Monzer al Kassar ,MI 6 asset, Argentina Bombing

[Steven Gaal]

Monzer al Kassar ,MI 6 asset, Argentina Bombing connection below.

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GANGSTERS INCORPORATED - PUPARO MIDDLE EAST TERROR PART 2

gangstersinc.tripod.com/PupTerror2.html

Syrian Al Kassar family

Mohammed al-Kassar, was one of the first big-time drug smugglers in the Middle East. His oldest son is Ghassan, Monzer al Kassar, the second of his four sons, was born on July 1, 1947. Hafez Al Assad the now deceased President of Syria was the lifelong protector of the entire al-Kassar family. Monzer's father because of this special relationship with Assad eventually rose to become a special amassador for Syria. Britain had spies in Syria and uncovered Soviet plans to finance international terrorist groups through drug trafficking. Syria and Bulgaria were the key in an exchange of drugs for cash and arms (pup i believe Bulgaria is where you may find a Sicilian connection with i beleive TIR trucks traffciking arms one way and drugs the other). Monzer Al-Kassar had two other brothers. All three of them handled covert shipments of arms, money and drugs for Syria. Monzer was extremely close to Rifaat Assad, brother of Hafez Assad, the President of Syria. Rifaat was head of the secret services of Syria (i beleive and you may be able to fill me on this pup, that Rifaat had some close dealings with the Sicilians w/heroin).

Yabroud, Syria

Monzer Al Kassar, born in Yabroud, Syria. The parents of Carlos Menem (later president of Argentina) came from the same place.

Syrian al Kassar family

Monzer al kassar was probably arrested in Great Britain in either 67 or 68 at the latest. By 1968 its on record that he was an informant for Leslie Aspin of MI6, so it would seem logical that his arrest would not have occurred later than 68.

[..]

Syrian al Kassar family

Monzer's oldest brother Ghassan was arrested in Milan in 69 in connection with a stolen car ring operating out of Bulgaria.

Leslie Aspin "kovacs"

In 1969, Leslie Aspin delivered weapons to the Black September movement, the terrorist faction for the PLO, the weapons came from Syria and Libya. Also in 1969 Rifaat Assad orders Al Kassar to contact Leslie "Kovacs" Aspin, At that moment Syria had a lucrative trade in opium and heroin from the lebanese Bekaa valley, it is estimated that about 20% of the heroin in the USA came from the Bekaa valley, most came from the Golden Triangle. Palestinian Sabri Al-Banna "Abu Nidal" got help at the orders of the syrian president Haffez Al Assad, who allowed them to set up camps in the Bekaa valley to train terrorists as a contact they got the militairy intelligence colonel Alí Issa Douab.

There has also been a theory that Monzer al-Kassar sort of "flipped" Leslie Aspin and under the direction of Rifat Assad was able to get Aspin to recruit British SAS advisors to train the Libyan intelligence service. The theory goes that Al-Kassar used Aspin in his drugs and arms trade (Aspin wasnt involved in the drug end but only in the arms) and thus Aspin helped recruit British SAS soldiers to train members of the Libyan intelligence service. This team of SAS mercenaries reportedy also trained members of the terrorist organization Black September. MI6 at this time had another agent infiltrated into Black September who was watching Aspins and Al-Kassars activities. MI6 then blackmailed Aspin into giving up information on the doings of the Al-Kassars in the Middle East and their involvement with various terrorist organizations. Aspin became MI6's most important source in the Middle East and was given the code name Kovaks. His controller used the codename of "Homer". MI6's main reason for using Aspin is that they wanted him to warn them of gun shipments that the Al-Kassar group was running from Libay to Northern Ireland. Aspins ability to warn British intelligence of these shipments to the IRA were invaluable. After Monzer Al-Kassars arrest in Denmark (there is some speculation that he was directly recruited to MI6 at this time by-passing Aspin) he fled to England and set up the import-export firm Espargo which also had offices in Beirut. In this way MI6 was able to track money moving to every terrorist organization in the world supposedly. Aspin became suspicious that the British government was going to betray him to the Arabs and IRA and blame him for all of the failed shipments of guns. Aspin in turn tipped off the Americans that the British werent telling them all they knew about Al-Kassars drug shipments to the United States. Aspin contacted Larry Katz who was a narcotics agent in the US embassy in London and warned of an upcoming drug shipment to New York. The Americans intercepted the shipment. Aspin goes on to say that in 1973 he talked to an old source in Black September that told him of a plan to blow up an El Al or Pan Am plane in Rome. Aspin passed the info onto "Homer" who promised to pass the info onto the Americans and Italian authorities. Aspin subsequently stated that he is positive that "Homer" did not do this because before the end of the month a Pan Am plane blew up on the tarmac in Rome. It is beleived that possible MI6 did not want to tip off about the terrorist plot or Al-Kassars narcotics shipments because they wanted him to have criminal "bona-fides" with the people and organizations he was dealing with and wanted to continue to use him as their best source in the Middle East.

