Feds accused of gold-price manipulation

Published on Friday, January 25, 2008.

Source: WorldNetDaily - Jerome R. Corsi

U.S. Treasury

The Wall Street Journal has agreed to publish a full-page ad in which the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee charges the U.S. government surreptitiously utilizes gold reserves to engage in international swaps and other market manipulations.

"Anybody Seen Our Gold?" is the title of the ad, which alleges U.S. gold reserves held at depositories such as Fort Knox and West Point may have been seriously depleted. GATA asserts U.S. gold reserves are being shipped overseas to settle complex transactions utilized by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury to suppress the price of the precious metal.

"The objective of this manipulation is to conceal the mismanagement of the U.S. dollar so that it might retain its function as the world's reserve currency," the ad copy reads in a pre-publication version GATA provided to WND.

The U.S. Treasury denies the claim, insisting the stock is accounted for regularly.

GATA's chairman, William J. Murphy III, told WND his group was willing to pay the Wall Street Journal's cost of $264,000 to run the ad "to get the message out that the U.S. enters world markets without public disclosure to prop up the dollar and depress the price of gold."

GATA cites as evidence the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee reports dating back to Jan. 31, 1995, showing the U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund had undertaken gold swaps.

GATA, a non-profit 501 headquartered in Manchester, Conn., further asserts the federal government strategy to manipulate the price of gold has begun to fail.

"Gold's recent rise toward $900 per ounce shows that the price suppression scheme is faltering," the GATA ad reads. "When it is widely understood how central banks have been suppressing gold, its price may rise to $3,000 or $5,000 an ounce or more."

"The gold reserves of the United States have not been independently audited for half a century," the ad charges.

The U.S. Treasury disagrees.

"While the entire gold stock is not physically re-counted in any one year, over a period of years, by our continuous sampling process, the entire stock has been counted, and is effectively re-inventoried," Rich Delmar, counsel to Treasury's inspector general, told WND in an e-mail.

Delmar explained that the annual Office of Inspector General audits of mint facilities involves a physical inspection of certain vaults, which are subject to a 100-percent bar count and assaying. At the end of the inspection, each vault is sealed.

"During each visit, all previously sealed vaults are checked to ensure that the seals have not been compromised or tampered with," he wrote. "This process is the basis for the conclusion that there has been a complete physical inventory."

Delmar said the OIG's work consists of more than reviewing documents.

"Our auditors physically observe the inventory work done at the mint facilities, and we are responsible for the assay sampling process," he said.

WND asked the Treasury if there is a comprehensive listing and accounting of any encumbrances or other restrictions on the gold in the U.S. Mint that may affect ownership.

"This is not within OIG's purview," Delmar responded. "You may want to ask the mint directly."

'Dodging the question'

Murphy called the response "ridiculous."

"The mint does not make complex gold transactions with other countries," he said. "That is the role for the U.S. Treasury. The mint just houses the gold. The Treasury is dodging the question."

GATA has filed a Freedom of Information Request asking the Fed and Treasury to disclose information on encumbrances and swapping or leasing of U.S. gold.

"The Fed and Treasury have not even acknowledged receiving our FOIA request," Murphy said. "It's idiotic to tell you that the mint would have that knowledge."

Murphy asked, "Is the gold in the mint truly U.S. gold reserves or is it just 'custodial gold' held for some other country? That's why we need to know what encumbrances there are on the gold as well as whether any U.S. gold has been shipped overseas to fulfill swap obligations."

The 2006 annual report published on the website of the U.S. Mint lists KPMG as outside auditor.

The KPMG signed audit report in the 2006 Annual Report of the U.S. Mint takes full responsibility for auditing the balance sheets and includes a statement of the custodial activity of U.S. gold reserves.

According to the balance sheets, custodial gold and silver reserves make up 90 percent of the U.S. Mint's total assets.

Still, there is no specific statement in the U.S. Mint's annual report or the KPMG audit report describing any KPMG involvement in a physical inspection of the gold reserves.

KPMG's role as independent auditor for the U.S. Mint is also confirmed in the 2006 audit report prepared by the Office of Inspector General of the Treasury.

Dan Ginsburg, a KPMG spokesman, declined to provide any detail to WND concerning his company's audit procedures for the U.S. Mint, citing client confidentiality.

