-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Lesson from Hunger by Knut Hamsun All at once, one or two remarkable sentences occurred to me, good for a short story or a sketch, windfalls in language, as good as I had ever come on. I lay saying the words over to myself and decided they were excellent. Soon several other sentences joined the two; instantly I was wide awake, stood up, and took paper and pencil from the table at the foot of my bed. It was like a vein opening, one word following the other, arranged themselves in right order, created situations; scene piled on scene, actions and conversations welled up in my brain, and a strange sense of pleasure took hold of me. I wrote as if possessed, and filled one page after the other without a moment's pause. Thoughts poured in so abruptly, and kept on coming in such a stream, that I lost a number of them from not being able to write them down fast enough, even though I worked with all my energy. They continued to press themselves on me; I was deep into the subject, and every word I set down came from somewhere else. ----- Money Laundering Another Russian Oligarch Under Investigation Lev Chernoi controls the aluminium industry. Lev Chernoi, the powerful Russian businessman who dominates the country's privatised aluminium industry, has been placed under investigation in Switzerland, the US and the UK. Switzerland's Federal Office for Police Matters yesterday confirmed it had launched a probe into Mr Chernoi following a request from the Russian authorities. The Swiss body said the case centred on allegations of money laundering and links to organised crime. It would be handled by the local prosecutor in the canton of Geneva. Separately, the National Criminal Intelligence Service in the UK and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US are understood to have opened an earlier joint investigation, codenamed Operation Copperfield. The two organisations are also understood to be monitoring possible links between Mr Chernoi and criminal organisations. The latest investigation into a powerful Russian businessman comes just over three months after Carla del Ponte, then Switzerland's attorney general, raided the Lausanne offices of Forus and Andava, two companies with close ties to Boris Berezovsky, another wealthy Russian business magnate. Several bank accounts were blocked and files taken away following a request for help from Russia. The Swiss authorities are also continuing to investigate Mabetex, a Lugano-based construction company alleged to have bribed senior Kremlin officials. Mabetex has denied all charges of wrongdoing. Lev Chernoi, one of three brothers from Tashkent, has been one of the pivotal figures in the Russian metals industry for most of the 1990s. He is officially described as a business partner of Trans-World Metals, a UK-based metals trading company, which has extensive interests in the former Soviet Union. However, the three Chernoi brothers control the associated Trans-World Group (TWG), which has been the dominant player in Russia's aluminium industry. The Russian media have reported that the Chernoi brothers have close links with the Kremlin and Mr Berezovsky, and may have helped finance Mr Berezovsky's purchase of a controlling stake in the Kommersant newspaper this year. David McNeil of TWG's Geneva office said the allegations against Mr Chernoi were based on "lies which had been circulating in Russia seven to eight weeks ago". He said he was trying to clarify the situation, but his efforts had been hampered by the failure of Swiss officials to return his telephone calls. Switzerland's decision to publicise some of its investigations is part of an effort to prove it is more willing than in the past to cooperate with foreign governments in fighting money laundering and organised crime. The Financial Times, October 12, 1999 Gold Market Lomin Looks to Buy Troubled Gold-Producer Ashanti At $325/oz., Ashanti's gold hedges are $570 million underwater. Lonmin, the �900m gold, platinum and coal mining rump of the former Lonrho conglomerate, has made a conditional bid for troubled Ghanaian gold miner Ashanti. The $834m (�502m) offer depends on two important conditions. First, that the 17 banks with which Ashanti transacts its derivative business agree to a standstill covering its outstanding obligations. Second, that the Ghanaian government, which owns 20 per cent of Ashanti's equity, supports the deal. Lonmin already owns 32 per cent of Ashanti. Ashanti last week said its hedge book - designed partly to protect profits against the declining gold price, partly as an alternative source of profits - had a negative value of $570m at a gold price of $325 per ounce. The problems are the result of the unexpectedly swift recovery in the bullion price, which jumped $70 in four trading days. With a negative value of $570m, Ashanti's bankers had the right to ask for cash deposits of $270m as margin on the derivative contracts but agreed to a temporary standstill to allow the hedge book