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I will do a
big update to TheFinalFraud.com tonight and fix the site’s
registration problems. In the meantime here is a small preview of some
material not covered on MarketSkeptics.com.
--------------------------------
The Mystery of the Missing Currency
US money supply stopped growing in
1980
Fed admits dollars
disappearing
Fed admits dollars disappearing.
Star-News - Google News Archive - Feb 11, 1986
WASHINGTON — A lot of U.S. greenbacks can’t
be accounted for.
A study has concluded that $136 billion in U.S. currency
— 88 percent of the total circulation — is missing.
In a comprehensive look at personal money-handling habits, Federal Reserve
Board economists concluded that individuals over age 18 are holding $18
billion in U.S. coins and cash. That is about $100 per person.
That is, however, only 12 percent of
the $153.9 billion of cash supposedly in circulation.
Where is the rest?
“I wish we knew where it was.”
said Paul A. Spindt, a Fed economist and one of the authors of the study.
Fed economists know that part of it is in the cash drawers of legitimate
businesses and some is held by people under age 18. Neither group was
included in the Fed survey.
Spindt said he doubted, however, whether the amount held by youngsters and
businesses would total more than 15 percent. That leaves nearly
three-fourths of U.S. currency missing in action.
One explanation is that part of the missing money is being u8ed in the
“underground” economy, populated by those intent on evading
income taxes by dealing on a cash- only basis.
This explanation, however, would account for only part of the funds, because
even ill-gotten gains flow back into general circulation at some point.
Other studies have speculated that as much as one-third to two-thirds of U.S. currency winds up in foreign hands.
The Fed economists made no estimate of how much has
gone overseas, but speculated that a big part of the
money is, indeed, being used by
foreigners who would rather deal in the stable U.S. currency than in their
own currencies.
“We do know that there are some very large
shipments of U.S. currency going offshore to various destinations around the world,”
Spindt said.
This money often ends up in areas with high
inflation rates. In some Latin American nations, for
instance, the citizens exchange local currency on the black
market for dollars as a hedge against their own currency’s being
devalued.
…
What This Means
NCPA reports that Foreign Dollar
Holdings and the U.S. Money Supply.
Foreign
Dollar Holdings and the U.S. Money Supply
One of the most important of all
economic indicators is the money supply. Most economists believe that it plays a major role in the level of
interest rates, inflation and real growth in the economy. The Federal Reserve
controls the money supply through various policy instruments.
The Mystery of the Missing Currency
Since currency is such an important component of the money supply, it
obviously is very important to have an accurate measure of it. In practice,
the Fed assumes that all the money ever printed is still in circulation, less
only that which has been officially withdrawn from circulation or is known to
have been destroyed. However, when the Fed has attempted to survey banks, businesses and households
to find out how much currency was actually circulating, some 80 percent
of the currency thought to be in circulation had simply disappeared.
Efforts to locate this missing money have focused particularly on
“exports” of U.S. dollars: money that has left our shores and now circulates in foreign
countries. …
What This Means
At a minimum, this suggests that the money supply is much lower than published data indicate. Economist Case Sprenkle of the
University of Illinois argues: “Since foreign-held currency is not a medium of exchange for the
issuing country, increases
in currency in the hands of the public in developed countries then should
not be considered as money supply increases for monetary policy decisions. The
Federal Reserve and other central banks should IGNORE SUCH INCREASES AS BEING
BASICALLY IRRELEVANT TO DOMESTIC MONETARY CONDITIONS."
This could have important implications for Federal Reserve policy and
monetary analysis. It might mean that Fed policy is much tighter than the Fed thinks it is and that THE
HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROWTH OF THE MONEY SUPPLY AND RATE OF
INFLATION NEEDS TO BE REEVALUATED. …
Conclusion
Foreign holdings of U.S. dollars are a
significant and growing phenomenon. They are now so large as to affect
our basic understanding of the relationship between the money supp]y,
inflation, interest rates and other economic variables. The phenomenon may be causing the
Federal Reserve to run a tighter monetary policy than it intends, with important implications for
economic growth, unemployment and the standard of living of all Americans.
