Posted on 01/20/2002 7:06:42 PM PST by Wallaby
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Charities 'linked' to bin Laden By Sean O'Neill THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) Pg. 04 January 18, 2002, Friday
F IVE British-registered Islamic charities are being investigated for alleged links to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, the Charity Commission said yesterday.
Inquiries into four of the charities began after the September 11 attacks and two - the International Development Foundation (IDF) and the Society of Islamic Heritage Revival (SIHR) - have had their assets frozen.
Four of the trustees of the charity, which received more than pounds 600,000 in donations in 1999, are brothers of Khalid bin Mahfouz, who was named in the Irish parliament last year as bin Laden's brother-in-law and a "major financial backer of the international terrorist network".
The commission declined to identify the three other charities under investigation. The SIHR, which was founded in Kuwait in 1986 and has had a British branch since 1992, had its accounts frozen after the US Treasury listed it last week as a designated terrorist organisation.
The American authorities are concerned primarily with the society's branches in Pakistan and Afghanistan and did not designate its Kuwaiti office. But the commission said it had frozen accounts held at NatWest and the National Bank of Kuwait (International) as "a temporary and protective measure".
The SIHR, which has offices in a terrace house in Leyton, east London, says its aims are "to advance education and religion in accordance with the tenets and doctrines of the Islamic faith". It raised pounds 130,000 in 2000 and gave more than pounds 36,000 to "cultural centres" and pounds 3,258 to "individuals". It also spent pounds 2,483 on what are described as "camping expenses".
A spokesman for the charity denied it had any links with terrorism and said it had received no notification of the seizure of its assets.
"The society has been in existence for 16 years and helps poor people in Africa, eastern Europe and Afghanistan," said the spokesman. "In Britain it helps the mosques, poor families and Islamic schools."
The commission has also frozen accounts belonging to the IDF, a Saudi-based charity which has its London base in the Mayfair offices of the Saudi Economic and Development Company.
Four of the trustees of the charity, which received more than pounds 600,000 in donations in 1999, are brothers of Khalid bin Mahfouz, who was named in the Irish parliament last year as bin Laden's brother-in-law and a "major financial backer of the international terrorist network". The commission said it had frozen IDF's accounts after the charity refused to co-operate.
Katrina Taylor, the IDF's representative in London, refused to answer questions about its affairs.
SAN DIEGO
So, Global Diamond went looking for private investors, a search that led to Al-Qadi, one of 39 people and groups named by the U.S. Treasury Department Oct. 12 as providing financial help to bin Laden. The path between Al-Qadi and Global Diamond shows the challenge U.S. officials face in trying to untangle the complicated terrorist fund-raising network, experts said. Also, it illustrates how some accused of helping bin Laden can have legitimate activities while also allegedly backing terrorism. Global Diamond officials found the Saudi millionaire a charming, honorable businessman who filed the appropriate regulatory paperwork and provided essential financing. Behind the scenes, U.S. officials said, Al-Qadi ran a charity that financed terrorism. "That's what makes it so difficult. It's not about money laundering. A lot of this is clean money," said Reyko Huang, a terrorism researcher at the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. "What makes it so difficult to track is all these things are happening behind the scenes." With the help of a London-based investment firm, the company met in May 1997 with executives of the Bin Laden Group, a Saudi conglomerate. That December, the group invested $6 million in Global Diamond and installed three executives on the board. Owned by relatives of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al-Qaida terrorist organization, the Bin Laden Group has estimated revenues of $5 billion. It has also severed ties to Osama bin Laden, a man the Bush administration calls the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. No direct evidence has surfaced to tie the Saudi exile to the company. It's uncertain if the Bin Laden Group knew of Al-Qadi's alleged ties to Osama bin Laden. But it was through a Bin Laden Group executive that Al-Qadi joined the board, interviews and court records show. In 1998, despite the $6 million Bin Laden Group investment, Global Diamond still had financial problems. The board sought between $4 million and $10 million in new money, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego in a lawsuit filed against Global Diamond. Abu-Bakr Mood, Global Diamond's vice chairman and also a Bin Laden Group executive, lined up two investors willing to invest $3 million each. One was Al-Qadi. |
