PROJECT HAMMER, HAMMER RELOADED: Covert Finance, the Parallel Economy & Elite Actions

[joeblow]

Covert Finance, the Parallel Economy & Elite Actions

http://rapidshare.com/files/366196940/P ... loaded.pdf

By David Guyatt

Project Hammer is all about money. Stupendous great gobs of money. So much
money, in fact, that it will challenge whatever reality you thought you had about the overworld
of banking, finance and economics.
It is also about the nether world of international banking and finance, a world that is said
not to exist in reality. But exist it does. More often than not this never-never-land of
international banking is concealed from public view by the judicious use of two sets of
books. It is also eclipsed from interested investigators by a never-ending series of real
frauds that result in arrest and imprisonment of numerous scam artists. This creates the
clever illusion that the only thing going on are artful scams designed to fleece the
unwary.
Such swindles fall under the general category of "High Yield Investment Programmes,"
"Front End Fee" frauds and "Prime Bank Note" schemes. Numerous law enforcement
cases such as these, when twinned with dire "beware" warnings published on FBI, US
Treasury and other websites, easily lead one to conclude that there are no such things as
"real" trading programmes. And the powers that be don't at all object to this conclusion
being reached. It is the old case of hiding trees in a forest.
A key point to keep to the fore in what follows is that trading programmes operate "offledger."
That is to say the banks and central banks that operate them run two sets of
books – one set for public scrutiny and another set for private viewing only. Another fact
to bear in mind is that authorised programmes generate quite spectacular profits for very
little, in fact, miniscule risk, and those that are invited to participate as funders,
accumulate capital at a shockingly rapid rate. One reason, perhaps, why the wealthy get
altogether wealthier as the poor sink ever lower into the mire of poverty.
The financial, banking and economic shadow-world in which Project Hammer lived,
breathed and manufactured money "out of thin air" is the dirty little secret of the western
economy. It is a form of money creation that is effectively unchallenged by any form of
oversight or accountability as we understand it. "Hammer" and numerous other
transactions like it are based on what are known as "Collateral Trading Programmes" –
although many other descriptive names and terms are also used.
The reason for such programmes is to create vast pools of ready money that are
earmarked for use in sanctioned (authorised) operations and projects. On the plus side,
many beneficial projects throughout the world get funded as a result of programme
trading. On the negative side, there are more shadowy projects. Included in the latter
category are certain black operations.
The amalgamated pool of funds created and now held in dormant and orphaned bank
accounts run to trillions of dollars, according to insiders. At the low end of estimates
there is believed to be enough to pay off the US national debt plus some change. At the
higher end, estimates range up to hundreds of trillions of dollars. I have been repeatedly
told, almost matter-of-factly, that the higher estimates are closer to the truth. I simply
don't know how big the sums amount to but I can document $12 trillion. This sum is
revealed in the late Baron Krupp papers that form part of the exhibits of companion
volume to this dossier, THE SECRET GOLD TREATY
(http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk).
Many different sources say that programmes are also used to launder money by spinning
it through a programme cycle until it is pristine clean. Drugs, guns and the usual array of
dirty money transactions are said to feature.
Since US dollars are the corner-stone of all programme activity, Uncle Sam naturally gets
a bite of the action. A percentage of the proceeds are collected via private tax treaties
negotiated with off-shore entities. These treaties also help to shield the reality of these
programmes from public awareness. There are unsubstantiated rumours that some of the
tax take occasionally gets "diverted" for altogether private purposes. It is an allegation
that is impossible to stand up, however.
London and Zurich are key centres for programme activity although transactions are
usually booked through off-shore entities. London & Zurich are also gold centres and
more than one credible source confirms that black gold form an important part of
programme trading activity. There are also good reasons to suppose that part of Uncle
Sam's share of trading profits are credited to the Exchange Stabilisation Fund. Here it is
pooled with other funds and used to shore-up the American economy by – amongst other
manoeuvres - manipulating the gold price to keep it below a pre-determined price.
Trading programmes are the preserve of many governments, their treasury departments
and the top international banks which by very nature have the necessary mechanisms in
place to enable trading to take place efficiently and secretly. Banks from G7 nations
dominate. It follows therefore, that a number of problems occur as a consequence of the
multi-jurisdictional nature of supervision, and although safeguards are in place to ensure
that "clean" money is fed into the system, this doesn't always happen. Funds of suspect
origin do enter the system and are made pristine clean by this form of paper alchemy.
Large sums of "black" gold, cash or other forms of convertible assets are used as
"collateral" to initiate trading programmes. There are also certain classes of government
issued Treasury Notes and Bonds that are privately lodged into major western banks.
These "treasuries" are never meant to see the light of day but are, in turn, used by major
banks to back the issuance of their own bank debentures "off-ledger" in substantially
leveraged amounts that can run into tens of trillions of dollars - or their foreign currency
equivalents. In turn, this bank "paper" is traded in pre-arranged "buy/sell" transactions at
steep discounts (cents on the dollar) of the face value of the issued bank debentures. The
trading of the paper between banks – using proxies - is arranged and coordinated so that
the traded obligations effectively "wash out" or are otherwise cancelled, although other
scenarios exist where issued paper is purchased at a fair market value and held to
maturity. In the past trading was paper based but today everything is electronic "screenbased"
and consequently, the credits traded have a life of milliseconds.
The difference between the buy and sell price - usually known as the "spread" (in the
case of Hammer this was said to be many percentage points) generates a "fallout" - a
term that implies profit. In other transactions, most notably "Jacobe," the spread was
represented to be at least 10% on a planned face value issuance of US$27.5 trillion
according to documents I have seen. This would have created a fallout of US$2.75
trillion. However, for reasons yet unknown to this writer it seems that the Jacobe
programme, privately hailed as the largest programme "ever put together" was, for
reasons that are still inexplicable, only two thirds completed.
Less grand but just as interesting in other respects was the fallout from Project Hammer
that is said to have totalled over US$220 billion. In fact, the precise sum is US$
223,104,000,008.03.
THE NUGAN HAND BANK CONNECTION
One of the central characters associated with Project Hammer was Brigadier
General Erle Cocke. Back in 1966 along with his sleeping partner General
Eugene Phillips, Erle Cocke established the Washington based consultancy firm
Cocke & Phillips International. This was at the height of the Vietnam war and
just a few months after cold warrior Paul H Nitze, issued the directive authorising
the establishment of the US Navy's clandestine intelligence collection programme
– more commonly known as Task Force 157.
