1. Naming the Colluders; 2. Beat Debt, Buy Gold

Hello GATA Members,

Today's VIEWPOINT postings are mostly about Gold for Steadfast People.

Within an hour of posting my Easter reflection exposing the colluders
and describing how Chris Diethelm has beaten debt with gold, Rod Michel
wrote:

"I like the new strategy of GATA to educate people to the value of gold
and silver and other hard assets vs fiats. This sounds like a viable
plan that would have the greatest effect. Education is the answer. Keep
up the good work on this front as I think you have finally found 'Gold'
that money can't buy."

In response, I suggested, "What about a GATA-GOLD improvement on E-gold
(www.e-gold.com), with regular physical audits of actual gold stock and
a strong sell in countries whose fiat currencies are going down the debt
chute?"

I subsequently learnt that GATA will soon have an opportunity to link
into a world gold sales initiative being launched by Paul Mason, a good
friend of GATA chairman, Bill Murphy see item 1.

By now GATA members will know, I believe monetary Gold is the key to
culture and essential to a healthy economy. As the elite talk Gold down,
the steadfast people of the world are taking it up. Therefore, I am
pleased to note and share information about the launch of the Islamic
gold Dinar and silver Dirham in Dubai, 22 March see item 2. No matter
how much Wall Street, the IMF, the Fed and other western central bankers
want to see gold demonetized, the vast majority of the world's
population in Asia and through Islam will continue to hold gold as
sacred money security. And judging from the boom in sales of Gold Eagles
and Paul Mason's experience, the West is catching on fast.

In item 3 Jon Kaplan reports on gold holdings in India. Gold imports
into India in 1998 and 1999 are as high as a third of world gold
production. The fact is, gold is revered in Hindu sacred literature. For
more on Why Indians Love Gold and the Gold demand of China, India and
Muslims, see www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_98/madhok101598.html and
ditto editorials_98/vronsky113098.

GATA Chairman, Bill Murphy's update on GATA progress to Le Metropole
Cafe members is reproduced as item 5. Note: As we went into the Easter
weekend, $42,670 had been collected for the GATA warchest.

It has been a good mailbag this week, allowing me to post eight items,
including this introduction. Thank you all.
We are getting to know each other, and that is essential to
GATA's STRENGTH AS A TEAM 200 STRONG

GO GATA, Go Gold,

Boudewijn Wegerif (Bodwin)
Moderator GATA E-mail Group

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1.
Paul Mason has written to GATA chairman, Bill Murphy:

Bill,

I have been watching your relentless efforts in mustering up support for
the GATA movement and I commend you on the vigor. In late May 99, I will
be opening up my website for Crown World Corporation--primarily bullion
products but also Ancient Treasures, World Gold, World Coins and
Collectibles from all over the world. The site will also have a Forum
and from time to time I would like you to post on the site and give
people the opportunity to visit Lemetropole Cafe. Also, should you
reciprocate in linking back to me as a bullion site, I am willing to set
up a program where a specific amount of every sale goes to GATA or
LeMetropole or both in any combination that meets with your approval.
Everytime a customer buys and ounce of gold or silver or maybe per
order--a contribution will be made to GATA or other cause that requires
our support.

I can tell you that without the website open--I am already doing land
office business in bullion. The buyers are all very anxious and just a
few weeks ago--the supply of silver rounds (1 Oz private minted coins)
was suddenly exhausted leaving 90% of the dealers with no stock to ship.
Fortunately, I bought a large quantity some time ago when silver was
below $5 and was able to make the sales. The Y2K tension is building and
for every new customer I get--many are on their 2nd and 3rd order
getting ready for the unknown event.

These are exciting times yet rough times for us hard money
advocates--but if we stick together we can, at least, make it difficult
for the masters of the universe and all the Hannibals. My way of doing
this is to promote hoarding and accumulation of all the precious metals
because no matter what they do with the derivatives the underlying asset
is always king.

Pressure, pressure and more pressure until they too have to go LONG. Let
me know your thoughts and fire away with any ideas or questions. No
matter what comes of this--know that I respect you and your steadfast
dedication and courage of standing up to Goliath.

