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Truth in Media's GLOBAL WATCH Bulletin 2002/2-1 3-Feb-2002
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Topic: AMERICAN AFFAIRS
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HIGHLIGHTS
Phoenix 1. Bush League All-Stars
Budapest 2. Enron's Croat Connection
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2002/2-1.html
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Who Says Money Cannot Buy Presidency, Favors? Enron’s Peons, Unocal’s Yokels
1. Bush League All-Stars
"Death Merchants," Oil Companies, Hijack Foreign Policy; Americans Act as
Volunteer Hostages
PHOENIX, Feb. 3 - Who says money cannot buy a presidency? Yes, even
Presidency of the United States. It’s just that the bigger the office, the
bigger the price… But also the bigger the returns to the buyers of
political favors.
Enter Enron’s Ken Lay, Bush Sr.’s close pal, by far the brightest of the
Bush League All-Stars. With over $2.5 million in his own and corporate
political contributions, Lay was by far the biggest financial supporter
of “Dubya’s” campaigns.
Which is why the President’s claim sounded so lame when he tried to deflect
the blame. He said that Lay/Enron supported the Democrats. True… to the
tune of less than half a million dollars. But the Bush League Republicans
got more than $2 million from the failed energy company and its former
chief (see the chart and Bush League All-Stars table).
Besides, Lay spread his fortune around. This erstwhile political power
broker seemed to try to buy favors left, right and center. He and his
wife, for example, neither of them Jewish, were the biggest donors to the
Holocaust Museum in Houston, agreeing to fund 10% of the museum’s $3
million budget, according to "Actualité juive", a French Jewish weekly
(Jan. 24 issue). They also got our Pretzel Prez to be the guest of honor
at a fund-raising dinner for the museum in March of last year.
(Also see, “Enron’s Croat Connection,” Item 2 of this TiM report).
From social to economic influence, Lay and Enron had their fingerprints
all over the Bush administration. In fact, “Enron’s One Good Return (Was)
Political Investments,” read the headline of a Jan. 31 editorial by Wall
Street Journal’s Albert Hunt.
Which is why when George W. Bush did an abrupt turn-about-face on Jan. 23 -
from supporting Lay/Enron to criticizing both - he committed the ultimate
sin of a politician and of the members of the world’s oldest
profession. He didn’t stay bought! (“the only honest politician is one who
stays bought,” according to an old political saw).
By contrast, Pretzel Prez’s Veep, Dick Cheney, isn’t even trying to
distance himself from his ties to Lay/Enron. Claiming that he is
supposedly protecting the executive privilege, Cheney has refused to
release the details of his various meetings with Lay which were said to
influence the Bush administration’s energy policy. In turn, the GAO office
is now suing the White House in order to gain access to the transcripts of
those meetings (talk about arrogance and obstinacy… one government branch
having to sue another to get information!).
This much is clear… Lay/Enron first lobbied Washington to support a huge
power plant in India which the World Bank called a white elephant eight
years ago. Then it tried extortion (threat of Washington sanctions) to get
$2 billion from India’s government. Writes the Journal’s Hunt:
“Vice President Cheney, on June 27, lobbied Indian opposition leader, Sonia
Gandhi, on behalf of Enron, shortly after the Cheney energy task force
specifically recommended promoting energy production India. What was
Enron's role? Mr. Cheney won't say…
The Enron/India episode undercuts the administration's contention that it
only followed its free-market principles. Treasury Secretary O'Neill
approvingly noted that, "The genius of capitalism is people make good or
bad decisions and they get to pay the consequences or enjoy the fruits."
Enron failed in India and, under a controversial and contested contract,
wanted to be bailed out. Irrespective of whether a failure to do so would
have hurt foreign investment in India, was it the role of the American
government to seek such a favor for a big campaign contributor?”
Hunt answers his own rhetorical question:
“Is Michael Jordan good for the NBA? Is Helen Hunt a great actress? Is
Madonna trashy?”
Of course, Enron/Lay were buying favors when they made huge contributions
to the Bush campaign. India was just one of many episodes that illustrate
that money can and does buy power and influence in our corrupt political
system:
“Few special interests got more access or results than Enron: legislative
favors, a lax oversight of its risky financial derivatives, tax breaks,
unsurpassed input into the Cheney energy legislation drafting process and
most of what it wanted, and reportedly even veto authority over regulatory
appointees.
Enron's successes soured only when the company's fortunes turned south last
October. It was, as Democrats James Carville and Paul Begala charge, "like
the hooker who fell out of love with the sailor after he ran out of money".”
Or like a politician who doesn’t “stay bought.”
And now, politicians of such low morals as Bush and Cheney are leading the
nation into a flag-waving frenzy and an open-ended “war on
terrorism.” That was as predictable as it is pathetic. “Dubya Dubya Dubya
Dot Warmonger Dot Com,” was a sub-heading of a TiM Bulletin published at a
time the dot-coms were still worth something (see “Weep Mankind!” -Jul 26,
2000).
