Transcripts For CSPAN2 Vanessa Neumann Blood Profits 20180120

We do about 60 events every month. You can also pick up the california the calendar events. With all of our stores and we had one down in sunny land. Very happy to have with us this evening about how american consumers. They asked me to do this because we are partners in her consulting company, doing phenomenal consulting and this book is an example and result of that. Also, ramon is a likeminded individual exiled and in this country as former mayor of chicago who was chased out, thrown in jail, both of them, i am not venezuelan but i ran the Daily Journal for many years in venezuela which i taught from vanessas that is one of the leading industrialists came to the country and help to build venezuela and put people to work and modernize the country, but these two people are venezuelan exiles and will eventually hopefully go back to make venezuela great again. I think that is the important thing. Both of them are obviously intelligent and a shining example of what venezuela has lost because they are giving us the benefit of their wisdom in venezuela, putting that wisdom to work to make that country, the Largest Oil Reserves in the world instead of being on the brink of bankruptcy. Having said that rather than taking away a minute from the things vanessa will tell us about i want to introduce ramon, mayor the chart show is a shining example of the future of venezuela and he will do the actual introduction for the incredibly intelligent vanessa. [applause] thank you for your kind words. I will speak spanish, okay . Is that okay with you . [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversatio [speak] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [applause] i am going to switch to english, is that okay . Okay. I can switch back. [speaking spanish] i said i was going to speaking was, sorry. I instantly went into spanish. The trajectory of working on this book, an unexpected adventure, it is deeply personal, it is a professional autobiography. I originally wanted to write this geeky book, very Defense Department type of language that disrupts the criminal network and deny, destroy, this dynamic, nobody will read this thing. Is technical or people will read, i will write a book that people will read and i was between 4 years a member of the organization for Advisory Group and leader of one of the groups are encountering illicit trends in their concern was it always starts with consumers and tobacco and luxury goods. And they wouldnt work together. And the journey, and ross was involved, the Goldman Sachs transaction, and at the time, the publisher. This is not in the book and the regime, volume 2, they gave us a lot of material. How the book started and how i got into this, i have a doctorate in political philosophy, dont know how many of you, the government should give people the right to lead a life they have reason to value. That is the geeky philosophers term. A life of dignity where you can make money, get married, own a business, transact, and more or less lead your life with individual values and dignity intact. What i saw in venezuela early on and i started writing about it, writing in my dissertation, i was living in the United Kingdom in london and this is also in the book. The guardian newspaper, deputy editor, the wonders of the revolution, a great comeuppance of american imperialism and western economics and wonderful liberation and no it isnt. This is going to end in tears. They are seizing the means of production and taking away everybodys right, and really angry and that i want to write an editorial and response and i did and i kept at it and ended up on tv on newsnight, the ambassador from venezuela, and became personal friends because london there were not many of us, not sure i could name another one and he came to my engagement party, said i dont really like your book at all. I said okay, dont worry about it. Now of course, he is the number 2 in Foreign Ministry and appointed to ambassador to the un. And got an invitation to come down and see progress with reintegration and came up in columbia to see the wonders and to see the Reintegration Program and that is how to big guns and helicopters and snipers, and military and political commanders, i was the only nonmilitary and political commander, i was the only journalist. Covering how you got these people to reintegrate into society. That was the first time, i have never been in combat but dealt with the consequences of combat and kids with their legs blown off from stepping on landmines, they are thinking please songs, and with the protection of chavez and this was really way out there. And i came back to caracas and said to my brother, they rebuilt how the country is falling apart. And disrupting our own country. The story started with that and i started pulling the threat also on the relationship. And venezuela and hezbollah, and asked him and that is what i did and that actually worked and that is in the book. I will read a little section of that. It was in the news lately and a political reveal how the obama administration, and a number of people, the Venezuelan Regime Drug Trafficking and involvement of hezbollah and that was a very hot topic, a number of people working on that and emails do not get returned because administration policy, make a deal with iran on the nuclear deal and the fact people negotiating the nuclear deal were involved in Drug Trafficking and meddling with venezuela. 