This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali Said To Have Fled Country With 1.5 Tons Of Gold
Not shares of AAPL, not freeze dried MREs, not shotguns shells, not even €45 million European pieces of linen in a suitcase... Gold. And one wonders why all the physical silver and gold is slowly but surely disappearing from the distributors: someone should really check the cargo hold of Lloyd's, Jamie's and Vikram's G-6 planes...and of course the extra cargo holds in the private helicopter squadron of that "other" Ben, elsewhere now known lovingly with the adjective of Blackhawk (f/k/a Helicopter).
From Le Monde (Google translated):
The family of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia would have fled with 1.5 tons of gold. It is an assumption of the French secret services, who try to understand how the day ended on Friday 14 January, which saw the departure of President and his family and the downfall of his regime.
According to information gathered in Tunis, Leila Trabelsi , the president's wife allegedly went to the Bank of Tunisia to look for gold bars. The governor refused. M me Ben Ali had called her husband, who had also initially refused, then surrendered. She then flew to Dubai, according to French news before leaving for Jeddah. "It seems that the wife of Ben Ali is a party with gold" , said a senior French official. "1.5 tonnes gold, that makes 45 million euros" , translated source.
Mr. Ben Ali, he does not believe his fall as fast. For proof, according to Paris, he recorded a new speech, which has not had time to appear. He would not leave the country voluntarily but would have been impeached. The army and the chief of staff who refused to fire on the crowd, have, according to European intelligence services played a leading role in the removal of Mr. Ben Ali.
It seems at least one person was smart enough to take heed in the Fed's just declassified records on what the surging price of gold means for food price inflation... and for popular revolutions derived therefrom.
The mode of departure of Mr. Ben Ali has also uncertainties. He seems to have found in the airspace of Malta, without a flight plan determined, stating that he did not, in his hasty departure from Tunisia, a precise destination. An Italian source said that the aircraft would not receive permission to land on the island. According to another hypothesis, the deposed president had left by helicopter for Tunis Malta, where he recovered his plane.
At least we now know that following the upcoming banking kleptocracy's
exodus from the US, Malta may well be the newest destination location
for every stripper in a 50 miles radius of Manhattan.
And like that Tunisia's official gold holdings (as per the WGC) are down by 23%:
h/t Cate Long
»
- 25750 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I usually get AU $50 above spot and AG $2-3 above spot from APMEX for maples. Is the Tunisian first lady a friend of Blythe? Methinks there will be some help in leveraging the physical. Ex-dictator's bitches need cash flow.
I am long the bullion and short the GLD.
This is an excellent strategy. I have advocated this strategy in the past, though I don't do it myself, as I have no interest in participation in paper markets. Bailouts and rule changes could potentially stop it from paying out.
hehe, great article.. That's how you leave a country in style! Pretty soon when we fill out currency declaration forms, we'll be asked: Do you/How many ounces of physical bullion do you have with you?
I can see this coming. TSA bitchez!
Ounces?
Bitch, please...
The ZH "playaz" only deal in tons -- or is it tonnes?
Hey, who swiped Israel's gold? 0.0?
Don't worry. AIPAC will convince the Fed it's in The US' best interests that Israel store its gold for them.
The can't officially declare their gold holdings since it would be double counted. They are waiting to swindle the stupid U.S. citizens of their Fort Knox contents when we are too panicked from the coming defaults to notice...if they have not already swiped it while we were busy watching Dancing With the Stars.
So now Mr. Ali has left Tunisia with 5.3 tonnes of gold, they should drop below Lithuania on the rankings..
..I feel sorry for the poor fuckers.
3000 pounds, what kind of plane did the country formerly own ?
+1
Well, my curiosity was piqued.
Looks like it could handle 1.5 tons easily...I was thinking ruse and it went overland to Libya maybe. Perhaps he thought better of that idea...no honor among thieves (Qaddafi) ;-)
Anyways, here's the aircraft;
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/30/arabeyes-who-is-using-the-tunisian-presidential-airplane/
OK I give.
The picture of the plane was a black box and half the comments were squiggles written by who mentioned it earlier, Katherine Hepburn and Michael J Fox.
Shit comes home to roost!
LOL...wait for the video to load.
It shows the kingly plane making a few short jaunts hither & yon across the Med to do a little shopping at some princely places...the suspicion was it was Mrs.Ben Ali picking up a few things to spruce up the palace.
No matter the culture, race, ethnicity...greed & avarice are common maladies afflicting the elitist mind...they can always rationalize these shortcomings away.
No reports in yet if she, like other first spouses, stayed at Hotel Villa Padierna in Spain and had public beaches closed down so she could stroll about unmolested ;-)
Noooooooo....
