James Henry

I happened to have been in Beijing in May 1989 as a volunteer with a small group of journalists who helped to put out an English language daily newspaper -- English was all the rage among the students and other demonstrators, who were building Statues of Liberty in Red Square, reciting the Declaration of Independence, and fully expecting that the US Government would stand strong behind them, just as it was supporting the liberation of the Soviet Empire and Eastern Europe. We moved into the People's Daily, where people, pigs, cows, and chickens all lived in close proximity, and helped introduce the students to the glories of publishing on Macs -- which we brought along with us. I have no idea who that courageous young man in The Tank picture was, but I got to knew several other courageous young Chinese during this period, some of whom are still among the ranks of the "disappeared." We left about the second week of May. Two weeks later the troops moved in, and started shooting. Four weeks later, the first Bush Administration dispatched Brent Scrowcroft to Beijing, where he reassured the Chinese Government that US relations were secure -- despite their brutilitarianism. A couple years later, Bill Clinton showed that he was not much better, by reneging on his promises to insist on Chinese respect for human rights. That was only the first of many such reversals by the eminently-flexible Mr. Clinton. To this day I have not been back to China. They tell me it is a thriving capitalist one-party state -- which does, however, leave a few things to be desired in the areas of human rights, political freedom, inequality, environmental degradation, corruption, and the preservation of China's cultural and architechtural heritage. But at least they are able to experience the wonders of McDonalds, Walmart, Toyota, Daimler, Citibank, BP, and Goldman Sachs -- truly the most venerable Euro-American exports, compared with which intangibles like rights and social justice are mere chimera. Poor Tank Man, you are better off missing......

Congrats to O'Sullivan for stirring the pot with this provocative story! However, I submit that this is at best "case reopened;" we still have a long way to go before we pronounce this -- as Shane does in the BBC News version that I saw -- "case closed." For the sake of argument, let's stipulate that he has verifiably placed at least 3 key former JM/WAVE types at the Ambassador that evening back in 1968 -- my high school prom night, BTW. To be sure, these three were certainly no run-of-the-mill covert operators, much less ballroom spectators. They were hard-core anti-Comms, professionally-trained assassins, psy ops specialists, and at least in Morales' case, a close acquaintance of John Roselli & Co. So you've got our attention. Where do we go from here? (1) There are obviously scads of detailed defense attorney-type questions about how this crew actually pulled it off -- whether they were at all connected to Sirhan, or to anyone else in the fatal kitchen (like the security guard who was supposedly standing behind Bobby and later reportedly lied about when he sold off his .22.) We're a long way from filling in those missing links.... (2) Why would these three "old hands" -- at least two of whom were still employed by the Agency (not sure about G. Campbell) risk showing up and hanging around together at a mass event where some of their former collegues were bound to recognize them -- as a couple apparently did? Was that just agency hubris? (3) There are lots of interesting questions that pertain to motives. As noted, Joannides and Morales were both still working for Shackley (in SE Asia) at the time, so that suggests there may have been Agency condonation. However, Morales, at least, was also notoriously hostile to the Kennedys on a personal level, and may have detested the idea of an RFK presidency for strictly private reasons. Third, as Shane suggested, anyone involved in JFK would have worried that RFK would have reopened the WC investigation. Again, Morales is the most prominently-mentioned of the three in that regard. However, for my money, the key factor was not so much the speculative possibility that the WC would be reopened, and reach a different conclusion, but the NEAR CERTAINTY that an RFK presidency would have ushered in a new round of tough anti-Mafia prosecutions -- which the Nixon Administration (with Helliwell/ CBT/Hoffa, etc) most assuredly did not. This suggests there is an "agency-led/condoned" version of the story and a "hired moonlighter/ mob-led" version. Of course there could be overlaps, but the "well-paid moonlighter" version has firmer economic foundations. If so, it is unlikely that these three "bureaucrats" would have been willing to do this for nothing. So someone needs to look at what happened to these 3 agents' finances during this period. One might have thought that our extraordinarily-well-managed intelligence agencies would be monitoring their own agents' finances/ income tax records/ estate valuations -- but does anyone know if they do/ did so during this period? (4) Has anyone bothered to ask the loquacious Gerry Patrick Hemming about this new video evidence? After all, he claims to have been working (along with his brother and a niece, I believe) for the LAPD from 1967-70! Indeed, he was also supposed to have been one of the first officers to arrive at the house of Sirhan Sirhan's mother the morning after. (...How strange was that? BTW, I understand that GPH was also employed as a Popemobile driver in St. Peters Square in Rome in 1981, and visited Mehmet Ali Hagca in his jail cell the day after Pope John Paul II got whacked...) So since GPH was "in LA" that week, did he happen to see any of these former fellow Miamians hanging around? Presumably he would have known them, back at JM/WAVE or before or after? Does he recognize Shane's pictures of them, or of any of their compadres? And, heck, while we're asking, where was GPH hanging out that evening? Again, Shane's delivered is a "good start," sorta like 200,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean. java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_4')Now let's get back to work.

