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Introduction: Detailing the power political connections and deceptive behavior that characterize Arnold Schwarzenegger, the program sets forth the networking that is at the foundation of his budding political career. After highlighting the reactionary and fascist connections of the Opus Dei organization with which Schwarzenegger’s father-in-law was associated, the broadcast touches on Der Terminator’s deliberate association with the “dark side” of the Kennedys and his contact with JFK’s widow, herself an individual with some interesting associations. Schwarzenegger has long networked with the upper echelons of the Republican party. He was coordinating his behavior with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay in the spring of 2001, when Lay was at the epicenter of the cynical manipulation of California’s electricity market, thus placing Schwarzenegger “the outsider” in the middle of the destabilization of California discussed in FTR#420. Networking abroad, Schwarzenegger and billionaire (and now campaign adviser) Warren Buffet were at a meeting of some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people at the ancestral manor of the Rothschilds. Much of the program focuses on Schwarzenegger’s Machiavellian character– cynical and deceptive in a deliberate and far-sighted way. The program details his manipulative behavior toward those bodybuilders against whom he has competed, Lou Ferrigno and Frank Zane in particular. Much has been made of Schwarzenegger’s support for Holocaust awareness and Israel. This began after the publication of Wendy Leigh’s “Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography.” In light of Schwarzenegger’s deliberate crafting of his political persona, there is every reason to assume that his motives for doing so are cynical.
Program Highlights Include: His psych-out of Lou Ferrigno prior to their Mr. Universe contest; his deliberate misleading of Frank Zane in the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest; the crowd outrage when the verdict was announced in Schwarenegger’s favor; the allegation that Schwarzenegger had business connections with the judges in the ’80 Olympia contest; Schwarzenegger’s heavy-handed attempts at suppressing the Wendy Leigh biography; Opus Dei’s connections to the Vatican banking scandals and fascist dictatorships in Latin America; Aristotle Onassis’ cooperation with residual elements of the Third Reich business establishment.
1. Beginning with discussion of the networking that has helped to elevate Schwarzenegger to the position he is in, the broadcast highlights an aspect of the Shriver family that is generally overlooked—their association with the ultra-reactionary lay Catholic order Opus Dei. (For more about Opus Dei, see—among other programs—RFA#21, available from Spitfire, as well as FTR#98.) Schwarzenegger’s association with the Kennedy family is generally cited as a litmus test for his relative liberalism. Careful scrutiny of his involvement with the Kennedys reveals that his association has been through networking with the darker side of that remarkable family. “A final category consists of ‘co-operators,’ or sympathizers, who can be Catholics or non-Catholics and who usually make financial donations. Sargent Shriver, George McGovern’s running mate in the 1972 presidential election, was a co-operator [with Opus Dei] . . . .” (People of God; by Penny Lernoux; Copyright 1989 by Penny Lernoux; [HC] Viking [Viking Penguin Publishing Inc.]; ISNB 0–670-81529–2; p. 310.)
2. The broadcast sets forth some of the fascist connections of the Opus Dei. “But it was not only the inevitable intrigue in Rome that left its mark. Back in Spain, Opus Dei members were making rapid advances in the Franco government under Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, an Opus Dei sympathizer who, as premier, virtually ran the country. Until Carrero’s assassination in 1973, Opus Dei leaders were arguably the strongest conservative political influence in Spain.” (Ibid.; p. 314.)
3. “Matters changed radically when John Paul became pope. Opus Dei had courted the pope since his days as archbishop of Krakow. He had been invited to speak at various Opus Dei centers in Europe and at an event in Rome. The speeches were later made into a book, copies of which were sent by Wojtyla to the Vatican Secretariat of State. In 1978, when he was in Rome for the funeral of John Paul I, Wojtyla visited Opus Dei’s mansion to pray at the black marble crypt of ‘El Padre,’ who had died three years earlier. Monsignor Portillo, his successor and, by some accounts, the brains of Opus Dei, was welcomed at the Vatican by the new pope, who in turn was invited to visit Opus Dei’s house and centers.” (Ibid.; p. 315.)
