pisshead
05-11-2005, 07:31 PM
i just mentioned this earlier...there's not enough energy! we're just going to have to shut off your power if you're using too much. the government loves you.
wait until it happens with water. as water and electric bills start getting higher and higher and higher.
the IMF and world bank are going to work their magic here now.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111577397128329993-O0s9W8ZaEWmhRnfvZB65hc0xBnA_20060510,00.html?mod=t ff_main_tff_top
California Taps High-Tech Meters
In New Bid to Rein In Energy Use
By REBECCA SMITH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 11, 2005; Page B1
Still smarting from its disastrous fling with electricity deregulation four years ago, California is pursuing another ambitious energy program that ultimately could set an example -- or serve as a warning -- for other states.
Three big utilities -- Pacific Gas & Electric (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=EnterSymbol&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie) Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=SRE&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie) Co. -- plan to eventually replace millions of conventional electricity and gas meters with as many as 15 million high-tech "time of use" devices at a cost of some $3.6 billion.
Behind the program is the state's perennial need to curb growing energy use and a desire to boost utilities' efficiency. The new gear would give utilities up-to-the-minute information about how and when homes and small businesses use energy. Armed with that data, the utilities could raise prices during peak periods -- say, a hot summer afternoon -- to drive down energy use.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AC853_METER_extra05102005210234.gif
The initiative, which the California Public Utilities Commission has encouraged, has major policy and political implications. Historically, utilities have been regarded as enablers of a growing economy, obliged to meet demand and keep supplies plentiful and cheap. With the meter proposal, utilities and state regulators would instead use their control over pricing to allocate a scarce resource.
The technology -- which already is being used in a few other states -- eventually could give the utilities some remote control over home appliances such as air conditioners, which raises privacy questions. And there already is friction over the anticipated elimination of hundreds of meter-reader jobs, which could be rendered superfluous by the new network-connected meters.
Pacific Gas & Electric, a unit of PG&E (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=pcg&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie) Corp., and San Diego Gas & Electric, a unit of Sempra Energy (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=SRE&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie), which together cover more than half of California's energy market, are in the process of selecting equipment makers for pilot programs that would initially involve a few thousand meters. If successful, the two companies would launch broader rollouts beginning late this year or in 2006. Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=EIX&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie), proposes to design its own meters under a $1.2 billion program. The utilities plan to pay for the devices through cost savings and, in some cases, higher rates.
California tried to use rebates to curb power consumption during the energy crisis of 2000-01, but the effort revealed a fundamental weakness in the setup. Under deregulation, the state had a wholesale market in which electricity prices could fluctuate from one hour to the next, but retail prices could not.
State officials offered special discounts to certain consumers, which resulted in them cutting their energy use and thus reducing overall demand. But the incentives weren't effective at concentrating energy conservation during crucial periods like heat waves, when supplies shrank and wholesale prices soared. For that, the utilities need hardware more sophisticated than today's meters, most of which can't report a consumer's energy use on a particular day, let alone by the hour.
The time-of-use meters would solve that problem with something called "dynamic pricing." Backed by data from the meters, rates could be adjusted according to several market variables, including demand, supply, wholesale prices and individual use.
Utilities in some other states have installed the high-tech meters but on a much smaller scale. In Pennsylvania, PPL (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=PPL&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie) Corp. and PECO, a unit of Exelon Corp., have installed advanced meters for all their customers. But they are using them primarily for doing meter-reading automatically, not to manipulate prices and demand.
Gulf Power Co. in Pensacola, Fla., a unit of Southern (http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=include&profile-read-action=skip-read&profile-write-action=skip-write&transform-value-quote-search=so&transform-name-quote-search=nvp-set-p-sym&nvp-companion-p-type=djn&q-match=stem§ion=quote&profile-end=Portfolio&p-headline=wsjie) Co., has given small-use customers the option of participating in a program that involves variable pricing and new meters for $4.95 a month. They pay lower-than-normal rates 87% of the time. For the remaining time, prices are higher than normal, but consumers can cut energy use with special thermostats and other devices. On average, consumers are saving about 15%.
In California, the state and utilities together have conducted a test to gauge customer response to variable pricing. About 2,500 small-scale users across the state were given new meters and put on different pricing plans. In one plan, consumers were charged 13 cents a kilowatt hour for most hours except for 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, when the price went to 25 cents. On a few occasions the price was jacked up to 66 cents a kilowatt hour to mimic a period of special system needs. Researchers said the program reduced peak demand by about 13%.
But one consumer in the pilot program wasn't impressed. Dawn Seden, an office manager in San Diego, was initially enthusiastic about getting an advanced meter and programmable thermostat to control her home's central air conditioning and heat. But her electricity bills jumped about 15% under the variable pricing scheme. And she found dealing with the price fluctuations to be a bother, even though the setup allowed her to adjust the thermostat via the Internet. "To be honest, if you're at work, it isn't very convenient to have to log on" and change the settings every time prices spike, she said. Before all the gizmos, she simply turned the climate control off when she left for work in the morning and turned things back on at night. "In some ways, it was easier."
Advanced meters, with a two-way communications capability, also could let utilities remotely control energy-sapping appliances like air conditioners and pool pumps. But some people fear a privacy problem, especially if energy-use data are sold or made available to police officers who, say, are looking for high energy usage that could signal marijuana grow lights. "The technology has benefits but the question is how we can enjoy it without creating Big Brother," says Chris Hoofnagle, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's West Coast office in San Francisco. He believes privacy protections should extend to utility-usage data.
The California Public Utilities Commission has yet to rule on any of the utility proposals, although they have been filed at its behest. The project's cost is certain to be a big issue at the commission. Collectively, the three utilities estimate they will need to spend more than $3.6 billion, including the expense of integrating the advanced meters with other utility billing- and outage-information systems.
The utilities think some of the cost could be offset by reducing peak demand; by cutting the expense of reading meters, which Pacific Gas & Electric estimates could save $700 million over a 16-year period for the company; and by improving outage detection and repair systems. But rate increases also likely would be needed to fund the program. "Any rate impacts will be very small," said Tom Bottorff, senior vice president of customer service at PG&E.
Reducing power demand hinges on rate structures that motivate people to change their habits but are not so extreme as to spark a consumer revolt. PG&E says its variable-pricing structures will be "very attractive" and entirely voluntary. Edison says, in its regulatory filing, that 80% of its small-use customers will be put on "critical peak pricing" programs, which can result in a big price spike during a moment of high stress for the electrical system. It essentially punishes people for using power at certain times.
Although variable pricing for electricity is novel among residential consumers, large commercial and industrial customers have been offered such programs for years. What's new for them, though, is the likely imposition of peak pricing during critical-use periods. Late last month, the utilities commission nixed proposals to impose critical peak pricing on big energy users this summer, after many of these customers complained they didn't have enough time to prepare for such a change. The commission has directed utilities to come up with new plans, later this summer, which would take effect in the summer of 2006.
One energy economist who has studied the issue believes a properly designed variable-pricing program could produce huge public benefits and push utilities to think more innovatively. He also feels that consumers, once they understand the potential of meters to foster efficiency, will embrace them.
"I think we're going to find there's a lot of price responsiveness at the residential level," says Severin Borenstein, head of the Energy Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.
