It was while Vasquez referenced the figures that we had published that Mrs. Garcia questioned the credibility of our figures.

Amandala had gotten the figures from three trusted inside sources, whose names we cannot reveal, but whose documentation quoted the same figures.

Garcia was dismissive when we affirmed to her that we had gotten our information from three credible sources.

Amandala stands by the information that we have published. We concede that the information was not released to us ?officially,? but we believe that they were given to us in good faith by those who agree that there should be public disclosure on all of SSB?s investments.

If there was indeed misinformation on the breakdown of SSB?s investment portfolio, we must conclude that the misinformation has come from within the SSB?and we have to question why.

We could have understood if Mrs. Garcia had accused us of making mistakes with the numbers, but to suggest that we fabricated the information is ridiculous.

We note that the July 31, 2004, summary of SSB?s investments, which the SSB released at today?s press conference, is dated as at July, a month after the dating of figures that we released last week. (Please see page 4 of this issue and examine the differences for yourself.)

(Asst. Ed. NOTE: SSB had announced on June 4, 2004, amid speculation that the buyer of the BTL shares, Jeffrey Prosser, had not paid SSB cash for the shares, that SSB had indeed received $51.87 million. Those were deposited into Certificates of Deposit (CD?s), according to SSB. It also reported receiving $7 mn for BECOL shares, for a total of about $59 mn. Now, SSB reports its aggregate bank balance at just over $65 mn, as we indicate on page 4. It is evident that without the money from the sale of BTL and BECOL shares, Social Security would only have about six million in the bank to show for the last 20 years of collection!)