Posted on 01/11/2002 3:33:21 PM PST by Lady In Blue
CLINTON'S ROGUES GALLERY: DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON APPEARANCE OF QUID PRO QUO Loral - China Missile Guidance Webb Hubbell - $700,000 in business in 6 months ($3.5 million?) Teamsters/DNC - Mutual Financial Federal contracts to unionized companies (pending) IMF/Asia AMF (Arkansas) Kabila (Zaire) - mineral and diamond mining rights Barrelo/Intriago - Llanes Hudson/IBP - Tyson COSCO/Long Beach - China Encryption - Perry/Hambrecht & Quist/HUA MEI/Brooks Telecommunications/SCM/Cylink (H&Q also linked with Salon, DNC) Transfer of Hot Seat technology from Department of State to Department of Commerce Buddy Young (testimony) v. FEMA Suzanna Hubbell support-employment/Webb Hubbell conduct Tough tobacco negotiations v. China campaign contribution possible links v. Chinese tobacco production higher than U.S. Motorola ``upgrading'' Chinese space boosters/missiles under a ``national-security waiver signed by the President.'' Chung's Chinese PLA donations at same time Clinton was making it easier for American civilian communication satellites to be launched by Chinese rockets. Digital Equipment-supercomputers-China/Anthony Podesta lobbyist(brother of John Podesta) Jim McDougal: 1984 $2,000/month payments to Gov Clinton via Henry Hamilton (now deceased) to avoid problems with state regulators. Businesses that donated $2,300,000 to DNC committees and won seats on trade missions in Clinton's first term, secured almost $5,500,000,000 to support their foreign business operations from the Overseas Private Investment Corp., a federal investment agency. Ickes to Clinton in September 1994 memo, regarding Schwartz to play a role in generating campaign donations "in order to raise an additional $3,000,000 to permit the Democratic National Committee to produce and air generic TV/radio spots as soon as Congress adjourns." CDFI/Shorebank Enron, U.S. West, GTE, McDonnell Douglas and Fluor -- donated $563,000 to the Democrats and received at least $2.6 billion in contracts Bernard Schwartz, CEO of Loral Space & Communications Ltd., gave $112,500 to Democrats three months after being included in a 1994 China trade trip and then received huge China contracts. McDonnell Douglas gave Democrats more than $98,000 from 1991-1994 and landed a deal on a trade trip to Saudi Arabia to sell that nation 61 commercial aircraft. AT&T made a 1992 donation of $400,000 to the DNC and received received $4.13 billion in business deals and contracts Entergy Corp. made $80,000 contribution to DNC and went to China with Ron Brown, returning with $845 million in new business. The Center for Public Integrity reports that 67 of 187 companies participating in 14 trade missions are known to have contributed to Democrats. Even though there was a higher bid from a local union, China bought machine tools from McDonnell-Douglas in Ohio. The company that was going to use them to make commercial aircraft disappeared. Elizabeth Ward Gracen - via Harry Thomason /Michael Viner Larry Lawrence - Buried in Arlington Government Jobs for Sexual Favors - Various Testimony Paying for Silence - Jones (via Thompson) . Monica Lewinsky - Jobs/Vernon Jordan Monica Lewinsky - Job/U.N. Bill Richardson Larry Lawrence - Switzerland appointment (wife?) Gennifer Flower, State Job Tom Lantos' committee immunity votes, delays v. son-in-law's appointment as ambassador to Denmark (pending confirmation) Concerning China, Clinton 7/1/98 Shanghai ``Failure to renew that (MFN) would sever our economic ties, denying us the benefits of China's growth, endanger our strategic partnership, turning our back on the world's largest nation at a time when cooperation for peace and stability is more important and productive than ever'' Molten Metals and its directors from 1992 to 1996 donated $130,000 to Clinton/Gore or DNC and received $33 million in Department of Energy funding, though it showed a loss every year except $400,000 in 1995. Bill Haney, Molten Metals president worked at Gore's campaign office in Wyoming in 1988. Vic Gatto, Molten Metals chief of government sales in 1992 was Gore's college friend Peter Knight, lobbyist for Molten Metals, was chairman of the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, raised up to $12.5 in a single event, was Gore's top aide before he became vice-president, arranged meetings between Molten Metals and Thomas Grumbly (dept of Energy) who had worked with Knight as a member of Gore's congressional staff, attorney for Franklin Haney (part owner of Portals an empty building that has cost the US $14 million) recipient of $1 million payment from Franklin Haney on the day the Portals lease was signed. Maurine Strong , who is politically connected to Liberal Finance Minister Paul Martin (whom he once hired as a university student), U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, Middle Eastern royalty, and high-ranking members of the Communist government in China, Senior Advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; Senior Advisor to World Bank President James Wolfensohn; Chairman of the Earth Council; Chairman of the World Resources Institute; Co-Chairman of the Council of the World Economic Forum; member of Toyota's International Advisory Board. When stock prices fell in Molten Metals, a civil suit was filed that alleged Molten Metal and its key executives, including Mr. Haney and Mr. Strong, illegally practised insider trading and manipulated stock prices. All the Molten Metal executives deny any wrongdoing. The contention is that the company's officers knew its technology was not yet commercially proven, and kept adverse news from the public while selling $ 15.3 million in company shares. One detail cited that one of Molten Metal's key joint-venture partners, contracting giant Lockheed-Martin, signaled grave doubts about the technology on Sept. 20, 1996. That day the company registered its right to sell 307,735 Molten Metal shares. The securities notice was signed by senior Molten Metal executives, including Mr. Strong. It did not include any confirmation that Department of Energy funding was also being curtailed, although the department had made that clear in July, and issued a "stop work" order to force proper technical and financial reporting from the company. AP 9/17/98 "Commerce Department officials asked the Democratic National Committee to generate a list of candidates for a 1994 trade mission to Russia, according to a Democratic Party memo. That memo plus others from the party headquarters and the Commerce Department also show that Commerce officials urged the DNC to develop a list of businesses in each congressional district as a resource at a time when Democrats were gearing up for the 1994 elections. The memos, obtained by The Associated Press, offer new evidence in investigations into whether Clinton administration officials improperly used government-sponsored foreign trips to boost Democratic fund raising. Congressional investigators have been looking into the allegations for years.." Freeper DC Agent report 9/23/98 "A few years ago, summer of 1995, I reported on a strange occurence at the PTO regarding some patents being awarded to TRW. TRW had been trying to patent medium-earth-orbits for satellites, and was to have two patents issue (sic). They issued for a few hours (enough to be detected publicly), only to be pulled from the APS patent text database system later the same day, a highly unusual act (in fact, I think it is the only time it ever happened). One patent later issued with a reduced number of claims. The patent's claiming of satellite orbits was controversial. At the time, I guessed that Inmarsat pressured the PTO into recalling and reexamining the TRW patents, given the multi-billion dollar stakes involved (which Inmarsat denied), while the PTO's Kunin offered some nonsense explanation that the PTO cared deeply about patent quality (see below for this history in more detail). Neither explanation was good enough to explain the very strange and bizarre circumstances of the PTO issuing a patent to the extent that the patent made it into the APS database system, only to be retracted the very same day, an unheard of quickness for PTO MIS activities. Last week, at a luncheon talk in San Jose, Commissioner Lehman let slip an ancedotal story about dealing with pressures of politics in Washington that sheds some more light on the oddities of the 1995 TRW patent handling. One of my readers was at the San Jose talk, and forwarded me the following information. During his talk, Lehman started out by jokingly saying that "even once I got a call from Air Force One about a patent issue". To explain this to the audience, Lehman started talking about the TRW patent, which he figured the San Jose crowd could relate to because one of TRW's main competitors is Loral, which has a big presence in Silicon Valley. The basic implication was that one or more of TRW's competitors complained to the White House to such an extent that President Clinton called Lehman from Air Force One and asked him to have the patent reexamined. Remember all of this happened on the very day the patent was issued and entered into the APS system and then withdrawn, unusual enough to require lots of political clout to get the PTO to make such a rapid retraction of a patent presumed to be valid. My guess is that it was Loral's complaint that caused the recall, since the CEO of Loral is a big contributor and supporter of the Democratic party, and thus with the political connections to get access to Clinton on the day the patent actually issued (so TRW's competitors could actually see what was being claimed).." NewsMax 9/25/98 "U.S.District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ordered former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta and other top Commerce Department officials to explain their role in Commerce's alleged practice of selling trade mission seats in exchange for campaign contributions to the Democratic National Comittee. The judge's order came as a result of a motion by Judicial Watch, a public interest law group headed by Larry Klaymen. Judicial Watch has been pressing forward with its "Chinagate" civil suit against Commerce Department, seeking a full accounting of the departments trade mission practices. Earlier this year, Nolanda Hill, former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's business partner, testified that "The WHite House through Leon Panetta and John Podesta, had instructed [Brown] to delay the [Judicial Watch] case by withholding the production of documents prior to the 1996 elections, and to devise a way not to comply with the court's orders." "Maybe, finally, Mr. Panetta and Mr. Podesta will explain, under oath, their role in this scandal," Klayman said.." Newsday 9/27/98 Karen Gullo AP "House investigators have gathered evidence suggesting that the company of a major Democratic donor reimbursed its employees for donations they made to President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. Federal law prohibits the use of corporate funds to make donations directly to candidates, and also outlaws using straw donors to disguise the real source of contributions. Investigators for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee have gathered payroll records suggesting employees of Future Tech International, a Miami computer company headed by Mark Jimenez, received $1,000 bonus checks a few days before they wrote personal checks for the same amount to the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1995. In an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press, one former employee told the investigators that Jimenez's assistant told her that Jimenez wanted to raise $20,000 from Future Tech employees for the Clinton campaign. She was asked to make a $1,000 contribution for which she would be reimbursed.. In 1997, the White House confirmed that Jimenez provided the administration with information alerting it to the possibility of a military coup in Paraguay. The United States took steps with the Organization of American States to avert the coup. Future Tech does business in Paraguay. Jimenez reportedly gave $100,000 to the DNC the day after the coup attempt began. The White House said at the time there was no link between the donation and administration policies affecting Paraguay." WorldNetDaily 10/1/98 Sarah Foster ".The House Resources Committee has been investigating what went on behind the scenes in the establishment of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and why it was done in the first place. "Monumental Abuse" contradicts the official version at every point. The White House claims designation was necessary to protect a fragile and important ecosystem in southwest Utah from mining and development. In particular, the president wanted to include the 1,650- square-mile Kaiparowits Plateau within the monument to save it from an impending mining operation. The Kaiparowits Plateau contains the largest undeveloped coal field in the country and was to be developed by Andalex Resources, Inc., which held the leases on 34,000 acres. Most of the paperwork had been completed and the project was on track. Andalex planned on mining 100 to 120 million tons of coal over a 45-year period. This would have meant hundreds of jobs, new businesses, and millions of dollars in taxes and royalty revenues for cash-strapped local governments. That didn't matter to Clinton, who was angling for environmentalist votes..Clinton didn't mention that the coal he was effectively locking away was a low- sulfur, clean-burning coal called "compliance coal," so-named because it meets requirements set by the EPA. It is in demand worldwide as a fuel for electric plants. Nor did he mention that one of the only other places in the world where comparable coal is found is Indonesia, the home of Mochtar and James Riady, the Chinese government-connected billionaires who poured millions of dollars into Clinton campaigns in 1992 and 1996.." New York Times 10/7/98 David Johnston ". A House panel investigating the Teamsters union disclosed internal White House documents Tuesday that shed a fuller and harsher light on an effort by Harold Ickes, former White House deputy chief of staff, to resolve an agricultural labor dispute in California in behalf of the union. The new documents are significant because they have surfaced at a time when Ickes' truthfulness about his activities with the teamsters is the subject of a 90-day Justice Department inquiry that could lead to the appointment of an independent prosecutor. Attorney General Janet Reno has until December to decide whether to go forward with an outside inquiry.. But on Tuesday the House subcommittee on oversight and investigations released a March 6, 1995, memorandum by Ickes to Mickey Kantor, who was the U.S. trade representative at the time. It said Ickes had met with a group of Teamsters officials and wanted to meet with Kantor to persuade him to intervene in behalf of striking Teamsters. "Given the situation I would like to meet with you at your very earliest possible convenience to discuss this situation," Ickes wrote to Kantor. Additional documents released Tuesday showed that Ickes did meet with Kantor on March 24, 1995, and followed up the meeting with a thank-you letter on March 27, 1995. Then, on April 4, 1995, Kantor telephoned William Cuff, the president of Diamond Walnut Growers. Ickes' efforts on behalf of the Teamsters occurred against the backdrop of White House efforts to rejuvenate a relationship that had cooled after the union supported Clinton and other Democratic candidates in the 1992 campaign. The Senate inquiry found that in the early months of 1995, Ickes considered several specific proposals to enlist the Teamsters' support.." AP 10/7/98 Josef Hebert Freeper migjagger summary ". The gist of the AP report ist that the federal government will make it more difficult for people to build on wetlands preserves--unless, of course, you are Steven Spielberg. Recently, Steven Spielberg's SKG (Spielberg, Katzenberg, Geffen) received a federal go-ahead on his studio project to be built on the Ballona Wetlands, a wild life preserve in Los Angeles. I believe that that Mr. Spielberg may be getting a return for his campaign contributions and for all the money he helped raise for the Clinton's criminal defense." AP 10/13/98 "A lobbyist for a big California farm company talked in 1992 of getting ``keys'' to the top Agriculture Department office in the incoming Clinton administration, a former company executive testified today. Clinton's first agriculture secretary, Mike Espy, is on trial for allegedly taking about $35,000 in illegal gifts from Sun-Diamond Growers of California and other companies with business before his department. Weeks after Clinton's election in November 1992, the Sun-Diamond lobbyist told executives at a board meeting he had ties to several prominent Democrats, notes of the meeting show. Lobbyist Richard Douglas singled out Espy, then a Democratic congressman from Mississippi, as someone who would be influential with a Democrat moving in at the White House. Douglas told the others at the Nov. 24 board meeting that Sun-Diamond ``won't have keys to the secretary's office immediately,'' but was in a good position with the new administration, another executive wrote in his notes of the meeting. ." AP 10/13/98 John Solomon " The Energy Department has spent $2.5 billion over the last decade on a program to develop new methods to clean up its nuclear weapons sites but has used less than one-fifth of the technologies it paid for, a congressional audit found. The audit, made public Tuesday, criticized the department's Office of Science and Technology (OST) for underwriting possible cleanup technologies without consulting with the weapons sites that might benefit. It said many department weapons site project managers shun the OST program because they ``lack confidence in OST's ability to provide technical advice and assistance.''.The Associated Press reported in May 1997 that a Massachusetts company with ties to Vice President Al Gore got $33 million in development funds -- nearly all without bidding -- for its experimental technology. The department often approved new funds around the time the company, Molten Metal Technology, made donations to the Democratic Party, records showed. The AP reported that the company's lobbyist, former Clinton campaign manager and fund-raiser Peter Knight, arranged for company executives to meet privately with the assistant secretary overseeing the program. Knight also provided that official with complimentary tickets to a black-tie Democratic event.." Judicial Watch 10/13/98 Larry Klayman ".We first sued the Clinton Legal Defense Fund in July 1994. We believed then, as we do now, that the fund was not only unnecessary on its face, but it also served as a conduit for bribes to the President. When regular citizens need money, they go to the bank and borrow at market rates. This is what the Clintons MUST do.. "It appears that the payment of the Clintons' legal bills has been, and will continue to be, a popular and convenient method of laundering monies into the President's accounts, in an attempt by domestic and foreign special interests to buy influence and favors," Klayman said. "This is illegal and must be stopped, before our nation succumbs to the same endemic government corruption problems that countries such as Italy, Mexico and Brazil have been attempting in recent years to correct." "A great nation cannot continue to exist when its leaders can be bought and sold."." UPI 10/13/98 "Elections officials and Los Angeles County authorities are investigating some 16,000 possibly illegal voter registration cards. Secretary of State Bill Jones and District Attorney Gil Garcetti said today the cards were among 40,000 submitted by the California Voter Registration Project and Assembly Democrats Statewide Voter Registration Project. Jones suggests they came from bounty hunters hired by political parties to recruit new voters.." Freeper Charlie Chan observation from Court TV 10/15/98 ".Have not seen this story in print, but a.m. cable shows talked about Hirschfeld being indicted by the IRS for tax evasion. Instead of that good old boy "Let's Put This Behind Us" crap, could it be that this guy's offer of the million-dollar Clinton bailout in the Jones case is no more than payola for "assistance" in his federal criminal case pending? It wouldn't be the first time the Clintons killed IRS cases involving "friends". AP 10/17/98 Pete Yost ".Copperthite introduced Landow to tribal representatives of the Cheyenne and Arapahos. They said Landow declared that in order to get help with a longstanding tribal land claim they were making, the Indians must pay $100,000 plus $10,000 a month to the law firm of former Clinton campaign manager and fund-raiser Peter Knight. Earlier, the tribes had donated $107,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 in an effort to win the Clinton administration's support for the claim. Landow, the tribal leaders alleged, touted Knight's close relationship with Vice President Al Gore. The tribal leaders said Landow also solicited them for a contribution to a Gore 2000 Committee. Landow denies marketing Knight's close relationship with Gore. Copperthite testified in the Senate campaign fund- raising investigation in 1997 that Landow made threats, telling him and a lawyer for the tribes that they had to do business with him or he would make sure they never got the land back. Landow denied making the threats and Democratic committee investigators attacked Copperthite's credibility as a witness by alleging he had falsified job resumes. Under terms of proposed business arrangements that never came about, Landow was to get 10 percent of any settlement price for development of the land the tribes were trying to get and 10 percent of any revenue from gas or oil extraction. The tribes never got the land.." American Spectator 10/1998 Byron York ".To reporters covering the presidential campaign of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, August 14, 1992, looked like just another day on the road. The candidate was in San Gabriel, California, a middle-class suburb north of Los Angeles. He started the morning with a conference call to top strategist George Stephanopoulos in Little Rock, followed by an hour taping a campaign commercial. Then he headed off to a fundraising lunch at the Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant on West Valley Boulevard. Sam Woo, which can seat 900, is the largest Chinese restaurant in an area rich with Asian eateries. Amid all the glad-handing and schmoozing with local leaders that is standard for such events, Clinton set aside some time to meet with one particularly notable guest at Sam Woo. "James Riady, owner of Lippo Bank, will greet BC at elevator," reads a note on the candidate's daily itinerary, referring to the Indonesian billionaire now at the center of the campaign finance investigation. After the event, according to a memo written by campaign aide Melinda Yee, Riady was scheduled to accompany Clinton during a five-minute car ride to his next stop, a meeting of small business owners. The brief drive, the memo made clear, was a very big deal for Riady: He has flown all the way from Indonesia, where he is now based, to attend the fundraiser. He will be giving $100,000 to this event and has the potential to give much more. He will talk to you about banking issues and international business. This is primarily a courtesy call.." New York Times Jeff Gerth 10/19/98 "Shortly after he took office in 1993, President Clinton traveled to Silicon Valley to lay out his vision of a robust American economy buoyed by high-technology companies that could compete anywhere in the world. The night before his speech, Clinton went out to dinner with two dozen executives, some of whom complained bitterly about Government rules impeding the overseas sale of computers and other cutting-edge technologies. Clinton grabbed a pad, furiously took notes, and promised relief, one executive recalled. Over the next five years, the President delivered, personally presiding over what industry executives and Government officials agree was one of the most sweeping relaxations of export restrictions in American history..In 1995, Central Intelligence Agency analysts wrote a report warning of the military implications of technology transfers to China, but it never became an official assessment because senior aides felt it was "not well done and lacked analytical depth," an American official said... But the United States maintained tight controls over what he termed the most sensitive technologies -- those that could improve China's missiles or anti-submarine capabilities. The fall of Communism brought a precipitous drop in the Pentagon budget, prompting the defense industry to scramble for new markets. Companies that once made spy satellites for American spy agencies began making equipment for cellular networks that served China or Russia. They quickly confronted a significant obstacle to making money on sales to former adversaries. The cold war-era rules remained largely in effect, and they were being interpreted by career officials who had devoted their lives to blocking exports to Russia and its allies. Enter Bill Clinton. His 1992 campaign had been driven by the slogan "It's the economy, stupid.". For decades, every proposed export of technology was weighed by a committee of Western nations. It had authority to block sales involving military hardware or so-called "dual-use" equipment that had military or civilian applications. Even before the committee disbanded in 1994, the Clinton Administration moved to ease restrictions on the sales of many dual-use items. The new rules allowed companies to export many categories of technology without applying for a Government license. American companies were delighted with the new system, which relieved them of a time-consuming and frustrating process. But the benefits came with a cost. Because sales could be made without export licenses, the Government and its intelligence agencies no longer had a record of many deals that involved dual-use equipment. There was no way to trace patterns of sales, to know, for example, how many decoding devices were being sold to a particular country. Commerce Department internal documents show that China has been a major beneficiary of this policy.." AP 10/28/98 ".A real estate tycoon today withdrew his $1 million offer for Paula Jones to settle her sexual harassment case against President Clinton, accusing her attorneys of dragging their feet. Abe Hirschfeld, who is facing 123 counts of income tax evasion, offered to give Jones the money if she dropped charges that Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, asked her to perform a sex act in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991. The stipulation attached to the offer was that the money go to Mrs. Jones and not to pay her legal bills.." Judicial Watch Press Release 10/28/98 ".Linda tripp, who worked with Klein, has reportedly told Lucianne Goldberg that she saw FBI files being uploaded into a computer in the White House Counsel's office. William Kennedy, another former Klein colleague in the Clinton White House, testified in the Judicial Watch Filegate suit on October 15 that Linda Tripp had complained about the office procedures in Klein's office. Indeed, after the death of Vince Foster, Klein filled Foster's job and occupied his office. In the least, Mr. Klein was at "the scene of the crime" during Filegate. Nevertheless, he was promoted by President Clinton and Janet Reno and placed in charge of the Antitrust Division of the Clinton Justice Department. Judicial Watch will seek his deposition in its 90 million dollar class action lawsuit. Judicial Watch believes the involvement of the Reno Justice Department's "tainted" political operatives such as Joel Klein has pushed the ongoing antitrust action against Microsoft. "Is this a matter of the Clinton Administration once again doing favors for selected Clinton/Gore donors, this time Microsoft's competitors in Silicon Valley and elsewhere?" asked Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel. Klayman was a trial lawyer on the famous AT&T case for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in the Carter and Reagan administrtions. "The recent news that Joel Klein had breakfast at the home of Netscape's CEO just before the suit against Microsoft was filed raises questions about Mr. Klein's possible involvement in a political hit," stated Klayman. "This Clinton Justice Department has no concept of conflict-of-interest." ." Behind the Headlines 10/25/98 F.R Duplantier ".Filegate is only one of several criminal activities planned and directed from the White House. "Judicial Watch has also found evidence that President Clinton condoned and participated in a scheme, conceived by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and approved by the President, to sell seats on U.S. Department of Commerce trade missions in exchange for political contributions," Klayman confides. "In President Clinton's push to sell taxpayer-financed government services to raise money for his political operations, national security likely was breached by his Commerce Department appointees and those involved in his fundraising scheme." Clinton's Corruption Corporation is fully diversified. "In addition to the illegal sale of taxpayer-financed services, such as seats on trade missions, for political contributions, the President and Mrs. Clinton have illegally solicited and received monies directly from private citizens and others," claims Klayman. "The creation and use of legal defense funds is not only prohibited under federal law," he observes, "but they have proved to be a means whereby lobbyists, influence peddlers, and foreign powers have tried to influence the Administration, contrary to U.S. national security interests." Klayman concludes that "William Jefferson Clinton has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." ." Insight Magazine Vol. 14, No. 43-11/23/98 Kelly Patricia O'Meara and Jennifer G. Hickey ".The cooperation of three Teamster felons with federal investigators finally may expose intricacies of Clinton/DNC campaign fund-raising. Look for big trouble. ..The first hint of a connection followed confessions to U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White of the Southern District of New York by three consultants to Ron Carey's 1996 campaign for Teamster president. Carey's campaign manager Jere Nash, telemarketer Michael Ansara and campaign consultant Martin Davis all pleaded guilty this year to felonies, including embezzlement, conspiracy and mail fraud. Insight has learned that under court order they recently paid nearly $1 million into a restitution fund to help defray the cost of the new Teamsters election made necessary by the corrupt Carey campaign they helped to run. . The first glimpse into the tangled webs of Teamster- associated deceit now spinning around the various 1996 fund-raising debacles came as a result of the Nov. 17, 1997, decision to disqualify Carey as a candidate in new court-ordered union elections. Court-appointed election officer Kenneth Conboy detailed six illegal-money schemes conceived by Nash, Davis and Ansara that were designed to funnel money back to the Carey campaign. In total, these six schemes improperly raised $538,100 for the Carey campaign. But questions remain. Were the DNC and the Teamsters fund- raising scandals related in ways yet unreported? Equally important, were they unique or part of a broad pattern involving still others? According to federal law-enforcement sources who spoke to Insight on the condition of anonymity, symbiotic schemes such as those engineered by Nash, Ansara and Davis may have been created throughout the 1996 presidential campaign illegally to assist both the Democratic Party and the Carey campaign.." Washington Weekly 11/2/98 Robert Stowe England (March for Justice) ".Some of the speakers reported new information about previously unreported Clinton scandals, including former Arkansas Sate Trooper L.D. Brown, who said Clinton had revealed to him that he had accepted $5,000 in return for an appointment of an admittedly unqualified man to a high position in law enforcement in Arkansas. Brown also confirmed reports that Vince Foster and Hillary Clinton had an affair. "It's a fact. It was there. I know it," he said. "Hillary and I talked about it." He said that official investigators "can not come to a valid conclusion" about the death of Vince Foster until they interview Hillary Clinton. Dr. Paul Fick, a psychologist from Laguna Niguel, Calif. and the author of a psychological profile of President Clinton, "The Dysfunctional President," reported that he had talked with a source in Arkansas while researching his book. That unnamed source reported that while Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton had sold state commission posts for sums up to $50,000. "He personally set the price. He took the cash and laundered it back into his campaign," he said. Fick also claims that President Clinton lied under oath during the 1996 criminal trial of Herbert Branscum and Robert Hill when he answered "Absolutely not" to the question, "Did you ever sell a state commission?" Fick called on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde "to subpoena me and I will provide them with information regarding this absolute lie under oath." This, Fick noted, "is a criminal act [by the President] that has nothing to do with sex."." Washington Weekly 11/9/98 Wesley Phelan ".(following from interview with Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch).".QUESTION: With regard to the sale of seats on Ron Browns' trade missions, have you been able to identify who in the White House ordered that this operation take place? KLAYMAN: We know from Nolanda Hill that it was ordered by Hillary Clinton with the full knowledge of the President. We know it was executed by Harold Ickes and Alexis Herman, now Labor Secretary. One is under Independent Counsel investigation, while the other is under consideration for investigation. We know Leon Panetta and John Podesta, the current White House Chief of Staff, ordered Brown to obstruct Judge Lamberth's orders. The court has given us the opportunity to force them to set forth whether or not these things occurred. But we have the sworn testimony of Nolanda Hill that they did occur, that both Panetta and Podesta instructed Brown to disobey the court's orders. There has been no evidence presented by anyone to refute that.." WorldNetDaily 11/9/98 ".Last month, WorldNetDaily columnist Charles Smith broke the story of how the Clinton administration procured a deal with Russia for its Zvezda-Strela Kh-31 missile to serve as the Navy's next generation of target drone, despite the fact that it does not meet the Navy's specifications. Last Monday, the U.S. Navy admiral in charge of the Russian missile program suddenly announced his retirement, effective November 11, 1998. House National Security Committee members are scrambling to serve the retiring Admiral a formal request to answer questions before he leaves the service. In a related development, Russian missile-maker Zvezda-Strela is now offering the improved Kh-31 Down Under. The Kh-31 is being pitched to Australia in a bid with aircraft makers Sukhoi and MiG to arm the Su- 27 and MiG-29. The Russians are offering the Aussies Su-27s and MiG-29s to replace American made F- 111s and F-18s. The offer includes the Zvezda-Strela Kh-31A antiship missile and the Kh-31P anti-air version.Zvezda-Strela has already courted Iranian sales, showing the Kh-31 at a number of Moscow and Middle East air shows. Possible customers for the Kh-31 include India, Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq and China. Vice President Al Gore is said to be behind the purchase of the Kh-31 by the Navy. The Russian maker Zvezda-Strela is backed by Gore supporters Cassidy Associates and IBP International. Cassidy Associates made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to the Clinton/Gore campaign. In fact, Cassidy Associates made a total of over 2,500 political contributions between 1991 and 1998. Cassidy Associates is also linked to the Ron Brown Commerce Department trade missions. Cassidy Associates sent a Maely Tom, a Democratic National Committee donor, to the Far East on a Ron Brown trade mission. The same mission included Charlie Trie, Pauline Kanchanalak and Nora Lum. Lum has already been convicted of illegal campaign contributions. IBP International is a firm based in London and McClean, Virginia, run by Gore backer Judith De Paul. IBP successfully lobbied NASA to select the Russian Tu-144 and Boeing/Douglas for high-speed test flights.." House of Representatives 9/11/98 Chris Cox R-CA ". Stephanopoulos, Nation's Bank . Again, this is a White House memo that they prepared secretly inside the White House using taxpayer resources and in the White House counsel's office, which they should not have been doing. That is not appropriate use of taxpayer funds. They have listed all of these scandals that they wanted to inoculate against and spin the press about. The Stephanopoulos-Nation's Bank story was of course what the press widely described as a sweetheart, below market mortgage for George Stephanopoulos, the kind of deal that ordinary Americans could not get..Now there are 39 of these scandals that White House staff--there is a name of a White House staffer right after each one of these, after each one of these scandals, and they were all assigned and presumably are all still working at taxpayer expense on preventing the Congress from getting to know all of the facts in these things. AP 11/10/98 ".John Huang, a central figure in the fund-raising controversy, has obtained limited immunity in Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's criminal investigation of presidential friend Webster Hubbell and has cooperated with the prosecutor, legal sources said. Starr struck the deal, approved by a court, last spring as part of his investigation into whether hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to Hubbell by friends of President Clinton were designed to buy Hubbell's silence in the Whitewater investigation of the Clintons. The sources familiar with the arrangement, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Huang told Starr's investigators he was unaware that Hubbell did any work for a $100,000 payment he received June 27, 1994, from Huang's employer, the Riady family of Indonesia. The Riadys, who run the global conglomerate Lippo Group, are longtime political supporters of Clinton. Huang told prosecutors that, based on his conversations with James Riady, a son of the family's patriarch, he understood the Hubbell payment was intended to help a friend in trouble, one source said.." Judicial Watch Press Release 11/17/98 ".Today, Judicial Watch, the non-partisan government watchdog that uncovered John Huang, sparked the Chinagate scandal, and is pursuing a $90 million dollar class action suit in Filegate, filed amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas asking these Courts not to dismiss the Paula Jones case, because it is based on a settlement which will be implemented using illegally obtained monies. Accordingly, the briefs, which can be found on Judicial Watch's internet site, at http://www.Judicial Watch.org, set forth the legal standards for rejecting a settlement which is contrary to law and public policy. The settlement, as admitted by counsel for Bill Clinton and others, will be paid for with monies from the Clintons' legal defense funds, and the buyout of a Chubb insurance policy. As explained in the briefs, the law prohibits any federal official, including the President, to solicit, accept or benefit from monies from private citizens. 