4. Among the many shores upon which the waters of Opus Dei have lapped is that of the Banco Ambrosiano scandal and the P‑2 Lodge. “Opus Dei was drawn into that imbroglio [the P‑2 lodge scandal] by assertions that it had been negotiating with Roberto Calvi, head of Milan’s Ambrosiano Bank and a key figure in P‑2, regarding a possible bailout for Ambrosiano that would save the Vatican Bank financial losses and embarrassment arising from its dealings with Calvi. The banker’s body, either murdered or a suicide, was later found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. His widow maintained that he had been in touch with Cardinal Palazzini, the Opus Dei sympathizer in charge of Escriva’s beatification process, about the rescue operation, presumably to be carried out with the help of Opus Dei members who owned or controlled banks in Spain. The trade-off, according to Vatican observers, was to have been a takeover by Opus Dei members of the Vatican Bank and the Vatican Radio controlled by the more progressive Jesuits. Letters were found on Calvi from Francesco Pazienza, a Calvi aide with links to Italian and U.S. intelligence, in which Pazienza referred to contacts between Palazzini and Calvi.”(Ibid.; pp. 317–318.)
5. “At the start of 1983, Opus seemed poised for a major expansion based on papal favor and its new status as a prelature. Its main base remained in Spain, where it raised the largest contributions and enjoyed the most substantial political and economic influence, but the movement also gained members and influence in Italy . . .It was also strong in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. Opus Dei members and sympathizers supported the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Chilean president Allende, and one of them Hernan Cubillos, became General Pinochet’s foreign minister. Cubillos, who founded Que Pasa, a magazine under Opus Dei influence, was later identified as an ‘important’ CIA agent by the Los Angeles Times.” (Ibid.; p. 318.)
6. “In Chile, Peru, and El Salvador, Opus Dei provides invaluable support to right-wing political groups through its religious courses and schools, and through newspapers, magazines, and television outlets influenced or owned by members. ‘It serves a function for the political right and power holders,’ said a student of Opus Dei activities in Latin America. . . .A Spanish priest made a similar observation about the influence of Opus Dei bankers and industrialists in Europe: ‘They want to stop the growth of socialism and pacify the labor movement through religion.” (Ibid.; p. 319.)
7. Interestingly (and perhaps significantly), Schwarzenegger had targeted JFK’s widow Jackie as a point of introduction for the family. In addition to the fact that Jackie’s mother (Janet Auchinschloss) was good friends with [alleged] former German intelligence agent George De Mohrenschildt (also a close friend of the elder George Bush), Jackie was married to Aristotle Onassis. (For more about the Auchinschloss/De Mohrenschildt/Bush link, see—among other programs—RFA#37, available from Spitfire, as well as FTR#367.) “Mr. Schwarzenegger has climbed a social as well as political ladder. He used his early fame to get acquainted with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. When ‘Pumping Iron,’ was released, Mr. Schwarzenegger told the film’s publicity agent, Bobby Zarem, that the one person he wanted to meet was Mrs. Onassis. Mr. Zarem spoke to a friend who worked for Mrs. Onassis. A luncheon meeting was arranged at Elaine’s in New York to introduce the relatively unknown Mr. Schwarzenegger to Mrs. Onassis, Andy Warhol and others. A photograph of Mr. Schwarzenegger talking to Mrs. Onassis was widely distributed, and his celebrity grew.” (“Schwarzenegger’s Next Goal on Dogged, Ambitious Path”; The New York Times; 8/17/2003; accessed at www.nytimes.com .)
8. Onassis himself was no stranger to networking with people associated with the Underground Reich. “Another key figure involved in German intrigue in the Middle East was Hjalmar Schacht. He first came to Egypt as General Naguib’s ‘guest of honor’ after the coup against King Farouk. Schacht’s most daring Middle East power-play was the ‘Jiddah Agreement’ between German industry and Saudi Arabia in January 1954. Under the terms of the deal, Saudi Arabia agreed to establish a fleet of supertankers to be built in German shipyards) that would carry Saudi oil around the world. Aristotle Onassis was chosen to manage the shipping side of the operation. Besides making the Ruhr industrialists fantastically wealthy, Jiddah threatened to break the ‘Seven Sisters’ oil companies’ hegemony over the distribution of Middle East oil. The Jiddah Agreement was ultimately blocked by the Western oil cartel with help from the CIA. Yet Allen Dulles’s CIA was surprisingly hesitant to confront Schacht. Robert Maheu, one of the coordinators of the American attack on Jiddah, said of the CIA: ‘You can’t imagine how hard it was to convince them that the national interest was at stake.’ ” (Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International Copyright 1999 [SC]; Autonomedia; ISBN 1–57027-039–2; p. 383.)
