Bush Administration To Pre-9/11 Insider Trading

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Investment Espionage And The White House

 

 

Bush Administration Links To Pre-9/11 Insider Trading

by Tom Flocco, July 16, 2002

 

 

There is growing evidence that the FBI and other government

intelligence entities are more closely linked to the documented

accumulation of pre-9/11 insider trading profits than was originally

thought. But thus far the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee

has not publicly referred to prior knowledge of the attacks as it

relates to stock transaction profits, while also failing after nine

months to publicize the critical Securities and Exchange Commission

(SEC) " control list " report tracing what in effect were stock trading

profits of death.

 

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spokesman Tom Crispell denied that

the CIA was monitoring " real-time, " pre-September 11 stock trading

activity within U.S. borders using such software as the Prosecutor's

Management Information System (PROMIS) or the Echelon satellite

monitoring system. However, when asked whether the CIA had been

scrutinizing world financial markets for national security purposes,

Crispell replied, " I have no way of knowing what operations are [being

affected by our assets] outside the country. " Given 3,000 deaths,

victim family lawyers may want to know.

 

CIA AND 9/11 INVESTMENT ESPIONAGE?

 

A January 23, 2002 Houston Chronicle report revealed that Enron

Corporation's top security team, including four former CIA officers

and an ex-FBI agent left the company to form a private firm, Secure

Solutions International (SSI), while continuing with Enron via a

consulting contract. John W. Presley, the FBI agent now heading SSI

could not be reached for comment. But the team probed a " variety of

allegations of fraud and other kinds of rule-breaking by Enron

workers, " according to the Chronicle.

 

Team member and former CIA agent David M. Cromley's business biography

at Enron listed him as Enron's director of business analysis, the

Chronicle reported, adding that Cromley gave Enron executives

" detailed and unique information " allowing them to make " investments,

sales of assets, joint ventures and [financial] products. "

 

But no public information has been forthcoming as to whether such

" detailed and unique information " or sensitive CIA software was used

in conjunction with Enron's controversial off-shore investment

products, or whether their missing assets may have been employed in

what former German Minister of Technology, Andreas von Bulow,

estimated at $15 billion in insider trading profits. (Tagesspiegel,

Berlin, 1-13-2002) Von Bulow then buttressed his astounding charges:

" 26 intelligence services in the U.S. with a budget of $30

billion....For 60 decisive minutes, the military and intelligence let

fighter jets stay on the ground....48 hours later, however, the FBI

presented a list of suicide hijackers. But within ten days, it emerged

that seven of them were still alive. "

 

An examination of SSI's website reveals that its corporate members

have " managed cutting-edge counterterrorism and counterproliferation

operations for the CIA, implemented advanced technical information and

security programs for the CIA, and conducted a wide range of

investigations for the FBI, " while also " overseeing all security

arrangements for several large gas pipeline companies. "

 

It is yet to be determined if Congress will publicly question CIA George Tenent as to whether CIA and FBI employees were

" loaned " to Enron's corporate espionage program, involved in personal

pre-9/11 insider trading, or merely relaying sensitive insider

political information to others involved in prior knowledge of the

attacks. However, victim family lawyers will likely be forced to

subpoena government documents and officials to effectively prosecute

any negligence claims against government entities.

 

The fraud-racked Enron Corporation has had at least 20 CIA agents on

the payroll in the last eight years. But while the Houston Chronicle

reported the operatives as " former " CIA, a February 26, 2002 National

Enquirer story quoted a top Washington insider familiar with several

secret investigations into Enron, as reporting that they were given

" leaves of absence without pay and put on the Enron payroll. "

 

The source added that Enron's CIA members used " info gleaned from a

satellite project called 'Echelon,' which intercepted emails, phone

calls and faxes with detailed business information, " adding that " pure

and simple, [taxpayer-funded] U.S. intelligence agents were involved

in corporate espionage. " Another Enquirer source with ties to the CIA

revealed that " the cozy deal between Enron and the CIA allowed the

'on-loan' undercover operatives to return to the Agency's payroll

before Enron's collapse. "

 

Known CIA links traverse a curious variety of unexamined threads in

the U.S. financial community. Online Journal's Larry Chin (2-1-2002),

reminded that [mega-money conglomerate] " Citigroup has repeatedly been

charged with money laundering. This, as it's Board of Directors

includes John Deutch, former CIA Director, Robert Rubin, former

Treasury Secretary and intimate friend of Enron's Ken Lay, but also

former CIA Executive Director Nora Slatkin. "

 

Even Congress has a close CIA link. Senate Joint Intelligence

Co-Chairman Bob Graham and his House Intelligence Co-Chairman and

former CIA operative Porter Goss were meeting with the Chief of the

Pakistani Intelligence Service on the morning of the Sept.11 attacks,

according to published reports. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room.