Cheers, all. I'm James S. Henry, an investigative economist, lawyer, and freelance journalist who's based in New York. I've done lots of research and writing over the past 30 years with respect to developing country debt, corruption, and money laundering, including publications in most major US magazines and newspapers. Last book: Blood Bankers (2003) (NY: Avalon/Thundermountain, 2003, 2005), investigations of "dirty banking" in countries like the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Argentina. (Think John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," but with real evidence, less "dark government-led conspiracy," and more emphasis on post-globalization revisionism.) In my "spare time," I'm also a "cooperating attorney" for the ACLU, a very lively activity in these times. For more info, see my bio on this site, and my news blog, http://www.submergingmarkets.com.

James S. Henry is Managing Director of the Sag Harbor Group (SHG Inc.), a technology-focused private equity venture and consulting firm. SHG’s clients have included ABB, Allen & Co., AT&T, AT Kearney, Calvert Fund, Cemex, ChinaTrust, the Scotland Yard/FBI Task Force on Caribbean Havens, GM, HP, IBM/Lotus, Intel, Inter-wise, Lucent, Merrill Lynch, South Africa Telecom, Rockefeller Foundation, Swedish Power Board, TransAlta, UBS Warburg, Volvo, and Prof. Michael Porter’s Monitor Company. In the corporate world, Mr. Henry has worked as an Anti-Trust Attorney, Shearman & Sterling (NY); Management Consultant and Firm Economist, McKinsey & Co. (NY); Manager, Business Development, Chairman's Office (Welch), GE (Fairfield); and VP Strategy, IBM/Lotus Development Corporation (Cambridge). He has been a Founder and Partner in IVP, a private equity firm based in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Board Member, PeopLink/Catgen.com, a software company focused on e-commerce for developing countries; Board Member, IdentaSearch, a biotech startup; Board Member, Flooz.Com; senior advisor to Ashoka, the “reverse Peace Corps;” Board Member, Long Island University’s Friends World Program; Project Director, Transnational Corruption, The New School’s World Policy Institute; Cooperating At-torney, New York Civil Liberties Union; Co-Chair, Tax Justice Network – US. Mr. Henry’s articles on “financial investigations” have appeared in many leading publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Conference Board, The Washington Post, US News, Manhattan Inc., Harpers, The Washington Monthly, Fortune, Business Week, The Nation, Newsweek, Time, The Tax Lawyer, Jornal do Brasil, The Manila Chronicle, La Nacion, El Fi-nanciero, and Slate. Mr. Henry’s books include, with Paul Starr and Ray Bonner, The Discarded Army – A Study of the Veterans Administration and Vietnam Veterans. (NY: Charterhouse, 1976); Banqueros y Lavadolares. (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1996); The Internet’s Im-pact on Financial Services. (NY: AT Kearney, 1999); The Blood Bankers (NY: Avalon/ Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003); and Pirate Bankers. (NY: Avalon, 2007 forthcom-ing). He has also been a contributor to several books and anthologies, including, with Prof. Richard Caves, The Economics of Competition (Boston: Prentice Hall,1988); Steve Hiatt, ed., A Game As Old as Empire. (SF: Barrett-Koehler, March 2007 forthcoming.), Chapter Five: “The Mythology of Debt Relief.” He is also the founder and Editor of SubmergingMarkets™, a web blog devoted to a critical analysis of political and economic development issues, and first-hand investigations. Mr. Henry’s unique, first-person approach to investigative economics, and his exper-tise in “offshore banking,” have taken him to more than 50 developing countries. His investigations produced documentary evidence that was instrumental in the 1992 conviction of Panama’s Manuel Noriega. He was hired by the Government of Para-guay to help that country recover the assets stolen by General Stroessner He also succeeded in identifying the role of Philippines Central Bank loans, later transferred directly to offshore accounts, in enriching Marcos and his cronies; and in breaking up a major Brazilian cocaine smuggling ring that was involved in bribing the family of the President of Brazil, and led to a ’93 Parliamentary Commission (CPI) on drug trafficking. Mr. Henry has testified several times before the US Senate on economic policy issues, and is a frequent speaker at forums on international development. He has also been an “investigative producer” on several documentary film projects involving developing countries, including “Land Famine in Honduras” (1984),“Noriega” (ABC News, 1991); and “UnBoliviable” (2007), a documentary about Evo Morales by Donald Ranvaud, producer of “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener.” Mr. Henry is an honors graduate of Harvard College (Magna, Social Studies ’72; De-tur Prize; Phi Beta Kappa, National Merit Scholar, Chairman, Institute of Politics, Student Advisory Committee); Harvard Law School (J.D., Honors, 1976); Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (M.S. A.B.D., Economics, 1978; ABD – disser-tation ’05); Danforth Fellow; “Nader Raider;” and a member of the New York Bar ’78. He has a working knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French. He is an “Adirondack 46R,” and an avid tennis player, biker, sailor, and photographer. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he and his family make their homes in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York. For more information, contact James S. Henry at jhenry@sagharbor.com. SHG, Inc.’s website is http://www.sagharbor.com. SubmergingMarkets™ is at http://www.submergingmarkets.com