DU Researchers: Other "Deals" Kissinger & Assoc.Have Been Involved With?

This article from "Sun Times" listing who were Directors of Hollinger International/Conrad Black's little Media Empire had me sick when I read it.

I think "Kissinger & Associates" has been involved with every dirty deal that's come to light in the years since Nixon. Plus, they've managed to convince lawyers to bypass naming them in some of our International Scandals through the years.

What else can we lay at Kissinger's door? I don't even want to get into the other players on that "Board" except to say....we know for sure that we don't have an independent media in the US when we see something like this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shareholder lawsuit names Hollinger International directors

January 3, 2004

BY ERIC HERMAN Business Reporter
Advertisement


A shareholder lawsuit against Hollinger International, owner of the Sun-Times, takes aim at its star-studded board of directors, alleging they gave top executives "unfettered license to line their pockets at shareholder expense."

The suit, filed in Delaware and unsealed this week, names directors including former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as defendants. It alleges that Hollinger Chairman Conrad Black and a handful of former executives "looted" the company to the tune of $300 million -- and that the board of directors did nothing to stop them.
SNIP......

The suit chronicles three years' worth of board and audit committee meetings at which directors did little to scrutinize payments that Black and others received, or deals in which executives such as Radler bought Hollinger properties. It takes aim at "asset sales to companies owned or controlled by company executives" and "sweetheart deals with no competitive bidding."

In addition to Thompson and Kissinger, it faults several other big-name directors with failing to oversee the company. Named in the suit are shopping-mall mogul Alfred Taubman, Washington lawyer Robert Strauss, Marie-Josee Kravis, the wife of leveraged-buyout king Henry Kravis, and Dwayne Andreas, the former head of Archer Daniels Midland.It also names as defendants Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, and Hollinger executives Peter Atkinson and Daniel Colson.

And was supported by things like 200,000 fees from CITI Bank for a breakfast speech on the state of the world.

All employees of the Kissinger empire signed away all rights to free speech - or at least did at that time - and I was told by one such an employee that there was an implied threat of violence against those who worked for him.

As you note "Kissinger & Associates" has been involved with many government to corporate deals in many countries - so there is a lot of dirty underwear - his OK'ing the death of Allende and the previous cheerleading for that course were done while he had official power.

The post Nixon power was actually minimal - no more than any corrupt businessman who made money helping union breakups and the funding of the death of those against the corporations (of course Reagan made being against corporate power a death penalty crime with the war on the Contras). The truth is that the CIA and the rest of the gov does NOT respond to Henry - and Bush's attempt to make hero's - or at least workers in his administration - of the convicts of the Reagan era was capped by his appointment of Henry to the commission.

I do not know how you would go about getting documents re Henry's corruption - what I know is via conversations with those working near him.

What else can we lay at Kissinger's door? We can guess at a lot - but good luck on getting proof -

Is Henry still subject to arrest in the EU as a war criminal?

because he's had the power to do it. I thought it would be worthwhile to try to get it all together in one post with a thread so it could be bookmarked. This might have been a bad time to do it, since we have "holiday" crowd on DU this weekend. I'll try to keep kicked and see what else I can come up with.

The other point worth making is that some have said he's more moderate than PNAC crowd. I don't believe that anymore than I believe Colin Powell is the "Moderate" in Bush's Administration. They work their "Good Cop/Bad Cop Routine" to perfection. With the public and pundits not always aware of which side is which at any given time. Just my humble opinion. But, this Conrad Black/Hollinger is disgraceful. How much more disgrace is out there....it's overflowing already.

BCCI AND KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

Introduction

Beginning in the fall of 1986, and continuing through early 1989, BCCI initiated a series of contacts with perhaps the most politically prominent international and business consulting firm in the United States -- Kissinger Associates.

At the time, Kissinger Associates had five partners: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Assistant and current National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Under Secretary and current Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, international economist Alan Stoga, and investment bank T. Jefferson Cunningham III.

Ultimately both Stoga and a retired Brazilian Ambassador working as a consultant to Kissinger Associates, Sergio Correa da Costa, seriously explored finding ways to link BCCI's global network of banks with the services being offered by Kissinger Associates. Discussions between representatives of BCCI and representatives of Kissinger Associates took place over an 18 month period concerning the possibility of merging the capabilities of BCCI and Kissinger Associates on various, mostly unspecified, projects. Following BCCI's indictment, discussions continued as to whether Kissinger Associates could help BCCI respond to the ramifications of that indictment. These discussions ended in early 1989 at Henry Kissinger's personal insistence.