TF 157 would later feature in the Nugan Hand Bank affair exposed by Wall Street
Journal investigative reporter Jonathan Kwitny, in his book THE CRIMES OF
PATRIOTS. Task Force157 came to an end on the instruction of Admiral Bobby Ray
Inman once he discovered the full involvement of "rogue" CIA agent Edwin Wilson in
the Task Force. Wilson was responsible for so much intrigue and illegality that one could
shake a stick at it. He was eventually arrested, tried and imprisoned where he remains to
this day fighting for release. Many now believe that he was working on orders from
above but in a deniable role and was cynically sacrificed to save other more prominent
players.
During his investigation, Jonathan Kwitny learned that General Erle Cocke ran Nugan
Hand Bank's Washington office. Cocke's partner, General Philipps denied this saying
they had merely rented office space to Nugan Hand Inc's., Hawaii President, General
Edward Black – a former OSS, CIA and senior military officer. This proved to be untrue
however. Kwitny learned that papers filed with the U S Treasury listed General Cocke as
the "person in charge" of Nugan Hand's Washington office. Cocke claimed that
someone else must have filed these papers without his knowledge or consent.
In April 2000, Cocke gave a deposition running to 67 pages concerning his knowledge
and involvement in Project Hammer. Ten days later he died from Pancreatic cancer. His
explosive deposition reveals him as a very significant and highly connected player in a
world few of us are familiar with
Cocke fought in three wars: WWII, Korea and Vietnam. During WWII he was an
artillery officer and a division staff officer and was a POW under the Germans. He
worked for General MacArthur during the Korean war and for General Westmoreland in
the Vietnam war. Highly decorated for his service he was awarded a Silver Star, a
Bronze Star and cluster, a Purple Heart with three clusters, a Croix de Guerre plus a
Chevalier Legion of Honour (France) and a Medal of Honour from the Philippines. He
was the youngest National Commander of the American Legion and prior to his death
also became the oldest National Commander. In addition he was distinguished by the
Red Cross with the medal Cruz Roja and was made an Honourable Comrade of the
Nationalist Chinese Air Force.
He was a Shriner Mason of many years standing (where he held a semi-official voluntary
position for that organisation) and was a Grand Commander of the Knights of Malta – the
secretive Vatican Order that boasts numerous members who serve – or are closely
affiliated with – western intelligence and military services. Intriguingly, he claimed to
have been the first Protestant "in 1200 years to be so honoured."
In 1959 and again in 1960 he was a member of the U. S. delegation to the General
Assembly of the United Nations holding the rank (and pay grade) of Ambassador. After
that he was the first full time U. S. alternate Executive Director of the World Bank, a
position he held for four years from 1961-4. Pressed about this in more detail Cocke
responded saying:
At that time I owned 28 percent of the stock and, of course, I had all kinds of
people in the Treasury tell me what to do. Don't get me wrong, I made all the
decisions. But I was the executor, I was the delivery.
He also confirmed that he had worked for every US President:
...from Truman to date. At some stage of the game I worked for all of them. I
have to admit that some of them were very minor chores and others were
important.
In addition to his many abilities and accomplishments listed above Erle Cocke was above
all other things a banker, a profession that ran in the family. His great grandfather put a
bank "together in 1867" which was then the only bank in Georgia. His grandfather
founded a bank in about 1890 and his father was President of Fulton National Bank
(which became Bank of America) and was, at one time, the President of the American
Bankers Association and Chairman of the FDIC.
Asked about his own knowledge of banking Cocke said he had taken all the normal
banking courses and added:
I understand banking. I can teach banking – you understand what I am saying – at
the college level.
This banking expertise was at the core of his firm, Cocke & Phillips International which
began life as a:
...normal American firm, lobbying firm here in Washington, and we grew into
banking particularly. The UN contacts, and the World Bank contacts, sometimes
they help those people for 10 years.
In a similar vein he undertook all sorts of "chores" for some of the government
intelligence agencies. He explained this as follows:
One thing is if they trusted you, they practically came in and said what do I do? I
mean, you didn't argue with them. You sort of proceeded with the program and
gave them a few choices, of course. But [they] practically always followed what
we did. I was administrator, arbitrator. I was [the] moderator, bringing people
together.
Asked if that experience "would be true in the financial and banking world in particular?"
Cocke replied:
Oh, yes. I have been able to close things that other people can't close.
As we shall see, Cocke's ability to "close" things other people could not close did not
extend to Project Hammer, a financial operation that, according to Cocke, deeply
involved Citibank and its Chairman, John Reed. Cocke said he could get to see any
President without any trouble, but complained that he could not get to meet John Reed.
Having briefly examined General Cocke's background and Vitae, let's now return to that
stupendous sum of "black" money mentioned earlier. For purposes of clarity this amount
was referenced in Erle Cocke's deposition. If, as we have said, this amount was stealthily
"magicked" into being as a result of an exotic form of financial smoke and mirrors the
question is where did it go? According to Cocke this sum was lodged in:
...30 some odd accounts together.
Asked where these accounts were located, Cocke responded saying:
In almost one solid block at Citibank.
General Cocke's questioner, a Washington attorney then asked: "Would they have been
in control of Mr. Reed" – meaning former Citibank CEO and Chairman John Reed.
Cocke responded as follows:
A Probably not all because there were so many different participants
involved, and in different locations, countries, that I would say no, he did
not have complete control, but everybody recognized it wouldn't be
settled until it got to him."
Q And these were, you say, accounts for various people around the world?
A Yes.
Q Produced as a result of what?
A Well, most of them figured that greed in particular was mighty high. And,
if they put up this amount of money, then I am going to get this kind of
money coming back. That's the way practically all of it was. I hate to use
the word sole, but present might be a better word.
Q Were these accounts for the benefit of people who had engaged in some
kind of trading program?
A They were all to get in the trading program. I haven't found anybody that
didn't go in wanting to increase their income and their greed in the highest
bracket if they could possibly put up money.
Q What I am understanding from you is that whatever these individuals,
corporate entities, or even government, they believed apparently by
putting these funds with Citibank as part of this effort, they would then
receive later down the road a pay off?
A That is correct.
Q As a result of Citibank's management of these funds, is that fair to say?
A Yes, basically the whole trading bloc in a nutshell.
During the course of his deposition, General Cocke was asked if he knew who "created"
Hammer "to begin with...?" He admitted that he didn't know and was even reluctant to
make a guess but added that whoever set it in motion "had to have been somebody at a
pretty high level." He then made the interesting observation that whoever it was who had
authorised "the original structure" that it had "obviously got way out of proportion as
time went by." The implication was that some of the money – the fallout – got diverted
from its original intention.