Answer to the
Mystery of the Missing Currency
A Torrent of Dirty
Dollars - TIME
A Torrent of Dirty Dollars
TIME
- Sunday, June 24, 2001
By JONATHAN BEATY AND RICHARD HORNIK
…
Much is at stake as the powerful flow of narcodollars is
recycled through the world's financial system.
Drug lords and other lawbreakers are believed to be buying valuable
chunks of the American economy, but clever Dutch
sandwiches and other subterfuges make it almost impossible for U.S.
authorities to track foreign investors. A case in point: blind corporations based in the Netherlands Antilles control more than
one-third of all foreign-owned U.S. farmland, many
of the newest office towers in downtown Los Angeles and a substantial number
of independent movie companies producing films like Sylvester Stallone's
Rambo pictures.
While businesses and individuals may conceal their assets for purposes that
are completely legal, or dubious at worst, the systems set up
for their convenience can be perversely efficient at helping drug barons launder
as much as $100 billion a year in U.S. proceeds.
…
…
The money-laundering process, especially in the
drug trade, begins with greenbacks.
MUCH OF THE CASH SIMPLY LEAVES THE U.S. IN LUGGAGE, since departing travelers are rarely searched.
Larger shipments are flown out on private planes or packed in seagoing
freight containers, which are almost never inspected. THAT EXPLAINS, in part, WHY U.S. OFFICIALS ARE UNABLE TO LOCATE FULLY 80% OF ALL THE BILLS
PRINTED BY THE TREASURY. Once overseas, the cash is easy to funnel into black markets, especially in
unstable economies where the dollar is the favored underground currency.
…
Three main components of the U.S.
dollarization strategy:
1) Forcing drug money out of the U.S.
2) Facilitating drug trafficking
3) Destroying foreign currencies
--------------------------------
1) Forcing drug
money out of the U.S.
Seizure of Assets
Presses Drug Suspects
April 29, 1988
Seizure of Assets Presses Drug Suspects
By MARK A. UHLIG
In seizing the apartment leases of two suspected drug dealers in New York
City Wednesday, Federal authorities broke new legal
ground in their fight against illicit drug trafficking by tenants of public
housing projects.
But they also underscored the growing power and scope of Federal
statutes that now permit the seizure of virtually any kind of property
even remotely involved or ''intended'' for use in drug transactions.
Those laws, first enacted in 1970 and amended several times, have been
sharply attacked by civil liberties groups as a violation of the requirements
of due process of law.
…
In 1987, according to official figures, the Federal Government seized more than $180 million in assets related to illegal drug dealing, a sharp increase from 1986.
Property seized included cars, planes, boats,
houses and a wide range of personal possessions.
…
More potent in law-enforcement terms are the civil provisions
of the law, which allow the Government to seize property unilaterally
pending a civil hearing.
This kind of proceeding is made possible by a Federal statute that gives the Government title to any asset or
property used in a drug transaction, effective from the
moment the transaction takes place or is ''intended'' by the criminal.
Taking Possession
''When you commit the violation, the right and title
to that property reverts to the United States at that moment,''
said Mary Lee Warren, the chief of the narcotics unit in the office of the
United States Attorney for the Southern District.
Having thus received title to the property involved, the Government may then
act under civil statutes that permit it to recover assets in the same way
that a bank may repossess a car for an unpaid loan.
Depending on the size, value and location of the property to be seized, authorities may simply take it, or may seek a
seizure warrant to allow them to enter
a home, bank safe, or other protected space to take possession of the
property.
As in a criminal proceeding, the owner of something that is seized under
civil statutes has a right to a hearing in Federal Court to challenge the
Government's action. But in contrast to criminal
cases, in which the Government must prove
its case ''beyond a reasonable doubt,'' civil cases can be won by law-enforcement authorities with a simple
preponderance of evidence - a far less
stringent legal standard. 'Operating Capital'
Law-enforcement authorities at many levels of government have hailed the
forfeiture laws as a breakthrough in the fight against illegal drugs.
''It used to be that a defendant was willing to do jail time, because when he
came out, his money would be waiting for him,'' Mr. Zimmerman said. ''But
we've found out that if we take away substantial amounts of money from the
traffickers, what we're doing in effect is taking away their operating
capital.''
