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http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=P
 by Tom Flocco“ Edited by Michael C. Ruppert

© Copyright 2001. From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. May be recopied, distributed or posted on the worldwide web for non-profit purposes only.
FTW, December 6, 2001 -- On October 9th, FTW broke a story on insider trading connected to the 9-11
attacks on the World Trade Center that sparked worldwide controversy. In that story we reported how
the Israeli Herzliyya Institute for Counterterrorism had documented that unknown individuals -- with
accurate foreknowledge of the attacks -- had purchased an obvious and unusually large number of put options on United and American Airlines shortly before the attacks.

 Additional companies hit hard by the insider trading included Axa Re(insurance) and Munich Re as well as American investment giants Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

 Put options are essentially a bet that a stocks price will fall abruptly. The seller, having entered into a
time-specific contract with a buyer, does not need to own the actual shares at the time the contract is
purchased. Therefore, if a holder of the put option has a contract to sell a stock such as American
Airlines for (e.g.) $100 a share on a Friday and the stock falls to $50 on Wednesday, they can purchase
the stock, sell it on Friday and double their money. The person on the other end of the contract (the call)
has an obligation to buy the shares at the agreed upon price. The bank handling the transaction as a
broker is the only entity knowing the identities of both parties.

 FTW also revealed that the A.B. Brown (Alex Brown) investment arm of the banking giant
Deutschebank/A.B. Brown had been headed until 1998 by the man who is now the Executive Director of
the Central Intelligence Agency – A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard. In fact, Krongard is but one name in a long
history of CIA interconnections to stock trading and the world’s financial markets. We also discussed, in
detail, the evidence indicating that the CIA and other intelligence agencies monitor stock trading in real
time for the purpose of identifying potential attacks of any nature that might damage the U.S. economy.

 The original FTW story is located at:

 http://www.copvcia.com/stories/oct_2001/krongard.html.

 Critics of FTW’s initial story - not having read any of five related stories dating back to an October 2000
piece on PROMIS software - claimed that we had not made the links to establish culpability. But we
knew that the links were there, that our case was solid, and that new evidence would not go undiscovered
for long.

 Now, investigative reporter Tom Flocco digs deep and strikes pay dirt in a three-part series that reveals
not only deeper links between the CIA, Wall Street and the insider trades of 9-11, but also discloses that a
key executive at Deutschebank – an American – became, just weeks before the attacks, a convicted
felon. His crime: conspiracy to launder drug money to arrange the purchase of U.S. weapons – in
association with two Pakistanis who also attempted to acquire nuclear bomb components – for use by
Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. – MCR

CIA Does Not Deny Stock Monitoring Outside U.S.

Part 1 

 In a returned phone call from the Central Intelligence Agency, press spokesman Tom Crispell denied that
the CIA was monitoring "real-time," pre-September 11, stock option trading activity within United States
borders using such software as the Prosecutor‘s Management Information System (PROMIS).  

 "That would be illegal.  We only operate outside the United States," the intelligence official said.

 However, when asked whether the CIA had been using PROMIS beyond American borders to
scrutinize world financial markets for national security purposes, Crispell replied, "I have no way of
knowing what operations are [being affected by our assets] outside the country."

 Extensive media reporting confirms that investors at Deutschebank-Alex Brown and other global
financial entities may have profited from prior knowledge of the attacks while purchasing disproportionate
pre-attack put option contracts on targeted U.S. airlines and related insurance or investment firms. All of
these firms suffered serious losses resulting from the September 11th attacks and their stocks abruptly
plummeted.

 Confirmation that the CIA or other U.S. intelligence agencies were monitoring financial markets and had
seen these trades before the attacks would have staggering implications for thousands of victims’
families.

 The CIA official also declined to comment on the actual capabilities of PROMIS.  The highly technical
software has been described as a system that "interfaces with any database...as police can input an
alleged terrorist’s name or credit card, and the software will provide details of the person’s movements
through purchases...," according to an 11-10-01 Toronto Sun report.

 The importance of PROMIS is that it is not only capable of interfacing with a wide variety of data bases
in different computer languages and then integrating the data, but it has also been modified for intelligence
purposes. It has then been sold throughout the world by spy agencies through third parties to clients such
as banks and investment houses envious of its unique capabilities. One key modification by agencies such
as the CIA and Mossad – not disclosed to most users -- is a secret “back door” that permits those with
the right codes to enter databases undetected, retrieve and/or alter information, and leave without a trace.
PROMIS has been extensively reported as being used throughout the world’s financial markets because
of its versatility in facilitating international transactions. 