More than a few of those involved in Project Hammer, at various levels, have told me
that they believe some of the pool of money created by the Hammer project was
"diverted" and used to rescue many of the worlds major banks who by the very end of the
1980's faced insolvency following reckless lending policies throughout the late Seventies
and early-middle Eighties. it is certainly true that at that time many major banks like
Citibank, HSBC, Chase, BoNY and others stood teetering on the very brink of disaster.
Another view is one that has been expressed by Daniel Hughes, of Hughes Oil Company,
a Florida based Corporation. Hughes had been heavily involved in finding collateral to
place in a number of trading programs over several years. This has cost him tens of
thousands of dollars since most of these were illegitimate rather than genuine. It is a fate
that waits for untold thousands of unsuspecting investors who step into this shadowy
realm unprepared.
Even so it seems that Hughes did play a part in attempting to place collateral in Project
Hammer. He believes that the funds diverted from Project Hammer ended up in a CIA
controlled Swiss bank account in the name of late Howard Hughes. Based on years of
investigation, Hughes believes that Project Hammer involved the trading of US$13.6
trillion in debentures resulting in a "fallout" of about US$1.1 trillion which was stashed
in the Howard Hughes account in Credit Suisse. Whilst there is no hard corroboration in
support of this claim it remains an intriguing possibility. More so for in his deposition,
General Cocke indicated that black money generated by trading programmes might be
hidden in dormant accounts, and a Howard Hughes account set up thirty years ago would
clearly fall into that category.
According to Erle Cocke plus others I have spoken with, Project Hammer began life as an
authorised but secretive trading programme aimed at repatriating dollar assets that dated
back several decades. Cocke confirms this when asked:
Q -- what the overall objectives of Project Hammer were?
A Well, it was mainly to bring monies back to the United States from all
types of activities, both legitimately and illegitimately. Not that they were
in the smuggling business per se, but they were all in the arms business,
they were all retracing dollars of one description or another that had
accumulated all through the forties and fifties really. And that probably is
as broad a definition as I can give you. And all kinds of nationalities were
involved, all kinds of people were involved..."
Cocke was then asked who would have been behind the Hammer project. Would it, the
questioner asked, have involved:
Q ... various agencies of the U. S. Government?
A Yes. Obviously, the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agencies of all
types, Pentagon in the broadest sense of it and as such, and the Treasury,
Federal Reserve. Nobody got out of the act, everybody wanted to get in
the act.
But there were numerous other entities involved in Project Hammer. None more so than
the worlds big bank as is made clear by the following exchange:
Q What other banks and financial institutions were involved in it?
A Well, if they were, they were still as a correspondent to Citibank...
A "Correspondent" in the sense General Cocke's uses this term means one banks account
maintained at another bank. This is used to handle money transfers between both banks
and very often denotes a "special relationship" between the the banks concerned. The
questioner then asks:
Q Do you know which of those would be involved, was Chase Manhattan
one?
A I am sure that every big bank in every major country at some stage of the
game had some of this pass by them. They had a chance to refuse, or they
had a chance to take it up.
CITIBANK ARE THE "CHEESE"
Cocke was then asked who the "dominant participant" was in "terms of running this
project, this vast project?" The general is in no doubt about his reply when he says that,
based on his own investigation, it was: "Citibank of New York, in both their Athens,
Greece office and in their New York City office." He also acknowledged that Hammer
was part of "an ongoing long term kind of project."
Cocke went on to reveal that Citibank were "...going to be the trustees. They
were going to be running the program. They were going to be the disbursing
agency. They were the cheese."
Asked to identify which principal officer in Citibank handled Project Hammer, Cocke
responded that "from all records, communications and contacts, John Reed was Vice
President, but he was the lone coordinator, for a better word."
Reed, who was Citibank's President and Chairman during this period has formally denied
his involvement in Project Hammer. In a deposition sworn in December 2000, Reed
states that he has "no recognition or knowledge of anything purportedly known as project
Hammer." Nor did he have "any recognition or knowledge" of any person named Erle
Cocke. His deposition goes on to list a number of other items, people and allegations that
he also had "no recognition or knowledge" about.
For their part, Citibank in a letter dated December 12th 2000 state that they "never issued
commercial instruments on the basis of its possession of quantities of gold made
available to it by agencies of the U.S. Government and the Federal Reserve in order to
ensure the solvency of Citibank in the 80's and other bullion banks."
This denial, although emphatic, is interesting. Research shows that gold recovered by the
forerunner to the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was deposited in Citibank
(and many other banks, too) not in the name of the OSS or CIA but in the name of one of
their operatives, Severino Garcia Santa Romana.
On his death in 1974, some – but not all - of Romana's "assets" appear to have been
illegally acquired by former Philippines President, Ferdinand Marcos, who was at one
time Santa Romana's attorney. According to Santa Romana's widow, her husband gave
Marcos a limited Power of Attorney for use solely in the Philippines, since he travelled
abroad regularly. Marcos, somehow, seems to have made use of this to gain control over
Santa Romana's gold and other assets.
It also appears likely, based on documents in this writer's possession that considerable
quantities of gold once held by Santa Romana were later placed under the control of
former CIA covert operator, Major General Edward Lansdale. These assets were,
however, lodged with the Union Bank of Switzerland. Again it is worthy of note that
they were placed in Ed Lansdale's name not in the name of a U S Government Agency.
These assets are very clearly off the books.
Large quantities of gold held by Citibank remained in the account names of Severino
Garcia Sta. Romana and Jose Antonio Diaz De La Paz (the latter being a well -known
a.k.a for Santa Romana) under reference codes "Fanerst King Fisher" and "Burgst
Harbour King" respectively. These have been the subject of a legal wrangle between
Santa Romana's heirs and Citibank's John Reed.
The fact that the gold held by Citibank and others may not have been in the name of the
Central Intelligence Agency or the Federal Reserve but rather was in Santa Romana's
name may have been all Citibank needed to wriggle out of a poorly crafted question.
THE ILLUMINATI ANGLE
The gold "connection" remains unclear. However, there is reason to suppose that the
dollar "assets" that date back to the 1940's and 1950's as earlier discussed by General
Erle Cocke may relate in part, to vast quantities of gold looted during WWII by the
Japanese plunder teams known as the Golden Lily and also by the Nazi's in Europe.
That substantial amounts of gold bullion were ransacked and then hidden throughout the
Philippines prior to wars end is now undeniable. This, however, was "black" gold,
meaning it did not appear on official statistics or in treasury department lists. Santa
Romana was an OSS officer operating in the Philippines during the war and learned
where the Japanese had buried plundered gold and other valuables.
