Lis­ten: One Seg­ment

1. Even after Pres­i­dent Clin­ton left office, the media have remained obsessed with his alleged wrong­do­ing. As the Bush admin­is­tra­tion pro­ceeds with its agenda, much of the jour­nal­is­tic dis­course has cen­tered on Clinton’s par­don of fugi­tive financier Marc Rich. Curi­ously, the Bush admin­is­tra­tion and the Jus­tice Depart­ment have shied away from the con­tro­versy. (“U.S. Attor­ney to Probe Par­don of Rich” by Robert L. Jack­son and Richard A. Ser­rano; Los Ange­les Times; 2/15/2001; p. A1.)

2. This is unchar­ac­ter­is­tic of the attack dog men­tal­ity that has per­vaded the Repub­li­can Party in the past. One pos­si­ble hint of the rea­son for the Repub­li­cans’ ret­i­cence on the sub­ject was pre­sented by Bill Clin­ton, who stated (cor­rectly, as it turned out) that Dick Cheney’s chief of staff (Lewis Libby) had been one of Rich’s lawyers. (“Clin­ton Denies Wrong­do­ing in Par­don, Cites Israeli Influ­ence on Rich’s Case” by Tom Brune and John Riley [News­day]; San Jose Mer­cury News; 2/16/2001; p. 15A.)

3. Another hint lay in the fact that Rich had exten­sive deal­ings with Iran and Iraq dur­ing the 1980’s, and those deal­ings were reported to the Mossad by Rich. (“Israel Pressed for Rich’s Par­don” by Jodi Enda and James Kuhn­henn; San Jose Mer­cury News; 2/15/2001; pp. 1A-10A.) Note that this fact sug­gests the pos­si­bil­ity that Rich may have been involved in the over­lap­ping Iran-Contra and Iraq­gate scandals.

4. A sub­stan­tive hint that Rich may very well have been involved in the Iraq­gate scan­dal was con­tained in the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Committee’s report on the scandal-plagued BCCI. (“Avenue of the Amer­i­cas: The Cen­tre of it All;” Finan­cial Times; 2/6/2001; p. 15.) (“Appen­dices: Mat­ters for Fur­ther Inves­ti­ga­tion” from the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Committee’s report on BCCI.)

5. Agri­cul­ture Depart­ment cred­its were a major ele­ment in the arm­ing of Sad­dam Hus­sein. BCCI was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scan­dal oper­a­tions. The For­eign Rela­tions Committee’s report also rec­om­mends fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion of links between the BCCI and the Atlanta Branch of the Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro. (Idem.)

6. The Atlanta Branch of BNL was a main vehi­cle for effect­ing the Iraq­gate machi­na­tions. In addi­tion, the report rec­om­mends the inves­ti­ga­tion of the BCCI’s role in trans­fer­ring funds from Mid­dle East­ern coun­tries and Amer­i­can finan­cial insti­tu­tions. (Idem.)

7. Next, the pro­gram excerpts FTR-186. The dis­cus­sion reviews the links between alleged CIA oper­a­tive James R. Bath, BCCI and Arbusto Energy, George W’s first oil com­pany. (For­tu­nate Son; J.H. Hat­field; St. Martin’s Press; copy­right 2000 [HC].) (The Out­law Bank; Jonathan Beatty and S.C. Gwynne; copy­right 1993; Ram­jack [pub­lished in the United States by Ran­dom House] )

8. The report on BCCI also rec­om­mends inves­ti­ga­tion of pos­si­ble links between BCCI and Monzer Al Kas­sar, one of the top arms and drug deal­ers involved in the Iran-Contra affair. (“Appen­dices: Mat­ters for Fur­ther Inves­ti­ga­tion” from the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Committee’s report on BCCI)

9. Next, the broad­cast high­lights con­nec­tions between Osama Bin Laden and Al-Kassar. (“The Great Hunt” by Pino Buon­giorno; Panorama; 1/25/2001; p. 83.) Bin Laden attempted to buy $400 mil­lion worth of weapons from Al-Kassar.

10. The rest of the pro­gram excerpts FTR-228. The excerpt high­lights a meet­ing in Jerusalem in July of 1986 at which George Bush and Army intel­li­gence agents McKee and Gan­non were present. (This meet­ing had been a major point of inter­est for Iran-Contra Spe­cial Pros­e­cu­tor Lawrence Walsh. (Iran-Contra: The Final Report; pub­lished by Times Books.)

11. Both McKee and Gan­non were killed in the bomb­ing of Pan Am flight 103. (Gideon’s Spies; Gor­don Thomas; Thomas Dunne; copy­right 1999.) (The name of arms and drug dealer Monzer Al-Kassar has come up in con­nec­tion with the bomb­ing of Pan Am 103. The Pan Am insur­ance investigator’s report claimed that Al-Kassar was the author of the bomb­ing and that the attack was allowed to go for­ward in order to silence McKee and Gan­non. Al-Kassar was piv­otally involved in the Iran-Contra scan­dal. If the BCCI affair were fully inves­ti­gated, it seems prob­a­ble that the result­ing scan­dal would bring down the Bush admin­is­tra­tion in that Bush, his father, Dick Cheney and Colin Pow­ell are impli­cated in one aspect or another of the Iran-Contra affair, the Iraq­gate scan­dal, or the machi­na­tions of Osama Bin Laden.