Civil liberties advocates, however, have sharply opposed the statutes as a violation of the due process
clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits the
Government from depriving anyone of property without a proper hearing.
''We believe the seizing of someone's property or
property interest because they've been merely accused of being a drug dealer
is a serious violation of civil liberties,''
said Norman Siegel, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties
Union.
…
Originally intended to cover the drugs and vehicles used by drug
dealers, the statutes were amended in 1978 to allow seizure of the
proceeds of drug transactions. In 1984, they were
further amended to allow seizure of real estate, and in 1986 to allow
authorities to seek seizure warrants for assets that were not kept in public
areas.
''It's a very innovative thing,''
said Pamela Dempsey, an assistant United States Attorney who specializes in
forfeiture matters in Mr. Giuliani's office. ''The law generally
is expanding and evolving in such a way as to provide a new solution to a
very difficult law-enforcement problem.''
Officials take aim
at drug money
Officials take aim at drug money
Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive - Mar 11, 1997
Faced with controls on electronic transfers, officials say, cartels returned
to smuggling money in bulk.
N.Y. TIMES NEWS SERVICE
NEW YORK — For years, drug cartel money-launderers in New York have
been sending up to $1.3 billion a year back to Colombia through storefront
shops, many of them in Queens, that immigrants use to wire cash home.
The major restraint on this electronic smuggling has
been a federal requirement that transactions of more than $10,000 be reported
to the government.
But since last summer, drug busters will tell Congress today, a Treasury Department order imposing a $750-per-transaction limit on
1,600 remittance shops suspected of wiring most of the illicit
money has won a small victory in the war on drugs, sharply cutting the
electronic transfers to Colombia and forcing the cartels
to return to crude old methods of smuggling money in bulk.
Faced with the alternative of wiring fortunes in penny-ante increments or
submitting picture-identity cards with their transactions, cartel operatives have gone back to stashing cash in coffins, bowling
balls and other hiding places, investigators said
Monday.
…
Banks Intensify
Crackdown On Money Laundering
Banks intensify crackdown on money
Laundering
Daily Gazette - Google News Archive - Sep 23, 1990
By JAMES M. ODATO Gaz’tte Rport.’r
The cash comes from criminals, or those dodging taxes. Frequently, it
comes from drug deals. And there is lots of it.
To hide its sources, drug dealers and other illegal enterprisesuse money
launderers — people whose Job it is to get the currency into such
legitimate places as banks — to make it more difficult to trace.
For a while, those launderers could walk into banks with cardboard boxes
bulging with cash, and no one would bunk an eye.
That’s all changed.
Banks have gotten tougher, as federal authorities have put more
pressure on them to report transactions that appear
suspicious.
In fact, following the declaration of a “war
on drugs” and the threat of whopping fines, banks
began filing reports by the millions
— seven million were filed last year alone.
Some of those helped federal investigators convict drug dealers and
uncover other illegal enterprises.
But federal officials estimate $110 billion is
still being laundered, undetected, each year across the country.
…
For instance, Key Bank of Eastern New York has two
officials working full time to ensure that the bank complies with the rules.
Last year, the Albany-based bank filed 20,000 reports, said spokesman Peter
D. La- Fleche.
“It takes 37 minutes to properly fill out the forms, according
to the Federal Reserve,” says James Smith, Key
Corp’s compliance chief. “If one files
10,000 currency transaction reports times 37 minutes times 5 per hour ...
We’re doing a lot.”
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 requires banks to file a Currency Transaction
Report on cash transactions of more than $10,000. Banks also must file a
report if it appears a customer is trying to avoid having a CTR’filed
by staying below the $10,002 thresh- old or for suspicious behavior. such as
trading $2000 in twenty-dollar bills for 20 one-hundred dollar bills.
And, as of last month, banks must also
report to federal authorities any transactions involving purchases of at
least $3000 of money orders, checks, traveler’s checks or bank drafts
in aggregate by a customer.
The CTR gives investigators another tool to use against drug dealers.
“Banks are very necessary to the chain of laundering. The
majority of the money is going to financial institutions and then wired out
of the country,” says Charles 0. Slmonsen, chief of
currency investigations of the US. Customs Service.
He said legislation has been proposed to require reports
when money is wired.
