I think a key there is Rich's old association with George Soros' investments in Russia--it'd take a much longer post to get into details (been working on this for months), but I'll mention that for now.
Thanks, I'll wait patiently.
All of this is frying my brain anyway. Some percolation time is a good thing.
Pinz
From Senate BCCI report (chaired by Kerry):
Appendices:
9. BCCI's financing of commodities and other business dealings of international criminal financier Marc Rich. Marc Rich remains the most important figure in the international commodities markets, and remains a fugitive from the United States following his indictment on securities fraud. BCCI lending to Rich in the 1980's amounted to tens of millions of dollars. Moreover, Rich's commodities firms were used by BCCI in connection with BCCI's involving in U.S. guarantee programs through the Department of Agriculture. The nature and extent of Rich's relationship with BCCI requires further investigation.
From Section 11:
Relations between the CIA and the Saudi intelligence service were generally good, going back to the days when the legendary and enormously wealthy Kamal Adham had been its head. In 1970, the Saudis had provided then Egyptian Vice President Sadat with a regular income. It was impossible to determine where Saudi interests in these arrangements ended and American CIA interests began.(37)
Adham's historic relationship with U.S. intelligence was indeed unusually close. While Adham was still in place as the CIA's liaison in 1977, the CIA's station chief for Saudi Arabia, Raymond H. Close, chose to go to work for Adham upon leaving the CIA, according to press reports at the time which Close has only denied since the BCCI scandal broke.(38) As Jeff Gerth of the New York Times reported in 1981:
In the case of Mr. Close, the one time station chief in Saudi Arabia, former Government officials say his actions, while in the CIA and since retirement, are often clouded in mystery. In the first place, some think Mr. Close may still be working for the CIA in some capacity, although he officially retired in 1977. They add that a further complicating factor is that some Saudis privately share the same perception.(39)
The Times account describes how Close had actually given approval to weapons sales from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan in the early 1970's, in contravention of the "official policy" enunciated by the American ambassador, and states that Close went into business with Kamal Adham upon leaving the CIA.(40)
Comey (who appointed Fitz) was the person who was chasing Rich and was mad that he was pardoned by Clinton.
Richmond Newpaper Article about Comey
And speaking of pardons, there is this:
While Clinton's pardon of former CIA director John Deutch caught CIA officials by surprise, the president solicited advance comment from the agency on the possibility of pardoning Morison, who leaked three secret spy satellite photographs to Jane's Defence Weekly in 1984. But Clinton ultimately disregarded the agency's position and approved a pardon application Morison submitted to the Justice Department more than two years ago. "We said we were obviously opposed -- it was a vigorous 'Hell, no,' " said one senior intelligence official. "We think giving classified information to people who are unauthorized to receive it is a bad thing to do, and giving pardons to people who are convicted of doing that sends the wrong signal to people who are currently entrusted with classified information."SNIP~~~~
Pardoning the only government official ever convicted of leaking classified information, the intelligence chairmen said, would do nothing to stop a torrent of media leaks in Washington. Shelby said the pardon only underscores the need for new legislation explicitly criminalizing leaks.
But civil libertarians and First Amendment advocates lauded Clinton for pardoning Morison, arguing that the Reagan administration had inappropriately turned Morison's 1984 leak into a test case of whether the espionage statutes applied to unauthorized disclosures to the media.