American International Group (AIG) was
rescued by the Fed
yesterday with a $85 Billion loan. As always, when you're talking about conspiracy theories, follow the money. While looking into exactly what AIG
was I ran into some pretty shocking accusations.
It started with a news article from back in 2000 that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Read the full article below for a better picture, but here
are a few highlights from the story.
The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men
They knew which factories to burn, which bridges to blow up, which cargo ships could be sunk in good conscience. They had pothole counts for roads
used for invasion and head counts for city blocks marked for incineration.
They weren’t just secret agents. They were secret insurance agents. These undercover underwriters gave their World War II spymasters access to a
global industry that both bankrolled and, ultimately, helped bring down Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.
The men behind the insurance unit were OSS head William “Wild Bill” Donovan and California-born insurance magnate Cornelius V. Starr.
Starr died in 1968, but his empire endures. AIG is the biggest foreign insurance company in Japan. More than a third of its $40 billion in revenue
last year came from the Far East theater that Starr helped carpet bomb and liberate.
Funny I never thought of insurance companies making money from war, but it really does make sense. The higher the risk of things being blown to little
bits, the higher the insurance premium paid. Also, it's obvious that insurance companies might know war strategy ahead of time if they're asked to
increase insurance or shift policy detials to cover a new suspected risk.
Just to show you how central that AIG is to the U.S. government look no further than former AIG Board Chairman
Maurice Greenberg who was hand-picked by AIG founder Cornelius Starr to run the North
American portion of AIG. What else did Greenberg have his hands in. He was on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, Chairman of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and was offered the job of Deputy Director of the CIA during the Reagan administration. (Which he turned down)
That's a lot of pull for just one individual to have.
Looking further I found hints of AIG's involvement in the
Arkansas Whitewater scandal that
involved the Clintons. I'm sure an entire series or rabbit trails exist if you followed that path. Some of this is speculation but it's probably
worth reading and looking into.
Whitewater, The Federal Reserve, and The C.I.A.
Arkansas Development Finance Authority and Sanwa Bank shared a deal
with Coral Reinsurance of the Barbados. Coral's main customer was
American International Group AIG.
In just a few weeks, AIG reportedly ran 450 million dollars through the
Barbados front.
Now for my favorite little piece of information (if it's true). Let's go back to the first summary where I stated that insurance companies stand to
make barrels of money during war time and their fore-knowledge of information in what's going on. At Online Journal Jerry Mazza's discussion of his
entry
9/11 and the Greenberg Familia where he points out that AIG's (possible)
involvement in the 9/11 attacks is quite interesting. The first point I noticed was that AIG had sold off the majority of their risk in the World
Trade Centers to their competition before 9/11.
Answering the mail re: Greenberg & AIG
"(4) AIG was NOT the main insurer of the WTC. Chubb, Zurich Swiss re., St Paul and CAN were."
Ah yes, Mr. Smith, but only because AIG/Marsh sold the risk and reinsurance to their competition. Take a look at pages 5-6 from the 30-page Morgan
Stanley Special Report on 9/11 (September 17, 2001), that proves Buffett et al stood to gain . . .
"Even [after losses of $800 million] A.I.G. would turn a profit of several hundred million dollars for the quarter"
I thought that this was odd at first. AIG actually made a large profit after 9/11? Then my mind flashed back to the La Times article and it fit
together. If the world was a terrible place full of terrorism and war it would be much more profitable for an insurance company than a peaceful world.
AIG could now charge higher rates for insurance and the masses would come crawling to them begging to be insured. Step 1. Create the problem. Step 2.
Create the solution. Step 3. Profit.
Since 9/11 there have been a few major attacks such as in Spain and London. Not so much that AIG would have to pay out billions and billions in
settlements, but enough to keep premiums up and enough to keep a line of people at their door begging for insurance.
Of course some of this appears to be pure speculation, but is it really? It's not an impossible scenario is it? AIG tied to the CIA, drug money,
terrorism, and greedy politicians. That's quite a tale. As for why they're in the tank right now. I suppose someone got greedy. We already know that
Greenberg was forced out of the company and 3 other top execs. were canned after they took the Fifth during questioning.
So the Fed lets Lehman collapse, but bails out AIG. Is AIG an intelligence front, a war chest revenue stream, or maybe just controlled by bureaucrats?
Who knows. I just wondered if anyone else was curious about all of this.
[edit on 17-9-2008 by dbates]