Write to Rebecca Smith at
[email protected] (
[email protected])
pisshead
05-11-2005, 07:32 PM
The World Bank and the Secret Argentine Plan
Transcript of Interview of Greg Palast, Journalist for BBC and Observer, London
Alex Jones Radio Show, Monday (PM), March 4, 2002
_______________________________
AJ: This is earth shattering. Can you break it down for us and tell us what the economists have done?
GP: Well, I'll tell you two things. One, I spoke to the former chief economist, Joe Stiglitz who was fired by the (World) Bank. So I, on BBC and with Guardian, basically spent some time debriefing him. It was like one of the scenes out of Mission Impossible, you know where the guy comes over from the other side and you spend hours debriefing him. So I got the insight of what was happening at the World Bank. In addition, he did not brief me but I got some other sources. He would not give me
inside documents but other people handed me a giant stash of secret documents from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
AJ: So to insulate himself, somebody else did it.
GP: No, I'm telling you. He wouldn't touch it but I really did get from completely independent sources a big stack of documents.
AJ: Just like you got W199I, from the same folks we got it from.
GP: And so one of the things that is happening is that, in fact, I was supposed to be on CNN with the head of the World Bank Jim Wolfensen and he said he would not appear on CNN ever if they put me on. And so CNN did the craziest thing and pulled me off.
AJ: So now they are threatening total boycott.
GP: Yea right. So what we found was this. We found inside these documents that basically they required nations to sign secret agreements, in which they agreed to sell off their key assets, in which they agreed to take economic steps which are really devastating to the nations involved and if they didn't agree to these steps, there was an average for each nation that signed one-hundred and eleven items that they are required to sign on to. If they didn't follow those steps they would be cut-off from all international borrowing. You can't borrow any money in the international marketplace. No one can survive without borrowing, whether you are people or corporations or countries - without borrowing some money and having some credit and ...
AJ: Because of the debt inflation pit they've created.
GP: Yea, well, see one of the things that happened is that - we've got examples from, I've got inside documents recently from Argentina, the secret Argentine plan. This is signed by Jim Wolfensen, the president of the World Bank. By the way, just so you know, they are really upset with me that I've got the documents, but they have not challenged the authenticity of the documents. First, they did. First they said those documents don't exist. I actually showed them on television. And cite some on the web, I actually have copies of some...
AJ: Greg Palast dot com?
GP: Yea, gregpalast.com. So then they backed off and said yea those documents are authentic but we are not going to discuss them with you and we are going to keep you off the air anyway. So, that's that. But what they were saying is look, you take a country like Argentina, which is, you know, in flames now. And it has had five presidents in five weeks because their economy is completely destroyed.
AJ: Isn't it six now?
GP: Yea, it's like the weekly president because they can't hold the nation together. And this happened because they started out in the end of the 80s with orders from the IMF and World Bank to sell-off all their assets, public assets. I mean, things we wouldn't think of doing in the US, like selling off their water system.
AJ: So they tax the people. They create big government and big government hands it off to the private IMF/World Bank. And when we get back, I want to get to the four-parts that you elegantly lay out here where they actually pay off the politicians billions to their Swiss bank accounts to do this transfer.
GP: That's right.
AJ: This is like one of the biggest stories ever, Sir. I'm sorry, please continue.
GP: So what's happening is - this is just one of them. And by the way, it's not just anyone who gets a piece of the action. The water system of Buenos Aires was sold off for a song to a company called Enron. A pipeline was sold off, that runs between Argentina and Chile, was sold off to a company called Enron.
AJ: And then the globalists blow out the Enron after transferring the assets to another dummy corporation and then they just roll the theft items off.
GP: You've got it. And by the way, you know why they moved the pipeline to Enron is that they got a call from somebody named George W. Bush in 1988.
AJ: Unbelievable, Sir. Stay right there. We are talking to Greg Palast.
BREAK
AJ: We are talking to Greg Palast. He is an award-winning journalist, an American who has worked for the BBC, London Guardian, you name it, who has dropped just a massive bomb-shell on the Globalists and their criminal activity. There is no other word for it. You link through at inforwars.com, you can link to his web site - gregpalast.com, or any of the other great reports he has been putting out. He now has the secret documents. We have seen the activity of the IMF/World Bank for years.
They come in, pay off politicians to transfer the water systems, the railways, the telephone companies, the nationalized oil companies, gas stations - they then hand it over to them for nothing. The Globalists pay them off individually, billions a piece in Swiss bank accounts. And the plan is total slavery for the entire population. Of course, Enron, as we told you was a dummy corporation for money laundering, drug money, you name it, from the other reporters we have had on.
It's just incredibly massive and hard to believe. But it is actually happening. Greg Palast has now broken the story world-wide. He has actually interviewed the former top World Bank economist. Continuing Sir with all these points. I mean for the average person out there, in a nutshell, what is the system you are exposing?
GP: We are exposing that they are systematically tearing nations apart, whether it's Ecuador or Argentina. The problem is some of these bad ideas are drifting back into the U.S. In other words, they have run out of places to bleed. And the problem is, this is the chief economist, this is not some minor guy. By the way, a couple of months ago, after he was fired, he was given the Nobel Prize in Economics. So he is no fool. He told me, he went into countries where they were talking about privatizing and selling off these assets. And basically, they knew, they literally knew and turned the other way when it was understood that leaders of these countries and the chief ministers would salt away hundreds of millions of dollars.
AJ: But it's not even privatization. They just steal it from the people and hand it over to the IMF/World Bank.
GP: They hand it over, generally to the cronies, like Citibank was very big and grabbed half the Argentine banks. You've got British Petroleum grabbing pipelines in Ecuador. I mentioned Enron grabbing water systems all over the place. And the problem is that they are destroying these systems as well. You can't even get drinking water in Buenos Aires. I mean it is not just a question of the theft. You can't turn on the tap. It is more than someone getting rich at th e public expense.
AJ: And the IMF just got handed the Great Lakes. They have the sole control over the water supply now. That's been in the Chicago Tribune.
GP: Well the problem that we have is - look, the IMF and the World Bank is 51% owned by the United States Treasury. So the question becomes, what are we getting for the money that we put into there? And it looks like we are getting mayhem in several nations. Indonesia is in flames. He was telling me, the Chief Economist, Stiglitz, was telling me that he started questioning what was happening. You know, everywhere we go, every country we end up meddling in, we destroy their economy and they end up in flames. And he was saying that he questioned this and he got fired for it. But he was saying that they even kind of plan in the riots. They know that when they squeeze a country and destroy its economy, you are going to get riots in the streets. And they say, well that's the IMF riot. In other words, because you have riot, you lose. All the capital runs away from your country and that gives the opportunity for the IMF to then add more conditions.
AJ: And that makes them even more desperate. So it is really an imperial economy war to implode countries and now they are doing it here with Enron. They are getting so greedy - they are preparing it for this country.
GP: I've just been talking to, out in California just yesterday, from here in Paris, the chief investigators of Enron for the State of California. They are telling me some of the games these guys are playing. No one is watching that. It's not just the stockholders that got ripped off. They sucked millions, billions of dollars out of the public pocket in Texas and California in particular.