Al-Kassar if memory serves me correctly touches into the Nugan Hand Bank and the BCCI affair. According to some sources, during this time the Soviets had a covert policy to have their terrorist proxies have the ability to be financially self-sufficient through dealing in drugs. Syria, which had always had a lucrative drug trade turned it into a multi-billion dollar industry after the takeover of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. It is beleived that at one time through this pipeline they were supplying 20 percent of the heroin sold in the United States. They did this through Monzer al-Kassar who had offices in Spain, Poland and East Germany while his financial transactions were laundered through a series of banks in Switzerland.

[..]

Syrian al Kassar family

MI6 knew that the brothers Ghassama and Monzer Al Kassar had been detained on 12 January of 1970 in Vienna for selling 5 Lambroghinis with false documents and yet were immediately released. On 3 February the same brothers were arrested in Trieste for the same charge, this time they where associated with italians and Greeks. The Italian police found indications to suspect that the brain of the network was the patriarch of the family- Al Kassar, Mohammed, who at that time, was the ambassador of Syria, New Delhi. The reasons of State have been, once again, that Ghassam and Monzer Al Kassar recovered their freedom.

Baghdad, Iraq, Sabri al-Bana (Abu Nidal)

In 1970 Abu Nidal was appointed Fatah's representative in Baghdad, Iraq. He went on to his most important appointment, as the movement's representative in Iraq, where he established strong ties with the Ba'thist intelligence apparatus and the Iraqi leadership. There he began consolidating around him a group of loyal activists. With the assistance of the Iraqi intelligence services, Abu Nidal formed his own terrorist group and began to act in against Fatah's official policy, because of his opposition to any participation in the political negotiations.

[..]

Syrian al Kassar family

In 1972 Danish authorities are informed that Monzer al-Kassar is smuggling hashish from Lebanon to Copenhagen in stolen cars. There is well informed speculation that MI6 had tipped off the Danes in order to put pressure on him. In February of 1972, Danish police arrived at a house occupied by the Syrian Samir Hanna at 17 Mariendalsvej Street in Copenhagen. According to the police report, “the Syrian citizen Monzer al Mohammed Al Kassam was detained on February 15, 1972, and a bag of hashish was seized which was verified to have Al Kassam’s fingerprints on it. MI6 is informed of this occurrence, but requested of the Danish police that they set aside the charges against the Syrian and set him free.

[..]

Syrian al Kassar family

From that moment, “Homero” would begin an implacable pursuit, coming to verify how Al Kassar, accompanied by Jorge Antonio, embarked on the Alitalia plane that, on the 17th of November 1972, brought Juan Peron back to Argentina. In the following weeks, the Syrian traveled to the province of Mendoza, where he visited some relative that resided in the area of Los Corralitos, and a little later, he moved on to La Rioja. There he met with certain friends. Upon his return to Europe, Al Kassar was met with an arrest warrant for having imported three kilos of hashish on board a transport of heavy cargo (could mean a truck or barge here). MI6, discreetly arrived in Copenhagen. “Homero” made the same proposition to Al Kassar he had previously made to Aspin. If the Syrian cooperated, the British would help him with his legal problems and compensate him generously. If not, then they would let it be known that Al Kassar had been the person who had betrayed the most recent arms shipments from Syria and Lybia to the Palestinians, ruining them.

