From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (misc.activism.progressive Auto-Poster)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: THE OCTOBER SURPRISE -- "The Verdict is Treason": THE VERDICT
Date: 16 Aug 92 06:42:08 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


    "We were convinced that, yes, there was a meeting, and he was
    there and the other people listed in the indictment were there,"
    said jury foreman Mark Kristoff following the trial.  "There never
    was a guilty vote ... It was 100 percent."

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            ============================================= 
             T h e   V e r d i c t   i s   T r e a s o n 
            ============================================= 
                  by David Armstrong and Alex Constantine 
                       Z Magazine, July/August 1990 
                               [excerpts] 
==================================================================
"Z is an independent, progressive monthly magazine of critical thinking 
on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the United 
States.  It sees the racial, sexual, class, and political dimensions 
of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving 
contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activist efforts to 
attain a better future."
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Subscriptions: One Year $25; Two Years $40; Three Years $55 
$18 student/low-income  //  Sample issue: $3.00
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Z Magazine, // 150 W Canton St., // Boston MA 02118 // (617)236-5878 
[Some 100 pages per issue, no advertisements]
[Z is a project of the nonprofit Institute for Social & Cultural Change]
==================================================================

                        ===================== 
                        T h e   V e r d i c t 
                        ===================== 

     On May 4, after only five hours of deliberation, the jury found
Brenneke "not guilty" on all five counts.

     "We were convinced that, yes, there was a meeting, and he was
there and the other people listed in the indictment were there," said
jury foreman Mark Kristoff following the trial.  "There never was a
guilty vote ... It was 100 percent."

     While the jury's verdict represents a substantial victory for
Brenneke personally, many questions remain unresolved.  Technically,
the decision does not mean Brenneke was telling the truth about the
Paris meetings; it simply means the government was unable to convince
the jury that he was lying.

     Still, there is a substantial body of circumstantial evidence
suggesting that the Reagan-Bush campaign stole the 1980 election, and
the Brenneke decision adds even greater credence to that argument.  At
the very least it suggest the Republicans were willing to barter with
American lives for their own political gain.  Legally, any dealings
between campaign officials and the Iranians would be a clear violation
of the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from engaging in
diplomatic negotiations with foreign governments.  More important,
since Iran could easily have been classified as a hostile nation at
the time, any effort to furnish them with weapons would constitute
providing aid to an enemy nation, which is tantamount to treason.

     Then there is the question of Donald Gregg's testimony.  If, as
the jury apparently believed, Gregg was not telling the truth about
his whereabouts on that all important weekend in 1980, will the bush
administration be as vigilant in seeking perjury charges against him
as it was in prosecuting Brenneke?

                    ============================= 
                    E n t e r   t h e   S & L ' s 
                    ============================= 

     In addition to lifting the lid on the October Surprise,
Brenneke's testimony in Denver shed light on another scandal.  During
his deposition, Brenneke stated that the bank fraud for which Rupp was
convicted was actually part of a larger "systematically developed
program by which money was raised for the Contras, using a variety of
schemes involving banks, and then involving the disposition of those
funds."

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     Brenneke's comments became the center piece for a series of
investigative reports by Pete Brewton of the Houston Post.  Earlier
this year, Brewton revealed that "the CIA may have used part of the
proceeds from S&L fraud to help pay for covert operations and other
activities that Congress was unwilling to support publicly."  Brewton
disclosed that "numerous links" exist "between organized crime figures
and CIA operatives, including some involved in gun running, drug
smuggling, money laundering, and covert aid for the Nicaraguan
Contras."

     One example Brewton refers to is Indian Springs State Bank in
Kansas City, Missouri.  When Indian Springs failed in 1984, federal
investigators focused their attention on Farhad Azima, a major
shareholder in the bank.  Azima, an Iranian emigrant who's family had
close ties to the Shah, has been linked in court documents to the CIA
and organized crime.  Azima was also the owner of Global International
Airways.  Brewton reported that an ID card given to him by Brenneke,
dated November 1, 1975, shows a vice president and pilot for global to
be none other than Heinrich Rupp.  Global supplied one of the cargo
planes used by the White House to deliver 23 tons of TOW missiles and
sundry spare parts to Tehran.

     Among Global's clients was Southern Air Transport, once
owned-and- operated by the CIA.  Southern Air personnel maintain that
Global ran weapons out of Dallas to the contras and cocaine back into
the US.  Global's biggest customer was the Egyptian American Transport
and Services Corporation (EATSCO).  EATSCO's board of directors
included unindicted Iran-contra figure Theodore Shackley and convicted
Iran-contra conspirator retired Gen. Richard Secord.  The finances of
Indian Springs Bank and Global were intimately intertwined.  When
Global filed for bankruptcy, Indian Springs was next in line.

