September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

Angola. Unfortunately, while the swap may have been legal, the arms portion of the deal
was prohibited under International Agreement: “arms purchases by the government and
UNITA remained prohibited under the 1991 Bicesse Accords negotiated in Portugal”
“Perhaps the most ironic link described in the Global Witness report is one involving the former
"fugitive financier" Marc Rich. He appears as a major player in the arms-for-oil scandal through a
Swiss-based oil trading company named Glencore. The firm played a major role in guaranteeing a total
of $1 billion in oil-backed loans for Angola in 1998. The first set of oil-backed loans in 1993 involved
Glencore, Falcone, and Gaydamak. Soon after, Gaydamak arranged for the sale of Russian helicopters
and ammunition through a Slovak company called ZTS-OSOS. The 1998 billion-dollar loan deal
included the Export-Import Bank loans being pushed by Halliburton and Cheney.” [Report Alleges US
Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal, Special to CorpWatch, Wayne Madsen, May 17, 2002]
“Glencore UK Ltd. is to obtain loans for future Angolan oil sales from commercial banks … The
proceeds of these oil-backed loans is transferred by Glencore UK Ltd into our accounts for use by
Sonangol, the Angolan state oil export company, so that it can finance the repurchase of these [debt]
obligations. Sonangol then transfers through our bank to the buyer, Abalone Investements [sic]
Limited, its remuneration for its role as determining intermediary in this operation to buy back the
Angolan debt and the price fixed by the Russian Finance Ministry for the repurchase of its obligations.
Then, UBS will transfer the amount corresponding to the cost of these obligations to Unicombank. In
return and simultaneously, Abalone Investments Ltd receives from the UBS the obligations purchased
and their repayment certificates, and returns them to Sonangol on behalf of Angola which can cancel
them and thus progressively erase its debt to Russia.” [TIME FOR TRANSPARENCY, Coming clean
on oil, mining and gas revenues: A report by Global Witness. March 2004]
As a point of historical reference, it is appropriate to document at this time the Marc Rich
was not a ‘novice’ in this business, and had decades of experience, including some
participation in the Iran-Contra deals of the 1980s. Paul Klebnikov, Russian expert and
Senior Editor at Forbes Magazine, has documented Marc Rich's early years as one of the
Russian oligarchs involved in plundering Russia’s treasury through ‘privatization.’ Rich
also had a business relationship with David Kimche of the Mossad, previously shown to
have been helping Richard Secord move mercenaries and weapons into Azerbaijan, and
Al Schwimmer, implicated in numerous Savings and Loans scandals in the 1980s.
“In 1988 the Iranian journalist Amir Taheri revealed that in the Victoria district of London Schwimmer
operated an arms procurement operation along with his partners David Kimche, the British born Israeli
diplomat and longtime intelligence operative, and Yaacov Nimrodi, the former Iranian Jew who had
been Israel’s main operative in the court of the Shah for many years. It was from this office that the
huge Iran arms and illegal oil traffic was directed from 1981-1987, including the activities of Marc
Rich.
There is another knot of connections between Schwimmer and Rich, as well. Before becoming .… an
arms procurer in the 1940s, Schwimmerhad been a shady American business man with connections to
Mafia figures including Miki Cohen and Meyer Lansky, as well as Hank Greenspun, who was the most
important “legitimate” front man and ‘fixer’ for the Mafia takeover of Las Vegas.All of the men
mentioned participated in the 1940s Zionist arms network, as well as in the European crime network
which the Mossad organized in the … temporary refugee camps of postwar Europe.” [Fallujah 101: A
history lesson about the town we are currently destroying, Rashid Khalidi, 11/12/2004]
Also for historical reference, it should be noted that an apparent bonus was given to
Angola’s President Dos Santos by Halliburton. That bonus was the targeted assassination
of Jonas Savimbi, previously hailed by Ronald Reagan as the “George Washington of
Angola.”
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 103