Dave Hartley
http://www.ioa.com/~davehart
http://www.Asheville-Computer.com
http://www.asheville-computer.com/ncf
-----Original
Message-----
From: Catherine Austin Fitts
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 1999 6:15
PM
To: CIA Drugs list
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED];
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CIA-DRUGS] Why Should Taxpayers Insure Bank
of New York or Provide FDIC Insurance Credit Backstopping for $7MM in Annual
Compensation for Gross Negligence & Increased National Security
Risks?
For those of you who are not making $7 million a year in salary and bonus, and do not enjoy your taxpayer supported federal credit used to support such annual compensation for bankers who engage in money laundering for organized crime, here is an easy way to tell Congress that it is time that the Chairman of the Bank of New York give back the money to provide reserves for the FDIC and national security costs of cleaning up the mess he has helped to make.Remember, when large banks and financial institutions head south we could end up with another S&L scandal expense that you and I will have to pay. We paid last time around. Billions. That does not even include the national security problems we may have when the Russians decide to team up with the Chinese and take revenge for what we have done. Indeed, check www.y2knews.com for two stories from USA today that report that Russia announced that it is too broke to solve Y2K and is reverting to manual controls for Y2K. See how you feel about US networks helping to loot a country with nucleur capability.To make it simple to for you to raise your concerns with an e-mail or letter, Solari has arranged to deliver the September Issue of From the Wilderness that illuminates the Bank of New York activities to each member of the Senate and House. Over 500 packages went to the Congressional mail rooms today and the individually addressed and signed letter and Mike's wonderful article on the Bank of New York situation should be in their office today. Your Congressional representatives e-mail should be posted on the house and senate websites.
Please feel free to repost this message whereever and whenever you think it will be useful for you and your networks.
Catherine Austin FittsSolariAttached:Solari letter to CongressArticles from September Issue of From the Wilderness:TAKE IT TO THE BANK! January 1, 2000 in Russia Will Be Deadly/ by Mike RuppertCrying in the Kitchen With Jane/ by Catherine Austin Fitts==========================================================================================================SOLARI
October 13, 1999
The Honorable Fred Thompson
523 Dirksen Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
Is America’s financial system so addicted to cocaine and organized crime capital that traditional methods of regulation and enforcement can do nothing? Just consider the Bank of New York money laundering operations:
- Since 1995, the Bank of New York is suspected of laundering as much as $10-12 billion worth of Russian "organized crime" and capital flight money. The Bank of New York has admitted to investigators that, in addition to profiting from substantial increases in foreign deposits, it has charged as much as $250 million a month in "fees" for these transactions.
Recently, Congressman Leach said that the amount of money looted out of Russia and laundered through US Banks could top $100 billion. Where did this money go? On September 1, Congressman Leach said, "I have no doubt that some of this money ended up in the stock market." Thinking through the relationship of organized crime capital and the stock market, consider another recent event.
- Between 1994 and 1998, Bank of New York Chairman Thomas Renyi’s compensation rose from $1.23 million to $7.3 million. Other senior management received large increases, too.
- In June, Richard Grasso, Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, traveled to Colombia to visit with a senior commander of FARC’s insurgency forces to encourage them to circulate cocaine profits back into the US stock market.
Well, why does Solari care about the American financial system recovering from it’s drug capital addiction? We are an investment advisor created to invest equity capital in American communities. Our efforts at financing neighborhood stock corporations, real estate investment trusts, community databanks and microenterprise networks have been a financial flop. Why? Because the Solari Investment Model does not produce the high yield equity returns possible - when organized crime is the dominant financial model. The litigation and regulatory expenses of this model shift are too great and the physical harassment by competitors who prefer government subsidy and control to private markets increases personal risk. This is the reality that is inspiring concerns about campaign fundraising and federal disclosure policy:
- Associated Press reported the event as follows: ``We are very aggressive in trying to pursue international markets and opportunities,'' NYSE chairman Richard Grasso explained in an interview Saturday night at his Bogota hotel. ' He said he also invited Reyes (FARC) to visit Wall Street. ``I extended to the commandant the opportunity to walk the floor of the exchange with me…'' Grasso said. Getting FARC leaders to Wall Street could be difficult, though. The 35-year-old guerrilla group is on the U.S. State Department' list of international terrorist groups; its chief revenue sources are ransom kidnappings and the ``taxing'' of illegal cocaine and heroin production.