Keep the heat on.

Regards,
PAUL MASON (starcast@worldnet.att.net)
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2.

LAUNCH OF ISLAMIC GOLD DINAR AND SILVER DIRHAM

Over a billion Muslims in 22 countries are gaining access by degrees to
the reintroduction of Islamic Gold Dinars and Silver Dirhams, the
Shariat currency of the Ummah from the beginning of Islam until the fall
of the Khalifate. There was a relaunch of the traditional coins after a
gap of 100 years by the Dubai Port and Customs Authority in Dubai for
use at the Dubai Shopping Festival, which opened on March 22.

Some 10,000 dinars and 10,000 dirhams were specially minted for the
Dubai Shopping Festival, in four denominations of one and two dinars in
gold and one and five dirhams in silver.

"The Islamic Dinar and Dirham, mentioned in the Holy Quran, unlike paper
currencies that are government debts, are backed by itself, that is, by
its own gold content. It is not a promise of payment but is the real
payment itself," said Dr Obaid Saqer Busit, director general of ports
and customs. "The coins are being minted by the London-based Islamic
Mint in four denominations of one and two dinar in gold and one and five
dirham in silver and are of the traditional weights and measures that
existed in the Umar ibn Al Khattab era. The 23 mm-diameter one dinar
contains 4.3 grams of 22 carat gold of 91.7 per cent purity. The 26
mm-diameter two dinar has 8.6 grams of 22 carat gold. Both 25
mm-diameter one dirham and 27 mm-diameter five dirham coins hold three
and 15 grams of pure silver respectively, equal to 999 percent purity."

"We are reintroducing a tradition that has not happened for over a
century," said Busit. "It is more than commercial, it is a work that
reflects the tradition of the Islamic World. The idea, according to
Busit, was put forward by the Islamic Mint four months ago. "We were
interested because of the history," said Busit. The Islamic Mint is
already planning to promote the coins in the south-west Asian Muslim
countries.

"We have established an agency in Malaysia to launch the concept and
mint the coins," said Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, director of the Islamic
Mint, a subsidiary of the World Islamic Trading Organisation (WITO).
"Gold dinars and silver dirhams are mentioned in the Holy Quran and are
considered as Shariah currency," he said. The minting of the coins is
part of a project comissioned in 1992 to re-introduce traditional coins
with the same value and design as existed centuries ago. The coins, used
by Muslims from the beginning of Islam, particularly for zakat
(prescribed charity) and dowry, are round and adorned with inscriptions
stamped in two concentric circles.

"The use of gold and silver currencies in traditional fairs has become a
popular attraction in Europ," says Mr Vadillo. "Every year in the
Scottish city of Stirling (near Edinburgh) a traditional market is set
up where visitors are asked to exchange their paper British pounds for
gold and silver coins and they are asked to trade with them inside the
market. It is remarkable how eager the customers are to keep the metal
currencies for the next year rather than exchange them back to
paper-money again."

There is an enormous expectation through the world-wide Muslim community
for the launching of the Islamic Dinar, according to Mr Vadillo.

For more information, contact Ahmad Gross,
Office of Umar Ibrahim Vadillo,
Director of Islamic Mint
islamicmint@netmatters.co.uk

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3.
Jon Kaplan invites GATA members to set a bookmark for his website,
http://www.goldminingoutlook.com:

In his Gold Mining Outlook, Jon writes:
The World Gold Council sees an immediate spurt in gold trade in South
India thanks to a recent announcement by the Tamil Nadu state government
that the sales tax rate for gold is being lowered from 2.0% to 0.5%,
bringing it to the same level as northwestern neighbor Karnataka state.
India was the world's largest single country consumer of gold by far in
1998 with 815 tonnes; this number is expected to rise between 5% and 10%
in 1999.