5 U.S.C. 7353. The reason for this is simple; to allow the President to accept cash from private citizens opens him up to influence peddlers. Indeed, Clinton's first legal defense fund was infiltrated by Charlie Trie and over $600,000 of Chinese cash (which once discovered had to be returned), at a time that the White House was delivering a letter to Mr. Trie about American intentions over a crisis between China and Taiwan. To pay any settlement, the President can borrow the money -- at market rates -- rather than open himself up to more "Charlie Tries," or Hollywood moguls like Steven Spielberg or Barbra Streisand. If Monica Lewinsky can get millions for a book deal, just think of what the Clintons will be worth when they leave office. Money can be advanced by banks as loans in anticipation of the Clintons' impending wealth. Finally, one of the insurance carriers, Chubb, has reportedly offered to "buy out" the Clintons' umbrella liability policy for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The average American citizen must ask when his insurance carrier was so accommodating. The answer is that the average American cannot influence regulation affecting the insurance industry, and for this reason Chubb's offer is obviously not only legally baseless, it is an obvious attempt to buy influence. For all of these reasons, the Courts are urged not to dismiss the Jones case based on this illegal settlement. Mr. Clinton should, for once, have to bear the consequences of his own actions, rather than again allow himself to be "bribed" by influence peddlers." Boston Herald 11/24/98 Editorial ".There is a certain irony that while members of the Judiciary Committee proceeded apace on Capitol Hill with their efforts to rid themselves of this troublesome case, just down the street in U.S. District Court another Starr target, Webster Hubbell, once again was pleading ``not guilty'' to a federal indictment. When this happened once before, the former No. 3 in Clinton's Justice Department ended up with several hundred thousand dollars in his pocket, all from friends of the president and most of it arranged by that really, really big Friend of Bill, Washington fixer Vernon Jordan. Yes, that's the same Vernon Jordan assigned to find a job for ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Too bad the Judiciary Committee is in such a big hurry that it'll never have time to call Jordan, never have time to ask how he gets people to pay large sums of money for guys like Hubbell to do nothing and why. If a job at Revlon was offered to assure the silence of a love-struck intern, just imagine what secrets were covered by the $400,000-plus secured for Hubbell's silence. Maybe we'll find out next March, when Hubbell is scheduled for trial.." WorldNetDaily 11/23/98 Charles Smith ".The Clinton administration is funding a project designed to improve the Kh-31 for Russian customers such as Libya, Syria, India and China. Clinton wants to buy a Russian missile over a U.S. missile. The Russians promised Clinton they would not sell the Kh-31 even as Zvezda weapons merchants were meeting with Asian and Middle Eastern clients. Vice President Al Gore is alleged to have supported the purchase of the Kh-31 by the Navy. The Russian maker Zvezda-Strela is reportedly backed by Clinton/Gore supporter Cassidy Associates, a firm of lobby lawyers located inside the Beltway. Cassidy Associates made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to the Clinton/Gore campaign. In fact, Cassidy Associates made a total of over 2,500 political contributions between 1991 and 1998, nearly one donation every two days. Cassidy Associates also traveled with Ron Brown on trade missions. Cassidy Associates sent Maely Tom, a DNC donor, to the Far East on a Ron Brown trade mission. The same mission included DNC donors Charlie Trie, Pauline Kanchanalak and Nora Lum. The process was driven by political donations and big power lobby groups -- not national security needs. Clinton intends to spend $172 million on North Korean food aid but cannot account for the meager $72 million squandered on a U.S. Navy super-sonic target.." Washington Weekly 5/4/98 ".When young Bill Clinton in 1974 made his first run for political office, a crucial $10,000 loan was arranged for him by his uncle, Raymond Clinton. Uncle Raymond has been tied by Clinton biographer Roger Morris to the Hot Springs Mafia. But it was not until 1984, when Clinton was elected for a second term as Governor of Arkansas, that Mob money really started pouring in. "That was the election when the Mob really came into Arkansas politics, the dog-track and racetrack boys, the payoff people who saw a good thing," a former U.S. attorney told Roger Morris. "It wasn't just Bill Clinton and it went beyond our old Dixie Mafia, which was penny-ante by comparison. This was eastern and and West Coast crime money that noticed the possibilities just like the legitimate corporations did." Among the "legitimate corporations" that noticed the possibilities with the rapidly ascending governor thirsting for power and money were front corporations for the intelligence services of the People's Republic of China. The Lippo empire came to Arkansas that year. By then, Bill Clinton's ties to organized crime had become well- known. His half-brother Roger Clinton was convicted of cocaine distribution in association with Mob figure and Clinton money man Dan Lasater. In the years that followed, Arkansas became a major cocaine trans-shipment point for the Mafia, crossing paths with the famous CIA Contra resupply operation at Mena. Bill Clinton had found a most successful formula in U.S. politics: financial backing from a coalition of organized crime and hostile foreign governments.." The American Spectator 12/98 Byron York ". Of all the central characters in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, only Bill Richardson has emerged with his reputation virtually untouched. At the time U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richardson offered Lewinsky a job just when President Clinton was struggling to find a place for his desperately unhappy former girlfriend. Richardson then kept the position open for an extraordinarily long period while Lewinsky made up her mind. But his actions attracted far less public scrutiny than those of Clinton friend Vernon Jordan, who arranged a job for Lewinsky in private business; a search of the Washington Post and New York Times reveals Jordan's role has been mentioned five times more often than Richardson's in the months since the story broke. In some ways, the light treatment of Richardson is surprising; unlike Jordan's job search, his actions represented an attempt by the Clinton administration to arrange a taxpayer-funded job to make Lewinsky happy and ensure that she remained silent about her affair with the president. But Richardson's role in the scandal seemed less suspicious because--again unlike Jordan--he spoke openly to the press, insisting he did not offer Lewinsky any special treatment. For the most part, reporters have accepted Richardson's word, and as the scandal dragged on, no evidence emerged to cast doubt on his account of events." Progressive Review 12/3/98 Sam Smith ".As the law now stands -- it's before the Supreme Court in another Smaltz case -- it is okay for federal officials to accept bribes as long as no one can prove they did anything specific in return and further that if the bribers and bribee are buddies, than the latter is off the hook. Clearly this interpretation makes a mockery of bribery laws and, if allowed to stand, will contribute further to the rampant culture of impunity among the powerful. You can add "payoff" to the growing list of words -- like "sexual relations" and "is" -- that those in high places no longer comprehend. ." WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah ".Only weeks before a national security scandal over the propriety of a relationship between Loral Space & Communications Corp. Chairman Bernard Schwartz broke, a subsidiary of the U.S. company was accepting full partnerships and a $37.5 million investment by two Chinese government-front companies. On April 21, Loral's Globalstar Limited Partnership division finalized a deal with China Telecom and CHINASAT, both wholly owned by Beijing's new Ministry of Information Industry. "The addition of China Telecom as a full partner solidifies Globalstar's commitment to bringing the promise of mobile satellite communications to China's 1.2 billion people," said Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer of both Loral and Globalstar, in a public statement issued last month. Loral remains the largest equity holder in Globalstar with 42 percent. Beijing's government companies will manage all Globalstar operations in China, according to Schwartz. With the world's largest population and one of the fastest-growing economies, the deal reportedly will mean additional revenues of about $250 million annually for Loral. The telecommunications deal was the result of a meeting between Schwartz and top Chinese officials made possible by a trade mission coordinated by the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.The revelations of Loral's closer connections with the Chinese government are certain to interest congressional investigators who are demanding President Clinton answer questions about links between Schwartz, the single largest contributor to his successful 1996 re-election campaign, and White House decisions to share U.S. satellite technology with Beijing. In addition, a close Clinton friend, Johnny Chung, has admitted donating to the Democratic National Committee at least $100,000 of a fund he secured from Chinese military intelligence. The concern is that the satellite technology shared with the Chinese may have allowed them to improve their capability of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. China currently targets 13 such nuclear-tipped missiles at the United States." Washington Weekly 12/7/98 Robert Stowe England ".Dr. Paul Fick, a psychologist from Laguna Niguel, Calif., reported on his efforts to bring information on alleged cash bribes solicited and received by the President when he was running for governor in Arkansas. He said that while researching his book, The Dysfunctional President, he met Bert German Dickey, a Democratic fundraiser who worked for Clinton, who told him about these bribes. Fick says Dickey told him that Clinton sold state commission posts in return for cash for his gubernatorial campaigns. Clinton set specific prices for each commission position, Dickey told him. Arkansas has scores of state commissions that oversee the state's regulation and policies on everything from fishing to highways to banking to racing. "Mr. Dickey was subsequently threatened . . . for having provided me with that information," Fick said. Dickey told him that "a contract had been taken out on his life, and the life of his son." Dickey gave Fick some of the names of people who had purchased commission positions from Clinton for cash so that in the event he was killed, someone other than he would know about them, Fick said. At Dickey's request, Fick did not put the names in his book. Dickey also told Fick that he had laundered some of the commission cash bribes through his bank account by making legitimate contributions of $2,000 to Clinton's campaign. Dickey also told him he delivered bags of cash raised from commission sales to buy minority votes for Clinton. In January 1996 Fick says he received a call from the Independent Counsel's office inquiring about the commission bribes. Dickey and Fick appeared before an FBI agent in Little Rock to provide the Independent Counsel with information on them, Fick said. During that interview, the FBI agent let Dickey see copies of returned checks he had given Clinton that corroborated his story about laundering contributions, Fick said. Later Fick learned that Arkansas state trooper L. D. Brown had also provided similar information to an FBI agent working for the Independent Counsel in Little Rock. He reported additional sales of state commissions for cash and reported to the agent that he, too, had taken some of the cash to buy minority votes for the Clinton campaign. During the summer of 1996, Fick noted, President Clinton testified in the Arkansas trial of Herbert Branscum and Robert Hill-- accused of buying state commissions. When he was asked if he had ever been involved in selling state commission positions, he testified under oath "absolutely not," Fick said. Branscum and Hill were acquitted of all charges. Fick said he had recently provided the information on the commission sales to all the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. So far, he has not received a single response. He explained why he did not give the information to any of the committee's Democrats. "Any Democrat who wants this information is free to have it," Fick said, "as soon as they start defending the law of this land. Until they do so, they can not be trusted with it," he said.." MSNBC/'Dateline NBC' http://www.msnbc.com/ 12/6/98 Josh Mankiewicz excerpts by Freeper A Whitewater Researcher ".EXCERPTS: "...A campaign pledge to the Democratic Party of $100,000 allowed Cheyenne-Arapaho leaders to have lunch with...Clinton at the White House....`It's one of the uglier pictures that came out of the last campaign.' - SENATOR FRED THOMPSON..."A real simple answer to what happened was...there was a shakedown. These people were led to believe that for...over a hundred thousand dollars, that their government would listen to them and they'd get what they wanted."...Surveyor...spoke to the president for at least 15 minutes about his tribe's fight to get back the Fort Reno lands. Surveyor describes the president as nodding his head in agreement..."And when it was over, the Democratic Party was still asking you for a hundred thousand dollars, weren't they?"...Surveyor: "Yes."...(Nathan) Landow suggested they hire Peter Knight, the former campaign manager for Clinton-Gore '96..."...Landow was...taking lobbying business to Mr. Knight."...Landow offered to help them recover their tribal lands, but only if he got a share of any oil and gas revenues...."." Softwar Website 12/7/98 Charles Smith ".Neither big hearted Bill Clinton nor Al Bore have made a single comment on the arrest of defector Hua Di by communist China. Hua Di defected to America and became close friends with Clinton buddies, Stanford Professor John Lewis and former DoD Secretary William Perry. Hua's Clinton friends, in turn, enabled him and his Communist buddy, Lt. General Huai Guomo, to purchase a secure, nuclear hardened, fiber optic communication system for the People's Army. Hua returned to the homeland in January, 1998, under a PLA promise that all was forgiven. Hua has reportedly been charged with passing Chinese State secrets to America and now faces the death penalty. Hua's Stanford friends have appealed to Beijing to release him but the White House remains silent, hoping Beijing WON'T release the so- called "dissident". U.S. intelligence officials are concerned because of Hua's successful penetration of the White House for the fiber optic system export. Intell insiders are giving even money that Hua Di was another spy for Chinese mastermind General Ding. Hua's PLA friend, Lt. General Huai Guomo, who set up the fiber optic deal with the Chinese Army, also works for General Ding at the Chinese Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND)." National Review 12/9/98 Jonah Goldberg by Freeper Marcellus ".remember the "Historians in Defense of the Constitution"? ...who took out the $55,000 ad in the New York Times in order to "deplore the present drive to impeach the President." These eminent profs from Harvard, Yale, MIT ... that should really be running the country decried the ignorant masses who were distracting the President from the "public business." The tone and tenor of their open letter was that they were non-partisan experts on what the Constitution has to say and what history has to tell us....the effort was largely organized by People for the American Way....People for the American Way is a left-wing interest group that at the time was running ads across the country endorsing the President....eight days after the open letter appeared...three of its signatories personally received "national medals for arts and humanities" from the President. Isn't that special? ." Capitol Hill Blue 12/16/98 ".House Republicans asked Attorney General Janet Reno Tuesday to consider naming an independent counsel to investigate the role of President Clinton's campaign manager in the government's Portals development in Southwest Washington. The House Commerce Committee has questioned whether lobbyist Peter Knight, who ran Clinton's 1996 campaign, received $1 million from Tennessee developer Franklin Haney to arrange the Federal Communications Commission's move to the Portals. The committee also has asked for a Justice Department investigation. ``The evidence developed by the committee over the past year strongly suggests that ... the $1 million payment to Mr. Knight was an unlawful contingency fee for his assistance,'' the Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations said in its report, which was obtained by The Associated Press.." 12/25/98 Tom Flocco ".While it is not quite so obvious to most Americans, those who are familiar with the modus operandi of the rogue president will not be surprised to hear that the financing of pornographer Larry Flynt's investigation of Clinton congressional enemies was possibly a disguised political contribution to encourage White House support and influence regarding the upcoming multiple-count interstate pornography indictments facing Flynt and his brother, Jimmy, in Cincinnati..Larry and Jimmy Flynt were indicted in April, 1998 on 15 counts of obscenity violations, including the pandering of the video, "Pam and Tommy Lee--Hard-core and Uncensored" to a 14 year old boy at their downtown Cincinnati store and the interstate transportation of obscenity via a common carrier (Federal Express), according to a November Washington Times piece. The United States Criminal Code forbids obscenity to be mailed, transported or sold. Coincidently, the Flynt brothers porn trial and the Clinton Senate trial BOTH begin in January, 1999.." Washington Times 12/28/98 Jerry Seper ".Both sides got what they were after when top White House and Democratic Party officials met with leaders for three Midwestern Indian tribes on April 28, 1995, to discuss "generic" contributions to the cash-strapped Democratic National Committee. DNC Chairman Donald Fowler left the session confident the leaders of the St. Croix Chippewa and Oneida tribes of Wisconsin and the Shakopee Mdewakantan Sioux of Minnesota would prove loyal and generous supporters, a faith that the Indian leaders justified with some $270,000 in donations to the party. And within three months, the tribal leaders also saw their top priority addressed when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt reversed a decision by his own department's regional office and denied a license application from a trio of rival Chippewa tribes proposing to open a gambling casino at a failed dog-racing track in Hudson, Wis. But the chain of events set in motion by that meeting has badly tarnished the Clinton administration, leaving Mr. Babbitt the target of an independent counsel's probe that he bowed to political pressure in denying the application and then lied about it to Congress." Andrea Harter Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ".On a July night in 1995, a Clinton-Gore Re- Election Committee dinner at the lush Potomac, Md., home of cosmetics millionaire Rashid Chaudaryalmost drew America unwittingly into an international coup attempt against the Pakistan government. That dinner is the beginning of a tale of how pressure from Pakistan's prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, which was accompanied by hundreds of thousands of dollars in Democratic campaign contributions by Pakistani immigrants, changed American foreign policy. The tale ends with a plan to return to Pakistan $600 million it had paid for warplanes and to release some $368 million in Pakistani military equipment held in the United States. Investigations by Congress and the Justice Department into whether foreign money has influenced American foreign policy have centered on contributions by Asian-Americans linked to China and Indonesia. But no one has demonstrated that either nation gained anything as tangible as Pakistan did in 1995.." Attorney General Janet Reno promoted Larry Potts (Waco and Ruby Ridge) to deputy director of the FBI Clinton told PBS' Jim Lehrer he hasn't ruled out granting pardons for Jim Guy Tucker and Jim and Susan McDougal. The Washington Times: FBI estimated 100,000 immigrants with criminal histories had become citizens since August 1995, when the administration pushed the INS to naturalize more than 1 million new citizens (before the elections.) Washington Post 2/21/99 "...Less than 12 hours after President Clinton asked the NAACP to support his domestic policy agenda, the group's chairman replied Saturday with a sharp attack on the Republican congressional leadership, saying "they have become the running dogs of the wacky radical right." NAACP Chairman Julian Bond cited what he said is GOP resistance to civil rights legislation and told his organization's annual meeting that it faced as important a challenge in Washington as it has confronted in its 90 years.... Mr. Bond's attack on the GOP came hours after Mr. Clinton went before the NAACP to warn against complacency because of good economic times...." AFP 1/29/99 Freeper Jolly ".Privately-run PT Bank Lippo will get as much as 87.5 percent of the first injection of Indonesian government funds under a banking recapitalisation program, an official document showed here Friday A government decree dated January 18 obtained here showed the publicly listed bank, controlled by the Riady family, will be alloted 3.75 trillion rupiah (417 million dollars).. The decree said that the 4.5 trillion rupiah will come "from state assets that are separate from the budget," and the finance minister will arrange the implementation and procedures for the state money's investment and divestment.." National Wilderness Institute 12/23/98 ".Another scandal is about to break at Babbitt's Interior Department. This one starts with abusive personnel practices, missing funds, and misuse of funds derived from the excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment. But whistleblowers at Interior report that the wrongdoing goes much further to include shady land deals possibly tied to campaign fundraising and may involve the highest levels of government. FWS sources say a cover-up is going on that includes giving false information to investigators, destruction of documents, and retaliation against whistleblowers. One employee says she was told not to give information to the FBI or her career could be in jeopardy. Although conclusive proof of every charge has not been provided, the whistleblowers have compelling evidence that warrants investigation..Kline depends on her job to support herself and her children. The repeated references to her job being in jeopardy were profoundly threatening to her. She retained the law firm of Robinson & Associates. The morning after her attorneys notified Service officials that she was represented by counsel she received an unmarked internal mail envelope containing a grim and to her threatening parody of the Serenity Prayer. She contacted the Inspector General's office and was told that if she felt unsafe, to leave the building. When ordered back to work she found she e-mail access codes and the combination to the safe where e-mail codes are kept was changed and her position description had been changed. She was reprimanded recently for following her attorney's advice to have a witness present when meeting with a superior and has been threatened that they are moving her desk into the hall. .Why would this Administration treat career civil service employees in such an outrageous manner? It seems unlikely that simple personal or policy disputes are the explanation. Apparently federal investigators agree. Interior is already suspected of giving special treatment to large donors during the Clinton-Gore Administration, with one obvious example being gambling licenses and Native Americans. There are, however, other events currently under investigation by the FBI which are even closer in nature. They involve a prominent Clinton- Gore supporter whose property was purchased shortly after he made a substantial political contribution. The GAO is also looking into DOI Florida activities at the request of Committee chairmen. Where this all leads is unclear but Kline recounts, she was warned to "stay out of it" because of "how high it goes." Just how high remains to be seen." http://www.papersourceonline.com/deaths.htm "."There are only two choices: You can either believe in the conspiracy theory of government or the coincidence theory." -- former Congressman Larry P. McDonald (D., Georgia).." Cleveland Live 1/11/99 AP ".Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who has been waiting more than 20 years to face Ohio prosecutors again in court, asked Monday to delay his second obscenity trial. Flynt filed a motion to put off the Jan. 19 trial because his physician has recommended that he undergo unspecified surgery, prosecutors said..Flynt, 55, and his brother, Jimmy, 49, were indicted April 7 on charges of pandering obscenity, disseminating material harmful to a juvenile, conspiracy and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. If convicted on all charges, each could face 24 years in prison and $65,000 in fines. The charges stem from the sale of sexually explicit videotapes at the downtown Hustler Magazine & Gifts store that Jimmy Flynt manages..." American Spectator by Freeper JimL ".After Watergate, Ruff moved to the Carter Justice Department, serving in several high-ranking positions before becoming U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He joined Covington & Burling in 1982. In the mid-eighties he worked for tobacco industry clients and also developed a reputation as a top white-collar-crime lawyer. Especially when defending a political official accused of wrongdoing, Ruff had the connections to intervene in investigations and head them off before they reached the indictment stage. "I represent my clients by handling the political as well as the legal ramifications of their case,"he once told an interviewer. It was an insider's strategy, and Ruff displayed his mastery of the game in the case of Virginia Democratic Senator Charles Robb,a politician facing a scandal that seemed sure to wreck his career... Ruff's strategy was to prevail on high-ranking officials in the Justice Department to undermine the actions of the lower-ranking Justice Department prosecutors who were building the case against Robb. When it became clear that lead prosecutor Robert Wiechering had gathered damaging evidence against Robb, Ruff responded by launching an effort to discredit Wiechering. He alleged that Wiechering was a right-wing partisan out to get Robb.. In the end, Robb got off. It was nothing short of a miracle--and a bipartisan one at that, since Ruff had done it with a Republican Justice Department. And, because it happened in late 1992 and early 1993, Ruff's handling of the Robb case caught the eye of the incoming Democratic administration. "The Clinton people loved him for that," Mundy says of Ruff's handiwork. Then-counsel Bernard Nussbaum "went on and on about the wonderfulness of Charles Ruff," Mundy adds. "For them, if Ruff said the moon is made of blue cheese, the only question was, 'what brand?'" ." ATR US Newswire 1/18/99 "."Taxpayers should fully expect Bill Clinton to attempt to bribe his jury at the State of the Union speech tomorrow night," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. "Two years ago, when he was facing re-election and stealing every conservative idea in sight, Bill Clinton declared that the 'era of big government is over.' This year's State of the Union Address will be given while he is facing possible removal from office. Because of that, Bill Clinton will forget his claim from two years ago and put forward a large number of new government spending programs and tax increases. "These new tax-and-spend proposals are nothing but a blatant attempt to persuade liberal Democrats to vote to keep Clinton in office. If any other person on trial did similar things they would be thrown in jail for bribing the jury.." NY Post 1/20/99 Deborah Orin ".Powerful Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan yesterday threw cold water on a key part of President Clinton's Social Security plan - Uncle Sam's investing on Wall Street. "I do not believe it is politically feasible to insulate such huge funds" from political interference, the Fed boss told the House Ways and Means Committee.." The Progressive 2/15/99 Sam Smith ".Twenty scientists from around the world have come to the defense of a British researcher forced out of his government funded post for reporting that lab rats suffered a reduction in brain size, liver damage, and a weakening of their immune system after being fed genetically modified potatoes for only 10 days. The development of the animals' kidney, thymus, spleen and gut were also affected.. And the BBC quoted another scientist as saying "We simply do not have sufficient understanding of the principles of physiological regulation to enable us to categorize these genetic modifications that will pose a risk and those that do not." ..Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected altered food protests from consumers, scientists and environmental groups. The London Independent reports that "Bill Clinton has personally intervened with Tony Blair to stop Britain from halting the controversial production of genetically engineered foods. The US President telephoned the Prime Minister during the summer to try to persuade him that genetically modified crops--worth millions of pounds ($$$$) to the U.S. economy --would not be bad for Britain... The Clinton Administration has close links with Monsanto, (note: Tippers brother is head of Monsanto) --the powerful biotechnology conglomerate which develops the seeds for GM crops.. " Judicial Watch Press Release 2/16/99 Judicial Watch ".How did Senator Arlen Specter become an expert in Scottish law, leading to his bizarre reasoning justifying his vote to acquit President Clinton in the impeachment proceedings? Just ask Joan Specter, his wife, who on May 22, 1998 -- at the height of the Lewinsky controversy -- received a Presidential appointment as a member the National Council on the Arts. See enclosed notice. As the French would say, "Quelle coincidence!" Compounding the likely payoff, Specter has a close history of working with mob-related Teamsters and other unions, and a quick review of his contributions from crime-related figures shows that he should be included in the on-going Congressional and independent counsel investigations. Did union money also influence Mr. Specter's strange conduct?." WorldNet Daily 2/25/99 Joseph Farah "…One of the secrets of the Clinton administration's success at staying in power has been to plot such dastardly deeds that few Americans could even grasp their evil intent. Right at the top of the list of such conspiracies -- now well documented, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of WorldNetDaily columnist Charles Smith -- is the Clipper Chip project. It involves all of the following: a treasonous relationship with China, a plan to tap every phone in America, drug money and, of course, the usual intrigue of administration figures such as Webster Hubbell, Al Gore, Ron Brown, Janet Reno and Clinton himself…The story starts in 1992 when AT&T developed secure telephones untappable by the federal government. The company planned to make them available to the American public. Instead, the Clinton administration interceded and bought up all the phones with a secret slush fund…. By 1994, White House aide John Podesta had been called into the inner circle of the Clipper project. Meanwhile, Podesta's brother, Tony, a lobbyist and fund-raiser was representing AT&T. His donors and clients, including AT&T, were invited to participate in trade trips to China and obtain valuable export deals with Beijing…By 1996, Reno was urging the all-out federal takeover of the computer industry and the banning of any encryption technology that doesn't let the government in the back door. Interestingly, the first target of the government's wiretap plan was its own Drug Enforcement Administration. Hmmm. The Chinese sought information obtained from such taps -- which may explain why Chinese drug lord Ng Lapseng gave as much money to the Democratic National Committee as he did. It's no wonder Reno didn't want to investigate the penetration of the DEA by the Chinese. After all, Ng was photographed with her bosses, Bill and Hillary Clinton at a DNC fund-raiser…." AP 3/2/99 Cassandra Burrell "…A Texas congressman accused the Clinton administration of planning to grant amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants without congressional approval. ``Stop before you break the law,'' Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Tuesday. ``Do not throw out 30 years of legal precedent for political gain.'' Smith expressed objections to a plan that would grant illegal immigrants from Central America eligibility for amnesty under a blanket ``presumption of hardship,'' instead of requiring each immigrant to prove hardship… But Smith said a blanket presumption would give as many as 240,000-plus illegal aliens a benefit that Congress declined to give them in 1997. He and 28 other House members signed a letter to President Clinton asking him to reject the idea. ``The White House is shamelessly bowing to special interests and thumbing its nose at Congress, the American people and every legal alien who played by the rules and waited his or her turn to come to America,'' Smith said. ``Obviously, when someone received an unexpected benefit, amnesty in this case, they feel indebted to those who provided the benefit. The White House is looking at long-term political support.'' …" Judicial Watch Press Release 3/02/99 "…What do Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell have in common? They both took money generated by Chinagate scandal figure John Huang. Recently, they both announced their opposition to the independent counsel law. Now, the Clinton Justice Department is "on board." What a surprise…." The Manchester Union Leader 3/3/99 Richard Lessner "…Having stuffed his 1996 campaign war chest with money from suspect sources, including Red China's People's Liberation Army, Bill Clinton no longer has much need of his Chinese friends. So the President, through his secretary of state, has returned to the familiar themes employed in his 1992 campaign against the hapless George Bush, namely, attacking Beijing's dismal human rights record. It will be recalled that candidate Clinton battered President Bush for what he said was an amoral policy on China that put business relations ahead of human rights. Mr. Clinton was especially critical of the Bush administration's limp business-as-usual response to the Tiananmen Square massacre. No sooner had he been elected President, however, than such themes disappeared from the Clinton rhetoric. Mr. Clinton threw open the doors to trade with Beijing's butchers and greased the skids for American investment in China….. The shift in emphasis paid off for the President. Thankful American businesses poured money into the Clinton-Gore campaign coffers and the Chinese reciprocated by funneling dollars to the Democrats through shady intermediaries. Mr. Clinton made his China policy pay -- handsomely. Now that he is no longer running for reelection, however, and no longer in need of Beijing's money tree, Mr. Clinton has returned to inflated posturing about China's hideous suppression of human rights…." New York Times 3/3/99 Charles Lewis "…In the darkest days of Watergate, when he was facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills, Richard Nixon did not establish a legal defense fund. Although he accepted some donations after he resigned from office, he paid the bulk of his legal debts himself. Benefiting from cash gifts while in the White House apparently was unthinkable even to our most disgraced President. Bill Clinton is the first sitting President to have a legal defense fund, which sent 600,000 solicitation letters and received more than $4.5 million last year to help pay the First Family's unprecedented legal debts. He and Hillary Rodham Clinton are also the only First Couple to be investigated by an independent counsel for nearly their entire time in the White House.The Clintons owe almost $9 million to their private lawyers for their work on the Whitewater and Lewinsky investigations and the impeachment fight…But to me the Clinton Legal Expense Trust is the latest ignominious manifestation of our "anything goes" mercenary political culture. Though such funds are accepted as inevitable today, they are virtually unregulated. …" Scripps Howard News Service 3/6/99 Michael Hedges "…Finding and deporting the 5 million illegal immigrants in America will no longer be a priority under a controversial new federal immigration strategy that critics say is a first step toward amnesty for aliens…. After reviewing a copy of the strategy obtained by Scripps Howard, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who chairs the House subcommittee on immigration said, ``The INS, by their actions, is telling would-be illegal aliens that if you don't get caught entering the U.S., we'll look the other way so you can stay.'' ``Even as INS tells Congress that deporting illegal aliens is one of their priorities, they admit they're doing little to remove the more than 5 million illegal aliens who live in the U.S. permanently,'' Smith said. Officials at INS declined requests to discuss the new strategy on Thursday and Friday…." Associated Press 3/7/99 William Mann "…Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott predicted Congress would be ``very aggressive'' in dealing with the administration. ``I think Congress is going to have to toughen up in dealing with this administration, particularly when it comes to China and the violations that have occurred there,'' he said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' The New York Times and Newsweek magazine reported over the weekend that China had obtained from U.S. nuclear laboratories knowledge of America's top-secret W-88 miniaturized warhead. Republicans contend the administration allows dangerous transactions so as not to disturb always-touchy relations with one of the largest U.S. trading partners. Lott, R-Miss., said the case is ``just another example of where the administration apparently is more interested in engagement (with China) than they are what's happening in that engagement.'' ``The administration continues to resist really getting into what caused the problem and solving the problem,'' Lott said. ``China is getting to be more and more of a problem, both