PRESS RELEASE
The Pinochet Connection Is Running the Anti-Clinton Campaign
March 24, 2008 (EIRNS)—Politico, the Capitol Hill newspaper and website which is at the center of the effort to force Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the Democratic Presidential nomination, comes from the right-wing sponsors of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Politico is run by Robert Allbritton, the son of Joseph L. Allbritton, who was forced into retirement when the fact of his Riggs Bank laundering millions of dollars for the fascist Pinochet and his family became a public scandal in 2004. While the elder Allbritton first took over Riggs in 1976, by 2001 he had turned over the bank's daily operations to son Robert (who was ultimately forced to sell Riggs to PNC Bank).
Investigations showed that Riggs was not only laundering money for Pinochet, but also for the Saudi royal family, including former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, whose bribes from the BAE scandal passed through accounts at Riggs. Jonathan Bush, the uncle of President George W. Bush, was also a top official of Riggs, having come into the bank as the result of Riggs' purchase of his company in 1997.
Also present when all of this occurred, was one of Robert Allbritton's top lieutenants, Frederick J. Ryan, who was then a board member of Riggs, and is now the chairman and CEO of Politico. Politico reportedly gets almost all of its funding from Allbritton Communications, which is now run by Robert Allbritton.
