be used to launder the illegal income of drug-sellers and other criminals. And it paid bribes and kickbacks to public officials,""” Over a few short years, the BCCI affair would slowly swell to prodigious proportions, bringing numerous casual- ties in its wake. One of these was Clark Gifford, Chairman of First American Bancshares, friend of presidents and doyen of Washington insiders. Disgraced, Clifford and his prestigious Washington law-firm partner Robert POSSIBLY.) RAVE | aM Y Vor BQoKS ON wr {I _ péesavue Vr il mp WV yp 7 rhe >) st aa ia 24 © NEXUS JUNE-JULY 1996