GATA begins campaign to wrest documents from Fed, Treasury

9:41p ET Thursday, December 6, 2007

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold

GATA today began a campaign to use the federal Freedom of Information Act to reveal the disposition of United States gold reserves.

GATA delivered to the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department formal requests for access to all documents in their possession that have been generated since 1990 and mention swaps of gold involving the U.S. government. Such swaps of gold are commonly used by governments to intervene surreptitiously in the gold and currency markets, and in May this year provisions for swaps began to be cited in Treasury Department records of the U.S. government's international financial reserve position:

http://www.gata.org/node/5637

GATA's requests seek not only any documents showing gold swaps but also any documents identifying the legal authority for swaps and any documents describing the U.S. government's policy for engaging in them.

"These requests to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury are only the first we plan to make to seek a full accounting of the U.S. gold reserve," GATA Chairman William J. Murphy III explains. "We also plan to ask for documents involving gold loans and leases and any other possible impairments of the gold reserve.

"That reserve has not been audited in 60 years, even as intervention by governments in the currency and gold markets has been increasing dramatically. Investors have the right to know exactly what the U.S. government is doing to affect what are supposed to be free markets. And the U.S. gold reserve is part of the national patrimony, the birthright of every citizen. All we want is the truth. Who can be against that?"

GATA's FOI requests were prepared by the McLean, Virginia, law firm of William J. Olson, P.C., in association with GATA's consultant, the constitutional scholar and lawyer Edwin Vieira Jr., author of the monetary history of the United States, "Pieces of Eight."

If the Fed and the Treasury fail to respond to the requests in a reasonable time, refuse to provide the documents sought, or provide documents with excessive redactions, GATA can bring the agencies to court.

"This campaign for the truth will incur substantial expense for GATA," Murphy says. "So as always GATA will be grateful for contributions from its supporters."

Since GATA is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt educational and civil rights organization, contributions are federally tax-deductible in the United States. Information on contributing to GATA is available here:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

GATA's request to the Federal Reserve has been posted on the Internet here:

http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-FOI-Fed-120607.pdf

GATA's request to the Treasury Department has been posted on the Internet here:

http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-FOI-Treasury-120607.pdf

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

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