From bank to bank
Once the laundered money gets to a bank, be said, it can be
“layered,” or moved from bank to bank, so that it gets farther away
from the source.
He said the CTRs may have cut down on some of the laundering. OTHER ALTERNATIVES FOR LAUNDERERS,
he said, INCLUDE SMUGGLING MONEY OUT OF THE
COUNTRY. A report is required by customs, and
failure to file it can result in prosecution.
…
He said that since 1986, the IRS has initiated more
than 4,200 criminal eases on money launderers,
with more than a quarter of them started this year alone.
Preferred Target
Banks are the preferred target of money launderers, Hanson, and other say,
because of the low risk involved in investing cash with them.
“We report so much it’s a risky proposition”
says John Byrne, a legIMauve counsel with the American Bankers Association. “Also (some) banks now have software to show you’ve had
multiple transactions in a day and we’ll file a report on you.”
Byrne admits that banks were part of the money laundering problem because
they failed to submit forms. In 1977, just 34,000 CTRs were filed by banks.
Last year, banks spent an estimated $160 million complying with The Bank
Secrecy Act.
Part of the reason for the vigilance is the fear of liability.
Federal regulators began fining banks heavily in the
mid-’80s. Bank of Boston paid 1500,000 in 1985
while Bank of New England paid a $1.24 million f inc in 1986. As a result, “everybody and his brother learned what money laundering
was,” says Byrne.
…
http://www.fear.org/
…
The Double-Edged Sword undercover researcher observed agencies abandon investigations of suspects they knew were trafficking
large amounts of contraband simply because the case was not profitable.
Agents routinely targeted low level dealers rather than big
traffickers, who are better able to insulate themselves and their assets from
reverse sting operations. The report
states: "Efficiency is measured by the
amount of money seized rather than impact on drug trafficking."
A reverse sting operation, where the officer becomes the seller who
encourages the suspect to commit a crime, "was the preferred strategy of
every agency and department with which the researcher was associated because
it allowed agents to gauge potential profit prior to investing a great deal
of time and effort." More importantly, the narcotics units studied preferred seizing cash intended for purchase of drugs supplied by the police,
RATHER THAN CONFISCATING DRUGS ALREADY ON THE
STREET. When asked why a search warrant would
not be served on a suspect known to have resale quantities of contraband, one
officer responded:
"Because that would just give us a bunch of dope and the hassle
of having to book him (the suspect). WE'VE GOT ALL THE DOPE WE NEED IN THE PROPERTY ROOM,
just stick to rounding up cases with big money and stay away from
warrants."
In one case an agency instructed the researcher to observe the suspect's
daily transactions reselling a large shipment of cocaine so that officers could postpone making the bust UNTIL AFTER THE MAJORITY
OF THE DRUG SHIPMENT WAS CONVERTED TO CASH.
This case was only one of many in which THE GOAL WAS PROFIT
RATHER THAN REDUCING THE SUPPLY OF DRUGS REACHING THE STREET.
…
--------------------------------
2) Facilitating drug trafficking
Dollarization and
the United Narcostates of America
Dollarization and the United Narcostates of
America
Jaguar Press
Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 9:33pm
…
In America the number of people who use cocaine regularly is higher than
3.6 million, including crack users, while heroin abusers are
untallied, though invariably over a million in this country. There
are also millions more heavy-narcotic consumers worldwide, concentrated in
Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America. The millions of
domestic users form the base from which profits are taken, in the form
of drug money, US dollars, in order to fund pro-US
governments abroad and expand the influence of the dollar.
I—Opium
From the first economic contact between the British East India company and
poppy producing regions in Asia, opium has become a major narcotic in the
Western and world markets, both legally and illegally. Wars have been fought
over the importation of opium in Asia, and at every step of the way, Western powers have been vitally involved in its production and
distribution. These cartel-like military incursions have developed
into extremely lucrative and subversive markets that introduce the US dollar into foreign economies.
…
Most recently, Afghanistan has risen to international prominence in
the opium trade, responsible for over 80% of the global opium stock,
of which “authorities” only intercept a small percentage. …
Addiction is undoubtedly wide spread in the countries importing, whether
legally or illegally, but the negative side effects of heroin don’t end
there. And while 100,000 people a year are dying of heroin-related
causes worldwide, even more people are beginning their experience with it. These
users are actually investors, funding the US’s neo-imperialist
infiltration of the Afghani financial system by flooding it with US
dollars and demand for an unsustainable cash crop.
