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GATA Will Demand Truth About U.S. Gold Reserves

Posted on: Thursday, 14 June 2007, 09:27 CDT

Constitutional scholar, writer, and lawyer Edwin Vieira has been retained by the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. to lead an inquiry into the disposition and possible impairment of United States gold reserves.

Vieira, author of the monetary history of the United States, "Pieces of Eight," is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and a renowned spokesman for sound money.

Consulting for GATA, using the federal Freedom of Information Act, and retaining a Washington-area law firm, Vieira will seek to compel the U.S. government to disclose records showing how much gold is in the government's custody; who owns it; whether it has been leased or otherwise made available to foreign governments or gold market participants; and whether the policies and practices behind the use of U.S. gold reserves have been meant to influence the price of gold.

GATA, a non-profit civil rights and educational organization founded in 1999, has published evidence that central banks and government financial agencies, including the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve, work together, usually surreptitiously but sometimes openly, to rig nominally free gold markets as part of their general program of controlling international currency exchange rates. That evidence includes the transcript of the meeting of the Federal Reserve Board's Federal Open Market Committee on January 31, 1995, which confirmed the U.S. government's participation in gold swaps - exchanges of gold with other governments so that gold might be introduced into markets without being easily traced to the originating government.

"Because gold is a measure of all currencies, government bonds, and the value of labor, a free gold market is crucial to the freedom of all markets and, indeed, to honest dealing and personal liberty throughout the world," GATA Chairman William J. Murphy said. "As the nominal holder of the largest official gold reserves in the world and the issuer of the primary world reserve currency, the U.S. government has much to answer for here. No one is more expert in these issues than Ed Vieira, and all GATA wants is the truth. In a democracy that should not be too much to ask."

In addition to hiring a Washington-area law firm, Murphy said, GATA's demand for the U.S. government to produce information about its gold reserves probably will lead to litigation under the Freedom of Information Act. So, he added, "We now will be especially grateful for financial contributions to underwrite our legal campaign for the truth."

GATA is recognized as tax-exempt by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and contributions to it are federally tax-deductible in the United States. Contributions may be sent to:

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer 7 Villa Louisa Road Manchester, Connecticut 06043-7541 USA

GATA's Internet site is found at www.GATA.org.

Source: Business Wire

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