AJ: Where are the assets? See, everybody says there are no assets left since Enron was a dummy corporation - from the experts I've had on and they transferred all those assets to other corporations and banks.
GP: Well yea, this stuff has really gone just like a three-card Monty game. I mean remember that there is money at the bottom. You did pay California's electric bills according to the investigations, they are telling me that they were pumped up unnecessarily by 9 to 12-billion
dollars. And I don't know who they are going to get it back from now.
AJ: Well they actually caught the Governor buying it for $137 per megawatt and selling it back to Enron for $1 per megawatt and doing it over and over and over again.
GP: Yea, the system has gotten completely out of control and these guys knew exactly what was happening. Well, you have to understand that some of the guys who designed the system in California for deregulation then
went to work for Enron right after. In fact, here I'm in London right now and we have, the British has some responsibility here. The guy who was on the audit committee of Enron, Lord Wakeham. And this guy is a
real piece of work, there isn't a conflict of interest that he hasn't been involved in.
AJ: And he is the head of NM Rothschild.
GP: There isn't anything that he doesn't have his fingers in. He's on something like fifty Boards. And one of the problems, he was supposed to be head of the audit committee watching how Enron kept the books.
And in fact, they were paying him consulting fees on the side. He was in Margaret Thatcher's government and he's the one who authorized Enron to come into Britain and take over power plants here in Britain. And
they owned a water system in the middle of England. This is what this guy approved and then they gave him a job on the board. And on top of being on the board, they gave him a huge consulting contract. So you know, this guy was supposed to be in charge of the audit committee to see how they were handling their accounts.
AJ: Well, he is also the head of the board to regulate the media.
GP: Yes, he is, because I have run into real problems, because he regulates me.
AJ: They are also trying to pass laws in England where you've got an 800-year old well, or in some cases a 2000-year old well that the Romans built that's on your property and they say we are putting a meter on
it. You can't have your own water.
GP: Yea, and that's Lord Wakeham. I mean this is the guy from Enron. He is a real piece of work. He can't be touched here because like I say he actually regulates the media. So if you complain, he's got his hand on your pen.
AJ: Burrow into NM Rothschild, you'll find it all there. Go through these four points. I mean you've got the documents. The IMF/World Bank implosion, four points, how they bring down a country and destroy the
resources of the people.
GP: Right. First you open up the capital markets. That is, you sell off your local banks to foreign banks. Then you go to what's called market-based pricing. That's the stuff like in California where everything is free market and you end up with water bills - we can't even imagine selling off water companies in the United States of America. But imagine if a private company like Enron owned your water. So then the prices go through the roof. Then open up your borders to trade - complete free marketeering. And Stiglitz who was the chief economist, remember he was running this system, he was their numbers man and he was saying it was like the opium wars. He said this isn't free trade; this is coercion trade. This is war. They are taking apart economies through this.
AJ: Well look, China has a 40% tariff on us, we have a 2% on them. That's not free and fair trade. It's to force all industry to a country that the globalists fully control.
GP: Well, you know Walmart - I did a story, in fact, if you read my book. Let me just mention that I've got a book out, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" about how, unfortunately, America has been put up for sale. "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" is coming out this week. But I have a story in there about how Walmart has 700 plants in China. There is almost nothing in a Walmart store that comes from the United States of America, despite all the eagles on the wall.
AJ: Exactly, like 1984, then they have big flags saying "Buy American" and there's hardly anything --- it's Orwellian double-think.
GP: What's even worst is they will hire a factory and right next to it will be the sister factory which is inside a prison. You can imagine the conditions of these workers producing this lovely stuff for Walmart. It's really....
AJ: And if an elitist needs a liver, they just call.
GP: (Laughs) I know, it's grim. In fact, I talked to a guy, Harry Wu, is his name and, in fact, he broke into, he's been in Chinese prison for 19 years. No one believed his horrible stories. He actually broke back into prison, took a camera with him and took pictures of the conditions
and said this is the conditions of factories where Walmart is getting its stuff made at, it's all....
AJ: I was threatened to be thrown off TV here in Austin when I aired video of little girls 4-years old chained down, skinnier than Jews in concentration camps, to die. And I was threatened, if you ever air that again, you will be arrested.
GP: Well you know, it is horrifying stuff that, unfortunately, I have been handed and Stiglitz, was very courageous for him to come out and make these statements. Like I said, he didn't provide me the
documents. The documents really sealed it because it said this is what really happened. They really do say sign on the dotted line agreeing to 111 conditions for each nation. And the public has no say; they don't
know what the hell is happening to them. All they know....
AJ: Go back into privatization. Go through these four points. That's the key. It sends billions to politicians to hand everything over.
GP: Yea, he called it briberization, which is you sell off the water company and that's worth, over ten years, let's say that that's worth about 5 billion bucks, ten percent of that is 500 million, you can figure out how it works. I actually spoke to a Senator from Argentina two weeks ago. I got him on camera. He said that after he got a call
from George W. Bush in 1988 saying give the gas pipeline in Argentina to Enron, that's our current president. He said that what he found was really creepy was that Enron was going to pay one-fifth of the world's
price for their gas and he said how can you make such an offer? And he was told, not by George W. but by a partner in the deal, well if we only pay one-fifth that leaves quit a little bit for you to go in your Swiss
bank account. And that's how it's done.
AJ: This is the ....
GP: I've got the film. This guy is very conservative. He knows the Bush family very well. And he was public works administrator in Argentina and he said, yea, I got this call. I asked him, I said, from George W. Bush. He said, yea, November 1988, the guy called him up and
said give a pipeline to Enron. Now this is the same George W. Bush who said he didn't get to know Ken Lay until 1994. So, you know.....
AJ: So now they are having these white-wash hearings. You know I was at Enron yesterday in Houston because I'm now here in Austin. We were like 30-feet from the door, right on the sidewalk and I have it on video
- goons came up and said you can't videotape. I said go ahead and have me arrested. I mean I'm talking on the sidewalk, Greg.
GP: Well, you know, I was there in May, telling people in Britain you've never heard of Enron, but ... And these are the guys who have figured out how to (garbled) this government. In fact, we saw some interesting documents, a month before Bush took office, Bill Clinton, I think to get even with Bush's big donor, cut Enron out of the California power market. He put a cap on the prices they could charge. They couldn't charge more than one-hundred times the normal price for
electricity. That upset Enron. So Ken Lay personally wrote a note to Dick Cheney saying get rid of Clinton's cap on prices. Within 48 hours of George W. Bush taking office, his energy department reversed the clamps on Enron. OK, how much is that worth for those guys. You know that has got to be worth, that paid off in a week all the donations.
AJ: Listen at the bombs you are dropping. You are interviewing these ministers, former head of IMF/World Bank economist - all of this, you've got the documents, paying people's Swiss Bank accounts, all this happening. Then you've got Part 2, what do they do after they start
imploding?
GP: Well, then they tell you to start cutting your budgets. A fifth of the population of Argentina is unemployed, and they said cut the unemployment benefits drastically, take away pension funds, cut the education budgets, I mean horrible things. Now if you cut the economy in the middle of a recession that was created by these guys, you are
really going to absolutely demolish this nation. After we were attacked on September 11, Bush ran out and said we got to spend $50 to $100 billion dollars to save our economy. We don't start cutting the budget, you start trying to save this economy. But they tell these countries
you've got to cut, and cut, and cut. And why, according to the inside documents, it's so you can make payments to foreign banks - the foreign banks are collecting 21% to 70% interest. This is loan-sharking. If fact, it was so bad that they required Argentina to get rid of the laws
against loan-sharking. because any bank would be a loan-shark under Argentine law.
