News posts aggregated from alternative news sources.
‘The number of US oil refineries facing the threat of a strike is expanding after workers at the country’s largest refinery in Texas walked off their jobs on Saturday. Workers at the Motiva Enterprises refinery […]
‘Pro-Russia forces say a prisoner swap with the Ukrainian side will be carried out as part of the Minsk ceasefire deal. “Today, we are exchanging [Ukrainian] officers for our commanders,” said the ombudswoman of the […]
‘The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says members of an armed group have abducted at least 89 boys in the northern South Sudanese state of Upper Nile. According to a UNICEF statement released on Saturday, […]
With Larry Pinkney, Director of Rev. Pinkney’s Defense Committee; Michael Chiotinis in Athens, and with a Call to Join the Tax Wall Street Party from Chairwoman Daniela Walls
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio February 21, 2015
[download audio]
The Tax Wall Street Party has performed a vital public service by […]
With Larry Pinkney, Director of Rev. Pinkney’s Defense Committee; Michael Chiotinis in Athens, and with a Call to Join the Tax Wall Street Party from Chairwoman Daniela Walls
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio February 21, 2015
[download audio]
The Tax Wall Street Party has performed a vital public service by […]
With Larry Pinkney, Director of Rev. Pinkney’s Defense Committee; Michael Chiotinis in Athens, and with a Call to Join the Tax Wall Street Party from Chairwoman Daniela Walls
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio February 21, 2015
[download audio]
The Tax Wall Street Party has performed a vital public service by […]
With Larry Pinkney, Director of Rev. Pinkney’s Defense Committee; Michael Chiotinis in Athens, and with a Call to Join the Tax Wall Street Party from Chairwoman Daniela Walls
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio February 21, 2015
[download audio]
The Tax Wall Street Party has performed a vital public service by […]
With Larry Pinkney, Director of Rev. Pinkney’s Defense Committee; Michael Chiotinis in Athens, and with a Call to Join the Tax Wall Street Party from Chairwoman Daniela Walls
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio February 21, 2015
[download audio]
The Tax Wall Street Party has performed a vital public service by […]
With Larry Pinkney, Director of Rev. Pinkney’s Defense Committee; Michael Chiotinis in Athens, and with a Call to Join the Tax Wall Street Party from Chairwoman Daniela Walls
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net – World Crisis Radio February 21, 2015
[download audio]
The Tax Wall Street Party has performed a vital public service by […]
The raid of the HSBC Swiss headquarters in Geneva has put the spotlight on institutions which have covered up for HSBC. The same institutions, such as the Swiss Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), have been part of the opposition against the initiative for Glass-Steagall modelled banking separation in the Swiss Parliament.
In the past years, Finma had conducted three investigations on money-laundering in HSBC, all concluded with zero results. Former prosecutor Dick Marty said that Finma was unable to see “an elephant walking in front of it” in an interview with Le Courrier and La Liberté.
Finma is inactive when it comes to a “giant fraud” but nasty with small violations. A committee of the Council of States (Ständerat) has requested a meeting with the Finma for clarification. Finma is known for having first introduced in Europe a bail-in regulation. In the financial daily {Neue Züricher Zeitung} on May 4, 2013, the two Finma officials who drafted the regulation explained that, among other things, the bail-in could prevent separation of banking activities. One of those two officials, British subject Mark Branson, is today CEO of Finma and was part of the “Experts Group” that drafted the “No” to bank separation report for the Swiss federal government.
The spotlight is also on Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber, who should have started an investigation immediately after the revelations, but who claimed that he couldn’t, because the HSBC data had been illegally obtained. Geneva prosecutors, however, had another view and finally moved.
Swiss television journalist Marianne Fassbind complained that “Switzerland has not been pro-active, but has acted upon pressure of third countries.” It is known that France has already concluded an investigation against HSBC and that Germany, the U.K., Belgium, and the U.S.A. have ongoing investigations. The probable explanation is that Lauber is “the Swiss Loretta Lynch.” A man of the “finance industry,” he has been for years head of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association (2004-2010) and before that, he led the Lichtenstein Financial Intelligence Unit. Eventually he became head of the Lichtenstein Financial Market Authority (2010-2011).
The raid of the HSBC Swiss headquarters in Geneva has put the spotlight on institutions which have covered up for HSBC. The same institutions, such as the Swiss Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), have been part of the opposition against the initiative for Glass-Steagall modelled banking separation in the Swiss Parliament.
In the past years, Finma had conducted three investigations on money-laundering in HSBC, all concluded with zero results. Former prosecutor Dick Marty said that Finma was unable to see “an elephant walking in front of it” in an interview with Le Courrier and La Liberté.