Treasury officials say Al-Qadi's Saudi-based Muwafaq ("Blessed Relief") Foundation has funneled money from Saudi businessmen to Al Qaida. Peter Carter-Ruck, Al-Qadi's London-based lawyer, said his client was "horrified and shocked" that his name has been tied to bin Laden. Al-Qadi "has never been involved with, supported or provided funds for any terrorist or extremist activities," Carter-Ruck said. Al-Qadi told The New York Times the allegation was "nonsense." However, it's not the first time Al-Qadi's name has been attached to money that allegedly supported terrorist activity. The FBI claims in court documents that part of an $820,000 loan Al-Qadi made in 1991 to the Quranic Literacy Institute in Chicago went to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. Steven Haney, Mood's attorney, said his client knew little about Al-Qadi when he joined the Global Diamond and certainly nothing about any link to Osama bin Laden. Mood's contact with Al-Qadi came through a Saudi business acquaintance, Ahmed Basodan. In December 1998, Al-Qadi agreed to buy 17 percent of Global Diamond, an investment that came through New Diamond Holdings, Al-Qadi's shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands. Basodan and Al-Qadi joined Global Diamond's board. Global Diamond records describe Al-Qadi as the chairman of the Saudi National Consulting Center and Qordoba Real Estate Co. based in Saudi Arabia. He also is listed as chairman of the Caravan Co., based in Turkey and a board member of both Himont Chemical of Pakistan and Kazakhstan's Cariba Bank. In 1999, Haney said a Bin Laden Group representative forced Mood to resign from the Global Diamond board. Mood then sued the company, claiming the Bin Laden Group deprived him of his finder's fee for attracting the $6 million investment. Mood claims the "Bin Laden Group controls and manages that company," Haney said, an allegation de Villiers denies. Basodan and Al-Qadi have also split, de Villiers said. Basodan left the company's board earlier this year. Al-Qadi remains on Global Diamond's board, although the chances of him making any more investments in the company are dim. The Treasury Department froze Al-Qadi's assets last month, something that de Villiers said will have little effect on his company. In 1999, Al-Qadi also invested $750,000 in a Canadian diamond exploration firm, MIT Ventures, which has mines in Ontario and Botswana, company records show. MIT Ventures' attorney, William Schmidt, said its dealings with Al-Qadi went through Basodan. No one in the company has ever talked to Al-Qadi, he said. Schmidt and de Villiers said Global Diamond and MIT Ventures had no relationship, despite Al-Qadi's investment in both. Other MIT Ventures investors include the Saudi multinational firm, Al Murjan Group, owned by the bin Mahfouz family. The Al Murjan Group was represented on the board by Dr. Abdullah Basodan, the uncle of Ahmed Basodan and a prominent Saudi businessman, Schmidt said. Sultan Khalid bin Mahfouz, chairman of the Al Murjan Group, is a former chairman of the Saudi National Commercial Bank, the nation's largest, which was investigated in 1998 for allegedly transferring $3 million to Osama bin Laden, according to news reports. Mahfouz's son, Abdul Rahman Khalid bin Mahfouz, was on the board of the Muwafaq Foundation. "They were interested in going into mining ventures," Schmidt said of Al-Qadi. "This particular investment was part of their learning curve." --- On the Net: Global Diamond, www.globaldiamond.com MIT Ventures, www.mitventures.com |
Bath filed the lawsuit against the bank and her former husband, James R. Bath, a local entrepreneur. ""Mr. Mahfouz, as owner of National Commercial Bank, hopes to accommodate Mr. Bath's desire to assume control of Southwest Airport Services Inc., and treat it as his personal piggy-bank as he has done over the preceding several years,'' says the lawsuit. Mahfouz, formerly the chief operating officer of NCB, and associate Haroon Kahlon last year paid $ 225 million in a settlement with the Federal Reserve Board and the New York District Attorney's office for their and NCB's alleged roles in defrauding depositors and customers of the now-defunct, Luxembourg-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
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As part of the settlement, charges that a New York state grand jury brought against Mahfouz in 1992 were dropped. Those charges alleged he misled regulators by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into BCCI and secretly withdrawing funds. Because of the alleged actions of Mahfouz and NCB, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ordered the liquidation of the bank's New York federal branch through a consent order. NCB is precluded from operating in the United States unless it reapplies with the Federal Reserve Board. ""The statements regarding the bank in the petition (lawsuit) are completely unfounded,'' said Houston attorney Antoinette van Heugten, who represents NCB, the largest bank in Saudi Arabia. ""The bank has been extremely cooperative with both Baths to try to resolve the substantial balance owed the bank on a loan. And that's all this case is about. '' The bank's claims to the shares stem from a $ 1.4 million loan in 1990 from NCB's federal branch in New York to Express Park Inc., a company that provided parking at Hobby Airport before going into bankruptcy. James Bath is the guarantor on the defaulted loan. He pledged 900 of the 1,000 outstanding shares of Southwest Airport Services to the bank as collateral to secure the loan, according to court documents. Bath held the shares for himself and on behalf of his former wife as community property, the lawsuit says. The pending Houston lawsuit, based in part on the OCC consent order that liquidated the NCB branch, challenges the authority of the bank to take control of the Southwest Airport Services shares. Documents filed by NCB say the 1992 consent order does not prohibit it from enforcing loans or realizing collateral for loans. OCC officials declined to say whether the consent order prohibits NCB from acting on commitments made with the bank prior to the order. Sandra Bath is asking U.S.District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt to declare that the bank's claims to the shares of Southwest Airport Services are void. |
