Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 10, Number 32, August 23, 1983

Kissinger Asso ciates' conflict of interest in Central America

by Joseph Brewda

He stands to make a killing in Central America. His resume partners who, along with Kissinger, include: of current financial dealings with that region show him to be • Lord Peter Carrington�hainnan, The General in violation of the "conflict-of-interest" ethics treasured by Electric Company, Ltd.; former foreign secretary, Great U.S. Senators and Watergaters. 's policies Britain; former chairman, Australia and New Zealand Bank; of genocide aside, the wealth he will gain for himself by former director. Barclays Bank, Rio Tinto Zinc, Hambros imposing those policies as appointed chairman of the Presi­ Bank, and British Metal Corporation. dent's Bipartisan Commissionon Central America make him • Pehr Gustaf Gyllenhammer�hairman, Volvo; ineligible for that position-by all standards of American chairman, Swedish Ships Morgage Bank; director, Skandia political propriety. Insurance; member, Chase International Advi­ At present, Kissinger, who was required to formally dis­ sory Committee. affiliate himself from his corporate holdings while Secretary • Robert O. Anderson�hairman, Atlantic Richfield; of State, retains the following paid positions with agencies chairman, Aspen Institute. with vested interests in Central America: • Thomas Jefferson Cunningham III-secretary, Kis­ • Kissinger Associates-·partner; singer Associates; former president, Orion Bank's London • Chase Manhattan Bank�ounselor and former chair­ branch. (The now disbanded Orion was a consortium of Chase man, InternationalAdvisory Committee; Manhattan, Royal Bank of Canada, National Westminster, • Goldman, Sachs & Company-adviser; Mitsubishi Bank, Credito Italiano Holdings, and West­ • National Broadcasting Company-special consultant, deutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.) world affairs and; • Gen. Brent Scowcroft�hairman, Scowcroft Com­ • Rockefeller Brothers Foundation-trustee. mission; International Six. Inc. Aside from these oftenlucrative positions, Henry Kissin­ • William D. Rogers--partner, Arnold and Porter; for­ ger is the official agent of each of the following organizations mer assistant secretary of state for Latin America; former which orchestrate policy affecting Central America, includ­ undersecretary of state for Economic Affairs; attorney for ing debt collection policy, providing him with financial Kissinger Associates; attorney for Henry Kissinger; good­ benefit: offices-agent of U . S. Senate on Panama Canal treaty nego­ • Foreign Policy Institute-director; tiations; President Carter's 1980 emissary to EI Salvador. • Aspen Institute-senior fellow; • New York Council on Foreign Relations-member, Arnold and Porter former chairman; The leading law firm of the Harriman wing of the Dem­ • Trilateral Commission-member, former chairman, ocratic Party, Arnold and Porter, is more than counselor for and; Kissinger Associates and Henry Kissinger himself. The • Center for Strategic and International Studies­ Washington-based firm has admitted its close financial ties counselor. to Kissinger Associates, whose clients, Arnold and Porter has acknowledged, are many of the same which are serviced Kissinger Associates by Arnoldand Porter. It is by examining the consulting firm Kissinger formed In 1981, Arnold and Porter was the registered foreign last year that the conflict of interest in Kissinger's appoint­ agent, under the provisions of the Foreign Registration Act, ment becomes most obvious. Kissinger Associates partners for the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. According to have admitted that the firm specializes in Ibero-America and the Department of Justice, and as acknowledged by Arnold maintains particular expertise on questions of the debt crisis. and Porter, the law firm "advised the principal [Nicaragua] While Kissinger Associates keeps secret the list of its clients­ on U.S. laws, regulations and policies, arms exports [not who reportedly pay $250,000 for the prospect of being con­ imports], and trusts and estates. Registrant represented the sidered-the consulting firm does business on behalf of its principal in connection with U. S. legal proceedings against