 

SENATE AND HOUSE LINKS TO TERRORISTS

 

Worrisome reports link two intelligence leaders in the Senate and

House directly to the leader of Pakistan's intelligence arm, The

Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and indirectly to the leader of the

9/11 Hijackers.

 

A Times of India (10-12-2001) story by Manoj Joshi revealed that

Pakistani ISA Director-General Lt. General Mahmud Ahmad sought

retirement after the U.S. attacks -- confirmed by top sources in

India, because of evidence produced by India showing his links to

Mohammed Atta, the terrorist hijacking leader.

 

The Times said that " U.S. authorities sought his [Ahmad's] removal

after confirming the fact that $100,000 was wired to WTC hijacker

Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh on the instructions

of ISI Lt. General Ahmad. " Senior [u.S.] government sources " have

confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the

link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed

ISI chief. "

 

The Times added that " while they did not provide details, they said

that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone number, helped the

FBI in tracing and establishing the link. "

 

Serious questions remain, however, as Senate Joint Intelligence

Co-Chairman Bob Graham (D-FL) and his House Intelligence Co-Chairman

and former CIA operative Porter Goss (R-FL) were meeting with ISI

Chief, Lt. General Mahmud Ahmad, on the very morning of the September

11 attacks, according to published reports. (New York Times, 2-17-2002

& MSNBC-TV, 10-7-2001).

 

Since Graham and Goss are Co-Chairmen of the Joint-Intelligence

Committee investigating the 9/11 attacks, difficulties could arise

when the Congressional Open Intelligence Hearings commence in

mid-September, and whether other Members will have the courage to seek

testimony from the Chairmen of their own Committee, regarding their

questionable links to the U.S. terrorism.

 

Thus far, Graham and Goss will have been able to postpone open

hearings for over one year, as they are currently scheduled to start

near the end of September. Moreover, devastated and grieving 9/11

victim families have been unable to hold Congress accountable to seek

justice, while hearings have continued behind closed doors in a

sound-proof room at the Capitol.

 

Other members of the Joint Intelligence Committee could be placed in

the uncomfortable position of having to call Graham and Goss to

testify as to why they were meeting -- on the morning of the attacks

-- with the Pakistani ISI Chief, who was having money wired into the

United States to support the efforts of the leader of the terrorist

hijackers while the attacks were in progress!

 

Other Committee Members would likely be interested in what was said at

the meeting with Lt. Gen. Ahmad, and more about his relationship with

Graham and Goss, given Ahmad's links to Mohammed Atta.

 

These and other growing connections indicating prior knowledge of the

attacks also make a case for how the profits of death were accumulated

by insider trading via the United States Stock Market. This, while the

SEC will not release its " Control List " of suspicious stock trades

involving companies and airlines directly related to the attacks.

 

FBI AGENTS INDICTED IN 9/11-LINKED STOCK SCHEME

 

On the heels of alleged CIA involvement in public stock trading and

use of sensitive prior knowledge of last fall's attacks, 13 days ago

on May 22, FBI agents Jeffrey A. Royer and Lynn Wingate were charged

with racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, conspiracy, and

obstruction of justice. Royer was also charged with extortion,

according to an examination of an unsealed federal indictment: United

States vs. Elgindy, Royer, Wingate, Cleveland, and Peters, filed in

New York District Court by Alan Vinegard, United States Attorney --

all of which clouds either open or secret congressional probes of

pre-attack insider trading profits.

 

Vinegard's news release said " the allegations reveal a shocking

partnership between an experienced stock manipulator and law

enforcement agents, undertaken for their illicit personal financial

gain. " Moreover, Royer and Wingate allegedly used the FBI's Automated

Case Support database to actually monitor the investigation, passing

confidential information about the investigations of companies to

participants in a stock manipulation scheme, according to the

Washington Post. (5-23-2002)

 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Breen said stock advisor Amr Ibrahim

Elgindy, charged in the indictment, called his Salomon Smith Barney

broker, trying to sell $300,000 in stock from his children's trust

funds on the afternoon of Sept.10. During the conversation, Elgindy

" predicted that the Dow Jones industrial average, which at the time

stood at about 9,600, would soon crash to below 3,000, " according to

the New York Times, (5-25-2002), thus begging the question whether

Congress will publicly disclose other indications of alleged CIA or

FBI complicity in prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

 

NSA DESTROYING 9/11 DATA ON AMERICANS AND U.S. COMPANIES

 

Two individuals with close intelligence ties told the Boston Globe

(10-27-2001) that since September 11, the super secret National

Security Agency (NSA), acting on the advice of their lawyers, have

been destroying data collected on American citizens and corporations,

angering other intelligence agencies seeking leads in the

anti-terrorist probe. Two calls by American Free Press to

Joint-Congressional Intelligence Committee Ranking Member, Senator

Richard Shelby, to confirm details revealed by the sources were

unreturned.

