In the last eighteen months a previously unheard of action group has emerged onto the scene to dominate the front pages of the world’s financial press. They are an independent group of financial experts called the Gold Anti-Trust Action group, or "GATA."

From a slow beginning they have gathered a head of steam that has begun to rock the financial establishment of the entire world. The members of GATA are "goldbugs" -- a slang term for those who believe that gold still is king and that the money powers should, once again, back currency with the "noble" metal, thereby eradicating fiat money.

What is of significance about GATA is that they have learned that the gold market is fixed and that the price of gold is artificially pegged below $290 an ounce. Why is this important? First, because the evidence GATA has collected emphatically points to the conclusion that the big Wall Street banks and their overseas kindred are operating a cartel. This is illegal in the US. GATA calls the members of this cartel the "gold collusion crowd" and alleges that Goldman Sachs (whom they amusingly refer to as "Hannibal Lector") resides at the pinnacle of this group. A more important reason why you should take note of GATA is why its proponents say that the gold price has been fixed.

Until fairly recently, gold banks could "lease" (borrow) gold from central banks at interest rates of around or below 1% per annum. This means that Goldman could, for example, borrow gold, sell it in the market and the cash - the tens of billions of dollars itthey received in return - would be virtually interest free. Thereafter, the "collusion crowd" could invest these cost-free funds anywhere they pleased. For example, they could buy US Treasury bonds paying over 6% interest and pocket the profit of 5%. Five percent doesn’t sound like much, but when multiplied by tens of billions of dollars it piles up.

This is a typical Wall Street and international banker's "wheeze." By selling assets belonging to the citizens of any given country and then ploughing back the cash they receive into the treasury market of that same country, the bankers are quite simply bilking taxpayers of billions of dollars a year. If you don’t find this an outrage, I’d like to make an appointment to meet you and your wallet.

But there is another angle that is even more alarming. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, this issue doesn’t get into the newspapers, despite its great importance. Those who keep abreast of current economic events will know that there is a bloody financial war raging between Europe and America. Who wins this war will determine who gains (or retains) control over the world’s money during the next decades. It is a massive prize to be won and the result will quite probably see global society becoming a vassal to the banking community.

The European currency unit, the Euro, is partly backed by gold. The US dollar is not. The Europeans plan to have their money fully digitised in the near future, resulting in a "cashless" society. The worldwide community of bankers is rather betrothed to the idea of digital money, it seems.

After all, it was the boss of the hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), John Meriwether, who is said to have reached a rather private understanding with the Italian central bank. Meriwether had earlier been the senior bond salesman at Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank, until he got caught trying to rig an entire US Treasury bond issue in flagrant defiance of SEC laws. Leaving the concrete jungle of Wall Street behind him, Meriwether set up LTCM in the leafy suburbs of Greenwich, Connecticut, leading Wall Street insiders to call it "Salomon North." Apart from his cachet appearance in the best selling book, "Liars Poker," Meriwether was seen as the "coming man" and attracted Wall Street’s finest to his management team. Included were two Nobel laureate economists and a former Federal Reserve vice chairman. He also attracted Italian academic Professor Alberto Giovannini, who was reported to be acting as an informal representative for the Bank of Italy. Giovannini wished Meriwether’s merry men to engage in market manipulation to ensure that Italy could meet the convergence criteria for the launch of the Euro in 1999.

The Wall Street and European crowd queued up behind LTCM like starving sparrows at a garden party. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Merrill Lynch was top of the list in its diversity of investment in LTCM. Merrill invested as a firm and all 123 executives also placed a total of $22 million into the fund as part of their "deferred compensation plan." Merrill’s Chairman, David Komansky, alone was reported to have invested $800,000. Chase, Morgan, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Salomon, Union Bank of Switzerland, Germany’s Dresdner Bank, Taiwan’s Chinatrust, China’s central bank -- the Bank of China, Britain’s Warburg, Dillon Read, the Swiss-American bank CSFB and a host of equally illustrious international banking groups also participated in the hedge fund helter-skelter profit ride.

