Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:04:17 +0300
Subject: ] Why cashing out of $$billions just before 9/11 was never
investigated?
More evidence of Pre-9/11 Inside Trading: Follow the Money? God
forbid! Why was the cashing out of billions of dollars just before 9/11
never investigated?
Global Research Articles by Jim Hogue
Jim Hogue, a former teacher, is now an actor who tours his
performance of Ethan Allen. He also operates a small farm in Calais,
VT. His seminal articles about Sibel Edmonds and CIA
Whistleblower "Miss Moneypenny" may be found in this newspaper's
archives. Bill Bergman currently works in Chicago as an equity
analyst for a private sector firm. From 1998 to 2004 he was a senior
financial market analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,
where his areas of expertise included Insolvency Issues in
Derivatives Markets, Money Laundering, and Ethics and Payment System
Policy. He holds an M.B.A. in Finance and an M.A. in Public Policy
from the University of Chicago.
by Jim Hogue
Global Research, February 10, 2008
Baltimore Chronicle
Had an investigation been done into the crime of failing to file
the "currency transaction reports" in August 2001, then we would
know who made the cash withdrawals in $100 bills amounting to the $5
billion surge.
When reviewing the record of July and August of 2001, Bill Bergman
noticed a $5 billion surge in the currency component of the M1 money
supplythe third largest such increase since 1947. Bergman asked
about this anomalyand was removed from his investigative duties.
It's been over six years since 9/11, but U.S. regulatory entities
have been slow to follow through with reports about the complex
financial transactions that occurred just prior to and following the
attacks. Such research could shed light on such questions as who was
behind themand who benefitedand could help lay to rest the rumors
that have been festering.
Warning bells about anomalies in the fiscal sector were sounded in
the summer of 2001, but not heeded.
Among those who has since raised questions was Bill Bergman. As a
financial market analyst for the Federal Reserve, he was assigned in
2003 to review the record of July and August of 2001. He noticed an
unusual surge in the currency component of the M1 money supply (cash
circulating outside of banks) during that period. The surge totaled
over $5 billion above the norm for a two-month increase.
The increase in August alone was the third largest single monthly
increase since 1947, even after a significantly above-average month
in July.
Surges in the currency component of M1 are often the result of
people withdrawing their cash to protect themselves lest some
anticipated disaster (such as Y2K) befall the economy. In January of
1991 a surge was recorded (the then second-largest since '47), which
could be attributed to "war-time hoarding" before the Iraq I
invasion, but could also be attributed to financial maneuverings and
liquefying of assets relating to the BCCI enforcement proceedings.
Bergman points out that the August 2001 withdrawals may have been,
to a large extent, caused by the Argentinian banking crisis that was
occurring at the time. However, he raises the point that no
explanation has yet fully answered the important question: Why was
the cashing out of billions of dollars just before the 9/11 attacks
never investigated?
It's possible that the answer to this question is also the answer to
the other follow-the-money questions surrounding 9/11; and despite
an embarrassing heap of evidence, neither the press, nor Congress,
nor any agency with investigative responsibility has done its job on
our behalf. On the contrary, their inaction might reasonably be
construed as a cover-up.
Bergman "followed the money," including developing a framework for
working with money-laundering data and "suspicious activity" reports
for monitoring and investigating terrorism. The questions he asked
about what happened during the summer of 2001 should have led to
investigations, which should have resulted in the prosecution of
those with foreknowledge of the attacks.
Those who follow the history of the 9/11 fact-finding movement know
that there is a laundry-list of unanswered questions that are just
as compelling as those put forth by Bergman.
And there is also a laundry-list of whistle-blowers who have been
fired and subsequently ignored. So it is not at all surprising that
Bergman was removed from his investigative duties, and that his
concerns were not publicly addressed.
Bergman's supervisor instructed him to follow up on an unanswered
question he had raised pertaining to an August 2, 2001 letter from
the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve to the 12 Reserve
Banks. This letter urged scrutiny of suspicious activity reports.
Bergman learned of the pervasiveness of the warnings of the 9/11
attacks, and wondered how thoroughly these warnings had permeated
the financial system.
In this capacity as Federal Reserve investigative point-man, and
with his money-laundering portfolio being guided by his supervisor's
directive, he asked the Board why they had issued their August 2,
2001 directive, and whether this related to any heightened
intelligence of a terrorist threat. His position was then
eliminated, and a crucial investigation was terminated before it
could even begin.
Another 9/11 Commission Misrepresentation
Footnote 28 of the Staff Monograph on Terrorist Financing from the
official 9/11 Commission Report states that the National Money-
laundering Strategy Report for 2001 "didn't mention terrorist
financing in any of its 50 pages."
True? No. The NMLS Report mentions it 17 times.
One gets the impression that the commission staff (under Philip
Zelikow) was trying to paint the picture that there wasn't a lot of
co-operation between those involved in counterterrorism and the
banking regulators in 2001.
