Subject: Paese Sera on CMC/Permindex
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 04:48:12 GMT
From: 6489mcadamsj@vms.csd.mu.edu (John McAdams)
Newsgroups: alt.assassination.jfk

March 4, 1967

(Front page)

Sensational revelations on the mysterious past in Italy of the
entrepreneur prosecuted by Garrison in New Orleans

CLAY SHAW (ARRESTED FOR THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION) HAS DEVELOPED AN
OBSCURE ACTIVIY IN ROME

He was a member of the board of directors of the Centro Mondiale
Commerciale, an institution, with head office in EUR-Rome, that for
four years has undertaken a series of pseudo-commercial initiatives –
Among its chief executives were former officers of the American
espionage who financed the far right-movements in our country and in
Europe.

---------

Clay Shaw, the New Orleans businessman that district attorney Garrison
has had arrested under the accusation of having participated to a
conspiracy to kill president Kennedy, was a member of the board of
directors of CMC, Centro Mondiale Commerciale, that from 1961 to 1965
was actively engaged in Rome, in its head office in EUR-Rome, in an
obscure pseudo-commercial activity.  Among the members of the board
and the chief executives of CMC were also ex-major Bloomfield – who,
during the war, was an espionage officer in Europe – and Ferenc Nagy,
a former Hungarian, escaped to America and president of the
mother-house of CMC, Permindex. His name was cited in France as that
of the top financier of the neofascist movement of Soustelle and of
various other European right-wing extremist organizations.  All these
connections make very likely the conclusion that CMC (reborn in Rome
with the name Italo American Hotel Corporation, more focused on
business activities) was a cover institution set up by the CIA, the
American espionage agency, in order to be able to transfer in Italy
the necessary funds to finance illegal activities of political
espionage.

(Details on page 11.)

The presence of Clay Shaw among its directors rises disquieting
questions

WAS THE CENTER IN EUR A MEANS FOR THE CIA TO INTRODUCE FINANCINGS IN
ITALY?

CMC, dissolved after four years of mysterious activities, was reborn
in Rome – with a more specific focus on business – and was called
Italo American Hotel Corporation – Between one deal and the other
(Hotel du Lac, Capocotta, Villa Ada) there is room for more activities
– Did Faruk Chourbagi pay 200 millions to CMC right before having been
killed?

(p. 11)

        Clay Shaw, the man that district attorney Garrison has had
arrested under the accusation of having concocted with David Ferrie,
in New Orleans, the assassination of president Kennedy, was actively
involved in pseudo-commercial businesses in Europe.  And more
precisely in Rome, as a member of the Board of Directors of CMC,
Centro Mondiale Commerciale, with head office in EUR-Rome.  His name
appeared in the newspapers for the first time on February 14, 1962,
when "Paese Sera" reported on the financial misfortunes of CMC, that
is, on the eviction for missed rent payments of the company's head
office in EUR, rented for more than 100 million liras a year.
Obviously, at that time the name Shaw did not have any particular
meaning.  His recent mishap and the mysterious role CMC played for
years make it possible, now, to establish connections that are at
least strange, opening perspectives of investigation that are even
clamorous.

        As you might remember, Centro Mondiale Commerciale, a smoky
international commercial organization, the purpose of which was to
transform EUR in a permanent exhibition and to foster who-knows-what
big trades[sic].  The personnel of the Rome offices and the equipment
cost an average of 150 millions a year. The offices had three hundred
between intercoms and telephones. In sum, a grandiose set-up, that
presupposed conspicuous gross earnings, such to alarm several Italian
commercial companies.

        In the Board of Directors were some prestigious Italian names,
such as the member of the Parliament, the Christian Democratic Mario
Ceravolo, and the then member of the Parliament, the Social Democratic
Corrado Bonfantini.  The third Italian was Carlo D'Amelio, lawyer and
administrator of the assets of the former Italian royal house, who was
nominated president of CMC. The other members of the Board were
foreigners: the Swiss minister Ernest Feisat; the Swiss professor Max
Hagemann, editor and owner of the paper "National Zeitung"; Hans
Seligman Schurch, banker from Basel; Dr. Edgar Salin, professor at the
University of Basel, chairman of the Business Department; Clay Shaw,
delegated member of the board of International Trade Mart in New
Orleans; Ferenc Nagy, former president of the Hungarian council and
former leader of the Farmers's Party, residing in the United States on
a continued basis and president of PERMINDEX (the mother house of CMC)
doctor Enrico Mantello, brother of Giorgio Mantello (alias George
Mandel, of Hungarian origins, emigrated to Swizerland, where he
conducted intense and unclear financial and speculative activities,
especially in the real estate sector.)  The last member of the board
of CMC was prince Gutierez of Spadafora, from Palermo, great agrarian
and industrial manager, related, by way of his sister-in-law, to
Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler's "finance wizard."