Greater force

Craig R. Smith, founder of Swiss America Trading Corp., told WND he accepts the GATA arguments because "there has to be a force greater than normal market conditions that has repressed the price of gold."

Smith noted any number of financial crises since the late 1980s that "should have propelled gold way beyond the 1980 high of $850," including the savings and loan debacle and the birth of the Resolution Trust Corporation, as well as the on-going devaluation of the U.S. dollar against virtually all major foreign currencies.

"Gold has been playing catch-up with current world economic conditions," Smith told WND in an e-mail, "and future movements should easily prove gold to be a great value at $900 an ounce. That price will look cheap going forward as the world starts to turn its back on debt-laden currencies and returns to money with a real value."

But the U.S. Treasury, in a statement on its website, denies the Exchange Stabilization Fund has been used to manipulate gold prices.

"The ESF does not engage in any transactions in the market for any metal such as gold, either in spot markets or in any of its derivative forms," the Treasury statement declares. "We would like to emphasize that the Treasury Department does not seek to manipulate the price of gold or any other metal by intervening in or otherwise interfering with the market."

Yvanka Wallner, advertising sales representative for the Wall Street Journal in New York City, confirmed to WND the GATA ad has been approved by the Journal's lawyers and is being prepared to be run next week.

Swiss America, a WND advertiser, specializes in investment-quality numismatic gold coins.

Gold yesterday closed at an all-time high of $911 an ounce, up $28, on a weaker dollar and higher oil prices.

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Taxing Federalism The Power to Tax and the Federalist Papers Federalist No. 12 | Federalist No. 21 | Federalist No. 30 | Federalist No. 31 | Federalist No. 32 | Federalist No. 33 | Federalist No. 34 | Federalist No. 35 | Federalist No. 36 The Federalist Papers, a series of 85 essays designed to encourage ratification of the United States Constitution, provide important insight on the history of U.S. federal taxation. Published in late 1787 and early 1788, they illuminate key ideas behind America's constitutional creation, including the federal taxing power. Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, the Federalist Papers served a dual rhetorical purpose. On the one hand, they outlined the need for a strong central government. Essays stressed the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and explained the strength of the proposed Constitution. Simultaneously, however, the essays were intended to allay fears that the new federal government would become too powerful; while arguing that the Confederation government was entirely too weak, the authors insisted that its replacement would never grow too strong. Federal revenue was a key concern for the authors of the federalist Papers, looming large in their critique of the Articles and their defense of the Constitution. At various points, they expounded on the efficacy and fairness of consumption taxes, specifically customs duties. They insisted, however, that the federal government be granted unlimited taxing powers, including the authority to assess domestic excise taxes. Debates over "direct" vs. "indirect" taxation received considerable attention, as did the constitutional requirement for tax uniformity. The Tax History Project has reproduced the full text of nine of the Federalist Papers, including all substantive discussion of federal revenue powers. The links above will take you to the relevant documents.

January 13, 2008

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Certiorari
for Landmark Right to Petition Case

Constitutional Crisis Escalating

Coming: Appropriate Next Steps

On January 4, 2008, the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, in conference, voted to deny the Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the landmark Right-to-Petition case We The People v. United States. On January 7 the Court issued its Order denying certiorari.

Without comment, the Supreme Court decided not to hear We The People v. United States, a case which, if heard, would have required the Court to declare -- for the first time history -- whether the Government is obligated to respond to proper Petitions by ordinary, private individuals for Redress of Grievances – specifically Grievances alleging unconstitutional behavior by the Government, and whether the individual having so Petitioned, has the Right to act to peacefully hold the Government accountable if the Government refuses to respond.

In denying to hear this first impression case, the Court has ignored its duty to interpret the meaning of the Constitution, and leaves undisturbed the decision of the DC Court of Appeals which, unfortunately, relied on two cases that were not on point -- they involved employment related grievances by state public employees and state legislation governing same, not Grievances by private parties, and not involving alleged violations of the Constitution.

The decision by the Supreme Court has grave consequences for the future of individual Rights, Freedom and Liberty, popular sovereignty, government accountability and the great experiment in (self) government that is America. Any Right that is not enforceable is not a Right.