in their human rights conduct and the way we deal with it, but also a continuation of their efforts to get technology improperly and then use it improperly.'' …" Washington Post 3/8/99 Roberto Suro "…Allegations of espionage by China are delicate for the White House because of a still-pending Justice Department investigation into whether the Chinese government attempted to influence U.S. elections by making illegal contributions to a number of campaigns, including the 1996 Clinton-Gore reelection effort. A separate probe is examining whether business executives and corporations that made major donations to the Clinton-Gore campaign were later given help in acquiring technology export licenses and other measures to facilitate trade with China. Lott said yesterday that he would work for the release of declassified version of a congressional report on the alleged link between 1996 campaign contributions and licenses permitting technology transfers, and that he might ask the Senate to consider contempt of Congress actions against administration officials who have allegedly failed to cooperate with the congressional inquiries…." Reuters 3/10/99 Steve Holland "…President Clinton said Wednesday he would enforce U.S. polices against illegal immigration despite an outcry in Central America. ``Most illegal immigrants are not by nature lawbreakers. Most are looking for the chance to live in dignity,'' Clinton said in a speech to the El Salvador Legislative Assembly. ``Nevertheless we must continue to discourage illegal immigration for it undermines control of our borders ... and even more punishes hard-working people who play by the rules and who wait for their turn to come to the United States. ``Therefore we must enforce our laws, but we will do so with justice and fairness,'' he said…." WorldNetDaily 3/16/99 Charles Smith "… In August 1994, Mr. Wu accompanied Ron Brown to China and Hong Kong. Mr. Wu traveled with several major donors to the DNC, including Bernard Schwartz CEO of Loral, Sanford Robertson CEO of Robertson & Stephens and Edwin Lupenberger, CEO of Entergy Corp. Wu was invited to various special events, including a post Hong Kong dinner and Democratic fund-raiser. K.S. Wu, according to his official Commerce Dept. information sheet, was a very busy man. Wu, according to the Commerce profile, was a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University and did graduate work at Yale. In 1994, Wu was chairman of Pacific Century Group, a member of the Board of Directors of the Singapore Fund, the Japan Equity Fund, the China Direct Fund and the Sinung Corporation. Wu was also a board member of the Georgetown University Asian Law Program and the Enprotech Corporation. Wu traveled to China in August of 1994 with a self-described "close" friend, West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton. In 1996, Caperton described K.S. Wu as a "close friend" and a "trusted advisor to Senator Rockefeller". Today, none dare speak of Mr. Wu. Former Governor Caperton, Democrat Senator Rockefeller both refused to comment on the late K.S. Wu. All questions to the Senator's office on K.S. Wu have been greeted by with the same answer, a short and angry "no comment"…. Lupenberger and Wu were given White House information sheets on every major member of the communist Chinese leadership. The White House bios included data on the most important Chinese communist citizens from President Jiang Zemin to the Mayor of Shanghai. The only civilian included by the White House was Li Ka-Shing, Director of CITIC. Li Ka-Shing owns the vast shipping enterprise, Hutchison Whampoa, Ltd. Li works closely with the official PRC shipping carrier, COSCO. Li and COSCO own both ends of the Panama canal. Li and COSCO tried to buy the former Navy port at Long Beach. Li financed several satellite deals between Hughes and China Hong Kong Satellite (CHINASAT), a company half owned by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). Li Ka-Shing and the Chinese Navy nearly obtained four huge roll-on/roll-off container ships, financed by the American taxpayers…. Wu, according to the official Commerce Department information sheet, was chairman of Pacific Century Group, an investment firm working to finance electric power plants inside China with U.S. money…. Pacific Century, according to sources on Capitol Hill, is actually a front company part owned by Li Ka-Shing and Macau prostitution drug-lord Ng Lapseng. The U.S. based business run by Wu was actually then owned by Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing and a major organized crime boss. The Ng family dominance of far east heroin, and oriental female love slaves in California, Oregon and Washington is well known to law enforcement at both the state and Federal levels. In fact, the CEO of Pacific Century, K.S. "Wu" was related to Ng. Ng, also a major donor to the DNC, often introduced himself as "Mister Wu". K.S. Wu was a cousin of Ng Lapseng. Crimelord Ng actually entered the inner-Clinton circle by introducing large amounts of cash to the DNC. Proof of this can be seen in a wonderful photograph of Mr. Ng with Mr. and Mrs. Clinton at a DNC fundraising event….. The 1994 trade trip to China included a Lippo backed power project in China with an Arkansas-based company called Entergy Corp. Former DNC fund-raisers Ira Sockowitz and John Huang worked at the Commerce Department and were charged by Brown to "vet" or check out the Entergy project in China…. Lupenberger and Wu attended the trade mission to China on the personal authority of President Clinton. Lupenberger also personally donated over $80,000 to Democratic candidates prior to the flight. Wu brought investors eager to finance the operation, including money laundered from his family holdings in Macau. Commerce documents show Edwin Lupenberger, Maria Haley, then head of the Export Import Bank, K.S. Wu, and Li Ka-Shing all met Madam Wu Yi. Madam Wu was then the Minister of China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC). The investments made through Pacific Century were to back a joint Lippo/Chinese "soft coal" power plant. John Huang, Ron Brown, Edwin Lupenberger, Senator Rockefeller and K.S. Wu all helped to obtain the financing from U.S. citizens and taxpayers to build "soft" coal fired plants in the far east. Coal fired plants that cannot burn American coal. The sole source of U.S. soft coal is the state of Utah. Utah also happens to be the number one state competing with West Virginia on the coal export market. President Clinton declared most of Utah to be off-limits to coal mining without legislation, using a Presidential Executive order. With this single act, Clinton enhanced the standing of Democratic West Virginia and punished Republican dominated Utah…." AP 3/18/99 "…In contacts under federal investigation, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott's brother-in-law received thousands of dollars from an associate of accused war criminal Radovan Karadzic around the time he tried to arrange the Bosnian fugitive's surrender, according to lawyers and government officials. Talbott's brother-in-law, Cody P. Shearer, is now telling authorities he has received mail threats from Bosnian figures who claim he took the money in 1997 with promises to win leniency for Karadzic on the war crimes charges, and demand that he pay Karadzic's family $1 million or risk ``tragedy.'' Shearer's lawyer denies those claims and says the money his client received was reimbursement for expenses he incurred while helping the Karadzic associate. Even before Shearer reported the threats, the State Department inspector general and the FBI had begun investigating whether he misrepresented his ties to the Clinton administration in his dealings with the Bosnian figures, several government officials told The Associated Press…." Scripps Howard News Service 4/2/99 John Lang "...President Clinton's pollster is a foreign agent. This is not illegal. But the disclosure that presidential opinion-sampler Mark Penn has become a registered foreign agent for Central American countries is drawing protests from ethics watchdog groups that say it is a conflict of interest and potentially a springboard to scandal. ``This is another example of ethically challenged Washington,'' said Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity. Gary Ruskin of the Congressional Accountability Project said, ``This once again reflects the low ethical standards of the Clinton team. ``If you're the presidential pollster, you have a lot of access to the president and his staff. It's not illegal -- but presidential pollsters are supposed to advocate for the interests of Americans, not Central American banks, when they are talking to the president behind closed doors,'' Ruskin said...." World Net Daily through Softwar.net 4/13/99 through E-Mail Alert "...Starting in 1994, Russian and Chinese military units began to purchase U.S. made super-computers for nuclear weapons research....In 1995, Tony Podesta, a powerful D.C. based lobbyist and brother of John Podesta - the White House advisor, had a consortium of top U.S. computer CEOs attend secret meetings inside the White House. The meetings were on computer hardware and software exports to China and Russia. The meetings occurred just before Clinton changed super-computer policy. Within weeks, the Russian and Chinese were buying computer power that now surpasses the U.S. Defense Dept. In 1995, the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) - according to documents from the Commerce Dept. - was represented by Tony Podesta, brother of White House official John Podesta. The CSPP is a group of computer companies, that in 1995 included Apple, AT&T, Compaq, Cray, Data General, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Silicon Graphics, Stratus Computer, Sun Microsystems, Tandem and Unisys. Officials working for Apple, and Silicon Graphics are documented by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to be very large Clinton donors. One 1995 secret meeting in the White House was attended by Podesta Associates employee, Ken Kay, the Director of the CSPP. The meeting with Tony Podesta's employee took place while John Podesta was also employed at the White House. John Podesta left the employ of the White House and went directly to work for his brother, Tony Podesta, in July 1995...." World Net Daily through Softwar.net 4/13/99 through E-Mail Alert "...Former NSA (National Security Agency) Director Admiral McConnell stated that "John Podesta" was the Clinton advisor in charge of computer encryption policy. Various documents from the National Security Council (NSC) and the Commerce Dept. prove that John Podesta was charged with computer policy such as export restrictions. In fact, a December 1993 letter to Secretary Ron Brown from the United States Council for International Business was "cc'd" to John Podesta. White House advisors are prohibited from working on matters in which they have a direct financial interest. This law also prohibits them from lobbying on matters they worked on while in government and prohibits them from lobbying for a period of one year after they have left service. John Podesta and Tony Podesta were engaged in activities that may constitute conflict of interest under USC title 18, sections 203 through 208. John Podesta was employed at the White House and charged with the very same policy that his brother, Tony Podesta, was engaged in lobbying the Government...." World Net Daily through Softwar.net 4/13/99 through E-Mail Alert "...In 1996, two of the Podesta companies, IBM and Silicon Graphics, sold super-computers directly to Russian nuclear weapons labs Arzamas-16 and Chelyabinsk-70 under so-called "commercial" contracts. IBM has since settled for a fine of $8 million on the $7.5 million dollar sale to Arzamas-16. Silicon Graphics, however, has not been charged. The 1996 CSPP computer exports took place under the guise of "commercial" sales. Those exports took place during the period of time when the both companies were represented by Tony Podesta. In 1996, John Podesta was also working for his brother Tony as a lobbyist for Podesta Assocates. Thus, John certainly had a large paycheck tied to his brother's success for IBM and Silicon Graphics. World Net Daily through Softwar.net 4/13/99 through E-Mail Alert "...The 1996 sales to Russia were not the first exports to foreign military units during Tony Podesta's work for the CSPP. In 1994, CSPP member Tandem Corp. exported computers to China Great Wall Corp., a company owned by the Chinese Army, during a Ron Brown trade trip. A Commerce Dept. 1994 Presidential trade trip document on James Treybig states "Tandem and China Great Wall Industry will announce in August their joint venture". Another document found in the files of former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown states that Treybig "negotiated a $100 million dollar joint venture for Tandem Computers while in China". The Commerce Dept. does not have the authority to authorize export of super-computers to foreign military units such as Russian nuclear weapons labs and PLA owned Great Wall Industries. Transfers of any equipment for the development of nuclear weapons to military units constitutes a "defense service" as per the United States Munitions List (USML) and the International Trade in Arms Regulations ITAR 22 C.F.R. Part 120.9 and is strictly under the authority of the State Dept. and the Defense Dept. Yet, the CSPP and Tony Podesta sought out the Commerce Dept. for access to the White House...." World Net Daily through Softwar.net 4/13/99 through E-Mail Alert "... According to a May 1995 CSPP document sent to Ron Brown, "controls on computer exports to Russia and China for commercial, civil end-users should be eliminated; controls on exports for actual military end-uses may be appropriate until there is greater certainty that neither country poses a threat to U.S. national security." ...According to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) the Commerce Dept. was required to make public disclosure if a government agency consults advisors who are not government employees. FACA was established to force Federal officials to hold formal policy meetings in public, instead of meeting with special interests, lobbyists and industry behind closed doors. The Commerce Dept. was legally obliged to offer open access to the public, media and other qualified individuals the same access as the members of the CSPP - who are NOT members of the Federal Government. Instead, the Commerce Dept. engaged in a cover-up of the secret meetings with the CSPP and Podesta Associates employees at the White House. No notification was issued for the secret meetings, nor the classified materials offered to any other company...." RNC.org 4/99 "...Furthermore, several of the DNC's largest campaign donors, solicited by DNC vice chairman fund-raiser John Huang, funneled nearly a half-million dollars into at least six state Democrat parties in 1996, according to state and party records. Totaling at least $482,500, the donations showed even broader involvement by a handful of fat-cat dollar party donors in financing the 1996 elections. Donations solicited by Huang ended up in Michigan, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, Florida and Illinois. (Source: The Washington Post, 1/26/97) ....Thai businesswoman Pauline Kanchanalak and her sister-in-law Duangnet Kronenberg were indicted by a U.S. District Court. Kanchanalak's husband Jeb and mother-in-law Praitun Kanchanalak were named as unindicted co-conspirators. They were charged with funneling money to the DNC and Democrat state parties in California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. (Source: The Chattanooga Times, 7/14/98) ....A review by the Los Angeles Times of state campaign finance records showed that many of the same people connected to improper contributions to national campaign funds - along with their business associates and relatives - funneled money to California state figures. Among the largest state contributions to the California State Democrat Party from figures involved in the federal campaign finance controversy was $54,500 in checks from Duagnet Kronenberg ($30,000) and P. Kanchanalak ($24,500), both of McLean, Virginia. In both instances, the DNC directed the money to California. (Source: Los Angeles Times, 4/2/97) .... Pennsylvania Four prominent Asian-Americans, at the center of the political money scandal, funneled $895,000 into the Pennsylvania State Democrat Party. At the urging of John Huang, one of the largest donations, $25,000, came from Pauline Kanchanalak. Kanchanalak's sister-in-law, Duagnet Kronenberg also, gave $25,000. Sen Jong Hsui contributed $20,000, and C. Joseph Giroir Jr. from Little Rock Arkansas gave another $25,000. (Source: Philadelphia Daily News, 1/29/97) ..." http://www.investors.com 4/15/99 Brian Mitchell "..... ''There's an increasing corruption in Washington in foreign policy, where commercial interests are taking the higher priority, and where people go in and out of government and into the K Street lobbies,'' said a senior foreign policy official in the Reagan administration. ''The problem is that so many of these business interests don't give a darn about U.S. national security,'' he said. The Clinton administration, with bipartisan support from ex-officials and American businesses, has forged a formidable consensus on granting China favorable trade relations. But it's recently been challenged by revelations of Chinese espionage..... Still, some fans of free trade worry. ''We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that trade is mutually beneficial to the U.S. and China,'' said Dan Griswold, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy at the Cato Institute. ''But the bottom line is, we shouldn't be selling technology to China that it can turn around and apply to direct military use against our interests,'' Griswold said. The boom in trade has coincided with a crackdown on dissidents by Chinese authorities. The State Department's 1998 report on human rights in China cited ''widespread'' abuses, including ''extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, arbitrary arrests and detention.'' The report also faults China for slave labor, forced abortion, forced sterilization, trafficking in women and children, restrictions on religion and oppression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang provinces. The State Department's 1998 report on human rights in Yugoslavia accuses it of many of the same abuses. Not included, though, are slave labor, forced abortion, forced sterilization and trafficking in women and children. ''Otherwise, it would be hard without a label to tell which country was which if you just read the reports,'' said William Hawkins, an aide to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif...." WorldNetDaily.com 4/20/99 Charles Smith Softwar "...More alarming for the White House is another 1994 computer security document found in the files of former Deputy Attorney General Webster Hubbell. The Hubbell document describes a secret 1994 White House meeting where "Podesta legislation" was one of several computer industry topics. The Hubbell document clearly links the former Whitewater partner and John Podesta in secret computer export policy. Al Gore, Webster Hubbell, John Podesta, FBI Director Louis Freeh and Ron Brown attended the 1994 White House meeting. Secret meetings that include a convicted felon and the former member of the Rose office law firm of Hillary Clinton. Computer-Gate involves serving officials inside the Clinton administration other than John Podesta and Webster Hubbell. Other Clinton officials such as Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Commerce undersecretary for Export Administration, William Reinsch, were both involved in CSPP meetings that are now classified. Computer-Gate also includes some of the most rich and powerful in the U.S. computer industry DNC donor lists. The 1995 secret meeting included James Unruh of Unisys, Michael Spindler of Apple, Robert Allen of AT&T, Eckhard Pfeiffer of Compaq, John Carlson of Cray, Ronald Skates of Data General, Robert Palmer of Digital Equipment, Lewis Platt of Hewlett-Packard, Edward McCraken of Silcon Graphics, William Foster of Straus Computer, and Scott McNeally of Sun..." NewsMax 4/23/99 Carl Limbacher "...What the Vice President and the reporters who covered his refugee announcement failed to mention is this: the 20,000 Albanian Kosovars would be just the latest Balkan influx to hit American shores since the U.S. became embroiled in that European conflict. In fact, since the mid-90's, America has resettled over 80,000 displaced persons from the region, mainly Bosnian Muslims, primarily to the American mid-west. Moreover, America's largest meat processing company, which just happens to have a curious link to Clinton-friendly Tyson Foods, has done very well by the deluge of hardworking Balkan refugees willing to take their dangerous non-union jobs....In fact, the U.S. meat-packing industry has a history of recruiting workers on-site in Yugoslavia going back to the 1920's; though, thanks to America's recent Bosnia entanglement, IBP generally has to look no further than Chicago for eager refugee labor.... And what about IBP's Clinton-Tyson connection? The link is through Hudson Foods. In August 1997 Arkansas' Hudson Foods was pretty much run out of business after the Clinton Dept. of Agriculture determined that e-coli contamination of its ground beef had sickened 16 people in Colorado. Though no one died, within days the USDA ordered millions of pounds of beef recalled. The alarm caused Hudson's major beef buyer Burger King to cancel its contract. Meat industry executives were stunned at the USDA's heavy-handed tactics. Hudson was primarily a chicken processing operation that had branched out into beef and pork, with plants outside Arkansas like the one where the e-coli problem was discovered. And Tyson Foods, notorious as a longtime Clinton backer with a history of winning favorable treatment from his state and federal administrations, had long been interested in acquiring Hudson. But Hudson was never interested in selling out until the Clinton USDA struck. Then the Tyson deal became an offer Hudson couldn't refuse. Still, Tyson didn't want Hudson's beef processing plant, the one where the USDA first found the e-coli contamination. For that another buyer had to be located. That buyer? Iowa Beef Processors, the same company which made out so handsomely when Bill Clinton's Balkan refugees began streaming into America...." USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/ 5/3/99 Tom Lowry Freeper A Whitewater Researcher "...Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who was Goldman Sachs' chairman when the firm first approached the estate about an investment, disclosed several years ago that he entered into a business agreement with the estate. He pays the trust more than $100,000 a year, and in return, the estate guarantees that when Rubin leaves government office, the value of his partnership stake in Goldman will not be any less than when he joined the Clinton administration in 1993....When asked about the estate's latest troubles, spokesman Howard Schloss said Rubin would have no comment...Rubin's "arrangement with the estate creates a perception of conflict," says Beadie Kanehele Dawson, a lawyer representing Kamehameha...students and alumni. "Why not get insurance with Lloyd's of London?"..." New York Times 5/19/98 William Saffire "...A president hungry for money to finance his re-election overruled the Pentagon; he sold to a Chinese millitary intelligence front the technology that defense experts argued would give Beijing the capacity to blind our spy satellites and launch a sneak attack. How soon we have forgotten Pearl Harbor. October 1996 must have been some tense month for Democratic fund-raisers. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times had begun to expose "the Asian Connection" of John Huang and Indonesia's Riady family to the Clinton campaign. The fix was already in to sell the satellite technology to China. Bill Clinton had switched the licensing over to Ron Brown's anything-goes Commerce Department. Johnny Chung had paid up. Commerce's Huang had delivered his illegal money big time (though one of his illegal foreign sources had already been spotted). The boss of the satellite's builder had come through as President Clinton's largest contributor...." NY TIMES 5/12/99 TIM GOLDEN and JEFF GERTH "…In his letter to the Banking Committee, Shelby warned that he was especially concerned about accusations that the former comptroller of the currency, Eugene Ludwig, had blocked an investigation of Far East National. Both Ludwig and a spokesman for the comptroller's office strongly denied that. Interviews with two people who participated in the investigation also suggested that there was no evidence to support those claims, which were made in an Aug. 27, 1996 memorandum from a Federal Reserve examiner. While the comptroller's office expressed pride about their inquiry, other officials said the investigation was slow to get underway and might never have taken place had it not been for prodding by the Federal Reserve. The comptroller's office began its investigation in mid-July 1996. On Aug. 5, Hwang, a lifelong Republican, gave $10,000 to the Democratic Party, records show. He said his contribution was prompted by President Clinton's sympathy and support for ethnic minorities in America. A week later, the examiners began a second, more specific inquiry. But according to officials and internal documents, Federal Reserve officials came away dissatisfied with both the bank's forthrightness and the resolve of the comptroller's office to force its disclosure of key documents. Opening Statement Chairman Dan Burton Committee on Government Reform 5/11/99 "...Mr. Chung has told us that he was told other people were also given money to "do good things for China." One of the people who was mentioned was Mark Middleton, a former high-level White House aide. He was told that Mark Middleton got half-a-million dollars from a source that remains unclear. Mr. Middleton has taken the Fifth with this committee. He refused to talk to us. Johnny Chung has also told us that he was told that a Boeing representative from Hong Kong -- a "Mr. Young" -- was also working with the Chinese government. We still haven't resolved who this is...." Opening Statement Chairman Dan Burton Committee on Government Reform 5/11/99 "...Johnny Chung has informed us that he was told by another source that Charlie Trie asked the Chinese government for $1 million to help the President. He will testify that he saw the head of the U.S. consulate in Beijing take cash in exchange for visas. This is just outrageous...." Opening Statement Chairman Dan Burton Committee on Government Reform 5/11/99 "...Johnny Chung told us that in the fall of 1995, the DNC was pressuring him to contribute $70,000. We found an internal DNC memo from that time period to Chairman Fowler. He was being asked to call Mr. Chung and tell him that "bad things will happen" if he didn't come up with the money...." Judicial Watch 5/13/99 "...Chung also testified that he told the FBI to investigate "their own people" at the Reno Justice Department, as he was made to understand that the "Number 3" at the Reno Justice Department was going to "fix" the investigation into his fundraising activities. Chung testified that, given his recent experiences, he was not happy to have received such solicitations from Gore, that "this [is] not the kind of mail" that he liked to receive, considering what he's gone through in the past two years. Chung said that shortly after his first contribution in 1994, he realized he and other Asian-Americans were being targeted for fundraising by the Democrats, and "that it never stopped." Chung also understood that his political contributions to Democratic causes helped buy him access to and favors from the President, Vice President, and First Lady and that he expected (and received) something back from government officials in return for his political contributions. Chung testified that a letter sent to him by Mrs. Clinton was very helpful in opening doors for his fax broadcast business and that he used the letter to solicit business from the U.S. Commerce Department for his business. Mr. Chung's deposition is set to be continued at a later date...." Koenig's International News 5/18/99 Charles Smith "...Another Commerce Dept. document shows that in 1996, Loral Defense Systems (then an arm of Loral Aerospace) actively solicited Commerce Secretary Brown to intervene in getting approval from the White House to sell advanced radar technology to China. Loral wanted very badly to sell Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to China. SAR is a sophisticated ground-looking radar essential to the newly deployed Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) used by the U.S. military to track ground-based vehicular movement on the battlefield. SAR radars also equip the USAF F-15 Strike Eagle and the Predator unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle. A letter discovered in the previously unreleased files of Ron Brown shows that Loral Defense Systems President, Jerald A. Lindfelt, wrote Brown in March of 1996. Lindfelt sought Brown's help in the export of SAR technology to the Beijing Institute of Remote Sensing. According to the Defense Department, the Chinese "Institute of Remote Sensing" is actually a front for the Chinese Army missile guidance design laboratories. The Institute of Remote Sensing is "a developer of precision guidance systems for surface-to-air missiles." Loral's 1996 appeal also included a direct request for Ron Brown to over rule the Department of Defense, the State Department and even Brown's own Commerce Department, which had all previously denied SAR radar exports to China. "We've worked hard trying to resolve these problems with the Department of State, the Department of Commerce and the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA)," Loral's Lindfelt wrote to Brown. "But someone in these organizations always manages to block our participation... Over the years we have found that this type of obstacle often comes from lower levels of management rather than by people willing to look at the bigger picture. Could you help us by identifying someone in the Commerce Department high enough in the organization to help us resolve these issues and open this marketplace..." Washington Times 5/18/99 Bill Gertz "...The United States had imposed sanctions against China in 1993 for selling M-11 missile components but lifted them the next year at the urging of Mr. Brown and C. Michael Armstrong, chairman of Los Angeles-based satellite maker Hughes Electronics. Mr. Armstrong had written a terse letter to President Clinton on Oct. 29, 1993, first highlighting how he had done what the president requested by supporting his economic and trade policies and calls for looser export controls. "I am respectfully requesting your involvement to resolve the China sanctions," Mr. Armstrong wrote, noting that he had spoken to a Chinese official who informed him Beijing was "positive" about the idea. But when then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher told the Chinese that the United States needed to see "some sign of movement" by China on curbing weapons proliferation, a National Security Council memorandum reported, "The Chinese were not forthcoming." The memo said Mr. Armstrong and Hughes Electronics "lobbied aggressively" to be allowed to sell satellites to China. In 1995, the president named Mr. Armstrong to the influential Export Council, where he worked hard against trade controls designed to protect national security. The council produced a lengthy paper arguing against imposing sanctions on foreign trading partners that engaged in illicit weapons sales. Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman of Loral Space & Communications Ltd., also lobbied hard to ease restrictions on satellite sales to China. Mr. Schwartz denied that his large donations to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were meant to influence Mr. Clinton's policies on satellite exports...." Koenig's International News 5/19/99 Charles Smith "... As Lawrence DiRita, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, reported three years ago, Galaxy officials approached several large U.S. telecommunications companies prior to 1994 in the hope of involving them in their partnership with SC&M Brooks. U.S. executives who spoke to the Galaxy representatives said that the Chinese side was counting on the influence SC&M brought to the partnership. Some of those U.S. executives, who declined to participate because of the obvious national security implications, asked out of curiosity how Galaxy intended to get U.S. government approval to transfer to China dual-use (civilian/military) technology. "In response, the Chinese spoke quite openly about the relationships they had already established with senior Democrats, mentioning Mr. Stevenson by name," DiRita explained....." NewsMax.com 6/2/99 Inside Cover Kenneth Timmerman information "...The Rocky Flats security scandal may be the most damaging yet, since the cover-up is apparently still ongoing. ...According to Timmerman, "Richardson is now attempting to prevent a top DOE official in charge of safeguards and security from testifying before Congress. Why? Because that official, Edward J. McCallum, had made clear his intention to warn Congress and the public of devastating gaps in security procedures at nuclear storage sites such as Rocky Flats." Richardson already knows what McCallum has to say, since McCallum privately warned the Clinton administration last January about trouble at Rocky Flats. The consequences of the cover-up could be dramatic. "Terrorists could easily penetrate the facility and steal weapons grade plutonium, or construct and detonate a nuclear bomb on the site without DOE security teams being able to prevent it," reports the Spectator, based on what McCallum told Timmerman. It gets worse. McCallum was fired from his DOE post, or rather, "placed on adminstrative leave without pay" just last month. Bill Richardson personally gave the order to axe the whistleblower because he was "pissed off" at McCallum's attempts to inform Congress, according to what sources have told the Spectator. White House flaks may have a tough time spinning the Rocky Flats scandal for other reasons. Not only has the administration "repeatedly and obstinately" refused to correct the problem, but Mrs. O'Leary may be vulnerable to conflict of interest charges. Timmerman writes: "Under O'Leary's stewardship, Rocky Flats cut its security force by 40 percent, allowing prime contactor Kaiser-Hill LLC to improve its profit margin despite an overall reduction in the funds it received from DOE. Indeed, Kaiser Hill actually earned performance bonuses from DOE, because its cleanup operations were going ahead on schedule." Kaiser-Hill was apparently grateful for Mrs. O'Leary's indulgence, since she wound up on the board of ICF Kaiser, its parent company, upon her retirement from DOE. She remains on Kaiser's board today, while her husband does consulting work for the company....." Washington Times 6/28/99 Greg Pierce / Inside Politics "..."Outraged at U.S. nuclear weapons labs' lax security, Congress is moving swiftly to change how the Energy Department handles nukes. But not without Energy Secretary Bill Richardson throwing himself on the tracks," Paul Bedard writes in U.S. News & World Report. "Richardson, several congressional sources say, has threatened Republican Reps. Floyd Spence of South Carolina and Mac Thornberry of Texas with retaliation if they pursued their reform proposals. Revenge was among the words the energy chief used, says a witness to one conversation. "The threats aren't idle. Spence's congressional district is home to the Savannah River nuclear site. Thornberry's is home to the Pantex plant, where nuclear weapons are disassembled. And both facilities are in the running for new DOE contracts," Mr. Bedard said...." Chattanooga Times & Free Press 6/19/99 Andy Sher "...A Chattanooga man testified here Monday that Franklin Haney's administrative assistant told him in late 1995 to keep secret that the local real estate developer was the true source of money the witness would contribute to the 1996 Clinton/Gore re-election effort. Donald Condra also said under oath that the same Haney employee, Gloria Thurman, informed him in mid-1998 just how to characterize the $1,000 contribution in the context of a pending U.S. Justice Department probe into the campaign activities of Mr. Haney, a friend of Vice President Al Gore and a major national Democratic Party donor. ..." The Daily Oklahoman 7\1\99 Penny Owen and Diana Baldwin "...The Oklahoman Former U.S. Agriculture Department Secretary Mike Espy was on the payroll of Feed The Children Inc. as one of its highest paid employees at the same time he was being investigated for illegally accepting gifts while in office. Feed The Children...Feed The Children and Espy refused to discuss his specific duties. "It is common for charities to utilize former government officials who possess experience in certain specialized areas to assist them in accomplishing their missions," Feed The Children attorney Larry Derryberry said in a faxed response to The Oklahoman. "While he resided in Washington, D.C., Mr. Espy assisted Feed The Children in our efforts to feed children in certain areas in which his experience and expertise was beneficial to our efforts," the statement said. Feed The Children has received federal government grants annually for years, including from the USDA...." The American Spectator 6/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...In the latest episode of the Clinton administration's cover-up of its mind-boggling security lapses at our nuclear weapons labs, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson is now attempting to prevent a top DOE official in charge of safeguards and security from testifying before Congress. Why? ....Because that official, Edward J. McCallum, had made clear his intention to warn Congress and the public of devastating gaps in the security procedures at nuclear storage sites such as Rocky Flats, Colorado, that the Clinton administration has repeatedly, and obstinately, refused to correct. Security at Rocky Flats was so bad, McCallum warned President Clinton in a January 27, 1997 report, that terrorists could easily penetrate the facility and steal weapons-grade plutonium, or construct and detonate a nuclear bomb on the site without DOE security teams being able to prevent it. Budget reductions and other "disturbing trends" had turned DOE security into a " hollow force that goes below the bottom line and makes it more difficult to fulfill National Security mandates," McCallum wrote... In a telephone conversation four months later, McCallum was more blunt. The risk was "extremely high," he told the recently dismissed head of the Rocky Flats security detail, that terrorists could successfully attack the plutonium storage site, unleashing "a little mushroom cloud" over nearby Denver. By all accounts, McCallum's reports angered Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary, who not only failed to act on his warnings but consistently reduced the budget for security at the nation's nuclear labs--far below what McCallum and other security officials warned was the danger level. Under O'Leary's stewardship, Rocky Flats cut its security force by 40 percent, allowing prime contractor Kaiser-Hill LLC to improve its profit margin despite an overall reduction in the funds it received from DOE. Indeed, by skimping on security, Kaiser-Hill actually earned performance bonuses from DOE, because its cleanup operations were going ahead on schedule. During the Cold War, Rocky Flats was used to machine highly toxic plutonium into nuclear weapons cores...." The American Spectator 6/99 Kenneth R. Timmerman "...In a twist that should no longer shock observers of the Clinton administration, almost as soon as O'Leary resigned as secretary of energy in January 1997, she joined the board of ICF Kaiser, the parent of the company that McCallum had cited for poor management of Rocky Flats. O'Leary remains on the Kaiser board today, and her husband, John O'Leary, does consulting work for the group. Kaiser also hired Thomas Grumbley, a former aide to Al Gore who was put in charge of DOE's Office of Science and Technology. At DOE, Grumbley had "harpooned" Kaiser's performance at Rocky Flats, according to Mark Graf, the former security chief at Rocky Flats. Grumbley now works for Kaiser as president of its Environment & Facilities Management Group. In 1997, the House Commerce Committee discovered that Grumbley had funneled lucrative DOE contracts to Molten Metal Technology, after the company had hired Gore aide (and top DNC fundraiser) Peter Knight as its chief Washington lobbyist. MMT executives contributed $50,000 in 1994 to the University of Tennessee to establish a chair honoring the vice president's sister, and in 1995 told Knight they would raise $50,000 for the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, according to Commerce Committee documents. THE WASHINGTON TIMES 7/1/99 Jerry Seper "...Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt testified yesterday before a federal grand jury probing whether his 1995 denial of a casino license to three Wisconsin Indian tribes was based on promises by rival tribes to make campaign donations to President Clinton's 1996 re-election. His testimony came as independent counsel Carol Elder Bruce begins to wrap up a 14-month investigation into accusations that Mr. Babbitt's July 14, 1995, decision against three Chippewa tribes was the result of political influence. The Chippewas' application had been pending before the Interior Department for two years and had been approved by the department's regional Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mr. Babbitt's reversal set into motion a "campaign strategy" by anti-casino tribal leaders, who eventually gave $270,000 to the Democratic Party for the 1996 campaign. In a lawsuit filed after the license was denied, the Chippewas argued that the access of their rivals swayed Mr. Babbitt's decision, in particular because of promised campaign donations.....In a final draft of their report on campaign finance abuse, Republicans on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee concluded that Mr. Babbitt was not truthful. The report said Mr. Babbitt "had both Harold Ickes and political contributions on his mind on the day of the decision." "From all the circumstances, there appears to be a direct relationship between the activities of the Department of the Interior and contributions received by the [Democratic National Committee] and [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] from the opposition tribes," the report said.....The grand jury has heard testimony from Loretta Avent, a White House specialist on Indian affairs, who counseled Mr. Ickes on the "legal and political implications of our involvement." She said in an April 1995 memo it would be "disastrous" for the White House to be involved in any decision by Mr. Babbitt on the license. Mrs. Avent wrote that the issue should stay within the Interior Department, adding: "The press is just waiting for this kind of story. We don't want to give it to them." On the same day Mr. Babbitt denied the license, Patrick J. O'Connor, a lobbyist for the rival tribes, wrote in a diary that the tribes had begun their donation strategy. He outlined plans to contact Mr. Ickes, Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler and Terry McAuliffe, chief fund-raiser for the Clinton-Gore committee. In April 1995, Mr. O'Connor met Mr. Fowler and rival tribal leaders to discuss a "generic donation" to the DNC. The meeting occurred after Mr. O'Connor had spoken to Mr. Clinton about the license at a Minnesota fund-raiser....." AP 7/7/99 "… Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt appeared a second day Wednesday before a grand jury investigating whether campaign gifts influenced the rejection of a proposed Indian casino in Wisconsin and whether he lied about the issue to Congress. ``I came here to answer all of their questions. I'm happy to do so,'' he told reporters as he left the federal courthouse. He called the proceedings ``very professional'' but would not comment further. Babbitt had also testified before the grand jury on June 30…..He also has denied intending to mislead senators during the sometimes contentious Senate hearing on the matter. But a longtime friend, Paul Eckstein, a lobbyist for the tribes seeking the casino, testified to the same Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that Babbitt - during a meeting the day the casino decision was made - alluded to Democratic campaign contributions and pressure from the White House to have the matter settled. Babbitt has said Eckstein misunderstood the conversation, and has denied misleading lawmakers about the events leading up to the casino decision. He also said he made one remark, referring to White House pressure, simply to get Eckstein out of the office, and that, in fact, there was no such pressure…." Boston Globe 7/15/99 Anne Kornbluth "…WGBH-TV, Boston's publicly funded station, has been swapping names of contributors with the Democratic Party since 1994, a party official said yesterday, handing over a total of more than 32,000 names despite clear prohibitions against tax-exempt groups engaging in political acts …. Republican House members yesterday called for a criminal investigation of the station after learning of a single account of name-swapping between WGBH and Democrats this year. An official at WGBH initially downplayed the incident, saying it was a onetime mistake committed by new employees who did not understand the rules. But last night, Jenny Backus, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said the party has been sharing donor information with the public television station for years and to a much greater extent than WGBH officials had admitted….When the Democratic Party began compiling a mailing list last February, the official in charge of the procedure - known as the ''list broker'' - approached 123 organizations. Of those, 62 groups agreed to share lists. WGBH was among them - giving an additional 20,000 names in exchange for the names of 9,800 Democratic donors, plus the station received a financial payment for the equivalent of another 10,200 names. Backus did not know last night how much the DNC paid the station…." THE WASHINGTON TIMES 7/16/99 Barbara Saffir "…The Democratic National Committee has swapped donor lists with Washington's television station WETA and other tax-funded public broadcasting television stations for many years, The Washington Times has learned. "Our policy has been in effect for at least 20 years," said WETA spokesman Mary Stewart. "It has not been a problem for us." But it may be one now. Swapping the lists may be against the law, and one prominent Republican congressman, who has been a friend of the Public Broadcasting Service, says if it isn't against the law it may be soon…." New York Post 7/16/99 Editorial "… Media Research Center 7/16/99 Brent Bozell "…PBS station executives aren't any more accurate in their statements than Bill Clinton, as the Boston Globe has discovered. Despite initial denials, it turns out that several top PBS stations have exchanged or rented Democratic Party donor lists in order to solicit funds. But that seemed to disappoint Globe reporter Anne Kornblut because it puts ever soaring PBS funding in AP Melissa Robinson 7/16/99 "…More public television stations may have been sharing donor lists with political parties through list brokers, says a spokesman for a congressman who has called a hearing on the issue for next week. …. Johnson said documents indicate that public television stations KQED in San Francisco and KCET in Los Angeles and public radio station WNYC in New York have provided their donor lists to brokers who, in turn, may have provided them to the Democratic Party or other political organizations….Already, three other television stations, WGBH-TV in Boston, WNET in New York and WETA in Washington, D.C., are under scrutiny…." Fort Worth Star-Telegram 7/17/99 Veronica Puente "…"We dont now and we won't in the future rent or exchange lists with a partisan or political campaign committees", said Sharon Philippart, vice president of corporate communications for PBS station KERA/Channel 13 in Dallas. Philippart said station officials adopted the new policy May 18 after WGBH-TV in Boston came under fire for swapping lists with the Democratic National Committee. "We determined at that time, from that day forward, we would not rent or exchange lists," she said. "However, in the past, we have exchanged and purchased lists with the Democratic National Committee."…" LA Times 7/17/99 Alexis Chiu, AP "…The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has asked its inspector general to investigate whether WGBH-TV in Boston broke the law by swapping the names of donors with the Democratic Party. The CPB, which distributes federal funds for public broadcasting to stations and groups such as National Public Radio and PBS, also will begin asking stations it finances to certify that they are complying with IRS regulations, said Robert Coonrod, the corporation's president. Even though sharing membership lists is a legitimate business practice done on a daily basis by countless organizations, federal tax laws prohibit public stations from sharing their lists with political organizations or candidates unless they are "available to all other candidates."…" Boston Globe 7/17/99 Henry P Becton, Jr. President of WGBH since 1984 "…For almost 50 years, WGBH has built a legacy of public trust with audiences here in New England and across the United States. Nothing is more important to us than that trust - and now, repairing the damage done to it by WGBH's own mistakes…. In 1994, WGBH put in place a donor list policy that prohibited us from sharing our donor names with political groups - a voluntary policy that exceeded industry standards. This spring, to our dismay, we learned that some names of our valued contributors had, in fact, been shared with the Democratic National Committee, in clear violation of our policy. As soon as we learned of this transgression, we checked our records of the last two years to be sure that it was a solitary action. We now know we did not check back far enough. And that led some press reports to assume we were being misleading, when in fact we were operating on incomplete information…." Creators Syndicate 7/15/99 L. Brent Bozell III "..WGBH is not just Boston's PBS affiliate. It is a massive commercial enterprise, a flagship of the nation's public broadcasting system. Conservatives know them best for putting out "Frontline," a liberal-tilting documentary series. But they've always denied carrying water for liberal Democrats. So when reporters discovered that WGBH was swapping direct-mail fundraising lists with the Democratic National Committee, it shredded the veil of the station's nonpartisan stance….." Newsmax.com 7/15/99 Carl Limbacher "…It suprises no one to learn that political sympathies at the taxpayer funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting lean heavily towards the Democrats. Fifteen minutes viewing PBS's "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" makes that amply clear. But news that WGBH in Boston, one of PBS's flagship television outlets, has been sharing its donor lists with the Democratic party does more than confirm old stereotypes about journalism's liberal bias. In fact, this could be perhaps the biggest media scandal of all time. ….Think of it. We now know that at least some of those public TV beg-a-thons may have been little more than televised White House coffees…" Newsmax.com 7/15/99 Carl Limbacher "…How did WGBH allow itself to become the Democrat's taxpayer funded boiler room operation? As Michael Dukakis, one of Boston's own, used to say--the fish stinks from the head down. In this case the fishhead in question may turn out to be Diane Blair. Diane Blair is a former political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. But the credential that won her a six year appointment to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a friendship with both Clintons that goes back to the '70s. Diane Blair worked as a senior campaign researcher for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential bid and became a senior advisor for the 1996 re-election effort. In September 1997 Blair herself was elected unanimously by CPB's nine member governing board to serve a one year term as its president….. Jim Blair was counsel to Tyson Foods during Clinton's governorship and as such he was in a unique position to guide Arkansas' first lady through the treacherous world of commodity investing. Blair hooked Hillary up with suspect commodities broker Red Bone and within months the miracle of the cattle futures began to unfold. In December 1992 Blair "loaned" a destitute Jim McDougal $1,000 so McDougal could pretend to buy the Clintons out of their Whitewater investment. McDougal would later tell reporters that the Tyson attorney used threats to keep him quiet about Clinton misdeeds. It was also Jim Blair who in 1994 warned the Clintons that Webb Hubbell's criminality would soon become apparent and that they should distance themselves from their old buddy before the cash their Chinese friends had been shoveling Hubbell's way began to look too much like hush money…" Drudge Report 7/16/99 "…Just as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is trying to determine how many public television stations had swapped donor lists with the Democratic National Committee, after reports that stations in Washington, New York and Boston had done so, congressional investigators have started to point suspicious fingers at the White House! ….The White House is now working to limit any damage that could come from the developing situation -- damage that could hit Hillary's oldest friends in Arkansas! On June 28, 1993, President Clinton nominated Diane Blair to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Blair, who was 'best person' at the Clintons' wedding and has been one of Hillary's oldest friends, was later nominated by the president, in 1998, to serve as a Member of the Board of Directors of the corporation. Blair was later elected vice chair of its board of directors. Blair is very close to the Clintons and is said to have spent more nights at the White House than just about anyone except the first family….. PBS station KQED-TV in San Francisco on Friday admitted to list-swapping not only the Democratic National Committee but also Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, whose daughter, Nicole, married Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, in the White House Rose Garden in 1994…." SF Chronicle 7/17/99 Jonathan Curiel "...KQED-TV found itself in the middle of a growing political storm yesterday when it revealed that its donor lists have been used by California Senator Barbara Boxer and the Democratic National Committee. The disclosure added to the anger of some Republican lawmakers who have been investigating the practice of ``list brokering'' by public television stations...." 7/20/99 Barbara J. Saffir THE WASHINGTON TIMES "...Public television and radio stations have swapped their membership lists with groups that support abortion, gun control and other politically charged causes. Handgun Control Inc., Planned Parenthood and Zero Population Growth are among the many advocacy groups that traded lists with the stations, interviews with officials and documents obtained by The Washington Times show. Public broadcasting executives may be called upon to address the troubling topic today when they testify at an emergency meeting before a House Commerce subcommittee.... The records also indicate that several stations have traded donor lists with groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo, the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund...." Reuters 7/20/99 "…"The idea of a public broadcasting stations cozying up to a political party — any political party — in America is outrageous,'' said subcommittee chairman Rep. Billy Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican. He said the scandal had undermined public faith in PBS, had tarnished the public broadcast system and was a "crime, a sin, a shame.'' "We're going to make this illegal before we are through,'' he added…." THE WASHINGTON TIMES 7/21/99 Barbara Saffir "...The president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting acknowledged yesterday that as many as 30 of the nation's 75 largest public television stations traded donor lists with the Democratic National Committee but said none will be punished for doing it. Robert Coonrod also told members at an emergency hearing of the House Commerce Committee's telecommunications, trade and consumer protection subcommittee that stations swapped lists with seven little-known Republican groups, which one lifelong GOP member said she had never heard of before..... "If a station makes donor lists available to a political party, that is wrong -- however, it is not illegal," Mr. Coonrod said, although he acknowledged that he is "neither an attorney nor an expert in the IRS code."....The independently owned stations set their own policies, but Mr. Coonrod said he plans to withhold funding from those that fail to comply with Internal Revenue Service regulations. The IRS generally bans the tax-exempt nonprofit stations from political activity except in extremely limited circumstances. Lawmakers have threatened to cut federal funding for public broadcasting if the CPB does not find a way to halt the political trades. They do not plan to block list swaps with groups such as Planned Parenthood and Handgun Control Inc. About 15 percent of public broadcasting funds come from the federal government, which the CPB distributes to the stations via the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). ..." AP 7/21/99 Melissa Robinson "...Testifying at a politically charged congressional hearing, Robert Coonrod, the corporation's president, said a recent survey found that 53 of 75 television stations in large markets used third-party brokers to exchange membership lists with other nonprofit organizations. Of those, he said, fewer than 30 stations appear to have exchanged names with political organizations aligned with either the Democratic or Republican parties..... In addition to the stations that exchanged membership information, about 30 also received lists from political organizations.. ." The Union Leader. Manchester, NH 7/22/99 Angela Baggetta "...A report in yesterday's Boston Globe stating that New Hampshire Public Television swapped donor lists with those held by Republican party organizations is inaacurate, national and local public television officials said yesterday. .... On a national level, the CPB's Inspector General is undertaking an examination of the list policies of every public broadcasting station in the country, CPN Vice President for Television Operations Coug Weiss said yesterday. Approximately 1,000 stations across the country will be involved in the study, and a report on the Inspector General's findings should be back with the House Commerce subcommittee in 30 days, he said. According to Weiss, "there isn't any list-swapping going on. Stations do not call up a political organization and say 'hey, wanna swap lists?'"..... " WorldNet Daily 7/22/99 Jeff Jacoby "...PRESS REPORTS AND THE TONGUE-LASHINGS of assorted politicians notwithstanding, WGBH didn't do anything wrong. Neither did WNET, WETA, or KQED. The public-television giants in Boston, New York, Washington, and San Francisco have been catching all kinds of hell in the wake of reports that they swapped direct-mail fund-raising lists with political organizations. All four stations have traded names with the Democratic National Committee; at WETA the practice has been going on for at least twenty years. More than just these stations are involved. On Tuesday, the chief of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting estimated that 30 others have obtained names from political groups. No one has compiled a definitive list of the ideological organizations with which the stations have exchanged donor information, but it seems safe to assume that it's a long one. KQED has acknowledged swapping data with Handgun Control Inc. and Planned Parenthood. In 1997 it leased its lists to the campaign of California Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat. Other politicians and other stations have made similar deals. New Hampshire public television, for example, shared names with Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign.... What Republicans-and Democrats-ought to be talking about is not whether sharing lists of contributors is incompatible with the subsidy that PBS gets from the government, but whether any justification exists to preserve that subsidy. Once a welfare recipient gets a job and can support herself, she goes off the dole. Taxpayers spend $350 million a year on what amounts to welfare for public broadcasting. If, after all these years, public TV has developed the savvy to raise the money it needs from willing donors, customers, and underwriters, shouldn't it, too, go off the dole? ..." WorldNetDaily 7/28/99 Joseph Farah "...Deep Throat told Bob Woodward back in the Watergate days that to unravel the scandal he should "follow the money." Likewise, we will never fully comprehend the evil and betrayal being committed at the highest levels of the U.S. government today unless we figure out who's getting rich off a cozy relationship with the totalitarians ruling China..... The new company is called China Access Television, or CAC, and it is currently setting up joint ventures with U.S. media and Internet businesses to expand its reach and legitimacy as a "communication company devoted to objectively introducing China, its people, heritage and culture to American society." ....The force behind CAC is CITIC, China's largest commercial corporation and one fully owned by the government in Beijing..... In 1996, the U.S. Customs Service seized a shipment of 2,000 Poly Technologies Co. machine guns destined for agents posing as American drug gangsters aboard a COSCO ship at the port of Oakland, Calif. Wang Jun, head of Poly Tech, is an international arms dealer who had coffee with Bill Clinton and Charlie Trie. Wang Jun also sits on the board of CITIC. CITIC is the chief investment arm of the Chinese central government and the bank of the People's Liberation Army, providing financing for Chinese army weapons sales and for the purchase of Western technology. Wang Jun's fellow CITIC board member is Li Ka Shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, which will soon control both ends of the strategic Panama Canal.... But here's the Chinese punch line to this practical joke on America's useful idiots. A prominent U.S. businessman involved in a strategic alliance with China Access Television told me the whole program to enrich the party apparatus in Beijing and indoctrinate Americans was dreamed up by -- you guessed it -- the U.S. government. Do you believe this? After Los Alamos? After Riady? After Charlie Trie and John Huang and Webb Hubbell and Loral and on and on it goes. ... Who's getting rich off China? Apparently many are making short-term profits. But in the long term, they're selling America down the drain...." Arizona Republic 7/29/99 Jeff Barker "...A House committee today will unveil evidence of new favors provided to a former visa official at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing by a Chinese government-owned conglomerate, including a free stay at a luxury Scottsdale suite. Charles M. Parish Jr., the embassy's former visa section chief, accepted a number of previously undisclosed gifts from Elizabeth Mann, operator of a Phoenix real estate company called BNU Corp., which is owned by the conglomerate, according to House Government Reform Committee investigators. The committee is holding a hearing today with Parish expected to be the lead witness. The Arizona Republic reported in March that Parish, in violation of State Department rules, accepted free lodging at corporate apartments in Las Vegas and Norwalk, Calif., in 1995 and 1996 from China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp. The committee says Parish, who has denied any quid pro quo relationship, was providing visa assistance at the request of Mann and others so that officials of the conglomerate, known as COFCO, could travel frequently to Phoenix and other U.S. destinations. State Department rules forbid embassy officials from accepting gifts from anyone seeking visas or other official action..... The Republic has learned that the new information includes: Mann gave Parish "a number of gifts," a former COFCO vice president, Jay Ding, has told the committee staff. Ding has told the panel's investigators that he saw Mann pass several wrapped boxes and an envelope to Parish while he was dining with COFCO and BNU officials in Beijing and Phoenix. Ding told the committee he didn't know what the gifts were. He said Mann mentioned a gold Rolex watch and $2,000 in casino chips in connection with Parish, but Ding is not sure she gave either to Parish. The committee said Parish stayed free of charge at a COFCO luxury suite in Scottsdale. The address could not be obtained from either the committee or Mann's office. Several e-mails in Parish's office suggest that Parish, at Mann's request, helped Fuli Lin, vice chairman of BNU, obtain a visa, according to the committee..... "The U.S. Embassy in Beijing is one of our most sensitive diplomatic posts in the world," Burton said in a prepared statement. "It is unfathomable that these kinds of activities could go on right under the noses of top embassy officials for a year and a half."..." The O'reilly Factor, FoxNews Channel 8/20/99 Freeper report "…B: The employees at Los Alamos have said time and time again that security is not what it should be here. So is it the Department of Energy in Washington that is screwing this up? G: No, there is a triad and the primary individuals responsible are the officials at the Univ. of Calif. and the managers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. By contract they are committed to insure that our national security weapons and secrets are safeguarded. So they have the primary responsibility. This is just another one of the coverups that has taken place. The DOE is trying to take the fall for the Univ. of Calif. B: Why would they do that? The Univ. of Calif. gets a lot of money from the government to provide security and they're not doing it. Why would DOE take the fall? G: Because there is a quid pro quo, if you will, between managers at Univ. of Calif. and the congressional delegation of representatives. So it's a political situation where one scratch the other's back, and when one is at fault the other takes the fall for him. This is the game being played today. B: And THIS is with our nuclear secrets!…." Drudge Report Transcript 8/28/99 "….KLAYMAN: You get any cash awards? CLIFF BERNATH, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I got a cash award last year. KLAYMAN: When was that? BERNATH: Around November. KLAYMAN: November of 1998? BERNATH: Correct. KLAYMAN: How much did you get? BERNATH: Ten thousand. KLAYMAN: And what was that for? BERNATH: That was for work that I had done the previous year. KLAYMAN: Working on the Linda Tripp matter? BERNATH: No. KLAYMAN: What was the work? BERNATH: It was the work that I did -- Well, let's see, to cover the -- It was all based on the time that I was at the American Forest Information Service. KLAYMAN: Who recommended you for that cash award? BERNATH: Mr. Bacon……. DRUDGE: OK. Bacon gives cash award to employee who has a year that involves releasing personnel files on workers. I mean... KLAYMAN: As the French say, what a coincidence, what a coincidence. DRUDGE: What do you make of that? Is that serious to you? Is that going to be a serious development for the courts? KLAYMAN: That's a very serious development. This cash award occurred right after we deposed Mr. Bernath, and he put the finger on Bacon as the political appointee who released the information that Jane Mair (ph) of the "New Yorker" smearing Linda Tripp at the height of impeachment. So $10,000 comes along, and of course, Bernath, we believe, knows a lot more than what he's testified to, and we believe this was insurance money. DRUDGE: How many cases do you have active right now? KLAYMAN: We have 42, Matt. In fact... DRUDGE: Forty-two? KLAYMAN: We're even filing one on Waco because we're looking for information there as well. But let me also point out with regard to this money, this is not isolated. In our Commerce case that uncovered John Huang in the Chinagate scandal, the people that withheld documents at the Commerce Department signed false affidavits, they got $10,000 awards, too. The judge has noted this in his order of December 22nd, 1998. And then, of course, Trulock, this guy at the Energy Department that just became a whistle blower with the whole Chinagate scandal, he got a $10,000 award; they hoped that would keep him quiet. So we have a pattern here. DRUDGE: What a great time to be in Washington. It's just raining money if you listen to the boss. KLAYMAN: Taxpayer money….." Baltimore Sun 9/4/99 Robert Nusgart "…The president and the first lady signed a contract Thursday to purchase their first home since 1983, a $1.7 million five-bedroom Colonial in Westchester County, New York. The purchase paves the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton to establish residency to run for the U.S. Senate. The financial aspects of the deal were intriguing because the Clintons, who put down $350,000 (approximately 20 percent) from their blind trust, had their chief fund-raiser, Terry McAuliffe, personally secure the $1.35 million mortgage with Bankers Trust…… However, Alan R. Ingraham, vice president of MNC Mortgage Inc., said his company would not have approved the loan terms the Clintons received. "On paper, anybody other than the sitting president would not be able to get that loan," Ingraham said. For starters, Ingraham said, MNC Mortgage usually requires the buyer of a million-dollar property to make a down payment ranging from 35 percent to 40 percent. He added that the burden of the Clintons' legal debt -- $5 million, according to the White House -- would also hinder their application. And, even though most observers believe both Clintons have significant post-presidency earning power, typical borrowers couldn't use projected income to help them qualify for a mortgage. "A normal customer, even an existing one, couldn't do it with us," Ingraham said…." Judicial Watch 9/3/99 Larry Klayman "…The government watchdog group Judicial Watch said today that the loan scheme being used to by Bill and Hillary Clinton to buy a house is illegal and improper. First, the $1.35 million loan "guarantee" by Chinagate fundraiser Terence McAuliffe is nothing less than an outright gratuity to the President personally, which is illegal under government ethics and bribery laws. Federal court testimony in Judicial Watch’s Chinagate case has already shown that McAuliffe was involved in illegal fundraising and influence-peddling -- this seems more of the same. Judicial Watch also questioned why The White House Counsel’s Office, which "approved" the loan scheme, is giving the Clintons’ personal legal advice at taxpayer expense. Second, there is no ethical or legal way for a bank such as Bankers Trust Co., which reports indicate is foreign-owned, to give a million dollar mortgage to a couple who professes to be $5 million in debt. And no bank can use an illegal "guarantee" from a Clinton fundraiser as collateral for any loan. "This loan scheme blatantly violates government ethics and banking laws. Bill and Hillary Clinton should be subject to the same standards for a mortgage as every other American couple," said Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman. Judicial Watch will immediately investigate and challenge the loan scheme and warned that any bank improperly making loans to the Clintons could be subject to severe criminal and/or civil liabilities. Judicial Watch notes there is an ethical way for the Clintons to buy a home -- liquidate their million dollar trust and use those proceeds to buy a modest house outright. They don’t need to buy one valued at $1.7 million. "Based on their history, laws against bank fraud and bribery seem of no importance to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Bill and Hillary Clinton continue to think they’re above the law. Judicial Watch is committed to reminding them they are not," stated Klayman…." AP 9/10/99 Melissa Robinson "....Democratic organizations sometimes aggressively pursued names of members and donors from public television and radio stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's inspector general said Friday. Kenneth Konz was expanding on a study he released Thursday that showed station lists were rented or exchanged exclusively with Democratic organizations. Stations received lists from Republican groups as well. And virtually all transactions went through third-party brokers. Why weren't Republicans also on the receiving end of the lists? Konz said they simply didn't go after the station names in the same way the Democrats did. "I can say I saw several organizations out there, Democratic organizations, apparently, that had approached brokers about obtaining lists from public television," Konz said in a telephone interview. He turned up no evidence of similar efforts by Republicans. At issue is whether stations, which get federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, violated tax law by providing their donor lists to political groups. Tax experts have said that such activities would not constitute violations so long as all parties or candidates received equal access to the lists...." New York Post 9/13/99 "...Reports first surfaced in July that some CPB stations had shared mailing lists with political organizations. Back then, officials quickly branded it a "one-time bureaucratic mistake." Besides, they claimed, both Democrats and Republicans had benefited from the exchanges. "This is an entirely bipartisan affair," insisted Ervin Duggan, president of the Public Broadcasting System, at the time. Not quite: According to a report issued late last week by CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz, "virtually all of the exchange or rental transactions of station membership/donor names were to apparently Democratic organizations." Back in July, CPB released to congressional Democrats the names of what it insisted were GOP donor lists - with names like "Conservative Republican Superfile," "Country Club Republicans" and "Golden Aged Republicans. " Problem is, most of those groups don't exist. And those that do, said Konz, may have "political-sounding names," but "were not in fact owned or compiled by political organizations." ....All told, the IG reports, 53 of the nation's public TV and radio stations - 9 percent of the total - made their donor lists avail-able to political organizations, "virtually all" of them Democratic. That's a far different story than the simple bureaucratic error that CPB alleged two months ago. Why is this important? Because conservatives for years have decried public broadcasting as a government-subsidized liberal mouthpiece, so blatantly partisan in its programming that it served as little more than a propaganda arm for like-minded viewers and listeners. So, by admitting to a financial relationship with Democratic Party groups, CPB has given those critics some powerful ammunition. Moreover, CPB is a non-profit group with an IRS tax exemption - which means that it is legally barred from involvement in the political fray, including campaigns. Selling or renting names of potential contributors to one political party is a blatant involvement in partisan politics.... Back in July, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), whose House committee oversees public-broadcasting funding, warned that there would be repercussions if it turned out that CPB officials had given false or misleading testimony. Now that it's clear they did just that, it's time for Congress to strike back...." AP 9/10/99 Melissa Robinson "....Democratic organizations sometimes aggressively pursued names of members and donors from public television and radio stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's inspector general said Friday. Kenneth Konz was expanding on a study he released Thursday that showed station lists were rented or exchanged exclusively with Democratic organizations. Stations received lists from Republican groups as well. And virtually all transactions went through third-party brokers. Why weren't Republicans also on the receiving end of the lists? Konz said they simply didn't go after the station names in the same way the Democrats did. ``I can say I saw several organizations out there, Democratic organizations, apparently, that had approached brokers about obtaining lists from public television,'' Konz said in a telephone interview. He turned up no evidence of similar efforts by Republicans....." Judicial Watch 9/13/99 Joe Giganti "....Judicial Watch, a non-profit law firm that exposes and prosecutes government corruption, raised questions today about whether the proposed sending of U.S. military personnel to Indonesia's East Timor is a quid pro quo for campaign contributions from Indonesia. The powerful Indonesian conglomerate, the Lippo Group, pumped millions into the Clinton campaigns for the presidency. A former employee of the Lippo Group, John Huang, was then placed in a sensitive position at the Clinton Commerce Department where Judicial Watch discovered he had access to classified briefings. In his now famous deposition to Judicial Watch in October, 1996, Huang boasted of the "help," i.e. money, that his former Indonesian employers gave to Clinton in 1992. In 1992, the Indonesian/Lippo-linked Worthen Bank gave Clinton's campaign a $2 million loan that many credit with keeping his then-foundering candidacy alive. The Riady family, the powerful Indonesian family behind the Lippo Group, reportedly called Huang their man in the United States Government. Reports in The Los Angeles Times and elsewhere showed how the Indonesian government then received special favors and consideration from Clinton. Indeed, Huang continued his contacts while at the Clinton Commerce Department with his former employers at the Lippo Group, which also been linked to Chinese intelligence. Clinton later placed Huang in the DNC where he raised over $3 million, mostly from Chinese-based sources....." Judicial Watch 9/15/99 Joe Giganti "....Judicial Watch, a