Bush - Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951« Thread Started on May 23, 2004, 12:06am »--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bush - Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951 - -- alt.politics, 14:19:22 02/05/04 Thu From: * (nospam@plz.com)Subject: Bush - Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951 - Federal Documents This is the only article in this thread View: Original Format Newsgroups: sci.environment, alt.politics.gw-bush, alt.politics, alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, alt.impeach.bush, soc.retirement, alt.alien.visitors, alt.global-warmingDate: 2004-02-05 11:29:11 PST >'Bush - Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951' - Federal Documents>>By John Buchanan and Stacey Michael>The New Hampshire Gazette Vol. 248, No. 3,>November 7, 2003>>After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on>behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prescott Bush, the>grandfather of President George W. Bush, failed to divest himself of>more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until>as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal.>>Furthermore, the records show that Bush and his colleagues routinely>attempted to conceal their activities from government investigators.>>Bush's partners in the secret web of Thyssen-controlled ventures>included former New York Governor W. Averell Harriman and his younger>brother, E. Roland Harriman. Their quarter-century of Nazi financial>transactions, from 1924-1951, were conducted by the New York private>banking firm, Brown Brothers Harriman.>>The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment.>>Although the additional seizures under the Trading with the Enemy Act>did not take place until after the war, documents from The National>Archives and Library of Congress confirm that Bush and his partners>continued their Nazi dealings unabated. These activities included a>financial relationship with the German city of Hanover and several>industrial concerns. They went undetected by investigators until after>World War Two.>>At the same time Bush and the Harrimans were profiting from their Nazi>partnerships, W. Averell Harriman was serving as President Franklin>Delano Roosevelt's personal emissary to the United Kingdom during the>toughest years of the war. On October 28, 1942, the same day two key>Bush-Harriman-run businesses were being seized by the U.S. government,>Harriman was meeting in London with Field Marshall Smuts to discuss>the war effort.>>Denial and Deceit>>While Harriman was concealing his Nazi relationships from his>government colleagues, Cornelius Livense, the top executive of the>interlocking German concerns held under the corporate umbrella of>Union Banking Corporation (UBC), repeatedly tried to mislead>investigators, and was sometimes supported in his subterfuge by Brown>Brothers Harriman. >>All of the assets of UBC and its related businesses belonged to>Thyssen-controlled enterprises, including his Bank voor Handel en>Scheepvaart in Rotterdam, the documents state. >>Nevertheless, Livense, president of UBC, claimed to have no knowledge>of such a relationship. "Strangely enough, (Livense) claims he does>not know the actual ownership of the company," states a government>report. >>H.D Pennington, manager of Brown Brothers Harriman and a director of>UBC "for many years," also lied to investigators about the secret and>well-concealed relationship with Thyssen's Dutch bank, according to>the documents.>>Investigators later reported that the company was "wholly owned" by>Thyssen's Dutch bank. >>Despite such ongoing subterfuge, U.S. investigators were able to show>that "a careful examination of UBC's general ledger, cash books and>journals from 1919 until the present date clearly establish that the>principal and practically only source of funds has been Bank voor>Handel en Scheepvaart.">>In yet another attempt to mislead investigators, Livense said that>$240,000 in banknotes in a safe deposit box at Underwriters Trust Co.>in New York had been given to him by another UBC-Thyssen associate,>H.J. Kouwenhoven, managing director of Thyssen's Dutch bank and a>director of the August Thyssen Bank in Berlin. August Thyssen was>Fritz's father. >>The government report shows that Livense first neglected to report the>$240,000, then claimed that it had been given to him as a gift by>Kouwenhoven. However, by the time Livense filed a financial disclosure>with U.S. officials, he changed his story again and reported the sum>as a debt rather than a cash holding.>>In yet another attempt to deceive the governments of both the U.S. and>Canada, Livense and his partners misreported the facts about the sale>of a Canadian Nazi front enterprise, La Cooperative Catholique des>Consommateurs de Combustible, which imported German coal into Canada>via the web of Thyssen-controlled U.S. businesses.>>"The Canadian authorities, however, were not taken in by this>maneuver," a U.S. government report states. The coal company was later>seized by Canadian authorities.>>After the war, a total of 18 additional Brown Brothers Harriman and>UBC-related client assets were seized under The Trading with the Enemy>Act, including several that showed the continuation of a relationship>with the Thyssen family after the initial 1942 seizures.