But there are other aspects to the Santa Romana gold story that are only now coming to
the surface. They reveal a shocking secret that, if true, could shake the foundations of
our belief and change the way in which we view the world we live in.
According to Santa Romana's widow, Luz, her husband told her that he was a member of
the Illuminati – a very secretive elite group that dates back to 1776 when it was founded
by Adam Weishaupt at the University of Ingolstadt, Germany. According to those who
have researched it, the purpose of the Illuminati was to set in motion, in secret, a New
World Order of world revolution.
This, however, does not fully tally with what Santa Romana told his wife about them.
According to Luz the purpose of the Illuminati was based on the knowledge that the royal
families of Europe were aware that they were losing political and effective control of
their nations. But it was the possible loss of control over the wealth of their kingdoms
that bothered them most. Consequently they founded the "Illuminati" and set in motion
long-term plans aimed at secretly taking control of world finances, especially gold and
other precious metals.
In time the royal families who sat at the centre of the Illuminati movement were forced to
expand and take into membership political and business leaders. At some point in the
early twentieth century two fifty year plans were set in motion aimed at cornering the
worlds precious metal reserves.
The foregoing is the account given to Luz by her husband Santa Romana. How true it is
remains to be seen and it is not hard to view it as disinformation told by Santa Romana to
his wife to conceal his real motives – whatever they may have been.
More intriguing still is Luz's account that her late husband was the one time "head" of
the Trilateral Commission – an elite group that is known to have tentacles deeply
embedded in the Marcos gold story of later years. Again, there is no corroborating
evidence and the fact that the Trilateral Commission was founded only in 1973 – whereas
Santa Romana died in 1974 – suggests this is unlikely.
However, it is more than a little curious that whilst the great bulk of gold that eventually
(and undoubtedly) came to be controlled by Santa Romana resulted from plunder during
WWII, he did have substantial gold deposits dating back further than that.
Papers relating to the "estate" of Santa Romana purport to show a gold account at the
Union Bank of Switzerland, Zurich, containing 8,000 metric tonnes that was valued at
US$10 billion. The account dates back to 1920. Such a quantity of gold dating from that
period represents a massive holding far surpassing that held today by the worlds leading
central banks.
It is also at least interesting that, again according to the account of his wife, Santa
Romana was, as a young boy, adopted by his great uncle in Hawaii who was married to
the last Hawaiian princess. The couple had remained childless throughout their marriage
leading to the decision to adopt the young Santa Romana. According to Luz, it was this
"royal" connection that gave Santa Romana entrée into the Illuminati said to have once
been dominated by royal families.
Interestingly, during the course of my on-going investigation into Project Hammer, a
number of others involved in this program I have spoken with have told me, quite
independently of the Santa Romana story, that the Hammer program – and numerous
other collateral trading programs associated with it – have enormously powerful "gold
trusts" of royal origin sitting behind them.
Perhaps the Hammer program was to generate enough money to buy substantial
quantities of black gold stashed in the Philippines to ensure it is kept out of circulation –
thus protecting the gold price to some degree? Perhaps it had more to do with the secret
acquisition of vast amounts of this black gold in line with what Santa Romana told his
wife? Perhaps the assets in question were not just gold but included pre-war US Treasury
obligations (Bonds and Notes) that are now coming to light in the Philippines but which
are said by US authorities to be fraudulent. What ever is the case, it is certain that
substantial quantities of "black" gold are used to underpin (collateralise) certain trading
programs and the funds thus generated are earmarked for use in other secretive
operations?
This whole subject remains an ongoing investigation. The deeper I dig the murkier it
becomes. Stories of warehouses full of banknotes waiting to be laundered by a trading
programme so that they can re-enter the financial system as clean as a whistle are
commonplace. Foreign exchange transactions involving billions of dollars in equivalent
currency and which trade at huge discounts - unknown in the official marketplace - are
also not uncommon.
It is also a fact that many of those involved in trading programmes are members of
government intelligence and security organisations.
EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES, SANDLINE, AND THE STASI
Another individual who has played a considerable role in Project Hammer is
South African, Rolf van Rooyen, who operated a number of business entities
including one called "Oceantech" and another called "Eastech International
Bank." At one time van Rooyen worked for South African intelligence and is also
believed to have been CIA at the time Project Hammer was in process.
Of significance is the fact that General Cocke and van Rooyen knew each other,
although Cocke says he only spoke to him on the phone but never "shook hands
with him." During a police interview in Germany in 1995, van Rooyen when
questioned about Project Hammer responded:
If you are referring to Operation Hamer (sic) it is an extremely large, very
delicate operation in co-operation with the authorities of various countries
in which Oceantech is involved.
Van Rooyen then proceeds to identify: "America, England, Germany, France,
Italy..." as being involved. He also told German police that from the very first
day he began investigating Project Hammer that
We realised that it was a direct state matter and that the U.S.A., the CIA
and several other groups in the secret service were involved, as well as very,
very high-coupled people in the American Government.
The latter are rumoured to include George H. W. Bush, James Baker III. Former
Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
During his deposition Erle Cocke was asked if he considered van Rooyen's
foregoing statement to be accurate. Cocke replied saying "He is not too far off. I
am sure he flavoured it up a little bit, yes."
Working alongside van Rooyen was South African intelligence operative Riaan
Stander. Both Stander and van Rooyen were board members of the "Eastcorp
Syndicate" which boasted almost two dozen other companies in its stable.
Included were Intercol Pty, Ltd., Cavo Shipping – which conducted intelligence
gathering missions for governments – and Bridge S. A. The latter was registered
in Monrovia, Liberia.
According to Peter Goslar, once a close friend of Riaan Stander, other board
members of Bridge S. A., were Colonel Tim Spicer and Mick Ranger "of Sandline
fame." In a letter written to a Washington law firm involved in a lawsuit involving
Project Hammer, Goslar fingers Bridge S A – and hence van Rooyen and Riaan
Stander – as "part of the "Executive Outcomes operation."
But there is more. During several daylong meetings I had with Peter Goslar in
late June 2001, he handed me hundreds of pages of documents he had retrieved
from Riaan Stander's private papers. These included documents showing a
Mexican entity called Ro-Mar Pharmaceuticals that van Rooyan told German
police was the "money power" behind Eastech International Bank. The money
Ro-Mar Pharmaceutical claimed to control was represented by over US$100
billion in gold. Other papers clearly show van Rooyen and Stander engaged in
Collateral Trading Programmes involving Latin American Governments, most
notably Argentina – once the preferred bold-hole of notorious Nazi's like Martin
Bormann.