 Further clouding the issue of pre-attack stock screening by U.S. intelligence, the Canadian daily revealed
that U.S. police said many of the suspected terrorists were apprehended (and detained) "through use of
the state-of-the-art computer software program PROMIS."

 In March 2000, CIA director George J. Tenet told the Senate that Osama bin Laden’s group (Al Q’
aeda) was "embracing the opportunities offered by recent leaps in information technology." A FOX News
story and stories in FTW disclosed in November that Osama bin Laden was believed to have the
software.

 The issue of CIA monitoring of stock trades follows on the heels of wide reports indicating that
investigators are carefully probing the insider trading with its resultant profits, reported to be in the 10’s of
millions of dollars -- some of which a Deutschebank investor has yet to claim.

 

A promis is a promis

 Crispell also declined comment when asked whether the Treasury Department or FBI had questioned
CIA Executive Director and former Deutschebank-Alex Brown CEO, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, about
CIA monitoring of financial markets using PROMIS and his former position as overseer of Brown’s
"private client” relations. [Note: Krongard stayed with A.B. Brown to head “private client” operations
after it was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. As Krongard was leaving in 1998 to join the CIA as
counselor to Director George Tenet, Banker’s Trust was acquired by Deutschebank. Banker’s Trust had
been previously criticized by the U.S. Senate and regulators for money laundering.  Krongard was
promoted to Executive Director at CIA in March 2001. - MCR]

 Wide reports -- including a 9/28/01 story in the Asian Wall Street Journal and a 10/1/01 story in The
Guardian -- indicate that investigators are checking Deutschebank’s alleged links to Saudi "private
banking," terrorist bank accounts, and $2.5 million in unclaimed United Airlines (UAL) put options profits;
however, no government acknowledgement had ever been given of CIA’s alleged use of PROMIS
software prior to the attacks.

 In a recent phone conversation, when asked about alleged terrorist ties to Deutschebank and potential
pre-attack CIA trade monitoring via PROMIS, Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols remarked,
"This is clearly an interesting line of questioning regarding conflicts of interest."

 However, news searches indicate that no member of Congress has publicly questioned whether wealthy
terrorist-connected Saudi nationals participated in the private client operations of Deutschebank-Alex
Brown. Osama bin Laden and almost all of the alleged 9-11 hijackers are of Saudi nationality. Also, no
member of Congress expressed public interest in asking Krongard about whether or not the CIA affected
"real-time" pre-attack trade monitoring using PROMIS software at any location.

 [Note: Under a program known as Echelon, the governments of the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand routinely circumvent prohibitions on domestic electronic spying by having the agencies of
the other governments do it for them. - MCR]

 Michael Ruppert, editor and publisher of From The Wilderness (FTW) newsletter (www.copvcia.com),
has been interviewed by both the House and Senate for his expertise on illegal covert CIA operations. He
said recently that, "It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such (suspicious or unusual)
trades -- in real time -- as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to
U.S. interests."

 Ruppert was the first to point out after 9-11 that CIA Executive Director Buzzy Krongard has extensive
past ties to Deutschebank-Alex Brown.  Ruppert added, "There is abundant and clear evidence that a
number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific [criminal] foreknowledge of the September
11 attacks...and the firm which was used to place put options on UAL stock was, until 1998, managed by
the man who is now in the number three position at the CIA."

 Ruppert also confirmed that two October 17 calls to the FBI resulted in spokespersons declining to give
their names after revealing that "the FBI has discontinued use of the PROMIS software." Moreover, on
October 24, Justice Department spokesperson Loren Pfeifle declined to answer any questions about
where, when, or how PROMIS had been used and would only say, "I can confirm that the DOJ has
discontinued use of the program." This followed almost 17 years of denials by the FBI and the
Department of Justice -- in court and under oath -- that they used the software at all in a law
enforcement or intelligence capacity.

 Krongard’s current lofty intelligence community position, combined with his prior leadership of a financial
institution allegedly connected to terrorist hijacker bank accounts [see Part II], suspicious UAL options
contracts, and "private banking" is so controversial that it has not as yet sparked any official investigation.
That said, the evidence is substantial enough to potentially expose the prior-knowledge issue -- if
Congress chooses to act.

