Standard Chartered Takes Sides with $250 billion against America?

by Kevin D. Freeman on August 6, 2012

There is a story out today about how Standard Chartered allegedly hid $250 billion in 60,000 transactions with Iran that could have been used to fund nuclear development or even terror activities. This story, if true, blows away the arguments that no one would work against U.S. interests in the financial realm. The size and volume of the transactions is extraordinary. And, the investigation uncovered an attitude that is clearly against American interests. If all of this is true, we hope that it will wake up regulators to even more serious vulnerabilities in our system. Remember, we documented how a single one billion transaction roiled our Treasury markets a little over a year ago. These transactions total a quarter-trillion dollars!

We have pointed out the extraordinary arrogance contained in the idea that the world’s financial system is U.S. centric. In fact, in our previous post on this subject, Our Paper or Their Oil, we said the following:

A high-stakes drama is playing out now between the United States and Iran.On this blog, in our book Secret Weapon, in speeches and media interviews, we  have been warning about the reality of global economic warfare. For several years, our government has ignored this reality. The good news is that just recently the government has begun to recognize economic weaponry. The bad news is that the government has approached the subject with typical American arrogance. The worse news is that we may all be hurt as a result.

The economic weapon the government is using against Iran is sadly exposing our greatest vulnerability. In essence, to punish Iran for continued nuclear development, we have threatened to deprive them access to the U.S. dollar. That is a serious threat and has serious implications for the domestic Iranian economy. The problem is that at the end of the day, the world may prefer to have their oil rather than our paper . . .

Given the global situation, do we remain so arrogant as to believe that the world prefer’s American paper to oil from any source? At a minimum, we know that the amount of American paper available (whether in the form of currency or Treasury debt) has and continues to grow exponentially while the amount of available oil reserves are reasonably stagnant (at least by comparison). Add to this the fact that oil has enormous use and the demand for it will grow markedly over the long term. As for American paper? Nearly every major nation of the world including our best trading partners have begun to question (some publicly, some privately) its long-term usefulness.

Here’s an interesting article from a clearly non-American perspective:  http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/sandbox/how-iran-changed-world?

Here is a UK view: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Iran-presses-ahead-with-dollar-attack

Read the two articles carefully. Then step back and ask yourself this simple question:  At the end of the day, which will win, our paper or their oil?

There should be no doubt. We are in the midst of a Global Economic War as we have been warning. Unfortunately, because of our arrogance, we are fighting back with paper weapons. This is Phase Three as explained in the book Secret Weapon. Learn more at www.secretweapon.org.

The news from Standard Chartered, a British-based multinational bank operating in 70 countries, provides a decent proxy of world opinion. The primary reason that the world continues to deal with Iran is that they have Oil. We are fighting with paper. Here is a telling quote from the CNBC story:

Regulators, quoting a New York bank branch officer, said the group director replied: “You f—ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians.”

Here are important quotes from the New York Times story:

The bank “left the U.S. financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes,” the agency said in an order sent to the bank Monday …

The department accused the bank of undermining the safety of New York’s financial system through a range of violations including “falsifying business records” and “obstructing governmental administration,” according to the order.

Suspecting that Iranian banks were using their financial institutions to finance its nuclear weapons program, the United States Treasury Department banned certain transactions between Iranian banks and United States financial institutions in 2008.

The accusations are the latest to strike British banks. In July, a United States Senate panel found that HSBC was used by Iranians looking to evade sanctions and by Mexican drug cartels to funnel money back into the United States.

Together, the allegations raise concerns that there is a broader pattern of illegal money freely flowing into the United States through international financial institutions.

In the Standard Chartered investigation, the order said that the bank’s management created a formalized operating manual that showed staff members how to strip off any information from the transactions that might tie them to the sanctioned Iranian institution.

The order says that executives at Standard Chartered sidelined concerns raised by its management in the United States, company e-mails show.

Make no mistake, this is a global economic war. The international financial system is not serving American interests and as we have proven can be used as a weapon in the global economic war (see www.SecretWeapon.org). Sadly, this is a shock to most Americans.

Here are links to articles that describe the Standard Chartered investigation:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48530053

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/business/standard-chartered-bank-accused-of-hiding-transactions-with-iranians.html

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