Our attention is now focused on defining the appropriate next steps for a Free People to take under the current circumstances.

However, there is one remaining judicial option open to us that we are now exercising (let it never be said that we did not exhaust every opportunity for judicial relief).

Under the Rules of the Supreme Court, we have 25 days to return to the Supreme Court with a petition for rehearing of the Court’s January 7, 2008 Order denying certiorari.

On January 11, 2008, Bob Schulz and the We The People organization filed an Emergency Motion in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v We The People (the “6700” case against WTP for distributing the Blue Folder with its information regarding the withholding of pay from paychecks).

The emergency motion requests a Certificate of Agreement from the Second Circuit, which would have the Second Circuit declare that it agrees that the Supreme Court should reconsider its decision and grant certiorari in We The People v United States (Right to Petition case), because the fundamental questions presented by the People in We The People v United States are similar to those raised in United States v We The People (6700 case), and because the denial of Certiorari by the Supreme Court leaves the Second Circuit without any relevant case law to guide it in deciding its case.

A decision by the Second Circuit on the emergency motion will be issued sometime between Monday, January 14 and Friday, January 18. Click Here to read the Emergency Motion.

Unless the Court agrees to grant our emergency motion for a Certificate of Agreement and temporarily suspend the proceedings, oral argument in United States v We The People will be heard by the three-judge panel at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on February 4, 2008.


Appropriate Next Steps

Make no mistake.

By its apparent abdication of its duty under the Constitution and refusal to hear our landmark Right to Petition lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court has ushered into existence a dangerous state of affairs that can not, and must not, be tolerated by Free People.

By its denial of Certiorari in this most important case, the Court has sent a silent, but unambiguous decree to the People that cannot be left unchallenged: that the People have lost their Fundamental Right to peacefully hold the Government of their creation accountable to the Constitution and the rule of law.

Please begin to spread word of this Constitutional travesty across the land.

Our Constitution is, indeed, hanging by a thread. We pray the Supreme Court will reconsider this grievous decision that denies to the People a declaration of the full contours of the meaning of the last ten words of the First Amendment.

During the coming days, this Foundation will announce what it believes are the appropriate next steps for the People to restore Constitutional Order and secure Freedom for ourselves, and our posterity.

Acta Non Verba

Read the Emergency Motion to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

Docket entry of Supreme Court denying Certiorari for RTP lawsuit, case 07-681

Right-click to access the full Supreme Court Order (see page 22)

RIGHT-Click here to download WTP's Petition for Writ of Certiorari
to the U.S. Supreme Court and its Appendix.

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Minnesota / CIA says Ventura's claims are partly right

Agency: Meeting was just training session

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

Article Last Updated: 01/03/2008 11:29:10 PM CST

The secret is out - sort of.

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura met with a group of Central Intelligence Agency officers in 1999 shortly after he was elected, he claims in his soon-to-be-released book "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me," co-written with author Dick Russell.

"There were 23 CIA agents waiting in a conference room for me. I counted," Ventura writes. "I got the gist of what they were after. All their questions centered around how we campaigned, how we achieved what we did, and did I think we truly could win from the start? In short, how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?"

A CIA spokeswoman, who - as is the intelligence agency's custom - did not want to be identified by name, confirmed the meeting but not the rest of Ventura's statement.

"It was part of a training class apparently, so yes," said the spokeswoman. "I can't comment on the content of the meeting. I wasn't there. I can just say that yes, he did have this meeting, but it was part of a training exercise."

As to the number of agents in attendance: "Our population is actually classified," she said. "So we don't usually comment on numbers."

Ventura also writes in the book: "There is a CIA operative inside every state government. ... They are not in executive positions - in other words, not appointed by the governor - but are permanent state employees. Governors come and go, but they keep working - in a legitimate job with a dual identity. In Minnesota,

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this person was at a deputy commissioner level, fairly high up."

That claim the spokeswoman did not confirm.

"We are federal employees so that, I think, is a little bit off. We are federal employees; we are not anywhere near being state employees," she said.

For other excerpts from Ventura's book - to be publicly released in April - go to twincities.com/ci_7867383.

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger can be reached at rstassen-berger@pioneerpress.com.