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Author Topic:   bush\cheney wrecker'd
Petron
unregistered
posted October 06, 2004 07:06 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
cheney the factchecker refutes edwards?lol http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&u=/ap/20041006/ap_on_el_pr/ debate_web_sites_1&printer=1


i went to factcheck.org and all it refutes is a kerry ad that says cheney was paid 2 million from halliburton while vp
actually he recieved most of a 2 million$ payment just b4 he took office....but it didnt refute the claim that halliburton recieved no-bid contracts, or ANY of the cases of bribery and book cooking investigations that edwards brought up that took place while cheney was ceo of haliburton...lol

cheney probly gave the wrong website on purpose to divert any actual factchecking

i just watched brit hume on fox news and he did a whole segment on just this only he also ignored those 2 charges by edwards also...i guess he thought he cleared things up...
(but his guest pointed out that cheney will still recieve more payments from halliburton)lol

*********************
Halliburton part of French probe

11:00 PM CST on Friday, January 9, 2004

By RICHARD WHITTLE and JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News

Mr. Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, when it was based in Dallas.

TSKJ – Kellogg Brown & Root, Technip, Snamprogetti of Italy and JGC of Japan – is registered in Madeira, Portugal. The joint venture won a $3.8 billion construction contract in December 1995 for Nigeria's Bonny Island Liquefied Natural Gas Project. The plant super-cools natural gas into a liquid that is shipped in tankers to Europe and Japan.

In 1999, the consortium won a second contract for the project to expand capacity by 50 percent. A third expansion contract worth $1.7 billion went to TSKJ in 2002.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/business/stories/011004dnbushal liburton.4b26.html


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Halliburton to pay $7.5 million fine
Energy company failed to report accounting changes
Floyd Norris, New York Times

Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Halliburton Co. secretly changed its accounting practices when Vice President Dick Cheney was its chief executive officer, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday as it fined the company $7.5 million and brought actions against two former financial officials.

But confronted with a large overrun on a fixed-fee project to build a gas production plant in the Middle East -- the commission did not say in which country -- Halliburton changed its policy so that it would record the income it thought the customer would eventually agree to pay.

That change in policy was not disclosed until March 2000, when the company filed its 1999 annual report with the SEC. The commission said that pretax profit for all of 1998 was reported at $278.8 million, 46 percent more than the $190.9 million that would have been reported under the old accounting methods.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/04/BUG0H8294C1.DTL

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Petron
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posted October 07, 2004 01:19 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
this is a long article so i'll only include excerpts that tie together bush, Enron , saudi arabia etc.....


© St. Petersburg Times
published July 21, 2002


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twelve years and 30 days ago, George W. Bush sold most of his stock in Harken Energy Corp. Now the echoes of that deal are undermining his campaign to rein in corporate wrongdoers, calm investors and revive plummeting stock markets.


Bush filed an initial disclosure with the SEC indicating his intent to sell shares. But he has given several explanations for the 34-week delay in filing a report on the specific sale. "I still haven't figured it out completely," Bush said this month.
Why did Bush sign off on the same type of loss-hiding accounting that ruined Enron and WorldCom?

Then there's Vice President Dick Cheney, whose past job was as CEO of Halliburton Co., which is under SEC investigation for accounting shortcuts. And there's Army Secretary Thomas White, the former Enron executive, who sold $12-million in Enron stock prior to the company's bankruptcy and allegations of phony accounting.

About $3-million poured into Bush's business from uncle Jonathan Bush, a Wall Street banker; grandmother Dorothy Bush; Rite-Aid drugstore chairman and influential Republican Lewis Lehrman; William Draper III, a corporate executive and family friend who would soon be appointed to head the federal Export-Import Bank; and James Bath, a Houston aircraft broker who fronted as an investor for several Saudi Arabian sheiks

Harken's major investors included billionaire currency speculator George Soros, Ivy League university fund investor Harvard Management Co., and, after Bush joined the board, Saudi investor Abdullah Taha Bakhsh.

As a member in 1989 of Harken's audit committee, Bush signed off on a deal, similar to recent shenanigans by Enron, that inflated company earnings.

Here's how it worked: Harken decided to lend money to a partnership of company insiders, which used the money to buy Aloha Petroleum, a Harken subsidiary that owned gas stations in Hawaii. By Harken's way of accounting, the twisted transaction created a multimillion-dollar instant "profit." Harken then recorded a gain of $7.9-million and finished the year with a modest $3.3-million loss. That was a good performance year for Harken

Bush failed to file required followup reports with the SEC on four separate Harken transactions over several years. After joining Harken's board, the company gave Bush a $96,000 loan at 5 percent interest, with an eight-year holiday on principal repayments, so he could buy 80,000 shares of company stock. Bush missed SEC deadlines for giving notice of both these acquisitions by nearly four months.

Bush got a second loan of $84,375 in 1989 to acquire 25,000 shares. This time, Bush missed the SEC filing deadline by 15 weeks.

In August 1990, two months after Bush's big sale of Harken stock, the company disclosed an unprecedented quarterly loss of $23-million. The same month, Hussein invaded oil-rich Kuwait. Both events drove Harken shares down to $3, then to $1.25 near the end of the year.

In 1991, the SEC had completed its investigation of Harken's funny accounting for the sale in 1989 of its Aloha Petroleum subsidiary. The agency ordered Harken to restate its 1989 earnings, meaning that the company's $3.3-million loss was larger: $12.6-million

That Bush sold Harken shares in 1990 at a price propped up, in part, by faulty 1989 accounting has never been addressed by the SEC.

Bruce Hiler, SEC associate director of the enforcement division, later said he faced no political pressure in the investigation. "Of course we were aware we were dealing with the president's son," he said. "But it wasn't intimidating at all."

Hiler, who left the SEC in 1994 for private practice, now represents Jeffrey Skilling, the former CEO of bankrupt Enron Corp

At first, the group lacked deep pockets and enough local Texas participants to please Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth. To ensure the Rangers stayed in Texas, and to bolster a pet project of the oldest son of the new U.S. president, Ueberroth recruited Fort Worth financier Richard E. Rainwater, the former hotshot money manager for the billionaire Bass brothers, to take charge.

One result of the Bahrain contract was immediate. Harken stock rose from $4.50 to more than $5.50 a share. But an unprepared Harken lacked cash and had to bring in the Bass brothers as equity partners to finance the drilling. Several years later, after two exploratory wells were drilled in Bahrain and found dry, the Bass partners told Harken they were pulling out of the Bahrain joint venture

A fascinating mystery: Who bought Bush's shares in Harken?

Said Bush, in a favorite line about his wheeling-and-dealing era in private business: "I was a pit bull on the pant leg of opportunity."
---------------------------------------------
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/21/Worldandnation/Bush_built_success_on.shtml

************


or did he mean to say "up the robes of opportunity"?

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Petron
unregistered
posted October 07, 2004 11:22 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bush Administration Contacts with Enron
___________________________________
Prepared for Rep. Henry A. Waxman
Minority Staff Special Investigations Division
Committee on Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
May 2002

The report finds that there were at least 112 contacts between Enron and White House or other Administration officials during 2001. The largest number of known contacts -- 40 contacts in total -- were between Enron and White House officials. The White House officials involved in these contacts included Vice President Dick Cheney, presidential advisor Karl Rove, White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsey, White House personnel director Clay Johnson, and White House energy task force director Andrew Lundquist.


Energy Secretary Abraham and other DOE officials met with Enron and other California electricity suppliers. DOE documents (Bate stamps 8330 and 25874).
4/5/01 Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling met with Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill for a half-hour to discuss the West Coast energy crisis.
4/6/01 White House economic advisors Lawrence Lindsey, Marcus Sumerlin, and Robert McNally met with Enron chairman Ken Lay and Enron lobbyist Linda Robertson about electricity and bundling issues.

10/28/01Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill spoke by telephone with Enron Chairman KenLay, who reportedly told him about the troubles Enron was facing.
10/29/01Enron Chairman Ken Lay spoke to Commerce Secretary Don Evans to discuss the decision by Moody’s to downgrade Enron’s credit rating. 11/2/01Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham telephoned Enron Chairman Ken Lay to ask about Enron.
The Energy Department also revealed that Enron officials had two meetings with two senior department officials.

The report summary concluded that the "Enron Corporation was President George W. Bush’s number-one career patron. Since 1993, Enron and its employees gave the President $736,800 in political and related contributions. Prior to the collapse of Enron in December 2001, the company appeared to have wide access to officials in the White House and federal agencies." [1]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

thomas white,bush dubya's natural choice for secretary of the army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_White


Before joining the Bush administration, Mr White held a series of posts at Enron. Among them vice chairman of Enron Energy Services, member of the company’s executive committee and chairman and chief executive officer for Enron Operations Corporation.

During his 11 years at Enron, Mr White accrued between $50m and $100m in Enron stock and options - more than any other member of the administration.
By selling them before he joined the administration, he said, he suffered “significant personal losses
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/business/2002/enron/21b.stm


Friends in High Places
Bankrupt Enron Held Sway
With Current Bush Administration

It's unclear to what extent the inquiries are examining the longstanding ties between administration officials and the company, which was once the seventh-largest U.S. corporation in terms of revenue.

Enron CEO Kenneth Lay has been a friend of Bush and the Bush family for years. When Gov. Bush ran for president, Enron gave him access to a company jet.

In April 2000, when Enron opened a new baseball stadium named for the firm, then-candidate Bush sat right in front of Lay in the Enron box.

Since 1999, Enron and its executives have given more than $2 million to the Bush campaign and other GOP causes.
As Bush assumed the presidency, Enron had unusual access to the new administration's deliberations about energy policy and appointments to important posts. Lay served on the Bush transition team and helped interview candidates for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees the gas pipelines and electricity grids that are key to Enron's business

When Vice President Dick Cheney drafted a new energy policy, he met with Lay and other Enron executives. Enron was reportedly the only company to be granted such a meeting.

Washington Posts
Enron alumni also fill prominent slots in the Bush administration. The president's chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, and the top trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick, both served as advisers to the company. Secretary of the Army Thomas White was an Enron executive before joining the administration. When he assumed the Army post, White was forced to sell more than $25 million in Enron stock, according to a financial disclosure form he filed.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/enron011210.html

wow thats alot to pay for a government position...

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jwhop
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Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 07, 2004 02:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Since the left continues to attempt tying Enron and Key Lay to the President, I decided to lay out the real record of Enron, Ken Lay, who their friends are and who helped them in their corrupt business dealing during the decade of greed, led by Commander Corruption (Bill Clinton).

Ken Lay also has an interesting connection to Heinz Kerry and by extension John Heinz Kerry.

Factually, damn there's that word again, the Bush administration and the President stiffed Enron and Ken Lay when asked for a bail out. As inconvenient as facts, ooops, there's that dreaded word again, are to the radical leftists, it's the Bush Administration who unraveled the corruption of corporate America and is prosecuting the hell out of them.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004 2:59 p.m. EST
Media Mum on Heinz Kerry's Enron Connection

It didn't get much attention back when Sen. John Kerry was a cellar dweller in the presidential polls. But now that he's the undisputed, all but certain, presumptive Democratic Party nominee, we're wondering where the coverage is on Teresa Heinz Kerry's Enron connection.

Long after Enron chairman Ken Lay had been demonized as a ruthless corporate buccaneer who had cheated widows and orphans out of their life savings, the man Dems love to invoke to beat up the Bush White House sat on the board of Teresa's Heinz Center Foundation.

