By Chris Floyd | Empire Burlesque
"Bandargate," the exploding scandal involving a billion-dollar arms-deal kickback to presidential crony Prince Bandar -- the Saudi poobah dubbed "Bandar Bush" by the president himself for his decades-long intimacy with America's ruling family -- continues to provide telling revelations about the way the world really works. For instance, buried deep in one of the Guardian's latest stories on the scandal, we find this illuminating passage:
- Prince Bandar has spoken himself of his unorthodox methods with cash. He is quoted in a recent biography saying that he personally flew $10m in a suitcase to Rome and gave it to a priest at the Vatican Bank, in order to covertly fund the Christian Democrats against the Communists in the 1983 Italian elections.
He is quoted saying he did this at the request of the Pope, Lady Thatcher and then head of the CIA, Bill Casey. They wanted him to shift the cash so no western fingerprints would be on it.
