Audio Archive at http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Tarpley06.html

(The following is a rough transcript, typewritten live)

Webster G Tarpley: Our guest in the 2nd hour will be Phil Berg, the lawyer who is suing the Bush regime under the RICO act as a racketeering influenced corrupt organization. His client is William Rodriguez, the engineer from the North Tower who has been declared a hero by Congress and also by the State of Puerto Rico.

Iraq War - the price in butchery has become too high even for some neo-con rats who are leaving the ship, like Fukuyama who says it is all a mistake, or WF Buckley from a cloud of marijuana smoke.
The neo-con agenda in the Middle East is Balkanization of Iraq and Iran.
Today there is a protest march for the 3rd anniversary of the attack on Iraq, starting from Cheney’s home.
Impeachment of Bush is only the most minimalistic goal that would hobble Bush- Cheney plans to attack Iran, but will do nothing to loosen the grasp of the underlying clique on the body politic.
Cheney doctrine - there will be a new 9/11 and this will be the pretext for a nuclear attack on Iran.
New drumbeating on this theme - US officials say Al Qaeda in Iraq is planning a “big Bang”.
John Batchelor on ABC news who has notorious opinion peddlers like Yosef Bodansky and his version of Big Bang.
They are actively preparing a new 9/11 or Gulf of Tonkin.
Autumn 2005: NSA admitted openly that the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led to a war that killed millions had been simply a fraud.
So we need to be on red alert for a new war drill - maintain the vigilance like against Sudden Response 05 last August which was a scenario for a nuke in Charleston SC harbor.
We need the full MIHOP approach to terrorism - Made it Happen on Purpose - if you believe in LIHOP (Let it happen on purpose) you have to agree with the warmongers like Bodansky that terror comes from the Middle East.
Finance oligarchs want us to think that the issue is a war on terror.
In fact it’s a breakdown crisis, a disintegration of the US dollar, far beyond what happened in 1929, a collapse of the world monetary system. The only precedent is Sept. 1931 when the British defaulted on gold which made the Great Depression so deep and long, not just the stock market events of 1929.

Two news items to start off: The US current account deficit has reached the colossal sum of $805 billion. The US is borrowing $2.2 billion per day. The rate is rising, last quarter up 21% from quarter before. Just for January, trade deficit $69 billion. This is impossible, this is last days of Pompeii, only a matter of time before the rush to the exits begins. Congress has raised the debt ceiling this week to $9 trillion. $4 to $5 trillion is owed abroad, to Japan, China.
Greenspan once remarked that this kind of debt is unsustainable because foreigners can’t hold onto the dollars inevitably. Just that remark caused a dollar crisis. And now some people pretend the Iranian Oil Bourse isn’t enough to cause a dollar crisis.
Last year London predicted this high a trade deficit by the end of 2006, and here we are already.

This is the hysteria that is driving the financial oligarchy and neo-cons to push for war, in a similar way as Hitler did - his reason for attacking Poland was financial collapse on the home front.
Any day a sickening slide of the dollar could emerge.
Next segment - Saudi and Egyptian crises.

Any number of factors that influence the dollar crisis - baby boomers now net sellers of stocks, Ford and GM bankrupt. One major event is the Bank of Japan, their central bank, it declared in principle an end to zero-interest lending Thursday last week. For the past 4 or 5 years, banks could go to the BOJ and borrow yen for free - the so- called yen carry trade. This was a free ride, free money, they could borrow it at zero and invest it in Treasury securities and pocket the profit.

Tremor in Iceland. Little Iceland is a kind of protectorate of the US, occupied by the US in 1941, and ever since. It has a currency called the krona and a huge banking sector compared to the size of the country. It has a bank that is in deep trouble. The Icelandic currency was subjected to tremendous selling pressure when it appeared the Yen carry trade was going to end. A lot of free money was going into Icelandic money and stock markets. The Japanese announcement caused a big crisis in Iceland, with the Kaupthing Bank in deep trouble. First tremor.

