Assignment - Quayle Question Read Online Free PDF Page A

of small newspapers scattered throughout Central America, as well as a number of minor radio stations in that part of the world. After Maurice K. Tang’s disappearance, the Banco Popacario divested itself of its media interests to C.P. Dillers, Ltd, a chain of housing developers in Great Britain. Dillers was majority-owned by the I. Shumata zaibatsu .

    “Had enough?” McFee asked.
    File Kappa 2375/GB AS Dept, was fat and heavy. Durell had put it down on General McFee’s desk and watched Deirdre finish leafing through her copy.
    Durell said, “Who is this collator, A. Mitstein, who wrote these comments?”
    “He works with Magda 1001, our computer down in the basement.”
    “How did he stumble on I. Shumata’s activities?”
    “His uncle’s shoe store. It was a forced sale, and Alfred wondered about it. The shoe store was taken over by an Italian firm, Falba Shoes, based in Torino. Mostly manufacturing for export to the U.S. Alfred’s uncle was squeezed by his local bank in Alexandria, received a good offer to bail him out by Falba, and accepted, retired to Miami Beach. Alfred had lived with his uncle and resented having to find quarters for himself. Magda 1001 is his baby. He traced Falba Shoes to an Austrian firm in Vienna, T.P.D. Inc., and from there to the Freilich Bank in Luxembourg, which owns mortgages and investment loans of T.P.D.’s. Freilich Bank is financed out of Lebanon, Saudi oil money. But T.P.D. was originally set up as a subsidiary of the Schilling Furniture people, who have interests in Montreal and Ottawa, as well as the Fukui Tomura Bank in Nagasaki. It’s the way the world works, Samuel. Behind Tomura is I. Shumata and Japanese and Korean media enterprises.”
    McFee paused. “None of the major world radio, TV, or newspaper chains are affected. But you see the relationship, of course. Buried in shipping, banking, food-processing, electronics, you-name-it, are hundreds and hundreds of outlets for the formation, shaping, and influence of public opinion. We wonder why. Every one of the outfits was taken over by violence. Sometimes overt, sometimes quite well-hidden.
    “Albert couldn’t get Magda 1001 to go beyond the zaibatsu in Japan. We’re at a dead end.”
    Durell said, “And?”
    “There is method in this apparent web of commercial coincidence, Samuel. Governments rise and fall, go to war or make peace, frame inhibiting trade policies or form alliances, based mainly on strong public opinion. The opinion of the small-town masses, Samuel. Deirdre?”
    “Yes, sir,” she said quietly.
    “Do you see why you are involved?”
    “No. Not yet.”
    “You are related to Rufus Quayle, are you not?” McFee asked softly.
    “I’m his niece. It doesn’t mean anything. I saw him only once, when I was a child. He is not a man who cares for poor relations.”
    “Aside from his daughter Deborah, you are his only other living blood relation, are you not?”
    Durell sat back, a sudden unease in him. He looked at Deirdre as if he had never seen her before. He watched her nod slowly. She did not glance at him.
    Durell said, “Sir?”
    “Yes, Samuel.”
    “Are you talking about the Rufus Quayle?”
    “Yes. The man who created a myth out of himself in his own lifetime. The billionaire several times over. The recluse, the mysterious figure who owns, wholly and completely, banks, shipping fleets, oil interests, and the Quayle system of radio and TV stations, and, of course, the famous—or infamous—network of small dailies and weeklies that cover this country like a blanket, flooding the population with his personal editorials which, while strange and off-beat, nevertheless have defeated senators, voted in congressmen, interfered with various government bureaus and agencies, effected new policies and directions, caused a reshuffling of our lower courts, and in general represents the greatest lobbying industry in the U.S. A patriot, but not a crackpot, Samuel. His efforts have been all to the