LTCM is said to have borrowed a large quantity of gold, sold it and put "in play" the proceeds to achieve this or other ends. This short gold position is, by all accounts, a sensitive issue. Knowledgeable people continue to hint that in the 1998 "private" rescue" of LTCM by 14 of Europe’s and Wall Street’s finest investment banks (the same crowd who backed it in fact) there was more concern with bailing out the firm’s short gold position than anything else. In any event it took a mere twelve months for LTCM to make profits sufficient to repay the $4 billion rescue kitty raised by the collusion crowd.

Expectations that the dollar will ultimately lose the money battle with Europe are plentiful. As a currency that has been debauched with mountainous debt that it cannot now possibly repay, economists are predicting the dollar's fearful collapse. An August report in the Washington Insider by two former high-level economic advisers to the Russian government predicts a collapse of the US economy by the end of this year, with losses of around $10 trillion. They strongly recommend that Russia heed this warning and join forces with Germany. There are reasons to argue that the present spiralling cost of oil is not of OPEC’s making, but is instead a desperate last attempt to keep the US economy buoyant amidst these fears. Oil is a dollar-denominated commodity, and it is fair to say that the 1973/74 "Yom Kippur" embargo/crisis was an example where an oil crisis boosted the American economy at a time when it was in considerable jeopardy.

But there are powerful forces lining up to ensure that the Euro fails. In recent weeks an article published by the Frankfurter Allegemaine – a leading German newspaper – reported that the plan by G7 central banks to intervene in the foreign exchange market in support of an ailing Euro was leaked by a central bank outside the Euro zone. According to the report, the giant US bank, Citibank, a major force in the foreign exchange markets worldwide, learned of the impending intervention and began buying large volumes of Euros on behalf of an unnamed US hedge fund. Although the identity of the hedge fund has not been reported in published accounts, informed sources have told this writer that it was Moore Capital Investment, recently ranked as No. 1 in terms of assets ($9 billion) and among the top six hedge funds in terms of overall performance. Insider knowledge of the impending intervention allowed Moore Capital to buy Euros at a low cost, then, as the price jumped following intervention, sell their hoard to achieve an easy and handsome profit. The ultimate consequence, of course, would result in a further weakening of the European currency unit – which is what happened.

No one, however, is saying which central bank leaked this critical information. However, an examination of the ownership and connections of Moore Capital Investment does produce some intriguing leads. The fund is reported as principally operating on behalf of a "group of European investors." Louis M. Bacon is the Chairman and CEO and chief equity holder of the fund, and he is also the principal investor in Apex Silver Mines Limited, an offshore company that boasts the largest private silver holdings in the world. Other investors in Apex include Paul Soros -- older brother of George Soros of Quantum Group fame (Quantum, incidentally, holds 9.9% of the shares of Apex) -- Thomas Kaplan and others who are known to be close to the Rothschilds stable. It may also be significant that Moore Capital moved its headquarters to the Rockerfeller Center back in 1993, taking over the top floor executive suite previously used by Exxon, the massive oil company.

It will also be remembered that it was George Soros who, via his hedge funds, attacked England’s currency back in 1992, which led to losses of billions of pounds to the British taxpayer and the resignation of then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont. At the time, Lamont had run into a blizzard of flak from the Bank of England, who disagreed with his economic policies. Not least, Sterling was pegged to the European exchange rate mechanism (ERM) – a vehicle specifically designed to create the new European currency unit -- the Euro. The consequence of Soros’s "Black Wednesday" manoeuvres was to force Britain to leave the ERM.

Rothschilds, of course, sit at the heart of England’s financial establishment and, for generations, have boasted exceptionally close ties to the Bank of England. This is not to say that it was the "Old Lady" of Threadneedle Street who leaked the information about the planned intervention in support of the Euro to Rothschilds, who passed it along to Louis Bacon who dealt through Citibank. But, at least, we can show that these connections do exist and note an anti-European stance by the right wing ruling elite in the United Kingdom that borders on political fervour.

And it is the Rothschilds, Hambros and others who form an integral part of the Anglo-American "special" relationship that is historically deeply embedded in the Republican Party – to which Louis Bacon is a known large contributor.

It is when one begins examining the Republican connections to outright financial fraud during the 1980’s that one begins to understand the true dynamics of power politics. Anyone who desires to learn for himself just how rigged the whole political and financial process is needs only read a copy of Al Martin’s newly released The Conspirators – Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider. For a British version that shows similar connections (remembering that in the UK these things do not normally get into the public domain) readers are invited to download for free The World’s Biggest Fraud by Bernard Gough, which details how British banks, including Rothschilds, Hambros, Lloyds and many others, appear to engage in all manner of illegalities, yet with the full protection of the law.

