Forget About Libya: Let's invade the Caymans and Get the Offshore U.S. Corporate Loot Back!

[kpete]

Forget About Libya: Let's invade the Caymans and Get the Offshore U.S. Corporate Loot Back!
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 05/20/2011 - 10:29am

JANE STILLWATER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

.........................


If the United States is into the pirating game -- and it surely appears to be, after having successfully looted Iraq's oil, Afghanistan's heroin trade, Vietnam's central location and all that prime real estate in Palestine -- then I would like to suggest that it's time for America to GO BIG and loot the Cayman Islands too. Ah, the Caymans -- where all America's oligarchs' vast pirate swag always ends up eventually anyway. So let's eliminate the middleman here and go straight to the end of the booty rainbow itself.

"But America can't invade the Caymans, Jane!" you might say. Why not? "Because that's America's money down there in those vaults." Yep. My point exactly. Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. aren't the only countries that have been looted by pirates. America has been looted too. And now it's time to go and get it all back.

"Avast there, Mateys!" Hoist up the Jolly Roger. Set sail on the Black Pearl.

American taxpayers' money is no longer stored in our treasury, at our mints, or in Fort Knox. Now it's all down there in the Caymans in private senators' and lobbyists' and corporatists' secret bank accounts. So let's storm down there like Keira Knightly and get it all back. Or maybe we could spare ourselves all the bother of invading yet another sovereign country again -- and just pass a few laws that will make it illegal for corporatist pirates to pillage America and send their loot off to the Caymans. Nah. Where would be all the "Talk like a Pirate Day" fun in that?

MORE:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12710

[The Magistrate]

1. Hear Hear, Ma'am!

And not just the Caymans, either: all these little thieve's dens....

[brooklynite]

2. Because piles of gold and dollars bills are just laying around on the beaches...

These are unregulated business sites. The money's elsewhere in digital accounts.

[The Magistrate]

4. The Digital Accounts Can Be Seized, Sir, From Their point Of Origin

With the point of registry brought under military authority, the haven disappears. Prosecutions of local authorities pour encourager les autres would have a chilling effect on the places next in line for clearing out....

[Poll_Blind]

3. I had once dallied with the thought of what would happen if you invaded Luxenbourg for just...

...this reason. I remember sharing the idea with Bill Casey over a pint of rich premium ice cream back in '87. If I'd gone for frozen yoghurt instead, we might've pulled it off.

PB

[Bigmack]

5. Damn you invasion-happy warmongers!...

Our batting average hasn't been very good in our last few times-at-bat, so we better hold up on that invasion stuff.

I don't know what kind of military the Cayman Is. has, but....

25,000 Taliban and less than 100 AQ has our force of 100,000 plus a like number of "contractors" tied up in Vietghanistan, even tho we have control of the air, all the supplies we need, and the latest hi-tech weapons.

We don't want to bite off more than we can chew.... those Caymanians could be tough!

[DenverDad]

6. Agreed!

We can visit our "job creating" tax-cuts bestowed upon the top 2%.

[Ghost Dog]

7. Um, sure, yeah. But you might need to invade UK too.

Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory.

Defence of the Overseas Territories is the responsibility of the UK. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_overseas_territories#Military

Do be aware also that the USA itself, for non-US citizens and residents, is reckoned to be the one of the largest if not the largest offshore financial center of all (think of all those accounts in Miami belonging to Latin Americans, for example), these days, last I heard (it's not talked about much), and UK itself is probably second largest.