- Approximately 80% of presidential campaign fundraising revenues comes from the four states with the largest market share of drugs imports, money laundering and investment of laundered profits;
- We believe development through HUD is related to CIA supported drug dealing. HUD manipulation of disclosure policies to ensure that we can not understand how government investment works in communities appears to be designed to protect drug profits financing covert operations;
Solari thinks that we can help Americans understand how the money works in illegal drugs and organized crime. Better yet, we think we can do something by teaching Americans how to "vote with our money." After all, we "vote" with our purchases of media and consumer goods, our banking deposits, our stock market and insurance investments and the time we give to community service.
- The CIA Inspector General’s report last year admitting that "yes, CIA networks deal drugs" received no meaningful press coverage and has not resulted in the open Congressional hearings promised by the CIA and Congress.
We are writing a column in the California based newsletter From the Wilderness each month and doing interviews on radio talk shows and workshops to help people understand the organized crime industry and how organized crime profits are reinvested in the stock market and campaign fundraising. Enclosed please find a copy of the September issue with Mike Ruppert’s wonderful article about Russian capital flight and the Bank of New York and my article about the implications of the current financial model for small farmers in Hardeman County, Tennessee called "Crying in the Kitchen with Jane".
Recent back issues of From the Wilderness are available from Solari free by e-mail. Just contact me at [EMAIL PROTECTED], and I will provide them to you and your staff or constituents. We encourage you to copy back issues and circulate them or access the From the Wilderness website at www.copvcia.com.
Now, what can you do for Solari? Help us understand how we can use our website (launching December 1999 @ www.solari.com), our column in From the Wilderness, or our radio talk show interviews and workshops to help you and your staff understand how money works in organized crime. What tools and maps about organized crime would help you and your staff represent honest taxpayers on these issues without undue risk?
The Solari network is a problem solving network. We are small and have few resources. Even so, we want to do what we can to help government officials and staff. We are concerned that understanding organized crime and what to do about it is overwhelming all of us, including those who are trying to lead and manage in government.
We appreciate your efforts to hang in there and do your best.
Sincerely,
Catherine Austin Fitts
President, Solari
President, Hamilton Securities Group (in liquidation)
Former Assistant Secretary of Housing, Bush Administration
Enclosure: September Issue, From the Wilderness
The Bank of New York Scandal is a Window Into the Decay of
The U.S. Economy and The "Biblical" Looting of Russia
TAKE IT TO THE BANK!
January 1, 2000 in Russia Will Be Deadly
by Michael C. Ruppertreprinted with permission - From The Wilderness Vol. II, No. 7 - Sept., 1998P.O. Box 606--350, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413818-788-8791Annual Subscriptions $35 per year
O ver several months FTW has been covering issues illustrating how the entire U.S. economy is now sustained by drug profits and the profits derived from "organized crime." We have also been offering articles showing that there are profitable alternative methods for sustaining healthy economic growth. Nothing more clearly demonstrates this than the current scandal erupting around Alexander Hamilton's Bank of New York - Address: 1 Wall Street, New York, NY.
Let's be detectives, shall we? Here are your clues. Pay attention.
Russia
:- Gross Domestic Product (1997) = $450 billion. Gross Domestic Product (1999) = $167 billion. Two year decline = 64% [Source: The NY Times]
- 1999 criminal activity (e.g. drug dealing) may account for another $80 billion. [NY Times]
- The Ruble traded at 6:1 against the dollar in 1998. Today it trades at 25:1 [Knight-Ridder]
- The number of Russians living in poverty climbed from 2 to 60 million in less than five years. [Knight-Ridder].
- Russia has accumulated more than $150 billion of foreign debt, with the burden of debt service reaching 29% of export earnings. [Mark Weisbrot - The Preamble Center, Washington, D.C. in Knight-Ridder papers 9-1-99]
- The amount of money looted out of Russia and laundered through U.S. Banks could top $100 billion. This from a country that is one of the three most important military powers in the world [ Rep. Jim Leach - Chair of the House Banking Committee]
- "The scandal could top $100 billion." [The London Times 9-1-99]
- "Russian men can now expect to die in their fifties." - [Weisbrot]
- The amount of stolen and criminally originated money laundered through the Bank of New York alone could top $15 billion. [ AP, Reuters, Interpol, AFP].
- According to AP (9-14-99) "The Gartner Group, Inc., an analyst firm in Stamford, Connecticut, last month identified Russia as the highest risk for Y2K failures, followed by India and a cluster of countries that included Venezuela, Norway, Japan, Taiwan and Finland. Principal areas of concern, from a number of sources: utilities, nuclear reactors and infrastructure.