The FBI is convinced many of those who helped finance Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network were involved in the BCCI scandal. The New York district attorney's office, which led some BCCI prosecutions, has given the FBI access to its old case files on the world's most spectacular banking collapse. A source said: "The FBI believes many of the key figures in the BCCI affair also have roles in financing al-Qaeda." |
The CIA used BCCI as a channel to fund the Afghan fighters who resisted
The businessman invested money in the US on behalf of Bin Mahfouz. The Sunday Express revealed three weeks ago how Bin Mahfouz, who paid $ 225million after a plea bargain with New York prosecutors over his role in BCCI, and who was accused in the Irish parliament of helping to finance Bin Laden's terror network, was a "core shareholder" along with Barclays in a Guernsey-registered bank. |
Also see replies #11, #37, #38 , #39 and #41 on the thread for :
U.S. Securities and Exchange Records - George W. Bush Disregarded Federal Statutes
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/611882/posts?page=42#42
Vicente Fox says he wants to fight the in the Mexican government. But, to be successful, he will need more vigorous law-enforcement efforts from Washington.
Mexico welcomed its first democratic government in almost a century with the inauguration of conservative/populist president Vicente Fox Quesada on Dec. 1, 2000. Fox says he is committed to fighting corruption and narcotics trafficking, yet the former governor and businessman faces a daunting task. The Mexican bureaucracy continues to be dominated by the corrupt Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI)
In January, Fox met in Washington with members of Congress from both political parties to discuss an end to the annual U.S. certification of Mexico's efforts against drug traffickers. The congressional group, led by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said it would work to eliminate the certification law that has created growing tensions between the two nations. President Bush supports legislation to accomplish this. Yet law-enforcement officials say commercial, diplomatic and personal conflicts in Washington are likely to remain major obstacles to winning the war against drug trafficking and money laundering. "The good news is that Mexico has a new leader committed to fighting corruption," a veteran Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operative tells Insight. "The bad news is that Washington has been unwilling to act against the top people who protect the cartels. The leading Mexican families are longtime friends with key U.S. political leaders: summit meetings, fishing and hunting trips, friendships among the wives and kids. They use the same clubs and lawyers." Official indifference toward violations of U.S. law by the Mexican elite is illustrated by the scandal surrounding former president Carlos Salinas and his brother, Raul, known as Raulito in honor of their father, Raul Salinas Lozano. Former president Salinas was in office from 1988 to 1994 and repeatedly has denied knowledge of more than $200 million stockpiled in Switzerland by his brother. During a trip to Mexico last year to promote his new book, however, the former president was stunned when it was revealed that in a taped telephone conversation his brother had alleged that Carlos Salinas, contrary to assertions in his book, was the true owner of millions of dollars siphoned in part from government accounts, according to Mexican prosecutors. The government of Fox's predecessor, Ernesto Zedillo, verified the authenticity of the taped telephone conversation, which was broadcast by Mexican media giant Televisa. The Los Angeles Times excerpted the remarkable confession: "I think it's very stupid on his part to say that he's going to demand a precise clarification of the funds , and I'm going to give it to him, Adriana," says the man identified as Raul Salinas. "I'm going to clarify everything - where the money came from, who was the intermediary, what it was for, where it came from and where it went. I'm going to say what funds came from the public treasury so that they're returned." The woman identified as Adriana begins to argue, but Raul declares: "Carlos shows gigantic cowardice. The money is his. And then he says he doesn't know anything about it." The Swiss government sent Fox an official letter on Nov. 9, 2000, asking Mexico to participate in the investigation of Raul Salinas and former president Salinas, according to the respected weekly Proceso. The Swiss also cite several others with ties to the Salinas clan: Carlos Peralta Quintero, Carlos Hank Rhon and Raymundo Gomez Flores, the former head of the defunct Banca Cremi. Swiss investigators say they have determined that Banca Cremi actually was controlled by Raul Salinas. Carlos Cabal Peniche, the fugitive PRI money-laundering king now jailed in Australia, was the front man for the bank and reportedly the chief moneyman behind Carlos Salinas.
