So this ENRON stuff I am at a lostt - I love money but it is the dullest
subject
No remember Marc Rich - this is how ENRON seems to operate. They have
nothing and manufacture nothing.
Marc Rich when we had restrictions on IRAN and our people were held
hostage, this creep engaged in what the FEDS called organized crime and
maybe a bit of treason in dealing with the enemy during embargo. He
bought (and his Soros in on it, and other Mafia hoodlums) he bought the
Arab oil for $6.00 a barrel and then sold it for $24.00 per barrel up.
This is how ENRON operated and I would be most interested in knowing if
a SOROS or a RICH is involved here.
They are buyers and sellers and these are the people who contribute
nothing other than a fast deal.
So looks like who had money in the company and got out and who did not
get out in time before the big fall. Like Mafia, did they really own
anything other than their own personal possessions.
So you know when a small time dealer in marijuana or drugs gets caught
working outside the official drug operations - they take everything he
has.
ENRON - what does it have to take? Big manufacturing plants, or what.
They are like a bunch of mafia hoodlems and are the Money
Gougers....look behind the scenes, and see who did what.
Look at this Marc Rich - this cheap hoodlum bribing the President of the
United Staes? See anybody going after him as of late that seems to be
serious?
Bought a big pardon with dirty money....bet you will find these creeps
lurking in the background - let us call them The Hidden One.
These people are cheap hoodlums, crooks- and their contributions in form
of campaign contnributions amount to big time bribe....take their
personal possessions, all of it as they do those who aare minor thieves
just trying to make living.
OSaba (pull up under subject matter for additional data if interested)
Meet Enron, Bush's
Biggest Contributor
by Pratap Chatterjee
September 2000 Issue
Early last October, members of the ninth grade girls' track team and the
boys' football team at suburban Houston's Deer Park High School's north
campus returned from practice reporting severe breathing problems. That
day, Deer Park registered 251 parts of ozone per billion, more than
twice the federal standard, and Houston surpassed Los Angeles as the
smoggiest city in the United States.
One of the biggest contributors to Deer Park's pollution is a plant
owned by Enron, Houston's wealthiest company. Enron and its executives
are also the single largest contributors ($550,000 and counting) to the
political ambitions of Texas Governor George W. Bush, Republican
candidate for President of the United States. Kenneth Lay, the chief
executive of Enron, has personally given at least $250,000 in soft money
to Bush's political campaigns. He is also one of the "Pioneers"--a Bush
supporter who has collected $100,000 in direct contributions of $1,000
or less.
What is Enron? And what does it get in return for this largesse?
Enron is the largest buyer and seller of natural gas in the country. Its
1999 revenues of $40 billion make it the eighteenth largest company in
the United States. Enron invests in energy projects in countries around
the world, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, Mozambique, and the Philippines.
(is enRON CIA CONTROLLED . saba note)
The company has recently expanded onto the Internet, buying and selling
a dizzying array of products ranging from pulp and paper to
petrochemicals and plastics, as well as esoteric products like clean air
credits that utilities purchase to meet emission limits.
Texas activists say that the tight connection between Bush and Lay bodes
ill if Bush is elected. Andrew Wheat, from Texans for Public Justice, a
campaign finance advocacy group in Austin, compares the symbiotic
relationship between Enron and the governor to "cogeneration"--a process
used by utilities to harness waste heat vented by their generators to
produce more power. "In a more sinister form of cogeneration,
corporations are converting economic into political power," he says. "A
Bush election fueled by Enron dollars could ignite in the public policy
arena, and consumers would get burned."
And so may people in the Third World.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both criticized Enron
for colluding with police who brutally suppressed protests at the
company's giant power plant in western India. The plant's operating firm
is called the Dabhol Power Company. From 1992 to 1998, Enron owned 80
percent of it, with General Electric and Bechtel each holding a 10
percent share. (In 1998, the Indian state electricity board bought a 30
percent share of the company, which reduced Enron's stake to 50
percent.)
For years, the plant has been the site of many nonviolent protests.
"The project has met with opposition from local people and activists
from elsewhere in India on the grounds of its social, economic, and
environmental impact," Amnesty wrote in a July 1997 report. "Protesters
and activists have been subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest,
preventive detention under the ordinary criminal law, and ill treatment.
