Who are the financial actors behind the WTC?
12/03/2004
- Opinión
On October 17, 2000, eleven months before 9/11,
Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, of The Blackstone
Group, L.P, purchased, from Teachers Insurance and
Annuity Association, the participating mortgage secured
by World Trade Center, Building 7.1
April 26, 2001 the Port Authority leased the WTC for 99
years to Silverstein Properties and Westfield America
Inc. The transaction was authorized by Port Authority
Chairman Lewis M. Eisenberg.
This transfer from the New York and New Jersey Port
Authority was tantamount to the privatization of the WTC
Complex. The official press release described it as "the
richest real estate prize in New York City history". The
retail space underneath the complex was leased to
Westfield America Inc.2
On 24 July 2001, 6 weeks prior to 9/11 Silverstein took
control of the lease of the WTC following the Port
Authority decision on April 26.
Silverstein and Frank Lowy, CEO of Westefield Inc. took
control of the 10.6 million-square-foot WTC complex.
"Lowy leased the shopping concourse called the Mall at
the WTC, which comprised about 427,000 square feet of
retail space."3
Explicitly included in the agreement was that Silverstein
and Westfield "were given the right to rebuild the
structures if they were destroyed". 4
In this transaction, Silverstein signed a rental contract
for the WTC over 99 years amounting to 3,2 billion
dollars in installments to be made to the Port
Authority: 800 million covered fees including a down
payment of the order of 100 million dollars. Of this
amount, Silverstein put in 14 million dollars of his own
money. The annual payment on the lease was of the order
of 115 million dollars.5
In the wake of the WTC attacks, Silverstein is suing for
some $7.1 billion in insurance money, double the amount
of the value of the 99 year lease.6
Silverstein Properties Inc. is a Manhattan-based real
estate development and investment firm that owns,
manages, and has developed more than 20 million square
feet of office, residential and retail space.
Westfield America, Inc. is controlled by the Australian
based Lowy family with major interests in shopping
centres. The CEO of Westfield is Australian businessman
Frank Lowy.
The Blackstone Group, a private investment bank with
offices in New York and London, was founded in 1985 by
its Chairman, Peter G. Peterson, and its President and
CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman.
In addition to its Real Estate activities, the Blackstone
Group's core businesses include Mergers and Acquisitions
Advisory, Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory,
Private Equity Investing, Private Mezzanine Investing,
and Liquid Alternative Asset Investing.7
Blackstone chairman Peter G. Petersen is also Chairman of
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Chairman of the
board of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His
partner Stephen A. Schwarzman is also a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Peter G. Petersen is
also named in widow Ellen Mariani's widow civil RICO suit
filed against. George W. Bush, et al.
Kissinger McLarty Associates, which is Henry Kissinger's
consulting firm has a "strategic alliance" with the
Blackstone Group "which is designed to help provide
financial advisory services to corporations seeking high-
level strategic advice." (www.blackstone.com) .
* * *
For details on the insurance claims pertaining to the
WTC, see Centre for Research on Globalization, The WTC
Towers Collapse: an Enormous Insurance Scam (selected
articles),
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/WTC312A.html , 19
December 2003
* Michel Chossudovsky is the author of WAR AND
GLOBALISATION, THE TRUTH BEHIND SEPTEMBER 11, Global
Outlook, 2002. for details click:
http://globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/truth911.html
NOTES
1 Business Wire, 17 October 2000
2. See Paul Goldberger in The New Yorker, May 20, 2002.
3 C. Bollyn, "Did Rupert Murdoch Have Prior Knowledge of
9/11?" Centre for Research on Globalization,
globalresearch.ca, 20 October 2003.
4. Goldberger, op cit
5, Associated Press, 22 November 2003. See also Die Welt,
Berlin, Oct 11, 2001.
6. Alison Frankel, The American Lawyer, Sept 3 2002
7 Business Wire, op cit
* The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO403B.html
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/109578
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