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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.)
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