disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
The_Info_Web/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Kissinger Associates.md

12 KiB
Raw Blame History

aliases category tags summary start location created updated relations
Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Private Organization
Organization
KissingerAssociates
HenryKissinger
BNL
Iraqgate
BCCI
Consulting
RevolvingDoor
New York consulting firm founded by Henry Kissinger in 1982 whose officers Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger advised Banca Nazionale del Lavoro before returning to government during the bank's unreported lending to Iraq. 1982 New York, New York 2026-09-21 2026-10-14
type with start end role fn
represented Banca Nazionale del Lavoro 1986 1989 consulting client; Scowcroft briefed the bank board three times 1986 to 1989 3

Kissinger Associates is an international consulting firm founded in New York City in 1982 by former United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. Two of its officers, Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger, left it in 1989 to become national security adviser and deputy secretary of state under George H.W. Bush. Between 1985 and 1989 the Atlanta branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, a firm client, lent Iraq more than four billion dollars that did not appear on the bank's books.1

Banca Nazionale del Lavoro

Kissinger sat on the bank's international advisory board from 1985 until June 1991 and was paid at least 10,000 dollars for each meeting he attended in Rome. The other members included David Rockefeller, the former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and Lord Thorneycroft. Representative Henry Gonzalez, chairman of the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, told the House on April 28, 1992: "BNL was a client of Mr. Scowcroft's while he was the vice-chairman of Kissinger Associates. Mr. Scowcroft regularly provided advice to BNL's management and received hefty fees in return." At a meeting in New York in 1987, Kissinger, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, and the firm's chief economist, Alan Stoga, advised officers of the bank on business in several countries, and Stoga and Scowcroft took the visitors to lunch. From 1986 to 1990 Eagleburger was a director of Ljubljanska Banka of Yugoslavia, which a Federal Reserve memorandum said did 20 to 25 percent of its American business with the Italian bank.12

"Several Kissinger Associates clients had extensive dealings with Iraq," Gonzalez said, "including Volvo, Midland Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Fiat, and Asea Brown Boveri and those same companies also were the beneficiaries of BNL loans to Iraq or were involved in some way with BNL-Atlanta." He added: "Kissinger, Scowcroft, and Eagleburger maintain that they were unaware of the BNL loans to Iraq. I offer no definitive proof that they were aware of the BNL loans." Kissinger replied to the committee in writing that he had no knowledge of the Atlanta lending.1

Gonzalez reported that Scowcroft, while at the firm, worked on the BNL account, met BNL management on numerous occasions, and on three occasions between 1986 and 1989 briefed the BNL board.3 After Scowcroft joined the government, Gonzalez said, the White House intervened in late 1989 to make sure that Iraq received a $1 billion allocation of Commodity Credit Corporation credits, and the National Security Council staff contacted the Department of Agriculture about the delayed second installment of $500 million after the Iraqi ambassador complained to Scowcroft.3

The Italian Senate commission of inquiry's final report of April 22, 1992 stated that the House Banking Committee's coming interim report would address "la collaborazione prestata per alcuni anni alla BNL dall'ex segretario di Stato Kissinger e attraverso la Ljublianska Bank dal sottosegretario Eagleburger," and the consultancy given "anche diversi mesi dopo il 4 agosto 1989" by Kissinger Associates and by the national security adviser, Scowcroft.4

The Italian Senate commission's documentation sheet on Kissinger Associates states that BNL's executive committee decided in June 1986 to begin a consulting relationship with the firm, under a two-year contract at $150,000 a year plus expenses running from July 1, 1986 to June 30, 1988, and that five meetings took place between officers of the bank and of the firm, with Iraq not among the countries examined. Scowcroft attended as a representative of the firm and received no personal compensation, only travel and lodging expenses.5 The advisory board minutes that Gonzalez entered into the record of the November 9, 1993 hearing record a meeting in Madrid on May 4 and 5, 1987, in which Kissinger is quoted giving "the victory of Iran over Iraq at 55 percent" and stating that he would change that estimate.6

Stoga in Baghdad

In June 1989 Stoga traveled to Baghdad with a delegation of the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum led by its chairman, the banker A. Robert Abboud, and the group met Saddam Hussein. The forum's president, Marshall Wiley, said on the television program 60 Minutes that Stoga went to advise the Iraqi government on restructuring its debt. Stoga told the Banking Committee he went "to get to know the country better." He spoke at the forum's symposium on American commercial and strategic interests in Iraq that November.1 The Italian commission's documentation sheet likewise records Stoga's participation in the June 1989 meeting in Baghdad between the forum and Iraqi government officials.5