Amnesty International considers those who have been subjected to arrest
and temporary periods of imprisonment as a result of undertaking
peaceful protest to be prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for
exercising their right to freedom of expression."
Amnesty's report found that "women, who have been at the forefront of
local agitation, appear to have been a particular target."
Just before dawn on June 3, 1997, police stormed the homes of several
women. "The policemen forcibly opened the door and dragged me out of the
house into the police van parked on the road. (While dragging me) the
police kept beating me on my back with batons. The humiliation meted out
to the other members of my family was similar to the way I was
humiliated. . . . My one-and-a-half-year-old daughter held on to me but
the police kicked her away," says Sugandha Vasudev Bhalekar--a
twenty-four-year-old housewife who was three months pregnant at the time
of her arrest, according to Amnesty's report. Amnesty found that another
pregnant woman was beaten and several other women sustained injuries,
including bruising, abrasions, and lacerations on arms and legs.
Amnesty said the police involved in suppressing protests included "the
Special Reserve Police [SRP] on the site of the company." It added: "The
involvement of the SRP in the harassment of protesters indicates the
need for the three U.S. multinationals participating in the joint
venture to take steps to ensure that all the management and staff of the
DPC [Dabhol Power Company]--in particular, any security staff
subcontracted to, seconded to, or employed by the company--are trained
in human rights and are fully accountable for their actions."
A January 1999 investigation by Human Rights Watch came to a stronger
conclusion. "Human Rights Watch believes that the Dabhol Power
Corporation and its parent company Enron are complicit in these human
rights violations," it said. "The company, under provisions of law, paid
the abusive state forces for the security they provided to the company.
These forces, located adjacent to the project site, were only stationed
there to deal with protests. In addition, contractors (for DPC) engaged
in a pattern of harassment, intimidation, and attacks on individuals
opposed to the Dabhol Power project. . . . The Dabhol Power Corporation
refused to acknowledge that its contractors were responsible for
criminal acts and did not adequately investigate, condemn, or cease
relationships with these individuals."
Enron denies any wrongdoing. "While we respect the mission of Human
Rights Watch, we do not feel that its report on the Dabhol Power project
is accurate," says an Enron spokesperson. "The report refers to peaceful
protests, when, in fact, the reason the police were positioned near our
site is that there have been many acts of violence against our employees
and contractors. Dabhol Power Company has worked hard to promote
positive relations with the community. Unfortunately, the good
relationship we have built with a large percentage of the community was
not reflected in the report. Enron is committed to providing energy and
communications services while preserving the human rights of citizens
and our workers."
Enron has also raised a stink in Bolivia with its involvement in the
Cuiab� Integrated Energy Project. The project is run by Transredes,
Bolivia's hydrocarbon transport company, which came into being in 1997
after Bolivia privatized its oil sector under the influence of the World
Bank. A joint venture of Enron and Shell owns 50 percent of Transredes.
On January 31, 2000, a Transredes oil pipeline erupted and dumped an
estimated 10,000 barrels of refined crude oil and gasoline into the
Desaguadero River, which supports indigenous communities such as the Uru
Muratos.
"This problem is Transredes's number one priority, and we are committed
to continue to work hard to mitigate the short- and long-term social and
environmental impact," wrote Steve Hopper, president of Transredes, in a
letter addressed "To the People of Bolivia" on February 7.
Facing starvation from the loss of their life-sustaining waterfowl and
fish, the Uru Muratos left their ancestral lands at the southern shores
of Lake Poop� in April and marched eighty-five miles to the city of
Oruro to ask for government help.
"We subsequently reached an agreement with them to provide certain
levels of relief and assistance," says Keith Miceli, general manager for
public relations for Enron, South America.
In its actions overseas, Enron has made a practice of taking advantage
of corporate welfare. And it has enlisted George W. Bush in this effort.
For example, in March 1997, Lay wrote a letter to Bush that was
subsequently released to the press under Texas open records laws, asking
him to contact every member of the Texas delegation in Congress to
explain how "export credit agencies of the United States are critical to
U.S. developers like Enron, who are pursuing international projects in
developing countries." These agencies include the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), which provides political risk coverage
and financial support to U.S. companies investing abroad.