In 1987, Federico de la Madrid began to make weekend visits to the state of Tabasco with Carlos Cabal. The young men paid cash to buy the best banana plantations and other real estate in the Gulf Coast state, according to Fernandez. A decade ago, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau investigated these matters when Carlos Cabal was charged in New York with civil fraud by a former director of BCCI, Prince Khalid bin Mahfouz. The Saudi national claimed that Cabal stole around $70 million through a scheme involving his now-defunct New York firm, Eastbrook Inc. Though virtually ignored in the United States, this episode in the larger BCCI affair was an important precursor to the alleged subsequent financial fraud reportedly designed and executed by Carlos Cabal, including the movement of millions of dollars through Citibank in New York by the Salinas family. Swiss prosecutor Paul Perraudin claims, according to Proceso and other Mexican news outlets, to have uncovered links between the drug lord Juan Garcia Abrego and the Salinas family, including massive real-estate investments in Tabasco. Swiss investigators say they have evidence of the Salinas family and their political allies using Banca Cremi to launder tens of millions of dollars. The money allegedly was sent from Mexico to Switzerland via Citibank in New York, leaving an unmistakable electronic trail. Citibank was rumored to be the subject of two separate grand-jury investigations in 1996, but no indictments were brought. "The U.S. Department of Justice has prepared a series of indictments against Raul Salinas for extortion and narcolavado drug-money laundering ," wrote Carlos Fernandez Vega in the Mexico City daily La Jornada on July 29, 1996. "Charges have also been drawn up against Citibank and its highest officials, including Chairman John Reed, for criminal conspiracy and violations of law by the company in connection with money laundering." The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York has for years refused to comment on the existence of an investigation into whether Citibank or its employees should be charged with money laundering. A spokesman for the Department of Justice, however, confirmed to Insight last week that an investigation still is under way - eight years after the fact - suggesting Justice, not the U.S. attorney in New York, is in charge. Citibank declined comment. Despite all of this reported evidence of wrongdoing, the Clinton administration never publicly acknowledged any probe into the alleged money-laundering activities by Raul or Carlos Salinas or their political allies and business associates in Mexico. Though the government of Switzerland also sent an official request for assistance to the Justice Department, Washington has done nothing to assist in the investigation, angering officials in Switzerland and Mexico. Swiss prosecutor Carla del Ponte privately expressed outrage at U.S. indifference, says a prominent Washington lawyer, but has made no public comment. Indeed, the only public statements came in December 1995, following an NBC News report about the Salinas scandal when the Clinton administration strenuously denied that there was any investigation of Raul or Carlos Salinas. The Democratic minority in the Senate made an exhaustive inquiry, however. Their Nov. 9, 1999, report, Private Banking and Money Laundering: A Case Study of Opportunities and Vulnerabilities, prepared by the Democratic staff of the Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent subcommittee on Investigations, details how Raul Salinas allegedly used the U.S. banking system to launder millions. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, has been the driving force behind congressional interest in money laundering. In January 1992, Carlos Hank Rhon, a prominent Mexican businessman and longtime client of Citibank, "telephoned his private banker, Amy Elliott, and asked her to meet with him and Raul Salinas," according to the minority-staff report. "After accepting him as a client, the private bank opened multiple accounts for Mr. Salinas and his family. i In addition, the private bank did not use Mr. Salinas' name in bank communications about his accounts, but instead referred to him as 'Confidential Client Number 2' or 'CC-2.' 'CC-1' was the code used to refer to Carlos Hank Rhon." The report discusses how Citibank allegedly acted as a willing conduit for funds moved out of Mexico by Raul Salinas, apparently on behalf of brother Carlos. "After his accounts were first opened, Mr. Salinas made an initial 1992 deposit of $2 million," the report continues. "The funds were deposited through two wire transfers from an account belonging to Mr. Hank, who told Ms. Elliott the funds had been given to him by Mr. Salinas for a business deal which did not go forward. The funds were divided between the Salinas accounts in New York and the Trocca investment accounts in London and Switzerland." |
On Feb. 28, 1995, Raul Salinas was arrested and imprisoned in Mexico on suspicion of involvement with the murder of his former brother-in-law, Jos Francisco Ruz Massieu, a leading PRI politician. The Senate report suggests that Citibank officials sought to conceal the relationship: "On the day following the arrest, a number of telephone conversations took place between Citibank private-bank personnel in New York City, London and Switzerland. The telephone conversations to London were recorded on an automatic taping system. The tape transcripts indicate that the private bank's initial reaction to the arrest was not to assist law enforcement, but to determine whether the Salinas accounts should be moved to Switzerland to make discovery of the assets and bank records more difficult."
