Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Mainstream Conspiraloons #207 - Lord James of Blackheath

"Wibble"


Now here's
something you don't read every day...

"For the past 20 weeks I have been engaged in a very strange dialogue with the two noble Lords, in the course of which I have been trying to bring to their attention the willing availability of a strange organisation which wishes to make a great deal of money available to assist the recovery of the economy in this country. For want of a better name, I shall call it foundation X. That is not its real name, but it will do for the moment. Foundation X was introduced to me 20 weeks ago last week by an eminent City firm, which is FSA controlled. Its chairman came to me and said, "We have this extraordinary request to assist in a major financial reconstruction. It is megabucks, but we need your help to assist us in understanding whether this business is legitimate". I had the biggest put down of my life from my noble friend Lord Strathclyde when I told him this story. He said, "Why you? You're not important enough to have the answer to a question like that". He is quite right, I am not important enough, but the answer to the next question was, "You haven't got the experience for it". Yes I do. I have had one of the biggest experiences in the laundering of terrorist money and funny money that anyone has had in the City. I have handled billions of pounds of terrorist money."

Lord James is 72

.

51 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this a wind up??the conversation gets even odder.

Lord James of Blackheath (Conservative)
My Lords, I do not know what you have done to deserve me this late in the evening but I am afraid that is where it is. It has been a fascinating day. I particularly enjoyed the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, on the subject of "Brigadoon", which was the first play I ever saw in the West End. I do not think she delivered the punchline. The whole point about "Brigadoon" was that it came out of the mist for only day in every 100 years. That is a lovely idea for the Opposition.

We have heard today a great many tales of woe and dismay about the future, and some of optimism from this side. I am concerned about where the common ground is in that. One of the lessons of what is now quite a long life is that nothing is ever quite as bad or quite as good as you expect. It is probable that there will be a little more common ground between us than we might foresee at the moment. We might assist that process because growth will be what brings the two sides together. The more growth we can achieve, the more scope there will be to deal with some of the greater calamities that might occur unforeseen-since everything is unforeseen in politics.

I will talk a little about some of the growth opportunities that we might be able to harness and what we can do. As I have mentioned before, one of my great messages is a lesson from Sir Kenneth Cork, who taught me most of what I know about corporate rescue. It is that you cannot rescue a business that does not have a successful past. Anything that does not have a successful past is a failed start-up. Get rid of it and concentrate on the businesses that have a successful past. Where, today, are the businesses with a successful past? They are languishing in the intensive care units of the banks. They cannot get out because most of them have been the victims of expanding their capacity beyond the demands of the marketplace. That is a very expensive situation to get out of once you are in it. It was done with some dexterity and considerable success in the early 1970s through the initiatives that were forthcoming from three Is: investment in industry. One of the great tragedies of our economy at present is that we do not have three Is functioning in that form today. Boy, do we need them.

Anonymous said...

Is this a wind up??the conversation gets even odder.

Lord James of Blackheath (Conservative)
Not into my pocket. My biggest terrorist client was the IRA and I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1 billion of its money. I have also had extensive connections with north African terrorists, but that was of a far nastier nature, and I do not want to talk about that because it is still a security issue. I hasten to add that it is no good getting the police in, because I shall immediately call the Bank of England as my defence witness, given that it put me in to deal with these problems.

Stef said...

either a wind-up or someone was very pissed indeed

Stef said...

The bizarreness just expands

In the margins of the on-line transcript someone's linked to this outfit...

Office of International Treasury Control

Stef said...

Lord Eatwell (Labour): My Lords, this has been a remarkable debate...

you can f***ing well say that again

gyg3s said...

Sounds like the Norbert Schlei's M-Fund. (Or was that cashed a few months back in Switzerland? When that chap was caught with a multibillion dollar bearer bond?).


(gyges aka daktari with Clarence and Judy).

Stef said...

yeah, I thought of that one earlier on

Daktari that is, not the M-Fund

Stef said...

National-scale 419 hi-jinks aside, isn't a line like...

My biggest terrorist client was the IRA and I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1 billion of its money. I have also had extensive connections with north African terrorists, but that was of a far nastier nature, and I do not want to talk about that because it is still a security issue. I hasten to add that it is no good getting the police in, because I shall immediately call the Bank of England as my defence witness, given that it put me in to deal with these problems.

...more information than anyone could possibly need?