You mean some other first lady stayed at the Villa Padingthexpenseaccount and closed the Public beaches? I cannot imagine any such egomaniacal, self-centered, pompous, self-absorbed, uncaring and downright arrogant Marie Antoinette like behavior. Probably the type of person who would also claim to have paid for the fucking trip out of their own pocket when there are many millions of the minions jobless, homeless and starving whilst the country is engaged in neo-colonialist world endeavors that none understand and might even be attempting to limit freedoms and stifle free speech.
Nah. Couldn't happen.
And yet...even with the horrid political optics (leaving aside the fiscal & local public's liberty aspects)...she still did it.
It was breathtakingly arrogant...last report even Marie was said to have had a skeletal blush on hearing the news.
They been squirreling this away for some time?
Likely Hep...looting is a full time job among the dictator class.
The Australia/Canada comparison is about as odd as the Canada/Aruba one. Canada: 3.4t/ Aruba: 3.1t! Rutrow is RIGHT!
Another reminder that we should move our gold away from the FRBNY.
I don't like the way the Fed has a stink eye on it.
They always take the gold. Bernanke will too when it's his turn to flee in terror. In the meantime they will keep telling us gold is in a bubble and a barbarous relic. Silver weighs you down when you are running from the noose. I don't fear a noose so I buy both.
The AP still has tunisia ranked ahead of GLD.
Poor GLD. Everyone has more gold than it does.
This piker has NOTHING on Don Johnson, the TRUE International Man Of Mystery:
As originally reported at iMDB.com:
Hollywood actor Don Johnson is being probed by German customs after a stash of money totaling $8 billion was found in his suitcase. The Miami Vice star was found to be carrying the astronomical sum of money - in shares, bonds, checks and credit notes - as he tried to enter the country from Switzerland. And, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper, 53-year-old Johnson allegedly told a customs officer, "I am going to buy a car." The uniformed man replied, "With that money you could buy the factory." Officials said Johnson and three other men in the car were under suspicion of money laundering - no charges have been filed but American tax authorities have been informed. Customs Investigator Leonhard Bierl says, "A decision on whether to launch a criminal probe will come soon."
And then..............NOTHING.
He should be happy he wasn't being "probed" by US customs.
Badump bump...(followed by the sound of cymbals crashing)...LOL.
Wow. I knew royalties from reruns were a bonus, but still...
In November 2002, German customs officers at the Swiss-German border performed a routine search of Johnson's car. Bank statements evidencing US$8 billion in transactions were found in the trunk of his car. He was accompanied in his black Mercedes-Benz by three men: an investment adviser, a personal assistant, and a third of unknown identity. Initially it was thought Johnson was involved in money-laundering, but he was cleared of wrongdoing. Upon receiving word of the incident, German tabloids began exploiting and perpetuating the story, at times pointing at the irony (as perceived by them) that Don Johnson has frequently portrayed police officers in his acting works. Johnson explained the incident by saying "I was meeting with some American businessmen in Zurich for financing, for a film fund that I was putting together for my company. They gave me some bank statements and some resumes and some other documents, some things to prove that they could perform as investors." The police found and copied these documents, and the money laundering story grew somehow out of this.
In May 2008, Johnson came within hours of losing his Woody Creek, Colorado home to foreclosure; he paid off his $14.5 million debts less than 24 hours before a scheduled auction of the property.
Currently, Nancy Pelosi has a winter home in Woody Creek off Star Mesa Rd
You know, if you run your own country you can issue as many fake id's as you like. They can own all kinds of assets for you. Much more portable than gold. Just give in to the CIA's nation building program and they will let you hang low for a few decades. Make sure you attend the bi-yearly 'checkup' meetings and your good.
Sorry...fat fingers. :):):)
you see gold is the tool of terrorists and dictators that's why the government should make it illegal to prevent such individuals from moving money around.
How long before this argument is heard by Barney Frank or Chucky Shmuck Schumer or fill in the blank
@Internet Tough Guy
Canada has lots of gold, it's called oil. Not to mention some noteworthy gold reserves in the ground, producing mines, etc...
Remember how I told how our family for 300 year has kept gold for occasions whereby we had to bribe prison guards?
Here's an example. The difference is we didn't steal ours.
An extreme validation that your gold purchase program is the right choice when a fucking dicktator runs with the precious and not USD
To da moon bitchez
65million in gold....damn
Who sez, "You can't take IT with you?"
Dumb ass Johnson - He should have said, "Here's a million for you, and you, and you, etc. Obviously, nobody ever taught him the ABC's of border crossings...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12202283
Gold brings fun to ANY party.
You're wrong about this one, Robo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZfyrIPw3wY
the UK has less gold than Tiawan???
Ben Ali is actually FOFOA.
(that's what one of the secret messages I translated from the Annunaki)