30 million 30 million of my compatriots by a regime that will let them down, this is longterm consequence. It is inscribed on the bodies of my compatriots. There will be volume 2. Then i decided after making a lot of noise which i am fairly good at, got the attention of some credibility in the space. It is tobacco, i did oil, to billiondollar case. And other issues like that and doing asymmetrical facing down counterfeit what was funding islamic groups in panama. I get to panama and said we dont speak spanish here, we speak arabic in the trade zone. Look at the time. I need to go home. What i realized is two things. How global the problem is and forecasting the case, Money Laundering through casinos for chinese triads, tobacco funding out shabaab and the assad regime and also russian covert operations. And the world is so interconnected and when you see drugs you see weapons. At the meeting of integrity week, the connections between corruption and illicit trains for what is the connection . It was very simple. One of the things i became concerned with, there are two paradigms, originally what we see is free trade grows, so does illicit trade. Originally you see terrorist groups increasingly becoming involved in transnational organized crime, they got to buy weapons. The money was there to buy the weapons for the revolution and the weapons are there to protect the money and to protect the money and protect that business. What happened in venezuela in that case, the criminal organization seizing an entire country. A move from terrorist agreements to their motivation. The other thing that is a motivator for that, the working title, they take your personal agreements that you see in many cases in lebanon and panama and venezuela, they take you a legitimate grievance of a sociologically marginalized group and say i am there to liberate you. And people represent you politically, vote me in and then you vote them in and it is the same thing. That we saw before. All they do is take control of Foreign Currency Exchange and means of production and anything else and exploit your agreements. If you dont mind. This is where i realize i left my reading glasses behind but if i move far enough away. Thank you. Thank you. Let me try. Let me try without. This is about my landing in beirut and meeting the kernel, the shape is supposed to inform me about the connections between hezbollah. A day after i landed, my editor at the magazine writing at the time, some friends of his, the church was founded on lebanon in the fourth century and spread across the lafond. I had asked i talk about how i want to speak to who told you to speak to him. And his name had been given after dinner in new york. He looked back at me, no wonder the americans have no idea what is going on in this country. Hes not even real shaky. Maybe so but he was clearly a man many nonmuslims knew quite well and generated strong responses and that interested me. When we left the christening i gave lee smith a cell phone number for him to call me back and the next day we were standing on a sidewalk. Thank you for calling me back. I was referred to you by our mutual friend who spoke no english. He spoke no french. I spoke no arabic. I handed the phone to leave who spoke arabic, the sheik told me where i should meet him and went to a hotel. You know this place . Sure. It is the Business District a couple miles that way. In the back of the taxi, leaning through the drivers window giving the driver the address, he would have his own interview to do. We would meet up again at the end of the day. I realized how would we know each other . I waited outside and he pulled up with another shake. From the Jamaica Neighborhood where i was saying, get in. And anticipated this. Get in, he repeated. I got in and shut the door, he pulled away, we go to my house. Your house . Yes. He drove through streets forgot increasingly to neighborhoods that were more remote and poorer. I didnt think any foreigners made it to these, they end badly and youtube video. And he asked, it was dark inside, a stairway leading up, my heart thumped, no one would know where to find me, how would you escape if i got in trouble. And i should wait, made a call on his cell phone in arabic, not a word that i could understand and hung up, speak english. I answered and waited, the man in military uniform right to introduce himself, he would be our interpreter, he is terse, worked right, how much he was translating the clerics ideas, and espousing his own, would never be known, and unreliable narrator. I asked the kernel whether they had ever seen drugs or money coming from south america. Money comes in from venezuela, a room full of cash sweeping his arms out, i have seen it. And his important involvement in dark international matters. It was impossible for me to assess his honesty on the spot without corroboration but if he was feeling talkative i would keep asking. How about the colombian cocaine, what did he know about that . Hezbollah always had a relationship with the colombian crop the colonel said but the collection of hugo chavez helped hezbollah along. The drug that had been slowed in are in industrial airliners and military planes, government protection. It was inevitable south american cocaine traffickers would become increasingly important to hezbollah and other groups. Intelligence officials believe hezbollah received 200 million annually from iran and additional money from syria, sources the largely dried up due to onerous sanctions, the colonel proceeded to explain how far hezbollah spread and uranian proxy. Hezbollah explained its relationship with north korea and the army in iraq with 1 million fighters under the command of shia cleric house otter, trained and supported by hezbollah. And the lebanese army. Lebanon is interesting, i said. It is a microcosm for proxy drugs, lining with lebanon. I dont want to go on and on. The book sort of weaves a personal perspective, spoke to people, not wanted to answer questions and try to find out what is really going on and as someone said the objective in writing it is to understand the consequences of the choices that we make particularly of the financial transaction this whether it is the blood bonds or counterfeit handbag, whether it is i also have a case of antimalarial drugs and organization through corruption in the ministry funding and Islamist Group in west africa, absolutely everywhere, a friend of