What are the best books on BCCI?

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What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Fri Aug 30, 2013 1:16 pm

In typical fashion, I will simply be ordering all of the books on this subject, but I'm curious if anyone can recommend where to start once they all arrive.

Just ordered:

The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA - Jonathan Kwitny

The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI - Jonathan Beaty (KHW or what?)

False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, The World’s Most Corrupt Financial Empire - Larry Gurwin and Peter Truell

A Full Service Bank: How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World - James Ring Adams and Douglas Frantz
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby American Dream » Fri Aug 30, 2013 1:37 pm

Kwitny's book I recall as kinda pulling its punches- may be valuable but certainly not authoritative.

Also, Peter Dale Scott always has good stuff on them- not sure which title of his has the best stuff- maybe American War Machine?
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:18 pm

I loved The Outlaw Bank, though I felt Beaty could have done a more thorough job detailing the late 70s threads where the late Bert Lance is concerned. I don't think Jackson Stephens is mentioned once. I've heard that False Profits covers more details on the Stephens involvement in BCCI, but I haven't read it yet. I'm curious what you think of it.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:43 pm

Jackson Stephens? Awesome. That is a name I haven't come across in too long.

I was checking this thread because I started Outlaw Bank this morning on the bus, sucked me right in. More to come.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Wed Nov 20, 2013 10:50 am

The Outlaw Bank was employed as a livre cabinet so it took awhile longer than usual, but overall, a solid piece of research hampered by being framed as a novel. Like a whole decade of post-Woodward books of investigative journalism, every chapter is a pre-scripted journey of discovery, suspense, and secret sources. While the narrative devices are hack-level, the book remains crammed with leads and my notes from TOB amounted to about 30 Mead pages.

Up next: False Profits.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Elvis » Wed Nov 20, 2013 3:55 pm

There was a book from (as I recall) the 1980s titled October Surprise -- it's not the Gary Sick book, and not the Barbara Honeggerbook; it's not even about the 1980 Reagan/Carter/Iran setup we think of as the 'October Surprise'. It's about, among other things, high-level arms transfers etc. by spooky USG people determined to sell missiles to Saddam, contrary to US policy at the time. It's a big book, a wealth of info. BCCI figures in, naturally.

A friend loaned it to me in the 1990s and insisted on getting it back because "that book is going to disappear" -- and he was right: I cannot find hide nor hair of that book no matter how keywords I type into the Google search field. After I returned it, I think the book was later left in an outbuilding and got moldy and was tossed out. I'm presently out of touch with the friend so can't ask about the actual fate of that copy.

It's been so long that I don't remember many details, but one stood out: a Scottish parts maker was threatened by these people who showed up at his facility; he punched one in the face, then relented and cooperated (by manufacturing the needed parts) when threats against his children were made.

I can't remember the author's name. I would love to get another copy.

Anyone else know of this book?



PS. it was a hardback, seriously doubt it ever saw a paperback edition!
Last edited by Elvis on Wed Nov 20, 2013 3:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:18 pm

Yeah, that is a thorough mystery, sir.

Not getting anything through my obscure book channels, but it has aroused the interest of everyone I relayed this to, so hey -- fingers crossed.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Thu Dec 05, 2013 3:38 pm

The Outlaw Bank, pg 97

The source said he had called as a personal favor to Bob Morgenthau. It became so important to keep his identity secret that he was referred to among the five people at Time who actually knew who he was as "Famous Name."