That’s right, the people of Afghanistan have traded
their food crops and peace for an era of opium and war,
…
In Afghanistan right now, the Afghani and the dollar are pretty
much interchangeable. It is astounding to American personnel stationed in Afghanistan that their US dollars
are just as good as at a 7-11 back home. This isn’t an
accident—the illicit trade in opium has single-handedly
introduced the dollar as a stable medium of transaction in the region. It
is so prominent that Karzai’s government had to pass a law requiring
vendors to list their prices in the native Afghani in addition to its pricing
in dollars. The use of the dollar abroad means not only increased
security for the US Treasury, but also a guaranteed trade partner in the
dollarized nation.
…
II—Coca
The American coca trade has risen in recent years to far outreach the opiate
trade in general. The sale of cocaine within the US alone has generated over
$70 billion, almost entirely underground. Since the coca
boom of the 1980’s usage has risen drastically, no
longer confined to certain social classes—most citadins can obtain
cocaine or crack quite easily and for competitive pricing. This vast trade, encompasses much of the American
hemisphere, from South America, through Central American and the Caribbean to
the United States and Europe, has led to mass addiction and the
vicious dollarization of Latin America.
… US neo-colonialist policies and practice, whether carried out by
government funded groups or private corporations, developed into an efficient machine for the consumption and global
exportation of cocaine starting in the 1970’s, while introducing the dollar to coca producing regions as a replacement for
their sometimes unstable national currencies.
In 1986, it came to light that the US government had been tacitly
supporting, if not directly developing massive cartel infrastructure in Central America by funding the
anti-communist Contra group in Nicaragua. Thousands of tons of cocaine were brought into the American West Coast
and South and the money was used not only to attempt the violent overthrow of
the Sandinista government—the revolutionary
group that liberated Nicaragua from American occupation in the
1930’s—but to introduce the dollar to the entire
region.
And while the scandal has dissipated and American influence is no longer
visible, the US dollar is now the standard
currency for El Salvador and Panama. The dollar
is also used in some countries who maintain a currency at a rate fixed to the
dollar while it is simply the unofficial, de facto
tender in the rest of the region and the cocaine trade has only grown
since then.
…
That’s right, nearly every country in the Americas
involved in producing, transporting and using cocaine is using the US dollar
as a medium for exchange. Michael Melvin and Jerry
Ladman have researched the economic structure of coca producing regions in
Vol. 23 of the Journal of Money, tracing the rise of the dollarized
narcostate, “Since illicit activities like smuggling are
financed with currency rather than bank deposits, many people believe that much
of the U.S. dollar currency circulating in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru is earned
from illegal drug sales. For
instance, in the coca-producing regions of Bolivia, farmers cultivate coca
plants to provide leaves from which coca paste is extracted locally and then
used as the base for manufacturing cocaine in Bolivia or elsewhere.”
This is not a unique case for Bolivia as the region is faced with harsh coca
and basuco addiction in the wake of the dollar.
And while the use of adulterated narcotics rises in South America, the abuse rate of cocaine and crack in the United States rises every
year.
General coca addiction in the US is actually encouraged by the government who
has transformed this massive consumer base into an investment pool for the
economic subversion of the narcostates of America.
With almost 4 million users, the incentive for foreign producers and
manufacturers to supply the US is immense, leading to an entire cultural
shift for the hemisphere. Violence from Los Angeles to La Paz is
endemic of the coca trade and each of the regions with the most cocaine
manufacture and traffic—El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador,
Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, numerous Caribbean states, northern Mexican border,
to name a few—endure crippling US political influence
and overt dollarization.
Latin American cartels, with US support during and after the
“War on Drugs,” have establishment well fortified
shipping lanes, utilizing planes, submarines, and old fashioned mules to move
well concealed cocaine at varying degrees of purity north.
The unquantifiably large Pacific Rim coca trade has turned the northern
Mexican border into one of the most lawless, violent regions in the world.
