War bling and the inscrutability of motives

[Joseph Tracy]

This starts with a question I asked earlier when Riggs  Warbing first  
appeared

	"Riggs Warbling fits perfectly in this time period with the zomes  
and Tantric Yoga.. I just wonder if there are any thoughts about his  
role. In particular , why Zomes?
	His name, as I mentioned in another post, suggests Riggs bank  
Washington DC: bank to US presidents and financier of wars. War Bling
	Is there a political parable rising from under the waves or is it a  
red herring for conspiracy heads?"

Other name connections: rigs- cheats , rigging- on Golden Fang?, rig-  
vehicle ,   warbling- volunteering information of dubious  
reliability   for some reason the full name also reminds me of  
Wagner's title Ring of the Niebelungen

Riggs: opposes reverse money flow, has similar motives to M Wolf   
with a twist not to possess but to prevent others possession( this  
could be seen with Sloane as a bid for a controlling interest in half  
the Wolfmann estate), is contractor ( a hired participant in Wolfmann  
building scams, a hirer for hire), willing participant in theft, well  
endowed,  wants to escape(Zomes as doors) but escape what and to where?
Could he be an FBI agent ( Riggs bang connected to D.C.) or an agent  
of the GF or both? Is the Zomes  (and Tantric Yoga) introduction to  
throw people off? In a world of inscrutable motives and risky power  
games, do Riggs' motives seem particularly inscrutable?

In the \ Wiki quotes below the Riggs bank is connected to the  war  
industry, big oil money( Bandar) , extractive mining( Pinochet),  and  
most obviously un-regulated banking. In my Fascism for freedom post I  
made a metaphoric link between dentistry and extractive industries;  
the other more obvious implications of dentistry in Pynchon is to  
unequal power relations and their most extreme form  of torture.  The  
FBI and J.E. Hoover were supportive of and close to Nixon, a Southern  
California boy. Hoover in 70 71 is near the end of his life( 72)  had  
cowed 3 presidents into not firing him, was one of the most powerful  
police state creeps in history( involved in Malcom X killing, and  
probably MLK assassination), would, in this story be behind the  
Cointelpro-like action of killing Charlock, planting Harlingen, and  
abducting Mickey Mouse, er Wolf, er Man.   The FBI  has Bigfoot  
( Deepthroat?)   on a short leash because he is probing the death of  
his partner, which seems to be a big part of his motive for  
"recruiting" Doc. One of the key abuses of power under Hoover was to  
block alternative investigations ( Kennedy, King).This obviously  
continues today with Oklahoma Bombing, 9-1, etc.
The Fact that Pynchon sets the novel in this time frame , when  
southern CA is at the epicenter of a new republican rebirth of power,  
and is already at the epicenter of cultural influence,  and close to  
the birth of the internet DARPANET as survellance tool,  together  
with everything else we have turned up has me thinking Pynchon is not  
just writing an entertaining "psychedelic noir".  It may look like  
high comedy , but a little digging reveals deep tragedy . If the Coen  
Brothers buy the rights, watch for serious cultural sparks as  
interest and interpretive depth increase.

  	Riggs Bank : from Slate article http://www.slate.com/id/2112015/
" Citing unnamed U.S. government officials and people familiar with  
Riggs operations, Simpson reports that the bank has enjoyed a  
"relationship" with the CIA for some time. "That relationship, which  
included top current and former Riggs executives receiving U.S.  
government security clearances, could complicate any prosecution of  
the bank's officials, according to private lawyers and former  
prosecutors," he writes. By "complicate" one can safely assume that  
Simpson means "make impossible."
	
	Riggs Bank : ( from Wikipedia)
the bank also lent $16 million to the U.S. government to pay for the  
Mexican-American War in 1847 and, in 1868, provided $7.2 million in  
gold towards the purchase of Alaska.
		  Saudi money transfers
	A Saudi named Omar al-Bayoumi housed and opened bank accounts for  
two of the 9/11 hijackers. About two weeks after the assistance  
began, al-Bayoumi's wife began receiving monthly payments totaling  
tens of thousands of dollars from Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the  
wife of Saudi ambassador and Bush family confidant, Prince Bandar bin  
Sultan, through a Riggs bank account.[2] (Jonathan Bush, uncle of  
President George W. Bush, was an executive at Riggs Bank during this  
period.)

	Upon discovery of these transactions, the FBI began investigating  
the bank for possible money-laundering and terrorist financing.  
Although the FBI and later the 9/11 Commission ultimately stated that  
the money was not intentionally being routed to fund terrorists,  
investigators were surprised to see how lax the safeguards at Riggs  
Bank were. Several Saudi accounts were discovered to have financial  
improprieties, including a lack of required background checks and a  
consistent failure to alert regulators to large transactions, in  
violation of federal banking laws.

	Many of these transactions involved Prince Bandar personally, often  
transferring over $1 million at a time. According to British  
investigations on the Al Yamamah deal, reported by The Guardian,  
Bandar would have received over $ 1.5 billion in bribery from BAE  
Systems, laundered through the Riggs Bank.

	Pinochet's frozen funds

	Further information: Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial
Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, has been widely  
accused since 1973 of corruption, illegal arms sales, and torture. In  
1994, Riggs officials invited Pinochet to open an account at Riggs  
Bank. Arrested in 1998 in Britain for possible extradition to Spain,  
his accounts were ordered frozen by court orders. A recent U.S.  
Senate report has revealed that Riggs executives helped Pinochet  
disguise millions of dollars. By using shell companies and hiding  
accounts from federal regulators, Riggs illegally allowed Pinochet to  
retain access to much of his fortune[1].

	The Senate report also indicated that regulators were negligent in  
holding the bank accountable. Although Pinochet's accounts at Riggs  
had been reported in U.S. and British newspapers, and although these  
accounts were largely unreported to regulators, those same regulators  
never made a serious effort to investigate. The comptroller tasked  
with investigating Riggs in 2002, R. Ashley Lee, was later given an  
executive position at Riggs.

	The disclosure of the Riggs accounts reignited the case against  
General Pinochet, and a ruling that he was not mentally competent to  
stand trial was overturned when it was proven that the general  
himself had orchestrated some of the huge transactions. In 2004, he  
was ordered to stand trial for crimes against humanity, and  
additional claims of mental and physical incompetence have been  
overruled. Pinochet died however in December 2006 before being  
judged. However, in September 2007, Pinochet's widow and five  
children were indicted by a Chilean court on charges including  
embezzlement.[2]