THE INTERNATIONAL: movie review

The International is a major Hollywood movie starring Clive Owen as Lou, an Interpol investigator and Naomi Watts as Eleanor, a Manhattan DA. The International is actually a bank called International Bank of Business and Credit, IBBC. The bank’s headquarters in Luxembourg is a magnificent edifice of glass and steel that must have cost billions, everything in it bought and paid for in blood. The name of the bank and the story is loosely based upon a real bank, The BCCI which shut down a few years ago amidst major scandals. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a major international bank founded in Karachi, Pakistan in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The company was registered in Luxembourg. At its peak, it operated in 78 countries, had over 400 branches, and had assets in excess of US$ 20 billion making it the 7th largest private bank in the world by assets.

The movie begins with the assassination of an investigator by poison to make it look like a heart attack, the methodology employed very much suggests an intelligence operation. The Manhattan DA, Eleanor Whitman played by Naomi Watts does not trust the Department of Justice complaining that they always stall her investigations into the involvement of a major investment bank in financing illegal arms deals, among other activities. What we read between the lines, or what becomes apparent from between the frames is the fact that the reason there are so many different agencies and departments supposedly working towards the same goal of ‘serving and protecting’, of bringing all to justice, no matter how poor or powerful is to do the exact opposite. Because of jurisdictional issues, everyone is more interested in protecting their turf than ‘serving and protecting’, and because of jurisdictional problems it is a literal walk in the park for those involved in shadowy activities provided they have friends in high places, or better still, they themselves hold office in high places.

In the movie Clive Owen is a burnt out former Scotland Yard investigator who left the Yard because of a case he had built against the bank was shut down by his superiors. He had brought in a credible witness against the bank and his own superiors had the witness discredited and the witness died in a mysterious car crash a few days later, along with his wife and child. Now that wouldn’t happen in real life now, would it? National police forces like Scotland Yard, The FBI and The RCMP don’t work for bankers, do they?

About 10:33 into the movie, we hear this dialogue from Lou, the Interpol investigator “Anyone that has ever been in a position to move against this bank has either ended up dead or disappeared. “ The banker who had agreed to testify against the bank dies in a freak car accident. How many of these stories have we heard in real life? The initial accident report filed by the Gendarmerie, the Luxembourg police implicates the bank President in the death of his VP that was going to testify against the bank. But voila, the senior head of the Gendarmerie presents a different report that conflicts with the initial report and claims that the original report had an error. Once again art imitating life! German authorities refuse to investigate the bank dismissing the claims of the DA and her investigative partner from Interpol as ‘unsubstantiated theories.’ Bankers, like Catholic priests, are protected everywhere.

In another scene DA Whitman and the Lou the Interpol investigator are talking to an Italian politician who owns an armaments manufacturing company. Isn’t it ironic how they call these companies ‘defense contractors’?

Dialogue at about 33:20 into the movie:

DA Whitman: Mr. Calvini, we’d like to know why the IBBC, a bank would be purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of missile guidance and control systems from your company?

Calvini: The IBBC has purchased billions of dollars worth of Silkworm missiles from the People’s Republic of China which they have presold to clients in the Middle East. Contingent upon the missiles being equipped with VOLCON guidance systems. My company is one of only two in the world which produce the VOLCON.

DA: But why is the bank committing so much of its capital and resources to the sale of these missiles?

Calvini: It’s a test. Small arms are the only weapons used in 99% of the world’s conflicts and no one has the capacity to manufacture them faster and cheaper than China. What Skarssen (IBBC CEO) is attempting to do is to make the IBBC the exclusive broker of Chinese small arms to the Third World. And the missile deal is the gateway transaction.

Lou: Yeah, but billions of dollars invested simply to be a broker? There can’t be that much profit for them.

Calvini: No. This is not about making a profit from weapon sales. It’s about control.

DA: Control the flow of weapons, control the conflict.

Calvini: No, no. The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn’t to control the conflict; it’s to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict, the true value is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything. You find this upsetting, yes? But this is the very essence of the banking industry, to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals slaves to debt.