non-profit law firm that exposes and prosecutes government corruption, called on Congress today to expand any investigation into the Justice Department on Waco to include the other important aspects of Janet Reno's misconduct - namely, Chinagate. "We question why Republicans are hot to trot on Janet Reno's and her FBI's corruption on Waco, but have virtually ignored her equally serious corruption on Chinagate, about which they already have ample evidence," stated Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman. "Republicans would rather rake Janet Reno over the coals for Waco, than for Chinagate. Both are equally serious, and Reno should be raked over the coals, but the difference with Waco is that no Republican donors were involved," he added. Senator John McCain told Judicial Watch that one of the reasons that Chinagate won't be seriously investigated by Congress is because Republican donors are involved....." DRUDGE REPORT 9/9/99 "....The BOSTON GLOBE is reporting on Friday that an inspector general's report looking into the Public Broadcasting System's donor list controversy has concluded that only one party benefitted from the list giveaway -- the Democratic Party. The report, released Thursday, concluded that out of 183 public TV and 408 public radio stations, 53 of them, or 9%, made their lists available to political groups. The report coincided with the resignation of PBS president Ervin S. Duggan, who will step down on October 31 -- most believe as a result of the scandal, however, PBS officials deny it. ...." Corporation for Public Broadcasting 9/8/99 Kenneth A. Konz, Inspector General of CPB "...Today's CPB Inspector General's report found no evidence that public broadcasting stations intended to benefit any political organization through donor list transactions. The IG report confirmed that the motivation of stations that engaged in list rentals or exchanges was financial and not political or partisan in nature....... Audit Assignment No SR 99-07 Report No 902 "... Freeper HAL9000 objects "...The CPB Inspector General's report is a total sham. It fails to even mention the two chief perpetrators of the PBS-DNC list swaps. CPB Chairman Diane Blair, Hillary's best friend, was chairman of the Arkansas Educational Television Network when it began swapping lists with the DNC. The DNC then passed those lists on to the Clinton/Gore campaigns, the DCCC and DSCC, and eventually, the Clinton Legal Expense Trust and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Senate campaign. The Inspector General also conveniently overlooks the fact that Bill Clinton appointed Diane Blair's husband, James Blair of Tyson Foods, to the post of Democratic National Committeeman from Arkansas. James Blair stupidly admitted to a UPI reporter that he funnelled illegal campaign contributions from Tyson Foods to candidates for federal office, but he was never prosecuted for the felony. James Blair was also Hillary Clinton's cohort in Cattlegate, where Hillary received a $100,000 "profit" (bribe) on a $1,000 investment. This IG's report that claims to investigate PBS-DNC list swapping without reporting on the corrupt DNC connections of PBS Chairman Diane Blair is a travesty...." New York Post 9/10/99 Andy Geller "...The president of PBS resigned suddenly yesterday - just as a key report attacked public-television stations for sharing donor lists with political organizations. A congressional watchdog said the timing of Ervin Duggan's resignation suggested he was being made the scapegoat for the scandal. "Why was the resignation announced today? Why not wait a week?" said a spokesman for Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees funding for public broadcasting. "In our opinion, it's suspicious. It looks like he is being made the scapegoat." But PBS spokesman Tom Epstein said the timing was just an "unfortunate coincidence" and "there is no relationship whatsoever" between the resignation and the report's release. Epstein said Duggan wanted to move on after 5 years at the helm of the Public Broadcasting System, and it would be "a huge mistake to conclude" he quit because of the controversy. ....." Wall St. Journal 9/10/99 Editorial "....We guess Terry McAuliffe doesn't have to bring anything to the Clintons' Chappaqua housewarming party. Oops, sorry, that $1.35 million that passed between them was a "loan," not a gift. "Gift" is a word that has a very special meaning in national politics. Before January 1993, the Beltway political culture was fairly crazed over this subject, lest someone accused of the "appearance of impropriety" end up on the town's front pages. During the Bush years, two Justice officials who came to our offices for a lunch of sandwiches and soda handed over $20 lest someone accuse them of taking a gift. As the saying goes, times change. Still, sure is interesting, isn't it, as a piece of Clintonesque political art? It's hard not to admire the way they've finessed the political gift rules. The Clintons never touched the money; it was deposited in an account, and the interest on that deposit flows to Mr. McAuliffe, not the Clintons. There's kind of an immaculate conception quality to the $1.35 million. It just dropped from the sky and lo, the Clintons got a jumbo loan with a $1,000-a-month break on the interest rate. If it were the Bible, they'd call it a miracle, like the loaves and the fishes. Also smelling like a gift to us is the Clintons' sudden creditworthiness, insofar as all agree they couldn't qualify on their own, owing to the massive legal indebtedness piled up because of one of the borrowers' transgressions against Paula Jones, etc. In any event, it's not hard to see the spirit of this transaction: The essence of a political gift is a benefit. If there was no benefit, what was Mr. McAuliffe doing in this to begin with?.....Recall also that while the Democratic Party paid back the Chinese contributions made to the Clinton campaign, it had use of the funds in the meantime, just as the Clintons will now have use of the McAuliffe money. Come to think of it, we wouldn't mind some reassurance that this money actually originates from him rather than the Chinese, Indonesian, or some such. One more thing about the McAuliffe whatchamacallit. What Terry McAuliffe did in essence is make a contribution to Hillary's campaign. Its whole purpose is to enable her to establish residence in New York, thus the money is absolutely essential to her campaign. Christie Todd Whitman just quit because she couldn't raise $12 million in $1,000 units, the individual limit for Senate campaigns. In the Hillary race, no McAuliffe "loan," no residency, no campaign. His contribution would seem to be more than $1,000. Even loans to a campaign need to be reported. Where is the campaign-finance reform chorus when we need it?...." Jewish World Review 9/10/99 Julia Gorin "....WHO EVEN KNEW that the Puerto Rican community wanted 16 terrorists released from prison? I never heard anyone desperately clamoring for the FALN members' freedom until Bill Clinton offered it. Oh there were always the activists and the politicians, but that's how many people? Like six all together? Is this really what New York's at-large, law-abiding Puerto Rican citizenry wants? Even if it were, surely there must be less hazardous ways to court the Puerto Rican vote for Hillary's Senate run. For example, why not offer every Puerto Rican family free roundtrip airfare to la isla bonita? Or invite them to a barbecue at the White House....." AP Wire 9/10/99 Melissa Robinson "....The practice of swapping member and donor lists with political organizations was more widespread at public television and radio stations than first thought, according to an investigative report. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's inspector general, Kenneth Konz, said in a report released late Thursday that 53 stations -- double an earlier estimate -- engaged in list-swapping with political organizations. At a congressional hearing in July, public broadcasting executives said an initial survey had uncovered list-swapping at 26 stations.....The IG's report found that 29 public television and 24 public radio stations exchanged and/or rented the names of their members or contributors to political organizations, parties or candidates. The total number is about 9 percent of the 591 stations that receive funding from the corporation. About 85 of 177 public television stations acquired names from political groups, said the IG, citing a separate survey by the Association of America's Public Television Stations. The report did not find that any of the stations swapped or rented information with the intent of helping a political organization. When stations rented or exchanged names, they dealt mostly with Democratic groups, the report said. When they acquired names, Republicans were also involved, it said....." The New York Times-Week in Review 9/19/99 Don Van Nata Jr. "....A baseball bat and jersey from the Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa. Value: $350. A painting from the singer Carly Simon. Value: $300. Three golf drivers from the actor Jack Nicholson. Value: $1,377. President Clinton accepted each of those gifts last year. In May, the items were listed on the President's annual financial disclosure form, along with the most valuable gift of them all: $2.6 million from his legal defense fund to help defray the $10 million debt owed by him and Hillary Rodham Clinton to a battery of Washington lawyers. But next year, there will be no mention on Mr. Clinton's disclosure form of perhaps the most important financial favor done for him during his Presidency: the $1.35 million cash deposit made by Terry McAuliffe, one of Mr. Clinton's closest friends, to guarantee the Clintons' mortgage for the 110-year-old Dutch Colonial house they have agreed to buy for $1.7 million in Chappaqua, N.Y....." Associated Press 9/19/99 Laurie Kellman "...Seeking the reasons why President Clinton offered clemency to 16 Puerto Rican nationalists, Republicans plan to start using legislative tools this week hoping to pry loose secret administration documents. One top Republican said Sunday he already has the answer: ``Almost anybody with any brains would conclude'' Clinton issued the order to help his wife's Senate bid in New York, GOP presidential hopeful Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' ...." NewsMax.com 9/20/99 Carl Limbacher "....Patterson's firsthand account of a slew of secret contacts between Bill Clinton and the Texas billionaire during a crucial period of the 1992 presidential campaign may in fact be historic. Because it corroborates an earlier report of a secret Perot-Clinton deal, which the billionaire denied and the mainstream press dismissed as simply too bizarre to be believed. ......"Up until (Bill Clinton) was elected, we still made all his telephone calls, receiving all incoming calls to the mansion," Patterson explained. Patterson says he recalls at least a dozen conversations between the two supposed political rivals after the Texan's July 1992 decision to drop out of the presidential race. ....Most Perot voters, it is now generally conceded, came from the Bush camp. "It seems strange to me that Mr. Perot and Bill Clinton had this close relationship and that they're running for the same office. Yes, that strikes me as quite strange," Patterson remembered thinking after Perot re-entered the race. The Clinton bodyguard also recalled chauferring his boss to several face-to-face meetings with the Texas billionaire in Little Rock and Dallas in the years prior to the 1992 campaign. Is Patterson's account of the Perot-Clinton contacts of any real significance? A Washington Times report that appeared a month before the 1996 election suggests it is. "Mr. Clinton and Ross Perot struck a deal in 1991 that initiated the billionaire's candidacy as a third-party spoiler," reported the Times' John McCaslin, citing documents obtained by investigative reporter and "Clinton Confidential" author George Carpozi, Jr. Quoting Carpozi, McCaslin contined: "'In turn, Clinton agreed that his first act as occupant of the Oval Office would be to reform the nation's health-care system with massive changes,' Mr. Carpozi writes in a four page paper being distributed on Capitol Hill." "'Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Perot played a large part in first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's efforts to craft the ill-fated health reform bill, which turned Clinton's first year in office into a debacle,' Mr. Carpozi claims." "'Even more significantly -- if not alarmingly -- not one but two of Perot's companies were earmarked in Mrs. Clinton's working papers to play mammouth roles in the health-care industry.' he writes." (Washington Times -- Oct. 1, 1996) ...." CNN Wolf Blitzer "…The president and the first lady -- as well as White House lawyers -- are currently reviewing several proposals from banks and other lending institutions to refinance the mortgage on their new home in Westchester County. As part of the proposed deal, Democratic party fundraiser Terry McAuliffe would no longer be required to deposit $1.3 million as collateral for the mortgage. The new home costs $1.65 million. Sources familiar with the negotiations tell CNN no final deal has yet been accepted. The Clintons are planning to close on their new home Nov. 1. …." The Dave Bossie Investigative Report-Special Report 10/4/99 Freeper jedediah smith ".... Nobody in American history has treated the law as his own property the way Bill Clinton has. Many observers, going back to Arkansas, have noticed his dictatorial frame of mind. He simply ignores the law or gives orders. His issuance of Executive Orders to make his own rules is legendary; he has written thousands of them, each at least temporarily with the force of law. But under our system, Congress is supposed to make the laws and the President is charged merely to execute them, not write new ones....." http://detnews.com/1999/nation/9910/06/10060149.htm 10/6/99 Judy Pasternak LA Times "....When Carol Moseley-Braun lost her U.S. Senate seat last fall, she didn't worry long about her next paycheck. Just before her term expired, the Illinois Democrat signed on as a consultant to the Department of Education at $453.84 per day. Her contract called for her to provide expertise on "school construction issues," although the agency has no money to build classrooms. When Carol H. Rasco wanted out of her influential post as White House domestic policy chief, she also found a lucrative berth at Education. Rasco, who is paid $125,900 annually, runs a skeletal reading program that Congress has refused to fund. Moseley-Braun and Rasco have plenty of well-connected company: The Clinton administration, which has made improving schools a top priority, is using the government's lead education agency to provide employment for assorted Democratic loyalists....." AP 9/27/99 ".....A high-ranking U.S. Food and Drug Administration official helped a small businessman in Florida promote the popular diet drug fen-phen in 1995, during the height of the pill combination's popularity, newspapers reported. Though the FDA never approved or endorsed fen-phen, which has since been linked with heart-valve problems, Dr. Michael Weintraub provided advice and patient referrals to a fledgling chain of weight-loss clinics dispensing fen-phen, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday and The Wall Street Journal reported...." New York Post 10/11/99 Jack Newfield "....Hoffa, the son, started running for Teamster president in 1996, telling truck drivers across the country: "The mob killed my father. If you vote for me, they will never come back." The first time Hoffa ran, he lost to Ron Carey, who posed as a reformer and had illegal support from Clinton allies in the Democratic National Committee and in other unions. These factions laundered $850,000 into Carey's campaign. Several Carey operatives have since pleaded guilty. In another week, William Hamilton, the Teamsters' political director under Carey, goes on trial in Manhattan for his role in the conspiracy. Hoffa is essentially a bland personality. He showed emotion only three times during our hour together. The first time came when he was asked about Hamilton's trial. "That's the Rosetta stone of the Teamsters," Hoffa said. "We will monitor that trial every day to see if any higher-ups are implicated. The fraud went higher than Hamilton "I'm hoping Hamilton pleads guilty and becomes a government witness. He can name the missing links in the money transfers to Carey." Hoffa's aides later suggested the first person Hamilton can implicate is Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. Trumka took the Fifth in the federal probe, and a court-appointed master has ruled that he funneled $50,000 to Carey. This was part of the improper financing that led the government to oust Carey and ban him from running again. ..." The Wall Street Journal. editorial page 10/12/99 ".....Tomorrow, Al Gore will become the first Democrat since Walter Mondale to secure the endorsement of the AFL-CIO in the primaries. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka was bragging yesterday, "This will be a boost to his campaign." ...... Gerald McEntee, a big Gore backer as head of the public employees union AFSCME might find his ears tingling. Not least, Richard Trumka, point-man in lobbying for Mr. Gore's union endorsement, might have to take the Fifth Amendment once again. But last week the Hamilton trial was suddenly and mysteriously postponed. How convenient! The investigation is headed by Mary Jo White, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, seen by veteran prosecutors as a lonely bastion of integrity in the Clinton Justice Department. These veterans, however, view the delay in her probe as inexplicable. Ms. White was handed the Teamster/DNC contribution scandal on a silver platter in 1997, but it bogged down even after initial guilty pleas. Justice gave assurances that it was vigorously pursuing the case to abort an investigation by Rep. Pete Hoekstra's oversight committee. But Mr. Hoekstra now says, "The entire Teamsters investigation has fallen into a black hole." ....." Republican National Committee 10/12/99 "......Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson today challenged Attorney General Janet Reno not to ``give a typical slap-on-the-wrist plea bargain'' to former International Brotherhood of Teamsters Political Director William Hamilton. .....``The facts must come out about William Hamilton and his unindicted DNC co- conspirators,'' Nicholson asserted. ``If Janet Reno's 'Obstruction-of-Justice' Department cuts a plea bargain with Hamilton, there's only one reason behind it -- to keep secret the involvement of the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton-Gore '96 campaign, the AFL-CIO and the White House itself.'' Hamilton is alleged to have conspired with Clinton-Gore '96 Finance Director Laura Hartigan, then-DNC Finance Director Richard Sullivan, former Clinton-Gore '96 Finance Chairman Terry McAuliffe and others in a money laundering scheme to funnel $1 million in Teamsters union funds to Democrats in exchange for a $100,000 contribution to Ron Carey's campaign for President of the Teamsters. ``The people deserve to know the full story of campaign corruption in the Democrat party, and of the Democrats' manipulation of labor organizations representing millions of American workers,'' Nicholson asserted. ``Among other things, William Hamilton's trial will establish whether this entire scheme was approved by Bill and Hillary Clinton's sugar-daddy and private financier, Terry McAuliffe.'' ``The jury can also decide whether AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka -- who's been busy with McAuliffe these days delivering an early endorsement of Al Gore from the AFL-CIO -- was involved in the Ron Carey campaign dollar swaps.'' ``If Janet Reno and U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White give Hamilton a 'Get-Out- of-Jail-Free' card like was dealt to Charlie Trie, John Huang, and Johnny Chung, Michael Brown, and Nora, Trisha and Gene Lum, there'll be no question that Reno is really heading the 'Obstruction-of-Justice Department.''' ....." CNSNews.com 10/12/99 Jim Burns ".....National Right To Work Foundation President Reed Larson in Washington accused the AFL-CIO of hypocrisy because of the recent firing of union workers who refused to pay money into union's political fund. Larson cited the case of US Air mechanics John Masiello and Craig Sickler of Charlotte, North Carolina, who, Larson says, were fired from their airline jobs earlier this year for refusing to pay "into Big Labor's political slush fund." Another case Larson cited was Deena Chacanaca of California City, California, a former Rite Aid cashier, whom, Larson says, was fired for refusing to "pay into the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union's political coffers." Larson believes all three are victims of union political extortion for paying the price for having courage to stand up to organized labor's political spending program. ...." NewsMax's Inside Cover 10/15/99 "…..One of the leading newspapers in his home state, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, doesn't think so -- making the case against Inspector Specter in a compelling editorial in Tuesday's edition. First, notes the paper, there's Mrs. Specter's connection to the Clinton adminsitration. She was appointed by the White House to the National Council of the Arts at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The legal watchdog group Judicial Watch has questioned whether Specter's bizarre impeachment trial vote of "not proven" under Scottish law had anything to do with his wife's adminstration job. Then there's Sen. Specter's ties to the Arthur Coia's Clinton-friendly Laborers International Union. The 1996 Clinton campaign got millions in direct and indirect campaign help from Coia and the gang. The American Spectator discovered that Specter collected some $8,000 from Coia's union Specter was also on the Teamsters gravy train, with $10,000 flowing into his campaign coffers in 1997. The Washington Times, which first reported the senator's Teamsters link, couldn't find any other Teamsters donations in Specter's FEC records for five years previous……" NY Daily News 10/16/99 News Wire Services "….A day after likely Democratic Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton lashed into health-care cuts that threatened the stability of New York's hospitals, her husband came up with a billion-dollar debt forgiveness. Sens. Daniel Moynihan and Chuck Schumer, along with Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem), announced the fruits of secret negotiations with federal Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and President Clinton: State hospitals serving the poorest residents will not have to reimburse the federal government nearly $1 billion in overpayments….." Associated Press 10/18/99 Alice Love "....WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration has decided to end attempts to recover millions of dollars from hospitals it had accused of overstating the amount of money the government owed them for providing care for the poor....... Hospitals in some states had already been asked to begin repaying huge sums for alleged overpayments going back as far as a decade. Hospitals in New York, for example, were estimated to owe an estimated $1 billion, Pennsylvania hospitals $250 million and New Jersey hospitals $288 million...." WorldNetDaily 10/18/99 Charles Smith "....A Russian-based weapons lab accused of selling sophisticated missiles to China is convinced its ejection seat will beat out bids by all U.S. defense contractors for the new U.S. Joint Strike Fighter project. The JSF is the next fighter aircraft designed to replace the Marine AV-8 Harrier, the Navy F-18 and the USAF F-16. The Russian firm Zvezda is placing its K-36D advanced seat against three other western defense companies for the JSF aircraft. The four ejection seat selections have been narrowed down to the Martin-Baker Mk.16, the Boeing-made ACES 2, a seat from BFGoodrich's UPCO subsidiary and Zvezda's K-36D. ..... Despite the open competition between U.S. and U.K.-based defense contractors, there are indications that Russian-based Zvezda has already won the contract, using political clout within the Clinton administration. Zvezda recently demonstrated its political influence inside the Clinton administration by successfully securing a multimillion-dollar contract for the SSST -- the U.S. Navy's Super-Sonic Sea-skimming Target drone project. Zvezda announced last month that it had won a contract to provide 100 MA-31 target missiles to the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy selection will close Allied Signal's Mishawaka Indiana target systems plant.....Meanwhile, Martin-Baker, and Boeing ACES 2 engineers have quietly expressed dismay at the powerful influence of Zvezda. Boeing ACES 2 and Martin-Baker engineers are complaining they are being shut out by the "political" process even before the technical selection has been made. ......" WorldNetDaily 10/18/99 Charles Smith "....Russia's Zvezda-Strela is backed by Gore supporters, Cassidy Associates and IBP International. Cassidy Associates is a Washington-based lobby firm that has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to the Clinton and Gore campaigns. ....Cassidy Associates sent Maely Tom, a Democratic National Committee donor, to the Far East on a Brown trip to Indonesia.... The other Zvezda supporter is IBP International, a firm based in London and McClean, Va., run by Gore-backer Judith De Paul. De Paul has refused to be interviewed. According to Aviation Week, IBP International has already leased facilities inside America to install the Zvezda K-36 ejection seat for either the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor or the new JSF project.....Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., has submitted a bill to ban further Defense Department funding of Zvezda due to its missile proliferation to India, China and Vietnam. ..." NewsMax.com 10/22/99 Michael Savage "....Certain people in the Bay Area and in Hollywood and New York, as well as elsewhere, are giving millions of dollars in secret money to Bill Clinton to build his library, violating all tenets of decency. They've collected pledges of $20 million to $30 million but are declining to disclose the identity of the donors or the amounts they've promised to give..... But what about the fact that the Clintons voluntarily disclosed the names of contributors to their legal-defense fund, yet they refuse to disclose those contributing to their library. Why the secrecy? Is there a quid pro quo? What's striking about it, according to the Washington Post, are the gargantuan size of the contributions, some amounting to several million a piece, and the Clintons' refusal to name the donors....." Time Magazine 10/24/99 "..... A TIME report into the business activities of Tony and Hugh Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton's brothers, has found that there have been at least two occasions where the Rodhams obtained White House meetings with top administration officials on behalf of their business associates. President Clinton even agreed to a scheduled drop-by with the Mayor of Moscow after Tony Rodham arranged for him to come to White House at a time when Rodham's clients were hoping to secure the mayor's support for a lucrative business deal in Moscow. Sources also tell TIME that Hugh Rodham is one of several lawyers who began negotiating a possible settlement with a gun industry trade group earlier this year and helped to arrange a White House meeting in early May....." The Washington Post 10/27/99 Dan Morgan "…. Russian food importer Soyuzkontrakt of St. Petersburg spared no expense when it formed a U.S. subsidiary in 1995. As a result of the $ 50,000 contribution to the Democrats, Schein said, he attended a star-studded event at the Hudson River estate of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and spoke briefly to President Clinton. He said he did not discuss Soyuzkontrakt's credit problems. …… So when officers of the New York company decided they needed help in Washington to get U.S. Department of Agriculture credit guarantees for frozen poultry exports to Russia, they spent freely. In the fall of 1996, the company paid $ 70,000 in lobbying fees and expenses to the Washington law firm of Verner, Liipfert; kicked in a $ 50,000 "soft money" contribution to the Democratic Party; and contributed $ 10,000 to House Republicans. A related company, set up to pay the credit card bills, gave $ 2,500 to the Democratic Party in August 1996. "We needed guidance in Washington as to how to bring things to the attention of the entities," said Daniel Schein, who served as an outside adviser. In January 1997, after a series of meetings with company officials and their lobbyists, the USDA made the firm's poultry exports eligible for credit guarantees….." CNS 11/4/99 Ben Anderson "…..President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton may have settled on a $1.7 million home Monday in Chappaqua, New York, but securing the necessary loan needed to take possession may be another matter. The Clintons have now encountered a legal challenge to the loan on grounds that the home loan constitutes an illegal political gift. The Conservative Campaign Fund (CCF) filed a formal Complaint Tuesday with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) against Mrs. Clinton, her Senate exploratory committee and PNC Mortgage Corporation of America which is financing the Clinton's home loan……. CCF is concerned that the Clintons have been afforded special consideration which average individuals applying for home loans would not have received under similar circumstances for a $1.36 million home loan……The loan is a 30-year, adjustable rate mortgage at 7.5 percent, locked in for the first three years, with no points, according to CCF. Real estate experts, CCF maintains, say these terms are not available to others with similar financial situations, nor would others qualify to receive the loan……" New York Times 12/12/99 Jeff Gerth "…..On a sweltering June evening this year President Clinton headlined yet another Democratic Party fund-raiser, but this time the guest of honor was Terry McAuliffe, Mr. Clinton's closest and most loyal Washington friend as well as his tireless money man. Shedding his prepared remarks, the president said, "I love this guy." It is easy to understand why. The ebullient McAuliffe says he and his staff have raised about $275 million, an unprecedented sum, for Clinton's causes: election campaigns, the 1997 inaugural celebration, a legal defense trust, the millennium festivities, the presidential library and Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign. "Terry's more wired than your local electric plant," Mrs. Clinton said at the fund-raising dinner. …." New York Times 12/12/99 Jeff Gerth "…..His closeness to the first couple and the expanding network of political contacts he has built in the Clinton years have also enhanced an enterprise that Mr. McAuliffe has built more quietly: a web of business deals, from telecommunications to real estate, that the fund-raiser keeps far from the public spotlight. His business confederation, a veritable McAuliffe Inc., has generated tens of millions of dollars, but McAuliffe keeps his affairs so private that he does not even have a business listing in the Washington telephone directory. His quietly acquired private fortune is illustrative of changes in the political culture here. Raising money for politicians was once a ticket to an ambassador's post or other influential job in the government. Other presidential money men have hung shingles as lobbyists, openly trading on their access, or peddled influence as lawyers. Charting a new course, McAuliffe has transformed the art of raising money for public figures into the art of raising money for himself, leveraging a personal fortune from his political fund-raising contacts. Although he is a lawyer and once headed a lobbying firm, he resigned from the firm in 1994 when he began raising big money for the Democratic Party….." New York Times 12/12/99 Jeff Gerth "…..In 1995 the Justice Department began examining Washington real estate deals involving McAuliffe, court records show. The inquiry ended in 1997 when the Prudential Insurance Company of America paid $317,500 to settle a civil suit in which it had been accused of failing to disclose a $375,000 consulting arrangement in 1993 with McAuliffe in connection with Prudential's lease of office space to a federal agency. This year, McAuliffe's role in a questionable plan to swap contributions in 1996 between the Teamsters union and the Democratic Party surfaced during the federal trial in New York of the former political director of the union, who was convicted of fraud and conspiracy. McAuliffe, in an interview, acknowledged discussing a potential swap. "You help me, I'll help you. That's politics," he said….." New York Times 12/12/99 Jeff Gerth "…..In late 1994 McAuliffe and Clinton had breakfast. McAuliffe said the president asked what he could do to help and McAuliffe replied that he should be more accessible to donors. A few days later McAuliffe sent his memorandum asking Clinton's secretary to arrange breakfast, lunch or coffee for top supporters so they could "discuss issues and exchange ideas with the president." Clinton wrote on the back of the memorandum -- words Mr. McAuliffe said he never saw -- that he was "ready to start overnight visits right away." ……" Austin Statesman 1/7/00 Esther Schrader "….The White House has ordered the U.S. trade representative to further delay implementation of a key provision of the historic free-trade pact with Mexico -- and senior trade and State Department officials say the maneuver is intended to ensure Teamster political support for Vice President Al Gore. The provision to open U.S. roads to Mexican trucks is vehemently opposed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which fears competition from Mexican trucking firms. A central element of the North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1993 by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the trucking clause is key because 90 percent of all U.S.