From: "James M. Cobb" <jcobb@ahcbsd1.ovnet.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 95 21:40:17 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: No Privacy Right in the Americas ?
Message-ID: <Pine.BSD.3.91.951204003918.13763D-100000@ahcbsd1.ovnet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


 
 
Friend, 
 
 
A 12 02 95 Bloomberg newsstory is headlined: 
 
     Latin American nations will help U.S. combat 
                 money laundering 
 
 
The newsstory's datelined: 
 
       BUENOS AIRES (Dec 2, 1995 - 16:38 EST) 
 
 
It reports: 
 
   A communique issued after a two-day meeting of ministers 
   and anti-drug officials from throughout the Americas said 
   countries had agreed to...establish systems to identify 
   transfers and deposits that could be linked to illegal 
   activities. 
 
 
Please note: NOT transfers and deposits that 
 
                    are so linked 
 
but t & d's that 
  
                  COULD BE so linked, 
 
                        and 
 
                      seized ! 
 
 
Perhaps that's why US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin exclaimed 
 
     ...this conference was an enormous step forward. 
 
 
In particular, 
 
   Countries in the region were encouraged to follow the U.S. 
   lead in setting up organizations which use computerized 
   technology to search data bases for suspicious transactions, 
   said Rubin. 
 
 
Such organizations can be distant, official organizations or 
they can be neighborhood, job-creating, community-aware, entre- 
preneurial blessings.  Anyway you like it ! 
 
One selling-point at the conference: 
 
   Crime organizations such as the Yakuza in Japan, the Col- 
   ombian drug cartels and the Italian mafia depend on money 
   laundering to place their gains beyond the reach of the 
   law.
 
 
Rubin summed up the point: 
 
       Profits that can't be spent aren't profits. 
 
 
He would have us believe he doesn't know where to shop. 
 
The illegals can spend profits on neighborhood troops, troops 
armed --one way or another-- by the world's most successful 
arms supplier. 
 
The advantage to that supplier?  It keeps 
 
    all 34 [minus 1] democratic governments in the region 
 
destabilized --amenable to penetration by money bags who know 
how to thrive in managed chaos-- ; and still dependent on arms 
from the "distant," official supplier. 
 
The advantage to the money bags?  It diverts "profits that 
can't be spent" from directly competing with them. 
 
The advantage to the illegals?  Neighborhood troops protect 
turf and provide inexpensive medical treatment for those with 
complaints. 
 
The advantage to the politicos?  Low intensity warfare keeps 
government troops busy doing something besides staging coups. 
 
Managed chaos?  Like the Buenos Aires conference which 
 
    ...emerged from [Clinton's] Summit of the Americas held 
    in Miami a year ago.
 
 
Right to privacy?  But of course.  From scheming in Miami to 
"profits that can't be spent" coverup in Buenos Aires to "we 
don't do that anymore" death squads in any of the 34. 
 
               "But I meant, for the people." 
 
               "You mean you have a complaint?" 
 
 
Cordially, 
 
Jim 
 
 
NOTE.  The Nando Times website URL is: 
 
             http://www.nando.net 
 
       The online filename of the above newsstory is: 
 
                biz634_2.html