American Politics Journal -- The Plot Thickens In Eastern Europe

The Plot Thickens -- In Eastern Europe
The Bush-Cheney Connection in the Caucuses and Romania: FAR WORSE THAN ANTHING THE RODHAM BROTHERS MIGHT HAVE TRIED!
by Mac MacArthur

Wednesday, March 14, 2001 -- WASHINGTON, DC (APJP) -- As the mainstream media has multiple orgasms about trumped-up "wrongdoings" by Hillary Clinton's brother Hugh Rodham, the plot thickens with respect to potential roles played by George H. Bush the Elder, Dick Cheney, and a scabby supporting cast.

The press, proving once again how lazy and gullible as they are, continue to "focus" on the $400,000 that Rodham received for pleading the case for pardoning two ex-cons.

But Hugh has been much busier than that. A couple of years ago, Hugh and his brother Tony had flown to the small Georgian (as in ex-Soviet Union) Republic of Ajaria, where the two goofballs had hoped to make a killing on hazelnut farms! Only after they were warned off by U.S. intelligence officials did they escape total financial chaos in Ajaria.

But the interesting point here is NOT what the Rodham brothers did in Ajaria, but who they met with: one Aslan Abashidze, head of Ajaria.

As it happens, Aslan is a vicious opponent of Georgian President Eduard Shevrandze and made most of his fortune as a criminal. He is also a close friend of Gigon Loutchansky, another Georgian who is considered by the U.S. National Security Council as a main and MADE man in Russian organized crime. Gigon was one of the key players in the biggest scam that ensnared a large number of investors and Motorola Corporation: Iridium, the satellite phone system that couldn't have possibly worked and is now called GLOBALSTAR. $5 billion in investor money simply went down the Iridium rabbit hole -- a hole partially controlled by Aslan and Gigon. You might recall that Iridium was all over Washington DC in the early 90s pushing huge investments in their satellite partnership. Lots of people, inside and outside of government, lost their shirts betting on this swindle.

Enter Marc Rich -- he made a deal with Gigon to make billions selling Russian oil and aluminum to the west from failing Soviet-era and organized-crime-controlled state enterprises.

Gigon even made it to a White House dinner in 1993 with Bill Clinton.

Gigon, it seemed, was a close friend of Roger Tamraz, the man who delighted us all some years back when he told Congress exactly how he would bribe and did bribe members of Congress -- or anyone else -- to get his oil pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan to Ceyhan in Turkey. The pipeline deal also included Mr. Khozhakmed Nukahayev, another mob boss -- this one a Chechen.

It was "Nuky" who traveled to George W. Bush's Texas and tried to convince Houston oilmen -- real oilmen, mind you -- to bankroll Tamraz et al's pipeline.

Gee -- I wonder if George W. knew he was coming?

AND TAMRAZ SUCCEEDED!

In the Mafia-organized "consortium" formed to build the pipeline you will find BP Amoco, Bechtel, Exxon Mobil and – well, what do you know -- Dick Cheney and Halliburton!

Other officials of the newer and bolder Bush administration are linked to this scandal:

Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's number two man at the State Department, who chaired the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce.

At the time, the chamber's lawyer was the son of former secretary of state James Baker.

And to top it all off, Vice President Cheney's own chief of staff, Lewis Libby, was a lawyer for Marc Rich in the past.

But wait! It gets better:

There was and is a little bank in Italy called "Fondo Sociale di Cooperazione Europea" known primarily for making a fake loan of Ffr5 million ($714,000) to France's Parti Republicain in 1996. It also laundered other sums, notably, on the French side, through a go-between named Ahmed Chaker (nicknamed "Charly").

Those loans were thought to have represented no more than $16 million -- but a new dimension to its operations has come to light with a so-called operation "Party Pool" that looted a bank in Romania, Dacia Felix, of nearly $160 million.

Aging Romanian tennis star Sever Muresan, who is now a French citizen, was the leader here. He is now serving a three-year prison sentence in Switzerland for swindling $26 million out of the Romanian bank.

Sever then was extradited to Romania because he claims -- according to his lawyer, Robert Assaeil -- that he was a VICTIM of Fondo Bank!

Guess who had a photo taken with Sever on one of his visits to Bucharest? Why, George Bush Sr.!

It's bad enough that Muresan bought Bank Felix with its own money, but he also had the $160 million from Bank Felix wired to a company he owned!

Fondo registered a little subsidiary in the Bahamas called Asplan, and Asplan got $2 million for laundering the money. Most of the $160 million has vanished.

However, in these two international scandals, the Bushes and Cheney appear to be the only common thread -- along with oil companies in the United States.

It's time for some answers -- and time for the press to get off their lazy butts.



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