AJ: But Greg, you said it yourself and the documents show it. They first implode the economy to create that atmosphere. They institute the entire climate that does this.
GP: Yea, and then they say, well gee, we can't lend you any money except at these loan-shark rates. We don't allow people to charge 75% interest in the United States. That's loan-sharking.
AJ: Part 3 and Part 4. What do they do after they do that?
GP: Like I said, you open up the borders for trade, that's the new opium wars. And once you have destroyed an economy that can't produce anything, one of the terrible things is that they are forcing nations to pay horrendous amounts for things like drugs - legal drugs. And by the
way, that's how you end up with an illegal drug trade, what's there left to survive on except sell us smack and crack and that's how...
AJ: And the same CIA national security dictatorship has been caught shipping that in.
GP: You know, we are just helping our allies.
AJ: This is just amazing. And so, drive the whole world down, blow out their economies and then buy the rest of it up for pennies on the dollar. What's Part 4 of the IMF/World Bank Plan?
GP: Well, in Part 4, you end up again with the taking apart of the government. And by the way, the real Part 4 is the coup d'etat. That's what they are not telling you. And I'm just finding that out in Venezuela. I just got a call from the President of Venezuela.
AJ: And they install their own corporate government.
GP: What they said was here you've got an elected president of the government and the IMF has announced, listen to this, that they would
support a transition government if the president were removed. They are not saying that they are going to get involved in politics - they would just support a transition government. What that effectively is is saying we will pay for the coup d'etat, if the military overthrows the
current president, because the current president of Venezuela has said no to the IMF. He told those guys to go packing. They brought their teams in and said you have to do this and that. And he said, I don't have to do nothing. He said what I'm going to do is, I'm going to
double the taxes on oil corporations because we have a whole lot of oil in Venezuela. And I'm going to double the taxes on oil corporations and then I will have all the money I need for social programs and the
government - and we will be a very rich nation. Well, as soon as they did that, they started fomenting trouble with the military and I'm telling you watch this space: the President of Venezuela will be out of office in three months or shot dead. They are not going to allow him to
raise taxes on the oil companies.
AJ: Greg Palast, here is the problem. You said it when you first came out of the gates. They are getting hungry, they are doing it to the United States now. Enron, from all the evidence that I've seen was a front, another shill, they would steal assets and then transfer it to other older global companies, then they blew that out and stole the pension funds. Now they are telling us that terrorism is coming any day. It's going to happen if you don't give your rights up. Bush did not involve Congress and the others who are supposed to be in the accession if there is a nuclear attack in the secret government, Washington Post -"Congress Not Advised of Shadow Government." We have the Speaker of the House not being told. This looks like coup d'etat here. I'm going to come right out with it. We had better spread the word on this now or these greedy creatures are going to go all the way.
GP: I'm very sad about one thing. I report this story in the main stream press of Britian. I'm on the BBC despite Lord Wakeham. I know he doesn't like me there. I'm in the BBC, I'm in the main daily paper, which is the equivalent of the New York Times or whatever, and we do get the information out. And I'm just very sorry that we have to have an alternative press, an alternative radio network and everything else to get out the information that makes any sense. I mean this information should be available to every American. I mean, after all, it's our government.
pisshead
05-11-2005, 07:37 PM
Alex Jones Interviews Greg Palast
Full transcript February 25 2003
AJ: You??ve got some new bombshells today.
GP: Yeah, well there??s a few. One of the stories that I broke on BBC television was that before September 11th, FBI agents and CIA agents told BBC television that they were blocked from investigating certain members of the bin Laden family in America who were tied to suspect terrorist organizations. And that they could not investigate Saudi Arabian funding of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. And they were very frustrated that they could not do this investigation before September11th. The other documents showing the investigations were, some of them were permitted to go forward beginning September 13th, 2001. And I have to say, I don??t know whether George Bush had any knowledge or pre-knowledge of September 11th or any of that, but what I was investigating though was why were the intelligence agencies told to stay away. And I want to give you a piece of information, Alex, which some is in the new book and some will be on your show for the first time today.
One of the things I am very concerned about, BBC learned about from two completely separate sources - is about a meeting in June of 1996 in Paris between Saudi Arabian billionaires, international arms dealers and the finance arm of al Qaeda. And there was a discussion about how much the Saudis would pay to al Qaeda and these other so-called charities that were really fronts for terrorist organizations. My view is that the Saudis were going to pay off these guys to get out of Saudi Arabia. That was the month that nineteen American servicemen were killed in Saudi Arabia when al Qaeda blew up the Khobar Towers. The nineteen American servicemen were dead and so the Saudis, rather than to go after these guys, said we??ll write them a big check and tell them to go play in Afghanistan. And I was wondering why the intelligence agents were not free, were not free by the Bush Administration, to really to go after that source of funding. You know the old rule of investigation is follow the money. If you can??t look at Osama bin Laden??s piggy bank and you can??t check out his checking account, you are not going to know what he??s up to. So I found out who was at the meeting. And one guy at the meeting, according to two separate sources is a rich Saudi named Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, at least is how it is spelled in English.
AJ: And was involved in Harken back in the 70s.
GP: Boy are you - you??ve got a good memory. You know exactly what it comes from. This guy was supposedly in this meeting about funding al Qaeda. What we also know is that when George W. Bush was in the oil business, he made millions in the oil business but he never struck oil. But he seemed to strike the pockets of several Saudi Sheikhs. Every time he had an oil venture going south, he had one called Arbusto and another called Spectrum - finally those were bought up by Harken Oil. A Gulf Sheikh would come in and put up the money to pull George W. out of the financial fire. And it was Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh who was the big money helping to refinance Harken Oil and save George W. from, basically from bankruptcy in the oil business. So this is the guy - you know when our president says there are thousands of people out there trying to kill us and people supporting terror, he might want to look at some of his own business partners.
AJ: Isn??t he one of the richest people in Saudi Arabia - and also bin Laden??s older brother was involved in it too right here in Texas.
GP: Well, you know he did have - I haven??t been able to get the information on the Texas story. You may have more information on that. What I was concerned about is that there are two members of the bin Laden family in Washington, D.C. and Virginia Falls, which overlooks the Pentagon. And Abdullah and Omar bin Laden - now you have to be careful, there are lots of Abdullahs and there are lots of Omar bin Ladens. Remember Osama has 52 brothers and sisters. That??s quite a family. So not all of them with the name bin Laden or even Abdullah are suspect. But these two guys and you have this on your program because this was from the FBI document 199I which is a national security secret document which the agents basically dropped off for us because they were upset that they couldn??t investigate these guys. And they were fronting an organization called WAMY which sounds very nice - the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - and they do actually support little baseball teams and basketball teams and that type of thing. But I thought some of their films for training camps for kids were basically recruitment for suicide bombings, recruitment for Jihad. And this was going on Florida, by the way. And now it turns out that a member of this organization, headed at one point by the bin Ladens and by the Saudi Royal family, turns out to be the conduit for the tapes of Osama bin Laden to al Jazeera television. A guy was just arrested in Somalia from WAMY. This is the organization that the FBI wanted to investigate and they were told, ??Back off.? And we have to be concerned about is whether - I??m very concerned about whether the Bush family??s finances are prejudicing their view of how to conduct foreign policy, how to handle the intelligence....