Why do they paint this picture, inasmuch as the contrary is the
case? In fact, anti-terrorism was an important element of the
National Money Strategy, and it was included and emphasized in its
Report annually. It may have been part of the reason why the August
2, 2001 letter urging scrutiny of suspicious activity reports was
issued in the first place.
In turn, the billions in currency shipments of July and August 2001
are completely omitted in the 9/11 Commission Report.
I make bold to point out that the official story-line is that the
attacks were accomplished by "the evil-doers" on a shoe-string
budget with little money changing hands. Therefore, according to
Zelikow et al., it is pointless to look at large flows of money in
an investigation of the attacks. That makes perfect senseunless you
happen to have a brain.
To state the obvious, there are two reasons why Zelikow et al. made
the false statement regarding there having been no references to
terrorism in the National Money-laundering Strategy Report.
One reason could be to justify and encourage more scrutiny (legal or
otherwise) of small transactions generally, e.g. via USAPA, and the
other could be to establish (read: invent) a reason for missing the
evidence pertaining to the attacks. ('Transactions too small. No one
could find.') And since the real money trail points to foreknowledge
within the financial community at large, and, possibly, the Federal
Reserve specifically, the "low-budget terrorism" story-line that the
9/11 Commission had established needed to be protected.
If such a lack of attentiveness to a financial transaction of $5
billion goes unnoticed in August 2001, then a reason had to be
established for this lack of attention. And Bergman's attentiveness
to the Board of Governor's August 2 letter was the fly in the
ointment, as this letter proves that the Board was indeed attentive
to suspicious transactions, even very, very large ones. Bergman's
question of "Why" is therefore key to yet another avenue of inquiry.
All the News that's Permissible to Print
Note that a few dollars sent to an Islamic charity could warrant
arrests, investigations, front-page stories, and, sometimes, torture
and many years in jail. That's Propaganda 101: 'Large amounts of
money do not fund major acts of terrorism. Small amounts do. Small
amounts covered the 9/11 tab, therefore large amounts didn't.' The
news coverage, creating high-profile prosecutions for relatively
small transactions, reinforces this scenario.
With this in mind, we suggest that the reader follow the story of
Mark Siljander (major coverage) on the one hand, and also follow the
Times UK reports from Sibel Edmonds (verboten in the US mainstream
press) on the other hand. Edmonds told me recently of the major
foreign media outlets that had offered to report her story. Not one
major outlet did so in the US.
R.T. Naylor suggests, in his wonderful book Satanic Purses, that any
major terrorist event that involves a lot of money is 'state
terrorism,' and this is independently confirmed by Sibel Edmonds'
statements as to the enormous sums changing hands at the time of the
9/11 attacks. I suggest that her testimony to the Senate
Intelligence Committee (Leahy and Grassley) gave the lie to the
official financial myth of 9/11.
If Bergman had been allowed to continue his investigation, I suggest
that he would have uncovered the same thing. Note that the drug
money and other illicit transactions described by Edmonds occurred
during the same time period, and the amounts in the billions are
comparable.
The Law
To members of the constabulary: the operable statutes are
1) The 1970 Bank Secrecy Act that imposed new financial reporting
requirements to facilitate the tracing of questionable transactions
and
2) the 1986 Money Laundering Control Act that criminalized the act
of money-laundering.
Also operable, and of particular relevance in a historical context,
is the 1917 Trading With the Enemy Act that was relied upon in
October of 1942 to seize the assets of "Hitler's Bankers in
America," Union Banking, involving bank vice president Prescott
Bush under his father-in-law and bank president, George Walker.
The law is not always followed, and the required "currency
transaction reports" are sometimes not filed. The 9/11 Commission
Report and the National Money-laundering Strategy Report for 2001
did not identify those who are involved with large cash
transactions. Had the paperwork been done in August of 2001, or an
investigation done into the crime of failing to file the "currency
transaction reports," then we would know who made the cash
withdrawals in $100 bills amounting to the $5 billion surge.
Information about what transpired took years to develop after the
fact. For example, the Federal Reserve fined United Bank of
Switzerland and Riggs Bank in 2004.
Mr. Bergman states that he doesn't want to be a dog barking up the
wrong tree, but the authorities, apparently under orders from our
top officials, are preventing a standard investigation and the most
obvious prosecutorial methodology from going forth.
Congress could step in; a prosecutor could step up. But don't hold
your breath.
Jim Hogue, a former teacher, is now an actor who tours his
performance of Ethan Allen. He also operates a small farm in Calais,
VT. His seminal articles about Sibel Edmonds and CIA
Whistleblower "Miss Moneypenny" may be found in this newspaper's
archives. Bill Bergman currently works in Chicago as an equity
analyst for a private sector firm. From 1998 to 2004 he was a senior
financial market analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,
where his areas of expertise included Insolvency Issues in
Derivatives Markets, Money Laundering, and Ethics and Payment System
Policy. He holds an M.B.A. in Finance and an M.A. in Public Policy
from the University of Chicago.
Global Research Articles by Jim Hogue
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