Remember The October Surprise? Who Is Ernest Backes And Why Does George H. Bush Want Him Out Of The Picture?
Ernest Backes, financial officer for the Clearstream network, holds the "financial keys" to the many Illuminati scandals, including the October Surprise, The Vatican Bank scandal and more.
By Greg Szymanski 24 Mar 2006
One man that the ruthless and diabolical George H. W. Bush wants dead or out of the picture probably more than anybody else goes by the surprising and unknown name of Ernest Backes.
And it may come as even a bigger surprise that Backes isn't even a "fat cat" political foe or an undercover FBI agent with information about Bush's Iran Contra drug smuggling days.
Although not a big shot, the information he learned as a backroom banking officer for the Clearstream Banking Network is big news and pins Bush right to wall for lying about what has come to be known as the "October Surprise."
Regarding the Iranian hostage crisis, Bush has always denied any wrongdoing or that he negotiated secretly with Iranians for keeping the American hostages locked up until Ronald Reagan became President.
But Backes claims he has first hand information, contradicting Bush. The bank officer, one of the men who handled the transactions, claims that the Clearstream network was a principal conduit in the "October Surprise" and that millions of dollars in bribes, negotiated by Bush in his secret trip to Iran, was actually used to hold the hostages until Reagan was elected instead of immediately releasing the captive Americans.
His information also shoots a big hole in U.S. foreign policy where American politicians always have gone on record saying "they never negotiate with terrorists," this phrase said over and over again as American soldiers or civilians faced torture and death while being held captive.
But according to Backes, Bush did negotiate with terrorists, cutting a treasonous deal to keep American hostages in bondage until Reagan secured the White House.
In the past, Backs has told his story before, mainly ut of the earshot of the mainstream American media, appearing on radio shows overseas, as even Tim Sebastian of BBC World is familiar with his story.
But now Backes has essentially gone underground, as the powers that be have turned up the heat in anticipation of his upcoming book in May, detailing the Clearstream connection with October surprise, as well as financial connections to the Vatican Bank scandal and the infamous Bank of Ambrosiano.
Although Backes is not doing interviews, he said this in a recent email regarding appearing the Investigative Journal, a American talk show hosted by Greg Szymanski:
I never comment anything any longer on phone - nor by mail. All my contact possibilities are controlled by "services" from all over the world and my house is under camera-control since recent days," said Backes in an email this week from his home overseas..
" I stopped giving radio interviews some time ago, and will not start again. All those things I experienced throughout these last five years will very extensively be explained in my next book to be issued this next month of May.
"As far as the Iranian hostages question is concerned, Tim Sebastian of BBC World is fully aware of this story and might well be of assistance."
Regarding Clearstream acting as the principal conduit of the October Surprise, it's important to recall in November 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Iran was seized, and 52 Americans were held hostage. Their capture, and the Carter administration's failure to win their release, becoming a major issue in the 1980 presidential campaign.
As newspaper reports revealed, Carter had frozen billions in Iranian assets in U.S. banks, money that was being claimed by American firms and individuals who had lost property in the Islamic revolution. American and Iranian officials were negotiating the amount of funds to be released in return for freeing the hostages.
The Iranians also wanted Carter to release arms that had been ordered and paid for by the deposed Shah. Reagan campaign officials allegedly met with Iranian representatives several times during the 1980 campaign, promising arms and money if Iran delayed release of the hostages until after the November election. This scandal would become known as the "October Surprise."
Reagan won the election, but Carter officials continued to negotiate with the Iranians. Finally, around the turn of the year, an accord was reached under which the United States would release $4 billion but no arms. However, the Iranians did not release the hostages immediately. A few days before Reagan's inauguration, (January 16, 1981) Backes recalled in a previous article and radio interview
"Cedel got an urgent joint instruction from the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and the Bank of England to transfer $7 million in bearer bonds, $5 million from an account of Chase Manhattan Bank and $2 million from an account of Citibank, both in offshore secrecy havens. The money was to go to the National Bank of Algeria, and from there to an Iranian bank in Teheran."
Backes said he also was informed that the $7 million was a small fraction of sums being sent from around the world and concentrated in the Algerian bank. He was told point blank the transfers were linked to the fate of the hostages.
In a featured article appearing on the internet at www.inthesetimes.com Backes said the Fed and the Bank of England were not members of Cedel, and by its rules had no right to order the transfers. Since two of his superiors were absent the day of the money transfer, Backes said he informed the president of the Cedel administrative council, Edmond Israel, and he then acted to execute the order after Israel, now honorary chairman, did not respond to phone and e-mail messages.
On January 20, 1981, about 15 minutes after Reagan took the oath of office, the hostages were finally freed, as Reagan and then Vice President George Bush have always steadfast, saying the payoff never happened.
An account of Backes' story is also told in a French book called "Revelations," a book he co-authored but never translated into English or released in the U.S. The book, however, has been translated into Italian and can be found under the title of "Soldi - il libro nero della finanza internazional," meaning Money - The Black Book about International Finance.
Backes has also made allegations in past interviews that the deep politics underlying the Clearstream network, appears also to have been a major funding conduit for Al Qaeda and if traced properly, could lead to the real culprits behind 9/11.
And according to Backes, the Clearstream network (run by Cedel) was the principal conduit and financing mechanism used for the Vatican and Banco Ambrosiano scandal.
In a previous interview with Lucy Komisar of In These Times in March of 2002, Backes had this to say about the 1980's Vatican bank scandal, as by 1980 Backes had become Cedel's No. 3 official in charge of client relations.
"I think I was fired was because I knew too much about the Ambrosiano scandal,'' he recalled.. "Banco Ambrosiano was once the second most important private bank in Italy, with the Vatican as a principal shareholder and loan recipient. The bank laundered drug-and-arms-trafficking money for the Italian and American Mafias and, in the''80''s, channeled Vatican money to the Contras in Nicaragua and Solidarity in Poland.
"The corrupt managers also siphoned off funds via fictitious banks to personal shell company accounts in Switzerland, the Bahamas, Panama and other offshore havens. Banco Abrosiano inspired a subplot of The Godfather, Part III. Several of those behind the swindle have met untimely ends. Bank chairman Roberto Calvi was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London. Michele Sindona, convicted in 1980 on 65 counts of fraud in the United States, was extradited to Italy in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison; in 1986, he was found dead in his cell, poisoned by cyanide-laced coffee. (Another suspect,
"Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the head of the Vatican Bank, now lives in Sun City, Arizona with a Vatican passport; U.S. authorities have ignored a Milan arrest warrant for him.
Although Marcinkus died last month after Backes was quoted, just two months after Backes' dismissal in 1983, Cedel general manager Gerard Soisson, 48, was found dead in Corsica, where he'd gone on vacation. Backes recalled that top Cedel officials had the body returned immediately and buried, with no autopsy, saying he had died of a heart attack as his family suspects he was murdered.
"If Soisson was murdered, it was also related to what he knew about Ambrosiano,'' Backes said in the Komisar interview. "When Soisson died, the Ambrosiano affair wasn't yet known as a scandal. After it was revealed, I realized that Soisson and I had been at the crossroads. We moved all those transactions known later in the scandal to Lima and other branches. Nobody even knew there was a Banco Ambrosiano branch in Lima and other South American countries."
For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.comSee Part 2 of this October Surprise