  ================================================================= 
  I s   T h e r e   a   R e p o r t e r   i n   t h e   H o u s e ? 
  ================================================================= 

     Mainstream coverage of the Brenneke trial and the CIA/Mafia/White
House links to the S&L crisis have been conspicuously absent.
Following the Brenneke decision, the Los Angeles Times, the New York
Times and the Washington Post all ran short Associated Press wire
stories but never mentioned the words "treason" or "perjury."  Joel
Bleifuss of In These Times writes: "The most interesting of the three
AP stories was the heavily and strangely edited version in the
Washington Post.  It seems that if the jury didn't have sense enough
to find Brenneke guilty, it was up to the Post to do the job."

     Brewton's revelations concerning the S&L debacle have fared even
worse.  In February, the Los Angeles Times buried a short piece
outlining Brewton's basic thesis, and has since failed to follow up on
the allegations.  To date, neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post have seen fit to report on the subject.

     Having been vindicated in court, Brenneke says he plans to write
a book about his life in the CIA and the October Surprise.  It will be
interesting to see how the press responds when his story, which has
been sitting right under their noses for four years, "breaks" in the
book review section.

            /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ 
            \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ 


                    ============================= 
                    F u r t h e r   R e a d i n g 
                    ============================= 

                        ===================== 
                        S & L   s c a n d a l 
                        ===================== 

Pete Brewton's investigative articles in the Houston Post are 
(may be incomplete): 

"S&L probe has possible CIA links" 2/4/90 
"Evidence finds CIA operatives may be implicated in failure" 2/5/90 
"[House] Panel calls CIA chief to testify" 2/6/90 
"A bank's shadowy demise" 2/8/90 
"Azima no stranger to Texas business" 2/(between 8 and 11)/90 
"Linsay aided S&L probe figure" 2/11/90 
"Texas S&L, mob, CIA: A tangled web of deceit" 2/18/90 
"CIA declines to testify before [House] panel" 2/21/90 
"House committee plans investigation of agency's actions" 3/2/90 
"The suspicious trail of Denver S&L failure" 3/11/90 
"Attorney linked to S&L crisis has ties to CIA, Mafia figures" 4/4/90 
"House investigators pursue Post's S&L findings" 7/11/90 
also "The news story hardly anyone wants to touch" by Nicols Fox, 
   July/August Washington Journalism Review 
also see the book "Inside Job" by Steve Pizzo, Mary Fricker & Paul Molo 

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(note: as of mid November, 1990, the staff of the House Intelligence 
committee is about to make a recommendation as to whether to pursue 
a formal investigation of the Post's allegations) 
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              ========================================= 
              C I A   &   d r u g   s m u g g l i n g : 
              ========================================= 

"Is there a contra drug connection?" Newsweek, 1/26/87 
"Contra arms crew said to smuggle drugs" New York Times, 1/20/87 
"Bay area cocaine ring tied to contras" San Francisco Examiner, 3/16/86 
"Nicaraguan exile's cocaine-contra connection" SF Examiner, 6/23/86 
"Probe tracks contra smuggling, US role" Chicago Tribune, 3/3/87 
"Narco-terrorism: A tale of two stories" Columbia Journalism Rev, Sept/Oct 87 
"Pilot: I flew contra arms in, pot out" Newsday, 4/6/87 
"Obstruction at justice" The Village Voice, 3/31/87 
"Memo urged Iran panels to absolve contras of drug charges" Boston Globe 8/5/87 
"North's aids linked to Austrialia study" New York Times, 3/8/87 
"CIA, contras hooked on drug money" In These Times, 4/15/87 

                          ================= 
                          A l s o   s e e : 
                          ================= 

New York Times 2/24/87, 7/16/87 
Washington Post 12/27/85, 6/30/87 
Wall St. Journal 4/22/87 
Miami Herald 2/16/87, 3/22/87 
Los Angeles Times 2/12/87, 2/18/87 
CBS News West 57th, contra drug reports aired 4/6/87 and 7/11/87 
Related books: 
"Out of Control" by Leslie Cockburn, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987 
"The Crimes of Patriots" by Jonathan Kwitney, Norton, 1987 
"The Iran Contra Connection" by Johnathan Marshall, Peter Scott, Jane Hunter, 
     South End Press, 1987 
"The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia" by Alfred W. McCoy, 
     Harper & Row, 1972 
"The Great Heroin Coup" by Henrik Kruger, South End Press, 1980 
"In Banks We Trust" by Penny Lernoux, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984 