The report further states that Citibank never verified Raul Salinas' business background or source of wealth. It says that on Nov. 17, 1995, Citibank filed a Criminal Referral Form on Raul Salinas with U.S. law-enforcement officials. According to the report, the form mentioned Salinas' accounts in New York, which held less than $200,000, but significantly not the offshore accounts in London nor the accounts in Switzerland, which held the bulk of the Salinas money. In October 1998, a Swiss federal court ordered civil forfeiture of $114 million frozen in the Salinas accounts as illegal proceeds related to narcotics trafficking. The forfeiture order purported to be based upon a report by the Swiss attorney general, summarizing a three-year investigation which concluded that Raul Salinas received substantial funds from narcotics traffickers. In July 1999, the highest Swiss court invalidated the seizure order on procedural grounds but ordered that the funds remain frozen while Swiss authorities considered further proceedings. In January 1999, after a lengthy trial, a Mexico City court convicted Raul Salinas of murder. Two years earlier, in July 1997, another Mexican court had dismissed money-laundering charges against him on the grounds that no prior court ruling had determined the $21 million in dispute had been illegally obtained. Raul Salinas now is on trial in Mexico City for "illegal enrichment" and is serving a 27-year murder sentence. Yet neither Raul nor Carlos Salinas nor any of their Mexican business associates have been called to the bar of justice in the United States for violation of federal money-laundering laws. During the last eight years, Insight has learned, the Clinton administration lent no assistance to the Swiss investigation of Raul Salinas and has made no moves against other Mexican officials with documented ties to the Salinas brothers. Even after that formal request by the Swiss government, the Clinton administration continued to ignore the Salinas matter. At the same time, despite the evidence uncovered and reported by the Senate panel, no indictments were brought against Citibank or its employees. A little-noticed legal battle between Carlos Hank Rhon and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board may provide a partial explanation. According to public documents available in the matter before federal Administrative Law Judge Arthur L. Shipe, on Oct. 4, 1996, Citibank called the Fed and requested a meeting. On or about Oct. 9, 1996, officials of Citibank's Private Banking Department, including counsel John Roche, met with the Fed's legal staff to discuss "possible violations of banking laws and misrepresentations to the board that had come to the attention of Citibank's attorneys i violations that Citibank believed should be brought to the board's attention." A news account apparently based on the same facts covered in the Oct. 9, 1996, meeting between Citibank and the board's staff appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 1, 1996. Documents in the Fed's proceedings indicate that the same Citibank private bankers who handled Raul Salinas also represented members of the Hank family and arranged various financial transactions on behalf of the Hanks or entities they controlled. The records contain extensive information about Hank-family financial transactions - information financial specialists say would be virtually impossible to obtain without access to confidential bank records. An October 1998 report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) observes: "We asked the Federal Reserve to comment on whether Mr. Salinas' private banking relationship with Citibank New York and Citibank's movement of Mr. Salinas' funds had complied with then-applicable laws and regulations. According to Federal Reserve representatives, the facts of the Salinas/ Citibank matter, as known to the Federal Reserve when we inquired, did not provide sufficient information for it to make a determination about whether any law or regulation had been violated. However, the Federal Reserve is continuing to monitor the Department of Justice's investigation." Did Citibank give the Federal Reserve confidential information about their clients in the Hank family in return for a de facto "pardon" from the Clinton administration? Citibank officials refuse to comment. However, since that October 1996 meeting between Citibank and the Fed there has been no public mention of investigations by Justice or any other federal agency regarding the active role played by Citibank in the alleged money laundering by Raul Salinas. Indeed, say insiders, were it not for the initiative taken by prosecutors in Switzerland and Mexico and the efforts of Sen. Levin, the entire episode surrounding the Salinas family and Citibank might have been happily forgotten by Washington. But questions persist. The Laredo Morning Times of Texas reported June 13, 1999, that representatives