 And while Treasury Department official Rob Nichols agreed that unresolved conflict of interest
questions remain, the CIA Executive Director is still currently charged with supervision of the U.S.
intelligence investigation of his former firm and its "private banking" operations.

 Reuters has reported that Krongard "was [also] involved in setting up the CIA experiment into investing
in high-tech companies with the goal of acquiring innovative technology for its own use."

 Commenting on the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, started in 1999 to encourage development of
private-sector technologies for use in the intelligence world, Krongard said on August 1, 2001 -- just 5
weeks before the Trade Center attacks -- "I think In-Q-Tel’s a wonderful model...in accessing the
capabilities of the private sector."

 On October 16, Fox News reported that, according to sources, accused Russian spy and FBI agent
Robert Hanssen sold high-tech PROMIS software to Russia, and that Osama bin Laden allegedly
purchased it from Russian organized crime sources.

 Fox reported that, "Government officials suspect bin Laden may have the highly sophisticated U.S.
government software that has been used by several other governments, including the United States, for
classified intelligence and law enforcement information."

 The admission by U.S. government officials that PROMIS was widely used by a number of governments
further blurs the pre-attack stock monitoring issue since intelligence officials will likely continue to decline
comment, save for closed-door congressional oversight hearings or challenges by those victims’ families
choosing to bypass settlements adjudicated by the Attorney General’s office in favor of direct intervention
by the courts.

 

The buck stops where?

 Tom Crispell, the CIA official, was cooperative while attempting to maintain intelligence confidentiality in
the face of what he termed as "ongoing investigations surrounding the Twin Towers tragedies by the
CIA, FBI, Justice, and Treasury Departments." However, this was in great contrast to an FBI
spokesperson who refused to offer either his first or last name, while declining comment on any matter
related to events of September 11.

 During a series of calls, some spokespersons quickly attempted to defer and deflect questions to another
government agency, i.e. "We don’t deal with that issue. Call the other [entity]."

 However, many would agree, given the evidence, that the 9-11 terrorism is closely linked to economic
issues. President Bush has stated that this is “economic warfare.” Yet few appear to be questioning an
apparent paucity of critical information sharing among key government agencies on the issue.

 As U.S. investigators retrace the financial trails connecting the Twin Towers, terrorist hijackers and their
accomplices, many of whom may still be in the country, evidence is being turned up by FBI, CIA, Justice,
Treasury and NSA that does involve global banking conglomerate Deutschebank-Alex Brown.

 

$2.5 million unclaimed UAL investor profits

 For example, according to a 10-19-2001 Wall Street Journal report, an unnamed investor purchased 2,000
United Airlines (UAL) put option contracts through Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown on September 6 --
betting the stock would shortly plummet.  And USA Today reported that an individual purchased 810
UAL puts on August 6.

 A Baron’s source claimed on 10-8-2001 that the pre-attack UAL order placed through Deutsche Bank
was for 2,500 contracts which were "split into 500 chunks each, directing each order to different U.S.
exchanges around the country simultaneously."

 According to San Francisco Chronicle reporters Christian Berthelsen and Scott Winokur a source
familiar with the UAL trades said investors have yet to claim $2.5 million in profits on contracts
purchased before United airliners crashed into a New York Trade Tower and a deserted Pennsylvania
field on September 11.

 The Chronicle source also identified Deutschebank-Alex Brown as the investment firm used to purchase
some of the UAL options; and Rohini Pragasam, a bank spokeswoman, declined to comment on the
transaction.

 The source (who requested anonymity) said, "Usually, if someone has a windfall like that, you take the
money and run.  Whoever did this thought the Exchange [NYSE] would not be closed for four days. This
smells real bad."

 The German news weekly Der Spiegel revealed that Deutschebank also handled accounts worth about
$100 million for Osama bin Laden's family. These were part of 10 accounts it suspected were linked to
terrorists or terrorist activities and which it later handed over to German authorities after the attacks,
according to a report in Britain’s The Guardian. But no further comments have been forthcoming from
the financial giant.

 German Central Bank President Ernst Welteke said a study -- concerning principal hijack subjects
residing in Germany and unusual patterns in short-selling of insurance, airline and other financial company
shares -- pointed to "terrorism insider trading" in those stocks.

