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News and Updates
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A new chapter, and a new attempt to smother the truth
On February 17, 2010 the United States government filed charges against Richard Chichakli for alleged violation of the sanctions placed upon him by the US government's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) back in 2005. The meritless allegations is not the point the should be locked at, but rather the sanction itself which has been already proven groundless, in the United States, and in the courts of Belgium in 2008 and then Thailand in 2009. The 38 pages indictment which is based upon the same old stories related to Victor Bout and which has been already defeated twice in international courts, also contains several false representations of material facts and which should render the indictment void when contested. It is presumed that the US government had to lie in order to secure such indictment in the absence of proper legal ground and for the purpose of attaining two objectives which are: Keeping Victor Bout in jail with new allegations after the old charges brought by the US were defeated and proven groundless, and equally important to silence Richard Chichakli who was able to reveal to the public documented facts causing the government's lies concerning his case be exposed. Chichakli's defense of his case benefitted the case of Victor Bout because the US government were making no distinctions between Chichakli and Bout and have treated Chichakli as if he was Victor Bout since this matter began.
The US indictment is available here for download and Chichakli Press Release concerning this matter is available here for download.
New book reveals the hidden secrets in Chichakli's case
Shadow Masters, a new book by Daniel Estulin the author of the best seller "The Builderberg Group" is due for release in the US on Monday Dec 21, 2009 and with its release huge amount of secrets related to the allegation manufactured by the US government against Richard Chichakli will be exposed for the first time. The book provides evidentiary documents and testimonials that contradict everything the US government alleged about the Bout-Chichakli relation, it also expose those involved in the conspiracy including names like Farah, Wolosky, Peleman, and many others.
Johan Peleman’s corruption unearthed, again
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, Pierre Falcone, Charles Pasqua, Arkady Gaydamak, among the total of 42 people tried and found guilty of arms trafficking for selling weapons worth more than $790 million dollar to Angola in defiance of a U.N. arms embargo. That is 42 persons including known European and Israeli arms dealers, the former minister of interior and the son of the former president of France were all convicted because they were involved at a very large scale in busting UN weapon embargo. I wonder why none of these names are found in the UN report S/2000/1225 and which alleged that Victor Bout was the sanction Buster with the help of Richard Chichakli? Perhaps those with human dignity should ask “Johan Peleman” why were not they included in his infamous “sexy report” in which he invented Victor Bout? How could his “investigative work” miss 42 names with such a large sum of money, did Peleman really investigate or was he paid to use Victor as a scapegoat to conceal the identity of the real criminals?
How much worse the case of Victor Bout can get
A true disaster for the United States government, the US DOJ, and the DEA was unveiled few days ago after a secret audio and video recoding were leaked. The recording shows the lead DEA agent Derek Odney offering to pay bribe on behalf of the US government, in any amount, to a Russian diplomat in exchange for the extradition of Viktor Bout. This is a fact...
About eight months ago, Derek Odney had met in Bangkok with a former Russian officer, specialist in nuclear technology and who was working on Bout´s defense. The meeting took place in front of the US Embassy. This two hour meeting was photographed by agent of the United States government, and unfortunate for Derek the meeting was also audio and video recorded by the Russians because the man he was meeting with is also an intelligence officer. As it turns out, the Russian officer was a lot smarter than Odney because after two hours of beating around the bush, he was able to get Odney to say on tape that the US government is prepared-to and will pay him (Russian officer) any amount of money he wants if he just gets out of the way of Bout's extradition.
The question here, if the US government case against Viktor Bout is that "airtight", just think about the situation of Richard Chichakli? I never imagined the US government to go to such levels in order to abort justice and conceal the truth.
Judge David C. Godbey, a case in Texas justice
Back in 2006, judge David Godbey was designated to oversee the law suit filed by Richard Chichakli against the Bush-Cheney administration. Judge Godbey who is a personal friend of George Bush and who was appointed by Bush, took no time to decide in favor of the government; without trial, and without even meeting or seeing Richard's attorney. The government filed more than 1,200 pages in response to Richard's petition, out of which more than 1,000 pages were related solely to Victor Bout and has no relation Richards's case.
One can only wonder about the candor of the judicial profile of judge David C. Godbey posted at the website of Dallas Bar Association in view of how he decided the case of Richard Chichakli. The profile claims that Judge Godbey reads everything submitted to his court; thus, one cannot help wondering whether the judge read this letter or whether he could have discovered that most of the 1,200 pages submitted by the government were about another person and not related to the case in his hand, just... should he had read what was presented to his court. Richard wishes that the judge, his family and his admirers receives the same type of justice rendered to Richard by judge Godbey every time they seek justice.
