-Caveat Lector- NOTE: Roy Q. Minton, the lawyer in the Yogurt Shop case described in the preceding documents by lawyer Erik Moebius, is also the Austin lawyer for Freeport McMoRan. The three articles below will suffice to provide a general description of Freeport McMoRan and the company it keeps: >From Corporate Watch: Suhartless November 24 - 30, 1998 Andrew Hsiao & Jason Vest Press Clips, Village Voice Though hardly a maverick act of moral courage, The New York Times did manage to editorialize on Saturday in favor of a faster path to civil rights in post-Suharto Indonesia. "[President B.J.] Habibie and his political allies want the army to retain its hand in selecting presidents for 5 to 10 more years," said the paper. "A quicker, cleaner transition to full civilian democracy is needed, and Washington should not be shy about saying so." This was a refreshing sentiment from the Times, considering a previous Nicolas Kristof dispatch, in which the erstwhile Tokyo bureau chief characterized the Indonesian Army as "the institution that used to keep the passengers in the back seat and maintain order"-rather than as the genocidal legion of murderous thugs they are. Nonetheless, the Times didn't inquire as to the likelihood of Washington putting the screws to Habibie. Maybe that's because the chances are slim, in part because of the extraordinary and baleful influence of an American multinational: New Orleans mining behemoth and Suharto ally Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold. Not unlike Chiquita in Honduras, Freeport-through a combination of lobbying and campaign donations over the past two decades-has helped ensure that U.S. policy supported the corrupt Indonesian status quo. Now, Freeport has an apparent friend in Robert Livingston, the new Speaker of the House. And yet Freeport has been given a free ride in much of our elite press, even as riots have propelled Indonsesia to the front pages. Since Suharto's fall in May, both the Times and the Washington Post have devoted only a single passing reference to the company. Indonesia briefly captured the media's imagination in 1996, amid allegations that the country's oligarchy had sought to curry favor with the White House-via massive illicit contributions from the wealthy Riady family's Lippo Group to the DNC. But in an excellent November 1996 two-part series, the Journal of Commerce's Tim Shorrock showed that Freeport and other U.S. corporations with Indonesian interests were far more able agents of political influence than their Indonesian counterparts. Freeport was the first U.S. company to set up shop in Indonesia and, with the government, it now runs the world's largest gold mine and third largest copper mine, both located in army-occupied Irian Jaya. Freeport's CEO, James "Jim Bob" Moffett, was a golfing partner of Suharto's, while one of the men who gave Suharto the green light to embark on the murderous conquest of East Timor-Henry Kissinger-sits on Freeport's board. So, too, does J. Bennett Johnston, who, while a Louisiana senator, made sure Congress did little to impede the flow of arms to Jim Bob's despotic putting-green partner. The company has also doled out well over $1 million in campaign contributions to both parties since 1980. Despite Jim Bob's long public affiliation with Suharto, the Singapore Business Times reported earlier this year that Freeport McMoRan "categorically denied any association with former president Suharto," and that reports "accusing the company of links through collusion and nepotism to the former first family were untrue." Last month, however, the Wall Street Journal's Peter Waldman described Freeport's Indonesian operations as "a study in how multinational companies adapted to the crony capitalism" that was a hallmark of the Suharto era. And in the September 7/14 issue of The Nation, Robert Bryce reported on two unique loan arrangements between Freeport and Indonesian companies-one belonging to Suharto's labor minister, the other involving Suharto and longtime crony Bob Hasan. The Jakarta Post and other regional papers have been carrying regular news about recent Habibie government investigations, however modest, into the Freeport-Suharto connection. The Indonesian Observer, for example, reported on November 18 that "the wealth of Suharto's cronies in Irian Jaya is believed to be mostly invested in enterprises serving as contractors to... Freeport." Cited as exhibit A: Bob Hasan, who "apparently held a virtual monopoly on the supply of food" to Freeport's 28�-an-hour workers. Meanwhile, Livingston has taken thousands of dollars from Freeport in recent years. In 1995, Freeport used its Washington juice-Kissinger, ex-CIA director James Woolsey, and others-to get its political risk insurance policy reinstated, after the policy had been axed because of the company's "substantial adverse environmental impacts" in Irian Jaya. Now Indonesian activists are asking what Freeport will get from Livingston-even if U.S. media aren't. >From CounterPunch: by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair Sierra Club Board Member Gets Money from Chevron and Freeport McMoran by Bernardo Issel The Sierra Club has been a leading critic of corporate polluter funding of politicians and of corporations trying to greenwash their record. So it is with great surprise to find that Sierra Club Director Anne Ehrlich benefits from donations