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DAY OF INFAMY 2001: Who profited from bombing?
WorldNetDaily.com ^
| Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Posted on 09/18/2001 12:22:38 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
DAY OF INFAMY 2001
Who profited from bombing?
New evidence of short-selling of stocks prior to attack
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
U.S., British, German, Japanese and Italian government agencies are reportedly investigating links between alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and various stock trades in the United States and Europe around the time of the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which sent foreign markets into a tailspin over worries about the U.S. economy.
The Sankei Shimbun newspaper in Japan first reported the story. It was later picked up by United Press International.
Among other things, under a practice known as short-selling, a person with prior information can score large profits when a stock sinks in value on certain news -- such as corporate problems, or in this case, the broader news of an attack that has crippled the United States.
Did bin Laden tip off his billionaire family or other rich allies in his terrorist cause? Did bin Laden, who is worth about $300 million, use his foreknowledge of the attack to profit personally?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to "confirm or deny" any such investigations by U.S. financial authorities, but a spokesman added that the agency has received a variety of investor e-mail "suggesting that the SEC check records" on stock transactions around the time of the attacks to establish any possible linkage to profiteering by persons related to the terrorists.
Today, the London Daily Mail is reporting that the CIA has regulators in London to investigate suspicious sales of millions of shares before last Tuesday's attacks in America in the belief that the paper trail will lead to the terrorists.
Britain's City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has launched an inquiry into unusual share price movements in London before last week's atrocities.
"It would be a particularly ghoulish kind of insider dealing," one source told the Daily Mail. "But if we find anyone profiteering out of the tragedy it could be a good lead for the investigation into exactly who is responsible."
Germany's security watchdog also launched an inquiry into "suspect" share price movements in the run-up to the atrocities. But a spokesman for the German stock exchange said an investigation found no evidence that bin Laden or others profited from advance knowledge of the attacks
Reinsurer Swiss Re and the French insurance giant Axa also suffered price falls before the outrage.
In cases of widespread short selling, the brokers start to follow the trend so as to cover themselves and this can force the market down.
A similar investigation is under way in Japan, where it is believed to be focusing on dealings in futures contracts.
In the futures market, investors bet on the future price of shares or commodities and can make enormous gains if their gambles prove correct.
Bin Laden comes from a wealthy Saudi business family and is believed to have financial tentacles reaching across the globe.
He is reported to have used a Milan brokerage to invest in European stock markets.
The Swiss authorities are also looking closely at his links with their country's notoriously secretive banking system.
For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.
TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
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To: JohnHuang2
Let's hope that this is the first war in history where the Order of Battle will be determined by the principle of Following the Money.
If we stay the course and Follow the Money, it is going to lead us into some very interesting places, indeed.
2
posted on
09/18/2001 12:32:47 AM PDT
by
Fulbright
To: Fulbright
This is very disturbing in deed, maybe that is why we should destroy him now.
3
posted on
09/18/2001 12:53:25 AM PDT
by
pattycake
To: pattycake
LOL! Best post so far.
I hope you didn't short...
To: pattycake
Outlook: Tackling terrorismThe Independent - United Kingdom; Sep 18, 2001 FINANCIAL REGULATORS around the world are investigating the possibility that Osama bin Laden and his associates might have been insider trading ahead of last week's tragic events by selling insurance and other equities short. Fact over the last terrible week has proved so much more gripping and disturbing than fiction that the suggestion should not be dismissed as altogether ridiculous. What's more, Mr bin Laden is no stranger to stock trading. He's said to have indulged in it quite freely in his former incarnation as a Saudi construction company boss.
But even if true, it's most unlikely that regulators will ever get to the bottom of it. In a world governed more and more by transparency and openness, many aspects of commerce and money remain impenetrable even to the most determined and powerful of regulators. Terrorists and former dictators have fewer and fewer places to hide, but their money has boltholes by the thousands.
International co-operation between financial regulators, and a general tightening of the legal framework throughout the developed world, has made dirty money harder to hide than it was, but progress is slow, and many offshore centres still make secrecy their prime marketing tool. In their war against terrorism, governments might usefully turn their attention to the offshore centres and the western banks and securities houses that regularly use them. There needs to be a lot more glasnost in financial markets all round.
All Material Subject to Copyright
Relax Patty, you can sleep in peace. Comrade Usamah too.
To: JohnHuang2
bump
To: Zviadist, Pericles, RCW2001
bump
To: CommiesOut
Hey, wasn't there some guy name Marc Rich whose been known to do these sort of things also (with insider info?)
8
posted on
09/18/2001 1:13:31 PM PDT
by
fone
(Follow the money bump.)
To: fone, Zviadist, Pericles, RCW2001, Honorary Serb
Czech news agency receives anonymous offer of news on Bin-LadinBBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Sep 18, 2001
Text of report in English by Czech news agency CTK
Prague, 18 September: CTK today received an anonymous email offering information on Usamah Bin-Ladin for half a million Czech korunas.
"Bin-Ladin is not now in Afghanistan," wrote the anonymous emailer. The USA regards Bin-Ladin as the main suspect in last week's attacks on New York and Washington.
[One dollar equals 36.82 Czech korunas.]
Source: CTK news agency, Prague, in English 1644 gmt 18 Sep 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
To: CommiesOut
from your #5:
In a world governed more and more by transparency and openness, many aspects of commerce and money remain impenetrable even to the most determined and powerful of regulators
Financial transparency is, and always has been, a MYTH. There is no way to ensure transparency in international financial transactions without GLOBAL governance.
To: CommiesOut
FINANCIAL REGULATORS around the world are investigating the possibility that Osama bin Laden and his associates might have been insider trading ahead of last week's tragic events by selling insurance and other equities short.bin Laden may not have to lift a finger to make this happen. There are whole networks of muslim fifth columnists busily at work all the time to fund bin Laden and the rest of the terrorist scum. Their activities include phony charities, bank robbery (in Canada), cigarette smuggling (in North Carolina and in the Balkans), sex slaving and drug running (again in the Balkans, extending into Europe), and other activities, legal and illegal.
Then there are their money laundering activities,to funnel the money on the sly to the terrorists. Anyone sophisticated enough to do successful money laundering is capable of profiting from a big stock market crash, and then funneling the money to the terrorists.
It's a neat division of labor--the fifth columnists sit in Zurich, New York, or Abu Dhabi, while bin Laden is free to direct his murderous activities full-time in Afghanistan. (Or, as of right now, free to run from hiding place to hiding place to try to outwit a US attack.)
To: Honorary Serb
GERTZ: Hijackers connected to Albanian terrorist cell
To: JohnHuang2
But the short sellers must surface again with a buy transaction, right?
"He who sells what isn't his'n must buy it back or go to prison."
To: fone
Hey, wasn't there some guy name Marc Rich whose been known to do these sort of things also (with insider info?)I was on my way to post the same thing! Now what has happened to this terror of a prosecutor, Mary Jo Whatsit? I thought she was going to go after the pardon like a terrier with a rat?
14
posted on
09/18/2001 2:32:53 PM PDT
by
Mahone
To: fone, William Terrell, Zviadist, Pericles
Hm... Why don't they attack Switzerland or, say, Norway? These are, too, rich freedom loving countries.
To: CommiesOut
Probably not enough people there.
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