Marc Rich, Bill Clinton and Israel

"Fifteen years ago this month, on Jan. 20, 2001, his last day in office, Bill Clinton issued a pardon for international fugitive Marc Rich. It would become perhaps the most condemned official act of Clinton’s political career. A New York Times editorial called it “a shocking abuse of presidential power.” The usually Clinton-friendly New Republic noted it “is often mentioned as Exhibit A of Clintonian sliminess.”

Congressman Barney Frank added, “It was a real betrayal by Bill Clinton of all who had been strongly supportive of him to do something this unjustified. It was contemptuous.”

Marc Rich was wanted for a list of charges going back decades. He had traded illegally with America’s enemies including Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, where he bought about $200 million worth of oil while revolutionaries allied with Khomeini held 53 American hostages in 1979.

Rich made a large part of his wealth, approximately $2 billion between 1979 and 1994, selling oil to the apartheid regime in South Africa when it faced a UN embargo. He did deals with Khadafy’s Libya, Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, Communist dictatorships in Cuba and the Soviet Union itself. Little surprise that he was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

Facing prosecution by Rudy Giuliani in 1983, Rich fled to Switzerland and lived in exile.'  NY Post

------------

IMO Marc Rich was pardoned by Bill Clinton because the Israeli government pressed him repeatedly to do so.   Why would they do that?  At the time I was in the position of associating with quite a few international oil traders.  They laughed when they talked about Rich as an oil trader and assured me that for an individual like Marc Rich to enter the oil futures and spot oil markets was a virtual impossibility.  The amount of capital required was simply prohibitive.   Their belief was that Rich's traffic in petroleum had to be backed with the money of a sovereign state that wished to trade for profit in this commodity.  They insisted that the only state likely to have wanted to do this but inhibited by the state of its external relations was Israel.

If that was the case, then it is only logical that Rich's legal position with regard to his US taxes was badly compromised.  Would the Israeli government have wanted him to pay US taxes on profits made with its money?  I think not, but Israel would also not want it to be known that it had abandoned its agent.  This is common practice in the world of covert action and clandestine intelligence.  Such knowledge if spread around the Zionist community would reduce the willingness of others to take risks for Israel.  It is for much the same reason that Israel pressed endlessly for Pollard to be released from prison.  Were the Israelis sentimentally grateful for the invaluable services rendered by Rich and Pollard?  Maybe they were but as a cynical past practitioner of the dark arts of covert action and espionage I doubt that was their principal motivation.

Were there incentives offered to WJC other than the unrelenting political pressure from key members of the Zionist community?  Who knows?

And now the FBI has chosen to open at least some of their files on this matter to the public.  Can this be other than a warning to their betters in the elected government?  Is the sentiment "if you take action to stop our investigations or against us, what else will we release?"  pl  

http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/judicial-watch-documents-reveal-israeli-133212091.html

http://mondoweiss.net/2013/07/foxman-helped-mobilize-wealthy-aipac-board-member-to-obtain-clinton-pardon-of-marc-rich/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Foxman

http://www.opednews.com/articles/3/Clinton-and-Israel--the-by-Philip-Weiss-130713-563.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich

Comments

[Miletus]

Meme magic...

The thrill is in the chase; deciphering the cipher creates a viral momentum all of its own. Consider the annual Cicada 3301 contest.

Releasing it in this manner draws in the anons. They ensure that it has life on social media and on the chan sites. The hope is that it can't be ignored by the media for long.

There's undoubtedly an element of trolling in this too though. It's unmistakeable - the clues in the tweets are too obvious. It almost looks like a game of chicken. Given that the last tweet states that this is the "initial" release of files relating to the Clinton Foundation, it looks like someone is daring the Clinton's to keep going...

[mike allen]

OK, since Eddie Amame is in exile, I will volunteer to be the pincushion on this issue, although I am not a fan of Marc Rich and men of his ilk.

