Leaving the war behind, but not necessarily the job as an agent for whoever he was serving, the late Einar Riis Johannessen became a self-made aircraft broker and a Norwegian Honorary Consul to Rome. Not trusting anyone – especially none of his own family – the late Consul appointed me to be the testamentary executor of his will thus appointing me to protect his rights and to dig out whatever I could find of assets before dividing the estate.

This job has – accidentally as it may seem – led me to turn stones that wasn’t meant to be touched discovering parts of the late Consul and his family’s secret life. Although I was to protect the family’s interests and rights whatsoever during the years I was engaged in their legal cases, this part of their life was never revealed to me.

A residence of the Medieval Monaco, estates and bank accounts in several countries, and a surviving family’s continuation of concealing their shady past and their secret business, has obviously complicated my task and it surely seems to end up with more claims against the estate and the surviving family-members than was the prediction when starting this mission.

As this case has become an international battle (I refuse to call it a legal struggle as the Norwegian Government are not playing by the rules) where the Norwegian Government for some reason have chosen to protect the Riis-family and their Gunrunner-business with whatever means in hand, I see no better alternative than to reveal my findings on the Internet. Only through this method – giving the people a fair chance to access and examine unhampered documents and information – we will stand a slight chance to have more than a say in regards to the arms dealing business, as well as in regards to a needed system change in Norway where providing the citizens with sufficient information would be helpful in the sense of seeing that one doesn’t necessarily have to accept the unconstitutional peerage-system which today runs this sleepy nation (that is; in the sense of their own rights) and its press.

Apparently I was the reason why this Gunrunner-family got free legal aid in their fight for their “rights” in Norwegian Courts against an enemy which only Consul Johannessen knew the face of – which he never revealed to me. At that time early in 1998 I was unaware of the family’s concealed wealth, as well as who was their real enemy, and hence the reason for this fight.

I was also – apparently – the reason why the Justice Department (which is an entity that doesn’t exist) paid this family some $8 million in 2003 with the sole comment that the payment didn’t constitute any responsibility for whatever. So, why did they pay then?, and why didn’t any members of the Parliament question this huge “Governmental” payment if Norway was not liable? The scam this family turned on me, renowned politicians as well as the Norwegian people, seems to give the “Da Vinci Code” a close run when it comes to the thrill and the never-ending twists of the story.

Compared to what I have experienced in Norwegian courts where I am dealing with corrupt judges passing secret decisions allowing the Gunrunners and their like-minded to infect Norwegian courts with corruption, lies and fraudulence, the Norwegian mobile phone operator Telenor seems to have been treated more than well by the Russian court in their struggle against the Russian Alfa Group (Telenor has been fined some $1.7 billion; latest news I and II in Norwegian).

Certain handpicked Norwegian judges have passed – I don’t know – +10 judgements against me, not bothering serving any legal documents (summons, decisions, etc) whatsoever for me. Most of the decisions aren’t even signed whereas other court documents have been falsified by the judge in charge or by his/her henchmen. Even so the Government claims that they can’t see any wrongdoing in the process, which should give you an idea on how bad the situation really is in the Norwegian legal system. In this regard – as a comparison – it is thus well justified, I believe, to state that Telenor has been treated more than fair in their legal fight in Russia.

At least Telenor was allowed to be present in the main hearing in this Siberian court, a right that I have been deprived of by a few corrupt Norwegian judges controlled from outside the court.

This case between Telenor and the Russian Alfa Group (especially Telenor’s comments of the Russian decision) pinpoints, by the way, the problem in Norway and why it won’t get any better under the present regime: Norwegians know what they want when they are instructing other countries on how they should run their home, or when it comes to defending what they believe are their rights in foreign courts, whereas they don’t even bother looking back to see how bad it might be in their own country.

The main reason why Norwegians in general seems to be totally unaware of or ignorant to the disastrous legal situation in their own home, is that they/we are lulled in from childhood on that Norway is best in everything, and that the law-keepers don’t do mistakes, let alone committing crimes. Thus – as far as the judicial conduct is concerned – there is no reason to question a Norwegian court decision as it by definition is correctly administered and clean. I am fairly sure that you won’t find any cases in recent Norwegian legal annals where a judge has been convicted for any misconduct or crime. A legal system like the Norwegian, where there are no functional controlling body in regards to judicial conduct, is obviously wide open for corruption.

To the case: New information about the Gunrunners

In the periode from 1979 till 1985 the Norwegian citizen Mr. Nils Sandum was the Director of Consul Johannessen’s aircraft broker company in Rome; E. Riis & co. He has stated in a letter to me that the allegation that Consul Johannessen could have been connected to arms dealing is pure fantasy.

Was the Riis-family really involved in Gunrunning? Yes, they were (and they still might be). In a meeting in Rome (April 2008) with one of Consul Johannessens former directors, we were told that not only did he suspect the Consul to be an agent for whoever he didn’t know, but he could also reveal that E. Riis & Co were involved in shipping weapons out of the military airport Ciampino, Rome.

This information led me to do further investigations on the matter and a few days ago I got new information, a handwritten working note in which the late Consul Johannessen reveals that the aircraft he was interested in, a DC-10 from Philippines Airlines, was considered to be used for Arms Transport (see page 2, # 24).

As mentioned, it seems that the Norwegian Government along with their commercial propaganda channel TV2 is protecting both the Riis-family and their gunrunner-business. Why? Could it be, as Consul Johannessen has noted, that “Oslo” (Norway) was involved in his business, or vice versa?

It is a fact that Norway is and has been producing and providing products for warfare. On top of this: we all know that when old weapons are replaced, this arsenal hardly ends up in a scrap yard. In some way or other these weapons is more likely to end up in the hands of a war lord, where the whole process relies on one very important person; the arms dealer, the gunrunner. And finally, Norway has been a significant producer of heavy water. As the former director of E. Riis & co told us; they were shipping “mineral water” eastwards, a very good charter. Thinking of this information now, shipping water by air in the seventies (which sounds very costly and thus unlikely), it comes to my mind that this water could very well have been heavy water which consequently could be the reason why the Government today acts as a protector. 

Herman J Berge

Luxembourg