[..]

Syrian al Kassar family

The Danish courts issued an arrest warrant on March 16, 1973 charging Monzer with drug smuggling. The 16th of March 1973 was a day of movement in the world of international espionage. Leslie Aspin defected from the British agency to become a CIA man. A special agent of the DEA, Larry Katz, carried “Kovacs” to the U.S. embassy in London, and a few hours later the deserter was headed to the U.S. Meanwhile, in a discreet apartment located in the area of Hyde Park and close to London’s famous Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, the Syrian Monzer Al Kassar was converted to be an English double agent, infiltrating the military and logistical infrastructure of the Organization to Liberate Palestine (PLO).

[..]

Al Kassar family

The British government served as a protector for Al-Kassars banking network in order to keep its eye on various terrorists and keep an unparalleled window open on the Middle East region. Monzer Al-Kassars Arab partners continued to trust him as he kept immense drug profits rolling in. The British, afraid that Aspin was going to expose the Al-kassar network, decided to expose Aspin as in informant for them. On Sept 6, 1974 MI6 planted a story on Aspin in an Irish newspaper. MI6 leaked his true name and the details of his role in various arms intercepts. Aspin fearing assassination fled to the United States. Some believe that Aspin began to work as an informant for the DEA shortly after this. It is also beleived that Aspin began work for the CIA and told them about the British governments dirty relationship with Monzer Al-Kassar. This in turn gave the CIA the leverage it needed to form a partnership with the British government in Angola. The CIA promised the British government it would keep quiet about their compromising relationship with Al-Kassar in return for use of a secret army of British mercenaries to fight in Angola. After the Portugese colonial rulers pulled out of Angola in 1975 the pro-Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola won the battle for power over pro-Western rivals. Angola being a rich oil deposit this was not satisfactory to United States oil companies.

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This is drawn from a MAR 2000 Middle East Intelligence Bulletin on links between Syria and the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing in Argentina:

This report hypothesizes a "Syrian connection" to the bombing of the Israeli embassy and the AMIA building, mainly through the presence and suspicious activities of a Syrian, Monzer al-Kazzar and an Argentine, Alfredo Yabran, and their link to then presidential candidate Carlos Menem's trip to Syria in 1988 and his promises concerning the Condor II missile and the installation of nuclear reactors in return for campaign funding. The report accuses investigators of a cover-up, noting that any possibility that sectors of the Syrian government or its surrogates could have been involved in the preparation or execution of the bombings have been ignored.

According to the report, taped testimony that tied certain people with the main suspects disappeared due to the negligence of the security services. The involvement of foreigners intimately associated with the previous government has been ignored, and they have been freed of suspicions "thanks to the lies spilled by civil employees of the government." These manipulations were to be expected since "all those investigated and soon rejected suspects were related, in one way or another, intimately with sectors of the previous government, including ex-president Carlos Menem himself." Suspicious activity by a number of Syrians are described in the report, including Mohamed Alem, Narman al-Hennawi, Ghassam al-Zein, Hassan Iasin Satin, Ali Chedade al-Hassan, Yalal Nacrach, Jacinto Kanoore Edul, Nassif Haddad, Javier Haddad and Monzer al-Kassar.

While there had been a successful attempt during the years since the attack to show that the Iranian track was antagonistic to the Syrian one, the Argentine group believes that both tracks "not only are not antagonistic to each other, but are interrelated with each other."

"The intent to show their antagonism is due, above all, to a real ignorance of the geopolitical alliances that were established in the Middle East, the deep relations that both sides maintain, the communion of interests, and, mostly, the clear objective to want to deviate the attention of public opinion from any indication that will involve the former government with suspects of the attacks, knowing, beforehand, the international scandal that this signifies."

