BCCI watchers - Don't miss this HUGE new article.

[blm]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x640445

[napi21]

1. I hope all these secreta will be unveiled under Pres. Kerry.

Bith Dems & Pubs have bad apples, so does almost every large organization. It is WRONG to hide them under the guize of "intelligence security". I sure hope all this will go away under a President Kerry!

[Warpy]

2. "national security" was what stopped him the last time

he took on the Bush crime family through BCCI. The whole thing was turning up far too many connections with the CIA and foreign intelligence agencies. BCCI was one vast international money laundering operation, and a lot of, er, interesting people and groups were taking full advantage of it.

This my be the main reason so many people are terrified of the prospect of a Kerry presidency.

[Karenina]

4. BINGO!!!

:toast:

[Karenina]

3. Washington Monthly Sept issue!

John Kerry vs. B.C.C.I.

September 2004

Follow the Money
How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank.

By David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin

Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler's check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world.

All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed.

By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry's investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients--it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to "fight the evil influence of the West," and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry's investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America's first great post-Cold War security challenge...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sir...

[seemslikeadream]

5. A couple old BCCI threads

George W Bush connection to the BCCI scandal ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=157573

Kissinger & BCCI spells BUSH & 9-11
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=377323

9/11: The BCCI Connection
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=658476

BCCI trial Jan.13 in England. BCCI/Bank of America trial in June
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1004776

[AlCzervik]

6. Kerry needs to start adding this to his stump speeches and

front porch gatherings.

[eridani]

7. SPREAD THIS MEME!

Kerry was investigating terrorist finance networks while Bush was playing footsie with them.

http://www.alternet.org/election04/19608/

Kerry's record in the BCCI affair, of course, contrasts sharply with Bush's. The current president's career as an oilman was always marked by the kind of insider cronyism that Kerry resisted. Even more startling, as a director of Texas-based Harken Energy, Bush himself did business with BCCI-connected institutions almost at the same time Kerry was fighting the bank. As The Wall Street Journal reported in 1991, there was a "mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding since George W. Bush came on board." In 1987, Bush secured a critical $25 million-loan from a bank the Kerry Commission would later reveal to be a BCCI joint venture. Certainly, Bush did not suspect BCCI had such questionable connections at the time. But still, the president's history suggests his attacks on Kerry's national-security credentials come from a position of little authority.

As the presidential campaign enters its final stretch, Kerry's BCCI experience is important for two reasons. First, it reveals Kerry's foresight in fighting terrorism that is critical for any president in this age of asymmetrical threats. As The Washington Post noted, "years before money laundering became a centerpiece of antiterrorist efforts... Kerry crusaded for controls on global money laundering in the name of national security."

Make no mistake about it, BCCI would have been a player. A decade after Kerry helped shut the bank down, the CIA discovered Osama bin Laden was among those with accounts at the bank. A French intelligence report obtained by The Washington Post in 2002 identified dozens of companies and individuals who were involved with BCCI and were found to be dealing with bin Laden after the bank collapsed, and that the financial network operated by bin Laden today "is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI." As one senior U.S. investigator said in 2002, "BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations."

[oasis]

8. kick