Wikileaks trove used in fight over shipwreck trove

TAMPA, Fla. -- Deep-sea explorers in Florida are using some of the trove of recently leased WikiLeaks documents to try to force the U.S. government out of their legal battle with Spain over a shipwreck treasure.

Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa says documents released by Wikileaks show the U.S. State Department had offered to help Spain's side in the matter in exchange for help in returning a multimillion-dollar painting - seized by World War II-era Nazis - to a U.S. citizen.

Odyssey said Wednesday it filed a motion urging an appeals court to throw out a "friend of the court" brief by the U.S. government supporting Spain's bid for 17 tons of coins raised from a sunken Spanish galleon off Portugal in 2007.

A federal court ruled for Spain in 2009. Odyssey is appealing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/05/AR2011010504923.html

WOW! The State Department was willing to trade 17 TONS OF COINS for ONE mulitmillion dollar painting?

THAT'S FUCKED UP!

I wonder who the American citizen is that's so important?

The Florida firm embroiled in a legal battle with Spain for ownership of $500 million in gold and silver coins salvaged from the bottom of the Atlantic is asking the court to strike an amicus brief filed by the U.S. government in support of Madrid's claim.

And the cables are from 2008...

The messages recount conversations in 2008 between then-Spanish Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina and the man then serving as U.S. ambassador in Madrid, Eduardo Aguirre.

The citizen is.......

In one exchange, Aguirre attempted to link Spain's desire to get the treasure salvaged by Odyssey in May 2007 with the efforts of U.S. citizen Claude Cassirer to recover a Pissarro painting that now hangs in Madrid's Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/omex_u-s-gov-t-challenged-on-support-for-spain-in-treasure-battle-1404335.html



Claude Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain, et al.

In 2000, Claude Cassirer, the grandson of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, learned that a painting from his family’s collection was hanging in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in Madrid. The painting, “Rue Saint-Honoré, Afternoon, Rain Effect” by Camille Pissarro, was stolen from his grandmother through a forced sale for a pittance in Germany in 1939. In 1976, it was acquired by the renowned collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza when he resided primarily in Lugano, Switzerland. In 1988, the Baron (who had since married a Spanish woman) lent his art collection of some 775 paintings including this Pissarro to the Spanish government for a period of nine and a half years, in exchange for $50 million. Five years later, following the Baron’s death in 1992, Spain purchased the entire collection for approximately $327 million, having already allocated and renovated the Villahermosa Palace near the Prado to serve as a museum to house it. The museum is operated by a Foundation that by law includes several government officials on its board.

In 2001, the Commission for Art Recovery approached the Foundation and petitioned the Ministry of Culture of Spain to recover Cassirer’s family heirloom. The effort was unsuccessful in spite of Spain’s having agreed to the Washington Principles.

Mr. Cassirer petitioned for a rehearing en banc, and we post the briefs here. The petition was granted, and oral argument took place in March 2010. On August 12, 2010 a decision from the bench of judges ruled in favor of Mr. Cassirer, on a narrow but essential matter of whether he could or could not sue Spain and the Thyssen Foundation under the FSIA since they had not taken the Pissarro illegally in the first place. Defendants argued that he could not sue, but on September8, 2010, the Ninth Circuit decision ruled for Mr. Cassirer on this issue and allows the case to continue. Claude Cassirer died on September 25 at the age of 89.

http://www.comartrecovery.org/cases/claude-cassirer-v-kingdom-spain-et-al

Especially if the who would make a political donation in return for securing the painting.

With his wife, Mr. Cassirer retired 30 years ago to San Diego, where they founded La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club. For 20 years, he volunteered as a licensed ombudsman for the state of California, making sure seniors in hospitals and nursing homes received proper care.

Mr. Cassirer is survived by his wife of 66 years, Beverly (née Bellin); daughter Ava; and son David of Telluride, Colo. Contributions are suggested to La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club, P.O. Box 433, La Mesa, Calif. 91944.

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2010/10/08/life_cycles/deaths/obituaries/doc4cadd9fda2cf5154763382.txt

But the cables were sent in 2008 so it must have been CONDI.

Spain plundered and stole it the first place. Someone should tell them to go fuck'em selves.