AJ: Well, in 2001, the Wall Street Journal called for the Bushes to get out of the Carlyle Group.
GP: Yes, for those who don??t know - if you??ve been listening to Alex, I??m sure you do know - that the bin Laden family is one of the funders of the Carlyle Group. And you know, this is one of the problems that you run into with many things. You talk about the Homeland Security and the USA Patriot Act. One of the things that??s coming out of the book - and if you don??t mind me mentioning the book out today is ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,? acknowledging the great work of Alex Jones to get this word into the USA. Like I say it??s mainstream stuff in the rest of the world but I??m kind of put out as a pariah on U.S. television....
AJ: Well they now admit universal censorship - they are actually telling them from the nightly news rooms to the Grammy??s there will be no criticism of the Fuehrer.
GP: Well I??ve got to tell you, I had Dan Rather on my show in Britain, another reporter was questioning him and he said, ??Look we can??t ask the tough questions about September 11. We can??t ask tough questions about the war in Iraq. I know we should but we just can??t do it because I??ll be roasted unpatriotic.? And when this questioning becomes unpatriotic, Alex, it really gets me a bit concerned.
AJ: Well, Teddy Roosevelt said that was the definition of being patriotic.
GP: Well, you know when you are talking about Homeland Security and keeping track of you private finances, whether you own a legal weapon, etc., who is the company making the money off this? Forbes Magazine says that we don??t know who lost the war on terror but we sure know who??s won it: a company called ChoicePoint. You??ll find this in the book, which is, ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.? And what is interesting about ChoicePoint, if you remember I broke a story in BBC that before the Florida election of 2000, Kathryn Harris and Jeb Bush knocked off 57,000 legal voters off the voter rolls. And it turns out that most of them were black. It??s not that they were prejudiced against blacks but they didn??t like the fact that they generally vote democratic. And who gave them this list of voters - supposedly they were knocked off because they were felons and evil-doers who are not allowed to vote in Florida. Well, it turns out that all of those people, 90.2% of the people on that list were innocent. And that swung the election. Who came up with that rotten little list - it was a company called ChoicePoint. Who is the biggest contractor for the war on terror and Homeland Security for spying on Americans? ChoicePoint. They picked the president and the president has picked them for the total information awareness business. And now they want your blood, Alex. You??ll find this is in the book, too. It is a company called Bode Technologies which has been getting a lot good air play because they supposedly find all the kiddies who, when you see their pictures on the milk cartons - missing children, they use DNA samples to find the missing kids. It??s a very heart-warming story. And they encourage you to send them your blood and your DNA and your hair and all that, if your kid gets lost. What they should tell you is that this company, Bode Technologies, is also the biggest contractor for the FBI for supplying their DNA coded system.
AJ: Well, they??ve even said - I??ve had one of these individuals on the show, who had pushed back in the early 90s for a federal law that we all have to give DNA at birth. And now it??s come out that one of those blood tests they??ve been doing - most of the states now have been caught but they keep doing it - they say it??s a blood test for your baby. They take three ampoules, one goes to the health department, which is the blood test, one goes to the state and one goes to the feds. They??ve got illegal DNA databases. And again this is just being done and it??s always shadowy CIA front companies involved in it, as you just mentioned.
GP: Well, in fact, the company, Bode Technologies is a 100% owned subsidiary of the company that made Bush president - ChoicePoint. The same company, I mean for picking our president, they??ve done very well for themselves while the rest of the stock market is going down the tubes, this company is rising.
AJ: Well yeah, look at it. The oil is up, the bank is up, the security, the police state stocks are all up. This is our new economy - a gulag.
GP: So I have some chapters as to who is really winning the war on terror, in the book, in "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.? And I??ve got to tell you that we??ve got other problems. Not only is the Bush family deeply involved with Saudi Arabia - it??s like ??see no Saudi evil, hear no Saudi evil, speak no Saudi evil? - which is fine if that helps the interests of the United States. But one has to ask when you have 15 of 19 hijackers coming from Saudi Arabia, what??s really going on here? I am very concerned. And I have to tell you, I have spoken to agents, FBI agents, CIA agents. And some of them and you know those are agencies that have done some pretty strange things that we wish they hadn??t done but there are a lot of guys in there who are really trying to protect America.
AJ: That??s why we are getting all these leaks now.
GP: That??s right. And not one of them said, Alex, if we didn??t have the Bill of Rights, we could have gotten these guys. If we didn??t have personal freedoms, we could have gotten these guys.
AJ: But Ashcroft and others, and George Will are now saying exactly that - while we leave the borders wide open. Greg, let me just for a second, I know you??ve got some other news you want to break here. And we are honored to have you. Bill Moyers reported on something that MSNBC, that the New Yorker Magazine, and FOX just mentioned a year ago. That as Konduz and Kandahar were falling - then it was 6000, now it??s upwards of 8000 - cream of the crop al Qaeda and Taliban were loaded on U.S. government aircraft with ISI and flown out to safety. And we know that the Republican Senate report in 1999 said that al Qaeda was being funded by Clinton, that means the CIA, to attack the Serbs and start that war. And so here we have the government flying them out and Bill Moyers, I read part of his transcript yesterday, said well they did fly them out - it??s just an accident. You start connecting all this together. We know they were CIA assets in the past. You start connecting it all together. Greg, I know you??re a BBC reporter, you can??t go out on a limb here, I do because I have the facts and all of it together. This thing is a giant operation. We were kooks to say prior knowledge. That??s now admitted fact. I think you??ve got more than prior knowledge; you??ve got funding and training - the LA Times reported tens of millions of dollars in early 2001 being sent to the Taliban. The only Taliban leader to be held by our government was the one guy who blew the whistle about 9/11. He stayed behind thinking he would be a hero. They grabbed him. He??s off to some undisclosed location. They have this top Taliban general, the Washinton Times reported, the CIA ordered his release. I mean all of these pieces together. What do you have to say about that?
GP: Well, that??s what I??m hunting down, the pieces. I??ll let you put it together, Alex. I just provide the dots. You can make the connections. One of the reasons why I believe that the bin Laden connection to this terrorist organization was not hunkered down before September 11th - their front organization or the recruiting organization, however you want to call it - is that, as you said, it started really with the Daddy Bush administration and carried through the Clinton administration.
AJ: What about when Larry Klayman got up on national TV and said, ??We can??t tell you what we know. Here??s a letter threatening to arrest us.? He had Robert Wright, the FBI agent. And then he added to all of this, that the Bushes, by the way, vacation with the bin Ladens. That??s all I can say. It??s amazing, Greg.
GP: Yeah, well, the backing of the Chechens, that??s just all blow-back. I mean these guys were created by the Bush family.
AJ: Tell you what, stay there Greg Palast. Quick break....
GP: We??ve got the IMF stuff, too.
AJ: Yeah we??ve got the new IMF revelations, a bunch of stuff about the election, the CIA military industrial complex take over. We??re joined by Greg Palast. I??m Alex Jones.
