Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 07

("Quid coniuratio est?")

C.I.A. and the Dope Business

My thanks to a CN reader for sending a videotape of several episodes of a public access show out of Chicago called "Broadside". This particular episode (below) features Cliff Kelley, a former Chicago alderman, Jim Reis, producer of a public access show called "Wall Street Lies", Mark Sato, author and researcher, and Sherman Skolnick, researcher and founder of the Citizens' Committee to Clean-up the Courts.

[Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the persons mentioned above and do not necessarily reflect my own views.]

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SHERMAN SKOLNICK [continues]:
So what happened was, they had these various devices. Now, for example, they had a whole group of agencies, federal and state agencies, that give subsidies to the inner city and others -- the Small Business Administration is one; the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs is another. The U.S. Department of Labor, with their CETA [Comprehensive Employment Training Act] grants, and so on. And so... Yeah, let's see the picture again of Tezak, up on the screen. Tezak was the, was the thing that was makin' the thing actually run. But now, the different agencies that were involved -- the Will County Local Development Council, and others, they had all this federal money, subsidies, the records of which would show the "washing" of the "China White" money, were kept in one building, called the "Moose Building". Can you guess who owned it? The guy that owned Moose Island, John Bays, the partner of Robert Tezak.

CLIFF KELLEY:
Where is Moose Island?

SKOLNICK

Chanahan(?). It's right outside of Joliet.

MARK SATO:
Chanahan.

SKOLNICK

He knows how to pronounce it better than I do.

O.K. Now what happened was, now one of those that were involved in the China thing was Edward F. Masters, who later became the States Attorney of Will County -- he should have looked into this, right? And then he became the chief judge of the 12th district, Will County.

SATO

And that's an interesting story right there, because... Judge Masters oversaw a case involving a bond issue, a $50 million bond issue which was passed secretly by the Will County board. And part of the reason why they wanted $50 million in bonds was to expand the forest preserve district around Moose Island.

In other words, to make it a little more secure.

KELLEY

How do you pass a bond issue for $50 million secretly?

SATO

They held the board meeting in secret. Of course, the voters were up in arms over it. But they got it passed.

SKOLNICK

They got suggestions from the former Governor Clinton [laughs]. You know, how to do this thing! But...

SATO

And that was under the guidance of Mr. Tezak's friend, John Anarino, who was the Will County board chairman.

SKOLNICK

O.K. But here's the point: the "China White" money was disguised as subsidies from these federal agencies -- Small Business Administration, HUD, the Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Labor Department (of which the Scariano law firm has been the private counsel for the Labor Department for many many years), the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. And what they did is, to make some of the money "disappear", they dispensed it, allegedly, to three training institutes. I mean, they had all kinds of gimmicks to make the money "disappear"!

And, part of the money, starting in '86, went to finance (that's what the Treasury [Department] unit believes) Household International. And their bank's Household Bank -- which actually is a savings and loan, by the way. And where is Household International headquartered? Where Roxanne Bay's got her motel, over there in Prospect Heights! I mean, where else?! Right near the Pewaukee Airport.

O.K. But here...

JIM REIS:
It's called a "savings bank". But it falls in-between the cracks...

SKOLNICK

All right.

REIS

No, it's a good point! Because it falls in-between the cracks, between savings and loan, and bank. And you don't really know where it stands. So these guys are issuing all these credit cards; this is one of the big credit card issuers. And this is another way that money's being laundered.

Now I want to go back to that bond issue that you spoke about awhile back, that Will County bond issue. Something interesting will happen there, is that it will default! Because they've taken the money, and there's no purpose behind it. They're using it for some secret purpose. People invest in these bonds! O.K.? But in a lot of the [unclear], they own a piece of those bonds whether they know it or not! So be forewarned, be forewarned.

SKOLNICK

But here's the problem: from '79 on, Tezak's lawyer was Dan K. Webb. And he was his lawyer even while Webb was the U.S. Attorney, O.K.? So I think he should have gone after Tezak. Instead, he was his lawyer, which is, I think it's illegal.

And then, Webb was replaced by another member of the gang, Anton R. Valukas. So by 1986 and '87, things began to escalate. What happened was, the Treasury [Department] unit insisted that chief prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Anton R. Valukas, get a grand jury looking into this thing. But, since Valukas and Webb are close with Tezak and Bush and all that, they issued a subpoena for the records, which were kept in the Moose Building there, purportedly by a group that has the name "Private Industry Council", but they kept records that were federal subsidy records -- SBA, HUD, and so on. And what happened is, Valukas "tipped off" Tezak. And the subpoena was returnable on a Monday, December 7th, 1987. On the Friday night preceding it, Tezak burned the building down. Can we have Tezak's picture here again?