-Mexico trade moves via highway, including Interstate 35 in Central Texas. …. Senior trade officials say they have been told by White House political operatives to delay the implementation of the accord "by any means possible." …." The Philadelphia Inquirer 1/5/00 Peter Nicholas and Josh Goldstein "…..It was part of Vice President Gore's plan to streamline and ``reinvent'' government: sell off a 47,000-acre oil field in Southern California. The taxpayers would benefit. But so did one company: Occidental Petroleum, which eventually bought the land through competitive bidding in 1997. The company had decades-long ties to Gore's family. Its founder flew Gore to Europe in a private jet, and put his father on the payroll after he left the U.S. Senate in 1971. In a 370-page report issued Wednesday, a Washington nonprofit group raised questions about Gore's role in the land sale -- ..." New York Post 1/23/2000 Jesse Angelo "…. The partners at investment bank Lazard Freres were thrilled when First Friend Vernon Jordan joined the firm until they found out his paycheck is bigger than theirs. After his first three weeks on the job, execs at the white-shoe investment bank are grumbling that Jordan has been promised a whopping $5 million a year for five years, the Washington Post reported yesterday…… Some partners at the firm which is closely aligned with the Democratic Party were also reportedly upset that Jordan's pay package was kept secret from them at first. But Jordan may have already earned his keep. A report last month denied by the White House said Jordan had convinced President Clinton to join the firm for $10 million a year after he leaves office…" The Associated Press 1/10/00 "....Secretary-General Kofi Annan today gave an endorsement of sorts to Vice President Al Gore's presidential ambitions. The moment came as Annan began his speech to the Security Council on the problem of AIDS in Africa. Gore was chairing the meeting, the first of the U.S. presidency of the Security Council. "Thank you Mr. Vice-President, or perhaps I should say Mr. President," Annan said after Gore's opening remarks....." NewsMax.com 1/20/2000 Carl Limbacher "….New York talk radio maverick Lynn Samuels has turned up an interesting development in the Clinton quid-pro-quo department. On Wednesday she reported on her website: "CASHING IN OR BUSINESS AS USUAL - On Tues. Jan.18, 2000 President Clinton proposed giving up to $3000 in tax credits to help the 2 million Americans who must provide LONG TERM CARE for elderly or disabled relatives. On Jan 19, 2000, Terry McAuliffe was appointed to the Board of Advisors of the Carlstadt, NJ company Infu-Tech. The press release announcing McAuliffe's appointment identifies Infu-Tech as "a leading provider of high quality, cost efficient specialty pharmaceutical and medical services to patients in their homes, ambulatory infusion sites and in LONG TERM CARE facilities……. " ASSOCIATED PRESS 2/12/00 "...... A CIA official who monitored the investigation into whether former agency head John Deutch mishandled classified information later went to work for a bank where Deutch was a director, The New York Times reported Saturday. Deutch resigned as CIA director in December 1996 and was elected to the board of Citibank. That same month, CIA officials found evidence he had placed classified information on unsecure computers at his home, although they reportedly didn't notify the Justice Department of potential wrongdoing for more than a year. The investigation monitor was Nora Slatkin, the CIA's executive director. Deutch recommended her for a management job at Citibank even as she was still monitoring the case, the Times reported, citing CIA records and interviews with officials. Although Slatkin notified the agency in June 1997 that she was considering a job with Citibank and would withdraw from consideration of anything involving the bank, within a month she reviewed an internal report of findings in the Deutch investigation, the Times reported, citing a classified agency report. Slatkin resigned from the CIA in September 1997 and joined Citibank as a vice president the next month, the Times reported……." Detroit News 3/17/00 Jon Pepper "…… It's lucky for the former political director of the Teamsters union that he led a life of liberal activism. If William Hamilton hadn't been disposed to march in demonstrations as a college student, lead the Washington office of Planned Parenthood, work for Democratic politicians, and toil as the chief of staff for the AFSCME, he might have to spend an extra 11/2 years in jail. As it happened, Hamilton was sentenced this week to three years in jail for embezzling money from the financially distressed union. That's less than the recommended 46 to 57 months that he would serve under sentencing guidelines. "He has indeed led an exemplary life," said Federal District Court Judge Thomas P. Griesa in New York. And what of the criminal behavior by the exemplary Mr. Hamilton that led him to be sentenced at all? He robbed the nearly broke union so that he could save it from corruption. …." The New York Times 3/14/00 Raymond Bonner "…..While President Clinton was engaged in an intense debate with his advisers about whether to stop in Pakistan during his visit to South Asia, a group of Pakistani-Americans in New York with a keen interest in the decision raised $50,000 for the Senate campaign of his wife....... But the fund-raiser illustrates a unique aspect of Mrs. Clinton's candidacy. While her husband still occupies the White House, people may seek to influence his policies by making donations to her Senate campaign. ….." AP 4/14/00 Rebecca Mahoney "…….Caroline Douglas has complained for years that she couldn't get a fair shake in her divorce case because her ex-husband, former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck Douglas, knew all the judges in New Hampshire. All of a sudden, Mrs. Douglas might get people to listen. Late last month, a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice was accused of trying to influence his colleagues in his own divorce case. That set off a crisis that threatens to bring down the state's highest court. As for Mrs. Douglas, she and three other ex-wives of judges plan to file a federal lawsuit alleging they were treated unfairly by the legal system because of their husbands' connections. ………. The crisis erupted two weeks ago, when Supreme Court Justice Stephen Thayer resigned after being accused of trying to intervene in two cases in which he had an interest. Among other things, he was accused of trying to influence the assignment of judges to hear his divorce case. ………. Mrs. Douglas claimed from the outset that she could not get a fair trial in New Hampshire, where her husband, a one-term congressman, remains influential in Republican politics. She tried to have the trial moved to Vermont or another neutral forum, but both the state and U.S. Supreme courts refused. Her U.S. Supreme Court petition originally landed on the desk of Justice David Souter, a former colleague of her husband's on the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Thornton said her lawyer during her 1992 divorce failed to research her husband's assets. She also discovered later that the lawyer had argued cases before her husband a couple of weeks before her divorce trial. ……." The Hill 5/10/00 Betsy Rothstein "…….When President Clinton got himself into hot water by misbehaving with a young female intern and faced being evicted from the White House, members of Congress like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) rose to his defense…….. With ill-disguised contempt, Waters squared off against outspoken impeachment manager, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), on cable television shows, week in and week out. On one episode of the "Geraldo Rivera Show," she fumed as Barr called her "evil." An editorial in the Roanoke (Va.) Times & World News declared Waters should be one of the "charter members of the Hall of Shame." But a year later, she and other lawmakers who fought their GOP colleagues during the impeachment battle are reaping the benefits, as Clinton pays them back for their loyalty……. In late February, Waters held a fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, which Clinton attended, helping her raise about $250,000……." APPEARANCE OF QUID PRO QUO APPEARANCE OF QUID PRO QUO Washington Post 5/31/00 AP "…..The Federal Election Commission on Wednesday dismissed a conservative group's complaint against Hillary Rodham Clinton over an arrangement for a home loan with a prominent Democratic fund-raiser. The Conservative Campaign Fund alleged in September that the first lady and Terry McAuliffe violated federal election law when McAuliffe agreed to co-sign for the Clintons' $1.7 million home in Westchester County. Criticism of the arrangement led the Clintons to finance the five-bedroom home themselves...." House Subcommittee on Forests & Forest Health 2/18/00 "…… On October 28, 1999, the Committee on Resources requested documents from the Forest Service and the White House concerning the President's initiative to restrict use on 40 to 60 million acres of "roadless areas" on the National Forests. Staff has to date received, and conducted a preliminary review of, thousands of pages of documents provided by the Administration. ………A preliminary review of these documents reveals that the Administration's decision was made improperly, in apparent violation of the due process rights of affected parties, as well as applicable statutes enacted by Congress to protect those rights, such as the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)………. Information received in response to the document request indicates that the Administration's roadless area initiative was developed in an environmental vacuum - with virtually all input coming from a select few in the environmentalist community, primarily: Ken Rait of the Heritage Forest Campaign Mike Francis, Bill Meadows and Charles Wilkinson of The Wilderness Society, Niel Lawrence of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Gene Karpinski of USPIRG, Marty Hayden of the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, Dan Beard of the Audubon Society; and Carl Pope of the Sierra Club. ….." NewsMax.com 6/8/00 "….With the Microsoft monopoly case almost behind them, Justice Department trust busters are setting their sights on their next target: Visa/MasterCard. The Justice Department and the owners of the Visa and MasterCard companies will square off Monday in Manhattan's federal courthouse in the first rounds of a knock-down-and-drag-out battle between the government and the banks that run both credit card giants. At issue is the perception that rather than being two separate companies, Visa and MasterCard are two peas in the same pod, and that since they have not competed in the credit card field in the full sense of the word, they are a monopoly that freezes out competitors such as American Express and Discover. ……" Freeper flamefront "….From How Washington Really Works from "Shadows of Hope" By Sam Smith: Ron Brown, secretary of commerce: Represented foreign auto makers, American Express, Japan Airlines, Oman, Zaire, Baby Doc Duvalier, Gabon, and a coalition of 21 Japanese electronics producers. His firm has represented New York Life Insurance, Mutual Life Insurance, scores of Japanese firms and American multinationals, BCCI and Guatemala. …….. And lets not forget the relation to Vernon Jordan who is a director of American Express and had tried to get Monica hired over there. ….." Star-Telegram.Com I JimWright 6/3/00 Jim Wright "…… Serious observers worry lest the deluge of big campaign gifts cross that invisible line between buying preferred "access" to legislators and actually buying votes. Casual private conversations among Capitol Hill insiders during the week prior to House passage of the China trade bill would have confirmed their worst fears. Evidence of influence was ubiquitous, unabashed and flagrant. Seldom (I hesitate to say never) has a bill been more intensively or expensively lobbied. …….. Things have changed." He cited actual figures he'd overheard, thrown freely between lobbyists comparing results in their canvassing for the China trade bill. That was hearsay. I cite it as indication only that things must have grown pretty bawdy to shock one of the few remaining old-time Washington cabdrivers. …….It is fair to report, however, that a slow and subtle change has come about in the way lawmakers consider and discuss legislation among themselves. ……No longer do legislators talk so much of what their constituents want. Now it's what their contributors want. They speak unhesitantly. The focus is on the money, pure and simple. With enough money for TV blitzes, voters will come around, they feel. Without it, they feel endangered. ….." Washington Times 6/2/00 Jerry Seper "…… A previously undisclosed memo contradicts Vice President Al Gore's sworn statements to the FBI denying his involvement in bailing out a failing $400 million Washington real estate project for a longtime Democratic fund-raiser. The memo, which surfaced in the FBI's probe of 1996 campaign finance abuses, said Mr. Gore sought to influence the development by calling the head of the General Services Administration to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to move into the building. The development, known as the Portals Project, is owned by Tennessee businessman Franklin Haney, a longtime Gore supporter. The three-paragraph, unsigned and undated memo, obtained yesterday by the Washington Times, said Mr. Gore "has called or is ready to call" Roger Johnson, then-head of the GSA, and that an unidentified contact, listed only as "xxx," would "follow up that call." Mr. Haney has denied any wrongdoing. In December 1998, he was indicted on 42 unrelated counts of making illegal donations to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. He later was acquitted on all charges. ….." CNSNews.com 6/8/00 Lionel Waxman "….. Throughout the west, environmentalists, with the enlisted help of several government agencies, are pursuing a program they call "re-introducing species." What they are actually doing, is putting wild animals like wolves and bears into what was their range before evil humans arrived. Of course, wild animals are quite willing to feast on domestic cattle and even humans whose paths they cross. But that's little enough price to pay for...I have no idea what. But their intention is to end human occupation in general and cattle ranching in particular. Except for the influential Ted Turner, of course, who has managed to get US Fish & Wildlife agents, at taxpayer expense, to round up the wolves near his Flying D Ranch in Montana with helicopters. ...... There they will be fitted with shock collars and taught not to attack cattle by shocking them every time they cast a hungry look at a tasty critter. If they don't learn fast enough, he plans to have them all killed. No word if they will also be taught not to want to eat humans……" Daily Telegraph (UK) 6/9/00 Simon Davis "…… ACTORS in Hollywood are ostracised and denied work if they openly support the Republican Party, Bo Derek has claimed. …….. The staunch Republican who found fame in the 1979 film Ten likened current discrimination towards conservatives to the blacklisting of alleged Communists in the Fifties. She said those who showed themselves to be liberal Democrats were more likely to get work. She told reporters in Hollywood: "They (the Democrats) are very adamant and almost militant in their views. It's tough to have a nice, open conversation of any kind. People get really angry and they treat me as though I'm some hateful monster." ……. One closet Republican who works for the Hollywood agency CAA said: "All the studio heads are liberals and everyone who isn't a liberal is pretending to be because they think it will help them get ahead. That may sound cynical, but you have to work any angle you can to make it in this very tough business." ……..Derek claimed she was advised to keep her views to herself "if she knows what's good for her". She said: "I have been told that I will never work again." ......" THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/5/00 George Archibald "…..A Texas law firm's huge profits from the $17 billion tobacco industry settlement, supported by the Clinton administration, have netted the Democratic Party one of its largest soft-money campaign contributions in the current election cycle. Houston-based Williams Bailey Law Firm and its partners, who take credit for helping win the massive multistate personal injury lawsuit against tobacco companies, gave $703,500 over the past year to national Democratic campaign committees and Vice President Al Gore, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, according to Federal Election Commission filings......." Ceci Connolly and Eric Pianin 6/5/00 Washington Post "…… When Rep. Charles B. Rangel lost his 1986 bid to become the third-ranking Democrat in the House, the culprit was obviously money. The victor, Tony Coelho, had spread lots of it around and Rangel had not. "It shows how naive I was," says Rangel, recalling how Coelho courted colleagues with his generosity. "Helping members get elected does make a difference."…….. This year Rangel has taken the Coelho model to new heights, preparing to dole out record sums to his fellow Democrats. …….Working with the gusto of a man half his age, the gravely voiced Rangel is leveraging that potential clout to help his party regain control of the House. As the third-highest fundraiser among House Democrats, Rangel generated $2.3 million last year for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. This year's tally, including tonight's take, is $4 million plus......." Associated Press Writer 6/1/00 Pete Yost "……Justice Department investigators have uncovered a memo describing a proposed strategy for Vice President Al Gore to help a longtime friend and Democratic fund-raiser obtain a $400 million federal contract. The document's origin is unknown, and Gore says he knows nothing about it. He also says he never intervened. ...... The undated three-paragraph memo - it is also unaddressed and unsigned - suggests that "Gore has called or is ready to call" then-General Services Administrator Roger Johnson in an attempt to help developer Franklin Haney and his partners lease a planned office building to the Federal Communications Commission. ……. Haney, a longtime Gore supporter who was acquitted last year of illegal fund-raising charges, eventually negotiated changes in the lease that were favorable to him and his partners. The FCC moved into the new 10-story Washington building, called the Portals, in November 1998. ……. In a June 1998 interview with prosecutors, Gore said he wasn't involved in the lease, never saw the memo, never discussed the matter with Johnson and never was asked to "assist, influence or intercede in any manner," an FBI summary shows. ….." Chicago Sun-Times 7/6/00 Robert Novak "….. Embedded in Vice President Al Gore's energy program is proposed continuation of an exemption, soon scheduled to expire, for payments of royalties to the government to permit deep oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Only one company has called for this break: Occidental Petroleum Corp., which happens to be the major source of Gore's wealth. Gore's support for the exemption is not shared officially by the Clinton administration. Occidental was alone among the energy companies present in requesting the extension during a Houston meeting with Interior Department officials in May. According to sources who were there, Occidental's representative threatened to move its operations to foreign shores if the company was turned down. That threat reportedly angered Carolita Kallaur, associate director of Interior's Offshore Mineral Management Division. ……" WASHINGTON TIMES 6/30/00 Bill Sammon "….. Vice President Al Gore, who controls at least $500,000 worth of stock in Occidental Petroleum, has ignored pleas from environmentalists to fight the company's plan to drill for oil on sacred Indian land in Colombia. The Gore family stands to benefit substantially if Occidental finds the 1.5 billion barrels of oil it estimates are buried beneath the pristine forest inhabited for centuries by the U'wa Indians. The 5,000-member tribe is threatening mass suicide if Occidental goes forward with drilling………But the Clinton-Gore administration is pushing more than $1 billion of aid to Colombia that Occidental says will help protect its oil interests. The money will be used in part to fight guerrillas who have often attacked the company's pipeline, spilling more crude than the Exxon Valdez……..Gore supporters inside and outside the administration are pushing hard for the Occidental project……." THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/30/00 Jerry Seper "……. The Cuban government paid for Elian Gonzalez's chartered flight to Havana through a Miami firm headed by a woman whose $22,000 donation to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign was returned when it was learned the woman had ties to a convicted drug smuggler. Vivian Mannerud Verble heads a Miami-based firm known as Airline Brokers Company Inc., which arranged all of the chartered flights to and from Havana involving Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his grandmothers and other Cubans. Mrs. Verble has been linked to convicted drug trafficker Jorge "Gordito" Cabrera, a Cuban-born U.S. citizen sentenced to 19 years in a Florida prison and fined $1.5 million for his conviction in the transportation of 6,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States. ……It was that connection that prompted Mrs. Clinton's New York senatorial campaign in April to return the $22,000 donation - the "the largest single contribution" to her soft money fund. Campaign officials returned the cash after determining the donation was "inappropriate," according to the first lady's spokesman, Howard Wolfson. ……" USA Today 6/25/00 Jesse Holland "…..Two Republican congressmen want Vice President Al Gore to answer allegations that federal contracts went to the Teamsters to influence their endorsement in the presidential race. Last Friday, The New York Times quoted anonymous Gore advisers as saying projects had been directed through federal agencies that would use Teamsters in an effort to keep the union from endorsing Green Party contender Ralph Nader. ''This statement, if true, is an illegal act,'' Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., a member of the House Government Reform Committee, said Thursday. …..The Gore campaign denied the allegation. ……" NewsMax.com 6/28/00 Carl Limbacher "……The Secret Service has arrested unarmed protestors who spoke harshly to President Clinton and shoved reporters out of the way when they wanted to question his wife Hillary. But when a group of Black Panthers carrying AK-47s, shotguns and other rifles marched on the site where Texas First Lady Laura Bush was about to speak earlier this month, the Secret Service took no action, the agency confirmed on Tuesday. ……"We were aware of the situation and we were monitoring it, but Mrs. Bush was never in any danger," a Secret Service spokesperson told NewsMax.com on Tuesday. ……..… The Secret Service would not say whether they scrutinized the group for possible weapons violations, but media reports from the scene indicate there were no attempts by any law enforcement agency to question the armed demonstrators. …….The agency spokesman also refused to say whether the Secret Service knew in advance that the Black Panthers had planned to march on the convention. Houston Police Department spokesman Robert Hurst told NewsMax.com last week that local law enforcement was aware of the Panthers' plans. ……." NewsMax.com 6/28/00 Carl Limbacher "……Police did arrest Panther Frederick Robinson, who was unarmed, after a GOP delegate complained Robinson had assaulted him at the scene. An HPD background check turned up two recent felony narcotics convictions on Robinson's record. In the past the Secret Service hasn't waited for actual law breaking to occur before acting, even in situations that pose little or no threat to the first family and others under their protection. ….." NewsMax.com 6/28/00 Carl Limbacher "……In July 1996, agents arrested Glenn and Patricia Mendoza for threatening President Clinton at the "Taste of Chicago" food fair, though the couple was not armed and neither made any overt threats. ……..However, after Clinton approached Patricia to shake her hand, she responded, "You suck and those boys died," a reference to the then-recent deaths of 19 American soldiers in the Khobar Towers bombing. …..Both Mendozas spent the night in the Cook County Jail, after being arrested on suspicion of threatening the life of the president. Weeks later, lacking evidence, the Secret Service dropped all charges. ……. In 1993 the Secret Service arrested William Kelly -- also unarmed -- who merely challenged Clinton at a town meeting about his failure to deliver on a promised middle class tax cut. Not only was Kelly booted out of the meeting, hours later his home was surrounded by armed agents who took him into custody. ………In 1996 a pro-life activist who confronted Clinton after a Washington, DC church service was detained and questioned by the Secret Service. …….. After this year's St. Patrick's Day parade, Metro Network News reporter Glenn Shuck told a New York radio audience that he and six other reporters were assaulted by agents guarding the first lady. …….Even in cases where the perceived danger to Secret Service protectees is not immediate or the result of a face-to-face encounter, the agency routinely springs into action. ……..When Senator Jesse Helms jokingly told a North Carolina newspaper in 1994 that President Clinton was so unpopular there he'd need bodyguards if he visited the state, the Secret Service launched an investigation. …….In 1988, when listeners complained that WABC talk radio host Lynn Samuels had made on on-air threat to then-Vice President Dan Quayle, the Secret Service visited the studio and questioned her. Both Helms and Samuels were cleared quickly. ………" NewsMax.com 6/28/00 Carl Limbacher "……As these cases and dozens of others show, the Secret Service deems no potential threat too inconsequential to investigate. Yet the agency indicated to NewsMax.com that it had no plans to probe the Panther protest and in fact showed extraordinary concern for the rights of the group to carry assault weapons at the site where one of it's protectees was about to speak: "In all situations when we come in contact with protests we have to provide a secure environment, which in this case we did. But also, we try not to inhibit anyone's right to demonstrate as long as they're doing it legally." …….." RightOnTheLeftCoast 6/28/00 "…. "The name Amerindo came from the fund's first investors, a group of Indonesian Chinese who wanted [the founder, Cuban expatriate Alberto] Vilar to call the firm American Indonesian Singaporean Investment Co. but settled for an abbreviation." --Fortune, October 25, 1999 1) This Fabian administration's highest-profile assault on capitalism just happened to benefit Indonesian investors.
World Net Daily 6/28/00 Joseph Farah "…….. President Clinton even agreed to a scheduled drop-by with the mayor of Moscow after Tony Rodham arranged for him to come to the White House at a time when Rodham's clients were hoping to secure the mayor's support for a lucrative business deal in Moscow. In 1997, Tony Rodham arranged a White House meeting for Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov at the request of Gene Prescott, who was involved with a start-up company that hoped to bring "smart" credit-debit cards to Russia with Luzhkov's support. As reports linked Luzhkov to members of the Russian mafia, Tony Rodham's request on his behalf made things very uncomfortable for Sandy Berger, the national security adviser. Nevertheless, in April 1997, Berger agreed to meet with Luzhkov and President Clinton arranged to stop by.. ……" World Net Daily 6/28/00 Joseph Farah "…….. Hugh Rodham was one of several lawyers who began negotiating a possible settlement with a gun industry trade group in 1999. Robert Ricker, the former head of the group, said Hugh Rodham helped arrange a White House meeting in early May with White House counsel Bruce Lindsey, domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed and others. Huh? Is this family playing all the angles or what? According to Ralph Nader, Hugh Rodham represented tobacco companies while the administration was hammering them with lawsuits. ……" World Net Daily 6/28/00 Joseph Farah "…….. In August 1999, the Rodham brothers and sometime partner Stephen Graham flew to Batumi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to look over a potential $118 million hazelnut operation. But they tumbled into the Byzantine world of post-Soviet politics. Batumi is ruled by Aslan Abashidze, a powerful rival to U.S. ally and Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze; Abashidze feted them for the huge investment they were expected to bring. While Tony Rodham says Abashidze did not exploit his White House connections, Shevardnadze sympathizers say he used the visit to claim he had a seal of approval from the U.S. government, a useful imprimatur in upcoming elections. Berger reportedly told the brothers to end the hazelnut deal and after first resisting; they relented. But Tony Rodham later told Time that he is "restructuring" the venture. I give you all this background as a preface for the latest news on the Hugh and Tony Rodham front. ……" World Net Daily 6/28/00 Joseph Farah "……..During the lunch, Vice President Lu exchanged views with the Rodhams on Taipei-Beijing relations and on the impact of the Korean summit on the cross-strait situation, according to Chang. The Rodhams expressed the hope that Taiwan will further bolster its publicity in the United States so as to enable the American public to better know Taiwan and its people, Chang said. According to Chang, others present at the secret lunch included National Security Council Secretary-General Chuang Ming-yao, Mainland Affairs Council Chair Tsai Ing-wen, and Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Chair Chang Fu-mei. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, declined to comment on the lunch, only saying that the MOFA knew nothing of the Rodham visit. ……" CounterPunch 3/1/95 Vol 2 No 5 Ken Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn "…… Beginning in the closing years of Clinton's gubernatorial career in Little Rock and pressed by President Bill's White House adviser, Mack McLarty, the scheme is now nearing the point of no return. A cowed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already bestowed millions on the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, whose prime function will be to ferry Tyson chickens to Japan and offer a hub for Wal-Mart's vast commercial operations. "From day one, and especially since Clinton was elected president, backers have boasted that they have a commitment from the federal government to build the airport," John Lisle, a lawyer who represents some of the families who would be displaced by the project, says. "They don't disclose the nature of that commitment, but they're absolutely confident that the project will be approved." ………Planning for the airport began in mid-1990, when local powerbrokers quietly formed the Northwest Arkansas Council (NAC), a private group promoting regional development. ……..A secretive outfit, the NAC has been demure about detailing its activities or even disclosing its membership. Jim Blair, a charter member of the group - and also the lawyer for Tyson Foods, a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and the man who handled the latter's commodity trades - once described the Council as a "self-appointed ad hoc committee" comprised of people "who feel they can do something for the area because the area has been good to them and they essentially want to put something back into it." Like Blair, most of the Council's founders had been long-time political supporters of Bill Clinton. …….. The Council's first order of business was to pressure local government bodies - city councils, municipal boards, quorum courts - to join the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority (NARAA), a quasi-public agency established to oversee the airport program. …..Links between the Council and the Authority are intimate. ……..The Authority's original feasibility study - conducted with a grant from the Department of Transportation - showed that its own founders stood to reap windfall profits if the airport were constructed. According to the study, the biggest winners would include: …… HAL9000 "…… WOMAN WHO HELPED DEVELOP SOME OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS IN NORTHWEST ARKANAS IS DEAD. 58-YEAR-OLD CAROL LINDSEY WAS ONE OF THE DRIVING FORCES BEHIND THE NORTHWEST ARKANSAS REGIONAL AIRPORT, HIGHWAY 4-12, THE TWO TON WATER SYSTEM AND THE COMPLETION OF INTERSTATE 5-40. ……." 7/5/00 Morning News of Northwest Arkansas - Thomas Sissom "……. As president and co-founder of Ozark International Consultants, along with her husband Uvalde Lindsey, her best-known public role was in the planning and building of Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. She solicited support for the project locally and nationally, appearing before Congress and on national television to defend the project against critics who called it a waste of taxpayersÕ money....... Lindsey also actively supported the Benton County-Washington County Water Project …. and she was a major player in the behind-the scenes work on the building of Interstate 540 and the approval of the proposed U.S. 412 bypass around Springdale. She also worked on projects in education, in health care and for a variety of other causes. Her sudden death left friends and associates shocked and tearful Wednesday but filled with pride at her accomplishments. President Clinton issued a statement from the White House after learning of LindseyÕs death………. Benton County Record 7/6/00 Maylon Rice "…..Economic growth proponent victim of sudden heart attack …….Carol Lindsey, a moving force in events. economic and transportation projects in Northwest Arkansas, died unexpectedly Tuesday after suffering a heart attack…….." National Review 8/8/00 John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru "……The United Auto Workers endorsed Al Gore today. That's a whiplash-inducing reversal from earlier this summer, when UAW president Stephen P. Yokich throttled the vice president for "holding hands with the profiteers of the world" by supporting trade with China. "We have no choice but to actively explore alternatives to the two major political parties," said Yokich. The UAW suggested it might get behind Ralph Nader. Last year it had sent a discouraging signal to the Gore campaign by joining the Teamsters in abstaining when the AFL-CIO federation voted to back Gore. ……… So what's going on here? Hard to say. But there's an interesting story in today's Detroit Free Press, which reports, "The federal government is investigating whether top UAW bargaining officials demanded jobs for their sons and $200,000 in bogus overpayment in return for ending a 1997 strike at General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac [Mich.] truck plants." ……..The Free Press story, written by Jeffrey McCracken, goes on to say the probe "has picked up speed in the last month. ... Several individuals at the UAW and GM have already been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury." ……" The Denver Rocky Mountain News 4/26/98 Al Lewis "……. No one lives here. No cars drive the cracked concrete streets. No light shines from the street lamps, no power passes through the electrical transformers, and no water rushes through the pipes. …….. But since 1993, a Tennessee developer has used tax-free bonds to squeeze more than $ 200 million from this rambling, windblown expanse of dirt, weeds and scrub oak along Interstate 25 in Castle Rock. The bonds were backed by the promise of future development, but instead of building a community for Coloradans, Chattanooga financier Franklin Haney poured $ 54.5 million of the proceeds into Portals II, a high-rise Washington office building. Haney, a friend of Vice President Al Gore and a heavyweight Democratic political contributor, now owns 50 percent of a partnership that is renting space to the U.S. government under a 20-year, $ 420-million lease. His building - financed with Dawson Ridge bonds - is slated to become the new headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission. On the same day Haney became an owner of Portals II, he paid a $ 1 million fee to Peter Knight, an attorney who managed the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. Weeks later, Haney donated $ 230,000 to the Democratic National Committee and five state Democratic parties. The Justice Department and two congressional committees now are examining whether Haney's friendship with Gore and the vice president's associates helped him land favorable lease terms. Where those inquiries will lead isn't known. But this much is: Haney's amazingly complex tax-free municipal bond transactions, which paid for his investment in Portals II, were done with the full knowledge of state regulators. …….''Franklin Haney is a master of creative finance, if you could call it that,'' Castle Rock Mayor Don Jones said. ''This was a project that I don't think any of us really understands how it was done. He's probably the only one who truly understands it.'' Vest said even he doesn't understand the deals, but emphasizes they were orchestrated to the letter of the law: ''Franklin Haney doesn't - and shouldn't - have to apologize for making a profit.'' ….." The Denver Rocky Mountain News 4/26/98 Al Lewis "…….Nevertheless, this vacant property has generated more than $ 200 million in bond proceeds since winding up in bankruptcy court, thanks to Haney's ingenuity. Details culled from U.S. Bankruptcy Court records in Denver and bond offering statements offer astonishing insights into Haney's convoluted dealings in Dawson Ridge. In 1992, Haney stepped into bankruptcy court and told Dawson Ridge bondholders he would pay them 15 cents on the dollar for their seemingly worthless bonds. The bondholders - primarily three large mutual funds - would receive about 50 cents on the dollar under the proposal because Haney's 15 cents would come in addition to cash remaining in the Dawson Ridge bankruptcy estate. Nearly all bondholders sold their bonds to Haney for about $ 3.2 million. Meanwhile, Haney was working toward dramatically improving the value of the defaulted bonds he was buying. He backed the bonds with U.S. government securities. That meant the bonds would be guaranteed by predictable financial instruments instead of the desolate land of Dawson Ridge. This allowed Haney to sell the once nearly worthless bonds for a fantastic premium: $ 148 million. Buyers included Smith Barney Inc………" The Denver Rocky Mountain News 4/26/98 Al Lewis "…….. After college, Haney earned a law degree at George Washington University and worked as an aide to Sen. Al Gore Sr. - father of the vice president. In 1964, Haney was elected president of the Young Democrats of Tennessee. In 1966, at 26, he ran for Congress from Chattanooga but lost. In 1974, at 34, he ran for governor and lost again. ……Luckless as a politician, Haney was hardly without options. Over the years, he'd made a fortune in real estate, financing many of his projects with tax-free bonds, then leasing the new buildings to government agencies. He built offices for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Internal Revenue Service, even the General Services Administration, the government's leasing agent. By the end of the 1970s, Haney was managing a real estate empire worth $ 200 million to $ 300 million. But in 1979, the IRS barred the use of tax-exempt financing for private buildings leased to the government. The new policy colloquially became known as ''the Haney Rule.'' Haney simply shifted gears. ………. Where others saw only financial ruin, he saw opportunity. Haney rode around in a chauffeured limousine, dressed in dapper suits and dropping the names of powerful people, including Al and Tipper Gore. His Tennessee accent gave little hint of his Washington law degree and his complex financial and real estate empire. Those who dealt with him described him as folksy but flashy - a onetime farmboy who has flown on Air Force One. ….." Washington Times 6/2/00 Jerry Seper "….. A previously undisclosed memo contradicts Vice President Al Gore's sworn statements …. to the FBI denying his involvement in bailing out a failing $400 million Washington real estate project for a longtime Democratic fund-raiser. The memo, which surfaced in the FBI's probe of 1996 campaign finance abuses, said Mr. Gore sought to influence the development by calling the head of the General Services Administration to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to move into the building. The development, known as the Portals Project, is owned by Tennessee businessman Franklin Haney, a longtime Gore supporter. The three-paragraph, unsigned and undated memo, obtained yesterday by the Washington Times, said Mr. Gore "has called or is ready to call" Roger Johnson, then-head of the GSA, and that an unidentified contact, listed only as "xxx," would "follow up that call." Mr. Haney has denied any wrongdoing. In December 1998, he was indicted on 42 unrelated counts of making illegal donations to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. He later was acquitted on all charges. The author of the memo remains vague, and Mr. Gore-during a June 10, 1998, interview by the FBI - vigorously denied any knowledge of the document, saying he had "no idea" what it was or who had prepared it. He also denied having any conversations with Mr. Haney or Mr. Johnson about the Portals project; said he was never asked to "assist, influence of intercede" in the venture; and never told anyone "directly or indirectly" on how to lessen then-pending resistance by the FCC to the move to the Portals site. ….." AP-NY-newsday.com 7/27/00 Larry Margasak "……The Justice Department searched a criminal database for a lawyer from Attorney General Janet Reno's former Miami firm and passed along the response in a deviation from normal practice, current and former officials report. The decision to access the database was made by then-Associate Attorney General John Schmidt, who overruled a subordinate when the case arose in 1995 and defended his judgment in an interview Wednesday. Reno had disqualified herself, telling aides in a memo not to contact her in the case because ''a close personal friend'' was involved. Rebekah Poston, an acquaintance of Reno, sought arrest records on a Japanese religious leader on behalf of a client. While Poston successfully worked around the normal practice, she didn't get the answer she wanted….. Poston apparently was not the friend referred to in Reno's recusal, although it may have been a lawyer in the same firm. House Government Reform Committee investigators, examining whether Poston received favored treatment, also questioned in an internal memo whether private investigators working for Poston broke the law by surreptitiously obtaining information from the database. ….. Justice Department chief spokesman Myron Marlin confirmed that Reno and Poston worked for the same Miami law firm, Steel Hector & Davis, but said they were employed there at different times. He also confirmed that Poston's sister, Roberta Forrest, worked on Reno's successful campaign as Florida state attorney for Dade County……." Newsweek/NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE 8/16/00 Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball "…..The Share Group's involvement in the Gore campaign was first reported by ABC News Tuesday night. As evidence surfaced that The Share Group's ties with the Democrats was considerably more extensive than was first reported, some Teamsters officials expressed outrage that the party would continue to deal with a company that was involved in what some union members see as a scheme to loot union funds. Just four months ago, the Teamsters filed a lawsuit against Ansara, The Share Group and others involved in the fundraising for Carey, accusing them of a civil racketeering conspiracy that cost the union over $3 million. In 1997, a federal court official ordered a new Teamster election and James Hoffa was elected president. ...... The payments to The Share Group are especially sensitive because Ansara remains a critical witness in a continuing federal investigation that could embarass the