In fact, Lay was reportedly a Heinz Center trustee for more than a decade, resigning just last year. That was around the time presidential candidate John Kerry started bashing "special interests" in Washington, zeroing in on Enron by name.

Last July, the Washington Times obtained samples of personal correspondence from the Heinz Center to Mr. Lay, praising him for his management style.

"Ken," wrote one of Teresa's representatives, "Simply stated, your background, expertise and experience make you uniquely qualified [to run our] global-warming [initiative]."

When asked about Mrs. Heinz Kerry's Enron connection, a Heinz Center spokeswoman explained to the Washington Post, "Whatever troubles he had at Enron, Ken Lay had a good reputation in the environmental community for being a businessman who was environmentally sensitive."

"When someone does wrong in one part of their life, it doesn't mean they can't do good in another part of their life," she added.

Hahahaha, nice rationalization by the Heinz John Kerry connection to Ken Lay.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/7/150230.shtml

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jwhop
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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
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posted October 07, 2004 02:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Let the fun begin!

Enron and Clinton
Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Dirty Deals and the DNC Cash Machine

Fiction writers documented the fall of Enron as a scandal to be linked to President Bush. Yet the U.S. Commerce Department has just released over 5,000 pages of documents that detail the Enron scandal during the Clinton years.

The Commerce materials outline a long-standing and very close relationship between the Clinton administration and Enron. For example, in March 1999 U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley's trade delegation to China produced several sweet business deals, including a special little gem for Enron.

Enron International China Pipeline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp. of Houston, Texas, signed a memorandum of understanding with China National Petroleum Corporation to jointly develop a natural gas pipeline.

"Enron International approached FCS (Foreign Commercial Service) Beijing for advocacy support for its joint venture to build a 4,000 km, $400 million natural gas pipeline from reserves in Sichuan Province to markets in and around Wuhan in eastern China," states an April 1999 Commerce document from Ivone Yang.

"CO Adams worked with Enron and USDOC's Advocacy Center to win the Chinese authorities blessing so that Enron International was able to sign a Memorandum of Understanding during Secretary Daley's visit to China in March 1999 with its partner, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)," notes the Commerce Department memo.

The deal also sealed the first major U.S. energy effort with China National Petroleum. However, China National Petroleum already has great experience at building pipelines under hostile conditions. CNPC is a Chinese army-owned firm that currently operates an oil pipeline inside war-torn areas of Sudan.

According to an article published in Investor's Business Daily by John Berlau, "Chinese Oil Firm Listing on NYSE Faces Fight Due to Terrorist Links," CNPC operates an oil pipeline through the contested areas inside Sudan.

"Canada's Foreign Affairs Ministry recently found that the oil pipeline that CNPC is building with Sudan's government and others is 'exacerbating the conflict' that has already killed 2 million people," wrote Berlau. "Not only will the oil revenue go to fuel the war effort but Sudan's government is using the pipeline project's airstrip for bombing missions."

Green Gore Goes Red

The work to help Enron even touched the king of "Green" - Al Gore. The Chinese deal with Enron has its roots with former Vice President Al Gore. In 1998, Gore wrote the Chinese leadership, urging them to sign lucrative contracts with Enron.

"In mid 1997, then State Development and Planning Commission (SDPC) Vice-Chairman Zeng Peiyan and the Secretary of Energy signed an Energy and Environment Cooperation initiative. Under that initiative, the two side have held two oil and gas forums and, last spring in Beijing, a national gas experts meeting," notes a 1998 Commerce Department document.

"The largest project to date in promoting natural gas use is the Guangdong Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal, to be constructed near Shenzhen... Several U.S. companies are actively pursing foreign partner status, including ExxonMobil, Enron and Chevron," noted the Commerce document.

"Vice President Gore recently wrote to Premier Zhu, expressing his hope that the Guangdong LNG project would become an example of successful U.S.-China clean energy cooperation," states the Commerce Department document.

African Enron

In 1995, the Clinton-Gore effort to help Enron win deals crossed all bounds of decency by using humanitarian aid as leverage. The Clinton-Gore National Security Council and Vice President Gore strong-armed Mozambique so that Enron could obtain an exclusive deal using threats of aid cuts as leverage.

Enron failed to match the terms offered by South African firm Sasol for the giant Pande gas fields. However, Enron Corp.'s plan to develop Mozambique's Pande natural gas field was saved from cancellation by a blunt threat from Clinton Security Council head Anthony Lake to cut off future U.S. humanitarian aid to Mozambique.

When Mozambique threatened to cancel the Enron Pande gas deal, Lake promptly suspended a $135 million humanitarian aid payment. Lake also wrote a threatening letter directly to the president of Mozambique.

"There is at the moment a debate of unprecedented intensity in Washington with regard to my government's overall budget, and particularly, funding for foreign assistance. Mr. President, we hope for a mutual effect on Africa on this debate. However, it will become increasingly difficult to defend such programs if some are able to argue that promising countries like Mozambique are not moving ahead rapidly to ensure economic growth through resources development," wrote Lake.

In the end, Mozambique caved, giving the exclusive deal to Enron over a South African firm. However, the only market for the Mozambique gas was a steel plant in South Africa. It would take two visits from VP Gore and Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary to South Africa to convince the Pretoria government to buy the Enron deal.

Enron DNC Money

During the 1990s, Enron CEO Ken Lay personally contributed $11,000 to former President Bill Clinton for his two campaigns. In addition, Lay gave Vice President Al Gore $13,750 for his 2000 election campaign.

During Clinton's eight years in office, the company and Lay contributed about $900,000 to the Democratic Party. Former Enron officials said an important part of their strategy to win favor with the Gore campaign was a significant increase in the company's donations to Democrats. In 1999 and 2000, the company gave $362,000 in soft-money donations to Democrats.

Most Americans were not aware of Enron's dealings with a Chinese army oil company engaged in oil-for-blood in Sudan. The mass media neglected to inform the U.S. public about the cruel use of humanitarian aid by the Clinton administration that greased an Enron deal in Africa. The fiction writers who spin your news never mentioned the Enron donations to the DNC.

If you paid attention to any of the mainstream media outlets, you can be certain that Enron never existed during the Clinton years.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/14/124745.shtml

Right, the decade of greed and corruption in Corporate America and the Clintonista White House never existed. It started...according to the fact hating left only when Bush became President.

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jwhop
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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
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posted October 07, 2004 02:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Clinton and Davis, birds of a feather and corrupt political payoffs.

Enron and Davis
Charles R. Smith
Friday, Aug. 22, 2003
California Governor Blacks Out the Truth


On Aug. 20, 2003, California Gov. Gray Davis stated that Enron and the Bush administration were to blame for the Golden State's electricity crisis.

"I inherited the energy deregulation scheme which put all of us at the mercy of the big energy producers. We got no help from the federal government. In fact, when I was fighting Enron and the other energy companies, these same companies were sitting down with Vice President [Dick] Cheney to draft a national energy strategy," stated Davis.

However, Davis is playing fast and loose with the real facts of his relationship with Enron. For example, according to the Sacramento Bee, Davis has received $119,500 in campaign donations from Enron, including $42,500 since becoming governor. Davis openly stated that he would not return the Enron money.

Davis has previously been quick to blame Enron for California's lack of power. In May 2002, Davis called Enron executives "robber barons."

"This is more than greed. This is depravity," stated Davis.

"As far as I'm concerned, the persons responsible are a menace to society and should be facing serious jail time, not 9 a.m. tee times," said Davis.

In 1999, only months before the California energy crisis, Davis led a $200,000 trade trip to Europe for Enron. Davis traveled at California taxpayer expense with his wife for two weeks in Europe and finally in ancient Greece, lobbying on behalf of Enron for the Greek Wind Project.

Davis also took a close-knit group of heavy campaign donors along on his trip to Greece. The group included grocery store magnate Ron Burkle, who donated $350,000 to Davis, and workers' compensation insurance executive Stanley Zax, who donated $100,000 to Davis.

My Big Fat Greek Donor

The project in Greece was so important that Davis also took his good friend, major DNC donor and Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos.

Tsakopoulos and his family are million-dollar contributors to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic candidates including Davis, Al Gore, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Tsakopoulos also spent time as a guest in the White House Lincoln bedroom.

According to documents forced from the U.S. Commerce Department, Enron noted that Davis and Tsakopoulos were tripping to Greece with some very unusual comments.

"Best man at my Greek wedding," noted one handwritten comment next to a Los Angeles Times article on Tsakopoulos attached to documents from the U.S. Embassy in Athens.

"Major Clinton donor – may be on Clinton trip to Greece," states the handwritten comments.

Enron considered the trade trip so important that they also included a 22-page briefing paper addressed to Gov. Davis detailing the "Greek Wind Project Permitting Issue." Interestingly, the same briefing paper made its way into the U.S. commercial section of the American Embassy in Athens.

The 1999 documents are part of a long string of heavy lobbying efforts that the Clinton administration carried out to convince the Greeks to buy Enron wind products for Crete.

For example, a 1998 document prepared for the U.S. ambassador in Greece noted, "The company [Enron] was given an installation license last year, but construction was held up while an archeological study was performed. In the interim, the licenses lapsed and Enron's request for a renewal has not been answered."

"Enron should send more high-level visitors to Greece to underscore the importance of this market," states the 1998 memo to the U.S. ambassador to Greece.

Davis Stiffs Enron

More importantly, the facts surrounding the California energy crunch do not support Davis' claim that Enron executives committed crimes. According to a study done by the CATO institute, the California governor is not telling the truth about Enron.

"Records pried from the governor's office by legal action reveal that during last year's crisis Enron was charging less for electricity than the market average and significantly less than Davis's own L.A. Department of Water & Power, under the direction of the governor's 'electricity czar,' David Freeman," states an article by Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies and Peter VanDoren, editor of Regulation, at CATO.

"Enron was accepting IOUs from the power companies and the state of California rather than demanding cash upon delivery at the height of the crisis. But trusting the state to make good on its promises to pay was an example of the corporate heart ruling the head. According to energy economist Phil Verleger, the state of California ended up stiffing Enron for millions of dollars, a (dare we say 'ruthless'?) maneuver that certainly didn't help Enron stay out of bankruptcy," notes the CATO institute report.

The fact is that Enron supplied barely 4 percent of California's power. Davis' attempt to paint the power shortage in California as some sort of right-wing conspiracy is so false as to be ridiculous.

Clinton, Davis and Enron

The fact is that Enron became a large, corrupt corporation with the support and approval of Gray Davis and Bill Clinton.

I have written several stories on the 5,000 pages of Enron materials forced from the U.S. Commerce Department by the Freedom of Information Act. In 1994, Enron did a dirty deal with Indonesian dictator Suharto and paid millions to Suharto's son for an electric power plant that was never built. These facts are known because the Clinton administration documented and supported the deal.

The documented evidence shows that Clinton worked for Enron in China, Vietnam, South Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina, Mozambique, South Korea, Japan, Belgium, France, Russia, the Philippines, the West Bank and Uzbekistan.

Enron's chairman met with Clinton and Gore in the Oval Office. Enron gave $420,000 to the DNC. Enron donated $100,000 to Clinton's inauguration festivities. The taxpayer-supported Export-Import Bank subsidized Enron for more than $600 million in just one transaction at the behest of President Clinton.

Many former Clinton administration officials eventually went to work for or lobbied on behalf of Enron, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Linda Robertson, former Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Elizabeth Moler, and the former media adviser to Vice President Al Gore, Greg Simon.