Here more than ten murders a day are attributed to the intense cartel
activity. These well organized, well paid groups are spurred by the
availability of arms across the border and the relative economic corruption
of the area.
If you’re in Southern California you can test it, the US
dollar is valid in the cities of Mexico just south of the border.
As in all other opium and coca producing states from Central Asia to Latin
America we see the same symptoms of US narcocolonialism—addiction, exploitation, the dollar.
There are no efforts to effectively curb hard drug abuse or to curtail the
trade, quite the opposite, the US government has supported the
drug trade at many levels.
Addiction growing at home, economic desperation abroad, and international confidence in the US dollar continues to grow as it becomes
the global currency of so-called illicit business.
…
Brought to You by
CIA : America's Drug Crisis
First Published 2009-10-30
Brought to You by CIA : America's Drug Crisis
The real story here is that where the US goes,
the drug trade soon follows, and the leading role in developing and nurturing that trade appears to be
played by the Central Intelligence Agency, notes Dave Lindorff.
…
How the CIA stoked the region’s heroin trade
AN INTEGRAL part of CIA intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s
was a huge in-crease in the production of opium and heroin.
David Musto, a member of the Strategic Council of Drug Abuse, warned therethe
administration that the mujahideen inwere heavily involved in drug
production. The “I told the Council that we
were going into Afghanistan to support the opium growers in their rebellion
against the Soviets.”1 But Musto’s
warnings were deliberately ignored. According to Alexander Cockburn and
Jeffrey St. Clair: trade
The DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] was well aware that the mujahideen
rebels were deeply involved in the opium trade. The drug agency’s
reports in the 1980s showed that Afghan rebel incursions from their Pakistan
bases into Soviet-held posi- tions were “determined in part by opium
planting and harvest seasons.” The numbers were stark and forbidding. Afghan opium production tripled between 1979 and 1982.
There was evidence that by 1981 the Afghan heroin producers had captured 60
percent of the heroin market in Western Europe and the United States (these
are UN and DEA figures).2
Trucks and mules supplied by the CIA to transport arms into
Afghanistan were used on the way out to bring opium to heroin
laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border.3 U.S.
officials turned a blind eye toward what was going on:
The DEA had evidence of over forty heroin syndicates operating in Pakistan in
the mid-1980s during the Afghan war, and there was evidence of more than 200
heroin labs operating in northwest Pakistan. Even though Islamabad houses one
of the largest DEA offices in Asia, no action was ever taken by the DEA agents
against any of these operations. An Interpol officer told the journalist
Lawrence Lif- schultz, “It is very strange that
the Americans, with the size of their resources, and political power
they possess in Pakistan, have failed to break a single case.
The explanation cannot be found in a lack of adequate police work. They had
some excellent men working in Pakistan.” But working in the same offices as those DEA agents were five CIA officers
who, so one of the DEA
agents later told the Washington Post, ordered them to pull
back their operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the duration of the
war. 4
In 1993, a DEA official quoted in the Los Angeles Times, described
Afghanistan as the new Colombia of the drug world,5 and by 1994, Afghanistan had surpassed Burma as the world’s number
one supplier of raw opium.6 According to some
estimates, it now accounts for 75 percent of
world production.7
…
Contras Thwarted By
Disputes, Reports Say
Contras Thwarted By Disputes, Reports
Say
Ocala Star-Banner - Google News Archive - May 19, 1986
FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) — The Contras struggling against the leftist
government of Nicaragua are hobbled by Inner disputes that could ruin their
political base, a newspaper reported after interviewing past and present
freedom fighters and U.S. citizens who have been close to them.
Since the Contras began receiving U.S. aid in 1982, stories about the rebel
movement have abounded, with rumors of CIA agents lugging
around stacks of cash in suitcases and cardboard boxes; alleged plots to assassinate foreign leaders, rival rebel leaders and
even a U.S. ambassador. The Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-
Sentinel reported in its Sunday editions.
Such rumors could derail President Reagan’s stalled $100 million Contra
aid proposal pending before Congress. Both houses are sufficiently alarmed by
these and other allegations that they have begun separate investigations.
“Over the past few months, my office has engaged in an
investigation of alleged drug smuggling, gun running, Neutrality Act
violations and other equally, if not more serious, offenses,”
said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a Contra aid
opponent who is prodding the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee to hold hear- mgi next month.
