textfiles-politics/regexConsp/skolnick9503.xml

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INTERVIEW WITH SHERMAN SKOLNICK -- MARCH 2, 1995
 
I spoke by phone with Sherman Skolnick of the Citizens' Committee
to Clean-up the Courts [CCCC]. Here is my transcription of that
interview.
 
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[Phone rings]
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Uh, Sherman Skolnick?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Hi. This is Brian Redman. I talked with you a few days ago?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah, right.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. I got the Barings Bank thing went out on the Internet,  O.K.
I'm also wondering if you have, maybe, 5 minutes, I could ask you
some questions?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I'd be glad.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. What I've done...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
By  the  way,  the message was highly detailed.  I hope it didn't
cause you any trouble to transcribe it.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
No. As a matter of  fact,  I... I printed out the transcription
and it's in the mail, O.K.?  So you should be gettin' it...  mmm,
tomorrow or Saturday.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Thank you.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. Uh, I've been runnin' around a lot, you know, so, I...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Thank you for your efforts.
 
I  have  been  talking to people all over [the] United States and
elsewhere, gathering information on this.  I...  You know, I know
a lot of people.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Um-hmm [understands].
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
What kind of questions do you have?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. All right, well, number one,  O.K. Let me just kind of throw
something out at ya:  I got this...  You see, what I, the  way  I
had  been  recording  your  recorded  messages before was I had a
micro- cassette recorder that I  would  place right up to the ear
of the phone to record the message.  And I, my idea was,  I  went
to  Radio  Shack  and  they told me that there was this kind of a
gizmo, O.K.?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah, right.  It costs about  $21  and  you plug it directly into
the modular phone line and then into your machine, and it records
directly from the line without any hum or problem.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. So that's what I did.  In fact, I'm recordin' ya right  now,
if that's O.K.?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah, fine.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. So that's...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...checking  out.  Better check out, check a little bit if you're
using it for the first time.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
You know what I did, I tested it on your recorded message, and it
seemed to work O.K.,  so... And  I  just figured, well, I'll do
like a 5 or 10 minute interview and if it turns out O.K.  then  I
could  just  transcribe  the  interview  and  put  it  out on the
Internet.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Yeah, certainly.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. I just wanted to,  you  know, make sure you understood that,
you know, all that stuff.
 
O.K. A few questions that  came  up,  all  right,  was  with  the
Barings Bank, uh -- it's a relatively small bank.  You know, like
a billion dollar failure...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well that's not accurate.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
The  total estimated, or expected losses may well exceed over $10
billion.  And  to  understand  that,  you  have  to  consult with
experts on derivatives.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Um-hmm [understands].
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
In unwinding a derivative trade that has gone bad, it depends  on
the instruments that are involved.  Here what was involved is the
price  of yen and related matters.  While they're unwinding these
transactions, the yen... um, not  the  yen (excuse me), the Nikei
Index may go down 2000 points.  And if that occurs, as  some  in
the  securities industry expect (although they haven't been asked
about it or quoted in the  financial press), if that occurs, that
the [Nikei] Index goes down 2000 points, then the  loss  of  the
derivative transactions that have gone sour will be very close to
*10*  *billion* *dollars*.  Not one billion, and not 900 million,
but $10 billion.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. 'Cause there...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
It  depends  on  the  unwinding of  the  trades. Because  the
derivatives transactions in question here were highly complicated
and are tied in with the Nikei Index.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. Because there was some question.  See, I get  feedback,  all
right? This  thing  goes out to a lot of readers and I get some
feedback from them.  And  it  occurred  to  me  that, now I had a
chance to, you know, explore some of these issues  more  in-depth
and  kind of...  'Cause they had a lot of questions.  I get a lot
of...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I've already talked off-the-record  with highly-skilled people in
this field.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And they have explained it to me.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Understand something:  um, how can I explain this quickly?  As  a
result of our efforts for over 30-some odd years in investigating
judicial  corruption,  over  the  years we've found out that such
corruption involves banks that  are  owned and operated by judges
and others.  As a result, we became, we have become very adept at
financial research.  And we have sources all over.  And  we  have
talked  to  those  sources, and they estimate that the loss, when
the Barings Bank transactions get  unwound, would be close to $10
billion.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. Along the line of sources, I  know  that  you  can't  reveal
these  people,  but  I'm  thinking  more  in terms of, uh you had
mentioned before that  you  read,  for  example, the *Wall Street
Journal*.  Are there other sources out  there,  as  for  reading,
that you would recommend?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well  I  would  find  it  interesting,  in  the  future, what the
*Economist*, which now is  trying  to  get a larger readership in
the United States, that's a...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
That's a London...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...that's a London publication [CN --  a  magazine],  what  their
next  issue  on  this  question  may  deal with.  They may take a
purely British point of view,  or  they  may take a point of view
sympathetic to the Queen's interest  in  Barings. Although  the
Queen,  also,  has  a stock brokerage -- I believe they're called
COATS(?)  -- that handles,  traditionally,  a lot of the business
of the British monarchy.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. So the *Wall Street Journal*, the *Economist*, there's...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Oh, you mean to get a clear idea of what's going on?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah. Just some of the stuff you read.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...none of these publications, in my opinion, are gonna tell  the
unvarnished  truth  about  what  is involved.  And I can give the
reasons for that.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Because they all  have  their  own  special interests behind 'em?
Or...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well...  Let me just list a few of  the  problems. One  of  the
largest  securities firms in the world, Nomura Securities, N-o-m-
u-r-a, reportedly is, and has  been, in worse financial condition
than Barings.  However, the Bank of Japan, and others,  may  bail
them  out. But some brokerages are quietly "red-flagging" them,
which is a trade term  for  avoiding somebody.  For example, when
some brokerages became aware that there was a problem in  Mexico,
they  "red-flagged"  Mexico. That's  the  way  they  tell their
troops, "No transactions with them" -- you see the point?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Likewise, Goldman-Sachs has  come  within  a hair, reportedly, of
going  under  in  respect  to  the  "Mexican  problem" -- the
devaluation and the expected defaults by Mexican corporations.
 