mine who works with me down the street when two bombs went off in somalia, funded partly by cigarettes out of dubai and the markets swapping your ak47s and use it as currency. It has been, what i wanted was to understand our role on how interconnected we are in the world of commerce and morality and causality. The clothing line of the book, money does not money may not buy happiness or pay for misery. I hope you will buy a book. And i thank you for coming here this evening. Help us also and with links with corruption and how it is actually the goal of these transnational crime groups and terrorist groups to eat away at governments that are supposed to protect us. What is particularly galling, by praying on us as consumers and citizens and take the money and send it to london, new york, miami, geneva, and countries where Property Rights are respected in the rule of law will protect their money. And to destroy your rule of law and that is where the joke is on us. Thank you for coming and please buy the book. [applause] do we do questions or do you want to come up . Come up with me. Support [applause] thank you, everybody for coming. Do we have questions . Should we ask the same questions . Stay up here with me. The question or comment. You spoke very timely, can the loser come up with the obama administration, the investigation into reading your book. What your book addresses too. Have you gotten a lot of attention . It is getting more attention. Especially after that, the political in the new york times, bloomberg is going to do something on it, and the daily beast for whom i have written the links, prussia and chavez a couple times and an excerpt on the book. It is quite ironic, very timely. It is a strange sensation, writing about my work in this field, by being angry about what i find happening with my country which is what started this off. And criticize my other country and also an american, this is not good for either of us. We will see. Here in miami, having seen all these things, related to the book. And how you can deal and how your book will help the actual banking and everything regarding Healthy People to drive all these places. In miami, sanctions, a lot of banks have deals as you said and individuals that work in corporations, the same wealth decider that you have to help at the end you are not i want to add something to answer that, talking about sanctions, im absolutely in favor of sanctions. When you apply sanctions, not only trying you are protecting institutions. You dont want bank involved in businesses in a regime healing with its own people and involving narcotics. Sanctions do work sometimes. And south africa it is important, sanctions, weapons, arms embargo. When you do that you also want your company to get involved with that. Not only the us but canada, when they went forward and sanctions in venezuela it is a second decision and that is a very legitimate concern because these guys are destroying our nations when they come with their money and assets to get the protection they are denying their own people. Not sure i need to be an answer but what do we do about it . Make noise. That is why i wrote the book. And they actually read it. It gives me an excuse to give talks like this and to offer that perspectives of seeing it in real time play out on our country. To make a lot of noise, it is amazing how we saw it. Is that something you put on your card . Maybe not. It is a lifelong we live through what happens. When we went to protest, what is interesting to me the other interesting point, ramon and i are the same age and we remember the days of the four journeys. We have 4. 3 to the dollar. Todays Exchange Rate is 116 million to the dollar in our lifetime. We remember the good old days. The kids with whom i protested in front of Goldman Sachs are 20 years old. They grew up they dont remember the good old days the way ramon and russ and i do at all and they still reject it unilaterally which is amazing. There was the security of Goldman Sachs. They came with a dog and watch this and i later found out it is just a bunch of kids outside. A bunch of kids with signs and they got bloomberg and wall street journal and the financial times, front page of 16 newspapers the next day and we humiliated Goldman Sachs by backing away from that. That is the power to say if you give money to these people these are the consequences. There is nothing illegal about the transaction. There is a great deal of power in raising consciousness of causality of the choices we make impacting the lives of others and this is called asymmetrical because i consulted with the asymmetrical warfare group. I was academic review for special Operations Command on counterinsurgency so i know a little bit about the subject. Here we are spending all this money, sending all these kids into warfare to be blown up. I going later to reintegrate the fighters and kids get their legs blown up. You cut off the money. I have this concern about trying to cut off funding as an effective counterterrorism tactic and i realize it was a much bigger problem that is everywhere and i talk about who is involved in this transaction. Aside from puppeteering government is a venerable in venezuela, what is the role of cuba . You want to answer that or should i . You add something on top of that. Supposed to be my friend. There is involvement in cuban involvement and recently, a military base, with a Clear Mission to deliver an envelope to one of the commanders. So she went, took her daughter, former participant, was going to talk to him, looking for sponsoring for her daughter, it was the whole story. Managed to get to the guy and she was there for an hour. She was not able to hand the envelope the whole time. Every time, all the time, when one of the guards took her you will see a guy, he is a cuban. We were looking for a moment, to interchange phone numbers to be able sponsoring her daughter and it was not possible. This guy, the cuban guy