- The State Department's strongest warnings for Y2K failures center on Russia and the Ukraine. [http://state/travel.gov]
- The British government has issued a travel advisory warning all of its citizens to stay out of the Ukraine over the New Year. [CNN]
- "According to a study by Canadian and Russian economic institutes, capital flight from Russia totaled about $130 billion from 1992 to 1998." [NY Times 9/12/99]
The Bank of New York (BoNY)
- In the current scandal the Bank of New York is suspected of laundering as much as $10-12 billion worth of Russian "organized crime" and capital flight money since 1995. The Bank of New York has admitted to investigators that, in addition to profiting from substantial increases in foreign deposits, it has charged as much as $250 million a month in "fees" for these transactions. [Sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, AP, Washington Post, etc.]
- In testimony before the House on 9/22/99, BoNY Chairman Thomas Renyi stated that BoNY has relations with 160 Russian banks. In the weeks leading up to the August 1998 financial crisis, which led to the devaluation of the ruble, BoNY exchanged from $3.2 - $3.8 billion per day with those banks.
- Foreign deposits at BoNY in 1995 were $9.5 billion. At the close of 1998 they were $17.2 billion - an increase of 81% [Source SEC filings at www.sec.gov - The "EDGAR" data base]
- Domestic deposits in 1995 were $26.4 billion. In 1998 they were 27.5 billion - an increase of 4%. [EDGAR]
- Average share price in 1995 = $12.19 [EDGAR]
- Average share price in 1998 = $40.25 [EDGAR]
- BoNY's stock has split 2 for 1, three times since 1994. [EDGAR]
- Foreign deposits in BoNY increased by $2 billion in the first half of 1999 alone. [EDGAR]
- Compensation Increases of Directors and key execs (salary + bonus) [EDGAR]:
- Thomas Renyi (Chair & CEO) -- $1.23 million (1994) v. $7.38 million (1998)
- Gerald Hassel (Pres.) -- $1.44 million (1996) v. $3.14 million (1998)
- Alan R. Griffith (Vice Chr) -- $1.87 million (1996) v. $3.62 million (1998)
- Deno D. Papageorge (Sr. Exec. VP) $1.41 million (1994) v. $4.37 million (1998).
- The single largest stockholder of BoNY is J Carter Bacot who owns 2,174,966 shares and has options to purchase an additional 1,166,556 shares. The exercise of those options could net him an instant profit, at press time, of more than $30 million. [EDGAR]
- Under U.S. banking laws for each dollar on deposit a bank may lend nine dollars.
- The increase in foreign deposits at BoNY in 1999 alone indicates that BoNY is capable of making $18 billion in loans based on foreign deposits received so far this year.
- BoNY's lending is heavily weighted in the entertainment and mass media industries. In recent years much of BoNY's biggest lending has involved Viacom (which just purchased CBS), Tele-Communications, Inc., Universal/MCA and Black Entertainment Television. BET may have been the beneficiary of a 1998 $600 million transfer from overseas accounts into domestic investments.
The Prize Winning Statements of Witnesses and Suspects
- "
-
"The individuals who raised questions raised them without much vigor,"[BoNY Chairman Tom] Renyi told the (House Banking) Committee, "They took comfort that those accounts were referred by a very well-regarded bank officer, who happened to be Mr. Berlin's wife."The Usual Suspects and More
Historically, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), "Washington's most powerful financial institution"- according to Weisbrot, has been an almost brutal rescuer of struggling economies around the world. Whenever an IMF bailout occurs, whether in Latin America, Asia or Europe, the IMF strings attached invariably include severe, even brutal application of monetary controls, which serve to suck liquid capital and wealth out of the country as payment. But in the case of Russia, there appears to be almost a kind of collusion which FTW believes, is a part of a larger plan to turn Russia into a non-industrialized, Third World colony. It also appears that the IMF worked in collusion with key Russian leaders to loan billions of dollars, which were immediately moved to BoNY and other institutions as the Russian elites cashed in.
As reported in Agence-France Presse (AFP), Reuters and USA Today, a key $4.8 billion IMF loan last summer immediately caused a flurry of bond speculation as more than 700 key Russian officials used the money to liquidate their positions in the ruble which collapsed as soon as they got their (IMF) money out of the country. Interpol leaders from Europe have been quoted as saying that the IMF money just passed through Russia on it's way back to the U.S., leaving Russia with all of the debt and no benefit. One Interpol source even hinted that Interpol didn't really know whom to contact in Russia because the highest levels of government were part of the looting.
