Peter Sutherland~Captain of Trinity Rugby Team and The Holy See.
Goldman Sachs.Who’s buying Ireland? Sutherland definitely selling
Chairman of Goldman Sachs International Was – Until Last Year – Also Chairman of BP
Behold the man who is Chairman of Goldman Sachs, a kind of international bookies for casino-capitalism, described as “a vampire squid on the face of humanity” for its part in the world-wide crisis; a company which is currently urging “austerity” on the people who are paying a penalty-premium to ECB loan-sharks , in order to bail out the private losses of his firms!
Janine Wedel has written extensively on how the “shadow elite” rule the world and about the “flexians” – the movers and shakers of the shadow elite who glide across borders, and structure overlapping (and not fully revealed) roles in government, business, media, and think tanks to serve their own agendas.
Wedel says that flexians wear many hats both within and outside of government, and use their networks of contacts to influence policy – are warping our democracy and the rule of law.
Peter Sutherland is the quintessential flexian.
“Peter Sutherland, Ireland’s former attorney-general and European Union commissioner, and Lord Camoys, a veteran UK banker, were brought in to advise the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (Apsa), which acts as a central bank.”
According to his September 2009 bio:
Peter Sutherland is chairman of BP plc (1997 – current). He is also chairman of Goldman Sachs International (1995 – current). He was appointed chairman of the London School of Economics in 2008…. Before these appointments, he was the founding director-general of the World Trade Organisation. He had previously served as director general of GATT sinceJuly 1993 [and was] chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht) 1991-1996.
Sutherland resigned as BP’s chairman in 2009, but apparently still serves in various key capacities.
Sutherland is managing director – as well as chairman – of Goldman Sachs International (Goldman Sachs International is the very powerful subsidiary of the Goldman Sachs Group, of which Lloyd Blankfein is CEO). Sutherland is also an Advisory Director of the Goldman Sachs Group itself.
And he was/is European Chairman for the Trilateral Commission.Denis and Enda’s Adviser/Comptroller.
He has, at various times, attended meetings of the Bilderberg group, with a pet in arms.
He is also one of the chief money laundering/pay offs financial advisers to the Vatican.
Vatican to tackle money laundering
By Giulia Segreti in Rome
Published: December 29 2010 19:35 | Last updated: December 29 2010 19:35
The Vatican will establish a new authority to combat money laundering as the tiny state seeks the blessing of international regulators who have refused to include it on lists of countries compliant with international norms (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/de6bc4e0-2b78-11de-b806-00144feabdc0.html#axzz19WyHNAJD).
In a papal document to be published on Thursday, the Vatican will promise to adhere to European rules targeting money laundering. The decree, or motu proprio, will apply to all government bodies at the Holy See including the Vatican Bank, also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).
The Vatican’s new Financial Information Authority will enforce rules “concerning the prevention of illegal financial activity” and join “the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing”, the Holy See said in a statement on Wednesday.
Cardinal Attilio Nicora, head of the body responsible for Church properties and funding, will oversee the new anti-money laundering regime.
The Vatican covets inclusion on lists – compiled by bodies including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Financial Action Task Force – of jurisdictions deemed to be compliant with international money laundering norms.
The announcement comes three months after court officials in Rome launched an investigation into the Vatican bank’s top two officials – Ettore Gotti-Tedeschi, chairman, and Paolo Cipriani, director-general – for suspected breach of anti-money laundering norms.
Both men have denied any wrongdoing. Mr Gotti-Tedeschi has said the case arose from a “misunderstanding” between the Vatican bank and Credito Artigiano (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=it:CRA), an Italian bank, over a money transfer.
Following concerns from Italy’s central bank over two transfers of Vatican funds to unnamed beneficiaries, magistrates seized a total of €23m ($30m) from an IOR account at Credito Artigiano.
In October, an Italian court ruled against an appeal by the Vatican, which had sought the release of the frozen funds.
“The motu proprio is a clear confirmation of what we have been saying until now – the Catholic Church wants to be included in the list of states dedicated to combating terrorism and money laundering and has no intention to get involved in any money laundering,” Vincenzo Scordamaglia, a lawyer representing the IOR, told the Financial Times.
“Italy will not be able to say any more that the Holy See does not want to follow the rules. We have had so many obstacles in the past . . . If this motu proprio had arrived earlier, [the probe] never would have been launched.”
Bankers estimate that the IOR, which does not publish its accounts, holds assets worth about $5bn. It is administered by five cardinals, has no shareholders and disburses its profits to charities.
