Received: from uchimvs1.uchicago.edu by zaphod.uchicago.edu (5.59/4.7) id AA00905; Fri, 2 Nov 90 11:03:59 CST Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 11:03:59 CST From: ACTIV-L%UMCVMB.BITNET@UCHIMVS1.UChicago.EDU Message-Id: <9011021703.AA00905@zaphod.uchicago.edu> Received: (from UMCVMB.BITNET for via BSMTP) Received: (from MAILER@UMCVMB for MAILER@UCHIMVS1 via NJE) Apparently-To: (M-MAILER-2967; 98 LINES); Fri, 02 Nov 90 11:05:33 CST Received: by UMCVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 8964; Fri, 02 Nov 90 10:43:53 CDT Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 10:38:04 CDT Reply-To: Rich Winkel UMC Math Department Sender: Activists Mailing List From: Rich Winkel UMC Math Department Subject: CIA, Mafia, S&L's To: Harel Barzilai The following was recently posted to POLITICS@UCF1VM. Reproduced with permission. ---------------- >From today's Collegiate Times, by Stephen Foster REPORTER SUGGESTS TIES CIA, Mafia linked to savings and loans scandal The current savings and loan debacle is riddled with links to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, organized crime and high government officials, a Houston journalist said Monday in a speech at the Donald- son Brown Center for Continuing Education Auditorium. Pete Brewton, in a presentation sponsored by the Virginia Tech Student Coalition for Justice in Central America, detailed the three- year investigation into numerous failed savings and loans programs that he reported for the _Houston Post_. His speech centered on the federal government's and major news- papers' failure to investigate the CIA/crime link or "the big picture," as he called it repeatedly. "I don't think Congress is going to track the money because they're too afraid some of it's going to end up on their back door," Brewton said. Boundaries mean nothing when searching for involvement in political parties, he said. "Nobody wants to do the hard work," he said. "The press is going to have to get it out." The failure of national newspapers such as _The Washington Post_, the _New York Times_ and the _Wall Street Journal_ to pursue the story stems from "pride, arrogance and laziness" and a desire to break their own stories, Brewton said. "The _Wall Street Journal_ ought to be raked over the coals," he said. Brewton called recent media coverage of the situation "hand- out reporting." Brewton linked Mafia names such as New York's Gambino family and a host of lesser-known names to individuals such as William Casey, the former director of the CIA, George Bush Jr. and Neal Bush, who is cur- rently under investigation for his role in the savings and loan scandal. Evidence unearthed in the investigation also points to links with the Iran Contra scandal, gunrunning and drug smuggling operations, he said. Brewton's articles first began appearing in February 1990, when he received an anonymous tip about Mainland Savings in Houston and the dealings of a reputed crime figure, Mario Renda, in its activities. The organized crime influence surprised Brewton, he said, because "the Mafia aren't supposed to be in Texas...the land of good ol' boys." The tip led to another reputed crime figure, Herman K. Beebe, who financed purchases of savings and loans institutions, Brewton said. Lloyd Monroe, who worked the Justice Department's organized crime strike force, and who investigated both Renda and another figure in the scandal, Farhad Azima, "kept saying there was something else there that was missing," Brewton said. Brewton's best sources, he said, were members of the organized crime strike force, "who knew what was going on and were reporting it to their superiors, but nothing was happening." The information was being stopped in "the never-never land before top bureaucrats," Brewton said. Brewton's reporting led him to evidence of CIA connections to both Renda and Azima, he said. "Lloyd Monroe said, 'The CIA has told us not to investigate Farhad,'" Brewton said. "In the words of the FBI, Azima has a get-out-of-jail- free card." Brewton's reporting led him to investigate other savings and loans associations in Texas, Florida, California and Pennsylvania - 22 asso- ciations in all. He said the major problem in discovering facts on the issue lies within the Right to Financial Privacy Act, which forbids most savings and loans documents from being seen. "The public can't get to it," he said. "We need to get people with subpoena power to track where the money went," he said, "but the Justice Department and Congress have not shown any interest." The American public is either not aware or doesn't care about the situation Brewton said. "If people were handed a check for $3,000, there'd be rioting in the streets." Brewton said the $150 billion needed to repay savings and loan investors, "will be slipped to us quietly so we won't feel it." "The key question is where did the money go and what was it used for," he said. "I'm not to optimistic about finding out." -------- /~\ ---- Todd Pukanecz ---- ---- CCCS@VTVM1 ---- ----- / > --- Ag. Econ. DPL --- "A policeman isn't there to --- /\_ / @ \ -- Virginia Tech -- create disorder. He's there - /________________> - Blacksburg VA - to preserve disorder."