Famous Name delivered in detail the confirmation that the CIA had used BCCI extensively, especially in connection with covert US operations in Central America. He said that, even before Oliver North had set up his network for making illegal payments to the Contras, the National Security Council -- an arm of the White House -- was using BCCI to channel money through them to Saudi Arabia. He also confirmed what Beaty and Gwynne had thought to be one of the more fantastic elements to Sami's story, that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had been involved in BCCI's covert operations. He told Beaty flatly that the DIA maintained a slush fund (ie, completely off the official books) with BCCI to finance secret operations.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby semper occultus » Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:17 am

Image

Bankrupt!: The BCCI Fraud
Nick Kochan & Bob Whittington
published by Gollancz (1991)

Image

Dirty Money: BCCI: The inside story of the world's sleaziest bank
Mark Potts, Nick Kochan & Robert Whittington
published by National Press Books (1992)

...same book I guess...UK / US eds.


http://www.kochan.co.uk/index.htm
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Elvis » Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:41 pm

Elvis » Wed Nov 20, 2013 12:55 pm wrote:There was a book from (as I recall) the 1980s titled October Surprise -- it's not the Gary Sick book, and not the Barbara Honeggerbook;



I now think this might have been one of Robert Parry's books. At the time my friend recommended and loaned the book to me (mid-late '90s?---I can't quite recall, but before I was into the Internet), I knew about Gary Sick's book (1991), so right away I checked the author: not Gary Sick, but as I think back, "Parry" looks very familiar.

I had never heard of Parry, now he's better known for his great reporting and founding Consortium News.

So -- I'm sorry if I sent anyone on a goose-chase for a book that is after all readily available. I figure it was some version or edition of either this:

Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery
(1993, 330pp)
http://www.amazon.com/Trick-Treason-Oct ... urprise%22

or this:

The October Surprise X-Files: The Hidden Origins of the Reagan-Bush Era (1996, 138pp)
http://www.amazon.com/October-Surprise- ... urprise%22

The latter is the more likely subject and title, but at 138 pages too short; I'm sure the book I read was thicker, more like the 330 pages of "Trick or Treason."

The book I read had no dustjacket, so I can't compare cover art. On the hardcover spine cover were the large, all-capitals words "OCTOBER SURPRISE," leading me to think of the title as simply, "October Surprise."

Now I'll have to get my hands on those books and look for the passages that somehow stuck with me. One was again in Scotland with the Scottish machinist: the spooky team who had forced his cooperation seemed to be led by a woman, who, after the 'agreements' were signed in the machinists living room, said, with an air of accomplishment, something like, "Well, it looks like we'll be selling missiles to Saddam." Ring any bells for anyone?

It seems like there was so much 'background' in the book, maybe much of it was out of context for me at the time; I don't seem to have retained much that I can now attribute specifically to that book. I do remember thinking, as I read it, "When do we get to the actual part about the Reagan team's arms-for-delayed release-of-hostages scheme that we think of as the October Surprise?" The book never seemed to get there, though I feel sure I read it to the end; whichever book it was, I need to read it again.


As far as that October Surprise goes, I just recently read Casey, the William Casey biography by Joseph Persico (1990), and while Persico couldn't prove it (as I once saw GHW Bush very slyly challenge reporters to do), you can't escape the impression that he knows they did it. Overall it's a pretty good bio---actually a good profile of the human being William Casey---but there's no mention of BCCI.
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Re: What are the best books on BCCI?

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:16 pm

A curious detail from The Outlaw Bank, p. 143

From this fanatical drive to please its customers a darker side began to emerge. As BCCI rose in prominence, its officers continued to put on entertainments for clients in Pakistan. This had always meant such things as bustard hunts and camel races, but now the entourages of Middle Eastern potentates -- in particular that of Zayed -- were increasingly being entertained in less wholesome ways. Much of this sort of amusement took place in Lahore's legendary Diamond Market, home of the famous "dancing girls." There, girls as young as twelve (and later, even younger) were dressed in silk harem pants and procured by BCCI officers for their clients. In the middle 1970s the man in charge of inspecting the girls was Zafar Iqbal, who would later become the chief executive officer of BCCI.


The Zayed being referenced was Jimmy Carter's "close personal friend," the sultan of Aramco -- I mean, Abu Dhabi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayed_bin_Sultan_Al_Nahyan
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