Comment: For years, we’ve accessed the magnificent work of Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, whose landmark text Gold Warriors is the definitive work on the distribution of recovered World War II gold, Japanese Golden Lily treasure in particular.
The focal point of decades of high-level political intrigue on the part of intelligence services, financial institutions and allied, powerful criminal and right-wing syndicates, this World War II loot figures prominently in a tangled web that further connects the dots linking the postwar fascist international with the milieu of the Muslim Brotherhood and its related terrorist offshoots.
Michael Meiring (variously described as a CIA operative or a functionary on behalf of the post-Apartaheid South African regime) undertook to locate some of Yamashita’s treasure in the Philippines. Meiring is one of a number of American fascist and right-wing figures to have cropped up in the Philippines, looking for Golden Lily treasure.
Interestingly, some of these operations appear to involve collaboration between Islamist elements associated with Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda/bin Laden.
“Profile: Michael Meiring”; historycommons.org/.
Excerpt: In 2002, a Philippine newspaper article will claim that “Philippine police have long been aware of operational ties between local Islamic radicals and right-wing foreigners.” Apparently these ties become first noticeable in the early 1990s. The article is mainly about a 1996 recorded testimonial by Edwin Angeles, a Philippine undercover agent who had posed as a leader of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf until 1995 (see 1991-Early February 1995). In his testimony, he claimed to have attended meetings between Muslim militants and Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, plus another right-wing American named John Lepney (see Late 1992-Early 1993 and Late 1994). The article notes that Philippine officials believe such ties were not limited to these cases. “Why the strange alliance exists remains a puzzle to police and military intelligence agents. . . .
. . . Lepney had been seen in the rebellious areas of the southern Philippines since 1990 and occasionally boasted of his rebel ties. [Manila Times, 4/26/2002] Additionally, Michael Meiring, a US citizen who may have been a CIA operative with ties to Muslim militant leaders (see May 16, 2002) and December 2, 2004), periodically appeared in the same region beginning in 1992 (see 1992–1993). He sometimes stayed in Davao City, the same city where Lepney was based. Meiring claims to be a treasure hunter, but military officials note that there are “terrorists and intelligence operatives of all stripes about among treasure hunters’ circles.” Meiring also had ties to at least one neo-Nazi figure in the US. . . .
. . . Philippine officials will later identify a number of other suspicious right-wing Westerners living in the rebellious southern region of the country in the early 1990s. For instance, there is US citizen Nina North, whom acquaintances claim has CIA connections. From 1990 to 1992, she was reportedly working on business deals with bin Laden and other Middle East figures involving the transfer of gold bullion. . . .
Comment: Meiring is described as being of South African extraction–his exact relationship with the apartheid regime being somewhat ambiguous. Allegedly a refugee from the apartheid regime, Meiring was supposedly working for the Mandela regime in his attempts to recover Golden Lily treasure.
Meiring is also described as having been a physician for the South African regime, itself an offshoot of the Third Reich. One might well wonder if Meiring was in any way connected to Project Coast, the apartheid regime’s biological warfare unit, itself aided by American right-wing and fascist elements. Some of those elements held forth in the Nevada area, with evidentiary tributaries running in the direction of the anthrax attacks that followed 9/11.
The possibility that Meiring may well have been otherwise than “as advertised” is suggested by the fact that, in addition to the alleged U.S. intelligence connections, Meiring appears to have been operating on behalf of a milieu of American and European right-wing and fascist elements.
Excerpt: . . . Meiring was formerly a citizen of South Africa, of British descent. He fled to the United States, sources said, towards the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime.
While the same sources said Meiring was a doctor for the South African police, they also stressed his ties to the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela, and hinted that he fled because of pursuit by state security officials.
American David Hawthorn, a close friend of Meiring, claimed the blast victim had confessed passing to Mandela’s government the proceeds of a box of old US federal notes. That box was one of 12, containing an estimated $500-million worth of notes.