This past week a huge stock market crisis in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Egypt. Without the yen carry trade the speculative hot money for those markets will no longer be there. These are emerging markets which have gone up 200% in the last couple years. Saudi Arabia’s exchange reached a high of 25,000 recently but has already lost 25%, may lose another 25-30%. The Saudi government says it will buy stocks to support the market. Abu Dhabi, Dubai, down about 38-40%.

The last of Greenspan’s bubbles seems to be going down. He was head of the Fed from 1987 until just a few weeks ago. A list of crises occurred, the Russian banking crisis, LTCM, the dot.com bubble, the housing bubble, which is now ending - about $2 trillion in mortgages are coming due for rate increases in the next couple months, maybe 15% of those people will be out of their homes. Last bubbles were the Gulf State markets. Who is next? Two hottest emerging markets have been Moscow and Mumbai or Bombay, also Turkey. Putin called attention to the fact that a bubble was forming in the Russian markets, and they are afraid of this, since the Russian middle class has been wiped out twice already, once by shock therapy and a second time by bankruptcies.

The Iranian Oil Bourse would be the first time since 1945 people that could trade oil in a currency other than the dollar. It is scheduled to open on Monday. There is a tremendous information blackout by the Anglo Americans and others making it hard to find out what is going on. An article on March 6 said there would be an oil bourse in May. A Canadian article says it won’t open until June. Suspicious is that it is slanted against conspiracy theorists. Quotes Ahmed Samanipour that it opens in the middle of 2006. We’re in a climate of tremendous disinformation. The US and UK would like to have financial sanctions on Iran and their military option already in place. The Bourse will be located on an island called Kish in the Persian Gulf which is a tax haven.

I would appeal to any one in the audience who can read Persian to monitor the Iranian press and see what you can find and send it to me. Callers welcome at 800 - 313 9443 - World Crisis Radio.

On the Internet you can find a couple authors who understand the point of the Iranian Oil Bourse, like Wm. Clark who pointed out earlier that Saddam Hussein had dumped the dollar, so have Syria, North Korea, and also Venezuela has its ways around. More recently Krassimir Petrov, these are writers who are widely cited who get it. Others don’t. Like William Engdahl, whom I know very well, who has put out an essay saying that the IOB can’t break the buck because if anyone tries to replace the $ as a reserve currency there will be military retaliation like WW3. Of course that’s what’s happening. Another one, John Berthelson, of Asia Times, says the Oil Bourse is not a thing that will break the dollar, it’s the deficit. But it’s both, and the Bourse is the thing that makes it possible for people to get out of the dollar.

For those who say it’s not here yet, markets price events in advance, and the stock market factors in this threat to the US dollar.

Caller, Matthew from Texas: I agree with most of what you say, about the trade deficit, beginning with commodities trading etc, but I wanted to comment on the Euro conversion is it not so much a product of political negotiations behind the scene as an inevitable result of globalization and increases in technology and ability of different states to compete with their monetary policy. We will see any state of moderate size begin to trade on their own. It’s been coming for such a long time. If it’s not so much inside politics as globalization?

Tarpley: I’m an enemy of globalization - it’s a euphemism for the world economic depression that we’ve had since the 90’s, the destruction of the Russian economy etc. The absurd role of the dollar has to come to an end in one way or another. The neo-cons will destroy it even more by their wars. I recommend a peaceful solution of fixed parities, phase out derivatives, a reality principle of gold settlement so nobody can run a trillion dollar deficit like the US.

I would look to the Bretton Woods system of 1944 - not perfect but it gave us record growth rates, the World New Deal. But take out the IMF and the World Bank, these destructive institutions, and make the principle development and increased living standards, not the rule of capital.

Last time I said the death of Milosevic was a warning to Russia. Evidence is coming out that he was murdered. There is a letter from Milosevic saying that he is being poisoned. I’m not standing up for him as what he was, a chauvinist, but here he was a helpless person who had been kidnapped and now apparently murdered. The Russians do not believe the Dutch autopsy and the media there are going wild. It’s the thumb in the eye to the Russians who are trying to mediate the Iran crisis without getting involved themselves.

