Saturday, 07 April 2012 12:20
The Federal Reserve System investigated itself and determined that concerns about undue political influence surrounding its alleged role in the Nixon Watergate scandal and a subsequent cover up, as well as allegations that the Fed facilitated a massive weapons loan to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were unfounded. Analysts and critics of the central bank, however, were not entirely convinced.
The establishment press promptly celebrated the findings — inaccurately characterizing the privately owned U.S. central banking system as a government “agency” — while largely omitting the well-documented evidence of widespread malfeasance by the government-backed monetary cartel. Several mainstream media outlets even used the investigation to attack the escalating suspicion and anger about the Fed, its multi-trillion dollar bailouts to entities around the world, its manipulation of markets, and its notorious secrecy.
The Federal Reserve System investigated itself and determined that concerns about undue political influence surrounding its alleged role in the Nixon Watergate scandal and a subsequent cover up, as well as allegations that the Fed facilitated a massive weapons loan to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were unfounded. Analysts and critics of the central bank, however, were not entirely convinced.The establishment press promptly celebrated the findings — inaccurately characterizing the privately owned U.S. central banking system as a government “agency” — while largely omitting the well-documented evidence of widespread malfeasance by the government-backed monetary cartel. Several mainstream media outlets even used the investigation to attack the escalating suspicion and anger about the Fed, its multi-trillion dollar bailouts to entities around the world, its manipulation of markets, and its notorious secrecy.
During a 2010 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, longtime central bank critic Congressman Ron Paul (above left) — citing reports and past investigations — questioned Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke about the Watergate and Iraq concerns. “Would you grant that the American people deserve to know whether the Federal Reserve has been involved with this and what kind of shenanigans they’re involved with?” he asked.
At the time, Bernanke called the accusations “absolutely bizarre,” claiming he had “absolutely no knowledge of anything remotely like what you just described.” Experts, however, were not buying it. Immediately following the hearing, University of Texas Professor Robert D. Auerbach of the LBJ School of Public Affairs — who assisted in congressional investigations of Fed corruption, abuse, and deception; and later wrote a book about it — sent Congress a letter that was entered into the record.
“I thank Congressman Ron Paul for bringing to the public’s attention the Federal Reserve coverup of the source of the Watergate burglars’ source of funding and the defective audit by the Federal Reserve of the bank that transferred $5.5 billion from the U.S. government to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s,” Prof. Auerbach wrote, noting that the Fed had already voted to destroy some evidence. “The evidence Congressman Ron Paul mentioned is well documented in my recent book, ‘Deception and Abuse at the Fed.’ The head of the Federal Reserve bureaucracy should become familiar with its dismal practices.”
Then-Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was apparently not convinced either. He eventually sent a follow-up letter to Bernanke asking the Fed to look into the allegations... Finish reading>>