Cold War Economic Warfare and the Black Eagle Trust

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the United States government pursued an aggressive economic strategy aimed at accelerating the collapse of the Soviet Union. This effort, which some researchers have connected to a covert program they call “Project Hammer,” allegedly involved destabilizing the Soviet ruble, financing internal political upheaval, and positioning Western investors to acquire major Soviet energy and industrial assets in the aftermath of the USSR’s dissolution.

The program reportedly operated under the authority of multiple presidential executive orders and was staffed with CIA operatives and personnel connected to the National Security apparatus. On November 1, 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13233, which restricted public access to presidential records, including those from his father’s administration covering the critical 1990-1991 period.

The Origins of Covert Financial Warfare

The financial infrastructure supporting Cold War covert operations traces back to the end of World War II. During Japan’s military expansion across Asia beginning in 1937, Emperor Hirohito appointed his brother, Prince Chichibu, to oversee a systematic plunder operation known as “Golden Lily.” This operation employed armies of jewelers, financial experts, and smelters to loot conquered nations. Billions of dollars in gold and other treasures were stockpiled in 175 underground storage sites in the Philippines, constructed by slave laborers and prisoners of war.

After the war, portions of this recovered treasure were placed under the control of U.S. officials including Secretary of War Henry Stimson, John J. McCloy, and Robert Lovett. The resulting fund, known by various names including the Black Eagle Trust, was ostensibly dedicated to fighting communism. In practice, it financed CIA covert operations, bribed foreign political leaders, and manipulated elections in countries including Italy, Greece, and Japan.

At the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, leaders of 44 nations discussed organizing a global political action fund built upon these recovered assets. The fund was managed by figures who moved between government service and private finance, establishing a pattern of opacity that would persist for decades.

The Vulcans and the Soviet Union’s Collapse

The group of policy advisors known as the “Vulcans,” operating under George H.W. Bush’s direction, played a central role in the economic campaign against the Soviet Union. When George W. Bush assumed the presidency, many of these same individuals returned to senior positions. The reconstituted group was led by Condoleezza Rice, who had served as Soviet and East European Affairs Advisor during the original dissolution of the USSR.

Key members included Richard Armitage, Robert Blackwill, Stephen Hadley, Richard Perle, Dov Zakheim, Robert Zoellick, and Paul Wolfowitz. Additional influential figures included Dick Cheney, George Shultz, and Colin Powell. Several members were also affiliated with the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), established in 1997 to promote American global leadership.

According to researchers who have examined this period, in September 1991 George H.W. Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan facilitated the creation of $240 billion in bonds designed to economically destabilize the Soviet Union and bring Soviet oil and gas resources under Western investor control.

The Western Takeover of Russian Energy

The privatization of Russian energy assets in the 1990s followed a pattern consistent with Western strategic interests. BP Amoco became the largest foreign direct investor in Russia in 1997, purchasing a 10 percent stake in the oil conglomerate Sidanko for half a billion dollars. In October 1998, Halliburton Energy Services entered into an agreement with Moscow-based Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) to develop western Siberian oil fields, including the massive Samotlorskoye field.

TNK held proven oil reserves of 4.3 billion barrels with production capabilities of 420,000 barrels per day. In 2003, TNK merged with BP’s Russian assets to form TNK-BP, Russia’s second-largest oil company, in what became the biggest transaction in Russian corporate history. The deal was managed by Jones Day, a global law firm.

Halliburton continued expanding its Russian operations, signing a framework agreement with Sibneft in 2002 and opening a training center in partnership with Tyumen State Oil and Gas University in 2007.

The case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky illustrated the complex dynamics at play. Khodorkovsky had acquired Yukos, Russia’s second-largest oil company, for $168 million through a controversial 1995 privatization auction. When he was arrested in October 2003 on fraud and tax evasion charges, his 26 percent control of Yukos passed to Jacob Rothschild, while his board seat went to Edgar Ortiz, a former Halliburton vice president who had served under Dick Cheney. Yukos was ultimately seized and transferred to the state-owned Rosneft.

Financial Anomalies and September 11

Three major securities brokers maintained offices in the World Trade Center: Cantor Fitzgerald, Euro Brokers, and Garbon Inter Capital. Cantor Fitzgerald, one of America’s largest securities brokers, was located on the upper floors of the North Tower. Euro Brokers occupied the 84th floor of the South Tower.

Researchers have noted that federal investigations initiated in 1997-1998 into financial irregularities from the preceding decade were housed in World Trade Center Buildings Six and Seven, as well as on the 23rd floor of the North Tower. The records associated with these investigations were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

The section of the Pentagon struck on September 11 housed the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Navy Command Center. Of the 125 Pentagon fatalities, 39 of the 40 personnel who worked in the Office of Naval Intelligence were among the dead.

On September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld publicly acknowledged that the Pentagon could not account for $2.3 trillion in transactions, a disclosure that was immediately overshadowed by the following day’s events. At the time, Dov Zakheim served as the Department of Defense’s chief financial officer.

Unusual Trading Activity Before September 11

In the days before the attacks, financial markets registered highly unusual trading patterns. Between September 6 and 7, 2001, the Chicago Board Options Exchange processed 4,744 put options on United Airlines stock against only 396 call options, a ratio at least six times higher than normal. On September 10, 4,516 put options were purchased on American Airlines compared to 748 calls.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which occupied floors 43 through 74 of the South Tower, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options purchased in the three trading days before September 11, compared to an average of 27 contracts per day in the preceding period. CBS reported that irregular trades totaled more than $100 million, with seven countries investigating the anomalies.

Andreas von Bulow, a former member of the German parliament who had served on the parliamentary committee on intelligence services with access to classified information, estimated that insider trading profits connected to September 11 totaled approximately $15 billion.

The CIA regularly monitors extraordinary trades using specialized software to detect potential criminal activity or financial attacks. A $2.5 million trade placed through Alex Brown, the Deutsche Bank subsidiary formerly managed by CIA Executive Director Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, went unclaimed. Senator Carl Levin identified Alex Brown as one of twenty prominent U.S. banks associated with money laundering.

Data retrieval expert Richard Wagner estimated that more than $100 million in transactions were processed through World Trade Center computers before and during the attacks. A Deutsche Bank employee reported that approximately five minutes before the first plane struck, the bank’s WTC computer system was seized by an outside entity, and every file was uploaded to an unidentified location.

The U.S. government did not publicly address the trading irregularities after October 12, 2001.