Milosevic complained of being poisoned and asked to be taken to Moscow for treatment, the request was denied.

Another setback for Russia. Putin went to Algeria last week hoping to sell a big arms deal in return for canceling Soviet-era debt. But the sale turned out to be much smaller. He was supposed to stay two days and left after a couple hours. One faction there wants to join NATO, like the dangerous Bouteflika group. Interestingly, the Algerians did get the loan cancellation.

Scandal in England - loans for peerages. All you had to do was put money into the Blair Labor Party treasury - arranged by Lord Michael Levy, known as Lord Cashpoint in the London tabloids. He is also Blair’s link to Netanyahu and Sharon.

A year after election of the new pope we see factions developing in the Vatican, an ecumenical one, with one spokesman who is open to the Koran being taught in schools, and the other side, with a cardinal who came out if support of Alito for the Supreme Court.

[Classical music opens second hour]

Caller: how do you see exchange rate between Icelandic krona and dollar?

WGT: I can’t predict that, it’s just a sign, a tremor, of a world crisis. Like the Asian contagion in 1978. This time I think it will kick in even more openly as a dollar crisis.

Caller: Will the Icelandic krona strengthen against the dollar?

WGT: I don’t want to predict that. I’m looking at the larger picture, not the details of exactly how the crisis will work itself out, that’s impossible, there will be government support for currency. This is a harbinger.

Fritz in Florida: How can I call you? Is there a phone number?
WGT: Go to my website. There is a mailing address there. You can read my analysis of the gold crisis of September 1931. I’m not set up to take phone calls yet.

Now Phil Berg is a former assistant attorney general of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a well-known figure in the 9/11 Truth movement. He attended the 9/11 truth event in Cork Ireland and then went on the Axis of Peace meeting in Brussels. He is suing the government with a RICO suit.
Phil, you are taking this federal law originally coined for going after mafia bigwigs and using it to go after Bush.

Phil Berg: RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It was created by Congress in the 1960’s to go after the mob. We have a mob in the White House. With RICO you need to show involvement before, during and after. We are claiming that Bush had foreknowledge of 9/11, during and after. There is no question. Bush and his cronies knew it would happen, or let it happen, or made it happen. Either way they are guilty. We now know that the technology our government had in 2001 was such that they had to know about 9/11 before.

Bush and Cheney fought the creation of a 9/11 commission. If they had nothing to hide why did they fight a commission? $65 million was spent on the question if Clinton had sex. The 9/11 commission had only $15 million and a deadline. They didn’t take real testimony. They didn’t question Bush and Cheney separately to see if their testimonies coincide.

My client William Rodriguez testified before the 9/11 commission and none of his testimony was in the report. He testified that he heard explosions in the building and that is crucial.

WGT - William Rodriguez was a custodial employee of the North Tower - could you go into more detail about the chronology of what he witnessed? Of course all of this tends to overthrow the official version.

Phil Berg: Willie had worked at the Towers for 20 years. His job was to ensure the elevators worked. He was late that day which is lucky or he would have been in the top of the building. He was in the basement and they heard a huge explosion and a person came out with blood dripping all over the body. This was before the first plane hit. He went up in the building so firemen could open doors to rescue people. On one floor he heard all kind of movement behind closed doors which concerned him.

After the plane hit he was the last person out and was able to survive by diving under a fire truck. By him being alive he can testify to the explosion in the basement. I just got a call the other day from another man who heard the explosions before the planes hit.

If you dropped a ball off the side of the WTC it would drop in 9.8 seconds. The buildings also fell in 9.8 seconds. If you want to believe what the government wants us to, the pancake theory, it would take a couple minutes even if each floor took only one second to give way. Also if you see original footage, you can see explosions.

