Dec 26 2006
Why Is Goldfarb Defending Scaramella?
One of the truly under reported aspects of the Litvinenko incident is how all the players in this mystery are linked together. Even the suspected poisoners (for those who subscribe to the assassination theory) are associates with ties to Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko. It is well known that Lugovoi had ties to Berezovsky, but apparently so did Scaramella. Why else would Berezovsky’s hired US mouthpiece, Goldfarb, come to Scaramella’s defense after Scaramella’s arrest for arms trafficking (a close cousin to smuggling nuclear material) and terrorist activities:
The lawyer and security consultant met former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko at the Itsu sushi bar in London on November 1 before going on to see two Russians at a hotel. Later that day Mr Litvinenko was taken ill. He died on November 23, after accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of having him poisoned.
His friend Alex Goldfarb said: “The arrest was obviously unrelated to Alexander’s death.
“They looked into all his affairs and found something which is totally unrelated to Litvinenko.” Mr Scaramella had tipped off police about the arms shipment after he claimed to have been told about it by Mr Litvinenko.
But Mr Goldfarb cast doubt on the claim and said he would take it “with a grain of salt”.
Again we have to wonder why Goldfarb is repeating his pattern of defending clear assassination suspects as he did with Lugovoi initially. As with Lugovoi, Goldfarb is trying to inoculate Scaramella in the media, apparently sending some kind of signal of alliance with Scaramella. When Lugovoi and Kovtun were taken into custody, they apparently worked some sort of plea arrangement, which caused Goldfarb to move from a position of solidarity to one of casting dispersions. It would seem Scaramella may be the next domino in this game. We will have to see if Scaramella makes some sort of arrangements that allows him to also claim he is a cooperating witness in the Litvinenko incident, with a corresponding change in the Berezvosky/Goldfarb message. Will Scaramella also go from innocent victim to suspect in the coming weeks?
AJ,
Check the email I just sent you about Goldfarb and a byline from the Washington Post back in 1987 that describes him as coming to the US in 1975 from the Soviet Union and as a prof. of Micro Biology and Columbia.
SBD
This story just gets more and more interesting. Whenever you see the name Armand Hammer, the Communist Party usually comes to mind. Guess who helped get Alex Goldfarb’s father out of the Soviet Union?
United Press International
October 16, 1986, Thursday, AM cycle
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 782 words
BYLINE: By GEORGE ANDREASSI
DATELINE: NEWARK, N.J.
BODY:
Jewish refusenik David Goldfarb, who two years ago spurned a KGB request that he frame American newsman Nicholas Daniloff, was released Thursday in a surprise move by the Soviet Union and flown to the United States.
Goldfarb and his wife, Cecilia, were turned over to American industrialist Armand Hammer, the Occidental Petroleum Corp. chairman, who ferried them to Newark International Airport aboard a corporate jetliner. Goldfarb celebrated with champagne on the flight.
”Yesterday, a miracle happened,” Goldfarb, a seriously ill diabetic, said in Russian while propped up on a stretcher in a brief airport news conference.
”What was not possible for me for eight years happened yesterday when Dr. Hammer came to my Moscow hospital and said, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to take you to the United States,”’ he said. ”Since Dr. Hammer told me … I haven’t slept all night. But everything happened just as he said. Now we are here.”
A little info on Armand
After a meeting with Lenin in the Kremlin in 1921, Armand later recorded in his dairy: “If Lenin told me to jump out that window, I probably would have done it.” He said he was “captivated” by Lenin and agreed to do anything he asked. Lenin granted Hammer the first U.S. concession in Russia, a run-down asbestos mine. Josef Stalin, Lenin’s brutish successor who murdered millions of his countrymen, later granted Hammer a concession to manufacture pencils in Russia.
SBD
WHO LOST RUSSIA? Moscow News (Russia) March 1, 2000
BYLINE: George Soros
The phenomenal rise of Putin out of nowhere bore an eerie resemblance to the feat of political engineering which got Yeltsin reelected in 1996. I see Berezovsky’s hand in both operations. I know him well. I first met him in connection with his $ 1.5 million contribution to the International Science Foundation. The executive director of the foundation, Alex Goldfarb, introduced him to me. We met again at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 1996 and we had our by-now-famous conversation. Subsequently, he claimed that it was this conversation that induced him to form a syndicate for the reelection of Yeltsin. During 1996, we had a number of very frank discussions about the election campaign. I got to know how he operates. When Chubais’ assistant was caught leaving the Russian White House with $ 200,000 (actually more than $ 400,000.–Ed.) in cash, I was not surprised. Then we became adversaries in the Svyazinvest auction but we continued to talk to each other. I tried to convert him from robber capitalist to legitimate capitalist. He tried to use me in his campaign for the chairmanship of Gazprom – by far the most powerful commercial entity in Russia. In June 1997 he invited me to visit Chernomyrdin in Sochi and subsequently he flew me to Moscow in his private plane. He told me that both Chubais and Nemtsov supported his candidacy. I did not believe him so I asked Nemtsov. That was the first he had heard about it. “Over my dead body” was his reaction. Afterwards I had lunch with Berezovsky at his “club” which was decorated, deliberately or not, in the way Hollywood would present a mafia hangout. I was the only guest. I did not tell him what Nemtsov said, but I did tell him that I asked Nemtsov and he claimed that he did not know about Berezovsky’s quest for the chairmanship of Gazprom. This got Berezovsky very angry and his anger gave me the chills. I literally felt that he could kill me. He did not say so, but he made me feel that I had betrayed him. It was a turning point in our relationship. We continued to talk to each other – on one occasion Berezovsky flew to New York just to talk to me – but from then on I tried to distance myself from him.
