by: Charles Scaliger
On February 24, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee, asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke whether he was aware of allegations that the Federal Reserve had been complicit in the Watergate cover-up and in the illegal funneling of billions of dollars in loans to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein:
“It has been reported in the past that during the 1980s that the Fed actually facilitated a $5.5-billion loan to Saddam Hussein. And he then bought weapons from our military-industrial complex. And also that is when he invested in a nuclear reactor….
“Also there’s been reports that the cash used in the Watergate scandal came through the Federal Reserve. And when investigators back in those years tried to find out, they were always stonewalled, and we couldn’t get the information…. Would you grant that after 10 or 15 years, the American people deserve to know?”
Chairman Bernanke, caught off guard, replied that he found such allegations “absolutely bizarre,” adding that “I have absolutely no knowledge of anything remotely like what you just described. As far as the 10 years, after five years, we produce complete transcripts of every word said in the FOMC meetings. So you have every word in front of you.”