The scandal that became Enron corrupted nation after nation, spreading its wings as part of Bill Clinton's stained legacy. The Enron stain on California Gov. Gray Davis shows clearly in the light.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/21/173923.shtml

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jwhop
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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
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posted October 07, 2004 02:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
No question, Commander Corruption was in bed more often with Ken Lay and Enron than he ever was with Monica.

To think, Ken Lay and Enron got all the loot...well, Commander Corruption and the DNC also got lots of loot from Enron but all Monica got was a stained blue dress.

Enron and Clinton Corrupt Bedfellows
Charles R. Smith
Thursday, April 24, 2003

The leftist attempt to paint the Enron bankruptcy as a Bush scandal includes a badly made-for-TV movie produced by CBS called "The Crooked E." The spin in the fictional world of Hollywood was that the Bush administration, wooed by Enron dollars, helped the corrupt executives steal from the poor and working class heroes.

If you followed this spin, it was clear that Enron had no contact with the U.S. government prior to George W. Bush coming into office. According to CBS, Enron simply did not exist prior to George W. Bush.

Yet the CBS TV sit-com and its leftist spin flopped like a dead fish when confronted by facts. Enron and Bill Clinton were the best of bedfellows in corruption.

The U.S Commerce Department has been forced to release over 3,000 pages of documents detailing the long list of corrupt deals, trips and government candy doled out to Enron by President Clinton.

The Bush administration did not want to release these documents but was forced by this reporter using the Freedom of Information Act.

Greek Gray Davis

For example, in 1999 Gov. Gray Davis of California led a $200,000 trade trip to Europe that was very high on the Enron list. Davis tripped on California taxpayer expense with his wife in ancient Greece, lobbying on behalf of Enron Wind for the "Greek Wind Project."

The project in Greece was so important that Davis also took his good friend, major DNC donor and Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos. Tsakopoulos and his family are million-dollar contributors to the Democratic National Committee or Democrat candidates including Davis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. Tsakopoulos also spent time as a guest in the White House Lincoln bedroom.

According to documents forced from the U.S. Commerce Department, Enron Wind noted that Davis and Tsakopoulos were tripping to Greece with some very unusual comments:

"Best man at my Greek wedding," noted one handwritten comment next to a Los Angeles Times article on Tsakopoulos attached to documents from the U.S. Embassy in Athens.

"Major Clinton donor – may be on Clinton trip to Greece."

Enron considered the trade trip so important that it also included a 22-page briefing paper addressed to Gov. Davis detailing the "Greek Wind Project Permitting Issue." Interestingly, the same briefing paper made its way into the commercial section of the U.S. Embassy in Athens.

"An issue has arisen which seems to have some negative implications for follow-on investment in the renewable energy sector," states the Enron document.

"Namely on 4 August 1999, a decree was issued by the Ministry of Development which changes the procedure for obtaining future construction licenses for wind projects on the island of Crete and certain other islands. The decree would have a negative impact on a $30 million project Enron Wind was about to begin construction on in Crete, the Chronos (pronounced Honos) project."

The 1999 documents are part of a long string of heavy lobbying efforts that the Clinton administration carried out to convince the Greeks to buy Enron Wind products for Crete.

For example, a 1998 document prepared for the U.S. ambassador to Greece noted, "The company [Enron] was given an installation license last year, but construction was held up while an archeological study was performed. In the interim, the licenses lapsed and Enron's request for a renewal has not been answered."

"Enron should send more high-level visitors to Greece to underscore the importance of this market," states the 1998 memo to the U.S. ambassador to Greece.

Enron – NATO – Croatia

Enron also pushed the limits inside the former Yugoslavia. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown worked on an Enron contract in Croatia just prior to his death in 1996. Brown's death did place the project on hold but only for a short period of time.

In 1997, Enron executives flew to Croatia with Clinton Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor. The trade trip took place just after Enron executives made a $100,000 donation to the DNC. As a result, Enron struck a deal with the Croatian government to build a power station and run it for 20 years at a highly inflated price of nearly $200 million above market prices.

However, tapes of the Enron negotiations with Croatian officials show the U.S. energy company had promised more than electricity at higher than normal cost. According to the Financial Times, Croatia hoped the Enron deal would secure political favors inside the Clinton administration, including a state visit to Washington and membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In one reported meeting, Enron's head of international operations, Joseph Sutton, guaranteed that Enron would lobby for the Croatian president to meet Clinton and to seek Clinton's support for Croatia's entry into the WTO, the NATO partnership for peace program and eventually into NATO.

In 1999, Enron Executive Vice President Terence Thorn wrote a personal letter of thanks to President Clinton, carrying out the promised support for Croatia.

"I have good news about an opportunity in a strategically important nation, Croatia. Enron International through the direct involvement of President Franjo Tudjman has successfully concluded negotiations to build a 240 MW natural gas powered plant at Jertovec, Croatia," wrote Thorn to Clinton.

"Our people have come to know Croatia, its people and its President. Through our power project Croatia solidified those ties and welcomed the United States as its largest foreign investor. Croatia is also cooperating with NATO to bring peace to the Balkan region," wrote Thorn.

"President Tudjman's support and perseverance in having a United States company participate in Croatia's economy deserves to be recognized. He would welcome an invitation from you to come to the White House. I respectfully request President Tudjman be invited to visit you in the White House at the earliest possible time," concluded Thorn.

India and Points Beyond

The most infamous Enron project is the troubled Dabhol power plant in India. President Clinton highlighted Enron's problems with its planned $3 billion Dabhol power project in a short "FYI" note to his chief of staff Mack McLarty. McLarty worked with Enron and the U.S. ambassador in New Delhi to keep tabs on the Dabhol project.

Four days before India finally granted approval for the project, Enron donated $100,000 to the DNC.

Many former Clinton administration officials eventually went to work for Enron, including former White House counsel Jack Quinn, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Linda Robertson, former Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Elizabeth Moler, and the former media adviser to Vice President Al Gore, Greg Simon.

The newly released documents show that the Clinton administration worked for Enron in China, Vietnam, South Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina, Mozambique, South Korea, Japan, Belgium, France, Russia, the Philippines, the West Bank and Uzbekistan.

The scandal that became Enron touched more than a few employees and stockholders. It corrupted nation after nation, spreading its wings as part of Bill Clinton's stained legacy.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/4/23/133051.shtml

Yes, Clinton's legacy of stain...including Monica's blue dress.

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Petron
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posted October 07, 2004 05:45 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"attempt tying Enron and Key Lay to the President" lol... http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushlay1.html

well thanks jwhop, for contributing to my conspiracy theory,( although i would prefer if you actually posted information from credible sources.....maybe then i'll actually read it...ty)


this page lists contributions from 1990-2004
the drop after hw left office has steadily risen more lopsided every year

Oil & Gas:
Long-Term Contribution Trends http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=E01

this chart is specific to enron...... http://www.opensecrets.org/news/enron/enron_indiv.asp


i notice how much john kerry got that must be why he's mad
John Kerry (D-Mass) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

and here are the donations bush vs clinton http://www.opensecrets.org/news/enron/enron_pres.asp


then check out this guy Thomas White again....who was chief executive officer for Enron Operations Corporation.


The President intends to nominate Thomas E. White to be Secretary of the Army. He is currently the Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Services. He has served as Chairman and CEO of Enron Operations Corporation and as Chairman and CEO of Enron Power Corporation since joining Enron in 1990. After 23 years, White retired from the U.S. Army as a Brigadier General. He served as Executive Assistant to General Colin Powell while he served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1990 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/04/20010424-2.html


Army Secretary Thomas White Resigns
Friday, April 25, 2003

In testimony before a Senate panel last July, White repeatedly said he had played no part in manipulating California energy prices and knew nothing of other improprieties while he helped run an Enron subsidiary, Enron Energy Services.

At that hearing, White was questioned about trading strategies in California's electricity market detailed in December 2000 Enron memos. The memos described several schemes that critics say took advantage of California's power crisis, including one that involved White's Enron Energy Services.

EES had long-term contracts to provide power to retail customers in California and other states. One Enron strategy called for using inflated estimates of how much power EES customers needed to show congestion in California's electricity grid -- thereby driving up the price of power supplied by Enron's wholesale power divisions.

White testified that he was unaware of the strategies and memos until the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made them public in 2002.
White worked for Enron from 1990 to 2001. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85213,00.html


so this guy was secretary of the army well into the invasion of iraq , which reminds me of this story....


New Halliburton waste alleged
Former company auditor: ‘It’s just a gravy train’
By Lisa Myers and the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 4:28 p.m. ET July 26, 2004

DeYoung produced documents detailing alleged waste even on routine services: $50,000 a month for soda, at $45 a case; $1 million a month to clean clothes — or $100 for each 15-pound bag of laundry.
"That money could have been used to take care of soldiers," she said.
DeYoung also claims people were paid to do nothing. Mike West says he was one of them. Paid $82,000 a year to be a labor foreman in Iraq, West claims he never had any laborers to supervise. "They said just log 12 hours a day and walk around and look busy," he said. "OK, so we did."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5333896/

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jwhop
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posted October 07, 2004 06:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don't give a flying flip whether you read or not Petron. Ignorance is the hallmark of liberalism.

You haven't by chance come up with any counter argument to the fact it was and is the Bush Justice Dept. and the Bush SEC who investigated and is in the process of prosecuting Corporate CEO's including Ken Lay, Jeffery Skilling et.al.and other Corporate crooks.....have you? Or a counter argument to the fact many of them are already in prison? Thought not!

You also haven't come up with an argument for why and how this all happened on the Clinton watch, have you or why Bush is responsible for Clinton's corrupt dealings with Enron and others? Again..No you haven't.

All you have Petron is the knee jerk answer to every question. Answer...Bush did it. No relevant facts and no sale.

Clinton Repaid Enron With $1 Billion in Subsidized Loans
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Friday, Feb. 22, 2002


Democrats have hoped the Enron scandal would tar the Bush administration, but as investigators dig deeper it's the Clinton administration and the Dems who are emerging as the villains of the piece.
The Washington Times reported Thursday that the Clinton administration coughed up more than $1 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans to Enron Corp. just when the energy giant was kicking in almost $2 million for Democrat causes. And as we have previously reported, to help persuade then-President Bill Clinton to push the disastrous Kyoto Protocol, Enron gave $420,000 to Democrats.

Times reporter Patrice Hill writes that, according to the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the agencies that provided the subsidies, the Clinton administration turned down only one out of 20 Enron projects to build power plants, natural-gas pipelines and other "big-ticket energy facilities" between 1993 and 2000.

Moreover, the Clinton administration, "which lauded Chairman Kenneth L. Lay as an exemplary 'corporate citizen,' granted about $200 million worth of insurance against political risks for nine Enron projects in such politically volatile areas as Argentina, Venezuela and the Gaza Strip, according to documents the agencies provided to the Senate Finance Committee."

"These projects obviously were a tremendous benefit to Enron's operations," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking minority member of the committee, told the Times. The Reagan and Bush administrations approved not a single loan for Enron between 1985 and 1992 and provided insurance for only one Enron power project in Guatemala in 1992, he noted.

On the other hand, the Clinton administration made three loans between 1994 and 1998 to the now-defunct Dabhol power project in India. Ron Brown, Clinton's commerce secretary, bragged about the approval of the Dabhol loans during a trade mission to India in 1995, while Lay stood by his side.

The Times noted that the junket was "one of 11 Clinton trade missions provided at taxpayer expense for corporate executives from Enron and other companies." Moreover, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which sponsored the trips, also coughed up $1 million in funding to study Enron energy projects in Russia, Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

While Democrats go rooting around trying to find any single indication that Lay was somehow in cahoots with the Bush administration, evidence of his links to the Clinton administration is popping up all over the place.