Another document from the batch I received from Peter Goslar was a list of
companies listed under the heading "United Kingdom Network" and identified
this "network" as being part of "The Palace Group." An interesting description, I
think. In any event, listed under this "group" were twenty-four business entities
including Sandline International, Diamond Works, Branch Mining Ltd and Bridge
International. The list also included Defence Systems Ltd as a part of The Palace
Group and identified it as a division of Vickers - Britain's oldest and most
distinguished armaments manufacturer and which resides at the very centre of the
United Kingdom's Establishment.
During one of our meetings, Peter Goslar told me he was a personal acquaintance
(perhaps even a friend) of former East German spy-master, Marcus Wolf, who
headed the East German security apparatus known as the Stasi. Peter also claimed
to know several former Stasi operatives. He also spoke German fluently in
addition to Afrikaans and his native English tongue.
I later was told that a Peter Goslar was briefly mentioned in the autobiography
written by Marcus Wolf entitled MAN WITHOUT A FACE. Discussing the fall
from grace of West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1977, following the
discovery that his personal secretary, Dagmar Kahlig-Scheffler was a spy working
for the Stasi. Wolf explains that Chancellor Schmidt's spy-cum-secretary was
caught when her Stasi control officer, Peter Goslar came under suspicion by West
German counterintelligence.
I asked Peter if he was the same Peter Goslar identified by his "friend" Marcus
Wolf. He denied that it was him. Non-the-less, he told me that Rolf van Rooyen
was still living in Germany and was under the protection of two former Stasi
agents. And we do know that the Stasi worked closely and in the shadows with
South African intelligence on a variety of projects, mostly weapon related.
Curious.
The "Palace group" meanwhile, contains all the guile and charm of a privatised
off-the-books appendage of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). On the
other side of the Atlantic, General Cocke and his firm Cocke & Phillips
International has many similarities as its foregoing British cousin and probably was
(and is – the firm remains active) one of the CIA's private off-the-books
companies. This conclusion is not only drawn from Cocke's affiliation with the
known CIA entity, Nugan Hand Bank, but another CIA front company called
Associated Traders Corporation.
ATC, as it is known, came into brief prominence some years ago following a series
of articles written by syndicated columnist, Jack Anderson naming Associated
Traders as an a gun running, money laundering "off-the-books" CIA front. Then
in 1988 a US$4 million lawsuit was filed that involved Associated Traders. By
1990, Director of the CIA, William Webster, issued an Affidavit calling for a
sweeping gag order by asserting that it was a matter of national security. Of
interest is the fact that more than one source has told me that Associated Traders
Corporation was General Cocke.
The foregoing connections could easily be typified as part of the Anglo-American-
African covert intelligence relationship that continues to conceal many sins. There
is reason to suppose that part of funds derived from the Project Hammer financial
trading programme went to fund certain military and intelligence operations in
South African. These are thought to have included financing of the so called
"Hammer Units" that are alleged to have engaged in brutal beatings and
assassinations throughout South Africa prior to the collapse of the Apartheid
regime. It is also believed that Hammer funds were used to finance the purchase
of arms given to the Inkatha Freedom Party that was engaged in widespread acts
of bloody violence during 1992 and 1993 as discussed in the 1994 Report of the
Goldstone Commission of Inquiry that named Eastech, VAN Rooyen and
Stander.
Another aspect of Project Hammer may have involved the desire to plunder South
Africa of much of its available mineral wealth prior to the country coming under
control of the ANC in 1994. In the hard-hitting and suppressed book GLITTER
& GREED written by Australian investigative reporter, Janine Roberts, the
Oppenheimer family and De Beers arranged that a:
fabulous multi-billion Rand stockpile of the finest gems was shipped out
prior to the 1994 elections and that the mines producing the best gems
were put into overdrive in both South Africa and Namibia so that as many
as possible of the better gems were extracted as fast as possible.
I have also been told that large quantities of South African gold were also
surreptitiously shipped out of South Africa at around this time – presumably for
similar reasons. It is also of interest to note that mounting evidence points to the
conclusion that since 1995 the price of gold has been kept purposely low as a
result of a conspiracy engineered by the US Treasury department in collaboration
with leading international banks. The result has been that the cost of extracting
gold for many South African gold mines is no longer cost effective.
Could some of this alleged "missing" South African gold be related to a
transaction that van Rooyen and Stander entered into in 1991? This involved
Eastech International Bank agreeing to purchase 5,000 metric tonnes of gold at a
4% discount from the prevailing Second London fix – at a cost of about US$50
billion. This gold was held in the free zone area beneath Zurich's Kloten airport.
The contract, which was to be governed by the "canton-laws of Zurich" runs to
six pages and each page bears the official stamp of the Swiss police authorising
and validating the transaction.
It remains unclear if van Rooyen and Stander were acting on their own behalf or
were fronting for someone else in this transaction. Van Rooyen, at least, has been
fingered as a CIA asset in addition to his South African intelligence affiliations.
Might they have been operating as a deniable cut out" for the US Treasury
Department who wished to get delivery of this gold?
Perhaps the Chinese Government was party to the transactio n instead. Eastech
International Bank was, after all, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sino-Eastech, an
entity which van Rooyen told German police investigators was "established in
China" and which "operates from Xin Xong and was originally established by the
General Staff of the 7th military power in China." In operating their bank, Van
Rooyen and Stander liased with a Chinese Army General who van Rooyen
declined to name saying he wasn't "sure what his name is." His German police
interrogator, displaying a well honed sense of official disinterest in such diplomatic
incongruities, rapidly moved on to other issues.
By 1995 Eastech International Bank had begun to hit the radar screen of
regulatory authorities around the world that viewed it with suspicion. But by then
it seems probable that much of Project Hammer's South African objectives had
been fulfilled. Fearing the worse, Rolf van Rooyen left South Africa and travelled
to Germany. And according to his one time friend, Peter Goslar, that is where he
still lives albeit protected by former members of East Germany's Stasi spynetwork.
It remains to be seen whether the sanctions busting objective of the South African
end of Project Hammer was a simple case of certain Elites making sure they got
all the mineral wealth they needed from South Africa before turning the country
over to the ANC and Nelson Mandela in 1994. What is known is that the price of
gold entered a new round of price manipulation beginning in 1995 which
continues to this day.
