BILLIONS IN US BONDS SEIZED BY ITALY AT SWISS BORDER: Who Done It?

June 18th, 2009 - by: danny

DEVELOPING STORY: Walter Cronkite “gravely ill”, says the Sun Times. A Source close to Cronkite says report is exaggerated. He is, however, 92.

Iran’s Supreme Leader: No Fraud In Elections, Protests Must Cease

Friday Morning: A P: TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader said Friday that there was “definitive victory” and no rigging in disputed presidential elections, offering no concession to protesters demanding the vote be canceled and held again.

In his first public address since demonstrators flooded the streets, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said protests should cease and the opposition must pursue its complaints within the confines of the cleric-led ruling system.

CRIME OF THE CENTURY?
FALL OUT FROM OBAMA FINANCIAL REFORMS
TWEETS HECKLE LINK BETWEEN IRAN AND REPUGS IN CONGRESS

Its another rainy day. Dark. Depressing. There seems to be no global warming here in the big apple.

(Shebar Windtsone takes me to task for this first line: L
ooks like you didn’t read this news: Global warming (not to mention the capitalists & imperialists behind it, which of course they don’t) is reportedly the cause of y/our endless soggy & gray days.)

I am working on my film on the crimes behind the crisis as I think about what to write.

Sometimes I feel like I have little left to contribute as the news goes from bad to worse and the Obama Administration shows how captive it is to the securocrats who seem to allow some pregressive flexibility in domestic policy but draw the line on national security as if it is their turf to have and hold.

Like Mafia enforcers, they keep policy and the range of acceptable discourse within bounds. That’s probably why so many Obama policies on these issues seem to be coming out of the Bush playbook. My pal and the Congressional brother Eric Nadler (Hear him on radio show podcast below) reminds me that while office holders may change, and Aministrations come and go, the permanent government remains. Call it the Military-Industrial Complex if you will but remember it was so named by a former General and Republican president named Eisenhower. It’s still there.

As I was digesting that not always obvious observation, having just knocked out an analysis of the Obama Financial reforms myself, I came across this rather mindblowing and unsettling story of a crime that seems to put even Bernie Madoff to shame.

It was datelined Milan and appeared on Asia News:

Milan (AsiaNews) — Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each.

If they’re real, what government (the only entity that would have such a cache) is trying to unload them?

If they’re fake, this is arguably the biggest counterfeiting operation ever, by a factor of many times. I’ve seen news about various counterfeiting operations over the years that have made me chuckle, but this one, if that’s what it is, is absolutely jaw-dropping.

The cute part of this is that if the certificates are real Italy just got a hell of a bonanza – their money laundering laws provide for a statutory 40% penalty for failure to declare instruments and cash in excess of $10,000 Euros, which means they’d garner a close-to-$40 billion dollar windfall.

That ought to help their budget problems!”

The story was all over the world all day.There were many charges on line that the US Media has totally ignored ir – even though the securities in question are allegedly US instruments. Or so writes Karl Denninger.

And than I found a a US story, filled with incredulity on Bloomberg News:

Bloomberg: William Pesak: Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge

June 17 (Bloomberg) — It’s a plot better suited for a John Le Carre novel.

Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.

Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea’s cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds real or counterfeit?

The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale.”

I saw another website using this story to blast ABC News for not focusing on this but instead committing to carry an OBAMA Health Care summit as if that’s a sign that the network is in the tank to the President. Sorry to diabuse all the protesters who seem to forget that ABC stands for “Aways Be Conservative.” Does anyone remember ABCs Charlie and George combo plate making idiots of themselves in moderating that debate between Barack and Hillary in Philly? This is the Network whose radio stations bring us Sean Hannity and Rusk L, hardly a paragon or radicalism. If they missed this story, its not unusual, since most of the media misses the corporate crime story most of the time

(CORRECTION: OOPS, made an error here. ABC has sold its radio stations as a reader advises: “Noticed that you think that the ABC radio stations are still owned by the same company that owns the ABC television network. Disney sold the radio stations (including WABC and WMAL) and the ABC radio network to Citadel some time ago.

Yes, but, Rush and Sean got their start and big boost when Capital Cities and then ABC when they owned the network. I believe Disney operated it for many years without doing much to diversify the airwaves.)

This story is just too good to remain in the news media. Forget Rahm Emmanuel at the White House. I am sure his brother Ari, the big Hollywood agent and macher, is flogging it as I write.

The News Dissector