Things begin to look a bit stinkier for BoNY when you consider that two key employees, implicated in the scandal are married to criminal suspects in the probe. Lucy Edwards, a BoNY Vice President operating out of London who has engineered many of the key Russian deposits is married to Peter Berlin, a (US) naturalized Russian who ran a company called Benex. According to various sources, Benex, and a series of other New York and U.S. shell companies, including General Forex - all connected to Berlin - were transparently moving hundreds of millions of dollars into BoNY accounts. Berlin's operations have been connected to Russian organized crime boss Semyon Mogilevich.
Another BoNY executive, a senior VP in charge of Eastern European operations, Natasha Kagalovsky is the wife of Russian Konstantin Kagalovsky who was Russia's representative at the IMF from 1992-5. Mr. Kagalovsky is now a Vice President of the Russian oil giant Yukos and had, after 1995 served as an executive of the Menetep Bank which handled some of the earlier IMF bailout funds.
The BoNY Board has fired Edwards and suspended Kagalovsky.
The Bank of New York is by no means the only institution involved in the looting of Russia. Additional news stories have revealed links to Massachusetts banking giants Fleet Financial and Bank of Boston. Other news stories have suggested connections to Russian organized crime operatives in San Francisco. This story could go anywhere as evidenced by the fact that the FBI has now queried institutions in 45 countries and the Swiss government has frozen a number of accounts connected to the case. Additional leads are pointing to Israeli bankers and financial interests, which makes sense given the number of Russian Jews who have emigrated to Israel. As one observer noted, "Not all capital flight is illegal." No, but legal "flight" is also widening the hole below Russia's waterline
. Nor should it be overlooked that during the Iran-Contra era, Swiss-Israeli financier Bruce Rappaport who reportedly held a large interest in BoNY, turned up in the mix of Ollie North's secret financial dealings. BoNY is clearly no ingenue in the world of dirty money.Putting the Pieces Together
It is impossible to remove more than a hundred billion dollars in liquid wealth from a country like Russia and not destroy or seriously damage it. As far back as 1989, when then President George H. W. Bush dispatched career covert operative, drug dealer, and economic pillager Richard Armitage to the former Soviet Union as an economic adviser, this writer predicted that Russian organized crime, the drug trade and all related activities would suddenly explode. They did. As FTW documented in the April issue (Of Ducks and Dinosaurs), Armitage's appearances in an around Kosovo and Albania in 1996-7 presaged the economic looting of that region and the eventual military conflict that served as a major boondoggle for Wall Street. Just last month FTW warned that the appointment of former KGB operative Vladimir Putin presaged a move toward martial law in the event of complete economic collapse - probably triggered by Y2K.
Indeed, some experts have described the current process as the deliberate reversion of Russia to Third World status. Yet Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads outside of the U.S. Russians rightfully have a penchant for stuffing money in mattresses but what will they stuff in their heaters in the middle of a Russian winter?
Based upon dire Y2K predictions from official sources - a crisis that will involve primarily utilities and infrastructure - it is impossible to conceive of Russia's immediate future as anything less than cataclysmic. That prediction would fit nicely with the sudden rash of apartment bombings by so-called terrorist groups in Russia that are setting the stage for the approaching imposition of
martial law by Putin. One can only wonder what the Russian people will do when they realize that their nation has been looted and colonized, in part, to sustain the U.S. stock market and economy. This is Kosovo but on a much larger scale and with potentially much more serious consequences.Two other questions need to be asked. What is the largest politically stable industrial power close to Russia, which has financial security, a good Y2K posture and a strong military? Answer: Germany. What two countries fought against each other in World Wars I & II and sustained the heaviest loses? Answer: Russia and Germany. Germany might presume to intercede as a "peacekeeper," if for no other reason than to secure all the nukes. Ivan will not like that. Look at a map.
And there are equally serious consequences and implications here at home. On September 22, Treasury Secretary Anthony Summers, in testimony before the House Banking Committee, indicated that the Treasury Department was monitoring the situation closely and that it was important for Russia to reduce its indebtedness to the IMF. That can only be the signal for more capital flight, IMF looting and a more painful disaster for the Russian people. It also brings the United States Treasury closer to looking like organized crime itself.
