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----- Original Message -----
From: "William Shannon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 5:37 PM
Subject: [CTRL] Influence Peddling, Bush Style
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> FEATURE STORY | October 23, 2000
>
> http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20001023&s=moldea
> Influence Peddling, Bush Style
> by DAN E. MOLDEA & DAVID CORN
>
> rom the outset of George W. Bush's campaign, the restoration of honor and
> integrity to the White House has been a key sales pitch of the Texas
> governor. Bush has declared that it's time to replace the wheelers and
> dealers of the Clinton years with "plain-spoken" Americans. In a recent
> television ad, his allies in the Republican Party blasted Vice President
Al
> Gore's association with scandal, noting that "because of Gore's last
> fundraising campaign, twenty-two people have been indicted, twelve
convicted,
> seventy took the Fifth Amendment and eighteen witnesses fled the country."
On
> September 23, Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson accused
> Gore and the Democrats of accepting money since 1996 from "foreigners who
are
> no friends to the US." In short, Bush and his lieutenants have argued, his
> crowd is better than the other crowd. But Bush's crowd includes family
> members and a political associate who have done business with one of the
> prime targets of the Republicans' investigations into Chinese espionage
and
> Democratic fundraising abuses.
>
> In their relentless efforts to reveal and exploit Democratic misdeeds, and
in
> search of a Beijing connection to Democratic Party fundraising violations,
> Republican investigators in the House and the Senate have focused on the
> Charoen Pokphand Group, an enormous Bangkok-based agribusiness and
> telecommunications conglomerate and one of the largest foreign investors
in
> China. (The company's business registration number in China is 0001.) Its
CEO
> is 61-year-old Dhanin Chearavanont, one of the wealthiest men in Asia, who
is
> of ethnic Chinese descent. On June 18, 1996, Chearavanont and two CP Group
> officials attended one of the infamous White House kaffeeklatsches. The
trio
> were accompanied to the meet-and-sip session with President Clinton by
> Pauline Kanchanalak, a Thai businesswoman and lobbyist, who has since
pleaded
> guilty to making illegal contributions to the Democratic National
Committee.
> (The Democrats returned the money she raised.) During the
seventy-five-minute
> coffee, which was organized by John Huang, a DNC fundraiser who has also
> pleaded guilty to illegal fundraising, Chearavanont did most of the
talking,
> stressing the importance of maintaining normal trade relations with China.
>
> The Republican-controlled Senate Government Affairs Committee cited the
June
> 18 event as an example of the "merchandising of the Presidency." The
> committee's final report noted: "It is clear that the coffee's essential
> purpose was to sell the President's time to Kanchanalak, who...donated
> $235,000 to the DNC the next day." The money for these contributions, the
> report maintained, came from "sources in Thailand," and the committee
> referred to the CP Group.
>
> Other Clinton critics have pointed to the CP Group while chasing after
> evidence that China bought influence with the Administration. The Cox
Report
> (formally titled "U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns
> with the People's Republic of China"), which was released last year by
> Republican Representative Christopher Cox, recounted the June 18 coffee
with
> Chearavanont and the two other CP Group officials as an example of how
China
> uses its commercial allies to lobby for policies that favor China. The
> conservative American Spectator published a piece in June 1997 alleging
that
> "front companies for communist China have been actively buying up (and
spying
> on) the US," and it noted, with a heavy hint of suspicion, that the CP
Group
> was a partner of a Chinese weapons manufacturer. Ann McBride, then the
> president of Common Cause, wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno in 1997,
> raising questions about the CP Group's attempt to sway US policy toward
> China. And even the liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich observed:
"We
> know that a hundred thousand bucks get you a night in the Lincoln Bedroom,
> but what did the really serious loot from conglomerates like Indonesia's
> Lippo Group and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group buy from the Clinton
> Administration?"
>
> The CP Group was depicted in varying degrees of nefariousness--with some
> justification. One-third of the people convicted in the Democratic
> fundraising scandal were connected to the company or the June 18 coffee.
> Shortly before that reception with Clinton, Kanchanalak's husband,
> Chupong--whom Time identified as a CP Group consultant--wired $475,000 to
his
> mother and his sister Duangnet "Georgie" Kronenberg from Thailand.
> (Kronenberg would plead guilty with Pauline Kanchanalak, and Chupong
> Kanchanalak and his mother would be named as unindicted co-conspirators.)