BREAK
AJ: The second hour is coming up and Greg Palast will be with us for another 35 minutes. We??ll open the phones up a little bit later. The toll free number to talk to Greg Palast is 1-800-259-9231. If you would like to get my documentary films about September 11th or my book, ??Descent into Tyranny,? go to infowars.com or net or call toll free 1-888-253-3139, that??s 888-253-3139 or infowars.com. Greg Palast??s website, which we have a link to is gregpalast.com. He has a best selling book, ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.? You know all this talk about the loving world government democracies; it??s bad enough. We need a constitutional republic. But they??re just calling pure tyranny their loving world democracy and Greg has got a bunch of bombshell news stories, the latest developments, to drop on us. And we are honored to have him here with us today. Greg Palast, continuing with the information. Any other key points you want to add.
GP: There are several. Like you say, the book just came out today, ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.? The hardback, I think hit the New York Times best seller list because of Alex Jones, because so many of the listeners decided that they needed this information. It shocked everyone. The Times said where did this book come from? Well, Alex, we know. But the new book is a special U.S. edition. It??s double in size of what it was. And one of the new things in there is that we are about to go into Iraq - part of the reason is that Saddam has a bomb. Or he has at least an erector set to make one.
AJ: And who gave him the components?
GP: Yeah, read it right in the book. What you have is we had a defector that came from Saudi Arabia with 14,000 documents in his possession from the Saudi Arabians. The FBI was offered these documents. This was when Bill Clinton was president. The FBI was offered these documents. They said, ??No thanks, we are not allowed to look.? But I can tell you what was in those documents. One of the things was information that the Saudi Arabian government gave $7 billion to Saddam to build his bomb. And that happened during the Reagan-Bush administration because at that time, remember, we didn??t have an axis of evil. We had a unicycle of evil: Iran. And the idea was that we give Saddam the bombs so he could shake it at the Iranians. We didn??t care if he had a bomb. You know it??s very interesting. So, that??s in the book....
AJ: Rumsfeld just wasn??t the bagman for the saran, the VX, the West Nile, the anthrax, the botulism. For six months over there, he also was involved on the board of ABB, transferring nuclear reactors that could produce 100 warheads per year, that we know learn, to North Korea. So they go set up these people. It??s always Bush former associates. It??s always bin Laden or Saddam or Noriega. It??s always somebody they arm and then we got to have our kids march off to death in this World War III when Bush says it??s a new hundred-year war.
GP: Well yeah, it??s kind of all war, all the time - economy - hoping that that will save our economy. And some of the goofy things they are doing, for example, one of the big projects - our government is now busting the budget to order three dozen Virginia class nuclear submarines. These are supposed to attack Soviet subs. Well there aren??t any Soviet subs. There is no Soviet Union. So what they are doing is making them war on terror machines to fight the war on terror. But they are loading these billion dollar babies with are torpedoes - listen to this one Alex, you??ll love this one - torpedoes, which will be filled with nine Marines. I don??t know where they are going to get the volunteers for the torpedo. We are going to fight the war on terror by landing Marines, Navy Seals and Marines on the beaches. Israelis do this type of command operation; they use canoes. We are going to use a $1.6 billion submarine to fire torpedoes filled with Navy Seals.
AJ: Stay right there, Greg Palast. I want to get back to the World Bank and the IMF. When you were on this show on March 4th, you said there is going to be a coup in the next month and there was an attempted coup two weeks later - actually a week and a half later. We want to talk about the World Bank/IMF - how they brag about how they are going to destroy all these economies, how they institute the police state, who is really behind all this. It??s all coming up and your calls.
BREAK
AJ: In this email that Greg Palast sent me, he said, ??you are allowing me to speak about the sinister and secretive plan of the IMF/World Bank and now it??s become mainstream approval. This is my exposure.? This is his exposure of inside documents from inside the New World Order will be featured in this month??s Harper??s Magazine. And then we have the New York Times last week, Richard Bernstein, ??Nations seek world order centered on UN not U.S.? And it says ??the meeting was saturated by the World Bank with the heads of Europe. The meeting was saturated with a commitment to what may be viewed as a form of world government, the supervision of countries by international civil service bureaucracy.? And this is all run by the World Bank and the IMF. And it??s not freedom-loving; it??s tyranny-loving. It??s the new empire. It??s not about left or right. It??s about organized crime syndicates.
Ladies and gentlemen, and joining us is Greg Palast who was just talking about confirmed connections to the bin Laden family and the Bushes with the WAMY group being protected in these meetings in the late 1990s. And Bush protecting these people, as well as Clinton doing it and how all this ties together. And now how the military industrial complex is winning the war on terror, that is winning the profits of the hundreds of millions of dollars of profits. They say it will be a $1.7 to $1.9 trillion. That??s very important - 1.7 to 1.9 trillion dollars - five year occupational war costs in Iraq. Greg Palast, getting back into the latest revelations of the IMF/World Bank documents. They have never denied that you got those from a secret source. They just tried to spin it but it has caused a firestorm. How are they dealing with this now that the evidence came out that they were orchestrating the implosion of economies?
GP: Well, what they are doing is once again saying that I??m a conspiracy nut. It always gives the conspirators a good laugh. What??s happened is that they have a problem in that they vilified me and they vilified the guy who interpreted the documents. He didn??t hand me the documents but he interpreted them - the former chief economist of the World Bank. He knew that these documents were authentic. And his name is Joe Stiglitz. And they??ve got a problem because they were vilifying him as a nutcase and an evil guy and then he just won the Nobel Prize in Economics. So this is a Nobel Prize winner who set out the information we had was authentic. What these are are documents - some of them are called nicely, politely country assistance plans but they direct these nations to give up their resources. For example, in the nation of Ecuador, it says that this country could receive no international funds. It??s just like you can??t go to the bank and get a mortgage or you can??t get a house. They were going to cut off their financing unless they met what they call conditionalities. One of the conditionalities was that a permit be given to British Petroleum for a pipeline over the Andes and that they give their gas to British Petroleum. In the case of Argentina, they required the nation to give up its water system to a company named Enron. And you know who was lobbying for Enron. I discovered, and it??s brand new to my book. My book, by the way, again came out today, ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.? The brand new U.S. revised edition. And in this new U.S. edition, I say who benefited from that World Bank dictate to Argentina to turn over its gas supplies, its oil supplies and its water supplies to Enron and a couple of other operators. The Public Works Minister of Argentina got a call from a guy named Jeb Bush saying, ??Listen my daddy was just elected president.? This is in 1988. And he would appreciate and it would create good relations with the United States if you would please give a company named Enron that contract for Argentina??s gas. And the guy from the Public Works Minister in Argentina was horrified because Enron was only going to pay one-fifth of the world price for this stuff. What was the Bush family doing getting involved in that?
AJ: Amazing. It??s criminal and on top of it, the World Bank/IMF documents also state how their actions, grabbing the water, the roads, the fuel, the forests, will cause riots. And how that??s good because they get to crack down even more. We??ll be right back in three minutes with Greg Palast to launch into the latest revelations about the IMF/World Bank takeover. And how it??s finally breaking into the mainstream news, then your calls.