All right. Now, so the point is, what happened is, there was an obstruction of the federal grand jury, O.K.? Now, the next group of pictures we would like...

REIS: ...in other words, that was in December of '87.

SKOLNICK

Yeah. This is a diversion, but just at the time that Chicago had a big commotion, an all-night session at City Council to pick a new acting mayor, following the strange death of Harold Washington. O.K.?

This, the building, the Moose Building burned down December 4th, 1987.

All right. Now...

KELLEY

That's where all the records were.

SKOLNICK

Yeah! That's where all the records were. And...

KELLEY

You are saying that it is your belief that the U.S. Attorney, who was Anton Valukas, was in a conspiracy with Mr. Tezak [unclear] ...

SKOLNICK

O.K. Now. Can we see those pictures now, the building, the way it was before, before it burned down, and then the way it looked after the fire, according to the picture in the Chicago Tribune?

O.K. Here's... You look carefully. You see the moose on the building? Moose Island - Moose Building. There it is. Can you see where it says "Private Industry Council"?

By the way, get the picture. Now here is the story the Tribune, which had the picture below it of the building, as it looked when it burned down. Here it says the IRS wanted the records; actually it was the secret Treasury [Department] unit that had wanted the records to be brought... Now here's the building. Here's... There's the building as it burns down.

SATO

That's the after picture.

REIS

That's a barbecued moose.

SKOLNICK

Yeah! Barbecued moose.

SATO

It's Bullwinkle.

SKOLNICK

Look at the picture, see. Now, what happened is, Anton R. Valukas, the U.S. Attorney, chief federal prosecutor, did not investigate what this was about because he already knew what it was about! He told Tezak, "Hey! We're comin' with a subpoena Monday. Burn the building down Friday night. Our subpoena will be 'inoperative'." (Or "inappropriate" or whatever the word is for such a thing.)

SATO

Moot. It would be, "Moose: moot".

SKOLNICK

Moose: moot.

REIS

They didn't have a shredder big enough to take care of all these documents?

SKOLNICK

But wait a minute!

KELLEY

No, that would have been obvious, up front. This [i.e., the fire] was an "Act of God".

SKOLNICK

There's a whole group of banks and CPAs tied in with the "China White", reportedly. They had other records that they could have reconstructed and gotten the picture! The Foreman(?) Bank and Trust, the Heritage Bank, banks that dealt with Tezak, that is, the Heritage Bank of Crest Hill, which is a Joliet suburb. They could've, you know, they could've reconstructed it. They could've gone to Gail Ginsburg and say, "Hey! You're the Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the Small Business Administration. Come up with some more records."

The thing was dropped.

Now what happened is...

REIS

This sort of stuff happens a lot in Chicago, though. Doesn't it?

SKOLNICK

This is Joliet! I mean, this is south of Chicago.

KELLEY

So what you're actually saying then is that all of these people were in a conspiracy...

SKOLNICK

Valukas, Dan Webb, Tezak's lawyer.

So by 1993, O.K.? The Treasury [Department] unit, the highly secret [unit], did not shut down their investigation as demanded by the CIA, the NSA. They continued to probe. And we've talked on this program that there is an ongoing fight, coming out in the open, between the Treasury and the Justice Department [unclear] the Clinton White House.

SATO

...there is another way to look at this...

SKOLNICK

Yeah. Tell us.

SATO

...than a fight between the Justice Department and the Treasury Department. You might be able to see this as a fight between the forces which like to import narcotics from Latin America, and those who like to import narcotics from Asia.

SKOLNICK

That's a... You added a new light to the thing!

SATO

Because the Triad societies...

SKOLNICK

Write it down!

SATO

...the Triad societies are in a process of fighting the Mexican Mafia, because they want to be able to import "China White" over the Mexican [unclear]. So there is a fight going on between them, and it's going to be a devastating fight. The reason why "Slick Willy" pushed NAFTA was to enable there to be an alleged free market flowing between Mexico and the U.S. -- meaning a narcotics flow rather than a business flow. That is his main purpose in pushing NAFTA.

[...to be continued...]

I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."

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

Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"