1] Rich reportedly provided information to US diplomats, not just Mossad. His company had locals in Iran, South Africa, Cuba, Angola, and even Nicaragua. The State Departments INR Bureau must have considered his tips a gold mine. Rich also did business in Russia, Syria and Libya. After Giuliani indicted Rich, why did he skip a chance to get the Swiss government to arrest Rich, an assertion made by a Swiss official who was ready to help, WH pressure?

2] Rich was somewhat of a hero in the 1973/74 oil crisis when he found a way to break the Arab Oil Embargo thereby lessening the two-block-long lines of cars at American gas stations. He was also given praise in the mid 70s for breaking the ‘Seven Sisters’ stranglehold on the oil market.

3] The Israelis considered Rich a humanitarian for his millions in donations to schools and hospitals in that country. The Swiss also for his charitable contributions in Zurich. Rightly or wrongly that follows a grand old American tradition of robber barons like Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Stanford and Vanderbilt improving their image after decades of immoral and unethical business practices. That was the primary reason that Rich's lawyer pleaded in asking for the pardon.

4] WJC himself publicly admitted remorse for the pardon and realized after the fact that it was a mistake.

5] Rich paid more than $171 million in fines to the US government after his indictment and flight to Switzerland.

6] Lastly: “As a condition of the pardon, it was made clear that Rich would drop all procedural defenses against any civil actions brought against him by the United States”

[Ghostship]

The Trans-Isreal Pipeline used to transport Iranian oil across Israel from Eilat to Ashkelon, because it was cheaper than sending tankers around Africa or through the Suez Canal. When the Shah was deposed, the traffic stopped. Now it seems it transports Russian oil the other way for onward shipment to Asia for the same reason.
There was formerly also the Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline which carried Iraqi oil to Haifa where it was refined. This operated between 1935 and 1948 when the Iraqis refused to allow any more oil to flow after ar broke out in 1948. There were hopes in certain quarters that after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that this pipeline would be resurrected to assure Israel a supply of cheap oil. I don't think anything came of it.

[James Loughton]

Assange and Wikileaks have offered a $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of a DNC staffer that was murdered by a shot to the head on his way home late one night from a bar that he commonly frequented. This is only only cash reward that Wikileaks has ever offered. Wiki will not reveal their source of the DNC leaks, which is their commitment to leakers.

Police reports state that the victim's watch and wallet had not been stolen.

[Thirdeye]

A FOIA request is something the FBI is legally required to comply with. Tipping anon to FOIA requests sets a legally-protected process for releasing information in motion, thereby protecting those with prior knowledge from accusations of leaking sensitive information in the final days of a Presidential campaign. If any political hack tries to interfere with a FOIA process they are definitely on the wrong side of the law and definitely going to get the whistle blown on them for it.

[johnf]

"Israel's Tehran connection"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/apr/04/israelstehranconnection

[johnf]

I worked in a "shipyard" in Eilat in 1968 - scraping rust of hulls - and I remember flagged Iranian tankers coming in to unload.

[Jack]

Fred

"So Mark Rich's former attorney is now an assistant attorney general of the United States and is investigating Hilary Clinton's email server?"

And is a pal of Podesta who notes that he "kept me out of jail". It seems tinfoil hat conspiracy theories are true when it comes to Clintonworld. Who would have believed that the investigation is rigged and the blatant corruption at the Clinton Foundation if Podesta's emails were not exposed?

Yet half the country will vote for a person that could very likely be indicted for felony criminal violations if there's an impartial grand jury empaneled.

[Keith Harbaugh]

And now the FBI has chosen to open at least some of their files on this matter to the public.
Can this be other than a warning to their betters in the elected government?
Is the sentiment
"if you take action to stop our investigations or against us,
what else will we release?"

If Clinton wins, the long knives will be out for the FBI.
It will be an ugly, ugly scene.
The Third World has been dogged by corruption.
Well, Hillary and the Democrats have been doing everything possible to bring the Third World to America, and with it all its (their) attendant problems.
You can be that their slogan will be "bringing diversity to the FBI",
which will, in reality, mean the demography of the FBI workforce will be reshaped into resembling that of the Washington Metro.
The problems then will be a combination of inefficiency and corruption.
Like, say, how the Obama DEA has enabled the opioid epidemic.
Am I right or wrong?