Stef said...

as an aside, I do miss the occasional postings an apparently well-informed woman would occasionally make under Lord Patel's posts on the subject of jaw-droppingly large and wholly avoidable VAT carousel frauds

Stef said...

assuming a seriously inebriated Lord James has offered a genuine insight into the thrilling and rewarding world of the Shadow Banking Industry who's going to take bets on him making 73?

He's got about a month to go

Robert T. Ironside said...

The video of this is available at...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_lords/newsid_9146000/9146065.stm

Starts at 2h 34m.

Anonymous said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_lor

far out!!Maybe the old boy has lost his marbles?I love the way the carry on after the bizarre speech as if nothing out of the ordinary had been said!parallel reality.

Edo said...

Unbelievable!

So Lord Sassoon poo-poo'd the story?

hmmmmmmm. I sense a lonely walk in the woods for Lord James.

paul said...

No need for a walk, I'm sure a few photos of his grandchildren would restore his senses.
The X foundation sounds fascinating, would it be giving us a lot of money and would it want anything in return?
As one of the G7, is money really the problem or the answer?

Personally, I smell viral smoke being blown up the conspiranoid collective's arse.

stef said...

So Lord Sassoon poo-poo'd the story? hmmmmmmm. I sense a lonely walk in the woods for Lord James.

To suggest that someone from such a noble and aristocratic line as the Sassoon family would be involved in any kind of criminal endeaavour is, frankly, barking at the moon

Stef said...

woof!

paul said...

The oddest thing is his admission of a serious crime in a public place and the lack of either him or someone higher up in the BoE now being arrested for it.
Apparently some people are above the law (I was only following the banks orders isnt a defence either).

Anonymous said...

I note ALSO that ol Lord James had to keep looking at his notes to remember the name of the organization.

Stef said...

"Personally, I smell viral smoke being blown up the conspiranoid collective's arse."

whereas the rational Liberal Commentariat are taking the story in their stride

Forget about Foundation X for a moment, a Tory peer with decades in the City under his belt has confessed to laundering terrorist money in association with the BoE

Revel in the dissonance on display in the comments underneath the Guardian's coverage of the story

paul said...

Tory peer with decades in the City under his belt has confessed to laundering terrorist money in association with the BoE

Yes, you would have thought that would have prompted a supplementary question from the audience.

I think its the yes men and the old fart wandered off into murkier waters himself.

paul said...

I think an insider, with lifelong exposure to the weirdness and depravity that goes on under the guise of business as usual, would be ready to believe in almost anything, the more outrageous, the more plausible in that milieu.

Stef said...

reading through the Liberal Commentariat's response to this story there seems to be a shared conviction that anyone claiming such mad things must be mad himself and therefore not a serious player

whereas, of course, your typical Conspiraloon believes some level of insanity is a necessary prerequisite to play The Game

Stef said...

somebody said to me once, here I think, that Tony Blair could appear on national television with blood dripping from his mouth, the severed head of a small child in his right hand, and confess to being a willing participant in ritual sacrifice and still get away with it

people would simply refuse to take it in

something on the scale of fudged expenses is easy to deal with

anything on a larger scale and the trusty psychological defence mechanisms start cutting in

Edo said...

Stef said, "anything on a larger scale and the trusty psychological defence mechanisms start cutting in"

only until the effects start to be felt personally.

Enter Drasius Keyds, when he was refused justice for his abused daughter, he took the law into his own hands. Total fucking hero.

Stef said...

The one time I did jury service the trial involved a man accused of interfering with a 4 year old. The case swung on the testimony of the child, then aged seven

After 3 days of deliberation, including 2 jurors breaking down and weeping at the responsibility they had to bear, we let the man off, 11-1

I wasn't the 1

Stef said...

though, as a general principle, I'm all for government being scared sh*tless of its citizens rather than the other way round

and, no, people don't seem to give a toss about very much these days unless it affects them

at which point they get a little campaign going which the rest of us merrily ignore

Stef said...

... I've just spent a few minutes reading up on Drasius Keyds and as far as I can tell he allegedly turned up dead a few months ago and didn't actually confess or was witnessed committing the murders

He did, however, thoughtfully leave his gun at the scene of the 2nd killing

No trials all round then, Case closed

Edo said...

Key word being 'Allegedly'.
One of the best ways to get people off your back and start afresh is to die first. Or at least appear to.