The hedge funds are, meanwhile, the principal (but not only) weapon of the secretive and so called "billionaires club" – a cabal of fabulously wealthy and "untouchable" individuals who manipulate the world’s financial and commodity markets on a daily basis. The "club," as it is usually referred to, are reliably said to have been behind the recent collapse of the Asian economies, according to well placed and knowledge sources. This event was triggered by an Asian central banker who had been heavily bribed to start the ball rolling. A nod and a wink from the US government, it is said, was all it took for a group of US hedge funds – operating strategically -- to proceed to collapse numerous Asian economies and make fortunes in the process.

Fraud, manipulation, grand larceny on a scale that is almost unimaginable to comprehend -- and cold blooded murder when things look like they are about to unravel -- are the daily bread and drink of these financial titans. If someone gets out of order or is perceived to be a threat, even if he is a member of the club, he is taken care of in the classical Roman way. Names like Edmund Safra and the late Baron Rothschilds come to mind in this respect, but there are many more.

Whether it is the US dollar or the Euro that is ultimately victorious is of little consequence to most of us. It is taken for granted that in the near future money, as we know it, will cease to exist. In its place there will be "cashless" money in an electronic or digital form. Governments will, consequently, cease to have much of a say in issuing money. The banks will rule unhindered.

This must be a cause for great concern. Even today, someone who has run into the financial brick-wall of having their "credit rating" pulled knows and understands the hardship this can cause. But at least they can still buy bread and a glass of water and essential services to safeguard their existence. In the future, however, there will be the real fear that a loss of someone’s credit rating could amount to a death sentence. No credit rating will mean no access to electronic money and a zero ability to purchase anything. Not food, water, utilities…. Nothing.

The subliminal "control" this will have over every aspect of society will be enormous and the desire to toe the line – whatever it is – will result in the psychological mechanism of self-regulating serfdom. Nothing need even be said. It will be instinctively understood and, in any event, examples will abound to begin with. We will soon fall in line and even willingly supplicate ourselves to the financial gods who have decided the time is right to rule the world with a rod of money.

Admittedly, this is the darkest of dark visions, but who is to stop these financial masters from their ultimate achievement? Governments already are either owned or brought low with consummate ease – even when working together strategically -- and the "Rule of Law" has, quite apparently, been already shifted on its axis to become the law of rule.

The concept that bankers aim to run the world will be seen as a ridiculous idea in some quarters. It is not my idea, but one expounded by author, Carroll Quigley, a professor at the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University, and who, at one time, taught President Bill Clinton. Quigley was regarded as an establishment historian by the establishment and was thus permitted access to their private archives. In his book Tragedy & Hope, he let the cat out of the bag when he revealed:

"In addition to these pragmatic goals, the powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences."

Yet, the world of money holds many more and darker mysteries still. The most startling of these is that the official figures revealing how much gold exists are fabricated. This, it seems, is because it has been determined that there are two sorts of gold. The "white" gold of the West is mined in small quantities and is used as the basis for official purposes. The "black" gold of the Orient is not official and so cannot be allowed to exist on the books" at all. Such are the massive quantities of black gold in existence that had this singular fact ever been publicly disclosed, the price of gold across the world would have plunged to the depths and remained there forever more.

This has given rise to two distinct markets for gold. There are official markets that are quoted in the financial press and which appear to be open and above board (but, as we have seen, are not). Then there is the black market. Like gold itself the black market has a long and grimy history. Of this, no period is grimier than the Second World War.

Beginning in 1935, Japan set about stripping China of its wealth. This "rape" was extended, with the outbreak of WWII, to include a total of twelve Asian nations. The haul gathered by the Japanese plunder teams was simply beyond belief -- gold in quantities never dreamt of. This was black gold, long hoarded by the Chinese. Also stolen were large quantities of silver, platinum, gemstones and irreplaceable religious artefacts, some made from solid gold and, in some instances, embedded with precious stones.

