(Melchizedek Communique, MC022409) Mark Lombardi (1951-2000) accumulated thousands of index cards dealing with various scandals such as BCCI, Harken Energy, and the Savings & Loan debacle. To keep track of it all, he began sketching connections. A portion of one of his drawings is seen at left. Looking closely, one sees names such as "James R. Bath", "George W. Bush", "Sheik Salim bin Laden", and "Osama bin Laden."

BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) is in the news once again. In the 1990s, BCCI was a major inspiration for Danny Casolaro's concept of "The Octopus." A film which premiered this February, 2009, "The International", was inspired by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International banking scandal. [1]

More bank fraud movie entertainments are on the way, reports Business Week magazine. Look for "Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy" (Brazilian immigrant overhears insider trading plot, blows the whistle), "Money Never Sleeps" (Gordon Gekko, of Oliver Stone's movie, Wall Street, leaves prison and grapples with a bear market), and an adaptation of "Mergers and Acquisitions" (Greedy young I-bankers live high on big bonuses and lavish junkets). [2]

Reportedly, in the BCCI-based film The International, an arms-dealer declares that banks exist "to make us all slaves to debt." [3]

But really it is the unnatural usury system. Long ago, Aristotle wrote, "There are two sorts of wealth-getting, as I have said; one is a part of household management, the other is retail trade: the former is necessary and honorable, while that which consists in exchange is justly censured; for it is unnatural, and a mode by which men gain from one another. The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. That is why of all modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural." [4]

We don't have an "economic crisis." We have a usury crisis. The economy is a natural force. The economy does not care one whit about what the mighty federal government has to say. The crops will grow and people will make things and they will trade no matter what Washington, DC has to say.

In 1987 occurred what had been the worst stock market crash in history. The Dow-Jones Index sank 22.6 percent, about twice the ratio of the 1929 crash. [5] But this past year, the Dow-Jones has gone from 14,000 to nearly 7,000, a slump of about 50 percent. And consider, as a reality check, that in 1982 the Dow-Jones average stood at 777.

In the 1990s, something called "the BCCI bribe list" appeared. "As an open record, mysteriously only for thirty days at the London-based Central Bank, was the BCCI bribery list of U.S. officials," wrote the late Sherman H. Skolnick. [6] Something strange began to happen in the latter 1990s: dozens of congress-persons and other federal leaders were announcing sudden decisions to retire. Reason? Ostensibly "to spend more time with their family", but the rumor was these officials' names had been discovered on the BCCI bribe list.

So why would it be that some are now skeptical about the federal government promising to save the day?

------- Sources -------
[1] "The International (film)", Wikipedia, Feb. 24, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_(film)
[2] "Cheer The Hero, Hiss The Banker (sidebar)", Business Week magazine, Feb. 23, 2009, p. 016
[3] "Cheer The Hero, Hiss The Banker", Business Week magazine, Feb. 23, 2009, p. 016
[4] "Politics", by Aristotle, ch. 10. (Emphasis added)
[5] Greenspan's Fraud, by Ravi Batra
[6] "Senator Cash and Carry" (Overthrow of the American Republic, part 46), by Sherman H. Skolnick