In the post-9/11 world more than ever, fighting PATRIOT-type, purportedly anti-terrorism constraints of sovereignty, liberty & financial privacy is like fighting motherhood & apple-pie, i.e. a cause seemingly lost in advance. By now, too many governmental & private bureaucrats have found out about the political & social sellability of previously unthinkable corresponding measures which, in the banking sector at least, have even made the costly, non-productive & only hassel-engendering compliance department the only "growth" sector worth talking about. Members of the flat-earth society seem to dominate the agendas in highest US administrative circles, wearing down & discouraging the insiders who know better to speak up (Lindsey, etc). That bodes ill for countries like Switzerland & the Bahamas - unless they search steadfastly and with imagination for reliable allies which are capable & willing to neutralize the US marauders. On the inside track, some senior White House, congressional and administrative personalities may thus be in need for, and may indeed be helped from the outside by way of suitable allies. Israel comes to mind. At what price? If Sharon’s Lykud stays on, we might have to - and indeed be able - to help them drive most of the Palestinians into volontary exile (www.solam.com/babylon2.htm); if Peres’ Labour will make a comeback, helping to exile Arafat and his administration - e.g. to Iraq – just might do the trick (.../mvciht ¦ .../salve.htm ¦ .../deadlock.htm).

1.    Narrow-minded, ill-informed and ill-considered projection of US power abroad has a long US tradition – from the Wild West era with its judicially-fostered bounty-hunting mindsets engendering a flat earth mentality which, to this day, appears to influence, if not dominate many a US position vis-à-vis both the foes and friends of the administration in power.
2.    US superpower status is based more on others’ default, not on relevant lasting phenomena.
3.    Switzerland, the Bahamas and other financial transit centers for foreign investments in US have been doing to themselves, their clients and the US economy a bad service by heeding, and thus even encouraging ever growing US pressures by occupants of US power vacuums.
4.    Foreign investment in the US economy has been a key factor, with Switzerland, London and the Caribbean finance centers serving as main investment channels. The ongoing economic downturn in the US helps decision-makers there to recognize – and heed - the importance of goodwill & willingness of foreigners to put their funds into & to keep it in the US market. Indelicate direct or hidden (e.g. through OECD, FATF, UN, etc.) US power projections in, and dictates to these centers abroad offers imaginative, principled and determined professionals realistic and significant opportunities to deflect most illegitimate US pressures, and even to reverse the lex americana universalis aberrations (.../oecdmandate.htm ¦ .../lexamericana.htm ¦ .../swissbanks.htm ¦ .../swift.htm). In many cases, the latter were anyway put on the books with unsavory means and, due to ill-advised blue-eyed or corrupt governmental support (.../walderbsi.htm), are only grudgingly being thrown out by the national Courts. Hence the idea for a Presidential Council for Foreign Investors (.../FLIGHT.htm).
5.    The OECD’s Interfipol Convention of 1988 (.../Orwell.htm), the OECD’s Harmful Tax Competition initiative of 1998 (.../billiard.htm) and, following the latter’s defeat, the EU’s Savings Tax Directive of 2000 have all been effectively derailed by way of ad hoc coalitions of determined American & European freedom-fighters. The successful execution of the basic strategy – covering non-US interests - and for the on-the-ground achievement of political critical mass among US lawmakers is due mainly to elaborate footwork on the Hill, done by Dan Mitchell (Heritage), Andrew Quinlan (CFP) & Veronique de Rugy (Cato). Drawing inspiration from these successes, the strategists at work – whose descretion is intended to promote success, without being confounded, ignored or "honored" with success penalties – see an opportunity in the current Mideastern developments, the well-oiled perpetuum mobile of the Israel foreign aid lobby in the US Congress, and the Bush Administration’s peculiar penchant to heed Israeli wishes. With Israel as ally, Swiss financial services could thus again be effectively protected & strengthened - and be useful for US & Israeli strategic interests, too.