suggested taking his number, that is the kind of supervision these guys have, they are everywhere. And they are they are everywhere, there is no way to exaggerate venezuelan affairs. Why do you think that is . The sort of traditional story is they get chavez back into power after the story. They were in a country but running an intelligence service. They effectively command the military and all sectors of society. The reality of those people who asked the us for assistance, they have done that as traders asking for interference. The perspective is we have already been invaded. There is no sovereignty. The debt goes to russia and china, iran and cuba, so was for interference we have been laboring under it for years. The floor from the finance department putting on the business, taught me everything i have since forgotten about financial analysis. Based on the drill of the month, to find the terrorists, they are mentioning the Reputational Risk, to find out bad money around the world. Around the world. When do you see this time spent changing the pendulum . It seems like when it is time to change that or when it will occur. In venezuela . The revelation, the money comes back, of law is protecting them. I dont know. Banking compliance for me, friends of mine at big banks, and yet you still have all these transactions, and 90 of false positives. You spend all your time muddling through this trash, people like me renting a Holiday House going on holiday to mexico. It is onerous, and ai is supposed to save the world from banking compliance or artificial intelligence. Him and you. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] the question is about banking secrecy for Paradise Papers and touched on the morality of transfer pricing. My mentor who was my dissertation advisor in colombia and i am a fellow at yale global justice. That is about the morality of corporations making their money in one country, taking money out, moving it with transfer pricing, manipulating it, he is all over that and had a book come out called global taxpayer which he edited as a second book or something. The answer to that makes it all together and i dont think it will be set popular is norway, the worlds dogooders have introduced a proposal for radical financial transparency like no banking secrecy anywhere ever for anyone. All corporations must put in their Financial Statements where they made their money, what is extracted, how much they hire the labor. I dont see that being very popular but it solves the entire paradigm in one fell swoop. When you have been coin. And other private currencies, the people you are writing about dream of that dream. Had a dream for venezuelans with hyperinflation to exchange goods, and there are people who want to debate government control for that reason. And retail value. The issue of corruption and tax evasion, aware of that, our patronage groups of criminals doing bad things like hezbollah but also very nice people doing business with these guys, Reputational Risk, very important for Goldman Sachs maybe a Good Business idea, it could make sense economically, it carries the Reputational Risk and we need to deny the affected by their actions, remind them. Have to buy the book the experience in dealing with hezbollah, i wasnt always been maybe you know this. How did that connection begin . A couple other pages further along, and how much he was bragging, these were all guys, the world dances to my tuned, how much is true and how much isnt it is hard to parse out. If they get rid of chapters, we will just create another one. They bragged, enough control over venezuela they will create another puppet regime to advance their interests and he said it and of the things we are elaborating is not out yet. And advanced unit im trying to say and has spent the last year parsing out relationships between the Venezuelan Regime and certain middle eastern families and the blood ties and across the power structure in venezuela and compares it to japan, i havent read the final draft of this thing, the project that is a direct descendents, ideological descendent of a panarab project spread through the blood ties of various others related to the assad family and there is a town, i am so bad with names, in syria, that has 300,000 venezuelans living there who came from venezuela into their and they are part of a clan. I dont know how much you understand about them, it is about planned rivalry, that is more what is going on, and those clans are tied to various clans exerting power in venezuela and another sector, cross religious divides in the landscape. That forward to look forward to to we are about to find out how deep they are. [applause] thank for coming. You limit yourself to four five copies apiece. Thanks for coming tonight, thanks very much. [inaudible conversations] over the years booktv has covered several books on terrorism including american radical by fbi agent who went undercover to fight domestic terrorism. And convenient terrorist by Joseph Hickman about the capture, torture and detention of abu sabayda. Into terrorism books in the search bar at the top of the page. You can all booktv programs online. You are watching booktv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Booktv, television for serious readers. This weekend on booktv, on afterwards, womens march on washington cochair reflects on the 2017 march and what is ahead for the movement. She is interviewed by heather mcgee. Also on this weekend, Arthur Michael wolf reports on the inner workings of the trump administration. Publisher and editor Roger Kimball examines proplaps and cons of populism. Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile offers her thoughts on the state of Democratic Party in the wake of russian hacking of the dnc. White house reporter april ryan leads another discussion on race in america. Princeton University History professor Stephen Hopkins continues his multivolume biography of joseph stalin