During the discussions, Stoga provided advice to BCCI on a possible public relations campaign. At their conclusion, Kissinger Associates referred BCCI to one its own directors, former Assistant Secretary of State William Rogers, and his firm, Arnold & Porter, who already represented Kissinger Associates on its own legal work. Rogers and Arnold & Porter in turn agreed to provide BCCI with legal services arising out of its indictment, although few services were provided as a consequence of the opposition of Clark Clifford and Robert Altman to the firm's involvement.

Although discussions concerning a broader relationship were cut short by the indictment, the BCCI-Kissinger Associates correspondence reveals much about BCCI's approach to seeking political influence in the United States. The correspondence also highlights BCCI's focus on doing business with, and ability, given its $23 billion in reported assets and 73 countries of operation, to attract interest from, some of the most politically well-connected people in the United States.


Genesis of Interest in BCCI-Kissinger Relationship

And Position Of Kissinger Associates Concerning BCCI

In late July, 1991, the Subcommittee received documents from BCCI's liquidators describing BCCI's use of a retired Brazilian Ambassador, Sergio da Costa, as a front-man for its purchase of a bank in Brazil while da Costa was also working -- according to the BCCI documents -- as a partner in Kissinger Associates.

In September, 1991, staff was advised by press that there were a number of documents at BCCI's document depositories concerning its relationship with Kissinger Associates. Staff were provided some of these documents by reporters, and found others in subsequent reviews of BCCI documents at its former offices in New York. These documents, on both Kissinger Associates and BCCI stationery, discussed in general terms the services Kissinger Associates might perform for BCCI, and were dated both before and after BCCI's indictment on drug money laundering charges in Tampa. Accordingly, they raised the question of whether Kissinger Associates had ever been retained by BCCI.

In November, 1991, the Committee on Foreign Relations authorized a subpoena for all documents to Kissinger Associates and related entities, for all documents pertaining to BCCI, and for its client lists.

In response, Kissinger Associates promised to cooperate with the Subcommittee investigation and to provide all documents pertaining to BCCI, under an agreement that the subpoena not be served. Kissinger Associates refused, however, to provide the client list, arguing that the list was beyond the parameters of the investigation into BCCI by the Subcommittee, and advising the Subcommittee that if it pursued the list, Kissinger Associates would litigate the matter, if necessary, through an extensive appellate process to the Supreme Court.

CONTINUED...

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/20kiss.htm

BTW, Moderators: I don't believe there are copyright issues, as this is a government report.

KISSINGER ASSOCIATES, BNL, AND IRAQ

Henry B. Gonzalez, (TX-20)
(House of Representatives - May 02, 1991)



The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas is recognized for 60 minutes.

Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, during a special order last week, I revealed that Henry Kissinger was a paid member of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Consulting Board for International Policy. Mr. Kissinger held this position during the height of the biggest banking scandal in United States history--$4 billion in unreported loans to Iraq by the Atlanta branch of BNL. This week I will reveal some new information regarding Mr. Kissinger and his relationship with BNL. I will also include in the Record a detailed list of Mr. Brent Scowcroft's stock holdings.


MORE ON KISSINGER AND BNL

In order to learn more about Mr. Kissinger's role at BNL, committee investigators contacted an attorney representing BNL in the United States and asked him to contact BNL in Rome. The BNL employee in Rome told BNL's attorney the following:




Mr. Kissinger has been a member of the BNL International Advisory Board since 1985. Mr. Kissinger is paid $10,000 for appearing at an Advisory Board meeting and he is paid extra for speaking at BNL functions. It is important to bring these facts out because BNL is owned by the Italian government. In effect, Mr. Kissinger's fees are indirectly paid for with Italian taxpayer money.

Banking Committee investigators were also told that Mr. Kissinger may still be a member of BNL Advisory Board. His term does not expire until next month. This information conflicts with what Mr. Kissinger was quoted as stating in a Financial Times article on April 26. In that article Mr. Kissinger stated that he resigned from BNL's advisory board on February 22, 1991. I will write BNL and Mr. Kissinger in order to clear up this discrepancy.

Mr. Kissinger went on to state in the same Financial Times article:

I resigned earlier this year because I don't want to be connected, I don't want to be asked about this sort of thing.