Another Renter of the Lincoln Bedroom


Lay not only was a golfing partner of Clinton, he even slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. Other members of Enron's top executive echelon attended the White House's infamous "coffee klatches" hosted by Clinton, according to published reports.

Lay offered a seat on Enron's board of directors to Robert Rubin, Clinton's Treasury secretary, in 1999 just before he left office, according to an Associated Press report Thursday. It turns out that Rubin, being paid an astonishing $40 million a year by Enron creditor Citigroup, tried to get the Treasury Department to intervene for Enron last fall when the company's credit rating was threatened.

In May 1996, Clinton touted Lay as being a good "corporate citizen" at a White House event because of Enron's alleged enlightened personnel policies, including profit-sharing of Enron stock and generous health and pension benefits. As the Times noted, Enron employees now are suing because those benefits proved as worthless as the bankrupt company's stock.

The Times reported that according to Federal Election Commission records, during the Clinton administration Enron kicked in more than $1 million to the Democrat party, including $600,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Clinton and Vice President Al Gore got contributions of $11,000 and $13,750, respectively, for their presidential campaigns.

Enron made a $100,000 contribution to the DNC just before India gave final approval to Enron's Dabhol project in June 1996. According to the Times, Dabhol, the largest and most expensive capital project ever undertaken in India, was of dubious economic value and never went on line.
After looking at the Dabhol project, the World Bank declared said it was not economically viable and of inordinate benefit to Enron, which had a 65 percent stake in the project. Enron still owes $203 million on an Export-Import Bank loan for the project, which the bank says is covered by guarantees provided by five Indian banks.

Congressional aides told the Times it was not clear what the taxpayers' liability will be for that and other loans now that Enron is bankrupt. The Export-Import Bank said its loans were extended to overseas subsidiaries of Enron and not the bankrupt corporation. The overseas investment agency said its exposure was limited to paying any missed premiums on Enron's political risk insurance.


Top Clinton officials lobbied personally to obtain Indian state guarantees for the Dabhol project after it ran into problems in 1995. White House chief of staff Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty made it a top administration priority to keep the project from failing. The Bush administration has continued efforts to salvage the project. After leaving the White House, McLarty did work for Enron.

Hazel O'Leary, Clinton's energy secretary, led a number of missions to India, and Frank Wisner, Clinton's ambassador to India, was ordered to keep the project afloat. After Wisner left government in 1997, he joined the board of directors of a company then controlled by Enron.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/2/21/153014.shtml

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jwhop
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posted October 07, 2004 06:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Perhaps there are some Time Magazine readers here? Or is Time way too conservative for the liberals here?

Monday, Aug.19, 2002

Enron: A Democrat Scandal, Time Says

Scandal-ridden Enron had a lot closer ties to the Clinton administration than Democrats slavering over a chance to tie the company to the Bush administration care to admit.

According to liberal Time magazine in an expose called "Enron's Democrat Pals," documents obtained by the magazine show that Enron was a heck of a lot closer to the Clinton mob that the mainstream media previously reported.

The magazine, no fan of President Bush, alleges that prior to its "messy decline and fall, Enron had plenty of clout in George W. Bush's Washington," but fails to note that the "clout" did Enron absolutely no good when the company tried to put the arm on the Bush administration which refused to lift as much as a finger in Enron's behalf.

Citing Enron's "alleged influence on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force," Time says that "Enron's cozy relationship with Washington" had roots far deeper than any of the alleged ties to Cheney.

"Documents obtained by TIME show the energy giant enjoyed much closer ties with Clinton Administration regulators than was generally known," the magazine reported.

Before Cheney's energy task force met with Enron officials and allegedly included their ideas in Bush's energy plan, Clinton's energy team was busy doing exactly what Cheney has been charged with doing. The Clinton administration was putting together a 1995 plan to speed up cash flow and encourage credit for the energy industry, they sought Enron's advice - and heeded it. Time says Secretary Bill White wrote an Enron official that the staff was ordered to "rework the proposal to take into account the specific comments and suggestions you made."

The Clinton people also weighed in on Enron's efforts to attract business from abroad, Time reveals, recalling that Hazel O'Leary, Clinton's first energy secretary, took Enron bigwigs along on trade missions to India, China, Pakistan and South Africa.

Coming home after a trip to Mexico, Deputy Energy Secretary White wrote to Enron chairman Ken Lay that "much opportunity" existed there for natural gas. White then sent Lay a copy of Mexico's energy plans. To persuade an Enron senior vice president to join a mission to Pakistan, White wrote, "I have strong personal relationships with the existing government."

Payment Received

Enron, Time reported, "showed its gratitude. At Christmas 1995, documents show, it donated an unknown sum of cash in O'Leary's name to a charity called "I Have a Dream." And when Clinton ran for re-election a year later, the company made its largest single contribution ever - $100,000 - to the Democrats.

Time's Michael Weisskopf neglected to report the voluminous evidence of Democrats and Clinton administration's cozy relationships with Enron.


According to columnist Robert Novak, "a bipartisan Senate Finance Committee investigation has found that Enron Corp., no paragon of free-market deregulation, gorged itself on corporate welfare. The Clinton administration gave more than $650 million in Export-Import Bank loans to Enron-related companies."

As NewsMax.com reported Jan. 17, "Enron Corp., cited by Democrats as a big giver to President Bush and the GOP, gave a cool $420,000 to Democrats when the corporation was desperate to get the Clinton administration's help in having the potentially disastrous Kyoto treaty made the law of the land."

From 1990 to 1994 Enron gave 42 percent of their donations to the Democrats, according to The Center for Responsive Politics.

Lloyd Bensten, Clinton's first treasury secretary, was a recipient of Enron's money. At the time of his campaign for Senate, he received the second-largest donation from Enron, the Center for Responsive Politics reported.

Clinton officials publicly helped Enron win a contract in India as well as in Indonesia. Enron had received U.S. government funds to build power plants in China, the Philippines and Turkey. Enron also won contracts in Pakistan and Russia while accompanying senior U.S. government officials on state trips. In June 1996, four days before India granted final approval to Enron's project, Lay's company gave $100,000 to the DNC, according to Time.

Enron got permission to build a pipeline from Mozambique to South Africa after Clinton National Security Adviser Anthony Lake threatened to withhold aid to Mozambique if it didn't approve the project, according to the Mozambique News Agency.

Enron donated $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Six days later, Enron executives were on a trade mission with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to Bosnia and Croatia. With Kantor's support, Enron signed a $100 million contract to build a 150-megawatt power plant, The Weekly Standard reported.
Citigroup Again


Joe Lieberman's and Tom Daschle's largest contributor in the 2000 election cycle was Enron's Largest Creditor, Citigroup, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Democrat former Texas Gov. Ann Richards appointed Lay to the Governor's Business Council and received contributions from Enron, the Washington Post reported.

Enron contributed some $682,000 to the DNC during the 2000 election, says the Center for Responsive Politics.

Ken Bentsen, D-Texas, is the congressman who received the most money from Enron in the past 12 years. He got $42,750. The second-largest receiver was Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who received $38,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

71 House Democrats received $257,140 Enron contributions, reported the Center for Responsive Politics.
And that's just a small part of the Enron-Democrat-Clinton connection Time managed to overlook.

Bush did it!

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Petron
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posted October 07, 2004 11:54 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
if any1 wants to read the actual time article, here it is http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,338580,00.html#Anchor-4top45
was that so hard jwhop?

i suppose if i "attempt" to connect all three halliburton, enron and bush that makes me a leftist?

Halliburton built the 'Enron Field' stadium in Houston when Mr Cheney was chief executive. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1759618.stm


jwhop, did ken lay serve on clintons transition team into the whitehouse like he did for g dubya?
and no i'm not surprised that 2 texas democrats "got more" than others from enron ......


"You haven't by chance come up with any counter argument to the fact it was and is the Bush Justice Dept. and the Bush SEC who investigated and is in the process of prosecuting Corporate CEO's including Ken Lay, Jeffery Skilling et.al.and other Corporate crooks.....have you? "-jwhop

is that kind of like how you say cap weinberger "checked out" the arming of iraq by hw bush?lol

Ashcroft recuses himself from Enron probe
January 10, 2002 Posted: 6:51 PM EST (2351 GMT)
Justice Department officials said Ashcroft was advised to step away from the investigation -- announced just a day earlier -- because of contributions he received from the company's executives during his campaign for the Senate.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, Ashcroft received nearly $61,000 from Enron executives and the company's political action committee, including $25,000 from Lay. http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/bush.enron/


Pitt out as SEC chairman
Embattled chairman resigns under pressure on election night
December 6, 2002: 10:06 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Embattled Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, under fire for not taking a strong enough stand on cleaning up corporate accounting problems, has resigned.
Pitt fell out of favor with the White House in recent days because he withheld controversial information about his hand-picked choice to head a new accounting oversight board.
Pitt sent a letter to President Bush Tuesday night, hours after informing the White House personnel office of his decision to step down.

http://money.cnn.com/2002/11/06/news/pitt/


"Ignorance is the hallmark of liberalism."-jwhop

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Petron
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posted October 10, 2004 12:38 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
and of course all these texas politicians remind me of their good buddy, Tom Delay....
he's got to be one of the most oily characters in all politics, and he's the HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER!!

**********

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House ethics committee rebuked Majority Leader Tom DeLay for the second time in a week for questionable conduct, sternly warning the Texas Republican to temper his behavior.

The committee late Wednesday admonished DeLay for creating an appearance of giving donors special access on pending energy legislation and using the Federal Aviation Administration to intervene in a Texas political dispute.
Last week, the same committee admonished DeLay for offering to endorse the House candidacy of a House member's son in exchange for the member's favorable vote on a Medicare prescription drug bill.
The committee's publicly issued findings constituted the panel's mildest punishment, and spared DeLay from a lengthy investigation.
But the committee noted the rare back-to-back admonishments and that in 1999 DeLay received an ethics committee warning for pressuring a lobby company to hire a Republican.
The committee of five Democrats and five Republicans delayed action on an allegation that DeLay violated Texas campaign finance laws. A Texas grand jury investigation has so far led to indictments of three DeLay associates and eight corporations

The committee concluded DeLay was "in a position to significantly influence" legislation Westar sought because he is a House leader and at the time was involved in House-Senate efforts to negotiate an energy bill.
The legislation sought by Westar was inserted in the energy bill by another lawmaker, but eventually was withdrawn.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041007/D85IJM282.html

************
Internal Westar e-mails released last year outline Westar’s plan to buy a "seat at the table" in a House energy conference committee by contributing cash to influential lawmakers in exchange for their support of a special regulatory exemption. The exemption would have allowed Westar to split its regulated utility from the rest of its businesses, enabling executives to reap millions while $3 billion in unrelated debt would have been transferred to the utility company, saddling consumers with higher electricity rates.

The company e-mails also say that Reps. DeLay (R-Texas), Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) requested that Westar make contributions to their political allies instead of to their own campaigns. Westar executives complied by contributing a total of $63,000, following a carefully drawn schedule for how much each executive was to donate to the various candidates across the country. The contributions included a $25,000 soft money donation to DeLay’s TRMPAC for use in Texas state elections.


http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/energybill/westar/


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jwhop
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posted October 10, 2004 05:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Delay, Ashcroft and Pitt.