 

The SEC Is Investigating

 A phone interview with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) press spokesman John Nester, of
the Washington, DC office, revealed that the Commission, “has already forwarded a general request to
Deutschebank-Alex Brown and other investment firms for unspecified information related to the
suspicious put option contracts placed prior to the attacks on the Trade Towers and the Pentagon." But
the spokesman declined comment regarding the identities of complying banks or the contents of any
information obtained.

 Nester augmented his response by adding that "according to SEC Associate Director of Enforcement
Bill Baker -- who just spoke on a panel outside New York last week -- our SEC probe is much broader
than investigations made by countries in Europe (who also lost citizens), many of whom have already
closed their financial investigations of investment banks like Deutschebank." No results of those probes
have been made public.

 While the SEC media director said "the investigation is still ongoing with no current conclusions," Nester
(speaking for the SEC), had difficulty explaining the job description of current New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) Executive Vice President for Enforcement, David P. Doherty. He would only say that the
NYSE "regulates itself as an SRO or self-regulating organization...." This vague answer is all the more
provocative because Doherty is a retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency.

 Nester added, "The SEC has oversight responsibility regarding the NYSE, and we are also working with
Justice, Treasury, and the FBI, having set up professional point men at each firm we are looking at -- so
we don‘t have to reinvent the wheel every time we call a company [related to the attacks] to get an
answer to a question."

 The "reinvent the wheel" statement raised an eyebrow regarding the level of corporate cooperation in the
investigation, although Nester declined to add further comment.

 

In Spite of CIA Ties the NYSE Is Little Help

 When asked about the status of the investigation into the disproportionate pre-attack stock option trades
involving United and American Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Marsh and McLennan Insurance, Morgan
Stanley, Citigroup, Bear Stearns, and American Express, etc. -- all icons of American capitalism -- NYSE
Communications Director Ray Pellecchia said, "We don't even confirm that there is an ongoing
investigation."

 "We report to the SEC as a matter of course," Pellecchia added. But after being referred to as a
"persistent piece of work," this writer asked Pellecchia to discuss Doherty’s role in the investigations.  He
said, "We stand by this statement."

 And after pressing for information about what the NYSE is actually doing to investigate the suspicious
trades on behalf of thousands of victims’ families who may be concerned about the "prior-knowledge"
issue, Pellecchia still declined to confirm that Doherty's enforcement office had even sent a report to the
SEC.

 When asked why so many former key CIA executives currently hold, or have held in the past, top level
executive management positions connected in some way to the stock market via either the SEC, NYSE,
or other investment banking entities, Pellecchia replied tersely, "I am quite aware of Mr. Doherty's
background and experience."

 Pellecchia also declined to discuss anything related to current CIA Executive Director A.B. "Buzzy"
Krongard and his past relationship with Alex Brown.

 

Expecting Miracles?

 Questions remain as to who will ultimately take center stage in investigating conflicts of interest or the
real-time monitoring of world financial markets by U.S. intelligence entities to protect national security; let
alone terrorist ties to wealthy Saudi private clients at global financial institutions having direct access (via
correspondent banking relationships) to U.S. banks.

 For while thousands of American families, victimized by terrorism, still remain numb with grief,
information is being advanced daily regarding what could be described by some as casual, if not negligent,
long-term, slipshod governmental responsiveness to fundamental internal national security and safety
questions -- or worse.

 **********

Part II -- Trading with the Enemy

[Editor’s Notes – A disclosed in Part I and in previous stories by FTW, an abnormal amount of “put” options –
bets that a stock price would suddenly fall – were placed on United Air Lines and American Airlines in the days
before the attacks of September 11th. These were only two of the companies affected by the attacks which
experienced highly suspicious trading in their shares. In Part I we described how put options work. They are
basically futures contracts that obligate the “put buyer” to purchase the shares at a price that might be well
above the market price when the contract matures. Heavy purchases of put options before a dramatic drop in a
particular share price are clear-cut indicators of criminal activity based upon insider trading.

Last month we identified the purchasing end of the contract incorrectly as a “call.” That person, unhappily
obligated to pay too high a price for the shares, is better described as the “put buyer.”