Wolfie said...

"Revel in the dissonance on display in the comments underneath the Guardian's coverage of the story"

Indeed. The very people who would be foaming at their collective mouths if someone mentioned the "N" word are perfectly fine with drug-money laundering and funding terrorism. Sometimes I really feel like one of the last survivors in "Invasion of the body snatchers". Then again, these activities have been out in the open for years in the US and nobody seems to bad an eyelid - just want a slice.

Didn't Catherine Austin Fitts grass on the US banks and live to tell the tale?

http://www.dunwalke.com/introduction.htm

Stef said...

I feel obliged to point out that the Illiberal Commentariat doesn't appear to be making much of a fuss either

lwtc247 said...

Related, Pilger is calling for open civil disobedience. But it isn't going to happen. Nothing will happen about this. Brit civvies and their Yank counterparts are set to be the architects of their own doom. Can't say there not to blame.

Pilger: "There is no other way now. Direct action. Civil disobedience. Unerring. Read Shelley and do it."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26743.htm

Stef said...

I'm not entirely convinced that low-level civil war between state sector serfs and private sector serfs isn't part of The Plan

Until I hear a public figure articulating just where all the wealth is really going and employing rhetoric which recognises that a lot of people utilised by the private sector are also in a pretty bad situation, I'll be leaving my pitchfork and torch in the garden shed

lwtc247 said...

It probably is part of the plan, but I don't see Pilger advocating a violent resistance.

And if there is a 'war', for every person menacingly wielding a sign calling for the government to resign and a general electrion (groan), its a safe be that there'll be a fair few hundred K sitting in their devaluing homes watching American Idol.

Or Eastenders.

Or...

Edo said...

I'm with you there Stef. I want to see policemen and women, judges, MPs, doctors, teachers and social workers start to speak up.

Even if they did exist, and they could speak up (think back to the question of Craig Murray over at Nobody's blog Stef) I'd be doubtful if they MSM would cover it. Lord James'statement is about as good as it gets I reckon. And outside of us loons, everyone has already forgotten.

Of course there have been those that did speak up... Dr Kelly, Robin Cook, that top copper (can't remember his name) and ended up having unfortunate accidents.

Anonymous said...

"I'm not entirely convinced that low-level civil war between state sector serfs and private sector serfs isn't part of The Plan"

Its as plain as day in the US. They point at people that still have pensions and decent paying jobs still (primarily state/govt workers) and so now these workers are to blame for everything.

Another big one is the privatization (though they still get public money) of the school system into 'charter schools'. This is a big-money initiative being funded by private foundations (not 'foundation x' afaik). Having known conscientious people who have worked in these schools (and left), I've learned that the kids are really learning bog all (its a joke), and its all profit driven, where teachers have even less independence than public schools. Teachers are stressed out and overworked.
'Waiting for Superman' is major popular film to promote charter schools over the 'failed' public school system, and goes out to blame the (unionised) teachers for it. Teachers that have had their hands tied by the system. No doubt, this same film has probably gotten similar funding, and the liberal 'intelligentsia' are eating it up.

/sorry slightly off topic.

stef said...

I've recently had very close exposure to and experience of state sector primary school teaching (in NZ) and anyone who thinks it's a doss with too much in the way of holidays is seriously mistaken

But that's no excuse for the State to hoover up ever-increasing amounts of people's income in the name of public services, only to piss large sums of it away in corruption or in the creation of a public sector management class whose income and practices mirror pigs in the private sector

One thing I don't fully understand is how kids in the UK, and US, can pass through the primary school systems and come out the other end functionally illiterate. There's just no excuse

but I digress

Stef said...

"Didn't Catherine Austin Fitts grass on the US banks and live to tell the tale?"

I don't know, she's looking a bit Mo Mowlam-ish lately

Stef said...

"that top copper (can't remember his name)"

I guess you're talking about this one but I don't recall him saying very much. This one started to and ended up flogging conservatories on tele rather than being taken for a walk in the hills

This one has definitely said fuck all

Anonymous said...

"I hasten to add that it is no good getting the police in.."

What for?

The Lord is spooked, now effectively going public, with digs at the vatican and the bank of england, trying to cover his ass.

Perhaps.

"I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1 billion of its money.."

Its money or its debt?