This is the perspective I bring to bear on the current situation. Berezovsky and Yeltsin’s family were looking for a way to perpetuate the immunity they enjoyed under Yeltsin’s presidency. They tried a variety of ways; some of them turned quite farcical. At one point, at Berezovsky’s instigation, Yeltsin informed the president of the Duma that he was going to nominate Nikolai Aksyonenko as prime minister but Chubais intervened and the official document nominated Sergei Stepashin. Subsequently Stepashin was pushed out of office. Berezovsky’s situation became desperate when the money laundering scandal broke in the U.S. and he realized that he could not find refuge in the West. One way or another he had to find a successor to Yeltsin who would protect him. That is when the plan to promote Putin’s candidacy was hatched.
Berezovsky had regaled me with stories how he had paid off the military commanders in Chechnya and Abkhazia on the flight from Sochi to Moscow. So when Shamil Basayev invaded Dagestan I smelled a rat. I set up a test: would Basayev withdraw by the deadline set by Putin? He did. Even so, I could not quite believe that blowing up the Moscow apartment buildings could be part of the plan. It was just too diabolical. It would not be unique – Russian history is replete with crimes committed by agents provocateurs from Azef the spy during the czarist period to Kirov’s murder which was used to justify Stalin’s purges – but it would stand in a class by itself.
Still, I could not rule it out. From Berezovsky’s point of view it made perfect sense. It would give him, Berezovsky, a hold over Putin. So far, no evidence has surfaced which would contradict this theory. In the previous Chechen war, in 1994/96, the Russian population was upset when it saw the devastation and suffering caused by the invasion of Chechnya. The protests by the mothers of enlisted soldiers and human rights activists like Sergei Kovalyov helped to bring about a negotiated settlement. This time the reaction of the population stands in stark contrast with its attitude five years ago. Admittedly, the Chechen terrorists must bear a large share of the blame. Their behavior fell below any standard. They captured aid workers and journalists, held them for ransom, and often killed them. Fred Cuny, the hero of Sarajevo, perished in this way. There is hardly anybody left who dares to get involved with Chechens. There has also been a masterful manipulation of public sentiment. The fact remains that the attitude of the Russian population is very different from what it was a few years ago.
SBD
Lets not forget
“Politically, Hammer was a staunch supporter of the Republican party. He boosted Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign with tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. He was convicted on charges that one of these donations had been made illegally, but was later pardoned by Republican U.S. President George H. W. Bush.”
Source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Hammer
Hammer knew which side of the bread was likely to be buttered. He was interested in the vast energy reserves in the former Soviet Union. At the time, the Soviet Union was the largest oil exporter in the world. He would have provided a float for the May Day parade if it would get his toe in the door in the Siberian oil fields.
He supported Nixon because Nixon supported normalization of relations with China and Russia. This had the potential to open the door for his Occidental Petroleum to develop huge energy resources.
Hammer dealt with everyone for his own benefit. He woned Al Gore’s old man .
As for Russia..here’s the truth.
http://www.nysun.com/article/45672
**OWNED*****
Its just so chilling. Why did bush pardon hammer? What is there relationship? I know Bush was Mr. CIA at one point, but why pardon Hammer? Who else did Bush support in the USSR wealthy class? Those relationships are just too strange, the rich get richer by the minute. Now, one can only wonder what the relationship with Hammer’s people are with Berezovsky’s people? These kind of individuals have too much power in their hands. They are thier own country with thier bank account alone. The current Kremlin taking all of Khodorkovsky’s assest is just amazing they got away with that. Its too obvious yet everyone stays quiet of fear of being wiped off the map. It just amazing what money buys now a days, not only can you buy gas at the pump, you can buy the country that owns the oil. This BLOG should by title “Early stages of WW3”
I still think Goldfarm has his hands dirty somewhere, somehow.