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added that whoever set it in motion "had to have been somebody But there were numerous other entities involved in Project at a pretty high level". He then made the interesting observation | Hammer. None more so than the world's big bank, as is made that whoever it was who had authorised it, "the original structure" clear by the following exchange: had "obviously got way out of proportion as time went by". The Q. What other banks and financial institutions were involved in implication was that some of the money—the fallout—got it? diverted from its original intention. A. Well, if they were, they were still as a correspondent to More than a few of those involved in Project Hammer at Citibank... various levels have told me that they believe some of the pool of "Correspondent", in the sense General Cocke's uses this term, money created by the Hammer project was "diverted" and used to means one bank's account maintained at another bank. This is rescue many of the world's major banks, which by the very end of _ used to handle money transfers between both banks, and it very the 1980s faced insolvency following reckless lending policies often denotes a "special relationship" between the the banks con- throughout the late 1970s and early/middle 1980s. It is certainly cerned. The questioner then asked: true that at that time many major banks like Citibank, HSBC, Q. Do you know which of those would be involved? Was Chase, BoNY and others stood teetering on the very brink of Chase Manhattan one? disaster. A. Iam sure that every big bank in every major country at Another view is one that has been expressed by Daniel Hughes, some stage of the game had some of this pass by them. They had of Hughes Oil Company, a Florida-based corporation. Hughes a chance to refuse, or they had a chance to take it up. had been heavily involved in finding collateral to place in a number of trading programs over several years. This cost him CITIBANK, "THE CHEESE" tens of thousands of dollars, since most of these were illegitimate Cocke was then asked who the "dominant participant" was in rather than genuine. It is a fate that waits for untold thousands of "terms of running this project, this vast project". The General is unsuspecting investors who step into this shadowy realm in no doubt about his reply when he says that, based on his own unprepared. investigation, it was "Citibank of New York, in both their Athens, Even so, it seems that Hughes did play a part in attempting to Greece, office and in their New York City office". He also place collateral in Project Hammer. acknowledged that Hammer was part of He believes that the funds diverted "an ongoing long-term kind of from Project Hammer ended up in a project”. CIA-controlled Swiss bank account in Cocke went on to reveal that the name of the late Howard Hughes. Citibank were "...going to be the On the basis of years of investigation, "And all kinds of nationalities trustees. They were going to be run- Daniel Hughes believes that Project ning the program. They were going Hammer involved the trading of were involved, all kinds of to be the disbursing agency. They US$13.6 trillion in debentures, result- i Ww were the cheese." ing in a "fallout" of about US$1.1 tril- people were involved... Asked to identify which principal lion which was stashed in the Howar officer in Citibank handled Project Hughes account in Credit Suisse. Hammer, Cocke responded that "from Whilst there is no hard corroboration in all records, communications and con- support of this claim, it remains an tacts, John Reed was Vice President, intriguing possibility. More so, for in but he was the lone coordinator, for a his deposition General Cocke indicated that black money generat- better word". ed by trading programs might be hidden in dormant accounts, and Reed, who was Citibank's President and Chairman during this a Howard Hughes account set up 30 years ago would clearly fall period, has formally denied his involvement in Project Hammer. into that category. In a deposition sworn in December 2000, Reed stated that he had According to Erle Cocke plus others I have spoken with, "no recognition or knowledge of anything purportedly known as Project Hammer began life as an authorised but secretive trading Project Hammer". Nor did he have "any recognition or knowl- program aimed at repatriating dollar assets that dated back several edge" of any person named Erle Cocke. His deposition goes on decades. Cocke confirms this when he was asked what the over- to list a number of other items, people and allegations that he also all objectives of Project Hammer were: had "no recognition or knowledge" about. "Well, it was mainly to bring monies back to the United States For their part, Citibank, in a letter dated December 12, 2000, from all types of activities, both legitimately and illegitimately. state that they "never issued commercial instruments on the basis Not that they were in the smuggling business per se, but they of its possession of quantities of gold made available to it by were all in the arms business; they were all retracing dollars of agencies of the US Government and the Federal Reserve in order one description or another that had accumulated all through the to ensure the solvency of Citibank in the '80s and other bullion ‘40s and ‘50s really. And that probably is as broad a definition as banks". I can give you. And all kinds of nationalities were involved, all This denial, although emphatic, is interesting. Research shows kinds of people were involved..." that gold recovered by the forerunner to the CIA—the Office of Cocke was then asked who would have been behind the Strategic Services (OSS)—was deposited in Citibank (and many Hammer project. Would it, the questioner asked, have involved other banks, too), not in the name of the OSS or CIA but in the "various agencies of the US Government"? name of one of their operatives, Severino Garcia Santa Romana. "Yes. Obviously the CIA, the FBI, the national security agen- On his death in 1974, some—but not all—of Romana's "assets" cies of all types, Pentagon in the broadest sense of it and as such, appear to have been illegally acquired by former Philippines and the Treasury, Federal Reserve. Nobody got out of the act, Continued on page 83 everybody wanted to get in the act." But there were numerous other entities involved in Project Hammer. None more so than the world's big bank, as is made clear by the following exchange: Q. What other banks and financial institutions were involved in it? A. Well, if they were, they were still as a correspondent to Citibank... "Correspondent", in the sense General Cocke's uses this term, means one bank's account maintained at another bank. This is used to handle money transfers between both banks, and it very often denotes a "special relationship" between the the banks con- cerned. The questioner then asked: Q. Do you know which of those would be involved? Was Chase Manhattan one? A. Iam sure that every big bank in every major country at some stage of the game had some of this pass by them. They had a chance to refuse, or they had a chance to take it up. were involved, all kinds of people were involved..." 38 + NEXUS "And all kinds of nationalities Continued on page 83 www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2001 — JANUARY 2002