situation to be sorted out. Ashanti is believed to be one of several gold mining companies having hedge book problems as a result of the jump in the gold price. Ashanti's shares were suspended yesterday. Ghanaian government officials indicated they are likely to look favourably on a Lonmin offer, and that the government may be prepared to lower its stake to 10 per cent. Lonmin is believed to have stipulated that it will only go ahead with a formal offer for Ashanti if its bankers agree permanently to waive their rights to margin deposits on Ashanti's existing hedge book. The company substantially restructured its hedge book at the end of September, and it is thought that the margin call entitlements were agreed then. The Lonmin offer, of 32 Lonmin shares for every 43 Ashanti, valued each Ashanti share at just under $7 on the basis of the October 11 closing price. It was 86 per cent higher than the Ashanti closing price on October 8. Yesterday Lonmin shares, which had been hit by Ashanti's troubles, recovered sharply to 607p from 570p on Friday, increasing the value of the Ashanti offer to nearly 50 cents per share. The Financial Times, October 12, 1999 Commie Spies Italy Releases List of 261 Suspected Soviet Agents You mean, you mean . . . the Soviet Union really had spies? THE Italian parliament last night began to release a list of 261 suspected Soviet agents, exposing the extent of Soviet espionage in Italy during the Cold War and sending shockwaves through the country's political establishment. Among names given to journalists, who formed a wild scrum at the parliament buildings in Rome, were the former editors of three leading news publications, a troop of top politicians, an admiral, and a large number of diplomats, civil servants and prominent writers. The list comes from information first given to British intelligence by the Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin and then passed on to the Italian secret service by MI6 in October 1996. Mitrokhin copied vast amounts of data on to scraps of paper from the KGB archives in Yasenevo, smuggling them out under his clothes. He was exfiltrated by British intelligence in 1992 in one of the greatest coups of modern espionage. Alberto Cavallari, Gianni Corbi and Emanuale Macaluso - respectively the former editors of Corriere della Sera, Italy's most prestigious newspaper, L'Espresso, its leading weekly magazine, and L'Unita, the dominant voice of the left - were all named. Also on the list are Armando Cossutta, the former head of the Italian Communist Party and eminence grise of Western communism, and Francesco De Martino, the former secretary of the Italian Socialist Party. All the accused have denied receiving funds, protesting that they are unable to defend themselves against an outrageous smear. The names in the Mitrokhin material were originally coded, making it difficult to identify the agents. In some cases, eager KGB officials may have exaggerated the level of co-operation they received from sources to impress their superiors, perhaps listing innocent contacts as agents of influence in reports to Moscow. The president of the parliamentary commission, Giovanni Pellegrino, defended his decision to release the material, saying that it would cause even more "damage" to try to withold any information from the public at this point. Italy was a target of the Soviet Union because it was seen as the weak link of the Western alliance, with a skittish intelligentsia and a Communist Party that routinely won almost a third of the vote. Mitrokhin has confirmed suspicions that the Italian media was riddled with agents during the Cold War. Seven of the KGB's most valued assets in the country were journalists, paid up to �300 a month, but their identities have been disguised until now. One of their functions was to plant false stories as part of a black propaganda campaign against Nato and the United States, such as blaming American biological warfare specialists for manufacturing the Aids virus. The subsidies paid to the Italian Communist Party were enormous by the standards of the time, according to the book The Mitrokhin Archive, co-written by the defector with Prof Christopher Andrew and published last month. The Soviet Politburo allocation for the Communist Party for the elections in May 1972 was $5.2 million (�3.2 million), followed with another top-up of $500,000 (�300,000). Money was provided for an internal intelligence service and clandestine broadcasting facility within the party, but the funds were chiefly used to bolster pro-Soviet factions during internecine struggles. Armando Cossutta, long suspected of being a KGB operative, was chosen as the main conduit for Soviet funds after 1979 because he was one of the few voices supporting the invasion of Afghanistan. Despite the astounding betrayal by the intellectual class, Italy as a whole never buckled. The London Telegraph, October 12, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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