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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (1048)	4/13/2001 6:03:05 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

Russia, Israel, and America: One Big Happy Family, eh? LOL! GIMME A BREAK, CHARLEY!! Time for you to get clued up on it.... cdi.org Excerpt: "Of all the nations where the Russian mob has established a presence, none has been more deeply compromised than the State of Israel," Friedman writes, adding that the Russian mafia has "become a grave threat to the stability of Israel." Although this may be a bit hyperbolic, the Russian mafia does have a strong, safe base in Israel-a story that American and Israeli journalists have largely overlooked. One FBI report observes, for example, that most members of Mogilevich's criminal organization have Israeli passports. And Jonathan Winer told Friedman (when Winer was still the State Department's crime expert), "There is not a major Russian organized crime figure whom we are tracking who does not also carry an Israeli passport." The Russian mobsters have taken advantage of the right of any Jew to become an Israeli citizen, and of the country's desire to attract capital. Israel has no money-laundering laws. Its open banking system, a US official told me, was "developed for good motives," but was "perverted by the Russian mafia types. One could pick up a passport and a bank account, and operate like you couldn't in the rest of the Western world." Along with Mogilevich, American officials put high on their list of suspects two of his lieutenants, Gregori Loutchansky and Vadim Rabinovitch. Loutchansky ran a trading company called Nordex, which American and European officials say has links to Russian organized crime and once acted as broker in the sale of Scud missiles from North Korea to Iraq. Rabinovitch ran the Nordex office in Kiev. In Israel, the Russian mob leaders have bought protection from senior government officials, and have poured so much money into political campaigns there that they have been able to name candidates for local and national office. The admired former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who has become active in Israeli politics, has admitted taking campaign contributions from Nordex, in spite of pleas from American officials to cut his links with Loutchansky. When Loutchansky invited a list of prominent Russian mobsters to his birthday party in Israel in 1996, the Israeli police began to grow alarmed. And an Israeli police official told me that they have begun to look more closely at how the Russian mobsters got their citizenship. A naturalized Israeli citizen can't be deprived of citizenship if he commits a felony, but he can if he has obtained that citizenship by fraud, such as falsely claiming to have Jewish ancestors. Late last year, the Israelis revoked the citizenship of Sergei Mikhailov, the mob leader acquitted in Switzerland; an Israeli police official recently told me that others' will also be revoked. Recognizing the threat to American interests from Russian organized crime, the FBI opened an office in Budapest in April of this year. Not only has the city been the headquarters for Mogilevich and Mikhailov but, according to investigators, over half of the money that went through the Bank of New York was first funneled through Budapest banks. This is the first full-scale bureau office outside the United States. Until now, the FBI has had agents posted as attachés in American embassies around the world, but they function primarily as semi-diplomats. The Hungarian government was eager to have the FBI office installed in Budapest, and, after a brief protest, it has had enthusiastic support in Hungary, even from the opposition political party. But, such moves have not been widely applauded within the bureau. Much opposition has come from senior officials who wanted the office to be opened as quietly as possible; they also fear political repercussions if anything goes wrong, such as an FBI agent getting caught in a shoot-out. Conservatives in Congress argue that the FBI ought to stay home and keep the streets and banks safe for Americans; liberals fear any expansion of the FBI's power, in view of its past abuses. But the reality is that the Russian crime gangs don't respect borders; they now can reach into the United States without coming close to Brighton Beach. ___________________