Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 2 Num. 34

("Quid coniuratio est?")


SHERMAN SKOLNICK INTERVIEW

Sherman Skolnick was interviewed on Radio Free America (Shortwave, 5.810 mHz, mon-fri, 9 pm cst) on September 2, 1994. Mr. Skolnick is a veteran investigative reporter from Chicago and founder of the "Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts" in that city. Following is my transcription of that interview. Host/Interviewer is Tom Valentine.

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[...continued...]

SKOLNICK
By the way, let me just tell a little anecdote that might be [of] interest.

I and my associates, in September of '92, were in Bua's private office. By then he was a private lawyer acting as special counsel to the Inslaw grand jury. He was no longer on the bench.

I ended up in his office and we began talking about Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, the... BNL. And he says he never heard of them.

I says, "Well it's been much in the paper about Bank Lavoro scandal in Atlanta."

He says, "I never heard of 'em."

I says, "Judge..."

He says, "Don't call me 'Judge', Skolnick." He says, "You know me 30 years. Call me 'Nick'."

I says, "Nick. How could you say that you don't know about Bank Lavoro?"

He says, "I don't."

I says, "They're right downstairs, Judge. Let me take ya right to 'em. THEY'RE RIGHT DOWNSTAIRS OF YOUR OFFICE!!"

He says, "Well, I..." [laughs] He didn't have an answer for that!! I said, "How could you not know that their Chicago office is right downstairs!? Come on, Judge."

"Call me 'Nick'," he says.

VALENTINE
Yeah, "Call me 'Nick'." That guy... I told ya this guy enjoys this fight! He's on top of the world; he's not the least bit afraid of you.
SKOLNICK
Notice what kind of a fraud he is! He says he never heard of Bank Lavoro and they're right downstairs of his office! [laughs]
VALENTINE
Yeah well you see, every time you get a little barb like that, it just makes him enjoy the game all the more and, I think -- I don't even know the man -- but from the things you've told...

Now. The important part of that story, that you told on the air, was that you confronted, as a journalist, the people in the court, the different attorneys for the banks. And you got a confirmation from them that George Bush and Saddam Hussein were what?

SKOLNICK
Were business partners. And I asked the participants in a federal case, in the back of the courtroom -- I wish we had our video equipment there. We would have gotten it on video. There was a case involving Saddam Hussein's secret partners. [Congressman Henry] Gonzalez's committee were interveners in the case. They later tried to stop publicity by telling an editor at Spotlight that there was no such case. You remember what happened.
VALENTINE
Yeah.
SKOLNICK
We came up with the docket and all the documents.

But the unlisted secret partner of Saddam Hussein, the Baghdad tyrant, was George Herbert Walker book... Bush. {1}. And the participants in the hearing confirmed it to me. I asked them 3 times. I wanted to be absolutely sure. And I used his 4 names: George Herbert Walker Bush. And they says, "That's right. He's the partner in oil kickbacks with Saddam Hussein." And Spotlight, and your program, were the only ones to discuss it. In fact, a few days after that federal hearing (which was in May of '91), I was on your program with exclusive details.

VALENTINE
That's right.
SKOLNICK
The details now...
VALENTINE
We gotta take a final break! My guest is Sherman Skolnick. And as you can see, a lot of things happen in Chicago and it's good for us that there is a guy like Sherman available to tell us about it.

I'm Tom Valentine. This is Radio Free America.

[...commercial break...]

All right. We are back. And my guest is Sherman Skolnick. And this is the final leg of this hour.

Sherman, have we not hit anything, of the updated stuff? Because we don't have a lot of time now.

SKOLNICK
Well. Let me just summarize it.
VALENTINE
Where'd you go!?
SKOLNICK
Uh... Are you there?
VALENTINE
I... I have something wrong with my phone-set I think.
SKOLNICK
Can you hear me?
VALENTINE
All right. Now I can, I think. Speak up.
SKOLNICK
O.K. But...
VALENTINE
Ah, there you are. Good. O.K.
SKOLNICK
Let me just summarize what we tried to cover briefly. Obviously, in the one-hour period we can't cover all the details.