The manager of the Atlanta branch, Christopher Drogoul, testified in 1993 that Wafai Dajani had told him in 1989 that Kissinger was "the architect of foreign policy in the United States," and that "it became clear to us that the people at Kissinger and Associates were somehow assisting clients of Iraq in further developing business." Drogoul added: "By the time we moved into the 1988 period or early 1989 period, it was fairly clear to me that Kissinger and Associates' people were involved in some way in trying to enhance and develop a relationship between Iraq and the United States. I really shouldn't go farther than that, because the rest is probably speculation." He also described a Kissinger Associates member who went to Iraq with a member of the Iraqi-American Business Forum to discuss business ties.7 The special counsel appointed by United States Attorney General William Barr, Frederick Lacey, reported in December 1992 that Scowcroft and Eagleburger "came into contact with BNL management" while at the firm and that he had seen nothing to suggest they knew of the loans or influenced the prosecution.89 The exact text of Lacey's conclusion on the two former officers reads: "It is clear that, while at Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with BNL management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter."10

The State Department Certificates

On March 14, 1989, Secretary of State James Baker signed the documents certifying Matrix Churchill Corporation of Ohio as a validly chartered American company so that it could open a branch in Baghdad. Eagleburger, as acting secretary, signed a second set on May 10. Matrix Churchill was owned through London holding companies by the Iraqi military procurement organization and was financed by the Atlanta branch. "Unwittingly, in 1989 both James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger helped Matrix-Churchill establish its Baghdad branch," Gonzalez said. "Pretty good."11

BCCI and the National Bank of Georgia

The day after the Tampa, Florida branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International was indicted for money laundering in October 1988, a senior officer of that bank wrote to its president describing a telephone call from Stoga, in which "Dr. Kissinger recommends that a public relations offensive be made by us." Gonzalez placed the letter in the Congressional Record. Stoga denied the account. An expense report filed in July 1986 by Roy Carlson, president of the National Bank of Georgia, which the Saudi financier Ghaith Pharaon held as a front for the same bank, lists a "Briefing Session Dr. Henry Kissinger."1

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 1992 report by John Kerry and Hank Brown states that BCCI initiated contacts with the firm from the fall of 1986 through early 1989; that Stoga and the firm's consultant, the retired Brazilian ambassador Sergio Correa da Costa (who was simultaneously a paid front-man for BCCI), explored ways to link BCCI's banks with the firm's services; that the discussions "ended in early 1989 at Henry Kissinger's personal insistence"; and that the firm referred BCCI to its director William D. Rogers and Arnold & Porter.12 On September 20, 1987 da Costa invited Kissinger to dinner at the Georgia plantation of the BCCI shareholder Ghaith Pharaon, suggesting Pharaon as a client; the report states that Kissinger declined.12 The firm's counsel Lloyd Cutler wrote to Kerry on January 30, 1992 that the firm had "never represented or provided any services for BCCI, ICIC, or any BCCI shareholder"; the committee wrote that this account "is not untrue" but "does fail to characterize the full extent of the contacts."12 A note by Steven Aftergood on the Federation of American Scientists copy of the report states that Hank Brown, "reportedly acting at the behest of Henry Kissinger," pressed after its release for the deletion of a few passages, particularly in chapter 20.12

Footnotes

  1. Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," Congressional Record, House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2701. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm ↩︎

  2. "The Scourge of 'Iraqgate,'" The Christian Science Monitor, October 26, 1992. ↩︎

  3. Gonzalez, Henry B. "Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, Stoga, Iraq, and BNL," Congressional Record, House, April 28, 1992, pp. H2694-H2698. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920428g.htm ↩︎

  4. Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Doc. XXII-bis n. 4 (Relazione conclusiva, relatore Carta), April 22, 1992, pp. 23, 34. https://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/relazioni/archiviostorico/commissioni/X%20LEG_BNL.ATLANTA_DOC_RELAZ/X_%20LEG_BNL-ATLANTA_DOC%20XXIIBIS_4_22.4.92.pdf ↩︎

  5. Senato della Repubblica, X Legislatura, Doc. XXII-bis n. 4, Allegato, Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul caso della filiale di Atlanta della Banca Nazionale del Lavoro e sue connessioni, Relazione conclusiva approvata il 22 aprile 1992, schede di documentazione 30 and 31, pp. 188-189. https://www.senato.it/application/xmanager/projects/leg18/file/DOC%20XXII%20bis%20n.%204%20Allegato.pdf ↩︎

  6. Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Serial No. 103-95, hearing of November 9, 1993, advisory board minutes inserted into the record by Chairman Gonzalez. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit ↩︎

  7. Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, hearing of November 9, 1993, Serial No. 103-95, p. 14. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit ↩︎

  8. Testimony of Christopher P. Drogoul, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Serial No. 103-95, November 9, 1993. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit ↩︎

  9. Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in Serial No. 103-95, pp. 514-15. ↩︎

  10. Lacey, Part I of the report of the Independent Counsel, printed in Serial No. 103-95, p. 514. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit ↩︎

  11. Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network," Congressional Record, House, August 10, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm ↩︎

  12. U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, The BCCI Affair, S. Prt. 102-140, December 1992, chapter 20, "BCCI and Kissinger Associates," and the Federation of American Scientists index note. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/20kiss.htm ↩︎