-Caveat Lector- "Meneses and Blandon were not the largest drug traffickers -- neither were the Costa Ricans. It was the Honduran Army that was supplying 1/3 to 1/2 the cocaine reaching America. In the final days of the Contras, the Honduran Army got busted with more than 6 tons of cocaine headed for the UNITED STATES. "Now, when we speak of Honduras, what we are really talking about here is Carl Lindner ... ." "When the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a series in May 1998 detailing inhumane labor conditions, environmental crimes, and much more from the Chiquita banana company, Chiquita's CEO, Carl H. Lindner, Jr. threatened to take the Enquirer to court. "The Enquirer fired the journalist, Mike Gallagher, and agreed on a settlement with Linden to print a (misleading) apology and retraction and pay Chiquita $10 million in damages -- even though none of the allegations made in the articles (based on a full year of research by Enquirer reporters Mike Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter) were ever disproven in court." "Members of the Clinton Administration have moved to help Chiquita open European markets to its bananas. For years, Chiquita grew lots of bananas throughout Latin America and was the largest supplier to Europe. "Then in 1993, the European Union announced changes to its trade regulations on banana import quotas. Colombia and Costa Rica agreed to this new European "banana plan" and were key to making it work. But because of this new policy, Chiquita's sales and profits dropped. "Although there are relatively few US jobs at stake, Lindner has managed to bring his "banana problem" to the top of our national agenda. "In January of this year, US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor concluded his year-long investigation of the European banana trade dispute and determined that [Chiquita competitors] Costa Rica and Colombia's trade agreements with the Europeans are "unfair." The Clinton Administration investigated the idea of imposing trade sanctions against Colombia and Costa Rica." "The PORTLAND FREE PRESS is now providing the full coverage of the Gary Eitel civil law suit that Arizona journalists know would lead to their dismissal. "The CIA air operation known as T&G Aviation named in this suit, which used Senator JOHN MCCAIN to obtain 3 C-130s from the DOD via Roy Reagan, is located at the old Chandler (Arizona) Municipal Airport, located conveniently on an Indian reservation where customs and the DEA have no jurisdiction. "The PORTLAND FREE PRESS pulls no punches with its account of Arizona's U.S. Attorney, Janet Napolitano, giving the CIA back its C-130s and then resigning her office." _______________________________________________________________ BANANA REPUBLICAN: CARL H. LINDNER In addition to being a big Dole backer, Lindner has served as a mentor and colleague to two of the best-known financial crooks of our time, Charles Keating and Michael Milken. Carl H. Lindner, 76, Cincinnati, Ohio. Donated $337,500 since 1993. Party: Mostly D. He gave one $250,000 soft-money gift to the Democrats, and $42,000 in party donations to the GOP. He also gave $31,000 to 31 candidates, nearly all Republican. By L.J. Davis Carl Lindner, the tan eminence of American finance (Lindner always wears tan), is chair and CEO of Chiquita Brands International Inc. This may help explain why Sen. Bob Dole, a major recipient of Lindner contributions (and frequent flier on Lindner company jets), has been a vocal critic of trade agreements that cut Chiquita out of the foreign banana market. Dole's friendship may also give Lindner political cover. Chiquita Brands, among others, faces a lawsuit alleging that its use of the pesticide DBCP caused sterility in 16,000 foreign farmworkers. More well-known than Lindner himself are two of his proteges, Charles Keating, of S&L fame, and Michael Milken, the former junk bond king. Keating, whose law firm did work for Lindner's conglomerate, American Financial Corp., became vice president of AFC in 1972. A few years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Keating and Lindner with defrauding stockholders. Lindner, described in James B. Stewart's "Den of Thieves" as a "father figure" to Michael Milken, was also the single largest purchaser of Milken's junk bonds. Lindner, thought a conservative by temperament (he was a member of the anti-pornography group largely responsible for Cincinnati's Mapplethorpe dustup), gives money to whoever in in power. Despite his relationship with Dole, he was President Clinton's largest single contributor as of July 1994. But shortly after Republicans took the House in November 1994, Lindner sent a check for $55,000 to Speaker Newt Gingrich's GOPAC. What would Lindner ultimately like in return for his generosity? For the SEC and Congress to stop looking into his sleazy deals and leave him alone. Copyright (c) Foundation for National Progress So You Want to Buy a President? Carl Lindner Carl Lindner, a Cincinnati businessman with international interests ranging from banking to bananas, is one of the nation's wealthiest men. His frequent, abundant contributions to political candidates and parties have put him at times in the public spotlight. His friends defend his political giving as merely the generosity of a public spirited citizen. His critics suspect that his money buys him political access and influence. In either event, he is one of several large contributors at the center of the controversy over whether the American campaign-finance system is serving the public interest. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he dropped out of high school to help run the family's ice-cream store when his father became ill. With a head for figures and a knack for financial deals, Lindner built the business into a chain of stores known as United Dairy Farmers. Today there are over 200 such stores run by his brother Robert. Dairy-store profits have fueled Lindner's investments in financial institutions. First, he acquired savings and loans companies and then diversified into the insurance business. Today he runs a corporate empire known as American Financial Group. As chairman and chief executive of American Financial Group, Lindner presides over business assets worth $14 billion by his own reckoning. He is a former part owner of The Cincinnati Enquirer. He controls, among other businesses, Chiquita Brands bananas. Lindner has made a name for himself on Wall Street as an astute investor. He has a reputation for "bottom fishing" -- that is, buying a financially troubled or undervalued company at a bargain price and transforming it into a profitable enterprise. He was an important customer of "junk" bond king Michael Milken, who worked for the now-defunct investment banking firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert. For years American Financial employed a Cincinnati lawyer, Charles Keating, as corporate counsel and