“To date we have received substantial corroboration of these
activities, some of which shock the conscience.”
Drug Enforcers Losing
Nation's Cocaine War Massive Government
Drug Enforcers Losing Nation's Cocaine
War
Massive Government Eradication Efforts Are `Overwhelmed by the Bad Guys,'
Los Angeles Times - ProQuest Archiver - Sep 21, 1986
By Bill Farr; Carol McGraw
The economics of cocaine have changed so radically that it is no
longer restricted to the well-to-do. The processing of
crystallized cocaine as "rock" or "crack" has so lowered the price—and increased the availability—that
junior high school students are pooling their lunch money,
"share cropping," as one sheriff's deputy called it, to buy cocaine from schoolyard dealers.
In some areas of Los Angeles, the scene resembles a public market, with competing dealers loudly hawking their wares on the sidewalk,
telling passers—by that their cocaine is better
than the next dealer's. In some areas, armed dealers make
house calls in pickup trucks equipped with telephones to take orders.
…
--------------------------------
3) Destroying foreign currencies
Living with
Dollarization and the Route to Dedollarization
2. Dollarization Trends in Latin
America: Some Stylized Facts
Dollarization of private and public sector assets
and liabilities is widespread throughout Latin America.
As part of a comprehensive set of structural reforms—some which came in
the aftermath of financial crisis and hyperinflation—many Latin American countries liberalized and reformed their financial
markets. In the process, strong linkages to the US dollar were developed,
frequently through the adoption of strong pegs or quasi-fixed exchange rate
arrangements, in a context of increased capital mobility. In many countries, restrictions on holding financial
assets abroad, moving assets freely across the border, or issuing liabilities
in foreign currency both locally or across the border, were lifted and competition between domestic and foreign currencies
increased. In many cases this led to the dollarization of deposits and loans in the domestic financial
system, to significant holdings of financial assets abroad,
and in general to the issuance of foreign-denominated liabilities of the
private and public sectors.
Philadelphia
Inquirer, The : US USED SECRET GLOBAL NETWORK TO ARM AFGHANS
U.S. USED SECRET GLOBAL NETWORK TO ARM
AFGHANS
Philadelphia Inquirer - NewsBank - Feb 29, 1988
After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the CIA responded by making money. Counterfeit Afghan currency.
The intelligence agency also made weapons. Counterfeit Soviet weapons. The bogus money and copied weapons became part of a vast cache filled
by the CIA's global gun-running operation for the Afghan resistance.
Over the last eight years, the CIA's efforts
for the Afghan rebels grew to become the biggest covert operation in the
agency's history ...
Fake-Money Flood Is
Aimed At Crippling Iraq's Economy
May 27, 1992
Fake-Money Flood Is Aimed At Crippling Iraq's Economy
By YOUSSEF M. IBRAHIM,
AMMAN, Jordan, May 24— Iraq's economy is the target of an American-led
destabilization campaign to pour vast amounts of counterfeit currency into
the country, Arab and Western officials here say.
The fake dinar notes are being smuggled across the
Jordanian, Saudi, Turkish and Iranian borders in an effort to undermine the
Iraqi economy, said the officials here who closely
monitor the situation inside Iraq. Those officials said
counterfeit dollars are being smuggled into Iraq in smaller quantities
to further confound the banking system.
The officials, who insisted on not being identified, said the countries behind the separate counterfeiting operations included
Western nations, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel.
The fake currency is openly discussed in the press and by the people
in Iraq. The counterfeiting problem has become serious
enough to be loudly denounced by the Government, which is taking measures to
curb it, including instituting life sentences for cooperating in circulating
counterfeit dollars or dinars and death sentences for those who smuggle them
into the country.
Efforts in High Gear
The fake currency has contributed to Iraq's severe
inflation problem, which is aggravated by the fact that the
Iraqi Government is printing money at uncontrolled speed to pay inflated
salaries and cover the costs of reconstruction.
Over the last few months, the destabilization efforts seem to
have shifted into high gear, officials here say, particularly after the United States was reported in February to have authorized
full-fledged covert operations against Iraq.