BREAK
AJ: The organization of the FBI was blocked from investigating by Clinton and Bush, who is headed by the U.S. bin Laden families now unquestionably tied to terrorism. The new book is ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.? It??s already a best seller and now it??s in paperback, twice the size, and a lot of information coming out in paperback today around the country. We are joined by Greg Palast. And coming up in a few minutes, we are going to go to your calls. John and Jan and others who are patiently holding. The toll free number to join us on air nationwide is 1-800-259-9231. Greg Palast, getting back to the IMF/World Bank, you detailed in our interview on March 4th, that there would be a coup, guaranteed you said. You don??t, again, go out on limbs, you obviously have the documentation. How did you know there would be a coup? And the military grabbed him, he was about to have an accident and suddenly there were riots and they had to release him. How did you know that was going to happen?
GP: That was the president of Venezuela. Well, there was not much guessing because I know how these guys operate and I was able to get the word from the plotters. And I have my hands into both camps. I try to get the information - it turns out that OPEC got advanced warning of what was about to happen. Now the problems that we run into - you know, no one is looking at Venezuela except for you and a few people. The war is aimed at Iraq....
AJ: But this is where we get most of our oil.
GP: Right, our oil coming into Texas is heavy Venezuelan crude. It was Venezuela that broke the Arab oil embargo in ??73. And the Bush Administration wants to make sure that we have control of Venezuela??s oil now. So they keep talking about Iraq.....
AJ: Yeah, so they can keep oil prices high during the war. They don??t want Venezuela bringing in cheap crude. They want to rip you off at the pump. I hope you enjoy it. Heating fuel has doubled in prices.
GP: Yeah, it??s gone crazy. And then now also this story about the World Bank. As you know, I went through the documents from the World Bank, marked secret, and one of the things it had in there - it says well if you go ahead with these plans, we know, for example, in the case of Ecuador. If we go ahead and require you to double the price of cooking gas in Ecuador, because that??s the only way you can cook your food in Ecuador is with bottled gas. So this is like life and death, you increase the price of food, you increase the price of gasoline, you increase the price of cooking gas, we know that this will create what they call social unrest. And when they did that, of course, the social unrest, what they mean by social unrest, I wasn??t quite sure and said it looks like there was going to be a riot if they impose these plans and they know it. And Joe Stiglitz is the chief economist for the World Bank and he was the guy on the inside. He said, ??Oh yeah, that??s what we call the IMF riot.? So the riot was written into the plan. And then it says the government has to respond with political resolve and strong resolve. They keep using that term. That means troops in the streets.
AJ: Greg Palast, I want to go back for a second here. This is so important. We cannot just glaze over this, folks, you??ve got to listen carefully. And so they would create the climate, to create the disaster, offer a police state solution and then before that they don??t want this Venezuelan crude coming into the country to keep prices down. They want a staged war where they will make massive profits on increased gas prices. This is total criminal activity.
GP: Well, you know what??s happening is that also Hugo Chavez is President of Venezuela has been vilified by the liberal press, by the right press, by the establishment press. And he is the guy who just said, ??Look, we are poor brown people down here and we need a few extra bucks,? and as his minister told me, he is the dissenter of the New World Order and they can??t let him stay in office. They have to kill him. They have to get rid of him now because he said no to these plans. If the IMF comes to you - and the World Bank guys, they fly in their teams and they stay at the big intercontinental hotels, in the 5-star hotels, and then they dictate their plans, an average of 114 conditions, an average, to each nation??s finance minister. And they have a pre-written document with a place for his signature. So it??s voluntary. It??s voluntary like they have this financial gun to this guy??s head.
AJ: Well, it??s like Don Corleone in ??The GodFather? - an offer you can??t refuse.
GP: Right, so of course they sign-off. Usually these plans are kept secret or partly secret and people only see the effects. Suddenly the prices of gasoline or oil rise and suddenly food prices rise. People don't know what??s going on and their pensions are cut. Last week in Bolivia, 35 people were killed because the IMF ordered, the IMF ordered a massive increase in taxes on working people there. And while they cut salaries, people couldn??t afford it. Taxes were bigger than their salaries, so they rioted. But the IMF knew there was going to be a riot. Like you say, riots have their value because then that allows the reaction....
AJ: We caught them at demonstrations here. The feds in Seattle hiring provocateurs, housing them, so sometimes they provocateured as well. But people in the third world are starting to get wind of this because of your writings and work and because of the listener with the transcript that went worldwide and then to hundreds of newspapers, as you said. But the thing that folks have to understand here is that they are doing it here in another fashion. And they are telling police, and I??m getting this all over the country, Greg, that they are going to engineer a major financial implosion here. And that they have been issuing riot gear and riot training - and I??m not kidding - Humvees with microwave guns. And the Sunshine Project reported, helicopters with knock-out gas. I mean, it is an insane police state they are setting up for an engineered collapse here. Are you getting that from your sources?
GP: What I??m getting, I haven??t looked at the police side of this, I??m looking at the intelligence side. What is breaking down now, for example, when I talk about the company getting the DNA samples, they say this is private; we don??t turn it over to government. ChoicePoint is the company that fixed the election in Florida, says we have 20 billion pieces of data on Americans. And that is supposed to be private data but under the USA Patriot Act, every little bit of that information is suddenly opened without a search warrant for the first time in American history - without a search warrant....
AJ: And it gives liability protection to the companies doing the DNA and other data mining.
GP: Yeah, data mining which is done without search warrants. They can go through your private records now for the very first time. So when these companies say it is all private - no it ain??t - not under the new law, it ain??t. And that??s one of the big problems. And I have to tell you, agents aren??t saying we need that to capture the bad guys. They know where the bad guys are. They just want to be able to use the laws that already exist.
AJ: Yeah, they??re on C-130s getting flown out of Kandahar.
GP: You know and I??ve got to tell you, when you look at who is doing the data mining, there is a company called Syntech, which was hired, which was given a big fact contract by John Poindexter, who is head of this Total Information Awareness Program.
AJ: Who is a convicted felon.
GP: Five felony convictions - they were overturned on technicalities, Alex, I have to say. But you??ve got a guy running our spy agency who has had five felony convictions. Yes, they were overturned on technicalities but it was serious...
AJ: By a political judge.
GP: Yes, so what happened, the company Syntech, which is getting the big contracts to do the data mining on Americans. The senior vice president was until recently John Poindexter - the guy in charge of Total Information Awareness. These guys are like....
AJ: Greg, have you read the new Patriot Act?
GP: Just parts, it??s so big and so mind boggling..
AJ: Well, I read all of it and wrote an analysis. It??s on infowars.com if you want to pick it up on your site - so all of your millions of viewers can distribute it. I read the whole thing and it??s been picked up by quite a few papers who have asked for permission to reprint. I read it when it first came out three weeks ago. It turned out there was a Senate version, S. 22 already introduced. And so now, Ashcroft and his minions are out promoting it. This thing says that they can grab American citizens for any reason, secretly, hold them in detention camps and not even tell anyone that they were grabbed.
