Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Heaving Hosni

Mubarak is going to make the big announcement soon, it seems...
Hosni Mubarak expected to speak to soon. Tune in to #AlJazeera to watch the coverage live: http://aje.me
And who told him? Special ambassador Frank Wisner. Obama gave him the task of "negotiating a resolution" to the crisis. Translation: He was sent to Egypt to clean house. His message to Mub was blunt:
A U.S. envoy in Cairo told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he needed to step aside and allow a new government to take shape without him but was rebuffed, according to Middle East experts who have discussed the matter with the Obama administration.
Wisner delivered a direct message that Mubarak should not be part of the "transition" that the U.S. had called for, according to Middle East experts who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Wisner to Mub: "We put you into power, Hosni. And now we're taking you out." It comes down to that, really.

News accounts refer to Wisner as a "businessman." That's cute. He's the son of legendary spy chieftain Frank Gardiner Wisner, head of the OSS and chief of the Directorate of Plans in the CIA. The elder Wisner was the prime mover behind the toppling of Mossadegh in Iran. He also cultivated a vast number of media contacts, creating a propaganda machine jovially nicknamed "the Mighty Wurlitzer." The phrase is still in use.

So, do ya think that Wisner Jr. was recruited into the Agency, just like Dad? Gosh. Like, wow. I have no idea. That's a real puzzler.

Wisner is also a Vice Chairman of -- wait for it -- American International Group (AIG), which played such a key rule in the financial meltdown. The company insured those shady financial instruments backed by crap loans. When the shit started to hit the fan, AIG was negotiating with the banks to pay only 60% of what it owed -- but after the bailout money came in, AIG was able to pay 100 percent. The firm was semi-nationalized, but only in the sense that Wisner and company helped themselves to lots and lots of taxpayer funds.

I never did figure out why the big banks received separate bailout funds when their losses were insured by AIG.

AIG has also been known to provide cover for spooks. That's part of a story which I have long promised to write, but have not actually written. This brief post gave a taste. The firm, founded by Ken Starr's uncle, funded Victor Kozeny (the "Pirate of Prague," now an international fugitive) in his efforts to take over the oil fields in a former Soviet Republic. I suspect that Wisner was involved with that.

2 comments:

dakinikat said...

Starts making one think that everything is just one big CIA fest.

richard said...

Wisner pere was a close associate of CIA legends Richard (Bay of Pigs) Bissell and James Angleton. He had a hand with Bissell, pre-Cuba, in the U2 incident which ended Eisenhower's chances of having a summit with Soviet jefe Khruschev. J Edgar Hoover redbaited him on the usual kooky McCarthyite grounds although Wisner had been charmed by double agent Kim Philby, as had Angleton. He reputedly killed himself in the mid-'60s.