>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------->The records also show that Bush and the Harrimans conducted business>after the war with related concerns doing business in or moving assets>into Switzerland, Panama, Argentina and Brazil - all critical outposts>for the flight of Nazi capital after Germany's surrender in 1945.>Fritz Thyssen died in Argentina in 1951.>>One of the final seizures, in October 1950, concerned the U.S. assets>of a Nazi baroness named Theresia Maria Ida Beneditka Huberta>Stanislava Martina von Schwarzenberg, who also used two shorter>aliases. Brown Brothers Harriman, where Prescott Bush and the>Harrimans were partners, attempted to convince government>investigators that the baroness had been a victim of Nazi persecution>and therefore should be allowed to maintain her assets. >>"It appears, rather, that the subject was a member of the Nazi party,">government investigators concluded. >>At the same time the last Brown Brothers Harriman client assets were>seized, Prescott Bush announced his Senate campaign that led to his>election in 1952.>>Investigation Investigated?>>In 1943, six months after the seizure of UBC and its related>companies, a government investigator noted in a Treasury Department>memo dated April 8, 1943 that the FBI had inquired about the status of>any investigation into Bush and the Harrimans.>>"I gave 'a memorandum' which did not say anything about the American>officers of subject," the investigator wrote. "(Another investigator)>wanted to know whether any specific action had been taken by us with>respect to them.">>No further action beyond the initial seizures was ever taken, and the>newly-confirmed records went unseen by the American people for six>decades. >>What Does It All Mean?>>So why are the documents relevant today?>>"The story of Prescott Bush and Brown Brothers Harriman is an>introduction to the real history of our country," says L.A. art book>publisher and historian Edward Boswell. "It exposes the money-making>motives behind our foreign policies, dating back a full century. The>ability of Prescott Bush and the Harrimans to bury their checkered>pasts also reveals a collusion between Wall Street and the media that>exists to this day." >>Sheldon Drobny, a Chicago entrepreneur and philanthropist who will>soon launch a liberal talk radio network, says the importance of the>new documents is that they prove a long pattern of Bush family war>profiteering that continues today via George H.W. Bush's intimate>relationship with the Saudi royal family and the bin Ladens, conducted>via the super-secret Carlyle Group, whose senior advisers include>former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III.>>In the post-9/11 world, Drobny finds the Bush-Saudi connection deeply>troubling. "Trading with the enemy is trading with the enemy," he>says. "That's the relevance of the documents and what they show."> >Lawrence Lader, an abortion rights activist and the author of more>than 40 books, says "the relevance lies with the fact that the sitting>President of the United States would lead the nation to war based on>lies and against the wishes of the rest of the world." Lader and>others draw comparisons between President Bush's invasion of Iraq and>Hitler's occupation of Poland in 1939 - the event that sparked World>War Two.>>However, others see an even larger significance.>>"The discovery of the Bush-Nazi documents raises new questions about>the role of Prescott Bush and his influential business partners in the>secret emigration of Nazi war criminals, which allowed them to escape>justice in Germany," says Bob Fertik, co-founder of Democrats.com and>an amateur 'Nazi hunter.' "It also raises questions about the>importance of Nazi recruits to the CIA in its early years, in what was>called Operation Paperclip (also known as the Gehlen Network), and>Prescott Bush's role in that dark operation.">>Fertik and others, including former Justice Department Nazi war crimes>prosecutor John Loftus, a Constitutional attorney in Miami, and a>former Veterans Administration official, believe Prescott Bush and the>Harrimans should have been tried for treason.>>What Next?>>Now, say Fertik and Loftus, there should be a Congressional>investigation into the Bush family's Nazi past and its concealment>from the American people for 60 years.>>"The American people have a right to know, in detail, about this>hidden chapter of our history," says Loftus, author of The Secret War>Against the Jews. "That's the only way we can understand it and deal>with it." >>For his part, Fertik is pessimistic that even a Congressional>investigation can thwart the war profiteering of the present Bush>White House. "It's impossible to stop it," he says, "when the worst>war profiteers are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who operate in>secrecy behind the vast powers of the White House.">--->John Buchanan is a journalist and magazine writer based in Miami>Beach. He can be reached by e-mail at jtwg@bellsouth.net.>>Stacey Michael is a New Orleans-based journalist and the author of>Religious Conceit. His most recent book is Weapons of Mass>Dysfunction: The Art of "Faith-Based" Politics, due in early 2004. He>can be reached by email at staceymichael@religiousconceit.com.