9. Giving the lie to Schwarzenegger’s claim that some of his verbal indiscretions were made before he intended to run for Governor, Schwarzenegger had that move in mind decades ago. “In the early 1980’s, Mr. [Franco] Columbu, now a chiropractor, invited one of his patients, Dana Rohrabacher, a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, to have dinner with the action hero. ‘When I first met him, he talked about how much he loved America, how much he admired Reagan,’ said Mr. Rohrabacher, now a congressman from Huntington Beach. ‘I remember him saying, ‘Dana, some day I’m going to be governor of California and I’m going to call you.’ I knew he was a guy going places.’ ” (“Schwarzenegger’s Next Goal on Dogged, Ambitious Path”; The New York Times; 8/17/2003.)
10. Networking with the Republican hierarchy has been something Schwarzenegger has been at for a long time. “Mr. Schwarzenegger’s film stardom led him to meet top Republicans like Mr. Reagan, Vice President George Bush and Pete Wilson, then a senator from California and eventually the governor. Although he keeps a bust of Mr. Reagan in his office, Mr. Schwarzenegger grew especially close to Mr. Bush, admiring his pragmatism and world view and regular style of speech.” (Idem.)
11. “Mr. Schwarzenegger’s campaign team for the run for governor consists of Mr. Wilson, a Republican whose support for rigid measures to combat illegal immigration contrasted with his moderate approach to abortion and other social issues, and some senior members of his old Sacramento crew, including Bob White, his longtime strategist. Mr. Schwarzenegger has drawn other powerful and well-known figures to his cause. Warren Buffet, the billionaire financier and a friend of Mr. Schwarzenegger, came aboard as a financial consultant, and George P. Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan and friend of Mr. Wilson from the Hoover Institute, is helping the campaign.” (Idem.)
12. “Mr. Schwarzenegger’s thin political resume includes a stint as chairman of the President’s Council on Physical fitness under the first President George Bush, and sponsor of last year’s successful California ballot initiative Proposition 49, which channeled state money into after-school programs. It also introduced him into the Sacramento power clique.” (Idem.)
13. Continuing the analysis of Schwarzenegger’s networking, it is apparent that he is far from the “political outsider” that he professes to be. His networking is international in scope and has been under way for a long time. His association with his current campaign adviser Warren Buffet is nothing new. “The world’s second-richest man dropped into the English countryside with the Terminator at his side on Monday, a day after warning the UK’s corporate big game his elephant gun was loaded. Billionaire Warren Buffett and mean machine Arnold Schwarzenegger touched down by helicopter on the immaculate lawns of Waddesdon manor, a Renaissance-style chateau in the undulating hills of Buckinghamshire. Buffett, 72, is guest of honor at a closed two-day meeting of some of the world’s most powerful businessmen and financiers—the ultimate networking opportunity.” (“Arnold & Buffett’s Loaded Elephant Gun? Buffett’s Back, with the Terminator!”; Reuters; 9/24/2003; visit their web site at www.reuters.com .)
14. “The get-together in the ancestral home of the Rothschild banking family will discuss economic and political issues, the organizers said. But Buffett’s remark, made in a weekend newspaper interview, that he is looking for a ‘big deal’ in Britain has stolen the agenda. . . .Among those invited to Waddesdon Manor were the likes of James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, Jorma Ollila, chief executive of Nokia and De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer.” (Idem.)
