The war against gold is a war against all commodities

11:13p ET Sunday, April 8, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Thanks to GATA's friend Adam Hamilton, the legal responses
of the defendants in Reg Howe's lawsuit against the Bank for
International Settlements and its accomplices in suppressing
the price of gold are now availbale for reading on the
Internet. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is necessary to view them.)
You can find them here:

a href=http://www.zealllc.com/howedef.htmhttp://www.zealllc.com/howedef.htm/a

As might have been expected, the defendants move to dismiss
the suit on jurisdictional and procedural grounds. Their
filings may be most interesting to observers of the gold
market for the lack of a denial of the lawsuit's allegations,
and particularly for what seems to be the U.S. government's
claim of authority to do exactly what the lawsuit alleges,
though of course the government does not admit doing it.

This claim of authority can be found in the Treasury
Department's reply, on Page 10 and again on Page 14.

On Page 10 of its reply the Treasury Department says:
quot;... the government can undertake the complained-of
activity.quot;

On Page 14 of its reply the Treasury Department says, in
reference to the Exchange Stabilization Fund: quot;Because
there exists a reasonable statutory basis for the alleged
gold-trading activities of the ESF....quot;

Of course GATA has never denied the authority of the U.S.
government to trade in gold. But we have maintained that
the government cannot trade in gold or support trading in
gold derivatives for the purpose of suppressing the price
of gold. We also have maintained that any government trading
in gold should be done openly, not surreptitiously, so that
the whole world and not just the favored few could know
what U.S. government policy toward gold was, and could
invest accordingly.

Howe will be replying to the defendants' filings and we'll
keep you informed.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.