Final_Judgment

[188] Final Judgment 249
League, a forum, financed over the years by countries like Nationalist China
and Saudi Arabia, with recurring links to the international drug traffic." 507
Scott notes additionally that "It is well known that in the 1950s and
1960s the Israel Lobby and the Taiwan Lobby were both powerful in
Washington and sometimes collaborated on common projects . . . There was
also a Nicaragua Lobby, or perhaps more accurately, a Somoza Lobby,
which also overlapped with the Israel, China, and Cuba lobbies." 508
(Scott points out, for example, that a Washington lobbyist who was
close to New Orleans Mafia chief Carlos Marcello also served as a registered
lobbyist for both Nicaragua and the Israeli Aircraft Industries.)
It is clear, based upon the evidence that we shall review in these pages,
that Permindex, which played so central a role in the JFK assassination
conspiracy, was indeed one of these transnational "overt, structured
arrangements or forums" of which Scott speaks.
WHAT WAS PERMINDEX?
What exactly then was Permindex? How did Permindex fit into the
center of the international conspiracy that resulted in the assassination of
John F. Kennedy? Author Paris Flammonde's 1969 account of the Garrison
investigation, The Kennedy Conspiracy, contains valuable information on
Permindex, although, unfortunately, Flammonde didn't pursue the matter as
far as he could have. Had he done so he would have unearthed the Israeli-
Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate connection.
Flammonde cites several articles that appeared in the foreign press,
specifically Italy's Paesa Sera (March 4, 1967) and the Canadian
publication, Le Devoir (March 16, 1967) as his source for much of the
information he provides his readers on Permindex.
These articles appeared just shortly after Clay Shaw's name first came
to attention as a result of the Garrison investigation and were the articles
highlighted in Oliver Stone's JFK. These articles provide the unusual
background of Permindex and point toward its real origins.
"There was established in Rome an organization named the Centro
Mondiale Commerciale," reported Paesa Sera. [Centro Mondiale
Commerciale is Italian for "World Trade Center."] "Its origins, functions,
rotating presidency, geographical displacements, sub-, subsequent, and
alternate designations were so complex and labyrinthine as to make a
comprehensive and comprehensible description of it in anything less than a
modern-sized book impossible." 509
The CMC was founded in 1961 by one Giorgio Mantello. 510 The
Italian name, however, was an affectation. Mantello was an Eastern
European Jew originally named Georges Mandel. At the time CMC was
established, it was asserted that CMC would function as an international
commercial organization, that it would aid in the establishing of a
permanent worldwide network of trade expositions, and generally assist
concerns involved in trade matters.