Investigative journalist Tom Flocco also revealed dramatic new links to the growing mountain of evidence that
puts the Central Intelligence Agency at the heart of America’s and the world’s financial markets. In particular he
showed that the firm which had handled many of the put option purchases on United Airlines --
Deutschebank-Alex Brown -- was once headed by the man who is now the Executive Director of the CIA, A.B.
“Buzzy” Krongard.

I would like to thank and acknowledge British investigative journalist/writer David Guyatt for first bringing to
my attention, Krongard’s past relations with Alex Brown.

Part II of this series is easily one of the most damning pieces of investigative journalism that I have ever seen or
participated in. In it Tom Flocco will now reveal even darker direct connections between the worlds of high
finance, terrorism, and intelligence. And he will reveal some names that will shock you. – Mike Ruppert]

 

FTW, December 11, 2001 -- No member of Congress is publicly, as yet, questioning the hazy areas of
"private client banking" -- repeatedly described by the U.S. Senate and Justice Department as being a
vehicle for drug money laundering -- and apparent conflicts of interest linked to documented 9/11-related
insider trading in United Air Lines stock. The trades were placed through one of the world’s three largest
pools of investment capital, Deutschebank-Alex Brown.

This, in spite of the fact that there is mounting evidence of "real-time" monitoring of stock market trades
by intelligence entities (See Part I at www.copvcia.com). The recent indictment of a former
Deutschebank executive, Kevin Ingram -- who has since pled guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money
and arrange the sale of U.S.-made arms to individuals in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where U.S. military
personnel are currently at risk -- raises further alarm. Although Ingram was not at Deutschebank when
the insider trades were placed, his history (as well as a star-studded cast of international financiers
connected to the CIA) reveals a frighteningly dark saga showing the degree to which dirty money
influences “the Street” and the world’s financial markets. It also provides more evidence that the CIA
knew of the September attacks in advance.

Ingram is also an acknowledged former protégé of former Goldman Sachs CEO and current New Jersey
Senator, Jon Corzine who sits on the Senate Banking Committee. He has also worked closely with
another former Goldman Sachs, CEO – Robert Rubin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under
President Bill Clinton.

Related to Deutschebank-Alex Brown’s role as the broker for the UAL and other suspicious trades,
Ernst Welteke, President of the Bundesbank (Germany’s central bank), said recently that a Bundesbank
study pointed strongly to "terrorism insider trading" in the days leading up to September’s carnage in the
U.S., according to the London Observer on September 23, 2001.

But reporter John H. Berlin also made the ominous prediction that "their decision [to investigate] provided
by far the most authoritative support for persistent rumors that the terrorists could have funded their next
strike with huge [insider trading] profits from the [first] attacks." This seems an unlikely proposition since
experts acknowledge that attacks of the magnitude of 9-11 take years to plan and perhaps millions of
“up-front” dollars to finance.

Other motives, such as generating funds for covert operations by the CIA, have also not been ruled out.
 Nor has the possibility been excluded that Deutschebank, which handled key but unquestionably
suspicious transactions, was generating money for itself by placing "put" options on United Airlines and
then putting the profits back into its own tills -- perhaps to "prop up" poorly performing divisions at the
global banking giant.

This last scenario is a possibility, given the fact that Deutschebank has been demonstrated in Part I of this
series to have intelligence links that might have forewarned the bank of the attacks.

There is precedent for the "slush fund" theory, as Deutschebank’s U.S. affiliate, Bankers Trust (BT) pled
guilty to it in March 1999.  BT diverted $19.1 million from "unclaimed" funds to prop up profitability at
other units, according to a May 30, 2001 New York Times report.

The revelations referred to the growing scope of BT’s misuse of unclaimed client funds, and on the laxity
of state and federal bank regulation of BT by claiming "a closer look at the scheme reveals that it goes
well beyond the transgressions the bank owned up to."

And as the investigation was heating up, a high-ranking BT executive with long-time intelligence ties had
to be thinking that it was getting near time to get out of Dodge City.

Times reporter Tim O’Brien said that it was the auditors at the NY State Comptroller’s Office who
uncovered BT’s diversion of funds after noticing that BT’s unclaimed account dropped from $10.2 million
in 1993 to only $3.9 million in 1994; so they started requesting documents which the BT executives
subsequently refused to provide.

According to analysis by lawyer Matthew Lee, executive director of Inner City Press, it was not the
primary regulators of BT -- the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the NY State Banking Department (NYSBD)
-