executive vice president. Lindner and Keating parted company, and Keating moved to Phoenix and gained notoriety in the 1980s as the man behind the multibillion-dollar failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan. Mild-mannered and shy, Lindner routinely refuses reporters' requests for interviews. He has a habit of handing out little white cards with gold-embossed, folksy sayings on them. One reads: "I like to do my giving while I'm living so I'm knowing where it's going." He is a devout Baptist who says he does not smoke, drink or swear. In 1990, he led the opposition to a Cinncinnati exhibit of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. Later that year, he withheld his usual financial support to the arts fund he deemed responsible for the show. As a philanthropist, Lindner has been generous. He has estimated his contributions to various charities over the past 10 years at $60 million. Lindner gives heavily to political campaigns. While his contributions in Cincinnati and Ohio heavily favor Republicans, in national races he gives generously to both sides. Since 1988, Lindner and his associates and companies have given $650,000 in soft money to the Democrats and $1.5 million to the Republicans, according to Common Cause, a Washington watchdog group. Lindner, his family, and business associates also make donations directly to politicians. Among them: $106,000 to George Bush's presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992; and $172,500 to Senator Robert Dole since 1980. In a field of the "top ten career patrons" of Senator Dole, Lindner ranks seventh, reports the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan Washington public interest research group. Dole has also made frequent use of private jets owned by the Lindner family -- twelve flights in 1995 alone, according to the Federal Election Commission. Recently, Majority Leader Dole, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and members of the Clinton Administration have moved to help Chiquita open European markets to its bananas. For years, Chiquita grew lots of bananas throughout Latin America and was the largest supplier to Europe. Then in 1993, the European Union announced changes to its trade regulations on banana import quotas. Colombia and Costa Rica agreed to this new European "banana plan" and were key to making it work. Chiquita said because of this new policy, which it claims violated trade laws, sales and profits dropped. Although there are relatively few US jobs at stake, Lindner has managed to bring his "banana problem" to the top of our national agenda. The Clinton Administration investigated the idea of imposing trade sanctions against Colombia and Costa Rica, and Bob Dole pushed the issue in Congress. In January of this year, US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor concluded his year-long investigation of the European banana trade dispute and determined that Costa Rica and Colombia's trade agreements with the Europeans are "unfair." Despite Chiquita's lobbying, the US has decided for the time being not to impose retaliatory sanctions against the two countries, instead pressuring the Europeans to open their banana market to free trade. Copyright (c) 1998 PBS and WGBH/FRONTLINE September 12, 1998 Take Action: Boycott Chiquita Bananas When the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a series of articles in May 1998 detailing inhumane labor conditions, environmental crimes, and much more from the Chiquita banana company, Chiquita's CEO, Carl H. Lindner, Jr. (mentor of Charles Keating and Michael Milken and major financial donor to Clinton, Dole, Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, ...) threatened to take the Enquirer to court. Instead, the Enquirer fired the journalist, Mike Gallagher, and agreed on a settlement with Linden to print a (misleading) apology and retraction and pay Chiquita $10 million in damages. None of the allegations in the articles, which were based on a full year of research by Enquirer reporters Mike Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter, were disproven, but Chiquita was able to use the interception of internal voice mail as their legal basis for killing the story. The records included more than 2,000 copies of taped voice mail messages -- many of which were highly detailed -- provided by a high-level source who was one of several Chiquita executives with authority over the company's voice mail system. The source also provided copies of the same tapes to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has launched its own investigation into Chiquita. The government of Honduras, where Chiquita has been a power for decades, has also said it is reviewing some of the charges raised by the series, ranging from bribery of foreign officials to the use of dangerous pesticides at some of the company's agricultural sites. Read the Case Against Chiquita While the company may have been able to use a legal technicality to avert some of the bad publicity spurred by the stories, they cannot refute the facts. "Sunset Freedom" is thus joining in the call for a complete boycott of all Chiquita Brands International products (also under names like COBIGUA, Compania Bananera Atlantica Ltda. {COBAL}, United Fruit, and United Brands) as well as Linden's other interest -- the American Financial Corp. We urge you to send messages to Chiquita letting them know that you disagree with their use of extortion, pesticides, and violence to maintain their banana republic, and that you will not buy any of their products until they clean up their act and allow independent audits of the conditions at their compounds to prove it. We also urge you to contact President Clinton and Newt Gingrich, both major recipients of Linden donations, to let them know that you support the continued SEC investigations into the company as well as an end to sweatshops the world over. Inform your friends and neighbors of Chiquita's horrendous business practices, and ask your local grocer to at least provide alternatives brands if not to boycott Chiquita altogether. References: The Edison West Website (http://amaterasu.besler.org/) was actually the first source we found for information on the Chiquita scandal. It contains links to several good sources (http://amaterasu.besler.org/Political/bananas.html). The Campaign for Labor Rights (http://www.compugraph.com/clr/alerts/chiquita_part1.html) also has condensed versions of the stories, and much of the text quoted here is from their excellent work. http://www.coha.org/ = Council on Hemispheric Affairs http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/chiquita = Focus on Chiquita The Globalization and the MAI Information Centre (http://www.islandnet.com/~ncfs/maisite/chiquita.htm) has the complete text of the Enquirer story <cont'd> 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. 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