Sunday 1 August 2010

1 August 2010




Tribute to Christopher Story

By Ashley Mote

Only a day or so ago I finally heard that my distinguished friend Christopher Story died on 14th July 2004 (Bastille Day – the symbolism of which would not have been lost on him). He apparently suffered liver failure.

He had been complaining of not feeling well for some months, had recently skipped a trip to the USA and had lost a good deal of weight since Christmas. It is entirely possible his death was from natural causes.

The world is a much poorer place for his passing. I mourn his loss as I would mourn the loss of a brother. He was the staunchest champion of all that was honest and upright in life, a courageous investigative journalist, an indefatigable writer, an audacious publisher, and a powerful intellect.

I have lost a true friend whose company and integrity I valued beyond words. His loss is truly devastating.

Over the last decade or so, ever since I became actively involved in European politics, I have met and had dealings with an extraordinary number of extraordinary people. To be frank, some I loathed.

But the company of many others was hugely stimulating, greatly valued, and much enjoyed. Christopher Story was right at the top of that list.

I first met Christopher at a Bruges Group meeting in the days when they were held on the top floor of a cramped London pub. We immediately sensed a mutual liking for each other and met regular from that time on. We had been due to meet for lunch a few days hence.

Far more important than our meetings, however, was the rapid development of our continuous exchange of information by emails, telephone and snail mail – which we quickly found to be by far the safest means of communication. Both of us knew our lines were tapped. Sometimes we deliberately traded information just to let whoever was listening know what we knew! Or to mislead…!

Christopher Story had the energy of a man half his age. He regularly wrote more words in a day than I might write in a week or more. His range of knowledge and experience of the global financial markets and – much more importantly - the power broking that went on behind it, was utterly breathtaking at times. His regular newsletters – International Currency Review, Economic Intelligence Review, Global Analyst, Soviet Analyst, Arab-Asian Affairs, Eastern Europe Analyst, World Reports, and several other occasional titles – to say nothing of his many books based of these newsletters, might have been the work of ten men.

But Christopher researched, wrote, designed, printed and distributed every one of them himself, with the aid of a handful of others whom he knew could be trusted. He was a one-man, self-appointed, self-financing, international investigation agency which specialised in researching the deployment and accountability of public money, the manipulation of currencies, and power laundering by the world’s ruling elites.

This work took him into some of the most dangerous places on earth – not just geographically, but intellectually as well. As a result he made many powerful enemies. They all knew that when he found a racketeering spade, whoever it was, he would call him a bloody shovel, and publish that news to the whole world – or at least to those willing to listen. For most of the world’s media, his conclusions and commentaries were far too hot for them to handle – hence the self-publication.

Much of Christopher’s best investigative work was done in the USA , where he had highly valued internal sources of information within the Federal Reserve Bank, the CIA, and within the financial and political communities as a whole. At times, he became personally and dangerously embroiled in some of the financial trails he was following, on occasion at his consideration personal risk. He was a truly brave man.

The common thread running through all Christopher Story did could be encapsulated in a single phrase – the misuse of power! Indeed it was he who sparked one of my own more memorable epithets – ‘those attracted to power are the least suitable to wield it’.

One of my earliest meetings with Christopher was in Oxford , near his home, when he took the greatest pleasure in showing me around his old college. He was immensely proud of having graduated at Oxford University , and rightly so. It had instilled or reinforced that innate and shining honesty that distinguished all he did.

In later years we more usually met in Brussels , when he came to visit the European Parliament for a day or two. Often these trips were carefully timed to coincide with meetings of the Budget Control Committee, on which I had a seat, and when I planned to raise issues briefed by him beforehand. Sometimes he admitted later to having the greatest difficulty sitting at the back, in the public gallery, trying hard to suppress his urge to intervene.

Perhaps the best and by far the most famous question I ever raised in the European Parliament was based entirely on a briefing by Christopher Story. It concerned the Global Security Fund. Like all speeches in a plenary session it was recorded on videotape and can now be found on literally scores of websites around the world. Even today, almost five years later, new postings of that one-minute speech are regularly uncovered by the Google search-engine.

This was what I said :

“Mr President, I wish to draw your attention to the Global Security Fund, set up in the early 1990s under the auspices of Jacob Rothschild. This is a Brussels-based fund and it is no ordinary fund: it does not trade, it is not listed and it has a totally different purpose. It is being used for geopolitical engineering purposes, apparently under the guidance of the intelligence services. I have previously asked about the alleged involvement of the European Union’s own intelligence resources in the management of slush funds in offshore accounts, and I still await a reply. To that question I now add another: what are the European Union’s connections to the Global Security Fund and what relationship does it have with European Union institutions?”

At the time, with the House almost empty as usual, I got no reply. Later I asked a near-identical written question, the answer to which understandably told us precisely nothing. After all, how could Brussels ’ elite bureaucrats admit that they had a hand in a gigantic illegal trust fund? It was estimated by undercover overseas financial investigators at 65 trillion dollars, we knew it had been set-up for ‘Illuminati rainy days’ and when needed in a crunch situation for bribery, state-inspired black operations and activities to divert attention from the world’s banking and political mafia.

Christopher’s original briefing also told me that, “while the fund is cloaked in secrecy” it was made possible by the US Federal Reserve banking system. However I decided, in the context of the EU, not to follow up that potential second line of attack.

No wonder there is still so much interest in that original question. It was possibly the first occasion anyone had mentioned the existence of the Global Security Fund in any public arena, anywhere.

It would be an entirely appropriate and well-deserved tribute to Christopher Story’s life’s work if, one day, the truth finally emerges about the Global Security Fund and those responsible for the monumental misuse of public funds are finally exposed and brought to book.

Meanwhile, I shall continue to mourn the loss of a true friend, and there no greater tribute I can pay Christopher Story than describing him thus.

(PS: Two requests and a question:

If anyone knows how to communicate this tribute to any of Christopher Story’s family, I would be most grateful. I have been unable to make contact since the news of his passing broke.

Also, I would also be glad to know about any memorial service planned in his honour.

Question : What, if anything, is to be done Christopher’s massive and priceless collection of private papers? Whilst this is understandably not the right time to focus on the question, I feel I must at least raise it in the wider public interest.)

(ends)

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