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PROJECT HAMMER RELOADED PROJECT HAMMER RELOADED Riches looted by the Nazis and Japanese during WWII and recovered by the United States OSS and CIA have been used to finance secret government projects over the decades and save major banks from insolvency. Part 1 of 2 eginning in 1988 and lasting until approximately 1992, "Project Hammer" was the latest in a series of highly secretive banking practices—known as "collateral trading" programmes—that are used to create, as if by magic, huge amounts of unaccountable funds for use in specific projects. These vast pools of unvouchered slush funds are applied to finance a wide variety of clandestine activities that include secret military projects, geo-political requirements and the development of infrastructure projects. It is also whispered that, in the case of the Project Hammer programme at least, a per- centage of the proceeds generated from this secretive activity found its way into the pock- ets of VIPs and well-known politicians. Names associated with such corrupt behaviour are carried on the wind; but if one listens attentively, the names George Bush, Sr, and Jim Baker III are just discernible to the trained ear. An example of the type of project on which these funds are expended is the trading pro- gramme known as "EFG Jacobi" —a predecessor of Hammer—that I understand was used largely to finance military facilities and related operations at the top-secret US base locat- ed at Pine Gap near Alice Springs in central Australia. In order to maintain the secrecy that surrounds genuine activity, these trading pro- grammes are routinely said not to exist. Enquiries about them are deflected and attention is instead focused on the warnings issued by government agencies about fake pro- grammes. This, when combined with the numerous prosecutions that occur every year over fraudulent High Yield Investment Programme transactions, serves to create the impression that authorised programmes do not occur. The reasons for this deflection are many, but not least is the fact that the asset bases on which these programmes usually operate are also said not to exist—at least in the quanti- ties that they actually do. The assets in question are large volumes of gold and lesser amounts of platinum plundered by the Nazis and Japanese during World War II. The fact that gold has been the one stable commodity used to back and support the issuance of currency over the decades means that it has been subject to considerable gov- ernment and central bank secrecy. It was only in 1997 that the Bank of England decided to lift this veil of secrecy and allow the London bullion market a degree of openness. But that openness did not include coming clean about the true amount of gold in existence, which is far larger than official figures allow. Because of this and the extremely covert nature of related trading programmes, compre- hensive details of the programmes’ operations and the financing techniques employed have remained hidden from public view. At least this was the case prior to the publication of part one of this series, The Project Hammer File.' This essay is the result of further examination of the techniques and activity of Project Hammer, and now places additional important material into the public domain. Project Hammer remains a high-level state secret in a number of countries including the USA. This was confirmed de facto by the CIA in its refusal to release any relevant infor- mation following my Freedom of Information Act request in February 2001. The exemp- tion used by the CIA to reject my request was that relevant material is "properly classified pursuant to an Executive Order in the interest of national defense or foreign policy"? Project Hammer also stands out because proceeds from the trading activity were illegally diverted by major banks. Confirmation of this is provided by Brigadier-General Erle Cocke in his April 2000 affidavit. In this, General Cocke was asked about the by David G. Guyatt © 2003 c/- NEXUS Office 55 Queens Road East Grinstead, W. Sussex RH19 1BG United Kingdom Website: http:/www.deepblacklies.co.uk Website: http:/www.deepblacklies.co.uk NEXUS ¢ 33 BACKGROUND ON "COLLATERAL TRADING" by David G. Guyatt © 2003 AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2003 www.nexusmagazine.com