KAPLAN'S CORNER: Question: Why aren't there more takeovers in the gold
mining industry? Answer: Actually, the percentage of takeovers in gold
mining is near the highest for any industry group. Given the huge number
of gold mines for their relatively small total market capitalization, it
is likely that these takeovers will accelerate in frequency, especially
since it is one of the few ways that larger companies can expand their
reserves. Small companies with sharply increasing profits, low P/E
ratios, and friendly by-laws (no "poison pills" or dilution clauses) are
the most likely candidates to be taken over.

Jon sets the current outlook for gold and gold shares as STRONGLY
BULLISH. To learn why, visit his site.

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4.
Here is a letter received from Cliff Neely:

Dear GATA,

I agree with our leadership that the need to simplify a complex
situation is very much the key to GATA's success.

In my judgment, for our suit to succeed, there must be one defendant and
one defendant only. Like it or not, that defendant has to be the US
Treasury. Dealers, brokers, banks and others simply confuse the issue.
The Treasury has the motive and the Treasury has done the manipulation.
I realize that there are many points of view on the strategy to pursue.

I ask the leadership of GATA, in consultation with our PR firm, to spend
some time looking at a strategy of suing Satan and ignoring the lesser
devils. Once the target is selected, GATA can begin collecting evidence
on a world-wide basis. I am convinced that we will all be surprised at
how quickly and completely it can be proven that the Treasury was linked
to such actions as Australian central bank gold sales, the bail out of
LTCM, and Soros selling of his 10% interest in Newmont Mining. I'll
close by quoting from Chris Powell in today's email: "But gold's enemies
are in the paper money business and their wealth depends on the general
suppression of hard money."

GO GATA COMMENT: Other members have thought along similar lines, but the
legal reality is that it would be impossible to follow a stratery of
"suing Satan and ignoring the lesser devils." The anti-trust laws relate
to business firms colluding together to corner the market. The fact that
the business firms may or may not be receiving Federal Reserve Board and
Treasury Department encouragement is incidental. You may rest assured
that the lawfirm we retain will explore every avenue.

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5.
GATA UPDATE -- FROM THE CAFE

Bill Murphy, GATA Chairman, wrote to all Le Metropole Cafe members last
week, commending the GATA E-mail Group Effort, and giving the good news
that GATA has now received $42,670 in contributions from shareholders in
gold companies around the world.

Bill continued: "We also want you to know that we are making significant
progress towards initiating an investigation into those that we believe
have colluded to hold down the price of gold. All of us would like the
process to move more swiftly,but it is important that you know that we
are coordinating many facets of this rather imposing effort. It takes
time. Henry David Thoreau sums it up best: "If one advances confidently
in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he
has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He
will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary: new,
universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves
around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted
in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license
of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life,
the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not
be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.If you have
built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they
should be. NOW PUT THE FOUNDATIONS UNDER THEM."

"That is what The GATA Committee is doing- building a foundation that
will support the necessary effort required to take on such formidable
adversaries. Even so, we expect that we will be able to announce to you
very soon that we have retained Berger & Montague ( one of the premier
anti-trust law firms in the United States ) and that our official
investigation has commenced.

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6.
Rumour has it, not first hand, nor third-hand, that Buffet recently
bought a huge amount of physical Au and shipped it to some storage area
he has in the NE states.

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7.

Jim Mandee has written:

Dear Sir:
I Follow with great interest the postings; I think I pretty much
grasp what this mess is all about. Some of my contemporaries
hereabouts consider themselves astute investors, but not many
understand the complexities in this profound conspiracy, which you know
and I know is what it really is. Many interested persons would like to
understand more about what is going on in the scandal.

I submit that GATA, while doing a great service and hopefully with
great benefit to all the harmed entities, could get the message out so
the average man on the street and the naive populace ( & investors for
that matter) could see the thing in a pictorial manner. I only wish
that I were a cartoonist/ pictorial artist and could get things in a
format that could portray what I am attempting to convey here.

Basically " a picture is worth a thousand words" Do we have any
members who may be talented along these lines? I think possibly and
maybe even probably and maybe even assuredly so. How do we locate
them?

GO GATA COMMENT: You are right, Jim -- It would be great if somebody
could produce a cartoon to dramatise what GATA is all about in easy to
understand, pictorial form. Any offers?

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