Democrats. Lawyers for the Teamsters were recently told by federal prosecutors that they would block their efforts to depose Ansara because he was still needed as a witness in their grand jury investigation. A Teamster official likened the Democrat's payments to Ansara to payments made by President Clinton's supporters to former associate attorney general Webster Hubbell after he pled guilty to defrauding his former law firm and came under pressure to cooperate with independent counsel Ken Starr. ......" Washington Times 8/29/00 Sean Scully "……President Clinton has quietly installed three new ambassadors, all heavy contributors to the Democratic Party and the Gore campaign, without the consent of the Republican-controlled Senate. …… The three are Carl Spielvogel, an advertising executive from New York, as ambassador to Slovakia; James A. Daley, an investor in nursing-home companies and Boston hotels, as ambassador to Barbados; and Robin Chandler Duke, widow of a career diplomat and former president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, as ambassador to Norway. Collectively, the trio has given $550,900 to Democrats in the past three years, including $24,000 to Vice President Al Gore and $343,000 to the Democratic Party, according to research at the Federal Election Commission by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. Mr. Spielvogel held a fund-raiser for Mr. Gore at his Long Island home just days after his appointment. "At the specific moment that Vice President Gore is trying to distance himself from the corruption of the Clinton administration, here we have President Clinton selling ambassadorships to fund the Gore campaign," said Marc Thiessen, spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee……" Dallas Morning News 9/14/00 George Kuempel "……Lady Bird Johnson is among a group of well-known individuals, including Walter Cronkite, waging a behind-the-scenes campaign seeking President Clinton's pardon of a convicted bank swindler and one-time big Democratic campaign donor. The petition to wipe clean former Austin banker Ruben Johnson's criminal slate has angered federal authorities who helped convict him - as well as the judge who sentenced him to eight years in prison in 1989. He was released in 1994. ……. Mr. Johnson's lawyer, Denise Tomlinson of Austin, confirmed that the former first lady and Mr. Cronkite, the longtime CBS anchorman, are among a number of "prominent" people who have written the Justice Department in support of a pardon. ……" NewsMax.com 9/3/00 Carl Limbacher "……House Judiciary Committee Weighing New Probe of Gore Citizenship Scam There is "renewed interest" on the House Judiciary Committee in probing allegations that the Clinton-Gore administration used the Immigration and Naturalization Service to rig the 1996 election, a source close to the committee has told NewsMax.com. Citizenship USA, the INS project reportedly spearheaded by Vice President Al Gore as part of his "reinventing government" effort, was allegedly designed to help guarantee a Clinton-Gore re-election victory four years ago by waving citizenship requirements for up to a million immigrants whom the administration believed would vote Democratic. The 1998 probe, led by former Chicago prosecutor David Schippers, uncovered substantial evidence - including e-mails from Gore and his staffers - implicating the vice president in the fraudulant scheme, which waived normal naturalization requirements in order to fit the 1996 election timetable. Up to 60,000 immigrants with criminal records became citizens under the Clinton-Gore plan. At least one ineligible immigrant was naturalized as he sat in his jail cell. "There is renewed interest on the committee and there may be further investigation," the well-placed source told NewsMax.com Sunday. "The evidence is there. The first move they have to make is to get the FBI to update the records on those 60,000 crooks that came into the country." ……" Raleigh News-Observer 9/13/00 AP "…..Albert Gore III won't be tried in Currituck County on speeding and reckless driving charges until after the November election in which his father is running for president. The trial, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, was delayed until Nov. 22 at the request of the 17-year-old Gore's attorney, William Brumsey III of Currituck. Brumsey said Tuesday that the presidential election wasn't a factor in the delay...." NewsMax.com 8/27/00 Carl Limbacher "…… GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney challenged the press on Sunday to probe the apparent conflict of interest in Vice President Al Gore's substantial investment in Occidental Petroleum while he presides over decisions that have affected the company's net worth. "I might point out that Al Gore, all the time he's been vice president, has been the potential beneficiary of a trust that contains upwards of a million dollars in Occidental Petroleum stock," Cheney told ABC's Sam Donaldson. "Somebody ought to go spend some time on that, if you want." The GOP's number two man bristled a bit during his "This Week" interview, since the intense media scrutiny over his own holdings of Halliburton Energy stock seems more than a little one sided. The New York Times has mounted a full fledged in investigation into Cheney's potential Halliburton conflict, and Donaldson, along with others in the press, have followed the scent. "I'll do whatever I have to do to avoid a conflict of interest," Cheney told Donaldson, suggesting he might put his investments in a blind trust and donate profits from stock options to charity. ……But Cheney was plainly irked that the same kind of questions never arose during Vice President Al Gore's tenure in office, even after Gore presided over a Clinton administration decision that substantially inflated the value of his own investment portfolio. ……. In 1997 the White House announced a plan to sell the Navy's Elk Hills oil and gas reserve, one of the nation's most substantial energy resources, to Occidental Petroleum. ……." Internet 8/24/00 Jon Christian Ryter "…… On Tuesday, August 22, 2000 President Bill Clinton signed a waiver that authorized the distribution of $1.3 billion to the Columbian government to help them "fight the war on drugs." The measure was buried in a foreign aid package that started, early this spring, as a bill to pay for American "peacekeeping" forces in the Balkans for another year. That bill, heavily pork-laden, was signed into law in July. …….. Even earlier this year Al Gore was being lobbied by Occidental Petroleum for a $1.6 billion military aid package to protect its pipelines in Columbia. Occidental's request was for more than money--they wanted American troops in Columbia to protect their pipelines, which are being sabotaged by both FALN and ELN revolutionaries who are engaged in a civil war against the middle and upper class Columbians. Occidental operates the second largest oil field in Columbia. Columbia is virtually controlled by drug smugglers and, because of a decade-long civil war with two separate insurgency groups, its government has been unable to stop the drug running on the one hand nor the violent, bloody class struggle on the other. When the Columbian government proved not up to the task of protecting Occidental's interests, Occidental turned to their personal friend in Washington--Vice President Al Gore. ......" NewsMax.com 8/27/00 Carl Limbacher "…… GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney challenged the press on Sunday to probe the apparent conflict of interest in Vice President Al Gore's substantial investment in Occidental Petroleum while he presides over decisions that have affected the company's net worth. ……. "I might point out that Al Gore, all the time he's been vice president, has been the potential beneficiary of a trust that contains upwards of a million dollars in Occidental Petroleum stock," Cheney told ABC's Sam Donaldson. "Somebody ought to go spend some time on that, if you want." ……… The GOP's number two man bristled a bit during his "This Week" interview, since the intense media scrutiny over his own holdings of Halliburton Energy stock seems more than a little one sided. ……" Miami Herald 6/29/96 David Lyons "……Two Miami businessmen connected to money-laundering operations for the Cali, Colombia, drug cartel contributed to the campaigns of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Vice President Al Gore when he was a senator, and former Gov. Michael Dukakis when he ran for president, according to a published report. …….. The contributors were Jose Duvan Arboleda-Gonzalez and Harry A. Falk, both indicted in 1991 after a massive federal investigation called Operation Polar Cap targeted money- laundering operations in Miami and other cities such as New York and Los Angeles. …….. Named in 230 counts, Arboleda-Gonzalez fled the country and is believed to be in Colombia. He hasn't been seen by authorities since. Falk was convicted last year of 90 of 130 laundering counts in a federal trial in West Palm Beach. Last week, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp sentenced Falk to 27 years in prison. Both men were executives of Orexana Corp., a metals trading firm based in Hialeah. After the indictment, they were removed by directors. Orexana, a public company whose stock traded on the over-the-counter market, was once known as Metal Resources Corp., a company in which the two men were partners. …….. For years, the indictment alleged, Arboleda-Gonzalez used the businesses to "conceal and cover up the laundering of millions of dollars derived from the sale of drugs, particularly cocaine." ……… " Miami Herald (MH) – 7/10/98 Jane Bussey "…… Miami business executive Howard Glicken, one of the Democratic Party's biggest fund-raisers, was charged Thursday with soliciting $20,000 in illegal foreign campaign contributions in 1993. Glicken, who said he had helped to convince Vice President Al Gore that the 1994 Summit of the Americas should be held in Miami, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act. ……… Shohat said Glicken would pay a fine under the agreement, but that the amount was not yet clear. The charges filed against Glicken by the Justice Department's Campaign Financing Task Force included soliciting a $20,000 campaign contribution from a foreign national for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1993 and inducing another person to illegally make the contribution for the foreign national. ……… Questions arose in 1996, when Glicken's name surfaced as accompanying the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown on an export promotion tour through Latin America, although Glicken's Washington merchant bank, the Commonwealth Group, was not an exporting company. In 1991, Glicken's former company, MetalBanc, and former partner, Harry Falk, were indicted on money-laundering charges. Glicken himself was not charged, and the charges against the company were later dropped, but Falk is serving a prison term on the money-laundering charges. ….." FoxNews 9/13/00 Angle "…… TIME Special Report: In 1995, as a law harmful to trial lawyers hung in the balance, Vice President Gore traveled to the Lone Star State for a fund-raiser with top attorneys... Trial lawyers, long a cornerstone of Democratic fundraising, have outdone themselves for Al Gore's presidential race. Even before the successful Democratic convention in August, they had given $7 million to the party's campaign committees. No surprise given Gore's consistent opposition to federal legislation that would limit court awards to victims of corporate negligence. ……. But roll back to fall 1995 when Republicans, in fresh control of both houses of Congress, were fashioning such tort-reform legislation. President Clinton, trying to position himself between the GOP and liberal Democrats as he prepared for his 1996 re-election campaign, alarmed the trial bar with talk of compromise. "He did indicate his willingness to sign a bill that met certain parameters," says Fred Baron, a Texan who is president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. ……. " FoxNews 9/13/00 Angle "……On Nov. 28, 1995, Gore flew to Houston for a intimate fundraising dinner at the home of high-profile trial lawyer John Eddie Williams. His guests included attorneys who have made fortunes representing individuals claiming harm from asbestos, tobacco and other products. ……. Two days later, the vice president was given memos by a Democratic National Committee staffer, Erica Payne, suggesting follow-up calls to some of the Texas lawyers who attended the dinner. Among the names was Walter Umphrey of Beaumont, who made his fortune suing asbestos manufacturers and was the lead lawyer for the state of Texas in its suit against the tobacco industry. (He would later share $3.3 billion in attorneys' fees when the suit settled in 1998.) Umphrey is described in the memo as "close to" Williams, who hosted the event, although it is not clear that he was at the dinner. Regardless, the memo suggested asking Umphrey for $100,000 to help pay for the TV buys, noting that "Walter is closely following tort reform." ..." FoxNews 9/13/00 Angle "……Just how closely was made clear in a similar memo two weeks later to DNC Chairman Don Fowler from party staffer Payne. The memo, obtained by TIME, provided a suggested script for Fowler to use in his call to Umphrey: "Sorry you missed the Vice President: I know [you] will give $100K when the President vetoes tort reform, but we really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible." ...... Gore's office said that the vice-president appears not to have made the late November call to Umphrey, but that in any case the two did not speak. Gore spokesman Jim Kennedy noted that the memos have long been in the possession of both Capitol Hill investigators and the Justice Department's campaign finance task force. "Republicans and others have had this for more than 1,000 days," Kennedy said. "No one found it interesting till 1,000 hours before the election." But one informed source said the task force only recently discovered the memo to Fowler. ……" whitehouse.gov 9/13/00 "…… Capitol Hill Blue (AP) 9/14/00 AP "……In the four years since Vice President Al Gore was asked to make a fund-raising phone call to a Texas trial lawyer, the attorney and his law firm involved in tobacco industry litigation have funneled $790,000 to the Democratic Party. …….. Memos being reviewed by Justice Department investigators suggest Democratic officials were concerned that the donor, Walter Umphrey, wouldn't begin writing six-figure checks until after President Clinton vetoed limits on liability lawsuits. …… The task force is headed by Robert Conrad, who previously recommended for a special counsel to investigate Gore in connection with his statements about fund-raising scandal. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to appoint one. ……. One of the call sheets to Fowler suggested language he could use in a call to the lawyer. ``Sorry you missed the Vice President,'' states the call sheet. ``I know will give $100K whn the President vetos Tort reform, but we really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible.'' ……. Prior to the preparation of the Dec. 13, 1995 call sheet, another document shows Gore was asked to call Umphrey and solicit a donation. …… `Umphrey is one of five trial lawyers at the center of a legal dispute between the Republican Texas attorney general and attorneys who represented the state in litigation to recover money from tobacco companies for health care costs. ……. The trial lawyers are receiving $3.3 billion for the tobacco case. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn is challenging them and seeking to question five lawyers, including Umphrey, who negotiated the state's tobacco settlement. ……" YAHOO News 9/14/00 Steve Holland "…..Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites)'s campaign and the White House on Thursday attempted to shrug off a new campaign controversy over contributions while Republican George W. Bush (news - web sites) charged Gore ``may have crossed a serious line.'' Giving an uncomfortable jolt to the Gore campaign was an article in The New York Times linking political donations to a presidential veto on tort reform………… Bush said the questions raised in the article were disturbing. ``Americans are tired of investigations and scandals and the best way to get rid of them is to elect a new president who will bring a new administration, who will restore honor and dignity to the White House,'' Bush said……." AP via Newsday9/13/00 Anne Gearan "…..The White House is considering media requests for names of overnight guests after suggestions Wednesday that Hillary Rodham Clinton offered overnight stays at the White House to supporters of her Senate campaign. ''We're reviewing the requests,'' deputy White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. The senior spokesman, Joe Lockhart, confirmed that political supporters have stayed at the White House, but dismissed the notion that the first lady did anything improper. ….." Miami Herald 8/31/91 Patrick May "…… J erome "Jerry" Berlin, Miami businessman and one of the country's most powerful Democratic fund-raisers, was acquitted Friday of federal charges that he and another lawyer conspired to defraud a crippled securities investment firm in 1985. …… The money, according to the Kilpatricks, was to be used to bribe Florida Comptroller Gerald Lewis and Tennessee Democratic Sen. Albert Gore Jr., power brokers in places where GIC had gotten into trouble. ……. After a four-week trial, jurors took less than five hours to find Berlin and New York attorney Anthony Labozzetta innocent of bilking GIC Government Securities Inc. of $225,000. The two brothers who ran GIC had testified the money was supposed to be used to bribe prominent politicians who would then get regulators off GIC's back. …… The defense insisted the money was to cover legal fees, and said the bribery allegations were politically motivated. ……… "The verdict," Berlin said Friday, "is a total vindication, not only that I was innocent, but that this prosecution should never, ever have been brought in the first place. ……. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia Hyman and Charles Dause declined comment. Their boss, U.S. Attorney Robert W. Genzman, issued only this brief statement: "We were disappointed, but we accept the jury's verdict." ……. The jurors -- eight men and four women -- also declined to discuss the verdict. However, alternate juror Jim Cleary, 35, said that while a small group of jurors were impressed with the government's case, the majority found the Kilpatricks, both convicted felons, difficult to believe. ......... "It didn't surprise me," Cleary said, "that Berlin would be much liked in his inner circle of politicians." …….. Berlin, who over the years has raised millions of dollars for political candidates, called U.S. Congressmen Dante Fascell and Larry Smith as character witnesses. …….. " Miami Herald 8/11/91 Patrick May "……The indictment also alleges that Lonnie Kilpatrick, who had taken over the firm from his brother in late 1984, paid another $25,000 to Berlin that was to go to an unnamed U.S. senator from Tennessee -- identified previously as Democrat Albert Gore Jr. …….. But the droning belies the political whodunit unfolding in Courtroom D. Seated at the defense table is Miami businessman Jerome "Jerry" Berlin -- longtime power broker among South Florida politicians, heavyweight fund-raiser for the Democratic Party, accountant and lawyer, friend of America's elected high-and-mighty. ……. And, now, federal defendant. …….. Berlin, 49, and New York lawyer Anthony V. Labozzetta, 42, were indicted in Tampa last fall, charged with bilking a securities investment firm out of $225,000. The money was ostensibly to be used as bribes to get state regulators off the firm's back in Florida and Tennessee. Instead, the government says Berlin and Labozzetta pocketed the money…….. The defense insists the payments were all strictly kosher, legal and consulting fees to be split between Labozzetta, who was corporate counsel at the time for GIC Government Securities Inc., and Berlin, who was being brought in for his sterling political connections throughout the state. ………. The indictment also alleges that Lonnie Kilpatrick, who had taken over the firm from his brother in late 1984, paid another $25,000 to Berlin that was to go to an unnamed U.S. senator from Tennessee -- identified previously as Democrat Albert Gore Jr. That senator, in turn, would help iron out regulatory problems GIC faced in that state………. Neither Gore nor Lewis knew a thing about the alleged bribes being solicited in their names, say Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia Hyman and Charles Dause. And this week, as early as Monday morning, they'll put Lewis on the stand to say so for himself. ……" Miami Herald 6/11/97 Manny Garcia "…….A key figure in one of the largest corruption scandals in South Florida history donated $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee during a swank bash for Vice President Al Gore in Coral Gables. ……. Pamit Surana, 26, played a critical role in an extortion scheme uncovered by FBI agents during Operation Greenpalm, a federal investigation into bribery and corruption in Miami and Dade County government. ……. In November 1995, FBI agents secretly recorded Surana and his father, then-Miami Finance Director Manohar Surana, plotting how to hide money his father planned to extort from a Unisys computer salesman angling for a $20 million city of Miami contract, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. In subsequent recordings, Pamit Surana discussed how they would set up an offshore bank account to hide the cash, the sources said. …….. Unaware he was the target of an FBI undercover probe, Democratic party leaders invited Pamit Surana to a re-election fund-raiser for Gore and President Clinton on Dec. 9, 1995. ……. He attended the fete, made a $10,000 contribution and had his photograph snapped with the vice president. ……. ``Everybody had their picture taken,'' said Jerry Berlin, a Democratic Party fund-raiser who opened his home to Gore. ``The vice president would stand in one place and as the guest came up, he would greet them.'' That same party caused angst and embarrassment at the White House when it was learned that convicted drug dealer Jorge Cabrera had given $20,000. A picture of Gore with Cabrera made the national press as White House reporters chased tales of Asian campaign contributions and other fund-raising scandals. …….. Pamit Surana, federal election records show, continued making donations to the party -- even after FBI agents confronted his father with evidence of the shakedown scheme in March 1996. ……. On March 4, 1996, Pamit's father secretly agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and extortion. He wore a hidden microphone and helped the FBI bust Miami Commissioner Miller Dawkins, City Manager Cesar Odio and lobbyist Jorge de Cardenas. ……" AP/Yahoo 9/14/00 Carolyn Thompson "…..Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) denied Thursday that her fund-raisers have offered overnight stays at the White House in exchange for donations to her Senate campaign. ``We have friends and supporters come and spend time with us and spend the night with us that we are getting to know and who like spending time with us,'' Clinton said when questioned at a campaign stop at a western New York diner. ``I don't see what's news about that.'' Asked if her fund-raisers had offered the overnight stays to potential donors, the Democratic Senate candidate shook her head no. ….." THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/30/00 "…..The Cuban government paid for Elian Gonzalez's chartered flight to Havana through a Miami firm headed by a woman whose $22,000 donation to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign was returned when it was learned the woman had ties to a convicted drug smuggler. ……. Mrs. Verble herself is no strang D- er to the Democratic Party. She attended an October 1995 White House coffee with Mr. Gore, DNC Chairman Donald L. Fowler, DNC Finance Chairman Marvin S. Rosen and oil financier Roger Tamraz, now an international fugitive who donated thousands of dollars to the DNC. ……. Cabrera was arrested in January 1996, a month after the White House party, by undercover detectives who confiscated cocaine, $50,000 in cash, several boxes of illegal Cuban cigars and photos of Cabrera with Cuban President Fidel Castro. …… He was indicted in 1983 by a federal grand jury in Miami on racketeering and drug charges and charged in 1988 with managing a continuing narcotics operation. In both cases, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges - conspiracy to bribe a witness and income-tax evasion. According to federal election records, Cabrera gave the money to the DNC on Nov. 9, 1995. …….. After giving $20,000 to the DNC, Cabrera attended a 1995 White House Christmas party with President Clinton, where he had his picture taken with the first lady. He also attended a fund-raiser in Miami in December 1995, where he was photographed with Vice President Al Gore. …….. Mrs. Verble has been linked to convicted drug trafficker Jorge "Gordito" Cabrera, a Cuban-born U.S. citizen sentenced to 19 years in a Florida prison and fined $1.5 million for his conviction in the transportation of 6,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States. …..Mrs. Verble, also a Cuban-American, served as the fund-raising intermediary between Cabrera and the Democratic National Committee in 1995. After giving $20,000 to the DNC, Cabrera attended a 1995 White House Christmas party with President Clinton, where he had his picture taken with the first lady. He also attended a fund-raiser in Miami in December 1995, where he was photographed with Vice President Al Gore. His $20,000 contribution in November 1995 was returned after DNC officials learned of his arrest. ……. House investigators said Cabrera wrote the DNC check from an account to which he had diverted illicit drug profits. They said the donation came after Mrs. Verble talked with Cabrera in November 1995 at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana - an accusation the Miami businesswoman, who has not been charged with any crime, has denied. Freeper Wallaby 9/13/00 "…… The host of the party, Jerry Berlin, was acquitted of charges that he extorted money with the promise that he could bribe Al Gore. The prosecutors and defense said Al Gore didn't know anything about this. Yet, Jerry Berlin continues to raise money for Al Gore, most notoriously in this event, attended by Jorge Cabrera, a gathering of rogues that is reminiscent of the cantina scene in "Star Wars". ….." Miami Herald Sunday; Final Section: Front Page: 1A 1/4/98 "…..A wide-ranging corruption probe at the Port of Miami now focuses on allegations that former director Carmen Lunetta conspired to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money to favored port associates, The Herald has learned. …… The port investigation is a spinoff of Operation Greenpalm, a probe that began at Miami City Hall, then shifted to an alleged $300,000 kickback scheme involving a county bond deal. …….. Sources said the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI are attempting to build a criminal conspiracy case against Lunetta, alleging he made questionable payments to port vendors who did little for the money. The decision on whether to prosecute the longtime port director is expected early this year. ……. Notations on canceled Fiscal Operations checks show that Grigsby's employees made nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions, then were reimbursed by the company in violation of state and federal election laws. Sources said some of the contributions and reimbursements were made at Lunetta's direction. All of the payments were covered with port funds. The $20,000 DNC contribution was made in August 1995. Later that year, Lunetta was invited to a White House coffee, in recognition of his DNC fund raising. ……… * $82,000 in consulting fees to former Miami Mayor David Kennedy, a county lobbyist and a Lunetta political ally. ...... Records show that Lunetta ordered Fiscal Operations to pay Kennedy -- a directive that baffled company managers. ``Consultant for what?'' someone wrote on Kennedy's first invoice in 1994. ……. The owner of a bond underwriting firm, Grigsby allegedly conspired with County Commissioner James Burke, former Burke aide Billy Hardemon and another bond underwriter, former Miami City Manager Howard Gary. Indictments in that case are expected in coming weeks, sources have told The Herald. Burke, Grigsby and Hardemon all contend they did nothing wrong, that they were set up by Gary. Unknown to them, he was acting as a government informant…" Miami Herald 4/4/97 Don Van Natta Jr. "……Jorge Cabrera, a drug smuggler who has emerged as one of the most notorious supporters of President Clinton's re-election campaign, was asked for a campaign contribution in the unlikely locale of a hotel in Havana by a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, congressional investigators have learned. …….. Vivian Mannerud, a Cuban-American businesswoman from Miami, told Cabrera at a meeting at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana that in exchange for a contribution he would be invited to a fund-raising dinner in honor of Vice President Al Gore in Coral Gables. ……The investigators said the fund-raiser, whom they identified as Vivian Mannerud, a Cuban-American businesswoman from Miami, told Cabrera at a meeting at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana that in exchange for a contribution he would be invited to a fund-raising dinner in honor of Vice President Al Gore in Coral Gables. …… Mannerud owns Airline Brokers Co., an airline charter service that operates among Havana, the Bahamas and Mexico. ……… On his return to the United States several days after that meeting, in November 1995, Cabrera wrote a check for $20,000 to the Democratic National Committee from an account that included the proceeds from smuggling cocaine from Colombia to the United States, said the investigators, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ……Within two weeks of the contribution, Cabrera met Gore at the dinner in Miami. Ten days later, Cabrera attended a Christmas reception at the White House hosted by Hillary Rodham Clinton. At the events, Gore and Mrs. Clinton posed for photographs with Cabrera, who has two felony convictions dating from the 1980s and is now in a Florida prison on a drug-smuggling conviction. …….." Washington Times via Drudge 9/13/00 "……Vice President Al Gore and the head of the Democratic National Committee sought a $100,000 donation from a wealthy Texas lawyer in 1995 after promising that President Clinton would veto a bill limiting damage awards in product-liability cases. ……. The DNC's push for the money was outlined in a confidential memo, saying that while the party knew that the lawyer, Walter Umphrey, would give the cash following the president's veto, "We really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible."……. According to documents obtained by The Washington Times, the requests came in separate telephone calls by Mr. Gore on Nov. 30, 1995, and by DNC Chairman Donald Fowler on Dec. 13, 1995, to Mr. Umphrey, senior partner at the Beaumont, Texas, law firm of Provost & Umphrey……. In a telephone call sheet prepared for the vice president by the DNC, Mr. Gore was instructed to ask Mr. Umphrey, who specializes in personal-injury cases for labor unions, for $100,000 for the DNC's media fund. Mr. Gore was told that Mr. Umphrey previously had given $10,000 to the DNC in 1994. The call sheet does not indicate whether Mr. Gore was successful in reaching the Texas lawyer, although a call sheet prepared two weeks later for Mr. Fowler suggests the vice president did not reach his intended target……" NY Times 9/14/00 Don Van Natta Jr Richard Oppel Jr "…..Vice President Al Gore attended a Houston dinner in November 1995 to promote a budding relationship between the Democratic Party and a handful of powerful Texas trial lawyers. The relationship blossomed, producing $4 million in donations from the lawyers' firms since 1996. But it also produced some heavy-handed fund- raising that has recently drawn the scrutiny of federal campaign finance investigators. …….. At the time of the dinner, the lawyers were deeply troubled by a bill passed by the Republican-led Congress that would have drastically overhauled the nation's litigation system by restricting the amount of money that people injured by faulty products could win in lawsuits. Two days after the dinner, Democratic officials asked Mr. Gore to call several lawyers who attended the dinner to ask each to give $100,000 to the party. ….." NY Times 9/14/00 Don Van Natta Jr Richard Oppel Jr "….. Almost always, the memorandums, known as call sheets, were careful to avoid any mention of executive branch actions or donors' legislative wishes. Soliciting contributions and explicitly linking campaign donations to official actions is improper and, in some cases, illegal. …… The call sheet's unusual mention of a veto as part of a solicitation of a $100,000 donation has attracted the attention of Robert J. Conrad Jr., the head of the Justice Department's campaign finance task force, who has opened a preliminary investigation into the matter, several law enforcement officials said. ……. Although it was well known in late 1995 that the president was likely to veto the tort reform bill, its passage by the Republican-controlled Congress greatly concerned trial lawyers. On May 2, 1996, President Clinton vetoed the bill, which would have set strict limits in both state and federal courts on punitive damages, the money juries may give beyond awards to compensate victims for their losses. Supporters of the measure, including Democrats who lobbied for almost a decade for legislation to limit liability damages, argued that it would put a cap on multimillion-dollar jury awards that they said added to consumer costs. But the opponents said large jury awards were needed to prevent companies from selling unsafe products. ……." NY Times 9/14/00 Don Van Natta Jr Richard Oppel Jr "…..This year, Mr. Gore has continued to woo the Texas trial lawyers, a strategy that has paid enormous dividends to the Democrats. In the years before the May 1996 veto, five prominent Texas lawyers - Mr. Umphrey, John Eddie Williams Jr., the host of the dinner attended by Mr. Gore on Nov. 28, 1995, John O'Quinn, Wayne Reaud and Harold Nix - and their law firms had given $747,700 to the Democrats. Since the veto, the five men and their firms have given a nearly $4 million to the Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group in Washington that monitors campaign finances. …….. By contrast, according to the center, the five lawyers have given no money to the Republican Party, whose nominee for President, George W. Bush, has pushed aggressively as governor of Texas to limit jury awards and has pledged as a presidential candidate to "curb frivolous lawsuits." ……." NY Times 9/14/00 Don Van Natta Jr Richard Oppel Jr "…..Mr. Umphrey's contributions are a vivid example of the generosity bestowed on the Democratic Party by the five Texas lawyers, most of whom have become fabulously wealthy from the $3.3 billion in fees they were awarded for their work on a lawsuit against the tobacco industry. The lawyers helped engineer a $17.3 billion settlement in 1998 from the tobacco industry for Texas. ……… Lawyers and law firms have already contributed nearly $5 million to Mr. Gore's presidential campaign - nearly 10 percent of all the money the Gore-Lieberman campaign has raised, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. ……" Freeper Boyd Research "….What follows is the guest list and a sample contribution ( by no means complete) of the guests at the July 20, 1995 Al " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" Gore hosted White House coffee. They were the Miami crew. ……… Most of them I have identified but not all. Buddy Mackay made no contributions and Ira Lessfield made but one and it was returned. Anyway since Glickman and Berlin have both been indicted and with Marv Rosen the head of the DNC Finance organization during the 95/96 campaign I figure this congregation of Miami type Democrat donors with Al " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" Gore wasn't just a 'coffee'. Anyone with any info on any of the participants please let me know. White House Coffee Guest List: July 20, 1995 Host: Vice President " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" Gore Attending: Political and Community Leaders Location: Old Executive Office Building Mitchell Berger*** BERGER, MITCHELL 1/29/96 $500.00 PARKLAND, FL 33067 BERGER SHAPIRO AND DAVIS -[Contribution] FRIENDS OF SENATOR CARL LEVIN Berger, Mitchell R. Mr. 3/31/99 $1,000.00 Washington, DC 20016 Patton Boggs LLP -[Contribution] " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" GORE 2000 INC Howard Glicken GLICKEN, HOWARD 12/7/95 $2,000.00 CORAL GABLES, FL 33143 THE COMMONWEALTH GROUP -[Contribution] NEW JERSEY VICTORY FUND '96 Michael Adler ADLER, MICHAEL 3/7/96 $1,250.00 MIAMI, FL 33186 ADLER GROUP -[Contribution] NATIONAL ACTION COMMITTEE - NACPAC Bill Crotty*** CROTTY, E WILLIAM 5/7/96 $25,000.00 DAYTONA BEACH, FL 32118 BLACK CROTTY SIMS HUBKA DNC-NON-FEDERAL INDIVIDUAL Herminio San Roman SAN ROMAN, HERMINIO 3/25/97 $500.00 MIAMI, FL 33133 ADORNOT ZEDER PA -[Contribution] MENENDEZ FOR CONGRESS Dick Batchelor ( list himself as ''government consultant") BATCHELOR, DICK J 7/17/98 $5,000.00 ORLANDO, FL 32819 DICK BATCHELOR MGT GROUP -[Contribution] LEADERSHIP '98 (FKA FRIENDS OF ALBERT " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" GORE JR INC) George Sheldon SHELDON, GEORGE 8/14/96 $1,000.00 TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301 SHELDON CUSIC & AS -[Contribution] ROBERT WEXLER FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE Marvin Rosen ( DNC Finance Director Richard Sullivan's boss) ROSEN, MARVIN 8/23/95 $1,000.00 MIAMI, FL 33131 LAWYER -[Contribution] FRIENDS OF SENATOR CARL LEVIN Jon Mills Ira Lessfield LESSFIELD, IRA H 9/27/95 -$500.00 MIAMI, FL 33133 -[contribution refunded to individual] CLINTON/" src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" GORE '96 PRIMARY COMMITTEE INC Elaine Bloom BLOOM, ELAINE 10/8/97 $250.00 MIAMI, FL 33140 STATE OF FLORIDA -[Contribution] DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE Jorge Bolanos BOLANOS, JORGE L 9/20/95 $1,000.00 MIAMI, FL 33125 NOVA HOME HEALTH CORP -[Contribution] CLINTON/" src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" GORE '96 PRIMARY COMMITTEE INC Buddy MacKay ( unknown) Hugh Westbrook*** WESTBROOK, HUGH A 3/26/96 $5,000.00 MIAMI, FL 33133 VITAS HEALTHCARE -[Contribution] WEST VIRGINIA VICTORY FUND Jerome Berlin ( major DNC sleazeball) BERLIN, JEROME 4/5/85 $500.00 MIAMI, FL 33156 ATTORNEY -[Contribution] COELHO FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE Another donor invited to a White House coffee was Jerome Berlin, a longtime Democratic fund-raiser and lawyer from Florida who once was charged with telling clients he could bribe Vice President Al " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" Gore when " src="http://inquirus.nj.nec.com/icon/red_arr.gif" Gore he was a senator. In 1990, federal prosecutors alleged that Berlin and another attorney tricked their clients out of $225,000 by telling them the money would be used to bribe Gore and Florida officials to end investigations of their company. source ……" Abilene-Reporter News 5/24/00 AP "……"The top 100 individual and family political givers in Texas filled coffers to the tune of more than $30 million in the 1996 and 1998 elections, the Houston Chronicle reported in Sunday's editions. Of that sum, $22 million was contributed by 35 people and families to state and national candidates. Most of the 100 are wealthy, white professionals and two are Hispanic. None is black. Most of the Democratic contributors are trial lawyers; the Republican givers mostly are business people interested in less government and tax reduction. ……" Congressional Record – Senate 10/17/99 Susan Glasser "…… "The House Democrats' courtship of Steve Wynn--owner of Mirage Resorts, grandiose prophet of the new Las Vegas, and major Republican donor--began four years ago with a cold call from David Jones, Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt's top fund-raiser. ……. How much, Wynn asked, do you need me to help raise out of Nevada for the 2000 election? Jones knew that during the entire 1998 election, the House Democrats' campaign arm had only collected about $110,000 from Vegas, so his answer was an audacious one: $1 million to $1.5 million. Done, Wynn replied. The first installment--a $250,000 corporate check from Mirage Resorts--was Wynn's downpayment on a bet that Democrats will take back the House next year. It also suggests one reason why they might succeed. With the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as their vehicle, they are raising record amounts of money for next year's races, trading on their new electoral competitiveness to raise funds earlier and in larger amounts than ever before. …….. Some of the money is from businesses like Wynn's Mirage Resorts; some is from well-heeled individuals giving $100,000 each, such as Slimfast founder S. Daniel Abraham, National Enquirer heiress Lois Pope and Florida Marlins owner John W. Henry. As of June 30, Democrats had attracted 21 six-figure soft-money givers compared with 14 for Republicans, according to data compiled by the Campaign Study Group.. …….. Republicans have hardly ignored big givers. After the Democrats upped the ante, NRCC Chairman Tom Davis (Va.) imitated them with his own $100,000 program--the `Business Leadership Trust,' a name reflective of the GOP's financial base. …..