 

Since the October Globe report, no other media outlet has examined the

heated discussions with the CIA and intelligence committee staff

members, as NSA lawyers turned down requests to preserve the

intelligence because regulations prohibit data collecting on

Americans, inviting lawsuits, according to the two former senior U.S.

officials. However, Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA Director of

Counter-terrorism, told Scoop Media that " the law allows [intelligence

officials] exceptions in certain circumstances. " Both the CIA and FBI

had declined comment.

 

Cannistraro added that " If American citizens are believed to be

involved in some way in a foreign intelligence operation that could

lead to terrorism against this country, I believe the NSA is required

to save or maintain the information. " When asked about the NSA and the

9/11 attacks, the former CIA official told Scoop. " In this case, I

believe they should have saved the surveillance data. " Congress has

been tight-lipped, and government investigators are extremely

frustrated that many possible leads stemming from the Sept.11 attack

were not being followed because of the NSA position.

 

RELEASING THE SEC " CONTROL " LIST

 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (10-19-01), the SEC privately

asked North American securities firms to participate in an

information-sharing system to trace " large numbers of trades in

securities of companies [directly] affected by the attacks. Curiously,

however, the SEC asked companies " to designate senior personnel who

appreciate 'the sensitive nature' of the case [pre-attack insider

trading], and can be relied upon to 'exercise appropriate discretion,'

as 'point' people linking government investigators and the

[securities] industry. " Then the SEC asked for the names, titles,

phone numbers and e-mail of the designated senior personnel, according

to reporter Scott Winokur.

 

On October 2, 2001, Canadian securities officials confirmed that the

SEC had asked firms to review records for 38 companies, suggesting

that some buyers and sellers might have had advance knowledge of the

attacks, according to Winokur. A Scoop examination of the Center for

Public Integrity's financial records of the top 100 Bush

Administration officials reveals ownership of millions of dollars in

these 38 stocks which would not be different from any other wealthy

American.

 

However, Congress has thus far refused to make public what the

Chronicle reported as an SEC " control list " containing confidential

information about transactions, individuals, relationships, and

entities identified by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in

the probe. The existence of the SEC list would still be a secret if

not for an accidental leak via the Canadian securities officials.

 

There is as yet no reporting regarding whether the " entities " were

SPE's linked to Enron. The SEC added, " Because the control list

contains confidential information, we ask that you disseminate it

within your institution only on a need-to-know basis. " But Congress or

the Courts may ultimately decide whether the families of Sept.11 also

need to know the identities of individuals with prior knowledge --

allegedly involved in the profits of death.

 

The Wall Street Journal (10-2-2002) reported that the Secret Service

was also probing an unusually high volume of five-year U.S. Treasury

note purchases made prior to the attacks -- one purchase included a

single $5 billion trade. The Journal called Treasury notes among the

best investments in the event of a world crisis, with their value

having risen substantially since September 11. Moreover, the

Associated Press reported that a German Central Bank study strongly

pointed to " terrorism insider trading " not only in airline and

insurance companies but also in gold and oil futures. Will Congress

chalk it up to coincidence?

 

DEUTSCHEBANK & MAYER, BROWN & PLATT

 

The evidence linking Deutschebank to the terrorists and insider

trading is clearly quite extraordinary: 1) The lead hijacker pilot and

two accomplices had bank accounts at its Hamburg branch, 2) One of its

unnamed private investors never claimed $2.5 million in United

Airlines put option contract profits following the attacks, 3) Its

global " private banking " chief Mayo Shattuck III, resigned the day

following the attacks in the middle of a three-year $40 million

contract, 4) It hired away SEC enforcement and investigation chief

Richard Walker just 20 days after the attacks, 5) Its recent senior

investment banker Kevin Ingram pled guilty to money laundering

involving Stinger missiles and multiple varieties of arms sales to

Pakistani and Egyptian citizens just 14 days prior to Sept.11, and 6)

Deutschebank was heavily involved in the 9/11 insider trading but

Congress has not questioned former Alex (A.B.) Brown division head A.

B. " Buzzy " Krongard -- appointed by George Bush as Executive Director

(number three) of the CIA -- regarding intelligence and " real-time "

stock trade monitoring. [note: all evidence in the above paragraph is

sourced in the " Profits of Death " series on pre-9/11 criminal insider

trading, Parts I, II, III, at www.copvcia.com -- Sept. 11 Section]

 

European reporters found that most of the suspicious pre-attack trades

passed through Deutschebank and especially via CIA Executive Director

A.B. Krongard's former Alex Brown investment division by means of a

procedure called portage, which assures the anonymity of individuals

making the transactions. But Congress has not publicly revealed

whether they will call Krongard and other Alex Brown traders to

testify in open hearings, or whether they will subpoena the pre-attack

documents in question.