[..]

In the petition filed against al-Kassar, Public Prosecutor Rivoli pointed out that the unfulfilled promises by al-Kassar (to invest millions of dollars in the country) were for the purpose of realizing activities, publicly acknowledged, such as the sale of armaments. While al-Kassar was settling himself in Argentina under the protection of the former government (he was able to obtain an Argentine passport in "record time"), Ibrahim al-Ibrahim was installing himself in the Customs of Ezeiza, and Yabran was strengthening his power over the fiscal deposits, the post office, and the transfer of wealth. Separate investigations affirmed that the establishment of the trio in "neuralgic sectors of power" facilitated the creation of a "real parallel customs" or "free zone" from where all types of merchandise entered, circulated, and exited without any control. Thus the suspicions that part of the technological secrets of the Condor II left through Customs and that the "exogenous" material that blew the embassy of Israel entered.

Incidentally, it was in 1991 that the illegal sales of arms to Croatia and Ecuador began. A witness, whose identity has not been disclosed and who presumably belonged to the organization led by al-Kassar, declared before the Swiss judge that the Syrian arms trafficker was the intermediary between the Argentine government and Croatian President Tujdman for the resulting arms into Argentina. The witness, of Spanish origin, affirmed that the cargo was destined for Croatia, moving through the Spanish port of Malaga.

Al-Kassar is also linked with the presidential nephew, Yalal Nacrach, known as the "Hezbollah " of Menemism. Yalal appears tied to the arms cause, among others, via the deposits in the famous account of Daforel on the part of the Eltham Trading investment fund with the investigations of the scandal of the sale of arms. Four hundred thousand dollars was deposited in the Daforel account, which Palleros earmarked as the payment of a bribery to a "high-level industrialist tied to the power."

Another element which the report indicates links al-Kassar with the Argentine arms traffic is an Ecuadorian government document, classified as "top secret," published by the Ecuadorian daily Posdata on September 11, 1998, which states that the intermediaries for the arms operation were al-Kassar and Jean Lasnaud. Most importantly were the suspicious relations that maintained ties between the arms operation and some of the suspects in the attack on AMIA.

On March 17, 1992, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was blown up, product of a supposed car bomb that exploded in front of the diplomatic headquarters. The expert of the Supreme Court of Justice, Oscar Laborda, who later worked for AMIA, demonstrated that the explosive contained 65 kilos of extraneous material known as C-4 or Sentex. His conclusions were similar to those reached by the American agency for the Control of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

At the same time that the Israeli, American, and Argentine experts were debating over the origin of the explosive, then-Minister of the Interior, Josè Luis Manzano, was receiving through the intermediation of a high-placed English diplomat, confirmation that al-Kassar was at that time in Argentina. Manzano was alarmed when he read that the Syrian had entered the country through the Ezeiza airport on Iberia flight 6940, originating from Spain.

Another file processed by the Spanish secret services has information that ties al-Kassar with the attack on the embassy and would be used by the secret service as a form of blackmail against the arms trafficking so that al-Kassar would continue to perform "some jobs" for Spanish spies. The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, also demonstrated that the same file was the one used by Anserment to accuse al-Kassar in the triangulation of the Sentex.

The then prosecutor of the Swiss district, demonstrated, in his indictment against al-Kassar, that based on the evidence from the Spanish Ministry of Mines, the investigations of the journalist, Bermudez, and the information from Spanish intelligence, there was a definite possibility that al-Kassar had triangulated part of the Sentex from Spain, going through Damascus, and reaching Buenos Aires via the fiscal deposits of Ezeiza.

According to Anserment's investigation, the Sentex was bought in a Spanish factory by Cenrex Trading Corporation, LTD of Varsovia. The prosecutor was able to establish that the owner of the firm was none other than Monzer al-Kassar, under the alias of "Monzer Galioun." His investigation also showed that the material, which had been destined for the Democratic Republic of Yemen, was never shipped. He also pointed out that part of the cargo of the triangulated Sentex was sent to Syria, and from there, left for Buenos Aires in 1991, a few months before the attack on the embassy.