Finma is inactive when it comes to a “giant fraud” but nasty with small violations. A committee of the Council of States (Ständerat) has requested a meeting with the Finma for clarification. Finma is known for having first introduced in Europe a bail-in regulation. In the financial daily {Neue Züricher Zeitung} on May 4, 2013, the two Finma officials who drafted the regulation explained that, among other things, the bail-in could prevent separation of banking activities. One of those two officials, British subject Mark Branson, is today CEO of Finma and was part of the “Experts Group” that drafted the “No” to bank separation report for the Swiss federal government.
The spotlight is also on Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber, who should have started an investigation immediately after the revelations, but who claimed that he couldn’t, because the HSBC data had been illegally obtained. Geneva prosecutors, however, had another view and finally moved.
Swiss television journalist Marianne Fassbind complained that “Switzerland has not been pro-active, but has acted upon pressure of third countries.” It is known that France has already concluded an investigation against HSBC and that Germany, the U.K., Belgium, and the U.S.A. have ongoing investigations. The probable explanation is that Lauber is “the Swiss Loretta Lynch.” A man of the “finance industry,” he has been for years head of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association (2004-2010) and before that, he led the Lichtenstein Financial Intelligence Unit. Eventually he became head of the Lichtenstein Financial Market Authority (2010-2011).
Both the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee and the British Parliament’s Treasury Committee are conducting investigations into the criminal money-laundering activities of HSBC, which served as the British Empire opium bank at the height of the Empire’s op…
Both the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee and the British Parliament’s Treasury Committee are conducting investigations into the criminal money-laundering activities of HSBC, which served as the British Empire opium bank at the height of the Empire’s op…
In December 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, who served from 2002 to 2010 as an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in positions as both the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the UN Office in Vienna (UNOV), exposed that drug money became the main source of liquidity for banks after the 2008 explosion of the financial system.
Earlier, Costa had exposed the unprecedented rise of opium and heroin production in Afghanistan during the British and US invasion and occupation there–especially the British occupation of the opium-producing Helmand province. Costa also repeatedly identified that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were using the opium/heroin trade as a major source of funding.
As the investigations spread into HSBC, it is important to recall Costa’s revelations, made in an exclusive 2012 interview with EIR and earlier in interviews with the London Observer. On Dec. 12, 2009, Observer reporter Rajeev Syal, wrote:
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were ‘the only liquid investment capital’ available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result….
“Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. ‘In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital,'” he said.
In April, 2012, EIR published an interview with Costa where he also exposed the cover-up of the banks’ crimes. Costa told EIR:
At this point in time, we’re talking about the 2008-11 period, the need for cash by the banking sector and the liquidity of organized crime created an extraordinary opportunity for a marriage of convenience, namely, for organized crime to penetrate the banking sector.”
He singled out the case of Wachovia Bank (now the Wells Fargo megabank), saying,
“The penetration of the financial sector by criminal money has been so widespread that it would probably be more correct to say that it was not the mafia trying to penetrate the banking system, but it was the banking sector which was actively looking for capital–including criminal money–not only as deposits, but also as share acquisitions and in some cases, as a presence on Boards of Directors.”
In December 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, who served from 2002 to 2010 as an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in positions as both the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the UN Office in Vienna (UNOV), exposed that drug money became the main source of liquidity for banks after the 2008 explosion of the financial system.
Earlier, Costa had exposed the unprecedented rise of opium and heroin production in Afghanistan during the British and US invasion and occupation there–especially the British occupation of the opium-producing Helmand province. Costa also repeatedly identified that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were using the opium/heroin trade as a major source of funding.
As the investigations spread into HSBC, it is important to recall Costa’s revelations, made in an exclusive 2012 interview with EIR and earlier in interviews with the London Observer. On Dec. 12, 2009, Observer reporter Rajeev Syal, wrote:
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were ‘the only liquid investment capital’ available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result….
“Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. ‘In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital,'” he said.
In April, 2012, EIR published an interview with Costa where he also exposed the cover-up of the banks’ crimes. Costa told EIR:
At this point in time, we’re talking about the 2008-11 period, the need for cash by the banking sector and the liquidity of organized crime created an extraordinary opportunity for a marriage of convenience, namely, for organized crime to penetrate the banking sector.”
He singled out the case of Wachovia Bank (now the Wells Fargo megabank), saying,
“The penetration of the financial sector by criminal money has been so widespread that it would probably be more correct to say that it was not the mafia trying to penetrate the banking system, but it was the banking sector which was actively looking for capital–including criminal money–not only as deposits, but also as share acquisitions and in some cases, as a presence on Boards of Directors.”