Petron, if you can, would you please explain exactly what these three people have to do with the Enron scandal, Bill Clinton and/or Gray Davis, which was the topic of discussion

Or is this just another attempt to change the focus of the discussion because you have absolutely no counter to the arguments that.

1. Bill Clinton was up to his eyebrows in corruption with Enron.

2. Bill Clinton protected and nurtured Enron and gave them billions in guarantees

3. Enron made very generous contributions to Clinton, the DNC and other democrats

4 It was the Bush White House which stiff armed Robert Rubin the former Clinton Sec Treasurer when he asked Bush for loan guarantees to bail Enron out of their mess.

5. It was and is the Bush Justice Department who cleaned up Wall Street by investigating, charging, prosecuting and jailing executives from Enron and a host of other Corporate offenders. Ken Lay is still awaiting trial, as are others for the crimes and corruption they committed on Clinton's soft on corruption watch. Many are already serving their sentences in prison, put there by the Bush Justice Department.

I know you think you're scoring points when you attempt to change the subject but to me, it just shows a lack of ability to focus and concentrate on the issue.

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Harpyr
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posted October 11, 2004 10:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Harpyr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
oh please, jwhop. .. you are the master of changing the topic. Evidence is presented that shows close ties between the Republicans and Enron and all you can do to counter it is say.. "ooo but loook... The Democrats had their hands dirty too!" With something like the desperation of a small child, I might add.
And you call us ignorant? What a joke. It's like I've been saying all along- Demoblicans, Republicrats or whatever you want to call them.. they are ALL dirty lying scumbags.
You, jw, are the one who can't seem to face reality. The only peace you can find for yourself is to immerse yourself in your little newsmax bubble world.

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jwhop
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posted October 11, 2004 12:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Harpyr, from the beginning, the mantra of the left was that Bush had a corrupt friend...Ken Lay. Whatever the truth of that, I believe it is true that Bush and Lay had a friendly relationship, that Lay contributed money to Republicans including Bush but Republicans and Bush were not the only recipients of the Lay/Skilling/Enron cash as the radical left, both in America and in the American press would have everyone believe nor did the Enron corruption occur on the Bush watch. Far from it.

Attempting to tie the corruption of Enron to Bush, as was done, is a lying distortion of reality. The articles I posted prove that beyond any possible doubt.

I don't give a flip what you think of NewsMax Harpyr, they have a large archive on a lot of subjects...all in one place and open to inspection. You may not like the source of the message, NewsMax but you make a grave error in judgment by confusing the messenger with the message.

The message of NewsMax and other credible sources is that Enron had the Clinton administration in Enron's back pocket, that the Clinton administration assisted Enron in their corruption, Gray Davis as well, that the Clinton administration went to bat for Enron and actually threatened at least one foreign government with a cutoff of aid from America if they did not approve an Enron project and that the Clinton administration approved billions in loan guarantees for Enron.

Contrast that with the Bush administration. The Bush administration delivered no goodies to Enron or Key Lay and didn't lift their smallest finger to help Enron, Ken Lay et. al. in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, the Bush administration prosecuted Enron, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and numerous other Enron executives, putting quite a few in prison already with more trial dates already set.

You are quite mistaken Harpyr to suggest that laying out the real story of Enron, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, et. al., in it's totality, or as much of the totality as is known, is changing the subject.

On the other hand, attempting to bring Pitt, DeLay and Ashcroft into the Enron mix IS an attempt to change the subject...unless Petron can show some connection that would tend to show that as members of the Bush administration or Republican's in general, that these people assisted Enron, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling et. al., in the Enron corruption. No such connection was made and I don't believe any such connection can be made. Smoke screen all the way.

If you're going to insist on lumping both major political parties into one party Harpyr, I insist you give Republicans top billing and call the "new" party Republicrats.

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Harpyr
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posted October 12, 2004 11:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Harpyr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sure the repugs can have top billing.. they are the ones that wear the facism on their sleeve afterall... From here on out I will refer to them as Republicrats..

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Harpyr
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posted October 12, 2004 12:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Harpyr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
POWER OUTAGE TRACED TO DIM BULB IN WHITE HOUSE
Znet - UPDATED
Thursday, August 14, 2003

by Greg Palast

One year ago today, the lights went out. Even when the Big Blackout ended, the power pirates who have us by the bulbs kept us in the dark, fibbing, fabricating and faking their way through a series of bogus excuses for a disaster created by greed overload. As a public service, we re-print here the column I wrote in the darkness on the dying juice in my laptop.

I can tell you all about the ne're-do-wells that sent us back to the Dark Ages last week. I came up against these characters -- First Energy and the Niagara Mohawk Power Company -- some years back. You see, before I was a journalist, I worked for a living, as an investigator of corporate racketeers.

The power outage began in First Energy's Ohio operation. This company was the model for the film, "China Syndrome." Really. Then First Energy's Pennsylvania unit fumbled the power ball. These are the very same Homer Simpsons who melted Three Mile Island.

Next, Niagara-Mohawk blacked out and took down New York. Ni-Mo's claim to fame goes back to the 1980s. They built a nuclear plant, Nine Mile Point, a brutally costly piece of hot junk for which NiMo and its partner companies charged billions to New York State's electricity ratepayers.

To pull off this grand theft by kilowatt, the NiMo-led consortium fabricated cost and schedule reports, then performed a Harry Potter job on the account books. In 1988, I showed a jury a memo from an executive from one partner, Long Island Lighting, giving a lesson to a NiMo honcho on how to lie to government regulators. The jury ordered LILCO to pay $4.3billion and, ultimately, put them out of business.

I'm not surprised that the Three Stooges of the power industry knocked their heads together and blacked us out. What's surprising is that the US media is clueless about how we ended up with Larry, Moe and Curley in control of our nation's electronic lifeline.

Here's what happened. After LILCO was hammered by the law, after government regulators slammed Niagara Mohawk and dozens of other book-cooking, document-doctoring utility companies all over America with fines and penalties totaling in the tens of billions of dollars, the industry leaders got together to swear never to break the regulations again. Their plan was not to follow the rules, but to ELIMINATE the rules. They called it "deregulation."


It was like a committee of bank robbers figuring out how to make safecracking legal.

But they dare not launch the scheme in the USA. Rather, in 1990, one devious little bunch of operators out of Texas, Houston Natural Gas, operating under the alias "Enron," talked an over-the-edge free-market fanatic, Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, into licensing the first completely deregulated power plant in the hemisphere.

And so began an economic disease called "regulatory reform" that spread faster than SARS. Notably, Enron rewarded Thatcher's Energy Minister, one Lord Wakeham, with a bushel of dollar bills for 'consulting' services and a seat on Enron's board of directors. The English experiment proved the viability of Enron's new industrial formula: that the enthusiasm of politicians for deregulation was in direct proportion to the payola provided by power companies.

The power elite first moved on England because they knew Americans wouldn't swallow the deregulation snake oil easily. The USA had gotten used to cheap power available at the flick of a switch. This was the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt who, in 1933, caged the man he thought to be the last of the power pirates, Samuel Insull. Wall Street wheeler-dealer Insull created the Power Trust, and six decades before Ken Lay, faked account books and ripped off consumers. To frustrate Insull and his ilk, FR gave us the Federal Power Commission and the Public Utilities Holding Company Act which told electricity companies where to stand and salute. Detailed regulations limited charges to real expenditures plus a government-set profit. The laws banned power "trading" and required companies to keep the lights on under threat of arrest -- no blackout blackmail to hike rates.

Of particular significance as I write here in the dark, regulators told utilities exactly how much they had to spend to insure the system stayed in repair and the lights stayed on. Bureaucrats crawled along the wire and, like me, crawled through the account books, to make sure the power execs spent customers' money on parts and labor. If they didn't, we'd whack'm over the head with our thick rule books. Did we get in the way of these businessmen's entrepreneurial spirit? Damn right we did.

Most important, FDR banned political contributions from utility companies -- no 'soft' money, no 'hard' money, no money PERIOD.

But then came George the First. In 1992, just prior to is departure from the White House, President Bush Senior gave the power industry one long deep-through-the-teeth kiss good-bye: federal deregulation of electricity. It was a legacy he wanted to leave for his son, the gratitude of power companies which ponied up $16 million for the Republican campaign of 2000, seven times the sum they gave democrats.

But Poppy Bush's gift of deregulating of wholesale prices set by the feds only got the power pirates halfway to the plunder of Joe Ratepayer. For the big payday they needed deregulation at the state level. There were only two states, California and Texas, big enough and Republican enough to put the electricity market con into operation.

California fell first. The power companies spent $39 million to defeat a 1998 referendum pushed by Ralph Nader which would have blocked the de-reg scam. Another $37 million was spent on lobbying and lubricating the campaign coffers of the state's politicians to write a lie into law: in the deregulation act's preamble, the Legislature promised that deregulation would reduce electricity bills by 20%. In fact, when in the first California city to go "lawless," San Diego, the 20% savings became a 300% jump in surcharges.

Enron circled California and licked its lips. As the number one contributor to the George W. Bush campaigns, it was confident about the future. With just a half dozen other companies it controlled at times 100% of the available power capacity needed to keep the Golden State lit. Their motto, "your money or your lights."

Enron and its comrades played the system like a broken ATM machine, yanking out the bills. For example, in the shamelessly fixed "auctions" for electricity held by the state, Enron bid, in one instance, to supply 500 megawatts of electricity over a 15 megawatt line. That's like pouring a gallon of gasoline into a thimble-- the lines would burn up if they attempted it. Faced with blackout because of Enron's destructive bid, the state was willing to pay anything to keep the lights on.

And the state did. According to Dr. Anjali Sheffrin, economist with the California State Independent System Operator which directs power deliveries, between May and November 2000, three power giants physically or "economically" withheld power from the state and concocted enough false bids to cost the California customers over $6.2 billion in excess charges.

It took until December 20, 2000, with the lights going out on the Golden Gate, for President Bill Clinton, once a deregulation booster, to find his lost Democratic soul and impose price caps in California and ban Enron from the market.

But the light-bulb buccaneers didn't have to wait long to put their hooks back into the treasure chest. Within seventy-two hours of moving into the White House, while he was still sweeping out the inaugural champagne bottles, George Bush the Second reversed Clinton's executive order and put the power pirates back in business in California. Enron, Reliant (aka Houston Industries), TXU (aka Texas Utilities) and the others who had economically snipped California's wires knew they could count on Dubya, who as governor of the Lone Star state cut them the richest deregulation deal in America.

Meanwhile, the deregulation bug made it to New York where Republican Governor George Pataki and his industry-picked utility commissioners ripped the lid off electric bills and relieved my old friends at Niagara Mohawk of the expensive obligation to properly fund the maintenance of the grid system.
And the Pataki-Bush Axis of Weasels permitted something that must have former New York governor Roosevelt spinning in his wheelchair in Heaven: They allowed a foreign company, the notoriously incompetent National Grid of England, to buy up NiMo, get rid of 800 workers and pocket most of their wages - producing a bonus for NiMo stockholders approaching $90 million.

Is last week's black-out a surprise? Heck, no, not to us in the field who've watched Bush's buddies flick the switches across the globe. In Brazil, Houston Industries seized ownership of Rio de Janeiro's electric company. The Texans (aided by their French partners) fired workers, raised prices, cut maintenance expenditures and, CLICK! the juice went out so often the locals now call it, "Rio Dark."

So too the free-market British buckaroos controlling Niagara Mohawk raised prices, slashed staff, cut maintenance and CLICK! -- New York joins Brazil in the Dark Ages.