According to the majority of those who investigated the attack on the embassy (but not all), the explosion resulted from a Ford F-100 truck, which had been rented by a person with false identity, using the alias "Elias Griveiro Da Luz." This person paid $21,000 for the truck, 50 percent more than its value on the market. According to the report, it can be established that the money used to pay for the truck originated at a house of currency exchange in the Lebanese city of Biblos, a subsidiary of a larger house of exchange, the "Society of Change in Beirut," which was the property of al-Kassar.

The Syrian arms trafficker pointed out to the daily, Clarin, and later in a broadcast on "Hora Clave" that he had "abandoned the sale of arms and had dedicated himself to construction and the managing of the most important exchange house in Beirut," which, by chance, was none other than the Society of Change in Beirut, the most important in the Lebanese capital. The Justice department did not bother to investigate if the $21,000 originated from the holding company "Al Khaled Kassar," with headquarters in Damascus and immense interests in Lebanon. According to journalists, the holding company belonged to Ahmed Jibril, leader of the pro-Syrian movement, the Palestine-Comando Special Popular Liberation Front, to Rifaat Assad, brother of the Syrian president, and al-Kassar.

The Court also did not investigate the movement of Customs between the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992, which the reporting opposition group had demanded, despite the fact that organizations such as the CIA, DEA, and others had denounced Ezeiza, which was directed by al-Ibrahim.

The report affirms that the investigations of the attack on the embassy of Israel have been relegated to absolute silence, investigating false trails to the point of condemning "generically" an organization, Islamic Jihad, which because of the investigators' lack of knowledge of the prevailing reality in the Middle East, did not even try to learn when and in which context that organization makes a public appearance. It was more than 20 years ago when Islamic Jihad appeared "for the one and only time" in the attack against the US marines in Beirut, only to disappear from the map right after.

"The Trail that Menem Fears" details the relationship between Customs, the house of exchange, the trafficking of arms, the meeting of al-Kassar and Yabran in Falda del Carmen, the relationship with Yamal Batich, Ibrahim al-Ibrahim, as well as former president Menem (the actual target of this report), all of which it concludes leads to a Syrian connection to the bombings of the Israeli embassy and AMIA. Its principal "proof," however, is the resistance to following the various leads, which may have proven this Syrian connection.

[Len Colby]

LOL

Your 1st source is an anonymously written page on an obscure private website that cites no sources and wasn’t even proofread. It contains numerous spelling, grammar and punctuation errors and some factual errors, for example on another part of the page it says “On July 5, 1950 on the sixth anniverary of the death of Theodor Herzl, Israel enacts the Law of Return guaranteeing the right of every Jew no matter where he or she lives in the world, the right to enter Israel and become a citizen immediately. Interestingly enough years later this right was denied to the Jewish-American gangster Meyer Lansky when he sought refuge in Israel.”

Except Herzl died July 3, 1904 so it was enacted 2 DAYS AFTER the FORTY-“sixth anniverary” [sic] of his death and had a clause which excluded “a person with a criminal past, likely to endanger public welfare."

It makes unlikely claims such as:

- In 1974 Kassar “fled to England and set up the import-export firm Espargo which also had offices in Beirut. In this way MI6 was able to track money moving to every terrorist organization in the world supposedly.”

- Sometime between 1969 and 1973 “British SAS soldiers train[ed] members of the Libyan intelligence service. This team of SAS mercenaries reportedy also trained members of the terrorist organization Black September”

Even if the claims about Monzer al Kassar are accurate the page never alleged that al Kassar did ops on MI6’s behalf only that he gave them intel especially on cooperation between the IRA and Middle East terrorist groups in exchange for protection. He was last said to have been an MI6 informant in 1974, 18-20 years before the bombings, when the US supposedly found out about the deal and used it to blackmail the Brits. No mention is made of him supposedly have a relationship with the US or Israel. If he ever really had MI6’s protection it ended in 1974.