…
Counterfeit money was dropped by United States helicopters in the southern marshland areas, in Mandali and in al-Tib in the
Maysan governorate, said the letter from the Iraqi Foreign
Minister, Ahmad Hussein.
The letter, reported by the Iraqi press agency and reprinted in Iraqi
newspapers, said counterfeit money was entering the
country through the Turkish and Jordanian borders as well.
Stiff Punishment Imposed
A Saudi official, who insisted on not being identified, concurred with the
reports, saying that "all borders are being
used."
Similarly, a senior Jordanian official agreed with the report, saying Jordan "does not approve of it, but we can do little to stop
it".
…
Contra War Fuels `Crazy'
Nicaraguan Inflation
Contra War Fuels `Crazy' Nicaraguan
Inflation
Los
Angeles Times - Sep 20, 1987
By RICHARD BOUDREAUX
In a July speech, [Daniel Ortega] said U.S. "aggression" has cost Nicaragua $2.8 billion since
1980. His calculation included direct damages
and production losses caused by the war as well as favorable trade
opportunities and dollar credits cut off by the 2-year-old U.S. embargo.
…
Once every few months, they get $100 or so from one of [Patricia Chavez]'s
brothers in the United States. And every payday, Chavez takes black-market
jeans, cosmetics, shoes and purses to the office to sell to co-workers in her
typing pool. This earns her an extra 200,000 cordobas a month, an income that rises faster than her wages.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgabriel/brazil.htm
Briefing on Brazil's Economic Crisis
by Satya Gabriel
January 14, 1999, 4 p.m. (e.s.t.)
…
The widespread devaluations of currencies against the U.S. dollar has
acted as a virus in the global economy since the Mexican peso devaluation at
the end of 1994 (and, perhaps, since the Chinese
devaluation earlier in that same year). Particularly in many
less industrialized nations, wealth has vanished overnight.
Holders of U.S. dollars have found themselves in
increasingly privileged positions, able to gobble up
cheap assets from Mexico to Thailand. The virus has now clearly taken hold of
Brazil.
The World: Was the
U.S. Involved? - TIME
The World: Was the U.S. Involved?
TIME -
Monday, October 01, 1973
The U.S. has a long and mostly inglorious history of meddling in the
internal affairs of Latin American nations. Thus it came as no
surprise to Washington that the Chilean junta's overthrow of President
Salvador Allende sparked a flurry of angry charges that either the CIA or the
White House had somehow engineered the coup. At a special meeting of the
United Nations Security Council called by Cuba to protest attacks by Chilean
troops on its embassy in Santiago during the coup, Cuban Ambassador Ricardo
Alarcón y Quesada charged: "The trail of
blood spilled in Chile leads directly to the dark dens of the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon."
In Mexico, former Chilean Ambassador Hugo
Vigorena Ramírez, a career diplomat who
resigned his post in Mexico City after the coup, claimed to have seen documents outlining what he called the
"CIA's war against Allende."
The alleged plan, code-named Centaur, was said to
involve economic and psychological subversion
of the Allende government, including such dirty tricks as INTRODUCING COUNTERFEIT MONEY and
upsetting the rhythm of crops. "The CIA plan prepared for the coup,"
insisted Vigorena. "It was a systematic campaign of
torpedoing the government."
Vigorena's charges seemed to be bolstered by Washington's lack of concern at Allende's fall.
President Nixon sent no message of condolence to Allende's widow—a customary gesture on the death of an elected head of state.
Nor did the Administration lament the demise of the democratically elected
government in Chile. "We will have to work with the
generals," said a State Department spokesman, "and it makes no sense to issue some moral statement about
democracy." On top of all that, world suspicions
were aroused by the department's admissions that it
had known beforehand about rumors of a possible coup—not
that this would have been much of a surprise to anyone, presumably including
Allende.
…
Charges have been made, however,
that Washington played a large and possibly crucial
role in Chile's economic difficulties. Pressure from
Washington on such institutions as the World Bank seriously aggravated
Chile's fiscal crises. As Latin American Experts James F. Petras and Robert
LaPorte Jr. noted in Foreign Policy magazine, "Dominican
style 'gunboat diplomacy' has been replaced by 'credit diplomacy.' " …
Eric de Carbonnel
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