Maxine Waters Speaks
In public comments on the scandal, California Representative Maxine Waters (D), Los Angeles, demanded that the Justice Department, which prosecutes money laundering, withdraw banking charters for institutions "convicted of the crime." Waters, who sits on the House Banking Committee, received a notable public response from Assistant Attorney General James Robinson who stated that such measures might be appropriate if the bank's upper management was aware of the activity.
Duh!
FTW doubts however, the willingness of the government as a whole to bite in measure with Waters' bark. Certainly not if Wall Street's overall health would be affected. But that is the problem when the organized crime model takes over an economy as it has done here in the U.S. The model must change or else it must become increasingly more corrupt until it eats itself.
The Mission for FTW Readers
A list of the full Board of Directors of the Bank of New York is available at www.sec.gov using the EDGAR data base. The interrelationship of those directors, as well as BoNY's investment stake/loan exposure in many other firms can be mapped out from that point. An interesting case which merits further attention is that of BoNY Board member John C. Malone. Malone sits on many other boards including those of Tele Communications, Inc. where he served with chief Al Gore fundraiser Tony Cohelo for years. Malone also has connections to Viacom, which just bought CBS, and to Black Entertainment Television. Using Malone as an example, the following issue could be researched using the EDGAR and Federal Elections Commissions databases at their respective web sites: Which of the major campaign donors to Gore, Bradley and Bush sit on the boards of companies tied to the Bank of New York by interlocking directorates and/or financing, banking services or loans? Start at www.sec.gov, go to EDGAR, or try the back door, which works better, at www.freeEDGAR.com.
Catherine Austin Fitts - Contributing Editor
Crying in the Kitchen with Jane
I went out to Tennessee's Hickory Valley today to show my cousin Jane how to get on the Internet. She had never done it before and I told her that we might be able to use it to figure out how to finance small farmers. Jane and most of my family in Tennessee are all small farmers. Like all small farmers they are facing extinction. Jane and I wanted to look for a way to reengineer their farming business so that there might be more profit and less risk for families who were struggling so hard to stay afloat and to keep their homes and their land.
While we were setting up we caught up on Tennessee family. My stepmother Stella is in pain and feels blue. Jane's mother, Mildred, is dying it looks like. Willa Louise, our cousin, is real upset about it. Her cousin died last week. Lots of folk are sick. The drought and the market have folks worried. We went to Amazon (www.amazon.com) and e-bay’s (www.ebay.com) web sites. We talked about the gap between the price of wheat and the price of Wheaties. A few big corporations and government are getting everything in between. We talked about how small farmers and small business people could use networks and the Internet and electronic commerce like we were seeing to vertically integrate and produce a better product at a more competitive price on a sustainable basis.
We went to Thomas, The Library of Congress web site (http://thomas.loc.gov). We looked at upcoming legislation and hearings. Then we went to the web sites for the congressman who represents Hardeman County and the two senators who represent Tennessee. They had carefully listed their important issues and legislation on the web site but, we noticed there was nothing on agriculture. Nothing at all. Meanwhile the drought is putting many people in Hardeman County out of business. It has gotten so bad that some people no longer have any way to meet their every day expenses.
Jane and her husband Billy have about 1,000 acres in cotton this year, and some corn and soybeans. I don't know exactly how bad it will be for them, but I know that Stella (my Step mom) and her sister Marion will not get enough from their cotton to pay their taxes. Other neighbors will lose land or their farms to the bank this year. After the farmers lose their land and livelihood, the banks, the insurance companies, the merchants and the county will all be hit - hard.
The congressional representatives have been busy telling folks how much they care. But then Jane had found out that a local meeting her congressional representatives had scheduled with constituents was "by invitation only." As Jane described the invitees it sounded to me like only campaign donors were invited. Jane asked me what was going on. I tried to tell her how things really work in Washington with campaign donations and organized crime. I told her a story from when I had been the Assistant Secretary of Housing. A large group of black ministers came to HUD and Jack Kemp, then Secretary of HUD, promised them a whole bunch of neat things. The ministers left ecstatic and one of Jack's staff said to the HUD senior staffers, "Can you believe those guys really believe that we are going to do that stuff?!"
Jane burst into tears. Then I burst into tears. So we sat in the kitchen crying because it hurt so much. Jane said to me "I know that nothing that is not decent can last." She is right. It is why I am buying a house next to hers. It is why I want Solari to be rooted here. It is why I dream of a neighborhood stock corporation and community databank here. It is why I have a red, white and blue sticker on my sports utility van and on my laptop that says, "I love cotton." It is why I feel so safe and giggle so much more here.