The motu proprio will be Pope Benedict XVI’s seventh since he succeeded Pope John Paul II in April 2005.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fd156970-137d-11e0-a367-00144feabdc0.html
As if that is not enough, Sutherland also serves in the following capacities;
as an Attorney General of Ireland and also served as European Commissioner from 1985 to 1989 where he was responsible for competition policy…. He serves as the Chairman of British Petroleum, BP Amoco PLC and United Kingdom. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the Chairman of Allied Irish Bank. …. He serves as a Non-Executive Director of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. He serves as a Director of Goldman Sachs International. He has been Member of Supervisory Board at Allianz SE since January 2010 and serves as its Member of International Advisory Board …. Mr. Sutherland served as a Non Executive Director of BP Plc since July 1995. He serves as a Member of Foundation Board of World Economic Forum. He served as an Independent Non Executive Director of National Westminster Bank PLC since January 2001. He served as an Independent Non Executive Director of The Royal Bank Of Scotland Plc from January 2001 to February 6, 2009…. In addition, he serves on the board of Allianz, Koc Holding A.S. and is a member of the advisory board of Eli Lilly…. He served as a Director of LM Ericsson Telephone Co since 1996, Ericsson SPA since 1996 and Investor AB since 1995. He served as a Non Executive Director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc from January 2001 to February 6, 2009.
Sutherland is – literally – like Lloyd Blankfein and Tony Hayward rolled into one. But unlike Blankfein and Hayward, he has also held numerous powerful governmental and quasi-governmental positions.
Peter Sutherland since 1995, was executive director of Goldman Sachs International, but had key roles in the European institutions: it was European Commissioner for Competition, Director General of GATT (General Agreement for Trade and Traffic), Secretary General from 2006 United Nations Organisation for Migration, the 2008 president of the London School of Economics, President of the Federal Trust and member of the European Policy Centre, in addition, between 2001 and 2009 was president of the British section of the Fund for Ireland.
These are some names, the most common, but the list is really long and mingling between national institutions, Europe is really impressive, so much so that it is difficult to speak of a mere coincidence.An answer to a parliamentary questions revealed that in 2010 the NTMA paid €6.2 million to bond traders and wealth managers Rothschild for advice on burning bondholders from the very same bondholders.
Given all this, we understand what is behind the scene that promises to power: the banks, in particular, and particularly a bank, Goldman Sachs, but behind the Goldman Sachs who is or are? the men that move the ranks of world power? as some of the characters that we encountered so far: Mario Draghi, Mario Monti, Lucas Papademos, Petros Christodoulou, Otmar Issing, etc. are not the architects of the grand design of Goldman Sachs, but ARE instruments of the same plan?
“Behold the man who was previously on the board of the now “troubled” Allied Irish Bank, which wrote off the substantial debts owed by the former Prime Minister, Garret FitzGerald, and other people who gambled on the stock-market, and lost; but who now tells us that debts imposed on us taxpayers, because of private, foreign and domestic banks that also gambled, these are sacrosanct – and no cheeky questions from you peasants, either…
… Sutherland opposes… the banking inquiry. This is hardly surprising from a former chairman of AIB who appeared at the 1999 public inquiry into the Dirt tax evasion scandal.
“It would have been better not to have an inquiry at this time … We need to look to the future…” [Irish Times]
Before we avert our gaze at this glorious future which is coming, why not look at some of his past performance, though? Behold the man who was one of the directors of the Royal Bank of Scotland until 2009; this is the same bank that is number one of the top ten Irish government bond (debt) holders; those same bondholders that Pete is pontificating must be “reassured” by imposing “austerity” on us peons; behold the man who was
a board member at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) during the financial meltdown when the UK bank collapsed into state arms after a frenetic, debt-fuelled growth. Of the bank’s 2007 role in the €71 billion acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro, the biggest ever banking takeover, Sutherland says it made “the mistake of buying at precisely the wrong time when the world was falling off the back of a bus”. [Irish Times]
Lack of revisionism is not too surprising coming from a person whose personal, and future, fortune, is based on the past generosity of American, and now Irish taxpayers. Because his wealth is certainly not due to his skill at anything related to his actual career.
Behold the man who has used every opportunity to browbeat Ireland about the necessity of greater EU integration – for example, the adoption by Ireland of the Euro; who now tells us
We have to recognise that as currency devaluation is not an option, downward flexibility in wages and prices is essential to avoid unemployment… [Irish Times]
Which is only what every thoughtful opponent of Maastricht and every other such treaty was trying to warn about – but was shouted down by the “Great and the Good” such as Sutherland, Fitzgerald etc., and their apologists, enablers, & messenger boys in Official Ireland.
Despite all the huffing and puffing by the Loyal Opposition, still beholden to the “Permanent Government“, the only person in the Dáil that we are aware of who has made a substantive public address on this is Martin Ferris – and this has then only been reported abroad.
Think about this really, really hard, the next time that RTE, the Media, or anyone else “respectable” puts that kind of person up on a pedestal. There is honour amongst thieves.”
brianmc10 