But the State Department had no right to secretly trade away someone else's fortune. Those coins were worth 500 million dollars. Can you imagine how furious the investors must be?

The good news is the cables are from 2008 so it's the Bush regime who did it. CONDI!

Eduardo Aguirre Reyes, Jr. (born July 30, 1946, in Cuba),<1> is a principal in Atlantic Partners, an international consulting firm, based in Houston.

Until January 20, 2009, he was the United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, appointed by President George W. Bush, confirmed by the United States Senate on June 16, 2005, and sworn in on June 24, 2005.<1><2> He presented his credentials to King Juan Carlos I of Spain on June 29, 2005.<2>


Aguirre was born in Cuba in 1946, and emigrated to the US in 1961 via Operation Peter Pan.<3>

Aguirre holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana State University (LSU). He is a graduate of the American Bankers Association's National Commercial Lending Graduate School. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Connecticut, the University of Houston and the Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago in the Dominican Republic.<2><4>

Aguirre and his wife Tere each emigrated from Cuba as unaccompanied minors at the age of 15. They maintain their permanent home in Houston, where they have lived for three decades. The Aguirres have two grown children, Eddy and Tessie.<1>

Career in bankingAguirre joined the Department of Homeland Security from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), where he served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. From December 2001 to December 2002, he was Acting Chairman of this Federal Agency. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Aguirre was President of International Private Banking for Bank of America. He had worked for Bank of America for 24 years.<1>

In TexasIn 1990, the Supreme Court of Texas appointed him to the State Bar as a non-attorney director. Aguirre has served on numerous professional and civic boards, including the Texas Children's Hospital, Texas Bar Foundation, Operación Pedro Pan Foundation, Bankers Association for Finance and Trade, and the Houston chapters of the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.<2><4>

Aguirre was appointed by then Governor George W. Bush to the Board of Regents of the University of Houston System for a six-year term, serving from 1996 to 1998 as chairman. Former President George H.W. Bush appointed him to the National Commission for Employment Policy.<2><4>

Government serviceBefore his appointment as ambassador, Aguirre served, beginning February 7, 2003, as the first Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an Under Secretary rank position in the Department of Homeland Security. At USCIS, Mr. Aguirre led a team of 15,000 employees serving over 6 million annual applicants seeking immigration benefits.<1><2><5>

Aguirre was the author of one of the first classified U.S. Dept. of State cables released by Wikileaks on Nov. 28, 2010, in which he described, among other issues, U.S. embassy efforts to derail the legal proceedings against U.S. soldiers accused of killing Spanish journalist José Couso. http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2007/05/07MADRID911.html

HonorsAguirre was bestowed the Order of José Matías Delgado—Grade of Grand Officer—by El Salvador, and the order of Christopher Columbus—Grade of Grand Officer—by the Dominican Republic. The Daughters of the American Revolution awarded him their 2004 Americanism Medal.<5>

Aguirre is a member of the Delta Sigma Pi fraternity and received the Delta Sigma Pi Career Achievement Award in 2000.

References1.^ a b c d e "Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre, Jr.". Embassy of the United States - Spain. 2006-08-04. http://madrid.usembassy.gov/emba/ambaguirreen.html. Retrieved 2006-08-13.
2.^ a b c d e f "Eduardo Aguirre, Jr.". US Department of State. 2006-07-05. Archived from the original on 2006-08-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20060809122502/http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/48921.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-13.
3.^ Miamiherald.com, Eduardo Aguirre Reyes, accessed 2 August 2009
4.^ a b c "Flores MBA program". E.J. Ourso College of Business at LSU. 2003-10-24. http://mba.lsu.edu/speakerseries/2003/aguirre.asp. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
5.^ a b "Eduardo Aguirre Biography". US Citizenship and Immigration Services. 2006-03-03. http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/aguirre_bio.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-13.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Aguirre

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2007/05/07MADRID91... don't go anywhere ? :shrug:

:hi:

:hi:

Back To the WikiLeaks Disclosure:

Among the thousands of documents released by WikiLeaks are several U.S. diplomatic cables describing how U.S. ambassadors were helping Spain in their cause — partly to help broker a deal to bring a famous painting in Spain to a U.S. citizen who claimed it was looted by the Nazis in World War II.

