(http://primarysources.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/24/972850-
cookienbuzzy-go-to-washington)
Mercenaries, Scandals, Political Appointments and Insider Trading:
The
Adventures of a Pair of Baltimore Blue-Bloods in their Service of
the Nation
State Department Inspector General Howard "Cookie" Krongard
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard - The current Executive Director of the
Central
Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank
A.B. Brown and
former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust.
(Buzzy Krongard was on Blackwater's advisory board)
_Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater_
(http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/countdown-blood-is-thicker-
than-blackwater/)
Earlier today Nicole _posted video_
(http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/house-hearings-on-state-
department-ig-shows-conflict/) from a House hearing
dealing with allegations that State Department Inspector General
Howard
"Cookie" Krongard impeded investigations into corruption in Iraq.
During the
hearing, Krongard repeatedly denied rumors that his brother, Buzzy
Krongard was
on Blackwater's advisory board --- but on tonight's Countdown we
learned that
lo and behold, after returning from a break in testimony, Krongard
informed
the Committee that he had just spoken with his brother and that he
did, in
fact, sit on Blackwater’s board and that he was recusing himself
from any
further matters dealing with the mercenary contractor. He may want
to consider
lawyering up.
Cookie said under oath that he had spoken to his brother six weeks
prior to
the hearing and claims his brother failed to tell him he was going
to join
Blackwater's advisory board, but according to an _interview given to
TPM_
(http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004711.php) , Buzzy claims he
DID tell Cookie
he was going to join Blackwater’s board two or three weeks before
the
hearing, which would put his brother’s claims in question. Who
should be believe,
Cookie or Buzzy?
_Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly Into
The CIA's
Highest Ranks_
(http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_09_01_krongard.html)
(CIA foreknowledge of the WTC attacks.)
SUPPRESSED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING LEAD DIRECTLY INTO
THE CIA's
HIGHEST RANKS
CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "BUZZY" KRONGARD MANAGED FIRM THAT
HANDLED "PUT"
OPTIONS ON UAL
by Michael C. Ruppert
Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is
abundant
and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial
markets
indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11
attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one
of these
trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm
used to place
the "put options" on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed
by the
man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at
the Central
Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard had been
Chairman of the
investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker's
Trust in
1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of
Banker's
Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl
Levin this
year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard's last
position at
Banker's Trust (BT) was to oversee "private client relations." In
this capacity he
had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in
the world
in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified
by the
U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to
the
laundering of drug money.
Krongard (re?) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director
George
Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush
in March of
this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined
firm is the
single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank
played
several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.
THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING
Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to
look at
the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters,
The New York
Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has
long
monitored such trades - in real time - as potential warnings of
terrorist attacks
and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous
stories in
FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to
monitor such
trades.
It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to
understand the
significance of these trades, "selling short" and "put options".
"Selling Short" is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current
market
prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for
some time. If
the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered,
the seller
can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price
has fallen
and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts
often have a
window of as long as four months.
"Put Options," are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell
stocks at a
later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per
share,
they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the
holder the
option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set
when the
contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be
possible to
tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per
share, and the
seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is
executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract matures,
the holder of the
option can purchase the shares for $50 and immediately sell them for
$100 -
regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the
reverse of a
put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock
price will
go up.
A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy
Institute
for Counterterrorism, entitled "Black Tuesday: The World's Largest
Insider
Trading Scam?" documented the following trades connected to the
September 11
attacks:
- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options
Exchange saw
purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call
options.
Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with
advance
knowledge of the imminent attacks, these "insiders" would have
profited by almost $5
million.
- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines
were bought
on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there
was no
news at that point to justify this imbalance; Again, assuming that
4,000 of
these options trades represent "insiders," they would represent a
gain of about
$4 million.
- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than
six times
higher than normal.]
- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the
Chicago
exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors
of the
World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought
in the
three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average
of 27
contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley's share price
fell from
$48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that
2,000 of these
options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the
approaching attacks,
their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million.
- Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the Twin
Towers, saw
12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days
before the
attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252
contracts per
day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill's shares fell
from
$46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought
by "insiders,"
their profit would have been about $5.5 million.
- European regulators are examining trades in Germany's
Munich Re,
Switzerland's Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with
exposure
to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than
25% of
American Airlines stock making the attacks a "double whammy" for
them.]
On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by
the
major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Investors have
yet to
collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options
in the stock of
United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to
a
source familiar with the trades and market data.
"The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose
identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance
knowledge of the
strikes." They don't dare show up now. The suspension of trading for
four
days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and
claim the
prize before investigators started looking.
"October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly
unusual
volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total
outlay of
$2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100
shares, for
90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are
now
selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called "put"
options
outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300
shares] according to
the Options Clearinghouse Corp."
"The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank
Alex
Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche
Bank, as
the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these
options." This was
the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.
As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of
insider
trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.
CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS
Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and
brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening
implications of the
above revelations. Let's look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and
the big
banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA's history.
Clark Clifford - The National Security Act of 1947 was written by
Clark
Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of
Defense, and
one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as
Chairman of First
American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the
corrupt CIA drug
bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession:
Wall Street
lawyer and banker.
John Foster and Allen Dulles - These two brothers "designed" the CIA
for
Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II.
Allen Dulles
was OSS station chief in Berne, Switzerland, where he met frequently
with
Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John
Foster went on
to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went
on to
serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK.
Their
professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall
Street law firm of
Sullivan, Cromwell.
Bill Casey - Ronald Reagan's CIA Director and OSS veteran who served
as
chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President
Richard Nixon,
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession:
Wall
Street lawyer and stockbroker.
David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock
Exchange
for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central
Intelligence
Agency.
George Herbert Walker Bush - President from 1989 to January 1993,
also
served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid
consultant to
the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the
nation, which
also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family.
A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard - The current Executive Director of the
Central
Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank
A.B. Brown and
former Vice Chairman of Banker's Trust.
John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton
Administration
currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nation's second
largest bank, which
has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented
laundering of
drug money. This includes Citigroup's 2001 purchase of a Mexican
bank known to
launder drug money, Banamex.
Nora Slatkin - This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on
Citibank's
board.
Maurice "Hank" Greenburg - The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the
third
largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a
possible CIA
Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenberg's and AIG's long connection
to CIA drug
trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was
interrupted
just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIG's stock has bounced
back
remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please go to
_http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
free/ciadrugs/part_2.html_
(http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/part_2.html) .
One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to
what is now
irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop
them.
Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is
clearly NOT
in the interests of the American people, especially those who died
on
September 11.