For all the times I tried to get people in Washington to understand that every penny was real, that decent men and women like Billy and Jane Powell cannot carry this kind of tax and regulatory overhead for decades straight, I felt, and still feel, the full pain of my failure. As I go to Joe's Cafe, and Haven of Flowers and Boliver Printing and I see how hard everyone works, and how frugal they are and how they never give up, the meaning of Mena and Waco and what is happening in our government is that much more painful for me.
I think about the comment a court-appointed trustee (a highly reputable Washington lawyer) made about costs related to a three-year investigative witch hunt conducted by the HUD Office of Inspector General against my former firm - Hamilton Securities. Hamilton had been teaching regular people to understand how money works and they had found it necessary to destroy us. To date, we estimate the cost to the federal government and you and me and Jane is $35 million and rising. [See Edgewood Part I in the August issue and Edgewood, Part II in the October issue]. Our crimes? Under an advisory contract with HUD, we had been instrumental in saving the taxpayers over $2 billion by introducing disclosure and competition into the resolution of defaulted HUD loans through loan sales. Canceling the sales caused HUD to forgo many hundreds of millions in additional savings. One thing it did do was to guarantee that below market negotiations remained available to HUD-savvy real estate developers and landlords with strong political ties to Washington (i.e. campaign donors). When I expressed my concern about the costs to the government and HUD's insurance company, the court-appointed trustee asked, "What do you care, it is not your money?"
It is my money. It is all of our money. If no one watches the money then the covenant that holds us together in trust will break. Rule number one in Hickory Valley is that the circle go unbroken. The average person in Hardeman County, Tennessee will probably work his or her entire life to pay up to $100,000 in federal taxes. How many people will work their whole lives to pay for HUD’s mess? More than 350 people will work their entire lives just to pay for Hamilton to be investigated. I have lost over $100 million that would now be financing small businesses in Hardeman County and places like it. When I see how hard everyone here works to make and save a penny, I still want to cry. Spit, is more like it. I know where Congress can get $15 million to fund Hardeman County's drought disaster relief payments. I say, just take it right out of the HUD pork filled budget and the behind the scenes sweetheart, workout deals that they fought so hard to protect.
When I left Jane’s home, I drove back from Hickory Valley to Boliver. Each stretch of road has a volunteer who helps maintain it. The volunteer sign said that the stretch of road was maintained by the management company of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA.) The corn I passed was dead. The cotton was dying. Because of the drought I could see that there had been at least one flash fire burning up a cornfield. We are worried about more fires. I headed home to read the file that Peg, Stella's cousin, gave me on CCA's two prison operations down the road in Whiteville.
Two CCA prisons hold 2,400 men behind concrete walls with tiny window slits. If the General Accounting Office 1996 report is right, taxpayers are paying approximately $154,000 for each prisoner. The state and county got the prisons approved through highly dubious methods. The rumors are that some of the government officials involved had stock options. The politicians said that the prisons would create jobs and income for the county. It seems to me that learning how to incarcerate people is not a skill set that generates sustainable exports or communities the same way that agribusiness does.
If you look at the costs and the infrastructure under construction and the impact on real estate values, you wonder what is coming next. There may have been an illegal environmental "clean up" behind the land deal. Peg says that CCA bought 250 acres and it looks from the roads the state is putting in that they are planning on many more prisons. CCA has an office in town on Market Street. I have thought more than once about seeing if I could get a part time job at the prisons. Infiltration is one way to learn about how to undo this.
But the only thing I really know to do is to bring back to the family and friends who are rooted to the land and to decency the story of how I failed in Washington in the hopes that we can solve the jigsaw puzzle together this time. Tomorrow afternoon, a group of farmer’s wives are going to meet at the Farm Credit Bureau to talk about what we can do. Jane says I can come.
We decided that, just like Joyce Meyer says, we are going to "faith it." I do not know what I can do, but one thing I am going to do every day is to pray for emergency drought relief payments by Thanksgiving. And I am going to pray for an agribusiness plan so that Jane and I never have to go to the federal government for one single penny ever again .
Catherine Austin Fitts is President of Solari, Inc. She is the former President of The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., Assistant Secretary of Housing in the Bush Administration and Managing Director and member of the Board of Dillon of Read & Co. Inc. She can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