        The activity of Permindex (the mother house of CMC) in
Switzerland had raised many criticisms.  In August 1961, "AZ", a
newspaper of Basel, wrote in a reportage dedicated to the directors of
he company and to the people that gravitated around it:  "In many
articles we have righteously talked of the criminal activity of Mr.
Nagy and of Mr. Mantello."  There is no evidence that the two so
contemptuously cited individuals have brought any actions against "AZ"
for slander.

        Mantello's personality has many shadows.  It is known that,
within CMC he represented himself and other six shareholders, among
which – owning half of the shares – was the American former major L.
M. Bloomfield, currently a banker in Montreal.  During the war
Bloomfield was an officer in OSS, the espionage service (later
transformed into the CIA.)  He was, and still is, an intimate friend
of the sole administrator of CMC, Paul Jean de Dongo, born in
Budapest.  Ferenc Nagy: president of PERMINDEX and member of the board
of CMC, the French press indicated him as a munificent sponsor of the
neofascist movement of Soustelle and of the extreme right-wing
movements in all Europe and also in Italy.

        Another fact that might help understanding some things on the
personalities gravitating around CMC, is the presence in it of a
certain H. Simonfay, an Hungarian refugee, director of BO-DA, an
agency of provocative information to and from the socialist countries,
director in Italy of ACEN (specialized in hostile activities against
the socialist countries,) that was entrusted with an important "public
relations" task on behalf of the company from which it received a
secret funding of half a million liras a month.  Apparently, also
Giuseppe Zigiotti, president of the fascist Associazione Nazionale
Arma Milizia, was connected to CMC.

        In substance, the activities of CMC seemed mysterious, to say
the least, and, among the current rumors – which are supported by the
presence in directive positions of man deeply involved with the
European extreme right-wing organizations – was the one that indicated
in the Centro a creature of the CIA (the American espionage body,)
established to cover the transferring of CIA-FBI funds in Italy for
illegal political and espionage activities.  In this framework, it
remains to be clarified why Clay Shaw and former major Bloomfield were
in the board of directors of CMC.

        Founded in 1961, CMC was later dissolved and was reborn, with
some of the same protagonists (Giorgio Mantello, alias George Mandel
in front raw,) as Italo American Hotel Corporation, with head offices
in EUR.  Mantello's corporation had the appearance of being mainly
involved with profitable land and real estate speculations.  It
sponsored, with Hilton, the construction of the Hotel au Lac, in EUR,
which raised harsh criticism and, for a brief period of time, was
interrupted and was completed later on.  Mantello, with attorney Carlo
d'Amelio, is deeply involved in other speculative enterprises, such as
the division into lots of Capocotta and the attempted dismemberment of
Villa Ada.  "Paese Sera" was the first one to report on this,
generating wide reactions in the press.  As a consequence, the planned
transformation of the gigantic park of the heirs of the House of Savoy
into a large and luxurious residential and hotel complex, financed by
American, Swiss, and German capitals, was postponed to better times.

        The vicissitudes of CMC, on which the authorities should
thoroughly investigate, have been extremely tumultuous.  In less than
five years of activity, the president or the directors, the more or
less fictitious top offices of the company, changed ten times.
However, the men behind this cover name are always the same.  And to
CMC or to its "reincarnation," the Italo American Hotel Corporation,
are linked names that have recently come on to the scene of crime
news, due to a great number of rumors and reports that, originating
from the CMC itself and from men who, in the past, have lead their
activities under the cover of the mysterious organization, expand the
horizons of the suppositions and suspects in absolutely clamorous
directions.

        One of these rumors pertained Faruk Churbagi, the young
Lebanese-Egyptian industrialist killed in Rome in circumstances so
obscure that not even the verdict of the courts has been able to
clarify them.  Within CMC are rumors that, right before being killed,
the young man paid 200 million liras as a share in the activities of
the Center itself, among which was, and still is, the hotel sector.
It is pure coincidence, of course, that there is evidence that the
young man' uncle, Munir Mohamed Churbagi, is president of the board of
directors of INVESTUR (INVEStimenti Immobiliari e TURismo alberghiero
[Real Estate Investments and Hotel Tourism]), with head office in
Latina, via Lunga Podere 175; nominal capital: 100 million liras.  The
company was formed on July 9, 1962, with a paid-up capital of 1
million, increased to 50 millions in September of that same year, and
to 100 millions in November.

        Finally, we must report that an even more groundless rumor
indicates, among the people connected (through commercial activities
or personal friendships) to the Center, Christa Wanninger, the German
woman stabbed to death in front of the apartment of a friend of hers,
near via Veneto.  Nothing concerning her death could be clarified,
except for the fact that she was dead.  As you might remember, it was
ascertained that Wanninger used to keep company, in Switzerland and
elsewhere, with mature German and Swiss industrialists and financiers.
It is believed that her murder was caused by the fact that she knew
too many secrets of the world of high finance and, maybe, of politics.
Certainly a groundless rumor, at least on the surface.  But many
things that pertain CMC and its activity are not less groundless and,
yet, they are concretely true.


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