GP: You know, there is an organization which sued the U.S. government and simply asked for lists of people being held in detention - not even asking for open trials, simply asking for the list of those who are held in detention. And, you know, the government just dragged its feet. I am very concerned that there are two things - one, like I say there are those people who are connected financially to the Bush family and who seem to be getting a nice free ride on investigations. And yet, there are Americans, we don??t know who they are because we can??t get the list. And we don??t even know how many. I am very concerned about this. I know you are. And it??s the personal question of our civil liberties. I have to report these stories on BBC television which goes all over the planet. But I just moved my family back to the United States. I want my kids to be Americans but I want them to have the American that I learned about in school. You know, freedom of speech and the government doesn??t snoop around your home or your bank account or go through your underwear drawer.
AJ: Well, I just want to point out that they are saying all this. They say more attacks are coming and that will legitimize Patriot Act II. Now we are hearing about Patriot Act III and while they leave the borders wide open. Greg, let??s take some calls. John in Florida, you are on the air with Greg Palast, go ahead John.
John: Thank you for taking my call and thank you for all your hard work - both of you - and I mean that very sincerely. My question is going to be directed to something that happened many years ago but Greg, maybe you can shed some light on this, is what happened to the falling out of what was called, twenty years ago, of BCCI? How everyone from that conglomerate, internationally known, has been recycled in some way, shape or form to these institutions that you speak of?
AJ: Well Clark Clifford, the author of the National Security Act, that made the government go secret, I??ve talked to Greg and BCCI is involved, aren??t they - the same players?
GP: Yeah, Khalid bin Mahfouz was the principal of BCCI which was bank of , it was a Saudi Arabian bank, BCCI. And its nickname was bank of crooks and criminals. But it was a huge international operation which was basically a giant money laundering operation from crime to terrorism.
AJ: And the Bushes and everybody was involved.
GP: Well, Khalid bin Mahfouz, remember I just told you about how Bush??s partner according to two sources, was at this meeting in which al Qaeda funding was discussed in Paris in ??96. What of the other people in that room? According to two sources, Khalid bin Mahfouz of BCCI. So, you know, it??s the same crew. Look, I can??t blame George Bush for these guys having some secret meeting. You know he wasn??t invited as far as I know. But the FBI and CIA would really like to follow up on these things so they could find out what these characters are up to.
GP: Anything else John?
John: I just wanted to make - that BCCI isn??t talked about enough - I just wanted to throw that in there.
GP: Yeah, BCCI technically has now collapsed and taken billions of dollars down the rat hole. But the principals in this operation....
AJ: Well they always have their fronts, whether it??s BCCI or Enron.
John: Thank you, Alex.
AJ: Thank you, John. We??ll come back and talk to others with our guest Greg Palast. The new book just came out today, ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,? doubled in size. The hardback was a best seller. His web site is gregpalast.com. We have a link to that at infowars.com. I??m Alex Jones, your host. Final segment with Greg Palast, your calls and other key news items when we get back. Stay with us.
BREAK
AJ: We are talking to Greg Palast. We only have time for a couple more calls and any other comments he wants to make. Let??s talk to Jan in Montana. You are on the air, welcome.
Jan: Good morning Alex and Greg. It??s still morning in Montana. My question, my comment is there is a name that I have been waiting for Alex to hit on, hard and heavy this week and I was wondering what Greg Palast has heard about it or any information - Al-Arian. I thought would be a huge chapter in your case against 9/11, Alex. We printed a picture about a year ago when O??Reilly says he broke the story on Al-Arian, the professor from Florida.
AJ: It turns out he has been hanging out with Bush and these other organizations. Greg any comments on that?
GP: Yeah, I just started looking at this. You know the question is whether there were donations again to the Bush family. It??s definitely a line of investigation - once again, where is the American press? You know, I can??t do it all. I??d like my brothers in the American press to be looking at this before the arrests are made - and what is even more dangerous is when the arrests aren??t made at all. It??s a very complex business and I just feel like the U.S. press is just completely fallen down.
AJ: But they won??t talk about a Miami Herald report and there was just a few others that for a few days when all air traffic was shut down, locked down, there were jets leaving Miami and jets leaving Boston Logan full of bin Ladens.
GP: Well, you know the, I know that at least after that the air traffic control limit was lifted, there was a charter jet which flew some of the members of the bin Laden family out. Remember they are not all, they are not terrorists just because their name is bin Laden. The thing is that FBI agents had wanted to contact these people as material witnesses...
AJ: Well, why were they allowed to leave but nobody else could?
GP: Well, I think they had a special charter supposely on the grounds that being bin Ladens, they might be attacked by angry Americans. You know, Americans are not that dumb; they don??t just pick someone??s last name and attack them. We haven??t had any concept of that. In fact, the two guys that the FBI was looking for left even before September 11th - Abdullah and Omar. That was the real tragedy, that those guys had a few questions to answer.
AJ: What about the insider trading? You know that was traced back to some of the airlines themselves and, of course, to some of the CIA people.
GP: That, I haven??t been able to look into. You know, like they say, we need a more active American press. Dan Rather, when he was on my show, said, ??Look, we can??t ask tough questions.?
AJ: Art in Kansas, you??re on the air. Go ahead Art. Last caller. Art, you??re on the air.
Art: Are you aware of the connections of the Bushes with the Eli Lilly Company?
GP: Well yeah, of course, there is a financial connection between the Republican administration now.....
AJ: They are throwing out over a thousand lawsuits over autism being directly linked to their vaccine additive.
Art: thimerosal.
GP: I??m also here in Houston, Texas where I??m talking from and one of the big things to look out for in terrorism is an attack on our chemical plants. And, for example, if you live within two miles of the giant Exxon refinery here and they have a pentene release, anyone within two miles is going to have their skin burned off. There are 7000 people living in that vulnerability zone and there are two ways to fix that problem. First, you can make the plant safer and more secure. Or second, you could simply seal up that information so no one will know what the danger is. What they??ve done is that Exxon has now blocked all of the EPA records so you don??t know what the danger is. So if you??re living in a vulnerability zones, you??re still as vulnerable.
Art: I have a newsletter here from Robert Chapman. He says that Bush??s budget director, Mitch Daniels, formerly worked at Lilly. The CEO, Sydney Terrell, sits on the presidential Homeland Security Council. And Bush, Sr. sat on the Eli Lilly board.
AJ: And the new federal trade commission guy is a Skull & Bones member. Thanks for the call, Art. I tell you it??s one big happy family, isn??t it Greg?
GP: Yeah, what I??m worried about is the money poisoning of our political system. It??s not a case of one party or another. What I??m worried about and the reason I called the book ??The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,? it looks like they are holding auctions, not elections. And the question is what are these donations buying? That is a very, very big problem. In fact, let me end with one final thing Alex, who won the last Gulf War? After the last Gulf War, remember we were promised a democracy in Kuwait. I??m still waiting for the election returns from Kuwait, from that little royal dictatorship. But who did win? I??ll tell you: Chevron Oil. After Poppy Bush left the White House or he was removed by two-thirds of the American electorate, he wrote a letter to the emirate asking Kuwait to give Chevron Oil an oil concession. The ex-president of the United State, the guy who saved their Rolls Royces, asked them to give Chevron Oil. They did that and his son got a half of a million bucks for his campaign kitty.
AJ: Unbelievable. Thanks for joining us Greg Palast and good luck with your new book. I appreciate your coming on the show and your great work.
GP: Alex, you??re the best. Truth to power.
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