More than 18 months later, tens of thousands of lives extinguished by war
can perhaps help mankind understand better why our headline for the July
2000 news story about Cheney being picked by Dubya for his Veep was “Weep
Mankind!” As chairman and CEO of Halliburton, the 22nd largest Pentagon
contractor with about $600 million in Department of Defense (DOD) revenues
in 2000, Cheney was in the war business. As Dubya’s Veep, Cheney is in the
war business. Cheney, the epitome of the New World Order’s motto -
“perpetual war for perpetual commerce,” has been working on both sides of
the Washington-“Death Merchants” revolving door for 34 years. And it shows…
Our long time readers may recall our Kosovo wartime story, "Death
Merchants'" View: "War Is Great; Peace Sucks; Long Live NATO!" (May 19,
1999).
“Wall Street investors who backed the "death merchants" have seen the Top
10 Pentagon defense contractors' stocks outperform the market (the S&P 500
index) by a 2.5-to-one ratio since March 23 (+15% vs. +6%), the day before
the shooting war started in Yugoslavia.
After lagging the S&P during the first three weeks of NATO's war on Serbia,
the Top 10 Pentagon stocks surged ahead in mid-April, and stayed ahead of
the market, as it became evident that this war could drag on. And as
Congress started to deliberate the White House's request for additional $12
billion of funding for the Pentagon.
But even before this request, and before the shooting war started on Mar.
24, the new Day of Infamy, the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 1999 and
beyond had been already increased by the Clinton administration. The White
House requested in February an additional $112 billion in Pentagon spending
over the next five years, bringing the Pentagon's budget up to $319 billion
by 2005.”
We’ve just updated our study of the Top 50 Pentagon contractors’ business
volumes for 2000. And guess which company has benefited the most in
1998-2000 from the increases in military spending? Surprise, surprise… It
was Cheney’s Halliburton! It topped ALL OTHER (!) “death merchants” by
growing its Pentagon-related business by 108% (see the chart and table at
our web site).
The business wasn’t too shabby for the rest of the top Pentagon
contractors, either. The top 10 military vendors’ revenues, for example,
increased by 26% between 1998 and 2000, while their stock prices surged by
40% during the same period (see the chart and table at our web site).
On the global scene, the U.S. arms manufacturers’ 2000 sales surged by 44%
since 1999, to $18.6 billion, topping all other international “death
merchants,” and accounting for exactly half of all global arms
sales. Russia was a distant second with $7.7 billion of revenues, but with
an even higher (60%) annual increase.
And just think… the global “death merchants” had collected such impressive
New World Order “peace dividends” long before the Bush administration took
power, and well before the Sep. 11 attacks. As the WTC towers collapsed,
the “death merchant” fortunes surged. The post-911 world promised to be a
free-for-all feast for the military contractors and energy companies. And
a sunset for a civilized world.
Wasting no time for chance to gouge the flag-waving public, the Bush
administration has already marshaled huge increases in our nation’s defense
spending (an additional $59 billion in fiscal 2003 alone; $675 billion over
the next 10 years - see the chart). No wonder the shares of the top
Pentagon contractors are thriving on Wall Street.
The Raytheon stock, for example, the nation’s third largest defense
contractor with $6.3 billion in DOD revenues in 2000, closed at $23.95 on
Sep. 10 - the 52 week LOW. Raytheon closed at $38.27 on Jan. 31 - a
52-week HIGH!
So Wall Street knows what Washington’s “war against terrorism” is all
about, even if the naïve, flag-waiving Main Street Americans don’t. The
U.S. taxpayers are hostages of the “death merchants” and energy companies,
and of their Washington peons at “Dubya Dubya Dubya Dot Warmonger Dot
Com.” Willy-nilly, we have been all harnessed (by our stupidity and
gullibility) into supporting the Bush League jihad against jihad; into
cheering and funding acts of state terrorism in the name of fighting
individual terrorism. And for the sole benefit of Enron’s, Lockheed’s,
Boeing’s, Raytheon’s or Halliburton’s of the corporate world.
If the flag-waving U.S. public weren’t as stupefied as it is, Americans
would be waving the stars and stripes upside-down - a sign of
distress. For, we’ve lost thousands of innocent lives because of the
hatred Washington’s policies have sowed; we’ve lost our dignity by stooping
down to the terrorists’ level; we’ve lost respect of other nations around
the world, even of our friends and allies; we are losing freedoms and
rights enshrined in our Constitution for which our forefathers died in the
American Revolution; and now… we are about to lose our shirts, too, once
the new military budget is implemented.
And just think… we’ve lost all that just so that a few “death merchants”
and energy companies could make a few extra bucks.