******************************************************************
******************************************************************
Additional books on S&L from misc.activism.progressive files:
******************************************************************
******************************************************************

[...]
The "Stop the Bush Bailout" ad is from a special issue of The Nation,
centered around the (long) article "THE LOOTING DECADE" By Robert
Sherril. If you'd like to hear what they don't tell you on TV about
the S&L scandal, I suggest you take a good look at this issue
[November 19, 1990]; you can order back issues from the Nation for
around $3, shipping included; the number is: (212) 242-8400

The article is far too long (in 13 sections -short chapters, almost)
to even excerpt the main portions, but I have transcribed below a
bibliography for people interested in reading more about this scandal,
other than in the above mentioned issue of The Nation:

   INSIDE JOB: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans. By Stephen
   Pizzo, Mary Fricker and Paul Muolo. McGraw-Hill. 443 pp. $19.95

   THE GREATEST-EVER BANK ROBBERY: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan
   Industry. by Martin Mayer. Scribner's. 354 pp. $22.50

   THE S&L INSURANCE MESS: How Did It Happen? By Edward J. Kane. The
   Urban Institute Press. 181 pp. $29.95. Paper $10.95

   THRIFTS UNDER SIEGE: Restoring Order to American Banking. By R. Dan
   Brumbaugh, Jr. Harper & Row/Ballinger. 214 pp. $39.95

   HONEST GRAFT: Big Money and the American Political Process. By Brooks
   Jackson. Knopf. 337 pp. $18.95
------------------------------------------------------------------

There is also Public Citizen's new book

_Who Robbed America? A Citizen's Guide to the Saving and Loan Scandal_
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
by Ralph Nader and Michael Waldman (Random House, 1990.)

"Nader suggests that Congress charter a Financial Consumers
Association, which would draw dues-paying members from inserts in the
customer mailing of all financial institutions. This citizens' group,
Waldman writes, `would have the authority to organize consumers,
publish marketplace studies, file lawsuits, intervene with regulators,
and lobby the legislature.' Waldman proposes that in exchange for
bailing out the banks, taxpayers should get representation on their
boards of directors. He also points out that there aremay credit
unions and community banks that could purchase S&Ls even without the
extensive assistance the R.T.C. [the Resolution Trust Corporation, set
up to control the cleanup and sell-off of the S&Ls and their assets
(*)] has given to fat cats and mega-banks."

(*)Acorn has sued the R.T.C. in order to force it to live up to its
mandate to help low- and moderate-income people acquire affordable
housing from its growing stock of failed real estate development.

As for the S&L giveaways to "fat cats" while screwing us citizens,
here's a brief quote from the main article ("The Looting Decade"):

******************************************************************

Among the giveaways that raised the greatest public stink -- Fortune
magazine called it `The Screwiest S&L Bailout Ever' -- was the merger
of First Gibraltar Bank with four other bankrupt thrifts and the
subsequent sale of the package to Ronald Perelman, king of Revlon
cosmetics and reputedly the fifth-richest man in the United States.
Perelman and associates paid $315 million. In return they got $7.1
billion in good assets, $5.1 billion cash to cover bad assets and $900
million in tax breaks for MacAndres & Forbes Holdings Inc., his
investment company, which counted Revlon Group Inc. and First
Gibraltar among its subsidiaries. In his first year of ownership
Perelman reaped $121 million in tax breaks and $129 million in profits
-- a 79 percent return on his investment.

What goes through the minds of ordinary Americans when they learn of
deals like that? Rarely do we find out. But when Wall and the other
two members of the bank board went before the House Banking Committee
to reveal the luscious feast they had secretly laid out for the
financial elite, we at least learn what went through the mind of one
black man. Mayer uses this exchange to give his book its most human
moment:

    "Did I understand you to say," said
    Representative Walter Fauntroy,
    "that Mr. Perelman, in return for
    $315 million in cash, received
    benefits of $897 million?"

      "It might not work out that way,"
    said Danny Wall.
      "But it might?"
      Very reluctantly: "Yes, it might."
      Fauntroy leaned forward. "I have
    just one question for you, Mr.Wall,"
    he said.
      "Yes?"
      "Why is it only white folks who
    get that kind of deal?"


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