That huge fireball you see that was fuel oil. The second building that was hit was the first one to drop. Firemen who are under a gag order saw the explosions. that is why we believe they dropped the south tower first. In the afternoon Larry Silverstein said on WTC 7, pull the building - they used controlled demolition. Also the material was pulverized. That could not occur just from coming down by a pancake effect. Also each one of these towers had 47 steel columns. So it should have pancaked around the center columns leaving them up in the sky. The debris was only a few stories high. If it had pancaked like they said instead of being pulverized it should have been 20 stories high.

WGT: Phil, if I’ve understood, Wm Rodriguez' eyewitness testimony is concurrent with controlled demolition. And the South Tower, the fires were going out, and the reason they brought it down first, if the fires went out it would be hard to make people believe...

Phil Berg: Firemen reported there were just two fires left and they were under control in the South Tower. WTC7 also doesn’t make sense. My feeling is that it was supposed to be hit by another plane. There were 7 planes in the air off course. Before the North and South Towers came down, there were seismic recordings, evidence of explosions just before the buildings came down. No one has touched this, not Morgenthau, not Spitzer, none of them has called for an investigation. And I was with you at the conference and I agree we need an independent commission

John in California: This is a great subject. Mr. Berg, I would just like to underscore your point on WTC7, it’s well known and a matter of record that Mr. Silverstein did make that comment “let’s pull it” and what else could that mean but a controlled demolition, how could they enact that controlled demolition so fast, if you go to these companies, it takes with people who are experienced, several weeks or several months. Well if they did it for WTC 7, what about WTC1 and 2?

Phil Berg: Thank you. Wherever I go I ask people if they believe the story of 9/11 and 90% of them say no. There’s no free press in our country. Because the press is owned by several corporations. It’s outrageous and we have to spread the word and I’m very thankful to be here today, we need to spread the word and take what people know and demand an investigation. It’s outrageous that even independents and Democrats have allowed Bush to take credit for 9/11 when he was behind it.

We had a conference at the trial of Moussaoui where they say he knew what would happen and didn’t tell, and I’m saying if he is guilty so are Bush and Cheney.

John: and all the people who tried to be whistleblowers, Sibel Edmonds, Colleen Rowley -

Does Mr. Berg know of any effort - is there a summary of all the things that the federal government is holding back, gagging witnesses, cameras, not even going into satellite photos. Last summer the NYT came out with some FDNY testimony, there are others that you are saying are still under a gag order. Also what about Ellen Mariani.

Phil Berg: I guess it would be helpful but the issue is they’ve hardly divulged anything. Like the Pentagon, it has to be one of the most secure buildings in the world. They only had one camera and only release 5 frames from it? The employees were actually watching the tape in the hotel across the street and that tape was taken by the FBI and never seen again. Perhaps one could make a list. With Mariani, Ellen had some personal issues with family and did not want to go ahead. I found someone who put me in touch with Rodriguez, it was going to be Mariani and Rodriguez but we couldn’t go further with her. The government put in a motion to dismiss but it was transferred, now it is under another motion to dismiss. David Ray Griffin said my lawsuit could be the key to expose the entire 9/11 report was a phony.

WGT: Your suit is the only live legal action pending on 9/11.

Phil Berg: That’s right, except there is a suit in NY about personal damages from the smoke. The EPA came up there a few days after and said the air was safe to breathe. Workers are still dying from that. It’s another blatant lie. The judge chastised them for that and allowed discovery in that which is a major thing. If we can get discovery in this case you’ll see people coming like fireflies, and we‘ll see a major break in the lies about 9/11.

Caller - is it true there was an unusually large amount of short positions taken on the airlines before 9/11?

Phil Berg: There was a huge amount of puts. You can hide where it comes from but it can always be traced.

WGT: The Kean-Hamilton commission starts out begging the question from the premise that is was al Qaeda and they say we investigated the shorts and they had no connection to al Qaeda.

Caller - Is it possible the records of those transaction were in WTC7?

Phil Berg: Yes, but they would have been also elsewhere. Larry Silverstein made out like a bandit. On WTC7 he got more than twice what it was worth.

Caller Did he have special insurance on that? What about the story that the buildings could have been wired for demolition when they were built?

