panic is near if the gold is gone

12:44p ET Thursday, February 20, 2003

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA today distributed worldwide via the Business Wire
publicity service a press release about the wonderful
report in Insight magazine about the central banks'
deceptive accounting of their gold reserves. The release
is appended here. GATA supporters are urged to send
the Insight report to news organizations, elected
officials, and mining company executives.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

IMF Is 'Arthur Andersen Of The Gold
World,' According to GATA

DALLAS, Feb 20, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- A report in Insight
magazine vindicates the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee's
complaints about the International Monetary Fund's
duplicitous accounting of central bank gold reserves and
deepens suspicion that the banks have lost most of their
gold in a scheme to suppress its price.

The magazine report also quotes John Embry, whose gold
mutual fund was the best-performing fund in North America
in 2002, as endorsing GATA's work and conclusions.

The report, written by Insight's Kelly Patricia O'Meara and
published in the magazine's March 4 edition, is titled
"Panic Is Near If The Gold Is Gone."

Insight says it examined central bank records obtained by
GATA, particularly those of the Bank of Portugal, which
announced last month that most of its gold had been
loaned into the gold market or swapped with other central
banks. While the International Monetary Fund supervises
central bank gold accounting practices, Insight reports
that the IMF refused to answer questions about them.

Fund manager Embry, who this month announced that he
will be leaving RBC Global Investment Management for
the presidency of Sprott Investment Management, both in
Toronto, told Insight that GATA's calculations of the
draining of central bank gold inventories are better than
anyone else's. Embry added: "GATA has had this story
from Day 1. I think that they're right and that officialdom
doesn't want this exposed. GATA is willing to have a
public debate but the gold world won't debate."

The Insight magazine report can be found on the
Internet here:

http://www.insightmag.com/news/370641.html.

GATA Chairman Bill Murphy urged gold investors to
bring the Insight article to the attention of the financial
press, political officials, and executives of gold mining
companies so that the IMF and central banks can be
compelled to tell the truth about what they're doing with
gold.

Citing Insight's credo, "Report news others won't or
can't," Murphy said:

"That describes the gold scandal. Suppressing the gold
price is how the United States keeps developing
countries under the control of the U.S. dollar. Suppressing
the gold price inflates the dollar's value relative to other
currencies and thereby deprives the developing world
of a fair price for its products. Suppressing the gold price
is imperialism in action, and far from being an agency of
international assistance, the IMF is the central mechanism
by which the gold price is suppressed and developing
countries are kept down. The IMF and the suppression
of the gold price must be exposed, and the report in
Insight will help us do that."