[Ishmael Zechariah]

VV,
Look at the "story" in MotherJones:
"A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump"
These folks seem to be quite desperate and very dangerous. The next week is critical for the world...
Ishmael Zechariah

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump

[different clue]

sillybill,

Perhaps it takes this level of barriers to detection and traceback to permit the "Snowdens on the inside" to feel sufficiently protected against Clintonite-Borgist trackback and revenge.

[BraveNewWorld]

As usual the Israeli's F'd the Iranians and then wonder why Iranians hate them.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/swiss-court-orders-israel-to-pay-up-for-iranian-oil/

[wisedupearly]

"Campaign finance records show Mr. McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-ally-aids-campaign-of-fbi-officials-wife-1477266114

[eakens]

not so secret if it's in a book.

[LeaNder]

Very entertaining:
It's believed that these links are effectively an authentication of FBIanon to 4chan/Anonymous

Hmm, the smoking gun is found when the fat lady sings. ;)

*********
But thanks the Allen Ginsberg files are interesting - a trip down memory lane.

[LeaNder]

It's not complicated if you are following a bombshell dream. ;)

[Aka]

and the U.S. Attorney who investigated this "pardon" is the current FBI director.

"...investigation was finished and was replaced by James Comey, who was critical of Clinton's pardons and of then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder's pardon recommendation.."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich#U.S._indictment_and_pardon

[turcopolier]

mike allen

Anything that Rich did in passing diplomats cocktail party chatter was IMO just good cover. His function was to trade oil for Israel's account. pl

[ex-PFC Chuck]

The Cubs won! You might think this is off topic, but it's not. Since the last time they won the World Series Ottoman Empire I still existed. For the Middle East the Chicago team's repeat after 108 years means that the Ottoman Empire Redux is definitely on the rise.

PS: It may also mean the end of pre-sliced bread, since that hadn't been invented in 1908.

[Miletus]

I'm probably only half-joking when I say this:

The late counter-culture hero, Terence McKenna, came up with his own pseudo-scientific theory of time. It was called "novelty theory". I won't pretend to understand it (I don't have nearly enough experience with psychedelics), but I recall that it was something along the lines of reality being pulled towards the end of time, characterized by ever-increasing novelty i.e. strange, unusual events. He based it off of the i-Ching (something I do have some knowledge of) and the Mayan calendar (of which I know little). If I wasn't already fairly certain it was bat&^&* crazy, I was reassured when 2012 came and went without incident.

2016 has been a strange year.

[mike allen]

Colonel -

I was not defending Marc Rich. I detest corrupt businessmen and tax evaders like him.

Have to wonder though, since Rich also did business with Russia did he also pass on info to them? And to Libyan and Iranian officials? The man was a snake IMHO.

[turcopolier]

mike allen

You are spy obsessed. My point was that Rich's true function was to trade oil for Israel on the spot market. what chicken feed information he may have handed around was unimportant. pl

[robt willmann]

James,

Another good book on the oil industry is "Iraq and the International Oil System", by Stephen Pelletier--

https://www.amazon.com/Iraq-International-Oil-System-America/dp/0944624456

[mike allen]

Colonel -

Your point is well taken. And my point is not that Rich was a spy. He was a trafficker of economic background data with anybody or any country who would reciprocate. As you say, a gossiper at cocktail parties and various meetings with officialdom.

[mistah charley, ph.d.]

VV - in my view, for Hillary to call Huma Abedin "one of my staffers" has differing implications depending on the intention. If Hillary is preparing to cut her loose, then I agree - to reduce Huma to "one of my staffers" is cruel indeed. On the other hand, if Hillary intends to keep her dear one close to her, then referring to her as "one of my staffers" gives Huma a smaller profile for those inclined to attack her, and could be construed as a favor.