But Cheney Was Right!

Yesterday, our Vice President and serial liar, Dick Cheney was on Rush Limbaughs show trotting out the same tired sideshow of factoids and out right lies about the connection of Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. At the same time, the Pentagon was issuing a report that analyzed the cooked informationa and presentations that were used to convince a panicked nation to go to war in Iraq. The report soecifically debunked the connection to Al Qaeda.You begin to think that Cheney actually belives what he is saying and ha s succeeded in brainwashing himself.
But I want to point out that there was a connection between Bin Laden and Hussein!
Perhaps Dick Cheney is right after all! They had the same banker, BCCI. The link went beyond the dictator and the jihadist, it passed through Saudi Arabia and stretched all the way to George W. Bush and his father.
BCCI, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a dirty off shore bank tht Ronald Reagens CIA used to run guns to Hussein, finance bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran/ContraScam and finance the other agency black operations. The Bushes also benefited. One of the bank's largest Saudi investors bailed out George W. Bushes troubled oil investments, Harken Energy Corp. in 1987.
The bank was founded in 1972 by a Pakastani Banker, Agha Hasan Abedi with the support of the Sultan of Abu Dhabi. Its corporate strategy was money laudering. It became the banker for drugs and arms traffickers, corrupt officials, financial fraudsters, distators and terrorists.
The CIA used it to fund bin Ladens Mujahadeen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Itt moved some 2 billion in cash skimmed off from US aid to Pakistan. It also moved money as required by Saudi Intelligence Services.
This experience gave bin Laden an education in offshore black finance which he used to finance Al Qaeda. He moved money through the Al-Taqwa Bank operating in Nassau and Switzerland.
At the same time, BCCI was helping Saddam Hussein from 1985 through 89 funneling 4 billion dollars in secret US loans to help him buy arms.
Kickbacks from these loans which were funneled through the Italian BNL, Banco Nazionale de Lavoro, into bank accounts of Iraqi leaders in a BCCI branch in the Cayman Islands. BNL was a client of Kissiinger Associates and Kissinger was on BCCI's international advisory board along with Brent Scowcroft, who became Bush Sr.s Nattional Security Advisor. That connection in itself makes the Administrations surprise and indignation at the "oil for food" payoffs in Iraq seem disingenuous.
Many of the top Saudi banking families were represented on the board of BCCI including the Saudi ruling family who bought 30 percent of the of the stock.
The Arabs interest in the bank was more than just financial. A classified CIA memo from the 1 mid 80's on BCCI said that many of the prominent shareholders from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi were less iinterested in profits than the promoting the Muslim cause.
The Bush family link was through the Texas business man, James R. Bath who invested money in the US in the interest of the Saudis. In 1976, George Bush Sr. was head of the CIA and sold some of the Air America planes ,used during the Vietnam War, to Skyway, a company owned by Bath and the Saudi financer Bin Mahfouz of BCCI. Bath then helped finance Bush Jr.s Oil Company, Arbusto Energy, Inc. in 1979 and 80.
Arbusto was absorbed by Harken Energy( Harken Energy was located in the Enron Headquarters) and then merged with Spectrum 7 Energy, got into financial trouble in 1987, a politically powerful Arkansas financer, Jackson Stephens helped it secure $25 million from the Union Bank of Switzerland. The Harken shareholder, Sheik Abdullah Taha Bakhsh whose cheif bank was BCCI was given a place on the Uion Bank board as part of the deal.
In 1988, George Bush Sr. was elected president. Harken benefiited by getting some new investors, including Salem bin Laden, Osama's half brother and Khalid bin Mahfouz. Osama was busy at the time else where, organizing Al Qaeda.
BCCI was shut down in 1991 when it collapsed, effectively stealing over a twenty year period between 9.5 and 20m billion dollars, the biggest bank fraud in history!Most of it was never recovered due to the murky trail of offshore financing.
In 1992, Mahfouz was still flush with cash and founded the Muwafaq (Blessed Relief) Foundation in the Channel Islands. The U.S. Treasury called it an Al Qaeda front that recieves funding from wealthy Saudi businessmen.
When the BCCI Scandal beagan to break in the late 80's, the Sr. Bush administratiuon did all it could to sit on it. The Justice department went after culprits after it was virtually forced to by New York District Attorney, Rober Morgenthau. The evidence of BCCI's broader links existin numerous other U.S. and international investigations.
Now is the time to start looking at the BCCI-Osama-Saddam-Saudi-Bush connection!
Perhaps if we connected the dots, Mr. Cheney wouldn't be the delusional liar he seems to be!