Over the last two years, the Gold Anti Trust Action Group (GATA) have
demonstrated that the manipulation of gold price has been orchestrated by the US
Federal Reserve working in collusion with leading Wall Street and international
banks. Many of those banks quoted by GATA as being party to the price
manipulation conspiracy – for that is what it amounts to – are also major players
in Trading Programmes.
In any event, the depressed price of gold has made many South African mines
uneconomic to operate and one cannot help but ask if this was by design?
Southern hemisphere nations may sit on much of mineral wealth of the planet but
the northern hemisphere industrialised nations appear intent to continue to
control and exploit it.
THE FRENCH CONNECTION - AGAIN
Project Hammer and Jacobe have the appearance of being "umbrella" operations geared,
in the narrow sense at least, to generating funds for particular authorised projects. Once
the proper authorisation has been issued programmes such as these seem to broaden in
scope and greater effort goes towards creating deniable slush funds for use in any number
of ways as the occasion demands. When you think about it, this makes considerable
sense for those who engage in the game of black operations and political manipulation.
In addition to its authorisation to repatriate dollars dating back to the 1940's and 1950's,
as explained by General Cocke, could Project Hammer have had other purposes? Could
it, for example, have been used to finance another project, one that had specific East
German connotations and which might explain the Stasi connection more fully?
It is certainly interesting that on the 6th February 1989, the French Central Bank, the
Banque de France, issued an International Certificate of Deposit for 620,000 kilograms of
99.99% pure gold. At that time, 620 metric tonnes of gold had a market value of about
US$7 billion. A king's ransom.
The certificate is almost identical to dozens I have on file and which I have written about
and also reproduced in my book, THE SECRET GOLD TREATY. As I explain there,
certificates of this nature invariably contain spelling mistakes or other obvious
typographical flaws which can be used to deny the validity of the certificate in the event
it ever reaches public attention.
This was a technique developed by Britain's secretive Special Operations Executive
(SOE) in WWII. SOE agents parachuted into France and elsewhere in occupied Europe,
were taught to insert pre-arranged spelling errors on messages they sent by radio in the
event they were captured by the Nazi's. This would immediately alert SOE that the agent
was in custody and that German Counter-intelligence wished to use the agent to feed
false information back to HQ.
In any event, the Banque de France certificate mentioned above was in the name of Erich
Honecker, the then East German Head of State (see exhibits). Six months later, in a
trumpet of media coverage, Honecker was ousted from power. A month after that, the
Berlin Wall - the very symbol of Communism throughout the world - was opened. The
reopening was abruptly followed by its complete demolition at the hands of a euphoric
public. Germany, which had been divided for over thirty years was, at least, reunified.
By many accounts, Project Hammer began trading in November 1989, but was being set
up a lot earlier than that. Few of those involved in the transaction on the peripherary
know for certain what assets were used to collateralize the transaction, although "black"
gold has been mentioned in numerous telephone conversations and correspondence. All
parties are certain, however, that an element of the backing collateral was cash.
What we do know if that Citibank had accounts in the name of Jose Diaz and Severino
Santa Romana. These were bullion accounts dating back to the years that Santa Romana,
General Edward Lansdale and others were engaged in recovering gold stashed on the
Philippines by the Japanese plunder teams known as the Golden Lily.
Some of Santa Romana's gold was, at some point in history, converted to cash. This
along with gold and other plunder was deposited in well over a hundred bank accounts
located in over forty countries throughout the world. These were the deniable assets that
made up a particular CIA slush fund known to insiders in the black gold market as the
"Black Eagle Fund" - a name that was based on the symbol of the Nazi Eagle.
Part of these assets were placed under the control of the late Baron von Krupp. Baron
Krupp's personal attorney, Carl Hermann Letemeyer, of the private Zurich based law firm
of Senn, Christians & Letemeyer handled the Baron's estate following his death.
Documents I published in THE SECRET GOLD TREATY reveal that out of a fortune of
just over $12 TRILLION that the late Baron controlled, slightly over $110 billion was
earmarked for one Clemente Santiago, a relative of Candelaria Santiago who was the
most "trusted lady" of the late President Marcos of the Philippines.
Baron Krupp's incredible fortune was undoubtedly largely composed of Santa Romana's
plunder later acquired by deception by President Marcos, who had earlier been Santa
Romana's lawyer in the Philippines, prior to his rise to political office. Stories about
"Marcos gold" in reality speak of Santa Romana's gold, and the OSS/CIA's gold -
although Marcos did recover vast quantities for himself via a Philippine Army battalion
dedicated to locating and recovering WWII plunder.
A memorandum under the letterhead of Senn, Christians & Letemeyer and signed by Carl
Herman Letemeyer (see exhibits) lists four banks accounts which collectively have
balances of US$71 billion. The bulk of this was listed as being held in account number 4
77 22 P at Standard Chartered International Truste Limited, London. US$9 billion is
shown under account number LVI 820975 TI at Citicorp, New York. US$12 billion is
listed for Bank of China, Hong Kong, under account number 5555 201HE and US$3
billion in the Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong, account number 78 9520 37 0. The
memorandum is dated 3rd October 1989 right in line with the Hammer and Jacobe
trading programmes.
This is more than interesting. Other information provided to me shows that Standard &
Chartered Bank was deeply involved in the Jacobe programme. According to a detailed
memorandum in my possession, the Trustee of the Jacobe programme had "arranged that
the monies be funneled through a Trust account..." of this bank.
Citibank, according to General Cocke and many others who were involved, was "the
cheese" behind the Project Hammer programme. And then there is the Chinese
connection to van Rooyen's Eastech International Bank and van Rooyen's and Stander's
involvement with both Hammer and Jacobe.
The foregoing has merely scraped the surface of what is an exceptionally complex
and extensive story. A great deal of further investigative work is required to
plumb the depths in order to present a more comprehensive account. Presently
there are more questions than answers. Project Hammer and Jacobe, meanwhile,
are only two of many other trading programmes presently under investigation by
this writer. Others with names like Redhead, Grandmother and Graystone also
need investigating.
These programmes eclipse more secrets than you can wag a dog's tail at. They represent the
very pinnacle of covert funding for deniable government operations. Slush funds that have
been generated by this process are regularly said to be in the many trillions of dollars. This is
confirmed in the deposition of General Cocke who argues that the Hammer programme
"expanded" by Dan Hughes in 1989, would have "enhanced" over the decade and now is
worth over one thousand billion dollars. It is also confirmed by the documents issued by the
late Baron von Krupp's Swiss lawyer which reveal "profits" in excess of US$12 trillion.