Californians have found the solution to the deregulation disaster: re-call the only governor in the nation with the cojoes to stand up to the electricity price fixers. And unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gov. Gray Davis stood alone against the bad guys without using a body double. Davis called Reliant Corp of Houston a pack of "pirates" --and now he'll walk the plank for daring to stand up to the Texas marauders.

So where's the President? Just before he landed on the deck of the Abe Lincoln, the White House was so concerned about our brave troops facing the foe that they used the cover of war for a new push in Congress for yet more electricity deregulation. This has a certain logic: there's no sense defeating Iraq if a hostile regime remains in California.

Sitting in the dark, as my laptop battery runs low, I suspected the truth about deregulation will never see the light -- until we change the dim bulb in the White House.

-----

Greg Palast is the Author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (Penguin USA) and the worstseller, "Democracy and Regulation," a guide to electricity deregulation published by the United Nations (written with T. MacGregor and J. Oppenheim). Palast investigated Ni-Mo, LILCO and the First Energy predecessor companies for state governments of New York and Ohio.

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jwhop
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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
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posted October 12, 2004 05:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hahaha

Well Harpyr, Greg Palast's latest screed is the perfect vehicle to show you why most of America totally rejects the ideas coming out of the radical leftist camp as utter hypocrisy.

Now Harpyr, here's this twit complaining about the power outages and deficiencies in the power grid systems of America while at the same time, it's also the twits like him who oppose every effort to build new power generating plants, including nuclear with endless, mountainous and ruinous expense which must be passed on to customers...another complaint of his. But it's the legal expense caused by every whacko environmental group who can find a shyster lawyer to file suit against the activity itself or delay it which prohibits the upgrading of both the grid and the generating plants which supply the power.

Stay with me now Harpyr because I'm going to take this from the sublime to the absurd, just like radical leftists always do.

Given the opposition to every major form of energy production now in use and the all out efforts to make sure no new power generating plants are built, the old ones not rebuilt or brought up to modern standards without ruinous costs to meet new standards imposed by the very same whackos who opposed it all in the first place, there will be none built by Power companies.

Add to that the opposition to construction of ANY new oil refineries in America by these same whacko groups who file a lawsuit at the mere mention of the subject and pretty soon the following picture emerges.

The day will come when the last power plant cannot be repaired and the last refinery cannot continue in operation because it cannot be repaired either.

When that day comes Harpyr, remember you played your part. Goodbye to your protests in sunny Florida Harpyr, you can't get here Goodbye to reading your various groups newsletters because they can't be printed, let alone delivered and what the hell Harpyr, it's dark at your place so you can't read them anyway.

Pray that some group organizes a protest over something in your own little valley Harpyr because you won't have transportation to get anywhere else nor will you have any means of getting the information there is somewhere else still left. Perhaps you can all protest the cold.....because it's damned cold at your place Harpyr.

On the bright side for you, you sure will have shown us, now won't you? You won, enjoy your victory

Harpyr

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Petron
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posted October 12, 2004 11:51 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
1-2)
In 1990, hwbush picked lay to co-chair the Houston Economic Summit of the G-8 Industrial Nations, a prestigious forum that gave the Enron chairman access to the leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries. Lay also enjoyed Bush’s backing to deregulate the nation’s energy market to open public utilities to private competition, Enron’s core business.

In 1992, Lay served as chairman of the host committee for the Republican National Convention in Houston. That year, however, Bush lost the White House to Bill Clinton. Cushioning the fall for some of Bush's top aides, Enron hired as consultants Bush's Secretary of State James Baker and Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher. [Business Week, Feb. 12, 2001]


a few short years later lay was the primary backer of bush dubyas campaign for gov of texas

Enron and Lay contributed $146,500 to the Bush campaign, seven and a half times more than they contributed to the Richards campaign. Lay also publicly endorsed Bush. [Texans for Public Justice]

it was hw bush thru taskforces as vp then in 1992 began the deregulation of energy on behalf of his texas oil interests

ken lay even stayed overnight at the whitehouse with hw bush.......hmm
(that reminds me of when hw bush personally carried rush limbaugh’s bags into the white House when limbaugh stayed there in 1992. then in 1994
newt gingritch made limbaugh an honorary member of Congress.lol)


*********************
and this continued through the 90's in texas .....Bush’s support of Enron was not limited to deregulation. He also served as an advocate for Enron’s interest in getting the U.S. taxpayer to back its overseas investments.

In March 1997, Lay wrote Bush a letter asking that the governor contact every member of the Texas congressional delegation and urge support for federal agencies that gave export credits and loan guarantees to U.S. companies operating abroad. "Export credit agencies of the United States are critical to U.S. developers like Enron, who are pursuing international projects in developing countries," Bush's letter said. [NYT, June 30, 2000]


Feb. 15, 2002, 9:57PM
Records: Bush smoothed path for Enron
By R.G. RATCLIFFE and POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

Lay faxed a "Dear George" letter to Bush on April 3, 1997, discussing Bush's planned meeting with Uzbekistan Ambassador Sadyq Safaev.
"Enron has established an office in Tashkent and we are negotiating a $2 billion joint venture with Neftegas of Uzbekistan," Lay said. "This project can bring significant economic opportunities to Texas as well as Uzbekistan."
Bush's calendar for April 8, 1997, shows he met with the ambassador for half an hour in the governor's office in the Texas Capitol.

Shortly after Bush's 1998 re-election, Lay urged him to renew his fight to pass electric deregulation in the Legislature -- a feat Bush accomplished in 1999.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/1258323


3) as you see from opensecrets enron gave 26% to dems and 74% to republicans from 1990-2002
the oil companies like enron give the overwhelming majority to republicans even though clinton was president...that shows a largescale bias......
arthur anderson, the document shredding "accountants" for enron (and previous employer of Harvey Pitt "bush's sec" )were also biased ....
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/enron/andersen_totals.asp

4) i wish bush HADNT deserted the sinking ship.....it seems to me that considering the decades of personal relationships and enron employees in the bush administration, the LEAST ken lay could have done was warn bush a little ahead of time.......

5) it wasnt the "bush justice department or sec" that broke the story...investigative reporters alerted Wall Street analysts who tracked Enron stocks, before any "investigation" started, enron shareholders were already suing...
thats when the justice dept tried to step in
i already gave links as to why "bushs" justice dept(john ashcroft) and sec(harvey pitt) had to excuse themselves from even investigating enron
pitt was going to appoint hw bush's CIA director(from the irancontra years) william webster to head the "oversight" board...lol ...it almost reminds me of a newer, smarter bcci.......


so jwhop, i agree that clinton protected an enron that was first nurtured and let loose in texas by hw bush .....thats why you of all people should oppose it....it has almost literally comprised the entire cabinet of the bush dubya administration....so why would you want clintons fraudulent entity to actually BE VOTED IN to the whitehouse?

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jwhop
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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
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posted October 13, 2004 12:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Let me get my drill and a nice sharp drill bit to drill some nice round holes in your skull so what I'm going to say penetrates Petron.

The whole Bush cabinet was most certainly NOT a product of Enron or Ken Lay's urging, nor is there any connection to Enron or Lay with the vast majority of them.

Bush senior most certainly did NOT deregulate energy for Enron or to boost oil interests he owned. All Presidents and Cabinet level officers sell their interests which might have a conflict with their office and/or turn over all investments to a 3rd party trust. Those who still have conflicts recuse themselves from any business that comes before their official offices for resolution. Standard procedures Petron

Now, what oil interests did George HW Bush own when he deregulated energy in America?

Ken Lay played golf with Clinton. So what?

Many Clinton people wound up with Enron Petron, including Robert Rubin. So what?

Newt and Limbaugh, so what?

As Governor of Texas, George Bush was in no position to make any demands on the federal government and didn't need to on behalf of Enron, Petron. Enron and Ken Lay had Clinton in their back pocket.

It was George Bush's responsibility to meet with foreign interests which would benefit Texas and Texans Petron, including Uzbekistan Ambassador Sadyq Safaev.

You keep trying to show bias Petron. What kind of bias would you associate with prosecuting and jailing Enron and most Enron executives Petron because that's exactly what George Bush did....when the corrupt practices became known.

I can see you haven't had enough yet Petron so I'll keep posting the proven corrupt links between Commander Corruption and Enron. The difference between what I'm posting and what you post is that you reach far afield trying to make tenuous links/associations and I post articles directly on point. Further, I can keep this up far longer than you can.

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002

All About Clinton, Enron and China

Don't expect certain Democrats to be too eager to investigate Enron. They won't like what will come out about Bill Clinton and his favorite illegal campaign donor, China.

Here's a fascinating item from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's "Dateline D.C." from Dec. 9, headlined "Clinton-Gore sales team eased Enron's path to success." We might have overlooked it if not for an alert from Progressive Review's Sam Smith, that rare honorable leftist who has never flinched from examining Clinton's reign of corruption.

"The so-called 'popular press,' in its usual searches for the clay feet with which they invest every well-known person, will now try to link Enron's present woes to the White House. Too bad, guys, you should have started investigating Enron's ties (ties not links) in 1993 and onward to the sales team of Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Ron Brown," says the Tribune-Review.

And this: "... look at their 1994 sales team - Clinton, Gore and the late Ron Brown - a trio unlimited and uncontrolled in their cunning and greed.

"In what seems to be eons ago, before Gov. Bill Clinton became president, the late, much loved and little lamented Ron Brown was Clinton's good friend and a power broker in the National Democratic Party. Ron Brown had a friend, a congressman from Houston, the late Mickey Leland, who died in 1989. Until his passing, Leland was a shining light in the Congressional Black Caucus and a dedicated socialist, who was one of the Institute for Policy Studies' delights.

"From 1984, when Enron was conceived, Brown and Leland were there snapping up unconsidered trifles of money for use in their campaigns against the free market. Mickey was able to ease a lot of Enron's early problems through the Houston City Council by playing his 'equal opportunity card.' He had also become an African expert who initially took the Enron message to that continent, a chore that was taken on by Ron Brown, Clinton's secretary of commerce, before the latter met his untimely death in a highly controversial plane crash in Croatia. (Untimely, because had Secretary Brown lived, he would have faced multiple criminal indictments that could have precipitated an even earlier fall for Bill Clinton and his gang.)

"Now we get to that old puzzle about chickens and eggs, and what came first! Ron Brown, Al Gore and Bill Clinton introduced Enron to market managers in Russia, China, Indonesia and India. In India, Enron quickly became involved in one of that country's most massive corruption investigations, contracts were canceled and Enron was out.

Enron, Clinton, Lippo, China, John Huang ...

"On the other hand, Enron introduced the Clinton team to Lippo Industries and thence to China's People's Liberation Army (a wonderful source of political cash), to John Huang, another good provider and to nameless, numberless Arabs who never arrived with empty pockets. If we look at a list of those attending coffee klatches at the White House, we can learn why a storm of doubtful deals enabled Enron to quickly control one-quarter of the world's electricity and natural gas. But, that wasn't enough. The ever-so-greedy Dumpty moved in to water deals in Massachusetts and Europe, paper mills in Canada, gas pipe lines throughout the world, fiber optics, television, mutual funds and information gathering. In turn, that led to risk analysis, a name that those clever Texans quickly changed to 'reward realization!'

"The rewards were good! Enron, with sales assistance from Tony Lake, then Clinton's national security adviser, persuaded the impoverished, war-torn country of Mozambique to sign a $770 million electric power contract. Mozambique signed because Tony's salesmanship was persuasive. If the Mozambicans didn't sign, he indicated that their congressionally-approved $44 million U.S. aid payment would never be made.