The above statement, ironic as it is coming from an arms manufacturer is probably one of the most profound indictments of modern banking coming from any source, especially a major Hollywood movie. In this movie the IBBC is a midsize bank not a Behemoth like JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs or Leviathanesque in stature bank like The Federal Reserve or The Bank of England. The story of banking as revealed in this movie is indeed a true one: all banks, be it a local loan shark or Citibank are in the business of creating debt and debt it is that puts individuals and nations into bondage. This is the sleight of hand that the average person never catches on to because the wizards behind the curtains never allow the truth about banking to be taught in any school or college, the fact that Central Banks are in the BUSINESS of putting nations into debt just as commercial banks are in the BUSINESS of putting individuals into debt. Yes, neither Central banks nor Commercial banks are the friends of any individual or nation. This fact is nowhere near being brought out in the movie and the movie makers do not indict any major bank like Goldman Sachs of being involved in such murderous activities. Moneychangers have always, throughout history been merchants of death. They are the real King makers, politicians do not control bankers, bankers control politicians. And when any politician dares to overstep the bounds set for him by the bankers as JFK did in defying the Federal Reserve he is disposed of, assassinated, as was his brother Bobby. Please note that by the word BANKER I do not mean the bank teller or even a bank branch manager or even a higher up at the head office of a commercial bank. Real bankers are a very small international fraternity who give their allegiance to no country, who control both the production and distribution of money, or at least the paper that we call money such as dollars. International finance works on dollars and the handful of men who truly control the production of dollars control the finances of the whole world, and by indebting every nation on Earth they have made slaves out of every nation. That money is produced like a TV set or a computer, and then sold like a TV set or computer is little understood by the majority of people. The biggest purchasers of money from bankers are the governments of nations who borrow the money from the bankers, at interest, to manage, or rather mismanage the affairs of their nations. Governments who have the power to create money interest free refuse to do so anywhere in the world but why? Because the men and women who constitute any government are beholden to the bankers; they are in power because the bankers financed them into power. Therefore their allegiance lies not to the country or the citizenry but to their banker masters.

In the movie there is a JFK like sub – plot involving the aspiring politician Umberto Calvini who is gunned down because he dared to oppose the bankers. There are two shooters and a crooked cop plants false evidence to prove there was only one shooter. The patsy shooter, ala Oswald, is gunned down by the police chief and thus permanently silenced. It is soon concluded in a Warren Report type scenario that the shooter was a member of The Red Brigade, and the assassination was politically motivated, a neat clean explanation that leaves the truth out completely but is presented as the gospel truth both by the authorities and the media. Watching this movie is a Déjà vu experience, the plot is all too real and the story straight out of the pages of The New York Times or any major daily. We have heard these stories in the papers and on the evening news, there have been congressional and parliamentary investigations that have dealt with, or rather not dealt with the issue of international money laundering, international illegal arms sales, international drug trafficking, diamond trafficking, and even human trafficking.

Anything and everything in this world is for sale and there is always a banker ready to finance any activity, no matter how deadly, how cruel and how immoral it might be. And we are not talking about the little seedy, hair slicked back, switch blade wielding loan shark in East LA or Southside Chicago, no siree, these are ‘bankers’ dressed in Armani suits wearing Prada shoes who meet at The Waldorf Astoria, or in private estates, ala the movie Eyes Wide Shut, and plot the deaths of untold millions as a sacrifice to their god Mammon. So it goes for The World Bank, and The IMF that rob the wealth of nations thereby impoverishing the people and use this looted wealth to build skyscrapers that bear their names and logos. They care not that the higher the building with their name the greater the number of people they have murdered in cold blood, I do not mean this metaphorically, I mean it literally. These 100 story shrines to modern banking are dripping in blood, rather are overflowing with blood; little do they realize that they may have forgotten how many millions they have slaughtered and continue to slaughter but The Lord God knows exactly how many, and each one of those innocent victims will have their blood avenged on that Great Day of Judgment that draws near with each passing day.