Government filing analysis
A volunteer lawyer provided us with analysis to the 1,212 pages filed by the government. The said analysis provides a breakdown of the case-related and the unrelated documents, it also provides information regarding the content of the very unusual voluminous filing. The analysis can guide you through the intentional confusion the filing aimed to create. We thank the volunteer for all the help and efforts. The filing analysis can be found here and through the document page. Full free on-line access to the case documents is available to lawyers, researchers, and law students, please send a request should you like to gain access.
OFAC updates
The director of the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) acknowledged, for the first time, in a TV interview with the BBC network that OFAC does not hold any assets for Victor Bout by saying "if Bout had assets in the United States it would have been frozen." The move is seen as a critical departure from its previous position which was the reporting of Chichakli’s assets under the name of Victor Bout as can be seen in the United Nations Security Council reports S/2007/340 (Table-4) and S/2006/976 (Table-10). OFAC have never acknowledged in its report to the United Nations the sanctions taken by the Bush administration against Richard Chichakli. Richard was reported being sanctioned under the Syrian Arab Republic after his rendition to Syria in 2006. Richard Chichakli does not own or maintain any assets in Syria; however the Syrian government seized the retirement account of Richard's mother and reported that account to the UN under the arrangement agreed upon with the US government. Almost all of the American-Syria communications concerning Richard Chichakli are classified; however. one of the United Nations memorandums related to the seizure of Richard's mother retirement account (Ref. S/AC.41/2006/1) can be found here.
Although some analysts indicate that this change may signify that OFAC is making accountability adjustments because of the change of administration in the US, others see that as another example of the erroneous information that is usually provided by OFAC citing that during the same interview Adam Szubin also stated that OFAC’s sanctions caused Victor Bout more than US $6,000,000,000 (six billions) in sales of arms. It is impossible to correlate such amount to the entire monetary resources available to any potential rebel groups customer anywhere in the world, and also such amount exceeds the estimated total value of the existing surplus armament by 30 times. The largest known arms deal was signed between Saudi and the UK and it was valued at 20 billion dollars. The deal required eight years to complete the delivery.
The interview video of OFAC’s employees can be seen on Youtube website at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDXkkIavCD4
The investigation into Chichakli-Bout relation was closed in 2008
The investigation into the alleged business relations between Richard Chichakli and Viktor Bout and which started on September 15, 2002 and based on which the US government - Office of Foreign Assets Control seized and froze the assets of Richard Chichakli and closed his businesses had ended concluding that there was not any valid evidence to substantiate that Richard Chichakli has committed any wrongdoing and/or criminal activities punishable by law. The investigation which was initiated by the United States Government and managed by the FBI and the Office of Organized Crime was concluded late in 2008 without filing any charges against Richard Chichakli.
The conclusion of the US DOJ's five years long investigation without filing charges leaves OFAC exposed to future legal action by Chichakli who's initial law suit filed in 2006 was dismissed by judge Godbey of the federal court without trial on the basis that secret evidence was available as the US DOJ alleged in their memo to the court.
The Office of the United States Attorney refused to provide a written statement about the closure of the old investigation in response to the request submitted by Richard on November 18, 2008; however, the Assistant United States Attorney stated without making any reference to the old investigation of 2002, that his office is now investigating Chichakli for allegedly transacting business with American person in violation of the Executive Order and the IEEPA. The exact statement of the Assistant US Attorney was: "This office presently has an ongoing Grand Jury investigation with respect to violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA"). These potential violations relate to transactions by U.S. persons with Mr. Chichakli."
Despite that the conclusion of the investigation which was the grounds upon which his assets were wrongly frozen by the Bush Administration's Office of Foreign Assets Control, Chichakli's assets remain frozen and he is still further persecuted as OFAC has denied him the right for legal representation by refusing to permit American lawyers from representing him, and by refusing to allow payment for legal fees.
Further information concerning this matter can be obtained by
contacting
Richard Chichakli, or by addressing the Office of the Assistant
United States Attorney at
Telephone: +1 (214) 659.8676 - Fax: +1 (214) 767.4104, or by contacting
the FBI Special Agent in charge - Dallas FBI at +1 (817) 989.3358, or
the US DOJ at +1 (212) 616-0541