15. Among the most revealing and cynical of Schwarzenegger’s networking moves is his powwow with Kenneth Lay, the CEO of Enron during the very time period that Enron was helping to destabilize California with the deliberately-constructed “Energy Crisis.” This puts Schwarzenegger “right smack dab in the middle” of these shenanigans. “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t talking. The Hollywood action film star and California’s GOP gubernatorial candidate in the state’s recall election has been unusually silent about his plans for running the Golden State. He hasn’t yet offered up a solution for the state’s $38 billion budget deficit, an issue that largely got more than one million people to sign a petition to recall Gov. Gray Davis. More important, however, Schwarzenegger still won’t respond to questions about why he was at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills two years ago where he, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk bond king Michael Milken, met secretly with former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay who was touting a plan for solving the state’s energy crisis.” (“Ahnuld, Ken Lay, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Gray Davis” by Jason Leopold; CommonDreams.org; 8/17/2003; p. 1; accessed at www.CommonDreams.org .)
16. “While Schwarzenegger, Riordan and Milken listened to Lay’s pitch, Gov. Davis pleaded with president George Bush to enact much needed price controls on electricity sold in the state, which skyrocketed to more than $200 per megawatt-hour. Davis said that Texas-based energy companies were manipulating California’s power market, charging obscene prices for power and holding consumers hostage. Bush agreed to meet with Davis at the Century Plaza Hotel in West Los Angeles on may 29, 2001, five days after lay met with Schwarzenegger, to discuss the California power crisis.” (Idem.)
17. “At the meeting, Davis asked Bush for federal assistance, such as imposing federally mandated price caps, to rein in soaring energy prices. But Bush refused saying California legislators designed an electricity market that left too many regulatory restrictions in place and that’s what caused electricity prices in the state to skyrocket. It was up to the governor to fix the problem, Bush said. However, Bush’s response appears to be part of a coordinated effort launched by Lay to have Davis shoulder the blame for the crisis. It worked. According to recent polls, a majority of voters grew increasingly frustrated with the way Davis handled the power crisis. Schwarzenegger has used the energy crisis and missteps by Davis to bolster his standing with potential voters. While Davis took a beating in the press (some energy companies ran attack ads against the governor), Lay used his political clout to gather support for deregulation.” (Idem.)
18. “A couple of weeks before Lay met with Schwarzenegger in may 2001, the PBS news program ‘Frontline’ interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney, whom Lay met with privately a month earlier. Cheney was asked by a correspondent from Frontline whether energy companies were acting like a cartel and using manipulative tactics to cause electricity prices to spike in California.” (Idem.)
19. ” ‘No,’ Cheney said during the Frontline interview. ‘The problem you had in California was caused by a combination of things—an unwise regulatory scheme, because they didn’t really deregulate. Now they’re trapped from unwise regulatory schemes, plus not having addressed the supply side of the issue. They’ve obviously created major problems for themselves and bankrupted PG & E in the process.’ ” (Idem.)
20. “The 90-minute secret meeting Lay convened took place inside a conference room at the Peninsula Hotel. Lay, and other Enron representatives at the meeting, handed out a four-page document to Schwarzenegger, Riordan and Milken titled ‘Comprehensive Solution for California,’ which called for an end to federal and state investigations into Enron’s role in the California energy crisis and said consumers should pay for the state’s disastrous experiment with deregulation through multibillion rate increases. Another bullet point in the four-page document said ‘Get deregulation right this time—California needs a real electricity market, not government takeovers.” (Ibid; p. 2.)
21. “The irony of that statement is that California’s flawed power market design helped Enron earn more than $500 million in one year, a tenfold increase in profits from a previous year and it’s coordinated effort in manipulating the price of electricity in California, which other power companies mimicked, cost the state close to $70 billion and led to the beginning of what is now the state’s $38 billion budget deficit. The power crisis forced dozens of businesses to close down or move to other states, where cheaper electricity was in abundant supply, and greatly reduced the revenue California relied heavily upon.” (Idem.)