"And there was the Croatian caper. In the days when Franjo Tudjman was Croatia's dictator and pretending to be both a reformed communist and best friend of America in the Balkans, poor Franjo had a problem. He and some of his very best friends were wanted as war criminals by the Hague's International Court of Justice. Enron wanted a power contract with Croatia. Enron offered a deal to Tudjman. Sign up with us and we will use our gang in Washington to make sure you and your friends don't go to jail.

"Tudjman signed. Enron made a heap of money. Nobody went to jail. Everyone was happy - until Tudjman died of cancer. Then the lid was off, his Croatian Democratic Union was defeated and the new boys in power in Zagreb could not believe how much of their budget went to pay the electricity bills from Enron."

And so forth. Will Democrats open a can of worms in which Slick Willie is, as usual, one of the fattest worms?
http://www.newsmax.com/scripts/showinside.pl?a=2002/1/11/160933

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jwhop
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posted October 13, 2004 12:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Enron Linked to Corruption in Clinton White House
Charles R. Smith
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
Energy Giant Had Deal With Suharto's Son
Sought NATO Membership for Croatia

The ongoing investigation into the failure of Enron has led directly to the corrupt Clinton administration. One such Enron deal pushed by the Clinton White House was an exclusive power plant project with the son of Indonesian dictator Suharto, Bambang Trihatmodjo.

Bambang is Suharto's second son and at one point he was worth over $3 billion. The 48-year-old Bambang also owns an $8 million penthouse in Singapore and a $12 million mansion in an exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, two doors down from rock star Rod Stewart.

Starting in 1994, Enron invested $25 million into a deal for the first natural gas-fired power plant in Pasuruan, East Java. According to Commerce Department documents, Enron's partner in the planned $525 million project was Bambang Trihatmodjo.

Despite the clear evidence of Suharto corruption, Ron Brown personally sought approval for the Enron electric power plant. According to a personal letter directed to the Indonesian minister for trade and industry, Brown endorsed Enron deals for two gas-fired power plants with the corrupt Suharto regime.

"Enron power, a world renowned private power developer, is in the final stages of negotiating two combined cycle, gas turbine power projects," wrote Brown in his 1995 letter.

"The first, a 500 MW plant in East Java, should begin commercial power generation by the end of 1997 if it can promptly negotiate a gas supply Memorandum of Understanding with Pertamina. The other project, a smaller plant in East Kalimantan, also awaits a gas supply agreement.

"I urge you to give full consideration to the proposals," concluded Brown to the Indonesian minister.

In October 1995, Brown wrote another letter, this time to Hartarto Sastrosurarto, Indonesia's coordinating minister for trade and industry, pressing him to conclude Enron's power plant deal.

"I would like to bring to your attention a number of projects involving American companies which seem to be stalled, including several independent power projects.

"These projects include the Tarahan power project, which involves Southern Electric; the gas powered projects in East Java and East Kalimantan, which involves Enron," wrote Brown.

"Your support for prompt resolution of the remaining issues associated with each of these projects would be most appreciated," concluded Brown.

By September 1997, Enron announced the Indonesian power deal was nearly complete. According to Enron, it had signed an agreement to acquire natural gas for its 500-megawatt power plant under development in East Java Indonesia. The 20-year supply agreement was signed with Pertamina, Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas company.

"This is one of the last critical steps before the East Java project can achieve financial close and commence construction," said Rebecca P. Mark, chairman and CEO of Enron International.

"We expect the power plant to be operational in early 2000," said Mark.

Enron and Li Ka-Shing

Although Enron's partner in East Java was Suharto's son, the gas supply contract points directly toward Beijing. The gas sold by Pertamina was to be produced under a contract with Mobil Madura Strait Inc. and Husky Oil Ltd. from the Madura field offshore of East Java in the Madura Strait.

Canadian-based Husky Oil is partly owned by Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing. Li is currently in business with the Chinese army and reportedly has very close links to Beijing's military intelligence.

By 1997 the Indonesian economy collapsed and Suharto was overthrown. The resulting economic mess forced Indonesia to default on its payments for the Enron power plants. These developments caused Standard & Poor's to downgrade Enron's ratings to triple "B" minus.

The Enron power project was suspended in September 1997, after the power purchase agreement had been signed and the gas contract was completed with the state-owned gas supplier Pertamina. Enron officials objected to the suspension because the final financial close on the power plant was reported to be only days away.

PLN, the state-owned Indonesian electric utility, said that the project was no longer viable because electricity demand did not justify it and the tariffs were unrealistically high.

Enron Gets World Bank Insurance Money

Despite the loss, the U.S. taxpayer, using its insurance obtained through the World Bank Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, paid off Enron.

"In June of this year, MIGA paid $15 million to Enron Java Power Co. for its investment in P.T. East Java Power Corporation in Indonesia," states the 2000 official public release from the World Bank.

"The venture was one of many suspended by the presidential decree of September 20, 1997, issued in response to the country's economic crisis," noted MIGA officials.

However, after heavy World Bank pressure, the Indonesian government agreed to pay the $15 million back to MIGA. Initially the World Bank suspended further guarantees of investments in the country until the government agreed to reimburse MIGA the amount paid to Enron.

Discussions on the payout took more than a year, and the amount represented compensation for Enron's preparatory work done on the project, which was canceled before construction began. Enron reportedly paid Suharto's son Bambang the $25 million in order to lay the groundwork for the project.

U.S. Aware That Suharto's Son Involved

According to documents obtained from the U.S. Commerce Department, the Clinton administration was keenly aware that Suharto's son was being cut in on various U.S.-backed power deals including Enron's Pasuruan gas plant. In fact, the warnings of corruption came directly from the U.S. ambassador in Jakarta.

"Java Power Company has obtained a USD 1.7 billion financing package for its 2 X 610 coal fired Paiton Swasta II power plant," states a 1996 cable from then U.S. Ambassador Barry.

"Java Power Company is 50 percent owned by Siemens Power, 35 percent Powergen PLC of the UK and 15 percent by PT Bumiperitwi Tatapradipta. The latter is a subsidiary of the Bimantara Group controlled by Bambang Trihatmodjo, President Soeharto's second son."

Bambang was not only in business with Siemens and Enron but also had an exclusive multimillion-dollar power plant deal with Duke Energy Corp., a no-cut satellite contract with Hughes Space and an Indonesian government-enforced monopoly trash contract with Waste Management. Bambang's corruption is so well known that even the U.S. Federal Reserve has published information on him.

"Shareholders of the 16 insolvent banks scheduled to be closed in December in Indonesia included several members of the former Royal family, relatives of the President, the brother of an industrialist convicted of bank fraud, and the former head of the state oil company, Pertamina, who was dismissed for unauthorized borrowing of $10 billion," noted a Federal Reserve report on bank fraud.

"Bambang Trihatmodjo, second son of Suharto, the President of Indonesia, admitted that his bank had broken the legal lending limit with loans to the Chandra Asri petrochemical plant, which he and other shareholders owned. He said 'We admit we broke the legal lending limit. ... But to be fair 90 percent of other Indonesian banks did the same.'"

Enron in China

Enron also sought to break the limits. Bambang was not the only one involved in corrupt deals with Enron. Enron international deals made through the Clinton administration include construction of gas power facilities inside communist China, directly across from Taiwan, and a failed power plant in Croatia.

Enron's donations gave it exclusive access to Clinton administration support for deals inside communist China. One such project involved the direct intervention of the U.S. government with communist China to build the Songyu power plant and Liquid Natural Gas terminal located across from Taiwan.

According to U.S. Commerce Department documents, the Clinton administration successfully sought the approval of the Beijing government for the Songyu 2,000 megawatt power plant and for the Xiamen Liquid Natural Gas terminal in Fujian province.

"Project has support of City Gov't of Xiamen," states a 1999 Commerce Department advocacy document. "Support Enron and urge Chinese to approve project."

The twin gas projects inside China were worth nearly $2 billion to Enron. To the Clinton administration, however, a factor more important than money was the number of congressional districts in Texas that were involved. According to the Commerce Department document, 18 Texas districts would be involved in the Chinese project.

Enron Seeks NATO Membership for Croatia

Enron also pushed the limits inside the former Yugoslavia. Enron executives flew to Croatia with Clinton Commerce Secretary Kantor after making a $100,000 donation to the DNC just days before the visit. As a result, Enron struck a deal with the Croatian government to build a power station and run it for 20 years – at a highly inflated price of nearly $200 million above market prices.

However, tapes of the Enron negotiations with Croatian officials show the U.S. energy company had promised more than electricity at higher than normal cost. According to the Financial Times, Croatia hoped the Enron deal would secure political favors inside the Clinton administration, including a state visit to Washington and membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In one reported meeting, Enron's head of international operations, Joseph Sutton, guaranteed that Enron would lobby President Clinton for Croatia's entry into the WTO, the NATO partnership for peace program and even NATO.

Stockholders and law enforcement officials should be very interested in the payments made by the energy giant to its foreign partners and White House patrons. Clearly, with promises of NATO membership, Enron felt its donations had bought top-level White House influence.

It is little wonder that Democrats are no longer anxious to follow the Enron corruption trail. Enron's documented "corruption, collusion and nepotism" started and ended with Bill Clinton.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/3/4/211830.shtml

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jwhop
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posted October 13, 2004 01:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Enron Gave Big Bucks to Democrats, Backed 'Global Warming' Scam
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002


Scandal-plagued Enron Corp., cited by Democrats as a big giver to President Bush and the GOP, gave a cool $420,000 to Democrats when the corporation was desperate to get the Clinton administration's help in having the potentially disastrous Kyoto treaty made the law of the land.
Senate ratification of the treaty, which foes explained would have cost the U.S. billions and had a deadly effect on the U.S. economy, would have been a bonanza for Enron.

What's Good for Enron Isn't Good for America

According to Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper, a December 1997 private internal memo written by Enron executive John Palmisano said the treaty would be "good for Enron stock!!"

"The memo said the Kyoto treaty - later signed by Mr. Clinton and leaders of 166 other countries, but never ratified by the Senate - 'would do more to promote Enron's business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States.'"

Easy Access to Clinton and Gore

Writing in Wednesday's Times, Seper reports, "Federal and confidential corporate records show that after donating thousands of dollars in soft money and PAC donations beginning in 1995, Enron received easy access to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore."

Seper revealed that Clinton's Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency "often made themselves available for Enron executives to discuss the firm's needs, according to records, even arranging for meetings with key congressional staffers."

Enron's drive to get the Kyoto Protocol ratified continued even after the Senate voted 95-0 to set restrictions on any climate negotiations. The Senate resolution warned U.S. diplomats against negotiating any climate treaty in which less developed nations such as communist China would have fewer restrictions imposed on them than the U.S. and other developed countries.

That vote gave clear warning that the Senate would never ratify the treaty, costing Enron potential profits in the billions. As a result, Enron used its open door to the Clinton White House to lobby hard for a treaty that would give it the ability to buy and sell trading credits to emit carbon dioxide as part of a strategy to reduce "greenhouse gases."

Under the system pushed by Enron, new investments in gas-fired plants and pipelines would be expanded and coal-fired power plants, which emit more carbon dioxide, would be curtailed. Seper noted, "Natural gas, electricity and their delivery systems constitute Enron's major businesses."

During a White House meeting in July 1997, Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay prodded Clinton and Gore to support a "market-based" approach to what he described as the problem of "global warming," a theory discredited by a majority of the world's climatologists.