Modern day moneychangers, international banksters are true sons of their father Lucifer, the original banker, and will suffer the same fate, if not in this world then in the world to come. Ezekiel 28:16 speaking of Lucifer: By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Lucifer was the original banker merchant, the inventor of money which makes it possible to take that which God gave freely to all men, the resources of this Earth and make them into merchandise. Where there is merchandise there is violence; the inside of these merchant / investment bankers is truly filled with violence; they have no compassion, show no mercy because what they love is money and the god they serve is Mammon. As an interesting aside ‘later occultist writings such as De Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal describe Mammon as Hell's ambassador to England.’ The city of London is probably the most powerful banking centre on the planet, even more so than New York, so it surprises me not one bit that even back in the early 19^th century people had concluded that Mammon ruled over England from the City which is how the square mile that is the financial heart in the city of London is commonly referred to. Bankers at the top of the hierarchy who understand the alchemy of the production of money are a priesthood as much as any ancient Babylonian or Egyptian temple priests. Their institutions are even referred to as temples and even architecturally designed in the shape of ancient Greek / Roman temples that in turn were designed as ancient Egyptian / Babylonian temples. They practice their dark arts in these temples and cast their spells over every nation so that the spellbound people are clueless as to the bondage they are in to these priests of Mammon and Satan. Bankers desire to turn even the air we breathe into merchandise so they can kill more of us with our own money. The driving spirit of bankers is bloodlust, and therefore they finance revolutions and wars that kill, maim, wound, and emotionally scar millions every year. There is a sub – plot in the movie involving an African revolutionary who is promised power in exchange for selling, or rather giving away the resources of his nation to the bankers. Now, that’ totally fiction, isn’t it?

This is an interesting movie but like all Hollywood movies it dare not go to the real heart of the matter. Nonetheless it is worth watching because the story is more fact than it is fiction. Pay attention to the dialogue at about 59 minutes into the movie between the DA and her boss as he tells her that she is under the gun not the bankers. The DA says: “The truth means responsibility, Arnie!” And Arnie responds, Exactly, which is why everyone dreads it.”

And also at about 1:28 in the movie there is some great dialogue between Lou the investigator and the Colonel, a former East German communist now working for the bank:

Lou: Skarssen and that bank need to answer for what they’ve done. They have to be brought to justice. You can help me do that.

Colonel: Justice…is not possible.

Lou: Why not?

Colonel: Because, agent Salinger…your idea of justice is an illusion. Understand the very system that you serve and protect will never allow anything to happen to Skarssen or the bank. On the contrary, the system guarantees the IBBC’s safety because everyone is involved.

Lou: What do you mean, everyone?

Colonel: Hezbollah, CIA, The Columbian drug cartels, Russian organized crime, governments of Iran, Germany, China, your government, every multinational corporation, everyone. They all need banks like the IBBC so that they can operate within the black and gray latitudes, and this is why your investigative efforts have either been ignored or undermined and why you and I will be quietly disposed of before any case against the bank ever reaches a court of law.

Interesting dialogue indeed and I might add that even if the case was to reach a court of law it would bring no one to justice; judges are just as corrupt, are just as bought and paid for as are politicians. This movie is recommended even though there are some improbable and gratuitous scenes of violence with big explosions and such that make this a lesser movie than it could have been. The movie does make a link between international arms sales and international investment banking without making mention of the fact that the two major players in both arms sales and investment banking are The United States and Britain. The sub – plot of the African revolutionary being financed by the bank to buy weapons made by their silent or not so silent partners reveals the truth about how wars are fomented by bankers and arms salesmen working in tandem, how revolutions are stirred up (is one being stirred up in Iran right now?), how governments of countries are persuaded to spend their meager resources to buy weapons to kill their own citizens rather than to buy them healthcare or to improve agriculture, build schools to educate their children or to build a manufacturing base to make the nation self – sufficient. Have you ever wondered why many African countries have no drinking water yet there is no shortage of arms for the government soldiers and for the revolutionaries opposing the government? Any leaders such as Arbenz in Guatemala or Mossadeq in Iran that oppose the Anglo – American corporate hegemony find themselves either at the receiving end of a coup or an assassination. Movies such as this one and the ones listed below reveal in a limited manner the evil evil world that we live in, a world the true condition of which the majority of Americans, Canadians and Europeans are blissfully ignorant.

• Blood Diamond
• The Constant Gardner
• Lord of War
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Life and Debt / A documentary about the nefarious activities of The IMF and World Bank in defrauding and impoverishing the tiny nation of Jamaica.
• The Fog of War / a biography of one of the biggest mass murderers of the 20^th century, Robert McNamara, former Defense Secretary and head of the World Bank.

1 John 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. There are none so wicked as these banksters whose day does not begin before they shed innocent blood through the policies they formulate using their bought, and paid for politicians and by financing the execution of war on a small and large scale throughout the globe. It takes arms to prosecute a war, civil war or war between nations, and it takes money to buy arms and who has the money? Financiers of death occupying the highest seats in the land, even I am amazed at the depth of the darkness of the human heart.

James 2:13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.