Stef said...

whilst I appreciate the intended meaning of that question, it's just gagging for any self-respecting Conspiraloon to answer with 'money? debt? they're all the same thing'

Stef said...

I suspect his Lordship was claiming to have destroyed £1bn of IRA funds

at first sight a somewhat unfeasible sum but they could have been minding it for some chums

Stef said...

If Lord J. is now found hanging in a broom cupboard, dressed as a frogman with a satsuma in his mouth, it's going to be a real bugger deciding who did it

MI5?
MI6?
The Vatican?
North African fundamentalists?
The IRA?
The Libyans?
The Sassoons/ Rothschilds?
The Central Banking cartel?
Foundation X?
Henry, the mild-mannered janitor?

Not bad going for a 15 minutes speech

He really mustn't give a fuck

Stef said...

James told ZDNet UK on Thursday that he had been brought into five companies between 1989 and 1997/98 at the direction of the Bank of England. James was to run the companies down, as they had been identified as conduits for IRA funds.

"The IRA had five companies completely ruined," said James. "They had built the companies up as pensions funds."

James' express instructions were to run the companies down and liquidise the assets, he said.

"I'm a money washer, not a money launderer," said James.

Anonymous said...

"I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1 billion of its money.."

Its money or its debt?

As it's the criminal class we're talking about, DEFINATELY its money!

Barnacle Bill said...

Could it be Goldman Sachs trying to launder their ill-gotten gains thru UK PLC?

gyges said...

Anon said,

"As it's the criminal class we're talking about, DEFINATELY its money!"

Remember the kidnappings in Iraq? The ransom demands were either denominated in gold or USDollars.

I wonder which of these were committed by Iraqi crooks and which by US crooks/spooks/et al

Tom said...

How could I print a t-shirt with Lord James, the IRA and a nervous giggle on it?

stef said...

Would a 2nd hand Long Good Friday T-Shirt do?

stef said...

"The film's protagonist is Harold Shand (played by Bob Hoskins), an old fashioned 1960s-style London gangster who in the late 1970s is aspiring to become a legitimate businessman, albeit with the financial support of the American Mafia, with a plan to redevelop the disused London Docklands as a venue for a future Olympic Games. The storyline weaves together the events of the late 1970s, including low-level political and police corruption, Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) gun-running, the displacement of traditional British industry with property development, Britain's membership of the EEC (later the European Union) and the emerging free market economy."

plus ça change

stef said...

not quite a nervous giggle but near enough

hubris said...

Conspiraloon alert!
been scratching my head over this one for a while - and then I remembered this - MI5 warns of IRA attack on Britain

What brought this to my mind was this lunatic post called The Green Swan (which I presume is some kind of nod to Taleb)

". . . . Either way this goes, its going to set off fireworks. If the MPs fold to the Illuminati and sign the Loan papers, the IRA is going to AWAKEN, coming out of the Cave like a Bear who has been in Hibernation, and they will light up Dublin and Belfast Banks like a Christmas Tree, with enough C-4 Explosives to light up Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve of 2012. Political Assassinations are hardly out of the question. That has been and always will be the Stock in Trade of the IRA. They trade in REAL “democracy”, a REAL 2 Party system with REAL voting. Like if you DON’T vote with them, you are DEAD DEAD DEAD. LOL. The IRA learned LONG ago that you can’t really WIN against the Illuminati by playing by the Marquise de Queensbury Rules. They are downright MEAN, and they TAKE NO PRISONERS. . . ."

(I left a few comments for whoever posted that - I possibly could have been a little more polite but it's done now, so what the hell)

anyway

I left him a few links which might give some sort of explanation - which I shall reproduce here:

Real IRA Says it Will Target UK Bankers

The “assassinating bankers” meme is a dream come true for the elite. Certain banking minions know too much, and how convenient would it be if the “IRA” happened to start assassinating people in that category? When the know-too-much bankers simply “commit suicide”, the fascist state misses out on opportunities to call for more surveillance and harassment, etc. to deal with the “terrorist threat”. Better to kill two birds with one stone.

Are there a handful of poor, Irish republicans who call themselves various flavors of IRA and essentially act like a street gang? Yes.

Has British Intelligence been involved with high level IRA operations for decades? There is absolutely no doubt at all that the answer is yes.


Real IRA Being Set Up for a False Flag?

Perhaps Lord James of Blackheath was merely showing that he is 'on message' - MI5 Message that is?