But it should be noted that Mr. Kissinger supposedly did not resign his BNL post until over 18 months after the BNL scandal became public in August 1989.

Another interesting point to note is the timing of Mr. Kissinger's supposed resignation from BNL on February 22, 1991. That date is just days before the Justice Department announced a 347-count indictment against the former employees of BNL after an exhaustive 18-month investigation. This is quite a coincidence.


BNL ACTUALLY A CLIENT OF KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

BNL was actually a client of Kissinger Associates at the same time BNL's former employees in Atlanta were providing Iraq with billions in unreported loans. This solidifies Mr. Kissinger's link to BNL and raises the question of whether Mr. Kissinger had knowledge of the BNL loans to Iraq.

As I stated last week, many Kissinger Associates clients were doing business with the Iraqis as a direct result of the unreported $4 billion in BNL loans to Iraq. Volvo, whose chairman serves on the Kissinger Associates board of directors, was doing big business in Iraq and it was the beneficiary of BNL loans.

BNL was also the largest participant in the $5.5 billion CCC program for Iraq. Between $800 and $900 million in BNL loans to Iraq were guaranteed by the CCC. BNL was also the second largest participant in the Export-Import program for Iraq. Over $50 million in BNL loans to Iraq were guaranteed by Eximbank. Through these programs it became common knowledge in the export community that BNL was Iraq's prime banker in the United States.

I also reported last week that Mr. Lawrence Eagleburger had ties to BNL. While he was serving as president of Kissinger

Associates, Eagleburger was a board member of a Yugoslavian bank that had a substantial and even incestuous relationship with BNL. BNL was a main factor in the growth of that Yugoslavian bank's operations in the United States.

Despite the many linkages between Kissinger Associates and BNL, Mr. Kissinger still maintains that he had no knowledge of the $4 billion in BNL loans to Iraq.

The fact that BNL was a client of Kissinger Associates also solidifies the link between BNL and two very high ranking Bush administration employees, NSC Director Brent Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. Mr. Lawrence Eagleburger and Mr. Brent Scowcroft were both high ranking employees of Kissinger Associates during the period BNL was a client of Kissinger Associates. In other words, part of their paychecks was derived from fees paid by BNL.

The fact that BNL was a client of Kissinger Associates also raises the question of how Mr. Eagleburger and Mr. Scowcroft reacted to the BNL scandal once it became known to them in the fall of 1989. I wonder if either thought it necessary to recuse himself from making decisions on Iraq once the BNL scandal was uncovered?

COMMITTEE ON BANKING,

Finance and Urban Affairs,
Washington, DC, May 2, 1991.

CONTINUED...

http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1991/h910502g.htm

BTW: Moderators: I don't believe this represents any copyright issues as these are government documents.

PS: Thank Goodness for the Honorable Henry B. Gonzalez. He truly was a great American!

Nice Rothbard column from LewRockwell.com (don't vouch for his politics, but his analysis here is spot-on):

WHY THE WAR? THE KUWAIT CONNECTION

Why, exactly, did we go to war in the Gulf? The answer remains murky, but perhaps we can find one explanation by examining the strong and ominous Kuwait Connection in our government. (I am indebted to an excellent article in an obscure New York tabloid, Downtown, by Bob Feldman, "The Kissinger Affair," March 27.) The Sabahklatura that runs the Kuwait government is immensely wealthy, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, derived from tax/"royalty" loot extracted from oil producers simply because the Sabah tribe claims "sovereignty" over that valuable chunk of desert real estate. The Sabah tribe has no legitimate claim to the oil revenue; it did nothing to homestead or mix its labor or any other resource with the crude oil.

It is reasonable to assume that the Sabah family stands ready to use a modest portion of that ill-gotten wealth to purchase defenders and advocates in the powerful United States. We now focus our attention on the sinister but almost universally Beloved figure of Dr. Henry Kissinger, a lifelong spokesman, counselor, and servitor of the Rockefeller World Empire. Kissinger is so Beloved, in fact, that whenever he appears on Nightline or Crossfire he appears alone, since it seems to be lese-majeste (or even blasphemy) for anyone to contradict the Great One's banal and ponderous Teutonic pronouncements. Only a handful of grumblers and malcontents on the extreme right and extreme left disturb this cozy consensus.

SNIP...