22. “Lay asked the participants to support his plan and lobby the state legislature to make it a law. It’s unclear whether Schwarzenegger held a stake in Enron at the time or if he followed through on Lay’s request. His Spokesman Rob Stutzman hasn’t returned numerous calls for comment about the meeting. For Schwarzenegger and the others who attended the meeting, associating with Enron, Particularly Ken Lay, the disgraced chairman of the high-flying energy company, during the peak of California’s power crisis in May 2001 could be compared to meeting with Osama bin Laden after 9–11 to understand why terrorism isn’t necessarily such a heinous act. A person who attended the meeting at the Peninsula, which this reporter wrote about two years ago said Lay invited Schwarzenegger and Riordan because the two were being courted in 2001 as GOP gubernatorial candidates.” (Idem.)
23. In the context of Schwarzenegger’s veneer of Nazism, it is interesting to note the politics of Schwarzenegger’s close friend and first director John Milius. “Calling himself ‘a zen fascist,’ Milius claims, ‘My politics are strange. I’m so far to the right, I’m probably an anarchist.’ Milius also had his own motorcycle gang of friends, aptly named Mobile Strike Force Paranoia. And according to one source, on set, ‘Aides come and go with clicking heels and mock Nazi salutes.’ Working on a Milius film was a unique experience. Said Arnold, ‘He runs a set like an army. So that’s the feeling everyone had—that this wasn’t a movie, it was a battle. I felt like I was once again an army tank driver back home in Austria. . . . It was a high-spirited set and Milius took it all very well—the Nazi salutes, the drills, ‘General Milius’ written on the back of his director’s chair.’ An interesting choice of director for Arnold’s mainstream film debut, Milius soon became a firm friend of Arnold.‘s.” (Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography; by Wendy Leigh; Copyright 1990 by Wendy Leigh; Congdon & Weed [HC]; ISBN 0–86553-216–8; pp. 192–193.)
24. If one were to describe Schwarzenegger’s personality in one word, it would be Machiavellian. He has given abundant evidence of this, even during his bodybuilding days. His signature cinematic effort, “Pumping Iron,” showcased his cynicism. “The genuinely creepy moments [in “Pumping Iron”] come two-thirds in. In one scene, he brags about missing his father’s funeral in order to train for a competition. Talking about his chief rival, Lou Ferrigno (who went on to become TV’s ‘Incredible Hulk’), Schwarzenegger tells the documentary camera, ‘It doesn’t matter if he’s in shape or out of shape.’ He plans on messing with his mind. ‘I will mix him up. He will come so ready, but the next morning, he will be ready to lose.’ Of this form of psychological manipulation, he says, ‘All these things are available, and so if they’re available, you might as well use them.’ He smiles, and at this point he looks downright sinister.” (“Film Probes Beyond Muscles” by Mick LaSalle; San Francisco Chronicle; 8/15/2003; p. D17.)
25. “The movie shows him putting his strategy to work on the morning of the competition. He has breakfast with Ferrigno and Ferrigno’s parents and subtly undermines his friend’s confidence. Behind a mask of affability, he says that Ferrigno, who is huge, would have had a better chance of winning with another month’s training (‘A month from now would be perfect for you’). He asks Ferrigno, ‘You look kind of worried today.’ He consoles Ferrigno in advance for losing. Finally, he gets up from the table and tells Ferrigno’s father, ‘Help him pump up. Calm him down.’ By the end of breakfast, poor Ferrigno looks tied up in a psychological knot. At the competition, we see him posing as though apologetic about his body, when he could have just as easily won.” (Idem.)
26. “Even after the competition, Schwarzenegger—clearly having fun—continues his barrage, riding on a bus with Ferrigno and his folks, talking about how he plans to come to New York, eat spaghetti and date Ferrigno’s sister. Everything’s said with a smile, but the whole time he seems to be laughing at this guileless, sweet family. Frankly, it’s almost sickening. ‘I was always dreaming about very powerful people—dictators and things like that,’ Schwarzenegger says of his childhood early in the film. ‘Pumping Iron’ makes it plain that this is one fellow who had the will to power at an early age.” (Idem.)