“Mr al Kassar has a British conviction for smuggling five kilos of hashish in 1974. He was sentenced in 1977 to two-and-a-half years in jail but was released, having already served the term. Scotland Yard kept tabs on him and when he sought to enter Britain in 1984 in one of his three private jets, bearing a Syrian diplomatic passport, he was refused entry.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/british-firm-denies-links-to-terrorist-703375.html

See also: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/alkassar.html , http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/02/08/100208fa_fact_keefe?currentPage=all

The second source seems far more reliable and connects Syrian intelligence, which has close ties to Hezbollah and Iran but is a bitter enemy of Israel, to the bombings. For that I award you the Andres Escobar Own Goal Prize.

[Steven Gaal]

1976: CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies Use BCCI to Control and Manipulate Criminals and Terrorists Worldwide

Agha Hasan Abedi. [source: Terry Kirk / Financial Times]Investigative journalist Joseph Trento will later report that in 1976, the Safari Club, a newly formed secret cabal of intelligence agencies (see September 1, 1976-Early 1980s), decides it needs a network of banks to help finance its intelligence operations. Saudi Intelligence Minister Kamal Adham is given the task. With the official blessing of George H. W. Bush as the head of the CIA, Adham transformed a small Pakistani merchant bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), into a world-wide money-laundering machine, buying banks around the world to create the biggest clandestine money network in history. BCCI was founded in 1972 by a Pakistani named Agha Hasan Abedi, who was an associate of Adhams. Bush himself has an account at BCCI established while still director of the CIA. French customs will later raid the Paris BCCI branch and discover the account in Bushs name. [Trento, 2005, pp. 104] Bush, Adham, and other intelligence heads work with Abedi to contrive a plan that seemed too good to be true. The bank would solicit the business of every major terrorist, rebel, and underground organization in the world. The intelligence thus gained would be shared with friends of BCCI. CIA operative Raymond Close works closely with Adham on this. BCCI taps into the CIAs stockpile of misfits and malcontents to help man a 1,500-strong group of assassins and enforcers. [Trento, 2005, pp. 104] Soon, BCCI becomes the fastest growing bank in the world. Time magazine will later describe BCCI as not just a bank, but also a global intelligence operation and a Mafia-like enforcement squad. Operating primarily out of the banks offices in Karachi, Pakistan, the 1,500-employee black network has used sophisticated spy equipment and techniques, along with bribery, extortion, kidnapping and even, by some accounts, murder. The black networkso named by its own membersstops at almost nothing to further the banks aims the world over. [Time, 7/22/1991]

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1984-1986: CIA Reveals BCCIs Drug and Terrorist Links to Other US Agencies, but No Action Taken

The CIA sends a report on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and its drug-related activities to other US government departments. It follows up with a report about BCCIs links to notorious terrorists such as Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world at the time. Similar reports follow in 1986. However, the Justice Department, Treasury Department, and other departments keep silent about what they know and no action is taken against the bank. [uS Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, 12/1992; Cooley, 2002, pp. 93]

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Uncovering financial crime in the developed worldBCCI Affair: The Last Word Posted on April 8, 2011 by greyeconomy

Over the last several posts, GreyEconomy, has recounted the BCCI scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s. We utilized the Kerry/Brown Report as a guide into the highly complicated fraud that was BCCI. Even to this day, regulators, law makers and the business community is not fully aware of the full extent and reach of BCCI’s fraud.

BCCI crimes included: money laundering, bribery, support of terrorism and arms trafficking, support of Cartel death squads, prostitution, and intimidation of witnesses.

Even with this nefarious character BCCI was able to infiltrate the highest rungs of society all over the world.