from Chevron and other interests linked to polluting corporations. The membership of the Sierra Club recently re-elected Mrs. Ehrlich to the board, but without knowledge of these environmentally tainted funding sources. Mrs. Ehrlich is the associate director of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology (CCB). The Center was founded by Mrs. Ehrlich's husband, Paul, who is current president of CCB. Since at least 1995, the oil giant Chevron has funded CCB. This is problematic to say the least. Chevron operates polluting refineries in Richmond and Los Angeles, California. Its basic product oil is a major contributor to air and water pollution in California and elsewhere. Its product also contributes to global warming; and Chevron has been a supporter of the Global Climate Coalition, a leading global warming naysayer. Abroad, environmentalists have challenged Chevron drilling operations for despoiling the environment. A recent Human Rights Watch Report charged Chevron with involvement in severe human rights violations in Nigeria, including ties to "Kill-And-Go" death squads. In an interview, Mrs. Ehrlich brushed off concern about the Chevron support, explaining that it merely funded a few graduate students and that the donation was given with no strings attached. Well it just so happens that Mrs. Ehrlich supports continued oil drilling to meet future global demand, a position that she failed to disclose in her Sierra Club ballot statement. One is reminded of the rationalizations by politicians receiving oil funding. If Chevron is quite happy to support the Ehrlichs, it raises questions as to why their environmentalism is acceptable to this environmentally noxious company. In light of Mrs. Ehrlichs outspoken stances on population control and immigration restrictions, the fact that she is comfortable accepting funding from a company whose profits have been described as "blood money" is exceedingly loathsome. As an advisor to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, she supports tight controls on immigration into the United States, but is apparently comfortable taking funding from a company bringing in oil from abroad where it has despoiled the environment and violently repressed opposition to its operations, as in Nigeria. The Sierra Club has been at the forefront of criticizing Shell Oil's operations in that county, yet has been seemingly silent on Chevron, the actions of which have been viewed as comparable to that of Shell. It so happens that Chevron is headquartered San Francisco, California - the site of the Club's own headquarters and the Club's home state. It would seem that a Sierra Club campaign exposing Chevron's odious environmental and human rights abuses could fruitful results. Yet with Ehrlichs' funding from Chevron, one should not expect her to be supportive of such an effort. The funding by Chevron is not the only questionable funder of the Ehrlichs' conservation work. Others include: -- Ward Woods, a director of Boise Cascade, Freeport McMoRan, and Kelley Oil - Boise and Freeport are environmentally rapacious companies; for example, Freeport, the New Orleans based mining giant which invite Henry Kissinger on its board, has been charged with cultural genocide and eco-cide for its operations in Indonesia. -- Global coal and natural gas power plant billionaire Roger Sant of AES -- The Ehrlichs' leading benefactor NYC apartment property heir Peter Bing sits on the board of the conservative Hoover Institute along with the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife and Dwayne O. Andreas(Archer Daniels Midland CEO). The Hoover Institute has long been a fountain of anti-environmentalism, recently publishing a book touting the benefits of global warming. -- Support from the Munger foundation, which receives its wealth from the founder of and partner in law firm that represents Unocal and Southern California Edison. Stanford's board of trustees has close ties to Edison, including the presence of Edison CEO John Bryson. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mrs. Ehrlich views Edison as one of the most forward looking corporations. Edison's efforts to run the Carbon II power plant without scrubbers seems not to be a concern to Ehrlich. The California chapter of Sierra Club in 1998 supported a repeal of billion dollar bailout of Edison's nuclear stranded costs, but with no help from Sierra Club leadership - no wonder with board members like Anne for whom it would be awkward. -- Donations from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the foundation of the scions of Sun Oil, which has been criticized by many grassroots environmentalists for its domineering funding strategy. In the 80's Pew was viewed as part of the right wing funding community. In this decade the foundation has tried to remake itself as a centrist do-gooder agent, yet Pew supported pro-NAFTA advocacy of the Heritage Foundation while simultaneously generously funding many of the environmental groups that supported NAFTA. Sierra Club courageously opposed NAFTA. -- Funding from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) trustees Teresa Heinz and Wren Wirth through the Winslow Foundation. On a variety of policy matters, i.e. NAFTA, global warming, and air pollution strategies, EDF has been at odds with Sierra Club. The Ehrlichs' recent book acknowledged input from EDF staffers and extolled