So  the  financial press, to help the established interests, wish
to play down the Barings thing as much as they possibly can as a,
just another "minor matter".  Which I don't believe it is.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. There's a newsletter  called *Strategic Investment*, put out
by Lord Rees-Mogg...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Right!  I read it.  I get copies.  I don't subscribe, but friends
of mine send me copies from time to time.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Same... Yeah. Same with me.
 
I uh...  In their latest issue, they're talkin' about this  thing
about  how Clinton's puttin' up what they call a "Berlin Wall" to
keep dollars from fleeing  the  country.  Have you heard anything
about that?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well what I know that's related to it is, the dollar is  hitting,
more  and  more,  new, post-war lows.  And the reason for that is
that expert traders in  the  dollar are expecting the possibility
that the *Deutschmark* will be the new, reserve currency  of  the
world,  rather  than  the  U.S.  dollar. And  that  is based on
information that Clinton and  his  wife  are  "going to the wall"
[i.e. will face some degree of justice] soon.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
In other words, well, there's been leaks from  the  investigation
by  the  independent  prosecutor which supports the idea that the
First Lady is, in the near future, most likely gonna be indicted.
And that will  put  a  tremendous  cloud  over  the Clinton White
House.  And so, in advance of that, the dollar is being dumped --
let's put it that way.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. I'm just basically,  for  myself,  I'm  watchin'  the  *Wall
Street  Journal*  myself  and just noticin' the dollar/yen thing,
how that's...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Notice the split in the  *Wall  Street Journal*:  those that work
on the editorial page continue with their detailed  items,  which
are  more  *news*  items  than editorials, about Whitewater.  The
other day they had a, um...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
I saw it. Yeah.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...a  front-page  story that "pooh-poohed"  Whitewater. The
editorials are closer to the truth than the front-page  story  --
which  is  a  different faction within the *Wall Street Journal*.
(I know a lot about the  back office politics of the *Wall Street
Journal*.)
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. Yeah, like  I  say,  this,  I'm  gonna  have  to  keep  this
relatively brief.  I mean, there's a *lot* of things...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well then cut out those parts that you feel are not relevant.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
No,  it's  *all* relevant, 'til now.  I'm just sayin' that I have
to kind of move along.  You know, I'm lookin' for, at this point,
maybe a 10, 15 minute  interview.  Because I plan on transcribin'
the whole thing.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
All right, what subjects do you particularly want to get into?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
There's just a few questions that people had, O.K.? And  you've
answered,  so  far, fine; I'm happy with the answers you've given
me so far.  And I'd like  to  get into more detail.  You know, my
idea is, maybe call you up once a week, ten, fifteen minutes, and
just kinda, you know, "flesh out" things, and...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
My opinion is that the Barings Bank collapse is not  an  isolated
event. It  is  part  of an ongoing series of scandals which, of
which the  Whitewater  scandal  and  the  scandal,  the series of
scandals in Italy, and  in  France  --  there's  some  overriding
connection  between them.  In other words, different factions are
coming out of joint and are fighting with each other, and this is
what happens.  And the financial  press is *not* making any sense
out of  it;  they're  dealt  with  as  if  they're  all  isolated
situations -- which they may not be.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.  With  this (movin' to a different subject), with this thing
of the 41 grand  jury  witnesses  in  Chicago, that you're sayin'
that the Justice Department has got an  assassination  team  that
has been killin' people...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Uh, yes.  The ones that originally contended that were the highly
skilled  lawyers,  including the former Attorney General, Elliott
Richardson, that represented the Inslaw company.  And in rebuttal
to former  judge  Nicholas  J.  Bua's  report  on  the grand jury
investigation of whether Inslaw  was  defrauded  by  the  Justice
Department,  Inslaw's  attorneys filed certain detailed
descriptions,  offering  witnesses,  that  there  is  within  the
Justice Department [an] unmarked  section  where there is a group
there that conducts domestic and foreign assassinations, and that
