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1. This broad­cast explores sig­nif­i­cant over­lap­ping polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic pow­ers with­in the milieu of inter­na­tion­al fas­cism.

2. Begin­ning with dis­cus­sion of Ital­ian Prime Min­is­ter Sil­vio Berlus­coni, the pro­gram sets forth Berlus­coni’s role as the dom­i­nant force in Ital­ian media, a fac­tor that many felt was essen­tial to his recent elec­tion vic­to­ry. (“Berlus­coni Sets Out Stall on Pub­lic and Pri­vate Roles” by James Blitz; Finan­cial Times; 6/27/2001; p. 2.)

3. This has also height­ened fears that Berlus­coni’s media influ­ence could increase the poten­tial for him to become a de fac­to dic­ta­tor. (“Berlus­coni Steams Ahead Toward Italy’s Vote on Sun­day” By Yaroslav Tri­mov; Wall Street Jour­nal; 5/9/2001; p. A23.)

4. An iron­ic note about Berlus­coni’s appoint­ments is that he appoint­ed Luca Stan­tia, a for­mer exec­u­tive of IBM, to a min­is­te­r­i­al post. (“Italy’s New Prime Min­is­ter Appoints Right-Wingers to Coali­tion Gov­ern­ment” by James Blitz; Finan­cial Times; 6/11/2001; p. 14.)

5. Thomas Wat­son, the head of IBM, was an enthu­si­as­tic and effec­tive sup­port­er of Mus­soli­ni dur­ing the years lead­ing up to the Sec­ond World War. (IBM and the Holo­caust; by Edwin Black; Crown Books [HC]; Copy­right 2001; ISBN 0–609-60799–5; p. 70.)

6. The pro­gram sets forth the career of Edmund Veesen­may­er, a Third Reich offi­cial deeply involved with Nazi Ger­many’s impor­tant rela­tion­ships with for­eign cor­po­ra­tions (includ­ing Amer­i­can), as well as the Nazis’ exter­mi­na­tion pro­grams. (Ibid.; pp. 254–256.)

7. On the heels of the res­o­lu­tion of a suit against IBM on behalf of Holo­caust sur­vivors, a sim­i­lar suit has been filed against the com­pa­ny by sev­er­al Gyp­sy groups. (“Gyp­sy Groups to File Nazi-era Suit Against IBM” by Frances Williams; Finan­cial Times; 6/7/2001; p. 6.)

8. The sec­ond side of the pro­gram begins with dis­cus­sion of the econ­o­my of Lux­em­bourg and its piv­otal role in the Euro­pean econ­o­my. The steel mak­ing firm ARBED and the broad­cast­ing firm RTL are two of the most impor­tant of the Lux­em­bourg firms. (“Tiny Land-Locked State Casts a Glob­al Influ­ence” by Daniel Dombey; Finan­cial Times; 6/8/2001; p. I.)

9. Pro­posed merg­ers on the hori­zon for ARBED could make the resul­tant firm the largest steel-mak­ing com­pa­ny in the world. (Idem.) Lux­em­bourg has been a major epi­cen­ter of the Bor­mann orga­ni­za­tion in the post-war peri­od. The eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal com­po­nent of a Third Reich gone under­ground, the Bor­mann orga­ni­za­tion con­trols cor­po­rate Ger­many and much of the rest of the world. Cre­at­ed and run by Mar­tin Bor­mann, the orga­ni­za­tion­al genius who was the “the pow­er behind the throne” in Nazi Ger­many, the Bor­mann group is a pri­ma­ry ele­ment of the analy­sis pre­sent­ed in the For the Record pro­grams. (Mar­tin Bor­mann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Man­ning; Copy­right 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stu­art Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; p. 79.)

10. The “Reich Trustee” of the firm was Gus­tav Koenigs, chair­man of Ham­burg-Ameri­ka ship­ping line. (Idem.)

11. As will be dis­cussed lat­er in the pro­gram, the Bush fam­i­ly was prin­ci­pal­ly involved with Ham­burg-Ameri­ka line, con­fis­cat­ed by the Alien Prop­er­ty Cus­to­di­an dur­ing the war, because it was a Nazi front com­pa­ny.

12. After the Sec­ond World War, it was busi­ness as usu­al for the Nazi busi­ness­es in Lux­em­bourg, car­ry­ing on unin­ter­rupt­ed as part of the Bor­mann orga­ni­za­tion. (Ibid.; pp. 155–156.)

13. Next, the pro­gram details the Bush fam­i­ly’s involve­ment with Ham­burg-Ameri­ka line, a front for I.G. Far­ben’s Nazi pro­pa­gan­da dur­ing the war and con­trolled (in the U.S.) by the Amer­i­can Ship­ping and Com­merce hold­ing com­pa­ny. (The Secret War Against the Jews; John Lof­tus and Mark Aarons; St. Mar­t­in’s press; copy­right [HC]; ISBN 0–312-11057‑X; p. 359.)

14. Ham­burg-Ameri­ka line, like oth­er Nazi front com­pa­nies that the Bush fam­i­ly was involved in, were grouped into the Har­ri­man Fif­teen Hold­ing com­pa­ny. (Idem.)

15. Next, the pro­gram focus­es on Roo­sevelt’s intent to hold a bankers’ tri­al for the Amer­i­can and British bankers and busi­ness­men who had aid­ed the Nazi war effort. (Ibid.; pp. 77–8.) Had Roo­sevelt been suc­cess­ful, it would have shaped the world in a pro­found­ly dif­fer­ent way. George W’s father and grand­fa­ther would have been con­vict­ed as war crim­i­nals and would not have pur­sued the direc­tions they wound up tak­ing.

16. The pro­gram con­cludes with dis­cus­sion of the Holtz­mann Con­struc­tion Com­pa­ny. A user of slave labor dur­ing the war, it has been select­ed to build the World War II memo­r­i­al in Wash­ing­ton D.C. in a grotesque­ly inap­pro­pri­ate ges­ture. (“Memo­r­i­al Builder’s Own­er Had Nazi Ties” by Jonathan Peter­son; Los Ange­les Times; 6/15/2001; pp. A1-A10.)