47 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "City"
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aliases:
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- "Atlanta, Georgia"
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tags:
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- City
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- Georgia
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- BNL
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- BCCI
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- MKULTRA
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summary: "Georgia capital where BNL's branch lent Iraq billions off the books until the FBI raid of 1989, where BCCI's frontman bought Bert Lance's bank, and where CIA-funded LSD tests ran at the federal penitentiary."
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location: "Atlanta, Georgia"
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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### BNL Atlanta
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Between 1985 and 1989 the Atlanta branch of the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]], managed by [[Christopher Drogoul]], extended more than four billion dollars in unreported loans and credits to Iraq, part of them guaranteed by the [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|Commodity Credit Corporation]]; the money financed the purchases of Iraq's military procurement network, including [[Matrix Churchill]] and the brass plant of [[SerVaas Inc.]][^1][^2] The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] raided the branch on August 4, 1989.[^3] The acting United States attorney in Atlanta, [[Joe D. Whitley]], recused himself on taking office on June 1, 1990, because his former law firm had represented Matrix Churchill.[^4] The indictment returned in Atlanta on February 28, 1991, named Drogoul and, among others, [[Safa al-Habobi]].[^5] Judge [[Marvin Shoob]] called Drogoul and his colleagues "pawns and bit-players in a far more wide-ranging conspiracy."[^6] The investigation became the [[BNL Scandal]].
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### BCCI and the National Bank of Georgia
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In January 1978 [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]] completed his purchase of the [[National Bank of Georgia]] from [[Bert Lance]], with the help of [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], who paid off Lance's 3.5 million dollar bank loan the same day. [[First American Bank]], secretly owned by BCCI, bought the bank from Pharaon for 227 million dollars in 1987.[^7][^13]
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### MKULTRA
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After May 1943 [[George Hunter White]] of the [[Office of Strategic Services]] tested a truth drug on suspected Communist soldiers at camps near Atlanta, Memphis and [[New Orleans]].[^8] Under [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] Subproject 47 the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] tested large doses of [[LSD]] on volunteers at the [[Atlanta Federal Penitentiary]] through [[Emory University]].[^9]
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### Other Records
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The [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]], with [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] as president, was organized in Atlanta on January 10 and 11, 1957.[^10] [[George R. Wackenhut]] was an FBI special agent in Atlanta and Indianapolis from 1951 to 1954, before founding the [[Wackenhut Corporation]].[^11] The car [[James Earl Ray]] had driven from Memphis after the killing of King in April 1968 was found abandoned in Atlanta.[^12]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: "Drogoul gets 37 months in BNL bank scandal." *United Press International,* December 9, 1993; *United States v. Drogoul,* 1 F.3d 1546 (11th Cir. 1993).
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[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992, and "Brass Factory in Iraq," September 25, 1992, p. H9502.
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[^3]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Scandal: High-Level Politics Try to Hide the Evidence." *Congressional Record,* House, September 14, 1992, p. H8349.
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[^4]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro,* Serial No. 103-95, 1993.
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[^5]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam, 1993, pp. 185, 281.
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[^6]: "Justice probe finds no 'Iraqgate' conspiracy." Associated Press, in the *San Francisco Chronicle.* https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/justice-probe-finds-no-iraqgate-conspiracy-3160242.php
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[^7]: Beaty, Jonathan, and S. C. Gwynne. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI.* Random House, 1993, pp. 11-14, as cited on the National Bank of Georgia page.
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[^8]: Marks, John D. *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control.* Times Books, 1979, ch. 1.
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[^9]: Earman, John S., CIA Inspector General. "Report of Inspection of MKULTRA/TSD," July 26, 1963, as cited on the Project MKUltra page; Marks, ch. 4.
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[^10]: Garrow, David. *Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.* William Morrow, 1986.
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[^11]: The Wackenhut Corporation, biographical sketch of George R. Wackenhut, annual reports, as cited on the George R. Wackenhut page.
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[^12]: Sides, Hampton. *Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin.* Doubleday, 2010.
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[^13]: As cited on the First American Bank page for BCCI's secret ownership.
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