The 9/11 Attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC): Unspoken Financial
Bonanza
Global
Research, September 04, 2015
12 March
2004
Region: USA
Author’s note
This article was first published by Global Research on 12 March 2004 under the title ”Financial Bonanza behind the 9/11 Tragedy: Who are the Financial Actors behind the WTC?” On September 11, 2015, we will be commemorating the tragic events of 9/11.
This article was first published by Global Research on 12 March 2004 under the title ”Financial Bonanza behind the 9/11 Tragedy: Who are the Financial Actors behind the WTC?” On September 11, 2015, we will be commemorating the tragic events of 9/11.
The original URL was http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO403B.html.
The
article focussed on “verifiable facts” available in the wake of the 9/11
attacks.
The
Article presented a short timeline of major financial transactions pertaining
to the WTC implemented in the months preceding the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Three
major interrelated transactions occurred involving the Blackstone Group, the
New York and New Jersey Port Authority, Silverstein Properties, Westfield
America Inc.
Michel Chossudovsky, September
4, 2015
*
* *
1. On October 17, 2000, eleven months
before 9/11,
Blackstone
Real Estate Advisors, of The Blackstone
Group, L.P, purchased, from Teachers
Insurance and Annuity Association, the participating mortgage secured by
World Trade Center, Building Seven.1
Transactions
2. On April 26, 2001
The
Port Authority leased the WTC for 99
years to Silverstein Properties and Westfield America Inc,
The
transaction was authorised by Port Authority Chairman Lewis M. Eisenberg.
This
transfer from the New York and New Jersey Port Authority was tantamount to the
privatization of the WTC Complex. The official press release described it as
“the richest real estate prize in New York City history”. The retail space
underneath the complex was leased to Westfield America Inc.2
3. On 24 July 2001, 6 weeks prior to
9/11
Silverstein
took control of the lease of the WTC following the Port Authority decision on
April 26.
Silverstein
and Frank Lowy, CEO of Westefield Inc. took control of the 10.6
million-square-foot WTC complex. “Lowy leased the shopping concourse called the
Mall at the WTC, which comprised about 427,000 square feet of retail space.”3
Explicitly
included in the agreement was that Silverstein and Westfield “were given the right to rebuild the
structures if they were destroyed“. 4 (emphasis added)
In
this transaction, Silverstein signed a rental contract for the WTC over 99
years amounting to 3,2 billion dollars in installments to be made to the Port
Authority: 800 million covered fees including a down payment of the order of
100 million dollars. Of this amount, Silverstein put in 14 million dollars of
his own money. The annual payment on the lease was of the order of 115 million
dollars.5
In
the wake of the WTC attacks,
Silverstein [was] suing for some $7.1 billion in insurance money,
more than double the amount of the value of the 99 year lease.6
Who Are the Financial Actors Behind
the Purchase of the WTC
1. Silverstein Properties Inc. is a Manhattan-based real estate
development and investment firm that owns, manages, and has developed more than
20 million square feet of office, residential and retail space.
2. Westfield America, Inc. is controlled by the Australian
based Lowy family with major interests in shopping centres. The CEO of
Westfield is Australian businessman Frank
Lowy.
3. The Blackstone
Group is a
private investment bank with offices in New York and London; It was founded in
1985 by its Chairman, Peter G. Peterson,
and its President and CEO, Stephen A.
Schwarzman.
Blackstone
purchased, from Teachers Insurance
and Annuity Association, the participating mortgage secured by World Trade Center, Building Seven
As
we recall WTC building 7 (The Salomon Brothers Building) which was not hit by
the planes, collapsed mysteriously in the afternoon of September 11. The announcement of its collapse by the
media (CNN and BBC) occurred more than 2o minutes prior the actual
collapse.
In
addition to its Real Estate activities, the Blackstone Group’s core businesses
include Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory, Restructuring and Reorganization
Advisory, Private Equity Investing, Private Mezzanine Investing, and Liquid
Alternative Asset Investing.7
Blackstone
chairman Peter G. Petersen is also Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York and Chairman of the board of
the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His partner Stephen A. Schwarzman is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Peter G. Petersen is also named
in widow Ellen Mariani’s widow civil RICO suit filed against. George W. Bush,
et al.
4. Kissinger McLarty Associates, which is Henry Kissinger’s
consulting firm has a “strategic alliance” with the Blackstone Group “which is designed to help provide financial
advisory services to corporations seeking high-level strategic advice.” (www.blackstone.com) .
For details on the insurance claims in 2001 pertaining to the WTC,
see Centre for Research on Globalization, The WTC Towers Collapse: an Enormous
Insurance Scam (selected articles), http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/WTC312A.html
, 19 December 2003
Notes
1 Business
Wire, 17 October 2000
2. See Paul
Goldberger in The New Yorker, May 20,
2002.
3 C. Bollyn,
“Did Rupert Murdoch Have Prior Knowledge of 9/11?” Centre for Research on
Globalization, globalresearch.ca, 20 October 2003.
4. Goldberger, op cit
5, Associated
Press, 22 November 2003. See also Die Welt, Berlin, Oct 11, 2001.
6. Alison
Frankel, The American Lawyer, Sept 3 2002
7 Business
Wire, op cit
Copyright ©
Prof Michel
Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2015
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