> Later that summer, the CP Group wired $50,000 to Pauline Kanchanalak. And
two
> weeks before the coffee, the CP Group sent $100,000 to Charlie Trie,
another
> soon-to-be-disgraced Clinton fundraiser, according to an FBI
investigation.
> The Cox Report cited the CP Group's payment to Trie--the purpose of which
the
> FBI did not determine--and noted that the CP Group was involved in a
> telecommunications consortium controlled by companies linked to the
Chinese
> government. That is, the report suggested that Trie and the CP Group
provided
> a conduit for Chinese money supposedly flowing into the Clinton
> Administration.
>
> But as the CP Group chased after deals and influence around the world
during
> the nineties--joining with NYNEX, Gerber, the Ford Motor Company and
Kentucky
> Fried Chicken in assorted projects--it did not seek out only Democrats as
> friends; it also collaborated with members of George W. Bush's immediate
> family.
>
> In January 1994--more than two years before Chearavanont and the CP Group
> officials came to the White House for coffee--former President Bush made a
> six-day trip to China and then visited Thailand as the guest of Dhanin
> Chearavanont's CP Group. On January 19, the Bangkok Post ran a photograph
of
> Bush arriving at Don Muang airport and noted in the caption that he was
> greeted by Chearavanont. Also, that same day, the CP Group and its
> telecommunications subsidiary, TelecomAsia, published a full-page ad in
the
> Bangkok newspapers welcoming Bush. On January 20 Bush attended a champagne
> breakfast ceremony at the Oriental Hotel to celebrate the opening of the
CP
> Group's new paint factory, in the wake of a licensing agreement that gave
> Advance Paint and Chemical, a Thai business partner of the CP Group, the
> right to sell Dutch Boy paints in China. That night, during a gala
reception
> for Bush at the Oriental, also hosted by the CP Group, Bush spoke about
> China. He defended his decision to reject post-Tiananmen Square calls for
> yanking China's most-favored-nation trade status, saying, "To influence
> China, you do not isolate China." After Bush's three-day stay in Bangkok,
> Chearavanont personally escorted Bush back to the airport; a picture of
this
> scene appeared in a Bangkok newspaper the following day.
>
> A former Dutch Boy official says that the CP Group had hired Bush, a past
US
> ambassador to China, to help the mega-conglomerate drum up business in
Asia.
> "They used him, you know--'We're bringing the President in'--and, of
course,
> everybody would look forward to meeting the President," the executive
> recalls. "In Asia, it's who you know...and the relationship with the
former
> President opened a lot of doors for [the CP Group].... They were just
using
> Bush as a business card to get in to see the right people." The former
Dutch
> Boy executive had heard talk that the CP Group paid Bush $250,000 for his
> services. President Bush--who recently declared, "I am absolutely
convinced
> that if our son is elected President of the United States, we will restore
> the respect, honor and decency that the White House deserves"--will not
> confirm or deny that payment. Regarding his relationship with the CP Group
> and Chearavanont, a spokesman for the former President says, "President
Bush,
> now being a private citizen, has adopted the position that his private,
> personal business is just that, and he has no comment."
>
> The Bush-Chearavanont relationship continued beyond the 1994 champagne
> celebration. In 1999--after China-obsessed Republicans had identified
> Chearavanont and the CP Group as worrisome figures possibly involved in
the
> corruption of American democracy--Chearavanont attended the first meeting
of
> the Asian advisory board of the Carlyle Group, a multibillion-dollar
private
> investment firm based in Washington, which is partially managed by former
> members of the Reagan and Bush administrations, including James Baker,
Bush's
> Secretary of State, and Richard Darman, Bush's former budget director.
Bush,
> a "senior adviser" to Carlyle and a member of the company's Asian board,
was
> the star attraction of the event, which was held at the Oriental Hotel in
> Bangkok [see David Corn and Paul Lashmar, "Bush of Arabia," March 27].
>
> The Bush-CP Group connection extends to Neil Bush, one of President Bush's
> sons, who earned notoriety when, in 1992, he agreed to pay $50,000 to
settle
> civil litigation related to the billion-dollar collapse of the Silverado
> Savings & Loan Association. (Bush, who sat on the S&L's board, was accused
of
> concealing his business relationships with two of the bank's largest
> debtors.) During President Bush's 1994 visit to Bangkok, the former
President
> met with officials of TelecomAsia, the CP Group subsidiary. According to a
> local newspaper account, Bush and the CP Group discussed "cooperative
> business ventures between Thailand and the United States." Soon after,
Neil
> Bush created the Interlink Management Corporation, an international cable
> communications firm, which then sought out business opportunities for US
> firms in China. (Neil Bush set up shop in his father's office in Houston.)