Phil Berg: It doesn’t make sense that buildings were prewired when they were built. Chemicals change their characteristics over time. And who’d want to work in a building that was wired to explode.

Caller - Would it be possible if the insurance companies were the ones who executed the short sales?

Phil Berg: - It’s possible. Its traceable. Just to say not connected to al Qaeda is laughable. I saw where Bin Laden was watching it and he was smiling when the planes hit but he was shocked when they fell. Later he took credit for it. See my website, 911forthetruth.com

We refer to Operation Northwoods, this is very significant. 1962, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the heads of the military, they were going to injure and kill American citizens to go to war with Cuba. JFK said no. Take that document and take out the word Cuba and put in Afghanistan and Iraq and you’ve got 9/11.

Caller: Follow the money trail.

Phil Berg: Afghanistan has 90% of the world’s opium. Money’s being made by high up people from drugs.

Caller. I’ve heard the drug trade has gone up 500%. The Taliban had tried to cut back, they were Islamic.

WGT: Taliban tried to corner the drug trade.

Caller from Ohio: Do you think Spitzer and Fitzgerald are holding back on everything they have?

Phil Berg: I think Spitzer yeah, Fitzgerald I don’t think so, maybe he’ll get to that, but 9/11 wasn’t his brief. Spitzer yes, there is a demonstration outside his office this week, he and Morgenthau could have investigated that.

Caller - That engine that was found in lower Manhattan, anybody from 9/11 scholars heard about that?

WGT - I’ve heard about some landing gear, or rotary pieces.

Caller - I do have a picture.

Phil Berg: - Send it on and we'll send it to the scholars.

WGT - The question of what hit the towers is more and more open as the years go on. It’s a hypothesis in crisis. It’s clear it was not a commercial airplane that hit the towers and the same in Shanksville. What is the status of your lawsuit?

Phil Berg: It’s pending in the 7th district in NY and I’m hoping we can get some media attention on it. I think it’s the most important case in history

WGT - You’ve said we need a 9/11 Deep Throat.

Phil Berg - We need the Deep Throat of 9/11, who has more facts than we do. People say so many people would have to know. Maybe not. Head of the the security firm at the WTC was Bush’s brother. Perhaps the UN General Assembly should get involved here. People from 88 countries died in the WTC. People in Europe - 98% believe G Bush and his gang did this thing. Wherever I am I ask people do you think the government said the truth about 9/11. They don’t but people are afraid. Once you’re afraid of government you’re lost. This administration has done more to take away individual rights than any other in 125 years.

WGT - Feingold’s censure resolution is useless if it doesn’t mention 9/11.

Phil Berg - What are the Democrats ducking? 3000 people wore murdered and they use this as jumpoff point for war on Iraq and it’s outrageous.

Smith in Texas: There was a place where they held the gold bullion under one of those towers, and Greenspan was on his way to Switzerland the day before. Did he take it with him?

Phil Berg: I heard they did retrieve it afterwards but I’m not sure.

WGT. Some of this belonged to the Fed. There was some at the bottom of the pile.

Phil Berg: What we can do. Call your newspapers, call your colleges, have individuals like us two or others come and speak to the students. We have to try now to mobilize all the people who question 9/11. We know the official story was a lie, that we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan and Iraq. so many legitimate questions. We’re not trying to take away from anyone. We have an obligation for the memory of the victims to find out the truth about 9/11.

WGT - Yes and we need the IITC, the Independent International Truth Commission, no investigation by any agency of the US government is going to cut the mustard. Needs to be on the model of the Russell Sartre tribunal in 1967 which undercut the Vietnam war. A commission which would hear the detail questions. I see what you are doing as a way to get the IITC off the ground.

What did you find at the Moussaoui trial?

Phil Berg:. After we left you we went in, they didn’t even let you keep a cell phone, we tried to get passes, but they were not going to let us into the courtroom.

Goodbyes and Thank yous.
Authors on the Radio

Progressive Press Home