Amounts of this magnitude could punch a massive hole through the shortfalls in social
welfare programmes around the world. Famine could be virtually eradicated from the face
of the earth and death from easily cured diseases in the southern hemisphere, in particular -
which spiral for lack of money - could easily become a thing of the past. All this could be
achieved if these huge gobs of money were brought in from the cold and placed on -ledger.
But there appears no will to do this. Too many difficult questions and harder to justify
explanations block the way. How would G7 governments explain to a cynical public that
decades of drug money and illegal weapon sales proceeds had been laundered with their
blessing (albeit in secret) in order to win the cold war and also to artific ially prop up a
political system that we call Capitalism, that would otherwise collapse under its own inherent
flaws?
It took the CIA over six months to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request seeking information on Project Hammer and Jacobe. The request was denied
under exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(3) of the FOI Act. Section (b)(1) of the Act applies to
material that is "properly classified pursuant to an Executive order in the interest of
national defence or foreign policy," and exemption (b)(3) applies to the CIA Director's
statutory obligation to "protect from disclosure intelligence sources and methods, as well
as organization, functions, names, official titles, salaries or numbers of personnel
employed by the Agency..." Appeals are in progress.
"Credit Enhancement Business" is another term that has been used. Others include "Capital Accumulation &
Structured Debt Programmes."
Others involved believe this sum represents a part of the fallout from the Jacobe transaction and not Hammer.
This information is drawn from a letter dated December 20, 1995 from C.E. (Jim) Brown (the second husband
of Santa Romana's widow, Luz) which is addressed to the US Justice Department. Sta. Romana also used J
Antonio Diaz as another a.k.a. In fact he used many different names and entities to conduct his business.
Of the many activities that Stander and van Rooyen were engaged in, including gold dealing, setting up banks in
Switzerland and Latin America, trading Prime Bank Debentures plus numerous other "business" opportunities,
they were also putting together a deal to sell a consignment of Glock pistols.
Janine Roberts' incredible and compelling book Glitter & Greed is freely available for download on the internet
at http://www.macha.f9.co.uk/dia-suppress.html
ENDS
PROJECT HAMMER
RELOADED
The Ties That Bind – Mapping The Covert Connections
David Guyatt
2003
THE BACKGROUND
Beginning in 1988 and lasting until approximately 1992, Project Hammer was the
latest in a series of highly secretive banking practices – known as collateral trading
programmes – that are used to create, as if by magic, huge amounts of
unaccountable funds for use in specific projects.
These vast pools of unvouchered slush funds are applied to finance a wide variety
of clandestine activities that include secret military projects, geo-political
requirements and the development of infrastructure projects.
It is also whispered that in the case of the Project Hammer programme at least,
that a percentage of the proceeds generated from this secretive activity found their
way into the pockets of VIP's and well-known politicians. Names associated with
such corrupt behaviour are carried on the wind but if one listens attentively the
names George Bush (senior) and Jim Baker III are just discernible - to the trained
ear.
An example of the types of projects that these funds are expended on, was the
trading programme known as E F G Jacobi – a predecessor of Hammer – that
was, I understand, used largely to finance military facilities and related operations
at the top secret US "Pine Gap" base located near Alice Springs, in Australia.
In order to maintain secrecy that surround genuine activity, these trading
programmes are routinely said not to exist. Enquiries about them are deflected
and attention is, instead, focused on the warnings issued by government agencies
about fake programmes. This, when combined with the numerous prosecutions
that occur every year of fraudulent High Yield Investment Programme
transactions, serve to create the impression that authorised programmes do not
occur.
The reasons for this deflection are many but not least is the fact that the asset base
on which these programmes usually operate are also said not to exist – at least in
the quantities that they actually do. The assets in question are large volumes of
gold and lesser amounts of platinum plundered by the Nazis and Japanese during
WWII.
The fact that gold has been the one stable commodity used to back and support
the issuance of currency over the decades, means that it has been subject to
considerable government and central bank secrecy. It was only in 1997, that the
Bank of England decided to lift this veil of secrecy and allow the London bullion
market a degree of openness. But that openness did not include coming clean
about the true amount of gold in existence that is far larger than official figures
allow.
Because of this and the extremely covert nature of related trading programmes,
comprehensive details of their operations and the financing techniques employed
have remained hidden from public view. This, at least, was the case prior to the
publication of part one of this series The Project Hammer File[1]. Further
examination of the techniques and activity of Project Hammer represented by this
essay, now places into the public domain additional important material.
Project Hammer remains a high level state secret in a number of countries
including the USA. This was de facto confirmed by the CIA in its refusal to
release any relative information following to my Freedom of Information Act
request. The exemption used by the CIA to reject my request was that relative
material is "properly classified pursuant to an Executive order in the interest of
national defence or foreign policy."[2]
Project Hammer also stands out because proceeds from the trading activity were
illegally diverted by major banks. Confirmation of this was provided by Brigadier
General Erle Cocke in his April 2000 affidavit. In this, General Cocke was asked
about the involvement of former US Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, who was
retained to investigate what had happened to (and to also recover) the missing
funds. Asked if Bentsen "had the government's interest in closing this whole
problem, have you ever had a discussion [with Bentsen]," Cocke replied.
"Many hours just trying to find out whether any agency, any group, Federal
Reserve, Treasury, CIA, FBI, security agencies, and so forth, all of them put
together whether any of which would really like to finish. And, quite frankly,
nobody stepped up to the plate."
Cocke was the asked if "...they would like to finish it?" and responded:
"I think they would like to finish it, but they all back away. It is not my cup of tea,
or they have spent enough time with it and are not going to realize anything, and
therefore they just quit. They don't confirm, they don't deny, they just stop."
One can conclude that the banks that diverted this money, were too powerful for
any agency of the US government to tackle. Providing suitable and substantial
"incentives" to former senior Bush Administration figures to bring their influence
to bear quietly to ensure that action against the banks was not taken, also helped
Although not part of the sanctioned plans for Project Hammer - which was to
generate funds to pay off debts on bullion certificates issued by certain metal
trusts – the funds were siphoned-off surreptitiously to rescue numerous major US
and other banks that were, by the latter half of the 1980's, tottering on the brink
of bankruptcy.[3]
The banks only had themselves to blame for their imminent collapse. Reckless
lending to Third World nations for over a decade or more when combined with
the raw greed of senior bank executives had caused unparalleled damage to the
worlds banking system. The inability of indebted Third World nations to repay
their massive debts could have been – in fact was – foreseen but ignored.
The spiral of gluttony had taken prisoner the faculty of prudence and reason as
bank executives, seeking their next bonus and promotion, pleaded with sovereign
nations to take loans they did not need and ultimately could not repay. Nor was it
unusual for some of the loaned funds to find their way into the private bank
accounts of corrupt state officials – "diversions" that were known about in the
boardrooms of the top banks, but ignored as "business as usual."
