A.V. Horton

It is a hard, brittle, corrosion resistant, yellow metallic element. It’s chemical symbol is Ir, it’s atomic number is 77, it’s atomic weight is 192.22, and it resides between Osmium and Platinum on the Periodic Table of the Elements……….

Dull and uninteresting, huh? Absolutely; but, that is not the Iridium we want you to know about. First, let us tell you that we had the privilege to hear Michael Bunker talk to a group of about 100 on August 15. The title of his talk was "Nowhere to Hide! Iridium Satellites" – the talk lasted nearly four hours, and nobody left before the end!! His extensive information plus an internet scan are the basis for our remarks here. Bunker is an informed source of information and he has books and tapes on the subject. His claims are very well documented.

The following is an astounding matter related to a company called Iridium LLC. Originally the company was Iridium, Inc., formed in June 1991 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola. In mid 1993, positions were sold to US and foreign investors on a private placement basis. In July 1996 Iridium LLC (limited liability corporation) was formed and Iridium, Inc. was merged into the LLC. The partners in Iridium LLC are big companies you have heard something about before; Motorola, Lockheed-Martin, Loral, Sprint, Raytheon, Hughes and others. These partner companies apparently bought their stock positions in this enterprise for the stock par value of $0.01 per share. Motorola appears to be the largest participant at 18-25% ownership. The intent of Iridium LLC was to put a huge array of polar satellites in low earth orbits. Their publicly stated purpose for doing this was to provide wireless telephone service to every square foot of the earth’s surface. Intense they were – this little start-up venture was funded with about $4.8 billion. That’s right billion with a "B". Next time you consider a little start-up venture, be sure to have $4.8 billion available!!!

They then, in December 1996, incorporated in Bermuda, a subsidiary corporation called Iridium World Communications, Ltd (IWCL). This stock was sold to the general public at a starting price of about $20 per share. Stock classes are numerous and it is difficult to tell how much was sold to the public and at what price. Presumably they sold enough to get a substantial piece of the $4.8 billion covered. There was significant hype in the stock market arena and the IWCL stock went to about $65 per share. The stock price then went straight in the bucket over an 8-9 month period. Several corporate officers pulled out, IWCL filed for bankruptcy, and on 8/16/99 NASDAQ halted public trading of the stock with the price below $2. As late as 6/21/99, Industry Week published an article bullish on the prospect for Iridium based on the fact that they had deployed a constellation of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites in November 1998.

Consider the parameters of the telephone product underlying this plan. It cost somewhere between $2,300.00 and $3,300.00 to buy the telephone and the charge for use was to be between $1.50 and $6.00 per minute. Furthermore, there may have been only a few hundred phones ever manufactured. The stated reason for Iridium being in bankruptcy today, is that the creditors are disenchanted with the rate of growth of the subscriber base – amazing, at best!!!

There are other satellite based "telephone" ventures around, also. Globalstar is advertised as being the top competitor to Iridium, but curiously, some of the same partners are involved – Loral is the prime example. Teledesic is another one – it was put together by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates of McCaw Communications and Microsoft, if the names aren’t familiar. Apparently, at least some of these other ventures have deployed satellite constellations also. Then there is involvement of foreign corporations in these satellite ventures – specifically two from China and at least one from Russia. A survey of the officers and directors reveals a serious multinational flavor. One name in particular attracted my attention – Hasan M. Binladin from the Saudi Binladin Group. Are we not looking for his relative, the world renowned terrorist?

On August 17, the historical quotes for Iridium World Communications, Ltd. Were confusing – there were three stock symbols:

IRID – no current posting available and the historical data only went back to March 1999. The chart is shown above for reference. Note the up-tick following the 6-21-99 Industry Week hype.

IRIDF – no current price posting but the 52 week high and low were provided at 72 3/16 and 23 5/8, respectively.

IRIDQ – again no current posting and the 52 week high and low were provided at 49 7/8 and 2 ¾, respectively.

The quotes do not provide a clear picture – our impression is that the information relating to Iridium stock price postings is vaporizing. In any case, our survey of the remaining financial information and published articles revealed a long list of cross connections between the partner corporations. These corporations have been maneuvering stacks of million dollar bills back and forth in an impossible to track fashion – there are many transactions of several hundred million dollars each!! A. B. Dawson attempted to build a money flowchart, based on the published information, on my conference room board. The chart wound up looking approximately like a can of worms - we gave up on that and will spare you the agony of publication here.

Hopefully, you did not own the publicly traded stock in Iridium World Communications, Ltd. - at least not during the crash period. Why, then, should you be at all concerned with this. Consider the following:

1. The consortium successfully deployed the satellite constellations. By the way, state-of-the-art satellites – capable of processing billions of bytes per second (yes, billions with a "B").
2. A significant chunk of the bill was paid by unsuspecting stock market investors.

3. The rocket guidance technology was illegally delivered to China with help from our White House. Remember when Loral, and it’s CEO Bernard Schwartz, first came under fire for this delivery, you were told that it was simply to be used for a little light weight telephone communications system – so, don’t get excited. China used the technology along with the MIRV capabilities when they launched satellites for Iridium. Russia launched some also. The same guidance technology can now be used by both to deliver rockets to the USA and they can deliver multiple warheads using the MIRV technology!
4. There is no more need to worry about manufacturing expensive telephones that nobody will buy, anyway, because Iridium World Communications is in bankruptcy.
5. Iridium LLC is alive and well and the partners own the satellite constellation.
6. Now the worst part, according to Michael Bunker – Those satellites are, and always have been, spy satellites. They are being used to transmit a significantly high portion of all telephone, e-mail, fax, pager, and internet communications world wide. Furthermore, the plan is for full involvement in all of these communication transmissions. Huge computer banks are busy, around the globe on a 24/7 basis, screening all transmitted communications. Understand that your use of hit list keywords or key phrases in your communication will trigger the computer to isolate your communication for further scrutiny by the "authorities".

Iridium is simply another very clever step, by the global elitists, toward taking control of peoples lives around the world – remember, Big Brother and his Telescreen. You see, something as innocuous as a wireless telephone system venture can take its toll on your privacy, freedom, and personal security.