market based environmentalism, yet seemed to have no link to or mention of the Sierra Club. Perhaps Mrs. Ehrlich would be more comfortable at EDF. This briefing at the very least raises several disturbing questions that Sierra Club members have not been informed of about the resume, financial backers and environmental philosophy of Anne Ehrlich, when they elected Ehrlich to the board of directors of the Club. While Mrs. Ehrlich separates the funders of CCB and her role as a Sierra Club director, it is not clear that Sierra's membership would agree with this compartmentalization. At the least, there is concern that Ehrlich's corporate ties create a conflict of interest with her role as a director of the Sierra Club. A Sierra Club volunteer Karen Jones who served on a Sierra Club consumption task force with Mrs. Ehrlich while Ehrlich was a Club director found a disinclination by Ehrlich to take into account the role of corporations in driving consumption and resource extraction; ultimately the report included none of the concerns of Jones who had her name removed from the report. In a letter of dissent, Jones cited the case of populations in foreign countries unable to control the operations of oil companies taking advantage of repressive political regimes -- ironic in light of how thi reflects Chevron's operations in Nigeria. CP Outrage fades; UT ties to Freeport, Genocide Persist By Gabriel Demombynes Daily Texan, student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin, April 4, 1994 Back in 1990, when the University still had some activists to speak of, The Daily Texan and Polemicist ran a series of articles exposing the wicked web that ties the University to Freeport McMoRan and the Indonesian government. The public furor has subsided, but that's the only thing that's changed. Just a few weeks ago, UT professor and MacArthur fellow Steven Feld wrote an open letter to UT System Chancellor William Cunningham to protest the University's relationship with Freeport. Feld wrote, "With this note then I hope to remind you how strongly my research is in direct opposition to the wreckage and loss, the poverty and pain that the University's association with Freeport McMoRan brings daily to the island of New Guinea." Feld is too kind to Freeport. Not only have the corporation's own activities wreaked environmental havoc and displaced thousands in New Guinea, but its presence in Indonesia has lent credibility to a viciously repressive regime. The present Indonesian government seized power in 1965 through what the CIA calls "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century," killing half a million people. President Suharto has held onto power to this day by using the same brutal methods that he employed in the takeover. In 1975, Portugal withdrew from the remnants of its 16th century colonial empire, including East Timor, a tiny island in the Indonesian archipelago. Suharto's government decided it couldn't allow an independent nation to exist so close to Indonesia. His forces invaded the island that December and began a campaign of slaughter. At least 100,000 Timorese civilians have been killed since 1975. (The Roman Catholic Church puts the figure at 300,000.) A Freeport subsidiary became the first big investor in Indonesia after Suharto's rise to power, pouring money into gold, silver and copper mining in the western half of the island of New Guinea. Little information makes its way out of this region, largely because Freeport operates its Mount Ertsberg mine under a veil of secrecy. The 6.1 million acres of land occupied by Freeport are reported to be an environmental disaster. Three rivers have been contaminated by tailings from Freeport's mine. On behalf of Freeport, the Indonesian government has forced residents of areas near the mine to relocate. In 1977, the military dropped cluster bombs on a village near the mine. An advertisement published recently in British newspapers said, "Amnesty [International] has been tracking the Indonesian government for nearly 30 years. We have found every form of human rights abuse - and on a staggering scale - imprisonment without trial, political murder, killing of petty criminals, execution of the old and sick, torture, rape, `disappearance' and mass murder." Freeport's cozy 25-year ties with the Indonesian government make it an accomplice to genocide. UT Chancellor William Cunningham is a director on the board of Freeport McMoRan. And the UT geology department sends researchers and graduate students to New Guinea as part of its 10-year research collaboration. A man who would feed, clothe and urge on a genocidal killer for 25 years should not be allowed to associate with the University. But since Freeport is a corporation, since no single human being can be called to answer for what it does, its iniquities go unchallenged. Cunningham is an affable fellow, we're inclined to think. What could he have to do with a bloodbath half a world away? This dilution of blame is a danger inherent in institutions like corporations and universities. The only defensible moral reply is one of total responsibility. As members of the University community, we all share complicity with the manifest evil of Freeport McMoRan. ------------------- Demombynes is a Plan II/civil engineering senior. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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