And what’s the American public doing about it? In a word -
cheering! About 82% of Americans approve of the job George W. Bush is
doing as president, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll taken Jan.
18-21, and published in the Jan. 24 edition of the Wall Street Journal. As
to the Enron scandal, 40% of Americans “are not particularly concerned”
about the Bush administration, according to the same poll.
This writer hangs his head in shame. As a free-thinking American. For
once, the Truth in Media editor wishes the media had lied. For, that would
be less painful than having to reconcile oneself to being surrounded by so
many morons.
And what are the leading American business executives doing about having
their business interests hijacked and held hostage by a bunch of industrial
era dinosaurs? (“death merchants” and oil companies). In a word -
nothing! Well, maybe not quite nothing. Having allowed their businesses
to be sucked into the national flag-waving frenzy, they are sticking the
stars and stripes on their office buildings, products, vehicles… lest they
be ostracized as “unpatriotic.”
In other words, they are acting like shepherds who allow themselves to be
led by the sheep. Which, in turn, are following the wolves in sheep’s
clothing - straight to the slaughterhouse (also see “Ostriches, Sheep and
Sardines,” this writer’s Oct. 1999 Sydney, Australia, lecture).
Never mind that a war economy is not necessarily good for everyone’s
business, as America’s industrial warmongers would have us
believe. Airline, health care, tourism, transportation, insurance, IT
companies’ leaders… are only some among several industries that should be
voicing their dissent but aren’t.
In fact, few American executives are even bothering to define their unique
business interests, let alone oppose the direction in which they are being
pulled by their noses by “death merchants’” and oil companies’ Washington
proxies. Given the herding mentality that’s now pervading our country,
like the American people, most business leaders feel dissent would be
considered “unpatriotic.”
This writer hangs his head in shame. Again. This time, as an independent
American businessman.
Because a herding mentality and blind one-mindedness have led to creations
of yesteryear’s bogeymen, like Adolf Hitler. The moment business leaders
and the German people stopped questioning and started obediently following
their popular leader in the 1930s, their fate was sealed. Are Americans
today making the same mistake?
One comforting thought... “Don't be afraid of anything except of sin,” His
Holiness, Serb Patriarch Pavle, counseled this writer in September 1995,
right after NATO commenced its first bombing of the Bosnian Serbs (see
“Orthodox Patriarch Leads by Example,” Feb. 9, 1997). For, God “will weigh
everything precisely and fairly,” he said.
Including the sins of globalist elites, such as Ken Lay and Enron’s
Peons. And the stupidity of the “panem and circenses” (“bread and
games”)-infatuated materialistic masses. And the cowardice of business
leaders who fail to lead.
In the end, we will all get what we deserve.
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2. Enron's Croat Connection
BUDAPEST, Jan. 31 - Just how wide and deep the tentacles of Enron’s
corruption have reached can be also seen from a Jan. 31 story in the
Financial Times (London), filed from Budapest.
“In one meeting, Mr (Franjo) Tudjman (Croatia’s late president) asked
Joseph Sutton, head of Enron's international operations, how much influence
his company had with the US state department and whether it could arrange
WTO (World Trade Organization) entry,” the FT writes. "Mr Sutton said he
could not promise WTO membership, but guaranteed that Enron and the US
would lobby for Croatia's entry into the WTO, Partnership for Peace and Nato."
Tudjman even tried to link the Enron deal with avoiding arrests by the
International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague over the his and his
government’s war crimes against the Serb minority in this small Balkans
country.
Here’s an excerpt from that FT report:
"The Enron collapse may have finally ended a long-running scandal over
relations between the US energy company and the semi-authoritarian
government of the late Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman.
Mr Tudjman, who led Croatia through independence, negotiated a
controversial memorandum of understanding with Enron before his death in
December 1999. It would have given Enron rights to build a power station in
Croatia and run it for 20 years, selling electricity to HEP, the state
electricity company, at above-market rates.
Questions about the deal intensified after Mr Tudjman's death and the
election, in January 2000, of a democratic government. Tapes of
conversations show that Mr Tudjman hoped giving Enron the contract would
secure political favours, including a state visit to Washington.
After renegotiation, Enron is thought to have retained the right to build a
power station and sell electricity to HEP at above-market rates, though
lower than previously. That contract expires this summer, though details
are unclear due to confidentiality agreements.
Enron's power deliveries to Croatia ended on November 30, when other
European deliveries ceased. The power station has not been built. The
deal's legacy, however, may be the light it sheds on Mr Tudjman in his
later years - and on Enron's readiness to and play along with his
fantasies. […]
Croatia had been isolated politically - particularly by the European Union
- over treatment of Serbs during the offensive that ended its war of
independence."
For the full story, see “Enron’s curious Croatian client” -
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3UFAV05XC&live=true&tagid=IXLVJTFUICC&subheading=emergingmarkets
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