`Soft money follows power,' said Davis, recognizing that the Republicans' takeover of Congress in 1994 has immeasurably boosted their fund-raising capacity. But he argued that Democrats have benefited most, leveraging the power of the presidency for their financial gain. ……. Taking over the DCCC in 1981, when Republicans had a fund-raising lead of 13 to one, Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Cal.) cut into that edge by convincing businesses they should invest in what was then the congressional majority. Coelho, now Vice President Gore's campaign chairman, also professionalized the DCCC, insisting for example that a campaign hire pollsters before it could receive a dime from the committee. ……. When Texas Rep. Martin Frost became chairman of the DCCC in 1995, he knew the Democrats were going to have to raise money differently. In the minority after four decades of power, they no longer had the legislative club that Coelho had taught them to wield with the K Street lobbyists who controlled business giving. …….. Jones, Gephardt's top money man, was put on contract at the DCCC. So was Richard J. Sullivan, the young lawyer who had served as the DNC's finance director in the 1996 election and was the lead-off witness in hearings held by Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.) about the influx of foreign money to the DNC in 1996. ......... " FoxNews Hannity & Colmes 9/14/00 "…….SEAN HANNITY: Fox News has found out that the Department of Justice is now investigating another fund-raising matter involving Vice President Al Gore. Fox has obtained documents detailing Gore's efforts to raise money from trial lawyers back in 1995. ……. Now, joining us from Washington, is South Carolina Congressman Lindsey Graham and Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. …….. I want to put up on the screen, Congresswoman, because I - this is staggering to me, especially in light of all that we know about Gore, the fund raising, the iced-tea defense, and straight on down the line. First of all, the Justice Department, you know, it appears - we really need a special counsel to look into this. But look at the wording here. The reason for the call is "sorry you missed the vice president. I know you'll give $100,000 when the president vetoes tort reform, but we need it now." ….. Doesn't that suggest, Congresswoman, a quid pro quo? Isn't that what it's saying? ……. Paul Blustein 12/22/96 The Washington Post A SECTION; Pg. A01 "…..People at the Commerce Department have long feared that the agency might pay a price for bestowing favors on politically connected business executives such as Howard M. Glicken. ……. The politicization of Brown's Commerce Department included the appointment of Democratic activists to key posts when Brown took the helm in 1993 after having chaired the Democratic National Committee. …… Among them was Melissa Moss, who worked for Brown as the DNC's chief fund-raiser. Moss was appointed to head the Office of Business Liaison, where she supervised the selection of companies for trade missions. ……Still others got lesser posts, most notably Huang, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Taiwan who was hired in mid-1994 as principal deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy. Huang's former employer, the Lippo Group, is controlled by the Riady family of Indonesia, whose U.S.-based representatives and associates have generously supported Clinton's campaigns for many years.. ……. Consider the case of Calvin Grigsby, president of a San Francisco municipal bond firm, who accompanied Brown in 1994 to China. According to federal election records, Grigsby and a company he controls contributed $ 70,000 to the DNC in the six months prior to the trip. ………. Unlike many of the big U.S. multinationals whose executives went on the trip with specific plans for winning job-generating export contracts, Grigsby's fuzzy rationale was that he wanted to "introduce the U.S. model" for financing infrastructure projects. More troubling, though, was another business venture he was planning that appeared contrary to the trip's export orientation -- a deal to import cranes from a Shanghai machinery company for sale to U.S. shipping ports……. Grigsby didn't return calls seeking comment. His once high-flying firm collapsed this fall following reports that he was under federal investigation for bribery; he has denied wrongdoing. In Grigsby's case, there was at least one compelling reason for Commerce to bring him on the trip -- he is African American, and the department attached a high priority to bringing racially diverse business delegations on trade missions. The same rationale, however, didn't apply to another well-connected executive, Ronald Burkle, who went with Brown to South Africa in late 1993. Burkle heads the Yucaipa Cos., a Los Angeles firm that invests in and runs supermarkets. …….. ………" Freeper Wallaby "…….Glicken was one of 22 executives selected to accompany Ronald H. Brown, the late commerce secretary, on a 1994 export-promotion trip to Latin America. The way he was chosen illustrates how political considerations have often appeared to affect decisions at Commerce in recent years -- a phenomenon that is hurting the department as it sinks deeper into the controversy concerning Democratic fund-raising practices. …….. Glicken, then chairman of the Commonwealth Group, a Washington-based merchant banking and consulting firm, was also a major Democratic fund-raiser who contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic campaigns and brought in still more as vice chairman for finance of the Democratic National Committee. Giving him a coveted seat on Brown's plane evoked "squeamishness among a number of officials at Commerce," according to one employee involved in the trip. …… Brown and his successor, Mickey Kantor -- both high-powered political operatives -- sought to woo the corporate community to the Democratic cause by showing that the party's penchant for government activism could make them even better friends for business than Republicans. But their willingness to reward loyal partisans has been no greater than previous secretaries such as Robert A. Mosbacher, who served as President George Bush's chief fund-raiser, according to many longtime employees. …….." 9/28/96 Edward Iwata The Examiner "……The Securities and Exchange Commission has joined the Justice Department's corruption investigation of municipal bond deals in Florida involving flamboyant San Francisco financier Calvin Grigsby, sources close to the case said Friday. Investigators from the SEC and FBI spoke at length Thursday and Friday to finance officials at the Metro-Dade County government offices, seeking all records of bond deals handled by Grigsby Brandford & Co., one of the nation's top minority investment banks. ……. The SEC's foray into the probe means investigators also are looking at possible violations of federal securities law by Grigsby, Metro-Dade County Commissioner James Burke, and Miami bond dealer Howard Gary. On the criminal front, prosecutor Mary Butler of the U.S. Attorney's Public Corruption Unit in Miami issued a subpoena Thursday for all county financial papers, memos, letters, and telephone records relating to Grigsby's bond deals with Dade County. "They want everything," Edward Marquez, finance director for Metro-Dade County, said Friday. ………" Newsmax.com 9/15/00 "……Attorney General Janet Reno refused Thursday to say whether the Justice Department is investigating another fund-raising matter involving Al Gore - this time questions about Gore's efforts to raise money from Texas trial lawyers in 1995. "As you know, I don't comment on whether we've opened or haven't opened an investigation," she said at her weekly briefing. ...... Reno has refused - three times - to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate questionable fund-raising practices by Vice President Gore. ...... " Washington Times 9/15/00 Jerry Seper "……Vice President Al Gore was asked by the Democratic National Committee in 1995 to solicit $600,000 in donations from not one, as previously reported, but six wealthy Texas personal injury lawyers, just weeks before President Clinton was to veto a bill limiting cash awards in product-liability cases. ……… The solicitation requests are listed on telephone call sheets prepared by the Democratic National Committee and, according to documents obtained by The Washington Times, were sent to Mr. Gore two days after he attended a November 1995 fund-raiser at the Houston home of John Eddy Williams, a Texas personal-injury lawyer, who has given $550,000 to Democrats since 1995……. The six lawyers and their firms, along with Mr. Williams and others who attended the Houston fund-raiser, eventually contributed $4 million to the Clinton-Gore 1996 Re-election Campaign. They actively opposed tort reform, although linking donations to specific legislation is improper and, according to authorities, can be illegal....... In addition to the federal probe, two of the lawyers on the call sheets, Mr. Umphrey and Houston's John O'Quinn, along with Mr. Williams, at whose home the fund-raiser was held, are the focus of an ethics inquiry by Texas Attorney General John Cornyn into fees they charged to negotiate a $17.3 billion settlement between Texas and the tobacco industry. The lawyers recently returned $6.9 million in expenses they claimed as part of the settlement. In 1998, they were awarded $3.3 billion in legal fees, including $40 million for expenses from the tobacco industry in 1998......." Washington Times 9/15/00 Andrew Cain and Dave Boyer "……."The appearance is really disturbing," Mr. Bush said. "Americans are tired of investigations and scandal. The best way to get rid of it is to elect a new president, who will bring a new administration, who will restore honor and dignity to the White House. "I will restore the bond of trust between the president and all Americans," Mr. Bush told the National Guard Association's annual convention in Atlantic City, N.J., via satellite. His audience interrupted Mr. Bush with lengthy applause……….. Mr. Gore's aides scrambled yesterday to explain away front-page stories that he and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee sought a $100,000 donation from a wealthy Texas lawyer in 1995 after promising President Clinton would veto a bill limiting damage awards in product-liability cases……… " New York Law Journal 10/10/00 "…… Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign has collected more money from lawyers as a group than any other sector of the nation's workforce, according to an analysis of campaign contributions through June 30 by the Center for Responsive Politics. The center reported that lawyers had contributed $935,093 to the First Lady's campaign and $351,154 to Representative Rick Lazio's campaign. Lawyers giving to Mr. Lazio were second only to persons affiliated with securities and investment companies, who contributed $646,438., ..." American Spectator 11/97 Kenneth R. Timmerman "…….. In telephone interviews Zogby admitted to having solicited money for his institute from Arab businessmen, but denied serving as a conduit for donations to the DNC. "Our PAC does not support Democratic causes. It supports Arab-American candidates, both Democrats and Republicans," he said. In a letter to the September 20 Washington Times, he called allegations that he was funneling foreign Arab money into the Clinton-Gore campaign "anti-Arab bigotry." "There are Arab businessmen who have contribut ed to the institute -- that's true," he told TAS. "But there was no money-for-favors. That's an unfair allegation, because it's just not true. I go to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Lebanon, the West Bank regularly. And there are people over there wh o have contributed. But I haven't gone there specifically to solicit contributions." ……… But Zogby clearly seems to be hiding something. Three times we went to his offices to request a copy of his institute's tax forms -- as a nonprofit group it is required by law to make them available on its premises -- and each time Zogby refused to sho w them to us. ……." ……Zogby claims his institute operates on a $700,000 annual budget, but the "former DNC employee" who called us said AAI distributed between $1 and $2 million in 1996. Without the tax forms, which Zogby has illegally withheld, there is no way t o determine who is telling the truth. At least three congressional committees are now investigating Gabriel and Zogby and the possibility of an "Arabgate" at the DNC. ……" National Right to Life Committee 9/28/00 Dave Andrusko "……. One can accuse the ethically tone-deaf Clinton/Gore of many things but forgetting to reward their allies is not one of them. And no one has been there more faithfully-through thick and thin, scandal and disgrace-than the abortion lobby. Hours ago, the Food and Drug Administration {FDA} came through in the clutch. A mere four months after recognizing that the use of the abortifacient RU 486 is no walk in the park-it not only kills unborn babies, it poses health risks to the mother as well-the FDA both authorized marketing and dropped the meaningful protections it reportedly wanted before the agency would give the thumbs up. If that weren't enough, guess to whom the distributor-Danco Laboratories-reportedly will turn to produce RU 486? The People's Republic of China, a notorious violator of human rights known for forced abortion, forced sterilization, and infanticide. There are payoffs and there are payoffs. Usually, even the Clinton/Gore Administrator is a tad more subtle. ….." Reuters via ABCNews.com 10/4/00 "......Weeks before the fall U.S. general election, federal regulators Wednesday temporarily suspended rules that limit television station endorsements of political candidates and the airing political attack ads, to determine whether the regulations are still necessary. ...... Federal Communications Commission rules have required that a station which runs an editorial endorsing a candidate for elective office must also give other candidates in the race a fair chance to respond. The five-member FCC voted 3-2 to suspend the rules for 60 days and comes at a key time when the airwaves are full of political ads since the U.S. presidential and Congressional elections are just 34 days away. ........ "Elections will be held during the 60-day period making it an ideal time to determine how broadcasters are affected by the political editorial rule," the FCC said in its order. Additionally, if someone or a group is attacked for views on a controversial issue, the station has been required to inform the target of the attack and provide an opportunity to reply. "While less obvious, it is also an ideal time to obtain evidence regarding the effect of the personal attack rule," the agency said. ......." Judicial Watch 10/5/00 "......The Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina, U.S. District Court Judge, ruled last week that the Clinton-Gore Administration must waive fees and turn over to Judicial Watch documents relating to a controversial government leasing arrangement that benefitted individuals close to Al Gore. In response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the Portals leasing controversy, the General Services Administration had sought to make Judicial Watch pay for thousands of documents before turning them over and sought to summarily dismiss a FOIA lawsuit Judicial Watch brought to obtain the documents. Judge Urbina ruled in favor of Judicial Watch. Publically available evidence suggests that Gore confidants benefitted, at the expense of taxpayers, from million dollar contingency fees in a lease deal between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Portals Washington, DC office project, which is run by another Gore supporter.............Without expressing any opinion on the underlying merits of the allegations, Judge Urbina ruled on September 25, 2000, that, among other things: ...the court agrees that the (Judicial Watch) FOIA request...implicates important public interests. To begin with, federal taxpayers paid for the FCC's lease of the vacant Portals office space, which gives the public a direct and tangible interest in information bearing on the lease and the events surrounding it. Specifically, the public has an interest in information which could help them decide whether an agency's expenditure of their tax monies was based on sound financial or functional considerations or on other, arguably less appropriate considerations...Closely related is the fundamental public interest in information bearing on the alleged possibility that the Vice President and others violated legal or ethical standards in connection with the FCC-Portals lease. Neither of these interests is peculiar to the plaintiffs or their supporters. (emphasis added) "The decision by Judge Urbina is a significant victory for not only Judicial Watch, but for the American taxpayer. We are hopeful we can get to the heart of a scandal that some estimate cost the U.S. taxpayer tens of millions of dollars in unneeded costs - all, allegedly, to benefit a small group of Gore cronies," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton......" New York Times 9/23/00 Don Van Natta Jr. "……Retrieved White House e-mail messages turned over today to federal and Congressional investigators show that Vice President Al Gore's senior aides routinely characterized White House coffee sessions as fund- raising events in early 1996. While none of the e-mail messages indicate that the vice president himself was involved in any of the electronic conversations, the aides' descriptions of the coffees seem to be at odds with Mr. Gore's comments in an April 18 interview this year with federal investigators. The vice president said the 103 coffee gatherings with campaign donors held at the White House before the 1996 election had not been "fund-raising tools."……… Republicans quickly seized on the contents as evidence that the vice president and the White House had not been truthful in earlier explanations of the purpose of the coffees and an event at a Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif., before the 1996 election. And the committee chairman, Representative Dan Burton of Indiana, said he would made hold hearings on the newly released correspondence next week……… Karen Skelton, Mr. Gore's political director, asked an aide to the vice president in an e-mail note dated April 23, 1996: "These are F.R. coffees, right?" Asked tonight whether the abbreviation stood for fund-raising, a White House aide said it could also mean "finance-related," a phrase the vice president himself once used to describe his appearance at a luncheon at a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles in April 1996. On May 8, 1996, Ms. Skelton described in an e-mail message the expectations that the White House had for people invited to coffees with President Clinton and Mr. Gore. "Yes," Ms. Skelton wrote to an aide, "but keep in mind that these people must be justifiable on the basis of what they give us down the line. What is the consequence of our meeting with one person other than that person feeling good?"……." New York Times 9/23/00 Don Van Natta Jr. "……"Currently, we are committed in San Jose and L.A. for fund-raising events," one staff e-mail note said about the trip. But the schedule for Mr. Gore prepared nearly three weeks before the temple luncheon did not mention a fund-raising event at a Los Angeles area restaurant. After arriving in Los Angeles at 11 a.m., Mr. Gore was scheduled to proceed to the Hsi Lai Temple event, which was described at the time as a Democratic National Committee "Asian Pacific American Leadership Council Luncheon."……. Another e-mail note recommended that Mr. Gore bring $20 with him to the temple so he could make a donation of his own. "The V.P. will need to have some cash on hand," a message said, "to offer as an offering at the Buddhist temple in L.A." James C. Wilson, the chief counsel of the House Committee on Government Reform, said tonight that he was "particularly frustrated" by the cache of e-mail messages that the committee received this afternoon……… "There is new information and new leads that need to be investigated," Mr. Wilson said. "The White House covered this up for over three years and that is simply not acceptable."……" The Media Research Center 9/22/00 "……. Oil became the big story yesterday on the campaign trail, but reporters continued to ignore any anti-Gore background music. Last night, ABC's World News Tonight led with reporter Terry Moran on how Gore "was casting himself as the champion of beleaguered consumers and Governor Bush as a pawn of the oil industry." Gore declared: "I will not go along with an agenda that is of Big Oil, by Big Oil, and for Big Oil." Moran concluded that the Gore campaign welcomes the issue "if only to point out to voters that both Governor Bush and Dick Cheney hail from the oil industry."………. Utterly missing from Moran's report and almost all of the last eight years of Al Gore media coverage was any scrutiny or criticism of Gore's own ties to Big Oil: his father's long-time relationship with Occidental Petroleum, and its owner, Soviet agent Armand Hammer. But Moran has covered this story before. Back on March 6, Moran covered left-wing protests of Gore for ignoring Occidental's drilling in Colombia, which they say threaten the U'wa Indian tribe……….Gore's interest in Occidental has had real policy implications. The liberal Center for Public Integrity complained in its book The Making of the President 2000 that in 1997, thanks to pressure from Gore, the Energy Department sold its interest in the Elk Hills oil field in Bakersfield, California. Ironically, they noted Elk Hills was one of the oil fields involved in the 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, which led to the resignation of Interior Secretary Albert Fall. In 1973, Richard Nixon tried to lease Elk Hills to boost domestic oil production. The Reagan administration repeatedly proposed selling it. "But where Fall, Nixon, and Reagan had failed, Gore succeeded," the book noted. "It was the largest privatization of federal property in U.S. history, one that tripled Occidental's U.S. reserves overnight." (pages 142-144 and 149-152). ......... The left-wing anti-Occidental protesters, led by Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network, have dogged Gore's campaign trail, including just this week. The Washington Times reported hundreds of protesters shut down his campaign office in Olympia, Washington on Tuesday, and ten people were arrested during the seven-and-a-half hour protest. The Drudge Report linked today to news that Karenna Gore was heckled at the University of Missouri on Wednesday. ……." Washington Post 9/16/00 Annie Groer "……. This spring, at the height of the D.C. real estate frenzy, CNN's "Burden of Proof" co-host Greta Von Susteren and her husband, class action lawyer John C. Coale, popped a $ 3.5 million price tag on their in-town estate near Rock Creek Park. …… It was a lark to see who would bite, Von Susteren said. They had paid $ 1.2 million in December 1997 for nearly three acres of land and three buildings: a large, neglected, 19th century, white frame house; a smaller, truly dilapidated house and a separate garage/outbuilding. …….. Along came the Chinese government, seeking a home for the embassy's education counselor here. The government also wanted a lower price. The sellers refused to budge; the Chinese came up to the original ($3.5 Million) price and the sale closed last month. ……" Washington Times 9/18/00 Joyce How "….. A Senate Republican leader said yesterday that reports Vice President Al Gore solicited a $100,000 contribution as a quid pro quo for a presidential veto are part of an "active, ongoing" investigation by the Justice Department. "It's just another shoe to fall in an active, right now, ongoing, open investigation of Al Gore and campaign fund-raising activities," Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, deputy majority whip, said on "Fox News Sunday." Mr. Frist said the truth may never be known about the quid pro quo, which Mr. Gore denies. But the senator said the matter should not be dismissed. "It's not a non-story because it's an active story right now. Whether it starts with the Buddhist temple or whatever spin is given, the investigation right now - according to the highest officials in the Justice Department - is active, ongoing and should continue," he said……… Democrats and Republicans who appeared on Sunday talk shows had different views on the significance of reports suggesting Mr. Gore and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Donald Fowler sought $100,000 from a wealthy Texas trial lawyer in 1995 after promising that President Clinton would veto a bill limiting damage awards in product-liability cases……" The Wall Street Journal. editorial page 10/26/00 Claudia Rosett "......But "good investment" does not begin to describe Mrs. Clinton's highly unusual return of almost 10,000% over 10 months in the futures markets. Back in 1979, that big a lump of pin money came to more than the annual incomes of both Clintons combined. To achieve such gains, Mrs. Clinton -- assuming she was trading honestly, not with some private understanding of guaranteed "profits" -- had to put many times the family income repeatedly at risk, an odd move if the aim was, as she said, to "try to create some financial security for our family . . .....The basic plot line of Mrs. Clinton's foray into the futures markets (keep your eye on two players -- lawyer James Blair and broker Robert "Red" Bone) is that in October 1978, she put up $1,000 to start trading through Mr. Bone, who worked in the Arkansas office of a brokerage firm called Refco. Mrs. Clinton said she did this at the urging of a friend, Mr. Blair, who until early this year was chief in-house counsel for Arkansas-based Tyson Foods........ Over 10 months, buying and selling futures contracts in a variety of commodities, especially cattle, Mrs. Clinton after various ups and downs had made nearly $100,000, and in July 1979 got out of the market. While this was going on, Bill Clinton had advanced from the influential position of Arkansas attorney general to the more powerful job of governor....... By Mrs. Clinton's account, she consulted Mr. Blair often during her trading days, but made actual decisions herself. "Jim would call me on a regular basis and I would make a decision whether or not I would trade, and then the trade would be placed. Often he placed it for me. There was nothing wrong with that," said Mrs. Clinton, in her pink press conference........" NY Times 10/22/00 Eric Schmitt ".....Congressional Republicans are locked in a battle with the White House over easing immigration law that threatens to undercut Gov. George W. Bush's efforts to court Hispanic voters and shed the party's lingering image as insensitive to new immigrants. ...... As Congress draws to a close, among the last sticking points between President Clinton and Republicans on a year-end budget deal are Democratic proposals to grant limited amnesty to hundreds of thousands of longtime residents who came to the United States illegally, expand permanent residency to certain Central Americans and help certain other immigrants obtain green cards. .... The provisions are in a spending bill that finances the State, Commerce and Justice departments. Mr. Clinton has threatened to veto the legislation if it does not include the immigration proposals. .......The stakes appear much higher for Republicans than Democrats. Many conservatives argue that bowing to Mr. Clinton would reward lawbreakers and encourage a new wave of illegal immigrants. But rejecting the legislation could alienate Hispanic voters just before Election Day, and resurrect the divisive fights of the 1990's over immigrants' benefits that hurt Republicans in many immigrant communities. ....." The New York Times 10/23/00 Eugene Rossides "……To the Editor: "House Backs Off on Condemning Turks' Killing of Armenians" (news article, Oct. 20) revealed an extraordinary setback for American diplomatic credibility. Whatever one's individual views about the Armenian genocide issue, all Americans should be disturbed that the Clinton administration has capitulated to pressure by a foreign state and then prevailed upon Congress to do the same. The administration's surrender to Turkey's belligerence has sent a clear message to the world: duress, threats and bluster work...."
SECTION: BEHIND THE ABUSE OF POWER ALLEGATIONS
SUBSECTION: APPEARANCE OF QUID PRO QUO
Revised 1/8/01Indonesia/Riady - Sweet Coal
Earlier this week, it was disclosed that WGBH, Boston's affiliate in the Public Broadcasting System, had exchanged donor lists with the Democratic National Committee - a pretty clear violation of federal regulations, which prohibit tax-exempt groups from political activity, including giving support to a political party. Officials at the station tried to brush off the incident, claiming it was a one-time error committed by inexperienced employees who didn't understand the legal prohibition against political involvement. But it now turns out that this explanation was disingenuous at best - and at worst a blatant lie and attempt to cover up blatantly partisan activity…Moreover, it turns out that WGBH approached the Democrats and initiated the arrangement….."
jeopardy…."
o The Dep't of Justice brought suit against Microsoft on behalf of lead plaintiff, Netscape.
o At the time, Netscape's largest shareholder (a matter of public record, easily verified) was an investment firm called Amerindo. Think: Amer. Indo.
o Amerindo runs a smallish tech-oriented public mutual fund. Most of what you'll find about them on the web will regard that fund, and it's not what's interesting. Their main action has always been their private investment fund. Note:
2) The administration's most unsavory political hatchet-man now turns up digging dirt to the same end.
Also recall the Newsmax article from June 8:
""Joel [Klein] was also a member of the so-called 'Secret Police.'"--Linda TrippRightOnTheLeftCoast 6/28/00 "……I knew of the "Indo" connection but could not find any public confirmation until that Fortune comment slipped through the smokescreen last Fall. Before that, I had momentarily gained the attention of one prominent Internet reporter, who tried to get confirmation of the Indonesian backing from Amerindo directly. No surprise: they denied it and said they 'forgot' how the company got its name. To my disappointment, he dropped the topic and turned his attention to Fornigate, which hit the fan about then. So this, along with so many other worthy scandals, never got the air it should've. ……..But now we have the Fortune quote, and Lenzner serves as a clear link to the Clinton political machine………..What next? Trouble is, financial matters give reporters migraines. Takes digging and analysis. And the Indo/Chinese money is part of Amerindo's private fund. It's well-cloaked, and the public mutual fund of the same name is a nice smokescreen too. ……"
* Major poultry firms, including Tyson Foods, Hudson Foods, and Peterson Industries, all whom helped found the NAC. …...
* Wal-Mart. ….
* J.B. Hunt Transport Co. ……"
Q There is a report suggesting that Mrs. Clinton had contributors stay overnight at the White House and at Camp David. Her campaign is referring all questions about this to the White House. What do you know about it?
MR. LOCKHART: I don't comment on reports that come from that source. If you have some independent reporting and questions, go ahead and ask them. But don't bring that gentleman's reporting into this room.
Q Can you say that there were no such overnights?
MR. LOCKHART: What? Define the question.
Q Have any contributors to Mrs. Clinton's campaign stayed overnight at the White House or Camp David?
MR. LOCKHART: Sure. I don't know about Camp David, but the President and the First Lady, over the last seven and a half years, have always welcomed their friends and supporters and political officials from around the country, prominent members of the arts community to stay at the White House.
Within that group, there certainly have been people who, as their friends, have supported them financially.
Q So you're saying this is not necessarily a big deal?
MR. LOCKHART: I'm answering your question.
Q Then you're saying it's true?
MR. LOCKHART: Saying what is true?
Q That some contributors may have been wooed into staying overnight?
MR. LOCKHART: Repeat the question again? Some of the contributors may have been what?
Q Stayed overnight.
MR. LOCKHART: If the straightforward question is, have there been people who have stayed as the guests who have also been friends and supporters and contributors, sure; but you all knew that.
Q I am saying was it a payoff?
MR. LOCKHART: No. No. ……."
REP. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, I'm going to agree with Stephanie. A judge and jury needs to decide these things. It's unfortunate they never get there. We need a judge and jury, I think, to decide whether or not the technology transfers that occurred by Loral and Hughes to the Chinese after two cabinet officials said no, the Department of Defense said no, it would hurt national security, the Department of State said no, it would hurt national security, Clinton moved it the third time to Ron Brown, the Department of Commerce. The sale took place to China and $600,000 was given. ......... The problem here, Sean, is that these things never go to a judge and jury. They never get out of the Justice Department. I'm not here to try the vice president, but this is serious stuff.
COLMES: Congressman...
GRAHAM: If they're selling legislative votes, then the whole country is ruined.
COLMES: Congressman Graham, it's Alan Colmes, welcome, good to have you on the show once again.
GRAHAM: Thank you, Alan.
COLMES: Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, good to see you. ...... Listen, Congressman Graham, the key word in the - what we just saw on the screen is the word "when" the president vetoes tort reform, not if. This was a fate accompli, he was going to veto tort reform, that's been a Democratic position. It was not contingent on that $100,000. Thus, you can't prove a quid pro quo there.
GRAHAM: Well, I'm not here to try the case. I'm here to say that this Justice Department, when allegations - and the memo sort of speaks for itself - "We know you're going to give us $100,000 after he vetoes the bill, but we need the money now." So the deal was after the bill is vetoed, the money comes. They gave $800,000 over a four-year period. Mr. Conrad has said we need to look at whether or not the vice president was truthful when he denied knowing that the Buddhist temple was a fund raiser. Mr. LaBella has issued a memo that the campaign activity of the Clinton-Gore administration during the 1996 campaign cycle deserves to be investigated. But we're here debating this on TV. This needs to be in a court of law to take the could away from... ……
GRAHAM: I hope we jump on the Justice Department to go ahead and put this in a place where people who are professional, a judge and jury as Stephanie said, can look at it and we not debate this on television. My problem is that there is serious allegations of major-league misconduct, felony offenses that are being swept under the rug by Janet Reno. When you get objective, independent people saying this needs to go to a judge or jury, it doesn't happen. ……..
GRAHAM: Let me tell you that Bill Clinton is an uncertain guy in Washington and people are reluctant to give him the money until the deed is done. The products liability bill, the Y2K bill, it passed with Democratic support. The point I'm trying to make is that this is a symptom of an overall greater problem. Serious accusations that don't need to be tried on TV, but need to go to a judge and jury, and we're stonewalling and we're hurting the country when we do this. …..
GRAHAM: Twenty something indictments coming out of that event.
HANNITY: No - Maria Hsia, five felonies, no controlling legal authority, the ridiculousness of the iced-tea defense, credible people like Charles LaBella and Louis Freeh recommending an independent counsel. It seems we have a serial campaign finance abuser and it's time for Janet Reno to do the American people a favor and appoint an independent counsel. It's not even - it's an issue of whether there's quid pro quo, if there is an attempt for a quid pro quo and this letter suggests there was. …….
GRAHAM: Well, here's the systematic problem we have. This will go into File 13. The accusations are serious. And if the memo as is suggested, this is a felony offense - the Buddhist temple scenario, people have been indicted right and left.
HANNITY: Twenty four.
GRAHAM: LaBella, an independent person asked to investigate the technology transfer sell - the whole aura of what they did in '96 is being stonewalled by Janet Reno. I don't want to try anybody on TV, but I want somebody to let this go into the hands of a neutral party. ……."
Grab your loved ones and a favorite beverage...(^:
Note: this topic is from . Thanks Lady In Blue. You'll need a strong pair of glasses and a big block of time.
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