March 19, 2009 (LPAC)--Lyndon LaRouche was not impressed today with the argument of Tim Geithner and others that it will be "very difficult legally" to recover $165 million in bonuses AIG just paid to derivatives traders with taxpayer money.

"They can; they're going to have to do it," he said. "All this bullshit: `we're going to see if we can do it....' The whole thing was a fraud perpetrated against the American government. And therefore, I don't care what the agreement was, if the agreement was an instrument of fraud, then the agreement is cancelled. It's that simple! Stop this bullshit! A fraud against the US government, does not mean this is an obligatory arrangement. If it's fraudulent, if it's misleading, if it violates the separation of state from private interests, in those cases it's cancelled, and these guys would pay the money back! I want us to get the money back, now!

"To teach the world a lesson as to who's boss," he added.

On the fact more than $100 billion of the AIG bailout has gone to cover derivatives bets, LaRouche asked, "Why should anyone have to pay that? It's a gambling debt! It's not an asset, it's a gambling debt! We should go out with an all-out pitch, the whole organization: `They're stealing! They're stealing! Stop them from stealing! The President must stop them from stealing. Somebody has to go to jail. These guys should go to jail!' The contracts should be cancelled! We're not obliged to honor it! It's a gambling debt! We don't pay gambling debts!

"Put organized crime into bankruptcy!" he expostulated.

"Cancel it! Cancel it! The United States government cannot be taxed implicitly for gambling debts. People who lose on gambling debts should eat their losses, or run away and hide!

"The idea that they had a moral obligation, or something, on the bonuses. This is what the crap is," he continued. "It's not legal: you cannot make agreements with the government, behind the government's back.

"And this was a crony operation!" LaRouche said, referring to the fact, among others, that Goldman Sachs has been the leading beneficiary from the AIG bailout, secretly receiving at least $12.9 billion of taxpayer money for worthless derivatives gambling-chits. "Call this cronyism gone wild. All these guys were cronies. A couple of these guys from Wall Street should be in prison right now! Sitting there awaiting trial, but under custody, so they can't run away. Goldman Sachs is the number one. The officers of Goldman Sachs should be in prison now, being held as a precautionary measure, so they can't run away, and they can't get any assets. This would be the proper procedure; this is a fraud against the government."

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has just pointed out that the AIG bailout was agreed on last fall in a meeting of government officials Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, and Ben Bernanke, joined by "private citizen," Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein!

"And they're afraid that someone is going to say this is an attack on the capitalist system," LaRouche added.

"Bankruptcy reorganization is exactly what should be done," he concluded. "The whole world system is bankrupt; therefore the whole world system has to be put into bankruptcy reorganization. That can only be done by individual governments and by groups of governments. So, the point is, cancel this whole thing! The bailout ends! We just went bankrupt; we're putting everything through bankruptcy reorganization!

March 21st Webcast Invitation