Perhaps the most interesting KA board member is one of the most Beloved figures in the conservative movement, William E. Simon, secretary of treasury in the Nixon and Ford administrations. When Simon left office in 1977, he became a consultant to the Bechtel Corporation, which has had the major massive construction contracts to build oil refineries and cities in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Simon became a consultant to Suliman Olayan, one of the wealthiest and most powerful businessmen in Saudi Arabia. Long a close associate of the oil-rich Saudi royal family, Olayan had served Bechtel well by getting it the multi-billion contract to build the oil city of Jubail. In 1980, furthermore, Olayan hired William Simon to be chairman of two investment firms owned jointly by himself and the influential Saudi Prince Khaled al Saud.

Bechtel, the Rockefellers, and the Saudi royal family have long had an intimate connection. After the Saudis granted the Rockefeller dominated Aramco oil consortium the monopoly of oil in Saudi Arabia, the Rockefellers brought their pals at Bechtel in on the construction contracts. The Bechtel Corporation, of course, has also contributed George Shultz and Cap Weinberger to high office in Republican administrations. To complete the circle, KA director Simon's former boss Suliman Olayan was, in 1988, the largest shareholder in the Chase Manhattan Bank after David Rockefeller himself.

CONTINUED...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch27.html

many left like him in Congress. Maybe none. But, hopefully the "shareholders lawsuit" starting in GB over BCCI will bring all this up again and we will get a fresh look at how National and International "former Government "insiders" pedal their influence and become in effect "shadow governments," working for their own power and monetary reward no matter whom the "people" elect worldwide to represent them.

I'll try to keep it kicked so those who are interested can refresh their memories on all the interconnections.

Helping Iraq Kill with Chemical Weapons:
The Relevance of Yesterday's US Hypocrisies Today

by DR. ELSON E. BOLES

EXCERPT...

The US not only helped arm Iraq with military equipment right up to the time of the Kuwait invasion in 1989, as did Germany, Britain, France, Russia and others, and the US not only sold Iraq chemical materials for their war against Iran between 1985-1988, but the US also helped Iraq gas and kill tens of thousands of Iranians.  As summed up in the New York Times (10-11-02) by reporter Nicholas Kristof, "In the 1980's we provided his army with satellite intelligence so that it could use chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers. When Saddam used nerve gas and mustard gas against Kurds in 1988, the Reagan administration initially tried to blame Iran. We shipped seven strains of anthrax to Iraq between 1978 and 1988."

According to another New York Times article (8-29-02) Col. Walter P. Lang, a senior defense intelligence officer at the time, explained that D.I.A. and C.I.A. officials "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose" to Iran. "The use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern," he said. One veteran said, that the Pentagon "wasn't so horrified by Iraq's use of gas." "It was just another way of killing people - whether with a bullet or phosgene, it didn't make any difference."

SNIP...

Gonzalez revealed, for example, that Brent Scowcroft served as Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates until being appointed as National Security Advisor to President Bush in January 1989. As Gonzalez reported, "Until October 4,1990, Mr. Scowcroft owned stock in approximately 40 U.S. corporations, many of which were doing busies in Iraq." Scowcroft's stock included that in Halliburton Oil, also doing business in Iraq at the time, which had also been run by current Vice President Dick Cheney for a time. Recall that this year President George Bush Sr. faced suspicion of insider trading in relation to selling his stock in Halliburton. The companies that Scowcroft owned stock in, according to Gonzalez, "received more than one out of every eight U.S. export licenses for exports to Iraq. Several of the companies were also clients of Kissinger Associates while Mr. Scowcroft was Vice Chairman of that firm." Thus, Kissinger Associates helped US companies obtain US export licenses with BNL-finance so Iraq could purchase US weapons and materials for its weapons programs.

Many US business-men and officials made handsome profits. This included Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, who was an employee of BNL while BNL was simultaneously a paying client of Kissinger Associates. Gonzalez reported that Mr. Alan Stoga, a Kissinger Associates executive, met in June 1989 Mr. Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. "Many Kissinger Associates clients received US export licenses for exports to Iraq. Several were also the beneficiaries of BNL loans to Iraq," said Mr. Gonzalez. Kissinger admitted that "it is possible that somebody may have advised a client on how to get a license."

CONTINUED...

http://www.svsu.edu/~boles/index/iraq/hypocricy.htm

EDIT: Trimmed first graph...still worth reading, along with the entire article which helps identify and explain the BFEE — driven by profits and power.

since BCCI trial is coming up, hope folks will take a chance and read this.