July 2, 2007 (LPAC)--What does VP Dick Cheney have to do with the Cayman Islands, the British Crown colony under Anglo-Dutch oligarchical control, which is the center for 8,000 hedge funds--three-quarters of the world's total? A lot.

According to the July 1 New York Times' article, "A Hamptons for Hedge Funds," during the Spring of 2007, a group of representatives from the Cayman Islands traveled to the United States to lobby for an "improved image," and to counter potential legislation that would regulate hedge funds. They lobbied the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Treasury, members of the Senate Banking Committee, and... Dick Cheney, not someone who would usually be on their circuit. Cheney's office refused to respond to the Times as to why he met with the Cayman Island reps.

But there is more.

In 2000, the Financial Information Task Force, an independent international body that was established to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, placed the Cayman Islands on an international blacklist, designating it as an uncooperating money-laudering nation. In 2001, the Cayman government paid $74,300 to Fred F. Fielding, then a well-connected Washington lawyer, according to the Times, "to help persuade American officials to lean on the international task force to remove the Caymans from the list." The Cayman Islands were in fact taken off the list. And Fred Fielding is now the White House's chief counsel!