Specifically the U.S. offered to provide confidential customs documents prepared by Odyssey that Spain in turn planned to use in court to fight Odyssey, presumably to discredit claims that the treasure was imported legally to the US.

Odyssey officials are not pleased at the revelation:

“The cables seem to indicate that someone in the U.S. State Department has literally offered to sacrifice Odyssey and its thousands of shareholders along with the many jobs created by the company in exchange for the return of one painting to one U.S. Citizen,” the company said in a statement “It is hard to believe that this really happened. It sounds like something out of a Hollywood script.”

According to an MSNBC Article:

A diplomatic cable a year later describes how the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre, suggested a deal.

He met with Spanish Minister of Culture Cesar Antonio Molina on June 30, 2008, who told the U.S. Ambassador that they should meet over the issue of a claim by an American citizen, Claude Cassirer, to recover a painting by Camille Pissarro. Cassirer claims the Nazis in 1939 forced his grandmother to sell them the painting and it passed through several hands before ending up in a Spanish museum.

“The ambassador noted also that while the Odyssey and Cassirer claim were on separate legal tracks,” the cable states, “it was in both governments’ interest to avail themselves of whatever margin for manouevre they had, consistent with their legal obligations, to resolve both matters in a way that favoured the bilateral relationship.”

The Spanish official replied, the cable says, that there were many steps required before any movement on the painting, but that he had recently flown to Washington, in part, to meet with lawyers that Spain retained in the Odyssey case. He expressed “indignation” after a CNN interview where Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm aimed to keep the treasure and return only items of archeological value.

London’s Guardian newspaper first reported the cables, as part of its ongoing digestion of thousands of documents released by WikiLeaks. The U.S. government has condemned the release and called for prosecution of WikiLeaks founders.

The Spanish were “grateful” after Department of Homeland Security staff in the U.S. embassy in Madrid handed the Spanish customs import documents that Odyssey had filed when bringing the treasure to Tampa.

“The information was confidential,” the U.S. cable stated, “and to be used only for law enforcement purposes.” The Spanish replied that they were “interested in obtaining the Odyssey customs information to provide to lawyers representing the in the Tampa Admiralty Court.”

http://www.coinlink.com/News/world-coins/wikileaks-reveals-state-dept-deal-with-spain-in-black-swan-treasure-lawsuit/

Molina pointed out that as the collection technically belonged to a foundation, there was little the Spanish government could do about it.

"The painting was acquired legitimately by the foundation in 1993, along with the rest of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection," the museum said in a recent statement. "The foundation has been the peaceful owner of the picture ever since its purchase and has exhibited it permanently, so there can be no question of its ownership."

With Spanish courts unlikely to force the museum to give up the painting, embassy officials at one stage asked Spain's cultural policies director, Guillermo Corral, whether there might be some "creative solution".

"Spain is sensitive to the family's claim, Corral said, but does not believe it can legally negotiate compensation," the embassy reported. "It might, however, be able to make gestures to the family and to the Los Angeles Jewish community. The government could, for example, organise and fund travel to Spain and cultural exchanges to promote mutual understanding and appreciation while giving due recognition to the Cassirer family."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-us-spain-treasure-art

What a mess.

ATLANTA — The latest twist in the WikiLeaks tale is a plot worthy of a Tom Clancy thriller.

It is a story of international intrigue starring millions of dollars in sunken treasure, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the government of Spain and an Impressionist painting by Camille Pissarro of a rain-soaked Paris boulevard, believed to have been stolen by the Nazis.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, a Tampa, Fla., deep-sea treasure hunting company, is using classified cables from the State Department in its legal battle with Spain over who owns $500 million of gold and silver retrieved in 2007 from the wreckage of a Spanish galleon off the coast of Portugal.

The cables, part of 250,000 classified documents released recently by WikiLeaks, contain communications between the Spanish cultural minister and the American ambassador to Spain. First published in The Guardian of London and El País of Madrid, they are shrouded in the careful language of international diplomacy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07treasure.html?partner=rss&emc=rss