56 National EIR August 23, 1983 © 1983 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. Nicaraguan nationals and negotiations over a disputed con­ Ginsburg, Feldman, Weil & Bress tract. " For the period of employment from January to August This firm was represented by Arnold and Porter when 1981 , Arnold and Porter was paid $126,765. charged with securities fraud. David Ginsburg, senior part­ It is not clear whether Kissinger Associates partner Rog­ ner of the firm, is a frequent attorney for Henry Kissinger. ers was formally involved in representing the Sandinistas, Arnold and Porter client Myer Feldman of Ginsburg, although it is likely since representing Latin American states Feldman et al., a mover on the Democratic National Com­ is his expertise at Arnoldand Porter. During the same period, mittee, has been the long-time attorneyfor Armand Hammer Rogers was an attorneyfor , for which the firmalso had and Occidental Petroleum. He introduced Hammer to Lyn­ to register with the Department of Justice. Rogers represent­ don Johnson, when Feldman was LBJ's special counsel. ed the Israeli Corporation for Economic Development; Ar­ Feldman later represented Hammer when Hammer was suc­ nold and Porter was paid $77,000 for Rogers's work-alleg­ cessfully prosecuted for giving an illegal con­ edly for advising the Israelis on irrigation and television tribution through Bebe Rebozo. Like Ginsburg et aI., Arnold development. Israel is known to have supplied 100 percent and Porter is also the law firm for Occidental Petroleum. of the arms reaching Nicaragua immediately prior to the Kissinger Associates partner William Rogers personally Israeli-orchestrated overthrow of Somoza. handles the Occidental account, which provides ties to the Qaddafi Libyan governmentand perhaps the Hammer-linked Among Arnold and Porter's other clients are: Charter Oil of Billygate fame. • The American Jewish Committee of Max Fisher. Fish­ Ginsburg and Feldman attorney James Hamilton is spe­ er is former head of United Brands (previously known as cial counsel for the Albosta subcommittee investigation of United Fruit), whose policies gave Central American nations Reagan in the U. S. Senate which was instrumental in getting the "banana republics" epithet. United Brands has repeated Kissinger back in power. Hamilton was formerly the attorney been accused of massive smuggling of illegal drugs from for Marina Oswald. Central America into the . Ginsburg, Feldman, Weil & Bress was the registered • The government of Venezuala. In 1980 William D. foreign agent for the government of Morocco at least as late Rogers and two of his partners at Arnold and Porter repre­ as 1981. During 1981 Ginsburg et al. was paid $250,000for sented Venezuala as external bond counsel. Rogers secured "advising the principal on U.S. policies affecting Morocco a $1.8 billion syndicated Eurodollar bond offering to Vene­ and on potential U.S. investors, discussing foreign invest­ zuala, and in 1982 Rogers secured another $600 million from ment in Morocco with representatives of the Overseas Private the same sources. The firm also represents the Venezualan Investment Corporation and the Department of Commerce government on tax questions and Petroleos de Venezuala, and meeting with a State Department offical on the status of the state-owned oil firm. U.S.-Moroccan relations and U.S. economic assistance • The finance ministry of Brazil. Arnold and Porter part­ programs." ner Joseph Guttentag represents the ministry on tax and re­ During 1981, Kissinger intimate and case officeron Cen­ lated questions. Chase Manhattan, which Kissinger advises tral America Vernon Walters was paid $300,000by Envir­ on internationalloans, holds more than $5 billion in loans to nomental Systems Inc. of Alexandria, Virgina for his arrang­ Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. ing the sale of tanks and laser tank rangefinders to the gov­ • The World Bank, sister agency of the International ernment of Morocco. According to various sources, these Monetary Fund, whose austerity conditionalities are impos­ tanks were bound for Morocco only as a transhipment point. ing genocide on Ibero-America. It is known that Israeli arms for Central America frequently • The government of Switzerland and leading Swiss banks are shipped through Morroco. Walters has long had close ties involved in Ibero-American finance. Bank Julius and Baer to the Moroccan government and King Hassan. Walters left and Co., Switzerland's largest private bank, and Banque his position with Environmental Systems and the Nicara­ Populaire Suisse, Switzerland's fourth largest bank. guan-based Basic Resources to become U.S. ambassador-at­ • The government of Panama. large with assignments in Central America. • Xerox, whose former board chairman, Sol Linowitz, Although not ultimately controlled by the Rockefeller also has extensive investments in Panama and is close to interests, Henry Kissinger has long been in the pay of those Kissinger. interests, who are known to view Ibero-America as their • The London Sunday Times. Rogers negotiated for the backyard. Aside from the other positions he holds as a result Times with the Argentinian government following the Mal­ of David and Nelson Rockefeller's patronage, Kissinger is vinas War for the release of three British nationals arrested trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for espionage while in Argentina during that war. The Times which is chaired by former Treasury Secretary D. Douglas claimed that the nationals were its correspondents. Dillon. The museum, along with the Rockefeller Brothers • Fairchild Camera, a military-related subsidiary of Fund and Chase Manhattan, is a long-term owner of the' Schlumberger, Ltd., involved in Israel's Lavie Project to Carlyle Hotel of New York. Certain transactions in the rooms enable' Israel to militarily secure dommation of African of that hotel have furthered Kissinger's financial and other resources. positions.

EIR August 23, 1983 National 57