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In addition to a six-person security detail she brought Marcus Dumond. They left shortly after ten in the evening and with the time change between DC and Zurich, and the flight time, it was nearly ten in the morning when they arrived. Ke
Ke
The Swiss took their banking and their neutrality seriously, and for good reason. Anything that could sway Swiss objectivity or damage the reputation of Swiss banks was considered a threat to national identity and long-term security. The war on terror had done just that. Armies of lawyers, diplomats, law enforcement officers, and intelligence officers had descended upon Bern and Zurich after 9/11 demanding that the Swiss government hand over any and all records that had anything to do with al-Qaeda and its various members. It was a very uncomfortable experience for the Swiss, due in great part to the fact that they did a massive amount of business with the Saudis and al-Qaeda was almost entirely financed by Saudi dollars. The Saudis liked their privacy and they made it very clear they would take their banking elsewhere if the Swiss broke their vow of secrecy.
Diplomatic talks dragged on. Lawyers for both the U.S. Justice Department and those representing the families who had lost loved ones clogged the Swiss courts with lawsuits and motions. In the end, almost two years later, the sanitized records of Osama bin Laden were handed over and almost nothing else. More than once during the drawn-out legal battle Bartholomew had told Ke
The presidential suite at the Hotel Baur Au Lac was secured for one night at a cost of 5,000 Swiss francs. Ke
Ke
Getting the men to take the meeting was easy. These banks hated bad publicity, and when the office of the director of the CIA called and told you it was in your best interest to take a private meeting with the head of the world's most well known spy agency, you shuffled your schedule and took the meeting. Ke
Sometimes the solution to a problem is so simple it is easy to overlook. Ke
What she had finally decided to do was state the case as she knew it, and ask them to voluntarily turn over all information associated with the account numbers she had been given by her mystery e-mailer. If they balked, she was prepared to drop the bomb. She would show them a list of their largest U.S. depositors. The mere fact that she had such a list would u
The first two meetings went fine. The men were actually appreciative that Ke
The fourth banker handed over the information so readily that Ke