But you can see why the late journalist, Danny Casolaro, called it "The Octopus". You can see what's happening here. And you can see why Bua, as the special counsel for the Justice Department to the Inslaw grand jury felt obligated to call what everybody else that knows anything calls a "murder", he calls it "suicide".

Also, you probably can see why some of us believe that White House aide Vincent Foster, jr., was murdered. Because -- and we've said it for a year! Because he was trying to tell Clinton, "Look. There's a murder team in the Justice Department and if you don't do anything you're gonna get impeached!" Well, instead they murdered Vincent Foster, and made it look to us as a suicide.

But. By the way. These murder teams specialize in two things: airplane sabotage, which is a subject that I have spent more than 20 years investigating...

VALENTINE
Yes. And you and I were both involved in that big one in Chicago that killed E. Howard Hunt's wife, Dorothy.
SKOLNICK
Right. And...
VALENTINE
Who was the state judge that blocked that?
SKOLNICK
Bua!
VALENTINE
Judge Nicholas Bua. Call me "Nick"! [laughs] O.K. I just wanted to get that point.
SKOLNICK
The second thing with this murder team, which operates, according to Elliott Richardson, in a secret section there, in, with, or behind O.S.I., in the Justice Department -- they specialize in murder, disguised as suicides. And in Danny Casolaro, and a number of other situations, a lot of the Inslaw grand jury witnesses supposedly, one by one, killed themselves. {2}.
VALENTINE
This is not a secret any longer, because Michael Fuller has said it on this show. Dave Tompkin, Thomlin(sp?), David Thomlin said it on this show. The Wayro(sp?) gal, Maria Wayro, the former police officer, the whistleblower in Washington said this. So it's coming out, little by little.
SKOLNICK
But the overall thing is... Let me just tick off briefly who all's involved.

Apparent bribery of the White House by Northrop, a defense contractor, apparently through Bua. People that were a part of Reagan's "Kitchen Cabinet", George K. Pender, Robert Maheu, Robert Booth Nickols, a CIA explosives expert that was Riconosciuto's former business partner.

You can see why the late Casolaro called it an "octopus". I mean, it is an international thing. And the Tribune, here in Chicago, is playing up the thing as simply a $12 million pension fund rip- off. I mean, and yet they put in their story, August 26th, that this guy Polichemi, who's being held in custody in Fort Lauderdale, that he's got worldwide connections through Luxembourg! Which is where BCCI operated through also.

I mean, in other words, they're not...

VALENTINE
It was right under their nose, but they're not going to see it, because the powers-that-be will nail them if they try to see it.

Sherman, I want to thank you very much. Again, you've given us plenty to chew on. And we will stay in touch.

Sherman Skolnick is the guy who started the Committee to Clean Up the Courts more than 30 years ago. That telephone number for him is 312-731-1100. You can call at any time. They change the message 3 times a week.

Sherman, thanks a lot.

SKOLNICK
Thanks for listening. Thanks for having me.
VALENTINE
We'll see ya next time.

All right! Here we go again, you see? Things are going [on], even though you don't get 'em in the news! You don't see it in the newspapers. You don't see it on TV. But it's happening. That's why you need Radio Free America and The Spotlight. That's why I need guys like Sherman Skolnick.

We'll be back! Wide open lines, lot of commentary, next hour. Right after the news.

--------------------------<< Notes >>---------------------------- {1} "...George Herbert Walker book... Bush." "Book" as in police jargon, "Book him."

{2} These 41 deaths of Inslaw witnesses find parallels in the Clinton body count (in Arkansas, primarily) and in the deaths of witnesses connected to the JFK assassination.


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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt. Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9

Brian Francis Redman bigxc@prairienet.org "The Big C"

"Justice" = "Just us" = "History is written by the assassins."