05-04-2009, 02:16 PM
Sources: 1993, Alan Clark, 'Diaries', p. 369-374; 1993, Brian Crozier, 'Free Agent', page 193; June 29, 1997, The Independence, 'Aitken dropped by the Right's secret club; Is it the ultimate dishonour'
Born in 1917. Personal assistant to Konrad Adenauer (ran his office), who was chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. CDU (Conservative) member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1972. German ambassador to Iran. Commercial and financial advisor to the Siemens Corporation, which later went into business with Northrop, the General Telephone and Electronics Corporation, and the Nippon Electric Company in Iran.
At about the time Bach retired from the Bundestag, he went to work for the swiss-based Economic and Development Corporation (EDC), an unacknowledged lobbying group for Northrop. The EDC received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Northrop. When Bach was interviewed over the phone during the 1975 Church Committee hearings about bribes that had been paid by the Northrop Corporation, he stated that he received no payments from Northrop or the EDC. On the other hand, he had been named as a shareholder of EDC and acknowledged that he had "advised them [EDC] about political things - the stability of a country, whether it was going to be an industrial country or not, whether it was going to be stable or not... I go to the country, see the country and make a report." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') He refused to say what countries he had worked on, but said it did not involve Germany. He "could not remember" exactly if he started to work for the corporation when he still was a member of the Bundestag. In March 1975, Bach and other senior members of EDC were invited to the headquarters of Northop. Senator Church said about the Northrop arrangement: "an intelligence network like a government would emply to get inside information, to pull the strings... the records itself show that Northrop has been doing it." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') Northrop officials had described it "a way of live, a necessary evil." EDC, founded in 1971, described itself as a company that tries "to seek economic relations with developing countries with the purpose of encouraging the economic development of these countries" (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms'). In 1972, Bach wrote a report for Andreas Froriep, a Zurich lawyer who ran the EDC. Froriep did acknowledge that he regularly relied on advise from people like Franz Josef Bach, "whose knowledge and expertise is of a unique nature" (July 27, 1975, New York Times, 'The F-16 and how it won Europe'). By 1975, Northop's F-17 had lost from its General Dynamics competitor who had built the F-16.
Alan Clark about the 1990 meeting of Le Cercle: "The Cercle, an Atlanticist Society of right-wing dignitaries, largely compered by Julian Amery and Herr Franz-joseph Bach, staged one or two conferences a year and this one was travelling to Oman at the hospitality of the Ruler." In his 1993 biography, Brian Crozier wrote: "In 1980, Violet, who had serious health problems, asked me to take over the Pinay Cercle. In practice, I mostly shared the burden with a leading German member of the Cercle, Franz-Josef Bach, who had run Adenauer's secretariat and later served as ambassador in Tehran." Died in 2001.
Born in 1917. Personal assistant to Konrad Adenauer (ran his office), who was chancellor of the Federal Republic of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. CDU (Conservative) member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1972. German ambassador to Iran. Commercial and financial advisor to the Siemens Corporation, which later went into business with Northrop, the General Telephone and Electronics Corporation, and the Nippon Electric Company in Iran.
At about the time Bach retired from the Bundestag, he went to work for the swiss-based Economic and Development Corporation (EDC), an unacknowledged lobbying group for Northrop. The EDC received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Northrop. When Bach was interviewed over the phone during the 1975 Church Committee hearings about bribes that had been paid by the Northrop Corporation, he stated that he received no payments from Northrop or the EDC. On the other hand, he had been named as a shareholder of EDC and acknowledged that he had "advised them [EDC] about political things - the stability of a country, whether it was going to be an industrial country or not, whether it was going to be stable or not... I go to the country, see the country and make a report." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') He refused to say what countries he had worked on, but said it did not involve Germany. He "could not remember" exactly if he started to work for the corporation when he still was a member of the Bundestag. In March 1975, Bach and other senior members of EDC were invited to the headquarters of Northop. Senator Church said about the Northrop arrangement: "an intelligence network like a government would emply to get inside information, to pull the strings... the records itself show that Northrop has been doing it." (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop Apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms') Northrop officials had described it "a way of live, a necessary evil." EDC, founded in 1971, described itself as a company that tries "to seek economic relations with developing countries with the purpose of encouraging the economic development of these countries" (June 10, 1975, New York Times, 'Northrop apologizes on Saudi Bribes; Senator Church Urges Sales Reforms'). In 1972, Bach wrote a report for Andreas Froriep, a Zurich lawyer who ran the EDC. Froriep did acknowledge that he regularly relied on advise from people like Franz Josef Bach, "whose knowledge and expertise is of a unique nature" (July 27, 1975, New York Times, 'The F-16 and how it won Europe'). By 1975, Northop's F-17 had lost from its General Dynamics competitor who had built the F-16.
Alan Clark about the 1990 meeting of Le Cercle: "The Cercle, an Atlanticist Society of right-wing dignitaries, largely compered by Julian Amery and Herr Franz-joseph Bach, staged one or two conferences a year and this one was travelling to Oman at the hospitality of the Ruler." In his 1993 biography, Brian Crozier wrote: "In 1980, Violet, who had serious health problems, asked me to take over the Pinay Cercle. In practice, I mostly shared the burden with a leading German member of the Cercle, Franz-Josef Bach, who had run Adenauer's secretariat and later served as ambassador in Tehran." Died in 2001.