CIA counterfeiting scam

To those of us who keep an eye on the murky world of the CIA - as far as we can see it - it's obvious that they have no compunction about dealing drugs to maintain their slush funds. This has been going on since at least the sixties, in Thailand and the rest of Indochina, through the eighties and the Iran-Contra scandals, and on through the oughties in Afghanistan. If you're not familiar with the scandals surrounding the BCCI and Nugan Hand banks, you could research those names and see what you find.

If you want to, you can see that this goes all the way back to the nineteenth century, when the Opium Wars were all about the right of the US and UK to sell opium within China (which didn't want that to happen).

So now it emerges that the CIA seems to have other inventive ways to finance their black projects.

Experts Suggest the CIA, Not Kim Jong-il, is Counterfeiting Dollars

The American secret service, the CIA, could be responsible for manufacturing the nearly-perfect counterfeit 50 and 100-dollar-notes that Washington pins on the terror regime of North Korea. The charge comes after an extensive investigation in Europe and Asia by the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung of Frankfurt, and after interviews with counterfeit money experts and leading representatives of the high-security publishing industry.

The U.S.-dollar forgeries designated "Supernotes," which are so good that even specialists are unable to distinguish them from genuine notes, have circulated for almost two decades without a reliable identification of the culprits. Because of their extraordinary quality, experts assume that some country must be behind the enterprise.

Bush's administration accused North Korea, but Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung has sources that suggest that the CIA prints these notes at a secret facility in Washington.

The paper also promises more details to come shortly. Yum!

I guess one also has to wonder who knows about this?

Does the Fed know? The dollar is surely in enough trouble as it is without this kind of extra inflationary pressure being added to the mix.

It's also hardly a patriotic thing to be doing. Let's face it, this is criminal activity that strikes directly at the economic heart of the US. Unless these people think that the dollar is already worthless and nothing they do can cause any more significant harm than has been done already... weird.

On the other hand, it certainly reinforces the idea that there are sections of the US government that are completely out of control.

Here is a BBC report about the counterfeiting program.

It's from 2004 and gives the previous, orthodox view of the superdollars as being manufactured by North Korea.

A helpful "defector" told them all about it.

Sorry, but ever since those pesky non-existent WMDs, I've learned to distrust the words of defectors trotted out by the security services. (Funny how that phrase, "security services", is rather Orwellian, in that it actually means its opposite - "insecurity services" would be a rather better description of their function within the state apparatus.)

Another defector said: "We bought the best of everything - the best equipment and the best ink. But we also had the very best people, people who had real expertise and knowledge in the field.

"When government officials or diplomats travelled to south-east Asia they distributed the counterfeit notes mixed in with the real one's, at a ratio of about 50-50."

My God, they're all at it!

Iran, Syria Accused of Counterfeiting US Dollars

And that was back in 1992... but this is before the advent of the "superdollar", of course. But... this is interesting...

"The fact of the matter is that the Iranian government, in cooperation with Syria, has undertaken a massive counterfeiting campaign in order to alleviate their financial difficulties and pursue economic warfare against the West," Representative Bill McCollum (Republican of Florida) said in a July 1 news conference.

McCollum, chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, which authored the report, said the "origins of this strategy go back to Iran's efforts to rebuild its economy in the wake of the Iran-Iraq war. When it became apparent that Iraq's exports could not meet its hard-currency needs the plan for a counterfeit operation was devised," McCollum said.

"The Iranians last week outraged me personally when they put in their official publication the statement that this counterfeit money was being produced by the United States 'intelligence community' and distributed over there," McCollum said. "That's hogwash."

I can only assume that the reference to Iraq is a typo... or maybe McCollum just doesn't know what he's talking about. Entirely possible. But he got all outraged, personally so, poor love. Ahhh.

Of course, if those counterfeit dollars that are produced in the US are being used abroad, that's going to be all right by the Fed? As long as they don't make their way back to the country of origin, it's not the US economy they're disrupting, surely? I'm open to more information on this point.

Ooh, just had another thought.

If the US dollar collapses and they blame it on the North Korean-produced counterfeits, does that count as a "legitimate" excuse to invade?

Counterfeit bills overseas are a kind of see no evil deal I would assume. Regaurding a reason to invade I think with the example of Iraq if the U.S. wants to invade some where they will make up/exaggerate something that will give them a reason to do so. If the rest of the world doesn't agree with it then tought luck.