As a parting word, Kerry and Brown leave us with these ominous thoughts:

Many of the specific criminal transactions engaged in by BCCI’s customers remain hidden from investigation as the result of bank secrecy laws in many jurisdictions, British national security laws, and the holding of key witnesses and documents by the Government of Abu Dhabi. Documents pertaining to BCCI’s use to finance terrorism, to assist the builders of a Pakistani nuclear bomb, to finance Iranian arms deals, and related matters have been sealed in the United Kingdom by British intelligence and remain unavailable to U.S. investigators. Many other basic matters pertaining to BCCI’s criminality, including any list that may exist of BCCI’s political payoffs and bribes, remain sequestered in Abu Dhabi and unavailable to U.S. investigators.

Many investigative leads remain to be explored, but cannot be answered with devoting substantial additional sources that to date no agency of government has been in a position to provide.

Unanswered questions include, but are not limited to, the relationship between BCCI and the Banco Nazionale del Lavoro; the alleged relationship between the late CIA director William Casey and BCCI; the extent of BCCI’s involvement in Pakistan’s nuclear program; BCCI’s manipulation of commodities and securities markets in Europe and Canada; BCCI’s activities in India, including its relationship with the business empire of the Hinduja family; BCCI’s relationships with convicted Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Sarkenalian, Syrian drug trafficker, terrorist, and arms trafficker Monzer Al-Kassar, and other major arms dealers; the use of BCCI by central figures in the alleged “October Surprise,” BCCI’s activities with the Central Bank of Syria and with the Foreign Trade Mission of the Soviet Union in London; its involvement with foreign intelligence agencies; the financial dealingst of BCCI directors with Charles Keating and several Keating affiliates and front-companies, including the possibility that BCCI related entities may have laundered funds for Keating to move them outside the United States; BCCI’s financing of commodities and other business dealings of international criminal financier Marc Rich; the nature, extent and meaning of the ownership of other major U.S. financial institutions by Middle Eastern political figures; the nature, extent, and meaning of real estate and financial investments in the United States by major shareholders of BCCI; the sale of BCCI affiliate Banque de Commerce et Placement in Geneva, to the Cukorova Group of Turkey, which owned an entity involved in the BNL Iraqi arms sales, among others.

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In particular, the British had recruited as an agent a notorious Syrian drug dealer, Monzer Al-Kassar, whom Aspin knew from the Seventies when they had been involved in gun-running. see http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/was-this-man-britains-irangate-fixer-1445398.html

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November 1978-February 1979: Some US Officials Want to Support Radical Muslims to Contain Soviet Union

In December 1978, President Carters National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski says, An arc of crisis stretches along the shores of the Indian Ocean, with fragile social and political structures in a region of vital importance to us threatened with fragmentation. The resulting political chaos could well be filled by elements hostile to our values and sympathetic to our adversaries. [Time, 1/8/1979] There is widespread discontent and rioting in Iran at the time. State Department official Henry Precht will later recall that Brzezinski had the idea that Islamic forces could be used against the Soviet Union. The theory was, there was an arc of crisis, and so an arc of Islam could be mobilized to contain the Soviets. [scott, 2007, pp. 67] In November 1978, President Carter appointed George Ball head of a special White House Iran task force under Brzezinski. Ball recommends the US should drop support for the Shah of Iran and support the radical Islamist opposition of Ayatollah Khomeini. This idea is based on ideas from British Islamic expert Dr. Bernard Lewis, who advocates the balkanization of the entire Muslim Near East along tribal and religious lines. The chaos would spread in what he also calls an arc of crisis and ultimately destabilize the Muslim regions of the Soviet Union. The Shah will later comment in exile, I did not know it then, perhaps I did not want to know? But it is clear to me now that the Americans wanted me out. Clearly this is what the human rights advocates in the State Department wanted. What was I to make of the Administrations sudden decision to call former Under Secretary of State George Ball to the White House as an adviser on Iran? Ball was among those Americans who wanted to abandon me and ultimately my country. [Engdahl, 1992] While there is later debate about US policy towards Iran actually is at this time, it will be noted that the Carter administration had no clear policy due to internal divisions and confusion. [Keddie, 2003] The Shah abdicates on January 16, 1979, and Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile to Iran on February 1, 1979, taking over the government. Brzezinski will attempt to create a de facto alliance with Khomeinis new fundamentalist government, but his efforts will come to a half with the Iranian hostage crisis in November 1979 (see February-November 4, 1979).

