Dow Jones report prepares for Durban conference

3:43p ET Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Below are the questions I have put to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan
and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill through Sen. Joseph I.
Lieberman. It would help if others in the United States asked
their congressmen to do the same.

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

* * *

1) What are the quot;gold swapsquot; cited in the minutes of the January
31, 1995, meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee?

2) What quot;gold swapsquot; have been made by the ESF, the Treasury
Department, or the Federal Reserve in the last 10 years? Whose
gold was involved? What other parties were involved? What is
the status of these quot;gold swapsquot;?

3) What was the purpose of these quot;gold swapsquot;? Do these quot;gold
swapsquot; facilitate the lending, leasing, or sale of gold by
other parties? How did these quot;gold swapsquot; come about? What
does the United States gain from them? What becomes of gold
that is quot;swappedquot;?

4) Were these quot;gold swapsquot; ever made public or reported to
Congress? If so, how? If not, why not?

5) Have these quot;gold swapsquot; encumbered or otherwise put in
jeopardy the gold reserves of the United States? If so, in
what amount and to what extent?

6) Why has the gold at the U.S. Mint at West Point, N.Y.,
been reclassified from quot;gold bullion reservequot; to quot;custodial
goldquot;? Is this gold still owned by the U.S. government? If
not, what is the authority for its having left the possession
of the U.S. government? Whose gold is it now? What has the
United States received for it?

7) If, as Chairman Greenspan suggested in his letter of
January 19, 2000, to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the Federal
Reserve System does not interfere in the free trade of gold,
why were quot;gold swapsquot; discussed at the FOMC's meeting on
January 31, 1995?

8) Exactly what is the policy of the Federal Reserve System,
the Treasury Department, and the Exchange Stabilization Fund
toward gold and the gold reserves of the United States?