*they* were responsible for killing a key witness,  a  free-lance
journalist, by the name of Danny Casolaro.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah,  O.K.  What,  what some of my readers were interested in is
possibly a list of the names  of  the victims.  I mean, you don't
have to read, you know, it out over the phone. I  was  thinking
maybe  I  would  contact  you  by  mail, askin' for a list of the
victims if you have...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I think we have compiled a  great  number of names.  In a federal
court case that we brought, in the Fall of '92, on this question,
we accused Bua and others who were supervising the Inslaw federal
grand jury of not paying attention to the fact that *their*  team
of investigators were in  fact  terrorizing  and  murdering
witnesses.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K....
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And we accuse,  in  the  court  record,  a  FBI  agent named Mike
"Chuckie" Peters of the same.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. A lot of this I've pretty much covered already through  the,
posted out on the Internet.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
All right.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
And  one  other thing that people have kind of asked me questions
about is this thing  that  Tsar  Nicholas  II and the Tsarina and
their family were not actually killed in 1918.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well there have been a couple of books on this  subject. And  I
myself,  in  '74, with a group of my associates, went to New York
to spend two whole days interviewing Alexei Romanov, who contends
(and I believe he's correct) that he is the surviving son of Tsar
Nicholas II, and that his  family were *not* murdered, as history
books state, in a basement in Siberia...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
All right, so...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...but that they  lived  out  their  lives,  protected  by  their
cousins,  the  British  royal  family, and that they were housed,
under another name, in Poland. And  it's... well, you'd have to
know a lot about history, you'd have to know  a  lot  about  this
question, to understand the validity of what I'm saying.
 
Most  of  the  royal  families  of Europe -- Russia, Germany, and
England -- are cousins.  They're related...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...through Queen Victoria.  And, so  the  uh...  And, in 1970, in
one edition only, the *Chicago Tribune* wrote a story about this,
confirming from inside sources that the Tsar, his wife, and their
children were rescued and were not murdered  in  Ekaterenberg(?),
Siberia, as some had contended.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
All right, so in the...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
I  think  that  I  have extra copies of that, and I will mail you
one.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. What's... One reader...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And the *Tribune* has never  recanted that story or corrected it.
It's a correct story, from United Press International.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. One reader said that there's, there were actually movies  of
Tsar  Nicholas  and his family being shot by the Bolsheviks, from
1918.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Not true.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Not true. O.K. And another reader...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
What happened is that the Rockefellers, that held $400 million in
gold of the *Romanov* --  not  the Russian government, but of the
*Romanov* private fortune -- have a great interest  to  circulate
those  false  stories.  Otherwise they might have to disgorge the
money.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And they were the  ones  that  financed  the  movie, in the early
'70s, called "Nicholas and Alexandra".  And at the close  of  the
movie,  it  shows... uh, you know:  the Tsar and his family being
shot to death.
 
You mean there's an  *actual*  movie  of  it happening?  It's not
true.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. And you would...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
It's *not* true.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. You would say the  same  for  supposed  DNA  evidence,  that
that's not true?
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Oh,  you  mean that recent stuff that came out of the post-Soviet
period there?  I don't believe any of it.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And *you* wouldn't believe any of it either, if you had spent two
entire days questioning and  examining,  you know, uh questioning
Alexei Romanov.  I mean, he's got the Tsarist family face,  which
cannot  --  I mean, I brought artists along to look at that face!
You can't reproduce that face.  You can't fake-up that face.
 