 

CFO.com, an online site for corporate executives, revealed on

1-28-2002 that Deutschebank was a limited partner in either the

controversial Enron special purpose entities (SPEs), LJM or Chewco --

those off balance sheets and off-shore products heavily involved in

Enron's demise, and run by Enron CFO Andrew Fastow. This begs the

question as to whether Congress or the Courts will determine whether

missing funds from Enron were possibly part of a scheme to develop

funds to profit from the air attacks -- given the many interwoven ties

between Enron and Deutschebank.

 

CFO.com also revealed that a former Enron employee prepared an SEC

filing, having deleted Deutschebank's name from LJM version sent to

the SEC. But curiously, " that deletion was made at the behest of

William McLucas, former SEC enforcement director, hired by Enron after

the attacks on October 31. The former employee also claims to have

received instructions to destroy the draft of the SEC filing. But not

a public word from Congress.

 

IS JOHN P. SCHMITZ A KEY PLAYER?

 

John P. Schmitz, George H.W. Bush's former Deputy Counsel during the

Elder's Vice-Presidency and Presidency, will likely be a key player if

Americans force Congress to become serious about its 9/11 probe. Some

may remember Schmitz from the Iran/contra investigation, when the

Office of the Independent Counsel (OIC) reported that each witness

interviewed regarding document production complied except for Schmitz,

who asserted that his documents were privileged work product.

 

Schmitz, fluent in German and a Partner in global-law firm Mayer,

Brown & Platt, has clients that include Bayer AG (German maker of the

antibiotic Cipro which fights Anthrax, about which Larry Klayman and

Judicial Watch (JW) will have keen interest. Recently, JW filed suit

seeking the Administration's anthrax documents to ascertain why the

White House starting taking heavy doses of Cipro the day of the

attacks -- nearly a month before anthrax was even discovered on

Capitol Hill, and while postal workers continued to sort mail in

contaminated offices -- some dying in the process.

 

But John Schmitz's Mayer-Brown profile also reveals that he represents

Enron, adding that " we were active in Germany [with Enron] until the

end....It [bankruptcy] surprised me as well as anyone else, " according

to Reuters (1-4-2002). Moreover, Mayer-Brown also represents

Deutschebank on a regular basis regarding its electronic commerce

activities; and curiously, Schmitz's law firm maintains an office in

Tashkent, Uzbekistan along with Enron -- if only to make sure oil is

well in the Caspian Sea basin.

 

Even many 9/11 victim families will even come to recognize

Mayer-Brown; for conveniently, the firm also happens to represent

United Airlines against 9/11 family lawyers Mary Schiavo and Donald

Nolan. And given partner John P. Schmitz's close former relationships

with the Bush family, Mayer-Brown's many water coolers may become

intriguing conduits when Miss Schiavo and Mr. Nolan begin their

respective legal discovery initiatives regarding who will be

subpoenaed or deposed and what evidence is or is not revealed.

 

SOFT OR AGGRESSIVE INVESTIGATION?

 

In an interview with Scoop Media, former Washington, DC United States

Attorney Joseph de Genova took a hard line, saying " If the Congress

does not want to get answers to these critical questions regarding who

profited [from prior knowledge of the attacks], then it needs to be

litigated. " And asked whether Americans have a right to know who sold

large blocks of stock shares in companies and airlines directly

affected by the attacks or purchased billions in ultra-safe Treasury

notes directly prior to 9/11, de Genova added, " I believe someone will

litigate the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) issue related to the

Ashcroft memo, if government agencies keep obstructing the media --

the sooner, the better. "

 

While thousands of American families, victimized by terrorism, still

remain numb with grief, information is being advanced daily regarding

what could be described by some as casual, if not negligent, long-term

slipshod governmental responsiveness to fundamental internal national

security and safety questions -- or worse. But even if they come out

of their secret, sound-proof Capitol bunker into the light of open

hearings, questions still remain as to whether they have the courage

to forcefully seek answers to the real unanswered questions.

 

Yes, we've come a long way from those pre-attack United and American

Airline put and call ratio arguments about " lucky bets " -- for the

evidence regarding profits of death is intriguing. This is real

serious stuff. But curiously, both the President and Vice-President

have lobbied mightily for only one joint investigative committee

instead of multiple and bicameral, Enron-style hearings. Maybe we'll

get a stacked-deck, wink-and-a-nod, " blue ribbon " panel. Only time

will tell. But as the First Lady always reminds us: " Don't worry. Just

tell your children they're safe. "

 

Tom Flocco is an independent investigative journalist. Contact him via

email at: TomFlocco

 

Kyle F. Hence contributed additional research.

 

Unanswered Questions: http://www.unansweredquestions.org