Much of this was buried in the Philippines between 1943 and 1945. Altogether, there were 172 Imperial Japanese burial sites stuffed full of plunder. One site, designated as a triple seven ("777") held gold and other plunder valued by Japanese accountants at 777 billion yen. At prevailing 1945 exchange rates this equated to 200 billion US dollars. Included was an oil barrel packed full of loose diamonds totalling 150,000 carats. There were dozens of Japanese "triple seven" sites dotted around the Philippines. There were also many "triple nine" troves, too, and a long list of smaller ones. Indonesia also held many equally impressive Japanese treasure troves. In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was one of those who set about recovering some of this war loot as soon as the Japanese had left.

Before Marcos, however, the OSS -- the forerunner of the CIA -- had already "involved" themselves. Beginning in 1945, OSS operatives chased off a Japanese Golden Lily team and began helping themselves to a triple seven site. The black market gravy train was thus set in motion. By 1984, CIA covert operative General John Singlaub formed a venture called Nippon Star. Singlaub was working with former Reagan NSC staff member Major General Robert Schweitzer -- the boss of Colonel Oliver North. This "front" company was expressly founded for the purpose of recovering war gold buried on the Philippines. Others who were later to become involved with Nippon Star included former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Vessey, and Ray Cline, the former CIA deputy director of operations. After some thought, Singlaub decided that the latter two were too high profile to be included as directors of the company.

Essential to Singlaub’s plans was Bob Curtis. A former confidante of Ferdinand Marcos, Curtis possessed copies of the 172 treasure maps made by Japanese cartographers. These showed locations, stated the values of the booty, and made clear what booby traps protected which sites. In 1986, according to Curtis, the Trilateral Commission chased Marcos from office. Curtis has a copy of a Trilateral Commission letter to back up his allegation. The Trilateral group wanted a large hoard of plundered gold that one of Marcos army battalions had spent years recovering in secret.

But Marcos disagreed. Three days later, Curtis says, he was overthrown. Marcos fled the Philippines and headed for Hawaii, where US government agents ransacked his aircraft and impounded all his confidential papers.

Marcos was a wily person and had taken the opportunity to place copies of his important documents with his mistress. Following Marcos’ death, she handed them over to Curtis, who now boasts an archive of 60,000 documents. Consequently, Curtis can speak with considerable authority of gold-for- cocaine swaps between Marcos and Panama’s Manuel Noriega. Curtis also speaks of gold-for-oil swaps and has discussed with me a series of gold deals for a trillion dollars, each of which involved Baron Krupp of Germany.

Krupp’s involvement in black gold dates back a long way, as did his financial accommodations with Adolf Hitler and his deputy Martin Bormann, who may have survived World War II. The last Baron Krupp died in the mid-eighties and, having fathered no children, the direct family line of German gun makers that once made mighty cannon for the Wehrmacht came to an abrupt end. This is no displeasure to me, nor to a great many others, I suspect. What happened to his fortune, however, remains unknown so far as I can determine, except to say it truly was a spectacular fortune. I am fortunate to have an archive of private documents that were acquired from an entirely different and reliable source from those obtained by Bob Curtis. These include confidential documents signed by the late Baron, a financial statement prepared by his Swiss attorney -- whom he referred to as "Mein Leiber Bruder" (My Dear Brother -- possibly indicating he remained close to the Bormann "Brotherhood" of escaped Nazis) -- along with a listing of some of his many bank accounts plus a multi-billion dollar bank draft drawn on a famous German bank.

These and many other compelling documents, including Swiss bank bullion accounts for infamous former CIA black operative General Edward Lansdale are amongst those reproduced in my book THE SECRET GOLD TREATY that is now available to purchase via www.deepblacklies.co.uk Based on four and a half years of gruelling research, my book goes into considerable detail about Marcos' gold, the Japanese "Golden Lily" plunder operation and Nazi plans to create a Fourth Reich -- financed by plundered gold -- under the leadership of Hitler’s deputy, Martin Bormann. It also takes the reader deeply into the shadows of the black gold market, showing who controls it and the chilling plans that are in store for us all.

It is for the reasons outlined above that GATA, the Gold Anti Trust Action Committee, should be supported. They are the only people who are shining a light into the shadows that ordinarily obscure the daily crimes of international bankers and financiers. They do so with some notable success, too, although it has to be admitted that the meisters of gold and market manipulation still remain resistant to all known strains of honesty and integrity.

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