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sum negotiated with offshore entities. These treaties also help to Less grand, but just as interesting in other respects, was the fall- shield the reality of these programs from public awareness. out from Project Hammer, which is said to have totalled over There are unsubstantiated rumours that some of the tax take US$220 _ billion. In fact, the precise sum _ is occasionally gets "diverted" for altogether private purposes. It is US$223,104,000,008.03.? an allegation that is impossible to stand up, however. London and Zurich are key centres for program activity, THE NUGAN HAND BANK CONNECTION although transactions are usually booked through offshore enti- One of the central characters associated with Project Hammer ties. London and Zurich are also gold centres, and more than one was Brigadier General Erle Cocke. Back in 1966, Cocke, along credible source confirms that "black" gold forms an important part with his sleeping partner General Eugene Phillips, established the of program trading activity. There are also good reasons to sup- Washington-based consultancy firm Cocke & Phillips pose that part of Uncle Sam's share of trading profits is credited to International. This was at the height of the Vietnam War, and the Exchange Stabilisation Fund. Here it is pooled with other —_ just a few months after Cold Warrior Paul H. Nitze issued the funds and used to shore-up the American economy by—amongst directive authorising the establishment of the US Navy's clandes- other manoeuvres—manipulating the gold price to keep it belowa _ tine intelligence collection program more commonly known as predetermined price. "Task Force 157". Trading programs are the preserve of many governments, their TF 157 would later feature in the Nugan Hand Bank affair treasury departments and the top international banks which by exposed by Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jonathan their very nature have the necessary mechanisms in place to Kwitny in his book The Crimes of Patriots. Task Force 157 enable trading to take place efficiently and secretly. Banks from came to an end on the instruction of Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, G7 nations dominate. once he discovered the full involvement of "rogue" CIA agent It follows, therefore, that a num- Edwin Wilson in the Task Force. ber of problems occur as a conse- Wilson was responsible for so much quence of the multijurisdictional intrigue and illegality that one could nature of supervision; and although shake a stick at it. He was eventually safeguards are in place to ensure arrested, tried and imprisoned— hata mone fed int the | __ Funds of suspect origin ff wei hems oy: hin Funds of suspect origin do enter the do enter the system and are he was working on orders from above wen and are made pristine clean made pristine clean by this but in a deniable role and was cyni- y this form of paper alchemy. cally sacrificed to save other more Large sums of black gold, cash or form of paper alchemy. prominent players. other forms of convertible assets are During his investigation, Jonathan used as "collateral" to initiate Kwitny learned that General Erle trading programs. There are also Cocke ran Nugan Hand Bank's certain classes of government- Washington office. Cocke's partner issued treasury notes and bonds that General Phillips denied this, saying are privately lodged with major they had merely rented office space to Western banks. These "treasuries" are never meant to see the Nugan Hand Inc.'s Hawaii President, General Edward Black—a light of day, but are in turn used by major banks to back the former OSS, CIA and senior military officer. This proved to be issuance of their own bank debentures "off ledger" in substantially untrue, however. Kwitny learned that papers filed with the US leveraged amounts that can run into tens of trillions of dollars—or Treasury listed General Cocke as the "person in charge" of Nugan their foreign currency equivalents. Hand's Washington office. Cocke claimed that someone else In turn, this bank "paper" is traded in pre-arranged "buy/sell" must have filed these papers without his knowledge or consent. transactions at steep discounts (cents on the dollar) off the face In April 2000, Cocke gave a deposition running to 67 pages value of the issued bank debentures. The trading of the paper concerning his knowledge and involvement in Project Hammer. between banks—using proxies—is arranged and coordinated so Ten days later he died from pancreatic cancer. His explosive that the traded obligations effectively "wash out" or are otherwise deposition reveals him as a very significant and highly connected cancelled, although other scenarios exist where issued paper is player in a world few of us are familiar with. purchased at a fair market value and held to maturity. In the past, Cocke fought in three wars: World War II, Korea and Vietnam. trading was paper-based, but today everything is electronic During WWII he was an artillery officer and a division staff offi- "screen-based" and consequently the credits traded have a life of | cer and was a POW under the Germans. He worked for General milliseconds. MacArthur during the Korean War and for General Westmoreland The difference between the buy-and-sell price—usually known in the Vietnam War. Highly decorated for his service, he was as the "spread" (in the case of Hammer, this was said to be many awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and cluster, a Purple Heart percentage points)—generates a "fallout", a term that implies with three clusters, a Croix de Guerre plus the Légion d'honneur profit. In other transactions, most notably "Jacobe", the spread from France, and a Medal of Honour from The Philippines. He was represented to be at least 10% on a planned face value was the youngest National Commander of the American Legion issuance of US$27.5 trillion, according to documents I have seen. and, prior to his death, became the oldest National Commander. This would have created a fallout of US$2.75 trillion. However, In addition he was distinguished by the Red Cross with the medal for reasons yet unknown to this writer, it seems that the Jacobe Cruz Roja, and he was made an Honourable Comrade of the program, privately hailed as the largest program "ever put Nationalist Chinese Air Force. together", was—for reasons that are still inexplicable—only two- Cocke was a Shriner Mason of many years’ standing (he held a thirds completed. semi-official voluntary position for that organisation) and a Grand Less grand, but just as interesting in other respects, was the fall- out from Project Hammer, which is said to have totalled over US$220 _ billion. In fact, the precise sum _ is US$223,104,000,008.03.? Funds of suspect origin do enter the system and are made pristine clean | by this 36 = NEXUS form of paper alchemy. www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2001 — JANUARY 2002