By
> November 1996 Neil Bush, through Interlink, had established a "joint
venture
> consulting company" with the CP Group, according to the Financial Times of
> London, which published no other details about the deal. At that time,
Neil
> Bush told the Associated Press that "joining with a company like CP is the
> best way to go. They already have the contacts and the access that can be
so
> difficult for a company just coming in to get."
>
> In November 1996 Neil Bush traveled with Chearavanont to the grand opening
of
> a CP Group motorcycle plant in Shanghai, China. Along on that trip was
> Pauline Kanchanalak, who five months earlier had accompanied Chearavanont
to
> the controversial White House coffee. And the following summer--after the
> June 18 coffee had become news and as Republican investigators were
probing
> the CP Group connection--Asiaweek magazine reported that Neil Bush was
still
> working with the CP Group and recruiting partners for the multinational in
> the United States. He also became involved with Advance Paint and
Chemical,
> the CP Group's partner in the paint business. A current executive of Dutch
> Boy, a subsidiary of Sherwin-Williams, recalls that, about 1997, Neil Bush
> was working with APC's managing director, Pricha Punnakitikashem. "I
remember
> that at that time, there was something that Pricha was doing that we
didn't
> like," the Dutch Boy executive says. "And we told Pricha to back off from
> doing it.... That precipitated a phone call from Neil to [the
> Sherwin-Williams] office in Cleveland.... Neil was trying to help Pricha."
> Like father, like son: Neil Bush refused to discuss his relationship with
the
> CP Group and Chearavanont.
>
> The CP Group also joined forces with another top Bush associate. In the fa
ll
> of 1996 the transnational conglomerate was looking to spend tens of
millions
> of dollars in Washington to create an institute that would promote closer
> ties between the United States and China. One of its initial hires for
this
> project was Brent Scowcroft, who had been President Bush's National
Security
> Adviser. According to the Washington Times, which unearthed documents
> detailing the proposed institute, Sumet Jiaravanon, Chearavanont's brother
> and a top CP Group executive, also retained Washington lobbyist Patrick
> Griffin, a former legislative director for President Clinton, to help
launch
> this group. (Jiaravanon had attended the June 18 White House coffee with
his
> brother and Pauline Kanchanalak, among others.) An American lawyer who
worked
> on the proposal told the Washington Times that the institute deal fell
> through. But as part of this influence blitz, the CP Group also offered
large
> endowments to Johns Hopkins University's Paul Nitze School of Advanced
> International Studies and the Center for Strategic and International
Studies.
> Scowcroft and Griffin declined to talk about the aborted CP Group
campaign.
>
>
>
> The CP Group's relationship with the Bushes and other Republicans never
made
> it onto the to-do list of the GOP's muckchasers in Congress who were
looking
> for a Chinese scheme to gain influence in the United States. Neither the
Cox
> inquiry nor the investigations into campaign finance irregularities
conducted
> by Representative Dan Burton and Senator Fred Thompson examined
> Chearavanont's financial dealings with Republicans and the Bush family,
> according to a former Democratic Congressional investigator. (Cox is now
one
> of George W. Bush's advisers on issues involving China.) Pauline and
Chupong
> Kanchanalak, through their lawyer, refused to comment about the CP Group
and
> the Bushes. Pauline is awaiting sentencing, and one associate who knows
them
> says, "They have no interest in talking to the press about anything. And
if
> they said anything about CP's business dealings, that would not be seen
> favorably by CP, and they may still need to maintain that relationship."
> Sarasin Viraphol, executive vice president of the CP Group--another
attendee
> of the June 18, 1996, White House coffee--did not respond to a written
> interview request.
>
> So parts of the Bush circle hooked up with the CP Group, which was trying
to
> sway policy in Washington and to maintain conditions that would allow it
to
> reap great profits in China. Like the Democrats in 1996, they were on the
> same team as the now-convicted Pauline Kanchanalak. A close look at the CP
> Group--closer than Republican scandal-hunters mounted--shows that the game
of
> influence-peddling can be played simultaneously on different fields: Use a
> fundraiser to gain access to the White House, or rent a former President,
cut
> a deal with his son and sign up his former National Security Adviser. It's
> usually a bipartisan endeavor. George W. Bush ought to keep that in mind
and
> vet his own squad closely before he claims the high ground over the gang
> currently in power.
>
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions 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, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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