of Carlos Hank Rhon prevailed upon the Zedillo government to send a diplomatic note of protest to U.S. authorities. The note concerned the alleged leak of a secret U.S. government drug-investigation report, "Operation White Tiger," which first was reported by Insight "Family Affairs," March 29, 1999 . Insight reported that "U.S. lawmen say billionaire power broker Carlos Hank Gonzalez and sons protect narcotraffickers" and detailed allegations that the Salinas family looted public agencies in Mexico to build their $240 million offshore hoard. GOP former senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, who represents Carlos Hank Rhon, said in a Feb. 3, 2000, letter to then-attorney general Reno that the allegations are "false and defamatory." Rudman states that the intention of the leak was "to defame the Hank family," but DEA officials tell Insight that the result of the leak has been to halt the inquiry into the Hank family's activities. Conservatives are encouraged by President Bush's commitment to restore honor and integrity to Washington after eight years of Clinton and Reno. Bush has promised to help Fox in his campaign to save his country from the narcopolitica. But there is concern in Washington that any U.S. legal moves against the Salinas family or their political supporters in Mexico could create considerable public-relations problems for the White House. Ties between the Bush family and Mexico run deep, far beyond the public relationship between President Bush and Carlos Salinas during the fight for the North American Free Trade Agreement a decade ago. "George Bush senior began his family's relationship with Mexico in the 1960s, when his Zapata Offshore Oil Company was a partner in a border-region oil company called Perforaciones Marinas del Golfo (Permargo), with Jorg Diaz Serrano," reports Julie Reynolds, editor of El Andar magazine. "In 1988, the financial newspaper Barron's reported that the two Jorgs - Bush and Diaz Serrano - used prestanombres name-lenders to hide Bush's investment in Permargo from the Mexican government, skirting Mexican foreign-ownership laws. Barron's also accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of destroying related documents after Bush became vice president in 1981." The use of cutouts to hide U.S. ownership in Mexican business resulted from revolutionary populism in Mexico and was neither unusual nor, in many cases, illegal.
There is no indication the Bushes were aware of any of this. But by 1996, as he began his race for the presidency, Fox told the daily El Norte that he knew of Mexican Cabinet officials involved in narcotics: "Everyone knows that there are people involved with drugs at the highest levels of power," said Fox. Now he is in a position to do something about it, and he and President Bush have promised each other to do so. That may even be possible. A Mexican court decision earlier this year allows extradition of Mexican suspects involved in drug trafficking and related financial crimes. This decision allows Washington to provide real help to Fox. It also puts Fox and his senior aides in mortal danger. One member of Fox's Cabinet told Insight in January: "All of our phones, faxes and e-mails are monitored by the narcos. We are surrounded by enemies. We cannot attack the corruption unless Washington ends its indifference to wrongdoing by the Mexican elite." Christopher Whalen is a New York-based investment banker and the Latin America editor of The International Economy magazine. Photos (A,B,D, color), A) I need help: Fox is looking to the Bush administration for U.S. prosecution of foreign officials involved in drugs.; B&C) Crime family: Carlos Salinas, top, looted Mexican agencies while president. Raul Salinas, left, is serving a long sentence for the murder of a politician.; D) On the case: Sen. Levin was the catalyst for the investigation into money laundering by Raul Salinas., A) By Jeff Mitchell/Reuters; B (Top Photo): By Andrew Winning/AFP; C (Left Photo): By AFP; D) By Luke Frazza/AFP |
See Bosnia section and continue with Bin Laden Balkan Connection
Bosnia was breeding ground for ilsamic terrorist network.That's what demonization of Serbs in the media was all about:
smokescreen to hide it from public view and provide U.S. taxpayers support for islamic terrorism
American taxpayers got back their's money's worth.
Regards, Uncle Bill.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Records - George W. Bush Disregarded Federal Statutes
Bush and his Family spawn have a gift. They use it to great advantage that deceives many, many people.
They Smile.
38 posted on 1/20/02 9:46 PM Central by OKCSubmariner
The Circles they move in.
It's like a big barrel of Snakes.
lost $4.5 billion in market value? hmmm.
surely, this firm wasn't prospecting in murfreesboro, ar. were they?
p.s. has anyone heard if the poppy fields have been secured?
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