Hawthorn said Meiring showed him a letter from the South African government and a US Treasury permit to back his claim. Hawthorn also saw a “packing list” that had a cover sheet printed with the words “US Army,” the Army seal, some numbers and a group of upper case letters. Meiring, he said, claimed the list represented the serial numbers of the missing notes, dating back to 1937. . . .
. . . The group, they told The Times, was connected to a long-time Meiring financier, James Rowe of Nevada, who joined the victim during a 1993 visit.
Rowe is executive producer of Wild Rose Productions, an independent film and video documentary company based in New Green Valley, Nevada, near Las Vegas. One of the projects of Wild Rose was to do a documentary on Yamashita treasure allegedly hidden and recovered by highland tribes in parts of Mindanao.
American intelligence analyst Dan Crawford said Rowe had links to a right-winged, white supremacist and tax revolt group in Nevada that is linked with the neo-Nazi party of the United States and the “Fifth Reich” in Germany. . . .
Comment: More on the nomenclature of this milieu:
Excerpt: . . . There are other names that come up in the treasure hunter game. Intelligence officers allowed The Manila Times to publish only the names of those involved during the 1990s, saying “current” names of the list were being monitored for links to a strange circle of white supremacists and Islamic fundamentalists:
Bob Gould (in the Philippines in March of 1990 and June of 1991) came from Hayward, California. His connection was a Frederick Obado, Filipino-American, who was linked to a group of Kodar Kiram, son of the late Sultan Jumalul Kiram and younger brother of Rodinod Kiram. Gould and others in Davao City made plans in 1990 and 1991 to invade Sabbah and claim it for the Sultanate of Sabbah-Sulu. Gould has connections with a Libertarian group in California and is the subject of an Internal Revenue Service investigation on tax evasion.
Nina North. A close friend of Gould. Her acquaintances claim she has connections to the Central Intelligence Agency, but those connections are too vague. In 1990, 1991, and 1992, she maintained contact with Obado and was dealing with high officials in the Mid-East, including representatives of Khadaffy and Bin Laden, with regard to transfer of gold bullion from the Philippines, through the “back door.” North is from Fremont, California.
Andy Gould (no relation to Bob), an Australian and John Lawrence, a Brit, both hangers-on in Ermita (back in the early ’90s). They also had dealings with Obado, Bob Gould, and Swihart with regard to gold bullion and the Yamashita treasure.
“Tinoy” Simbahon of Magpet, North Cotabato. A treasure guide. His wife had met with Obado and Gould on several occasions in the Manila Pen back in 1990. He had met with Obado and a certain De Lara, in late 1991 in Magpet to make a deal for the purchase of gold bullion. Simbahon had admitted to Gould that he was secretly working for Swihart to help Muslim independence in Mindanao.
Fred Eder, Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a tailor. But he has a corporation registered under the name of Rose Mining and Exploration Company, with headquarters somewhere in General Santos City. Simbahon is a partner. This is the group that enticed Obado and Gould to look for treasure. Eder is also somehow connected with a Fil-Am group that once supported the defunct Movement for Independent Mindanao (MIM). On radio station KNDY, Honolulu, as late as 1999, Eder was heard advocating independence for Muslim Mindanao. . . .
Even MORE Fun With Science: Earthquake Weaponry
This topic of gold theft is a real spy story. Remember the James Bond movie Goldfinger? It is certainly one of the major aspects of WWII that was overlooked, without a doubt volontarily, by historians and the media. Where all that gold, stolen or taken from the occupied territories during WWII went? Offshore banks, shell countries like Switzerland, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, paradise tax havens like Turks and Caicos, Bahamas and the like? One rumor on the internet is that the gold at Fort Knox was stolen. I don’t have a clue but it is interesting to see how precious this metal becomes in an era where paper money tends to lose value day by day. Almost all countries are bankrupt. They owe almost more money than their Gross National Product sometimes. Some interests on the international scene might be tempted to go after that gold to save local currencies and their situation.
Russ Baker, in his book on the Bushes (Family of Secrets) has some interesting stuff tying gold and the Philipines to Bush Jr’s involvement with Harken energy.