Edited April 18, 2011 by Steven Gaal

[Len Colby]

The most of your post is nothing but smoke. The only relevant parts were:

- “Unanswered questions include, but are not limited to...BCCI’s relationships with convicted Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Sarkenalian, Syrian drug trafficker, terrorist, and arms trafficker Monzer Al-Kassar, and other major arms dealers”

It's not surprising you failed to cite the source, it's a self-published book by an obscure (and I suspect pseudonymous) author who cited no sources. That aside he did even claim that BCCI had a “relationship with”Al-Kassar, he only said it was an “unanswered question”, he is not mentioned anywhere else in the book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=QcuiRQY3loAC&pg=PA213

- “In particular, the British had recruited as an agent a notorious Syrian drug dealer, Monzer Al-Kassar, whom Aspin knew from the Seventies when they had been involved in gun-running”

What you omitted was that the authors of the article weren't affirming that the British recruited Al-Kassar in the 80's but rather that Leslie Aspin did and they expressed a degree of skepticism that he could be believed:

“If you believe his own account, Leslie Aspin led an extraordinary life. It finished miserably in 1989, when he died after prolonged heart disease. He was 50 years old, his marriage had broken up and he was living with his elderly mother in Norwich. He was not working; occasionally he sold cars. He was dismissed as a fraud - few were prepared to believe he was one of the most important secret agents Britain has ever had.”

They seemed to think his claims were credible but they based that on supposed supporting evidence presented by “ two respected reporters...John Loftus...[and] Mark Aarons... [whose] findings are published in the US in a book entitled The Secret War Against the Jews.” Loftus and Aarons made lots of wild thinly supported claims almost half of which are supported by “confidential” sources. Their central thesis is that since the 1920's Western intelligence services have conspired against Jews, for example they claimed that Israel attacked the USS Liberty because the NSA was spying on them and providing that intel to Egypt and Syria. Though Aspin was named he died 5 years before the book was published supposedly he made a sworn affidavit but AFAIK no one but the authors has seen it.

Edited April 19, 2011 by Len Colby

[Steven Gaal]

MI6 does seem to work with ARAB terrorists,per Crazy CT BBC. SG

XXXX++++++XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'Al-Qaeda assassin worked for MI6', secret cables claim

The BBC reports.....

An alleged al-Qaeda militant suspected of bombing a luxury hotel and two churches in Pakistan in 2002 was an informer for MI6, it has been claimed.

Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili was detained at Guantanamo Bay between 2003 and last year when he was sent back to his native Algeria by President Obama.

Wikileaks released the files of 759 Guantanamo detainees at the weekend.

They included unverified claims that al-Qaeda had hidden a nuclear weapon in Europe for detonation should Osama Bin laden be captured and attempts by al-Qaeda to recruit workers at London's Heathrow Airport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13191959

[Len Colby]

Steve you really should learn to read for comprehension beyond the headlines. The 2nd sentence of the text indicates he was locked up 2003 – 2010, so obviously he was not truly in cahoots with western intelligence. But your post is nothing but a strawman, no one disputed that MI6, the CIA, Mossad or other western intel. agencies “work [or worked] with ARAB terrorists”. Obviously you don't understand that CRIMINAL informants are criminals. Its a quid pro quo, the intel/law enforcement agencies give them free rides in exchange for information. The informants are supposed to stay with in certain boundaries but that doesn't always happen. Hamlili being locked up gives credence to the claim he "withheld important information from the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service and the British Secret Intelligence Service”, there was no suggestion in the article the Brits or Canadians knew about his participation in the attacks let alone that they put him up to them.