27. Equally revealing of Schwarzenegger’s character is his Machiavellian, cynical behavior toward Frank Zane, one of his successors as Mr. Olympia. “In August 1980, Arnold, now known in the bodybuilding community chiefly as CBS commentator and, along with Jim Lorimer, producer of bodybuilding shows, attended the Miss Olympia contest at the Philadelphia Sheraton. Rick Wayne, there to cover the show for a [Joe] Wieder magazine, interviewed Arnold afterward. Casually, Rick asked Arnold, who had now been retired from bodybuilding for five years, if he would ever consider making a comeback. ‘No,’ Arnold said firmly. ‘No amount of money could tempt me out of retirement.’ The only reason he had been training, he told Rick, ws that he was rehearsing for his part as bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay in the upcoming The Jayne Mansfield Story. As an aside he mentioned that he was planning to be in Australia for the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest, having just been signed by CBS as commentator for the event. Rick, ending the interview, believed every word that Arnold had said.” (Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography; pp. 178–179.)
28. “Meanwhile, back on the West Coast, the reigning Mr. Olympia, Frank Zane, had suffered a severe setback. Eight weeks before the contest in which he expected to win his fourth Mr. Olympia title, Frank met with a terrible accident that almost killed him. After a spell in the hospital, on the verge of withdrawing from the contest, Frank approached Arnold and asked his advice. The accident, he said, had weakened him, interrupted his training, and left its mark. Should he still compete in the 1980 Mr. Olympia or back out of the whole thing? Arnold, whom Frank habitually viewed as a friend and coach, thought for a moment, then said that he strongly believed that Frank should go to Australia and defend his Mr. Olympia title. As an afterthought, Frank, a man who is nobody’s fool and had been Arnold’s friend for more than twelve years, casually asked him if he planned to compete. No, said Arnold. He was going to Australia to do commentary on the Olympia for CBS—that was all.” (Ibid.; p. 179.)
29. “Two weeks before the 1980 Mr. Olympia Arnold fell ill, losing ten pounds. That didn’t deter him from giving an interview to Austrian journalist Roman Schliesser, who wrote about Arnold on a regular basis in his column ‘Adabei’ for the Viennese paper Die Kronen Zeitung. And if [Schwarzenegger rival Mike] Mentzer, Zane, et al, had subscribed to Die Kronen Zeitung and had been fortunate enough to understand German, they would not have been at all surprised by the events that took place subsequently in Sydney, Australia. For Arnold had quite openly revealed to Schliesser, ‘On October 4th the next Mr. Olympia will be chosen In Sydney. I’m a sports commentator for CBS television. But I’m doing it. I’ve trained for six weeks. . . . I’m against Frank Zane who was Mr. Olympia three times, but they will all cry when I win again.’ Schliesser’s article was published on September 28th, just six days before Arnold dropped his bombshell on the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest.” (Ibid.; pp. 180–181.)
30. “The night before the contest Boyer Coe discovered that Arnold ws planning to make a comeback. After watching Arnold strip down, he took Frank Zane aside and, with a degree of concern for Arnold, wondered out loud, ‘Why is Arnold doing this to himself? He doesn’t have a prayer.’ Not only had he been out of competition for the past five years; bodybuilding had also changed. In Arnold’s day only three or four other bodybuilders had come close to approaching his standard. Now there were many. Moreover, the level of competition was far higher and the bodybuilder’s routines were less haphazard and more choreographed. Later that night Arnold approached Zane and asked if he wanted to share a dressing room with him. Frank replied, “Arnold, are you trying to psych me out?’ ‘Oh, no,’ replied Arnold. ‘I wouldn’t try and do that.’ ” (Ibid.; pp. 182–183.)
31. “Frank Zane was Arnold’s next target. A year later Arnold described his tactics in an interview: ‘I knew Frank Zane would be tense at the moment of the competition, because he hadn’t laughed once in the last six weeks. So if I could crack him up with a good joke, all the laughter that he had stored would come out in a torrent. So I prepared a joke and told it to him during the prejudging. He cracked up so much that he leaned back and bent over. And of course the judges are always looking and making notes. They probably thought, ‘He is not taking this seriously.’ After five years away from competition it was wonderful to use psychological warfare again.’ ” (Ibid.; p. 183.)