"OPIC provided financing or insurance coverage worth almost $300 million
for Enron's foreign projects just last year, according to government
records," The New York Times reported. "Enron officials have in the past
asked Mr. Bush to help lobby lawmakers to appropriate funds of OPIC, as
well as for the Export-Import Bank, another federal agency that aids
American companies abroad."
Enron received $200 million in political risk insurance for the Dabhol
project in 1996. And it received $200 million in insurance from OPIC in
1999 for its Bolivian project.
The Enron Methanol plant in Pasadena, Texas, lies in the Houston Ship
Channel area, the nation's largest concentration of petrochemical plants
just east of the city. The plant has won special concessions from
Governor Bush, allowing the company to pollute without a permit, as well
as giving it immunity from prosecution for violating some environmental
standards.
Plants like this in Texas cumulatively emit twice as much nitrogen
oxide, a key ingredient of smog, as do all the nine million cars in
Texas put together.
Only 7 percent of the more than 3,500 tons of nitrogen oxide emitted by
the Enron Methanol plant in 1997 would have been permitted had Enron not
gotten away with this under the "grandfather clause" of the 1971 Texas
Clean Air Act, which allows plants built before 1971 to continue their
polluting practices. Bush extended this clause under the 1999 Clean Air
Responsibility Enterprise (CARE) program that his office drew up in a
series of secret meetings with representatives of the top polluters in
the state, as Molly Ivins reported. CARE waives permit requirements for
plants that volunteer to cut emissions.
The CARE program is backed up by an act that Bush signed in May 1995
giving sweeping protections to polluters that perform internal
environmental or safety audits. The law makes these audit documents
confidential and allows polluters to escape responsibility for
environmental violations. To date, Enron has conducted five such audits
and filed for immunity from prosecution for violations of the law,
according to the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission
(TNRCC), the state equivalent of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tamara Maschini, who lives about five miles from the Enron plant, is one
of the founders of a local environmental group called Clean Air Clear
Lake.
"Whole families in this neighborhood have asthma because of the
pollution from plants like Enron," she says.
Mark Palmer, head of public relations for Enron, says that the company's
contribution to local pollution is minimal.
"If the grandfather clause was canceled right now, we would benefit the
most of any of the companies in Texas because our nitrogen oxide
emissions add up to less than half a percent of the total," he says.
Last year, the Bush campaign borrowed Enron's corporate jets eight times
to fly aides around the country, more times than any of the thirty-four
other companies that made their company aircraft available to the
Presidential hopeful.
And Lay often acts as George W. Bush's chaperone.
On April 7, 2000, he played host to Bush and his father, the former
President, at the Houston Astros' first home game of the season. The
game was held in the baseball team's brand new stadium--Enron
Field--which was built with the help of a $100 million donation from
Enron. (The company got free advertising, a tax break, and a $200
million contract to supply power to the stadium in return.)
Less than three weeks later, Lay joined candidate Bush in Washington,
D.C., for a Republican fundraiser that topped all previous records by
bringing in a staggering $21.3 million, easily the biggest one-night
haul for any political party in history.
"Ken Lay is a noted business leader in Texas who has long been active in
Republican politics," says Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for the Bush
campaign. "He is chair of the Governor's Business Council. But the
governor has his own agenda based on what he believes is best for Texas
and for the country."
For his part, Lay tries to put his contributions in a favorable light.
"When I make contributions to a candidate, it is not for some special
favor, it's not even for access--although I'll be the first to admit it
probably helps access," he told The New York Times. "It is because I'm
supporting candidates I strongly believe in personally."
In January 1999, Enron pitched in $50,000 to help pay for Bush's
inaugural bash in Austin, Texas, after he won reelection for governor.
Today, the polls show that George W. Bush has a better than even chance
of winning the Presidential election. If he does, it is very likely Ken
Lay will be pitching in for another inaugural bash.
Pratap Chatterjee works for the on-line magazine "Corporate Watch,"
which ran an earlier version of this story. The magazine can be reached
at www.corpwatch.org.
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