In the face of Senate hostility to the Kyoto accords, Enron continued to urge the Clinton administration to seek a "restructuring" of the treaty that would have been a "first step to solving the problems of global climate change." Seper notes that the company "sought laws that would have favored Enron's natural gas inventory and reduced competition from coal."

On Feb. 20, 1998, during a meeting with Energy Secretary Federico Pena, Lay "encouraged the Clinton administration to seek electricity legislation favored by Enron," outlining for the secretary what the company believed were the "important" pending legislative concerns.

"Today's meeting between Ken Lay and Energy Secretary Federico Pena to discuss electricity legislation went very well," said a memo written by Jeff Keller, the company's Washington governmental affairs chief.

"Secretary Pena indicated that the White House proposed bill is 'on the president's desk,' and that Clinton could be convinced to release the White House proposal in the next few days," Keller wrote. "He suggested that President Clinton might be motivated by some key contacts from important constituents."

The records showed that Lay took that advice and sent a letter to Clinton that day, asking him to "move this matter forward."

Seper writes that Clinton administration officials have denied any wrongdoing, saying they were only responding to constituent requests.

Hypocrisy Alert

But while such Democrats as Rep. Henry Waxman of California attempt to create suspicion that Enron's contributions to President Bush and other Republicans gave the company undue influence with the administration without a scintilla of evidence to back up their imaginings, more real proof of the cozy ties between Enron and the Clinton administration continues to unfold.

Seper recalls, for example that, the Washington-based Export-Import Bank approved a $302 million loan toward a $3 billion Enron-controlled power plant in India in 1994.

Wrote Seper: "Mr. Clinton took an interest in the deal, asking the U.S. ambassador to that country and his former chief of staff, Thomas F. 'Mack' McLarty, then a presidential adviser, to monitor the proposal.

"Mr. McLarty - who later became a paid Enron director - spoke with Mr. Lay on several occasions about the plant. In 1996, four days before India granted approval for Enron's project, the Houston-based firm contributed $100,000 to the Democratic Party."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/1/16/135018.shtml

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jwhop
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posted October 13, 2004 01:15 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Bush Administration prosecutes Enron Execs.

Former Enron CEO Lay Pleads Not Guilty
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, July 8, 2004

HOUSTON – Enron Corp. founder and former chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he was involved in a wide-ranging scheme to deceive the public, company shareholders, government regulators and others.
Story Continues Below

"Not guilty, your honor," Lay, speaking loudly and clearly, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy at a court hearing hours after he surrendered to the FBI and was hustled to the federal courthouse in handcuffs.
A federal indictment unsealed Thursday added Lay to charges already filed against his hand-picked protege, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, and former top accountant Richard Causey, and accused Lay of participating in a conspiracy to manipulate Enron's quarterly financial results. It also accused him of making public statements about Enron's financial performance that were false and misleading and omitting facts necessary to make financial statements accurate and fair.

Milloy set his bond at $500,000. Prosecutors, saying he was a flight risk, had sought a $6 million bond.

Lay was allowed to keep his passport because he travels internationally on business, but Milloy said if he left the country he would have to seek permission from the court.

Lay entered the packed courtroom and smiled at his wife, Linda, who had driven him before dawn to the Houston FBI headquarters. She rose from her seat to pat him on the back, then was told by a marshal she could have no contact with her husband.

Lay was accompanied by attorney Michael Ramsey. When Milloy asked if Ramsey was his lawyer, Lay drew laughter from spectators by responding, "I think his billings will indicate that I have hired Mr. Ramsey."

53 Counts, 11 for Lay

The superseding indictment, now totalling 53 counts, accused Lay, Skilling and Causey of enriching themselves through salaries, bonuses, grants of stock and stock options.

It names Lay in 11 counts: one of conspiracy, two of wire fraud, four of securities fraud, one of bank fraud and three of making false statements to banks. If convicted on all counts, the Justice Department said Lay could receive up to 175 years in prison plus fines possibly totaling more than $5.7 million.

A grand jury returned a sealed indictment against Lay on Wednesday, 2 1/2 years into a methodical investigation that has produced charges against some of his once most highly trusted lieutenants.

"I have done nothing wrong, and the indictment is not justified," Lay, 62, said in a statement Wednesday.

Prosecutors from the Justice Department's Enron Task Force had presented the indictment to Milloy on Wednesday, and at their request she sealed the indictment and an arrest warrant.

"Ken was not in any conspiracy," Ramsey said Thursday before entering the courthouse.

Ramsey said he would push for Lay to go trial ahead of other executives. He maintains Lay did nothing wrong and cast blame on former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts in January.

Fastow admitted to orchestrating partnerships and financial schemes to hide Enron debt and inflate profits while pocketing millions of dollars for himself. Fastow is waiting to testify for the prosecution.


'A Liar and a Thief'

"Andy is obviously a liar and a thief," Ramsey said. "He admits that."

In a separate action, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges Thursday against Lay, accusing him of fraud and insider trading and seeking recovery of more than $90 million in what the agency said were illegal proceeds from stock sales.

Prosecutors have aggressively pursued the one-time celebrity CEO and friend and contributor to President Bush who led Enron's rise to No. 7 in the Fortune 500 and resigned within weeks of its stunning failure. Lay is the 30th and highest-profile individual charged.

The indictment particularly focuses on Lay's behavior after Skilling, in August 2001, abruptly resigned in the weeks leading up to Enron's collapse. Skilling had succeeded Lay as CEO six months earlier. He was indicted in February on nearly three dozen counts of fraud and other crimes.

Prosecutors allege Lay knew Enron was preparing to announce massive third-quarter losses and a $1.2 billion writedown in shareholder equity, yet in a Sept. 26, 2001 Internet chat told Enron employees he had strongly encouraged management to buy Enron stock.

"Some, including myself, have done so over the last couple of months and others will probably do so in the future," he said. "My personal belief is that Enron stock is an incredible bargain at current prices."

Then on Oct. 12, 2001, he told a credit rating agency that Enron and its auditors had "scrubbed" the company's books and that no additional writedowns would be forthcoming. Four days later, the company announced those big losses, but the shareholder equity writedown was not in Enron's press release.

The indictment alleges Lay also knew Enron was facing a $700 million writedown in its water business, Azurix, but didn't disclose detailed information. In addition, it alleges Lay knew Enron had reorganized its energy services unit to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

"We're not trying to conceal anything," Lay told analysts on Oct. 23, 2001, according to the indictment. "We are not trying to hide anything."

He also told employees that same day: "Our liquidity is fine; as a matter of fact, it is better than fine, it is strong."

But prosecutors allege Lay knew Enron had been forced to offer its pipelines as collateral to get a $1 billion bank loan to maintain liquidity.

Then on Nov. 12, 2001, in a call to analysts and in another effort to combat bad publicity, he said: "We don't have anything we are trying to hide. I am disclosing everything that we've found."

But prosecutors allege Lay knew that he and other senior Enron managers had not disclosed a litany of negative facts about Enron's finances.

The counts alleging bank fraud accuse Lay of improperly drawing from his lines of credit, and exposing banks to a higher risk of loss, to directly or indirectly buy and carry margin stock.

Enron's collapse led a series of corporate scandals that led to Congress' passage of sweeping reforms to securities laws with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act two years ago. Thousands of Enron's workers lost their jobs, and the stock fell from a high of $90 in August 2000 to just pennies, wiping out many workers' retirement savings.

The charges against Skilling and Causey, who was initially indicted a week after Fastow pleaded guilty, target actions over several years leading up to Enron's collapse.

Days after Skilling's resignation, Lay met privately with Sherron Watkins, then an executive on Fastow's staff, who had sent him a lengthy memo warning of impending doom from Fastow's myriad schemes to hide debt and inflate profits.

But Lay told The New York Times last month that he didn't believe the company had serious problems and trusted other senior managers, including Fastow and Causey, when they reassured him that all was fine.

Skilling and Causey are awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading. Both pleaded innocent and are free on bond.

The indictment unsealed Thursday contained no new charges against Skilling, already named in 35 counts alleging fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. Causey was named in three additional counts: two conspiracy and one securities fraud.

Prosecutors also were trying to seize an undisclosed sum of money from Lay, plus his 33rd-floor Houston penthouse valued at more than $7 million.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/7/8/134528.shtml

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Petron
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posted October 13, 2004 06:45 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
here are some excerpts to show your ridiculous idea that hw bushs' contacts in saudi arabia are only distant links to the bin laden family...
as cia director, vp and president hw bush dealt directly with the saudi royal family jwhop


you should read the whole article
*********

The Barreling Bushes
By Kevin Phillips
from The New Hampshire Gazette Vol. 248, No. 8, January 16, 2004


As early as 1964, George H.W. Bush, running for the U.S. Senate from Texas, was labeled by incumbent Democrat Ralph Yarborough as a hireling of the sheik of Kuwait, for whom Bush's company drilled offshore oil wells

George H.W. Bush's own Persian Gulf relationships kept expanding. While serving in the Reagan White House during the 1980s, he was known in the Middle East as "the Saudi vice president," and a New Yorker article last year described the Saudi ambassador to the United States as "almost a member of the (Bush) family."

Eldest son George W. Bush made his first Middle East connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) -- billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI insider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush's 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using bin Laden- bin Mahfouz funds.

In the late 1980s, after several failed oil ventures, the future 43rd president let the ailing oil business in which he was a major stockholder and chairman be bought out by another foreign-influenced operation, Harken Energy. The Wall Street Journal commented in 1991, "The mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy may prove nothing more than how ubiquitous the rogue bank's ties were. But the number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken -- all since George W. Bush came on board - - likewise raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son."

Taking the CIA helm in January 1976, Bush cemented strong relations with the intelligence services of both Saudi Arabia and the shah of Iran. He worked closely with Kamal Adham, the head of Saudi intelligence, brother-in-law of King Faisal and an early BCCI insider. After leaving the CIA in January 1977, Bush became chairman of the executive committee of First International Bancshares and its British subsidiary, where, according to journalists Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin in their 1992 book False Profits, Bush "traveled on the bank's behalf and sometimes marketed to international banks in London, including several Middle Eastern institutions."

Once in the White House, first as vice president to Ronald Reagan and later as president, George H.W. Bush was linked to at least two Middle East-centered scandals. It's never been entirely clear what Bush's connection was to the Iran-Contra affair, in which clandestine arms shipments to Iran, some BCCI-financed, helped illegally fund the operations of the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels in Nicaragua. But in 1992, special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh asserted that Bush, despite his protestations, had indeed been "in the loop" on multiple illegal acts.

Much clearer was Bush's pivotal role, both as vice president and president, in "Iraqgate," the hidden aid provided by the United States and its military to Saddam Hussein's Iraq in its high-stakes war with Iran during the 1980s. The United States is known to have provided both biological cultures that could have been used for weapons and nuclear know-how to the regime, as well as conventional weapons. As ABC-TV broadcaster Ted Koppel put it in a June 1992 Nightline program after the 1991 Persian Gulf War: "It is becoming increasingly clear that George (H.W.) Bush, operating largely behind the scenes through the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into the aggressive power that the United States ultimately had to destroy."
http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_ba rreling_bushes

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quiksilver
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posted October 13, 2004 11:20 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Jwhop, your tireless efforts to dig beneath the surface of any issue are to be admired.

But back to Haliburton, which was doing exactly the same type of work for the Clinton administration when they were in power. But of course no one was raising the red flag then. It's all an issue of convenience as far as I can tell....,

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