32. “In interviews filmed for The Comeback, conducted before and during the contest, Arnold would allege that he was insecure about stepping on stage for the first time in five years. But as he began to pose to the strains of ‘Exodus,’ he enthused that nothing had changed. Waiting for the results, he was exultant: overflowing with enthusiasm and self-confidence, impatient to hear the outcome of the 1980 Mr. Olympia, convinced that he had won. As Dan Howard, one of the 1980 judges, says, ‘Arnold beats people before they go onstage.’ He was right. Although Arnold had trained for only eight weeks, while all the other contestants had trained for a year, he was nevertheless declared the 1980 Mr. Olympia. The audience went wild. Though not in the way to which Arnold was accustomed.” (Ibid.; pp. 183–184.)
33. “Paul Graham, executive producer of The Comeback, with the help of film editor Geoff Bennett, didn’t include in the film’s sound track the subsequent eruption that greeted the announcement of the 1980 Olympia winner. In the words of an eyewitness, ‘The audience was furious, throwing things, swearing. A great chorus of ‘Rigged, rigged, rigged’ flared up. There’s never been anything like it in any bodybuilding contest ever. Everyone in the place was booing Arnold, shouting ‘bullshit,’ and brawling in disgust. Arnold was enraged and went red in the face.’ ” (Ibid.; p. 184.)
34. “Seething with anger, Arnold stormed out of the Sydney Opera House with a group of reporters in hot pursuit. Almost running toward the exit, he avoided answering their questions, tossing his head in a combination of anger and disdain. Close to the exit, he suddenly realized that Maria, far from being by his side, was talking to some reporters behind him. According to Helmut Cerncic, at the top of his voice Arnold Screamed, ‘You stupid bitch, I’m waiting for you. Come here.’ Witnessing the scene, Helmut, who had known Arnold since he was a teenage misfit all those years ago in the Athletic Union, thought to himself, ‘This boy from Austria, who never had a penny, couldn’t speak English, now knows someone from the Kennedy family and speaks to her like that. It was amazing.’ ” (Idem.)
35. Schwarzenegger’s victory may not have been the result of objective viewpoints on the part of the judges. “Among the more serious allegations was the one claiming that all the judges of the 1980 Mr. Olympia either were Arnold’s friends or had business relationships with him. And although no one accused the IFBB of having fixed the contest in Arnold’s favor, it seemed as if the judges had had eyes only for him.” (Ibid.; p. 185.)
36. The Wendy Leigh book caused considerable stir in the Schwarzenegger camp, and he has gone to considerable lengths to have it marginalized. It is worth noting in this regard, that Schwarzenegger’s much-publicized support for the Museum of Tolerance and the Wiesenthal Institute began in 1990, AFTER the Leigh book came out. There is reason to believe that his motives in so doing were politically motivated and every bit as cynical as his other carefully- crafted gestures. In that context, it is worth noting that the Bormann organization has made a point of funding Israel, and incorporating Jews in its business structure. (For more about this, see—among other programs—FTR#‘s 294, 305, 397, 399.) “Throughout his 33-year career, Schwarzenegger has been crafty in his dealings with the press: He’s known for showing a warm demeanor toward journalists while hiring controlling publicists. As a result Schwarzenegger’s most sensational controversies have often been virtually ignored. The biggest bump in the road came after the publication of the 320-page ‘Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography’ by Wendy Leigh. The 1990 book explored in detail Schwarzenegger’s alleged womanizing, abusive practical jokes and admiration for Kurt Waldheim (the politician, who had been accused of being a Nazi war criminal, had been invited to the actor’s wedding).” (“Before He Was a Candidate Schwarzenegger Openly Flexed His Vocal Chords” by Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle; 8/15/2003; p. D17.)
37. “But Leigh and her book got very little coverage in mainstream U.S. media. A 1992 Spy magazine article on the actor describes his publicity machine as a heavy-handed group that resorted to threats to keep Leigh’s accusations from being widely repeated. According to the article, reporters were told that Schwarzenegger interviews would end after any mention of the book or its contents, and journalists at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990 were asked to sign documents promising not to ask the actor certain questions.” (Idem.)
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