Coins on the ocean floor at the Black Swan site (courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration)
Posted on 06/13/2011 8:24:44 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Hidden behind a fabulous sunken treasure recovered from a wreck in the Atlantic Ocean lays a story of secret diplomatic cables and Nazi art thieves, according to a revelation from WikiLeaks documents.
Consisting of 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts, the so-called Black Swan treasure has been at the center of an acrimonious international legal battle ever since it was discovered in 2007 by underwater robots from Odyssey Marine Exploration, a Florida-based treasure-hunting company.
It wasn't a fair confrontation, according to leaked documents released by WikiLeaks.
London's Guardian newspaper, one of the news organizations which receive the cables directly from WikiLeaks, reported that U.S. officials offered to help Spain in the court fight over the sunken treasure.
In exchange, they asked assistance for returning a valuable Impressionist painting looted by the Nazis during WWII.
The fight over the Black Swan treasure started when Odyssey recovered the coins, valued at as much as $500 million, and shipped it straight to the United States.
Spain immediately filed a claim arguing that that the coins originated from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a 36-gun Spanish frigate which sunk off the coast of Portugal in 1804 in a battle with four British Navy ships.
According to an international maritime law known as doctrine of sovereign immunity, active duty naval vessels on a non-commercial mission remain the property of the countries that commissioned them. The wreck and its cargo would then be the exclusive property of Spain.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
Coins on the ocean floor at the Black Swan site (courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration)
‘lies’ a story, is it not?
|
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe · |
|||
Antiquity Journal & archive Archaeologica Archaeology Archaeology Channel BAR Bronze Age Forum Discover Dogpile Eurekalert LiveScience Mirabilis.ca Nat Geographic PhysOrg Science Daily Science News Texas AM Yahoo Excerpt, or Link only? |
|
||
|
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · |
|||
“WikiLeaks, reported that U.S. officials offered to help Spain in the court fight over the sunken treasure.
In exchange, they asked assistance for returning a valuable Impressionist painting looted by the Nazis during WWII”
So the US govt was offering to screw an American who worked hard, and brought up treasure that the lazy Spanish would have never recovered. And they were doing it to benefit someone in Europe who got their painting stolen by Nazis.
WOW,,, glad the government has the ability to classify things like this. Their secrecy mostly covers them stabbing the USA in the back.
If that gold and silver belongs to anyone other than the people who raised it from the ocean floor, it belongs to the people of mexico and peru that had their country looted by the spanish.
Once you come to know the Obama administration, it isn't hard to believe at all.
Since it was discovered in 2007, do you know which administration this was, Bush or Obama? Also, did the Florida company find it off the coast of Portugal, or near Florida?
Who got paid & how much? Holder? One of Obama’s backers?
State Department ‘Bachelor’s Children’ doin’ their thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
