Ever wonder how the BFEE gets away with so much?

[barbaraann]

"The Information Architecture of Evil

I recently had a pleasure of seeing Global Networks, (.pdf) an extraordinary retrospective of the work of the late, Brooklyn-based artist Mark Lombardi. (For those in New York City, the show is at The Drawing Center in SoHo through December 18th, 2003.) Every person interested in the power of information architecture should make a point of seeing this remarkable exhibition.

The first major retrospective of Lombardi's work, Global Networks presents 25 of the artist's stunningly complex drawings, which illustrate some of the most nefarious political and financial scandals of the last three decades. From BCCI to the Iran-Contra Affair, Lombardi thoroughly researched each scandal's mind-boggling list of players, relationships, transactions, flows of money, drugs, weapons and other materiel. He then diagrammed them to produce incredibly detailed maps of each scandal, some as large as five feet tall by ten feet long."
...
Lombardi's Narrative Structures suggest certain structural truths about the conspiracies and scandals they diagram. For one thing, scale is apparently "beneficial" - in the sense that, the larger the web of conections comprising the enterprise, the less any one participant has to know, and the less each particiant is exposed. In very large conspiracies, the criminal behavior emerges more from from the pattern, and less from individual transactions or behaviors. The result is a conspiracy that can 'hide' in plain sight, with individual criminality diluted to the point of invisibility.
...
http://www.zpluspartners.com/zblog/


Lombardi committed suicide in 2000.

[librechik]

1. aha! The secret to being a successful artist revealed!

be dead, preferably of your own devices.

Speaking as a live MFA, WTF???

(PS I admire Lombardi's work--nothing personal to him--just my rant for the day)

[blm]

2. His work is extraordinary.

All of us longtime BFEE watchers owe our gratitude for his exhaustive, detailed effort. It certainly took its toll on him. RIP

[starroute]

3. There's something profound in there about dilution of criminality

Over and over, I've seen people trying to puncture conspiracy theories by saying, "If that many people were involved, how could it be kept a secret." And I felt there had to be a flaw in that argument, but I could never figure out where.

This suggests there is a strangely counter-intuitive answer -- that larger conspiracies are, in fact, the easiest to hide, because they become so diffuse as to be invisible.

That's something worth pondering.

[tom_paine]

4. Denial is also a key factor

Although, just think how long Enron kept it's little secret about defrauding California of $7,000,000,000. How much longer would they have continued to get away with it, had bankruptcy not allowed investigators in?

But, back to the original topic, I think J. Edgar Hoover said it best:

"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."

Exactly.

[YNGW]

7. I don't have a problem believing it...

... provided I get one thing:

Undisputed Documented Evidence

I don't think that's too much to ask.

So far, I haven't been provided that on any number of "theories".

[Nlighten1]

8. Ahhh

Undispited Documented Evidence" is a relative thing. One man's garbage is another man's treasure.

[YNGW]

10. I agree

>One man's garbage is another man's treasure.

And I hold high standards in these matters. It's served me well and has kept me from having to backtrack to save face. I plan on continuing the same.

[blm]

9. Read the documents from the BCCI and IranContra investigations

for starters.

Check out Robert Parry's work. He covered the investigations for Newsweek at the time.

www.consortiumnews.com

[cosmicdot]

5. there has to be a scientific law which relates to scope:secrecy

not a scientist here, so, can't be of any help

one of those laws which explains things like diminishing returns

maybe it has to do with vision

further back one is, the larger the landscape and more details to take in at once

ever look at some of those name base diagrams?
http://www.namebase.org/main2/George-W-Bush.html

scroll down to "Show a social network diagram for this name" or click here http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_BUSH_GEORGE_W

I know what you're saying ... that "If that many people were involved, how could it be kept a secret." is too easy not to be flawed.

[cosmicdot]

6. here's another article on Mark Lombardi

http://www.wburg.com/0202/arts/lombardi.html

A nodal point in Mark Lombardi's drawing George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens c. 1979-90, 5th Version, 1999, James R. Bath appears in the upper lefthand corner of the 16 1/2" x 41" piece of paper. The spatial syntax of Lombardi's drawings—which map in elegantly visual terms the secret deals and suspect associations of financiers, politicians, corporations, and governments—dictates that the more densely lines ray out from a given node, the more deeply that figure is embroiled in the tale Lombardi tells. Thirteen lines originate with or point to James R. Bath, more than any other name presented. Among those linked to this obscure yet central character are George W. Bush, Jr., George H.W. Bush, Sr., Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, Governor John B. Connally of Texas, Sheik Salim bin Laden of Saudi Arabia, and Sheik Salim's younger brother, Osama bin Laden.

~snip~

James R. Bath, it turns out, is a Texas businessman, a sometime aeronautics broker whose firm, Skyway Aircraft Leasing, LTD., was a Cayman Islands front amassing money for use by Oliver North in the Iran-Contra affair. Bath also served as an agent minding American interests for a quartet of Saudi Arabian billionaires, one of whom was Sheik Salim bin Laden, the oldest son and heir of Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, father of fifty-four children including Osama. According to reports by the Houston Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, Time, and others, Bath did business in his own name but with the Saudis' money; tax records indicate that he collected a fee of 5% on their multimillion dollar American investments. In 1979, Bath contributed $50,000 to Arbusto Energy, a limited-partnership controlled by George W. Bush. As Bath had little capital of his own, oil insiders trace the funds to his silent partners, specifically Salim bin Laden. Such cash infusions from Bath's client sheiks and George H.W. Bush's cartel cronies could not, however, prop Arbusto up. The venture collapsed in 1981 and merged into the Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation. Spectrum—still with W. at the helm—evolved through more near-failures and mergers into Harken Energy, which, in 1990, embarked upon a sweetheart deal to drill oil wells in Bahrain—this regardless of the fact that Harken had never drilled an overseas well, nor a marine well of any kind. Oil industry cognoscenti again assume that the Bahrain contract was orchestrated as a favor from the Saudis to the American chief executive and his family. The favor paid. On June 20, 1990, George W. Bush sold two-thirds of his Harken stock at $4 per share. Eight days later, Harken finished the second quarter with losses of $23 million; the stock promptly lost 75% of its value, finishing at just over $1 per share. Two months later, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the Gulf War began. All these events are cited in Lombardi's drawing.