By the end of the 1980's big banks including Citibank, Chase Manhattan, the
Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, England' s Midland Bank and many,
many others were in dire straits. In all but name they were bankrupt. The fear of a
prolonged series of collapses – a sort of "domino theory" of finance - of the
worlds top banks was regarded in some quarters with palpable fear; the entire
western banking system was rocking when it should have been rolling along nicely.
Somewhere, someone – nobody knows who (or at least no one is saying) took the
decision to bail out the banks and save the banking system by diverting Project
Hammer funds for this purpose. Those banking executives who caused the
problem in the first place weren't confronted by their mistakes or held to account
by their shareholders but instead continued to collect their million dollar pay
cheques, boost their bonus payments and profit shares, flick ash off their Cuban
cigars, quaff bottles of expensive Cheval Blanc and slap each other on the back in
delighted relief. One of those sighing relief was almost certainly Citibank's John
Reed. Another quite likely to have also been cultivating a quiet exhalation was
Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank boss, Sir William Purvis.
Meanwhile many investors who had placed their money into Project Hammer in
return for an agreed profit as well as all those middle-men who had worked hard
for their promised commission, were relieved of their money in a twisted version
of the well known axiom: one man's loss is another banker's gain.
STEALING FROM THIEVES
The sanctioned purpose of Project Hammer was of a macroeconomic nature.
Which is a nice way of saying that it was all to do with "repatriating" assets earlier
stolen by someone else. Except when nations steal valuable assets during wartime
it's called "plunder" but when the victors in that war grab those same assets they
call it "recovery."
The assets in question were a vast horde of gold and lesser quantities of platinum
– plus not inconsiderable volumes of loose gemstones – that had been grabbed by
the Nazi's and the Japanese during WWII. Large volumes of this loot found their
way to the Philippines where they were hidden in numerous treasure sites by the
Japanese occupiers who planned to recover them after the war.
But it didn't quite work out the way the Japanese had planned. They lost the war
along with the Philippines that, it seems, they were fairly confident they would be
allowed to keep in a negotiated truce with the Allies. In their place the OSS – the
wartime forerunner of America's spy agency the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), began recovering the bullion plundered from a dozen or so nations.
This bullion formed what became known as the "Black Eagle" fund, which was
part of a secret agreement eclipsed behind the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement.
Consequently, the metal was placed under the care of OSS (and later CIA)
operative, Severino Garcia Santa Romana, who put it under the control of
numerous corporate entities he formed for the purpose. These entities, in turn,
proceeded to establish 176 bank accounts in 42 different countries in which to
deposit these assets under private treaty agreement.
Confirmation for this comes from General Cocke who was asked: "I have been
advised that a chunk of the Hammer Project funds that were used to trade, to
invest and reinvest, came from a large block of assets that CIA put into the bank
[Citibank]?" Cocke replied: "And they pulled that several times from several
sources. Nobody is going to confirm it."[4]
Following Santa Romana's death in 1974, his former attorney and trustee was able
to "acquire" considerable portions of Santa Romana's estate by illicit means. The
lawyer was Ferdinand Marcos who went on to become president of the
Philippines and a favourite friend of the United States until his overthrow in 1986.
The acquisition of these assets helped give rise to stories of "Marcos gold" – a
legend that was supplemented by additional later recoveries of WWII gold and
other loot using a Filipino Army Battalion under the overall command of Marcos
henchman, General Fabian Ver.
But Marcos was not the sole illegitimate beneficiary of war loot once controlled by
Santa Romana. Another was the late Baron Krupp who, I have been told, also
gained access to some of these assets. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that
Santa Romana, prior to his death, was apparently associated with former US
president and head of the CIA, George Bush, and "had some contact" with Jeb
Bush, the governor of Florida.
In any event, this bullion has, collectively, given rise to a whole class of gold and
platinum certificates issued over the decades, mainly by top-drawer European
banks. The certificates bear the names of prominent, and in some cases infamous
individuals – usually heads of state – as beneficiaries. But these named owners
were and are not the legal beneficiaries but rather were cat's paws used to muddy
the waters concerning the true origin of the bullion. Nor did the banks that held
the assets own them but they could and did use them in support of their offbalance
sheet activity - to the point of irresponsibility.
It should not be forgotten that this gold and platinum was stolen and under
international law every effort should have been made to return it to its rightful
owners – rather than secretly stash it in bank vaults for use in cold war covert
operations. And although it can reasonably be argued that the true owners could
never be traced, since the greater quantity of the bullion was privately owned
(rather than being central bank bullion), it is clear that the ends dictated the
means.
And even though numerous nations around the world were to benefit from post
war reconstruction based on the use and application of this war booty, the price of
this apparent largesse was for these nations to be moulded into Uncle Sam's
image. As they say in American boardrooms, there is no such thing as a "free
lunch."
In examining the techniques employed in setting up Project Hammer, one is
struck not just by the complexity of it but also by the way the banks and
intelligence agencies involved structured things to shield themselves from
responsibility (and lawsuits no doubt) by utilising subterranean networks each
working at "arms-length."
Piecing these techniques and networks together has been an arduous, painstaking
task but in doing so it further unveils a shadow world of parallel finance usually
only known to those initiated into it.
THE EMPIRE STATE CONNECTION
During his April 2000 deposition, just days before his death from cancer, Brigadier
General Erle Cocke, when asked what the overall objectives of Project Hammer
were replied:
"Well, it was mainly to bring back monies to the United States from all types of
activities, both legitimately and illegitimately. Not that they were in the smuggling
business per se, but they were all in the arms business, they were all retracing
dollars of one description or another that had accumulated all through the forties
and fifties really. And that probably is as broad a definition as I can give you..."
General Cocke then added that involvement in Project Hammer extended to:
"...the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agencies of all types, Pentagon in the
broad sense of it and as such, the Treasury, Federal Reserve. Nobody got out of
the act, everybody wanted to get in on the act."[5]
Cocke's involvement with clandestine CIA activities dates back many years. At the
very least he is known to have been involved with the CIA's Nugan Hand Bank.
For example, US Treasury records obtained by veteran journalist and author,
Jonathan Kwitny, show Cocke as the registered "person in charge" of Nugan
Hand's Washington office.[6]
Cocke also indicated in his affidavit that he was regularly contacted by the CIA for
expert assistance over the years and was usually debriefed by them following
overseas travel. Despite this, a Freedo