------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
Behind the fog of war CORPORATE CRIMES MULTIPLY By Deirdre Griswold The intense focus of the Bush administration and the media on preparations for a massive assault on Iraq has cast into obscurity what else is going on in this country. More raw sewage has been leaking out recently about the crooked deals of the billionaire class than at any time in memory. As the capitalist economy continues to flounder, taking the jobs and lives of untold millions with it, it has become more difficult for the owners and executives of the huge corporations to conceal their dirty bookkeeping and illegal deals. But don't expect the huge media conglomerates to spotlight it. Every day that headlines scream about "terrorism" and "Saddam," the corporate criminals thank the war makers in Washington for shielding them from the public's wrath. Here's a quick rundown on some of the more odious deals that have been ferreted out recently. Don't expect to find them on the nightly news, except in some hard-to-read crawler. The headlines are reserved for shock items trying to instill in the public intense fear of Arabs and Muslims--one day it's Afghans, the next it's Iraqis, then it's Yemenis. * $10 MILLION WORTH OF COLLUSION The energy-trading company Williams and its partner AES colluded to drive up power prices in 2000 during California's energy crisis, reported the Nov. 15 Wall Street Journal. The newspaper had obtained a report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission containing excerpts from "damaging telephone conversations" between executives of the two companies. Company officials had discussed deliberately keeping generating equipment shut down for "maintenance," which helped drive electricity prices from $63 to $750 per megawatt hour. As a result, these two companies raked in an extra $10 million in profits over a 15- day period. California's consumers are still paying for this fraud with sharply higher utility bills. Enron was another company that profited even more handsomely off the deregulation of California's utilities. Its chief executive, Kenneth Lay, was a big contributor to George W. Bush's presidential campaign and a special adviser to the president on energy policy. He later bailed out of the company with hundreds of millions while workers were left without jobs and pensions. * FBI, CIA, SEC: FOXES GUARD THE CHICKENS Bush appointee Harvey Pitt was forced to resign as head of the Securities & Exchange Commission on Nov. 5. The SEC has the difficult task of reassuring investors that it's safe to go back in the market again. The story is that Pitt had chosen William Webster to head a new accounting industry oversight board but hadn't informed the White House or his fellow commissioners at the SEC that Webster was himself under scrutiny in the area of corporate accounting. In other words, Pitt had chosen a fox to guard the chickens. The SEC is in the biggest crisis of its history, at a time when investors are pulling out of U.S. markets because they don't trust the corporations or the government agencies here to give honest information about their true financial situation. Webster, by the way, is a former head of both the CIA and FBI. He also was part of a three-person oversight board set up by the government supposedly to "clean up" the Teamsters union, but really to try to break its militancy. No wonder the politicians and their corporate bosses would rather see Pitt leave and Webster withdraw than go through an open fight that could give the millions of working people in this country a clearer view of the corruption that is endemic to capitalism. * AUTISM AND HOMELAND INSECURITY The Homeland Security Act now passed by Congress is without a doubt meant to strengthen government repression on behalf of big business, which is behind the war moves in the Middle East. But the act also has lots of fine print that helps particular corporations--especially those that gave big bucks to the Bush campaign. Case in point: Eli Lilly & Co. is shielded against lawsuits by the act. Why is this company worried about being sued? Because it has long produced a preservative, thimerosal, that may be implicated in the startling rise of autism among children in this country. Bob Herbert, in a column in the Nov. 25 New York Times, writes that thimerosal "contains mercury and was used for many years as an additive in some routinely administered children's vaccines." Parents and doctors have noticed for some time that previously healthy children developed autism, a devastating neurological disorder, around the same time that they received multiple inoculations for various childhood diseases. Nothing has been proven--or ruled out--but "in the summer of 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Public Health Service urged vaccine manufacturers to stop using thimerosal as quickly as possible." Now comes the Homeland Security Act. It contains a provision, says Herbert, "that -- incredibly -- will protect Eli Lilly and a few other big pharmaceutical outfits from lawsuits by parents who believe their children were harmed by thimerosal." Who put this provision into the act? No one is admitting to it, but "Mitch Daniels, the White House budget director, is a former Eli Lilly big shot." And "just last June President Bush appointed Eli Lilly's chairman, president and CEO, Sidney Taurel, to a coveted seat on the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council." What is one of the greatest causes for insecurity in this homeland? The fact that health care, including medicines, has become unavailable to over 40 million uninsured people and barely affordable to millions more. At the same time, the drug companies as a group are one of the most lucrative investments on Wall Street, right up there with the military- industrial complex. * 30 MILLION ACRES READY TO GO KABOOM Here's a final bombshell that is unlikely to get more than a passing reference on prime time--sandwiched in between police reports that rarely mention corporate criminals and feel-good stories about Elvis sightings: "Unexploded munitions at 16,000 inactive military ranges, including chemical and biological weapons, pose 'imminent and substantial' public health risks and could require the largest environmental cleanup program ever implemented by the U.S. government, according to newly released Environmental Protection Agency documents." (Washington Post, Nov. 25) The documents were made available by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director, said his organization obtained the documents confidentially from an EPA whistle-blower who believes the EPA and the Defense Department are failing to adequately address groundwater and soil contamination caused by unexploded munitions on inactive ranges across 30 million to 40 million acres, an area roughly the size of the state of Florida." These sites are in large cities like Washington, D.C., as well as less populated areas. Even Raymond F. DuBois, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, admits that "this is a long-term, large problem" and that cleaning up unexploded ordnance could cost anywhere from $14 billion to "several times" that much, depending on the eventual use of the land. And now this country is headed into another war, which will only add to this gigantic problem. So why haven't UN weapons inspectors been told to look for "weapons of mass destruction" in the United States? There are so many that some are literally rotting away on abandoned military facilities. Well, in fact, a coalition of Canadian peace groups plans to do just that. Rooting Out Evil says that, according to President Bush's own guidelines, "the current U.S. administration poses a great threat to global security." Says spokesperson David Langille, "We're following Bush's lead and demanding that the U.S. grant our inspectors immediate and unfettered access to any site in the country-- including all presidential compounds--so that we can identify the weapons of mass destruction in this rogue state." A common thread runs through all these stories. They are breathtaking examples of how far the corporations and the government serving them have gone in dumping any pretense of respect for the rights of the people. And they all are getting minimal attention as the corporate media beats the drums trying to line up support for the administration's criminal war plans. n - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