Further than that, since he was a hemophiliac, as a child he wore
braces.  And we discussed some  inside things about that, some of
the  things  about  wearing  braces  (which,  of  course,  I'm  a
paraplegic myself) that he could not have known otherwise.
 
I mean, we tested him out  on  every  possible  aspect. And  he
didn't flunk a single question, no.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
All  right,  and  what  about  this  Anastasia? I myself am not
totally positive on this.  It seems to me that...  I mean, I know
there was this controversy over this woman...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Well... the, what happened is,  at the time that the Rockefellers
sponsored the  Nicholas  and  Alexandra  movie,  to  promote,  to
further  promote  the  idea  that the Tsar had been murdered, the
reason for it is, the  German  high  court at that time (which is
about 1971) had the case of a woman who  used  the  name  "Marian
Anderson",  but  who claimed that she was the surviving daughter,
Anastasia Romanov...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Um-hmm [understands].
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...the daughter of the Tsar. And  she did not succeed in court,
but that does not mean that she didn't necessarily have  a  valid
case.
 
And  then  in  the  '50s, about 1957, um... what's her name?  The
famous actress... did a movie called "Anastasia".
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah, I know the...  I've heard of the movie.  And I can't recall
the actress either.  [CN -- Ingrid Bergman(?)]
 
O.K. That's...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
In other words, there's been various efforts to further circulate
and promote these false stories  that  the Tsar, the Tsarina, and
their children  were  murdered. It  did  *not*  happen. Those
that... And  the story that ran in one edition of the *Tribune*
in 1970 is a  *correct*  story. They  have never taken it back.
They have never corrected it.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. I just want to close with sayin' most of my readers are very
interested in your material.  And  I'm  real  happy  that  you're
givin'  me  a chance to kind of expand on, you know, these things
that you're saying.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
The Tsarist  thing  requires  a  lot  of  details. I  have only
summarized a *very* *small* number of details.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.  Uh, we're makin' progress, O.K., is...  What  I'm  sayin',
is that, before, I would put out these 5-minute commentaries that
sometimes would raise further questions and, that I couldn't...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And  the other thing that's in my 5-minute message, which there's
gotta be a lot more details discussed,  that you can't do it in 5
minutes -- and that is the secret pact between...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah!
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...the Pope and the Western powers, which expired  in  '93. And
there's a lot to be said about that.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.  And  I'm  just  sayin', see what I have to do is I've gotta
transcribe this.  And this should  keep  me  busy for a few days,
anyway, gettin' this stuff out.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
If this stuff isn't clear, call me and if I'm  here  I  certainly
will  try to...  I tried to summarize this quickly, but you know,
we're "documentors", you know what I mean?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
And I tend to immediately  supply highly detailed answers that...
well, would take...
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
...It would lengthen the thing out.
 
Let's just say, I don't make idle statements.  Let's put it  that
way.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K.  And  the  documents,  I  told ya that, you know, I had made
copies of some of your  commentaries and transcribed 'em.  I sent
those out in the mail to ya.  Like I said, you should be  gettin'
'em Friday or Saturday.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
What  is  happening? In  other  words,  some  of  the others on
Internet are getting back to you with interesting questions, huh?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah! Yeah. And  actually, I've  *routinely*  gotten  these
questions, and I've been in a position of not  really  *knowing*,
you  know? Sometimes  I  have  *some* knowledge, myself, that I
can...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Understand what our problem  is: I operate without a secretary.
And my associates are scattered all over.  So  we  don't  have  a
"secretarial  staff"  to  speak  of. And  I have a listed phone
number and address,  and  were  I  to  get  a  lot  of mail to my
address, I don't think I could, you know, answer  it. In  other
words,  if  questions  came  to  me, how would I answer all these
letters?  Do you see what I mean?
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
Yeah, sure.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
So if they come to you,  I'll...  You ask your questions and I'll
do my best to answer 'em.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. And when I get done with this, transcribin'  this  interview
and  sendin'  it out, I'll send ya a copy.  Just so you know that
I'm representing you *verbatim* and I'm not...
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Right.  And we welcome more questions about the Barings Bank.  We
are in  touch  with  the  most  knowledgeable  people  on various
continents about it.  We've...  We know a great  deal  about  it.
So  we  will have further messages, and I'll be glad to share the
information with you.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. Thanks a lot for your time.
 
 
SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
Thank you.
 
 
CONSPIRACY NATION:
O.K. 'Bye.

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