Posted on 01/10/2002 6:17:17 PM PST by Liz
WASHINGTON - "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." --SNIP---
Enron had the best brains that money could buy, but gave the word "ethics" a whole new meaning. The cowboys of Dumpty Enron talked up a storm about ethics; but only a few at the top realized that "ethics" was an acronym for "Enron thinks how income can (be) stolen."
That's a stretch; but look at their 1994 sales team - Clinton, Gore and the late Ron Brown - a trio unlimited and uncontrolled in their cunning and greed.
In what seems to be eons ago, before Gov. Bill Clinton became president, the late, much loved and little lamented Ron Brown was Clinton's good friend and a power broker in the National Democratic Party. Ron Brown had a friend, a congressman from Houston, the late Mickey Leland, who died in 1989. Until his passing, Leland was a shining light in the Congressional Black Caucus and a dedicated socialist, who was one of the Institute for Policy Studies' delights.
From 1984, when Enron was conceived, Brown and Leland were there snapping up unconsidered trifles of money for use in their campaigns against the free market. Mickey was able to ease a lot of Enron's early problems through the Houston City Council by playing his "equal opportunity card." He had also become an African expert who initially took the Enron message to that continent, a chore that was taken on by Ron Brown, Clinton's secretary of commerce, before the latter met his untimely death in a highly controversial plane crash in Croatia. (Untimely, because had Secretary Brown lived, he would have faced multiple criminal indictments that could have precipitated an even earlier fall for Bill Clinton and his gang.)
Now we get to that old puzzle about chickens and eggs, and what came first! Ron Brown, Al Gore and Bill Clinton introduced Enron to market managers in Russia, China, Indonesia and India. In India, Enron quickly became involved in one of that country's most massive corruption investigations, contracts were canceled and Enron was out.
On the other hand, Enron introduced the Clinton team to Lippo Industries and thence to China's People's Liberation Army (a wonderful source of political cash), to John Huang, another good provider and to nameless, numberless Arabs who never arrived with empty pockets. If we look at a list of those attending coffee klatches at the White House, we can learn why a storm of doubtful deals enabled Enron to quickly control one-quarter of the world's electricity and natural gas. But, that wasn't enough. The ever-so-greedy Dumpty moved in to water deals in Massachusetts and Europe, paper mills in Canada, gas pipe lines throughout the world, fiber optics, television, mutual funds and information gathering. In turn, that led to risk analysis, a name that those clever Texans quickly changed to "reward realization!"
The rewards were good! Enron, with sales assistance from Tony Lake, then Clinton's national security adviser, persuaded the impoverished, war-torn country of Mozambique to sign a $770 million electric power contract. Mozambique signed because Tony's salesmanship was persuasive. If the Mozambicans didn't sign, he indicated that their congressionally approved $44 million U.S. aid payment would never be made.
And there was the Croatian caper. In the days when Franjo Tudjman was Croatia's dictator and pretending to be both a reformed communist and best friend of America in the Balkans, poor Franjo had a problem. He and some of his very best friends were wanted as war criminals by the Hague's International Court of Justice. Enron wanted a power contract with Croatia. Enron offered a deal to Tudjman. Sign up with us and we will use our gang in Washington to make sure you and your friends don't go to jail.
Tudjman signed. Enron made a heap of money. Nobody went to jail. Everyone was happy - until Tudjman died of cancer. Then the lid was off, his Croatian Democratic Union was defeated and the new boys in power in Zagreb could not believe how much of their budget went to pay the electricity bills from Enron.
Somebody - probably another Dr. Spock child eager to tell on his peers - prattled! Under quiet pressure from the Croats, another deal was made and a couple of guys were charged as war criminals. Electricity costs went down (but not to the consumers) and as a part of the deal nobody talked, except about the wonderful vacations that they were enjoying in the Caribbean.
This could be called a "cautionary tale." There are two cautions. The first: Beware of the Spock babies now that they are nearing retirement and losing whatever sense they had. The second: Investigators all, beware, as you look into the depths and shallows of Enron you may, if you are truly unlucky, find the truth. And, if you do, these truths won't make you free, just well informed.
"Dateline D.C." is written by a Washington, D.C.-based British journalist and political observer.
Popular demand..........hoping to get more exposure as a sidebar feature as well.
OK.
They'll do it over my dead body........
Liz, I didn't read the entire article. The author has an ax to grind and the highlighted text above is totally ficticious as illustrated from the article below, the source of which I will link here. sorry if I'm repeating anything but I missed your first thread. But, based on this part which is a lie, it deserves a barf alert.
You see, it wasn't about corruption at all, it was a matter of tarrifs. Click for source/BBC.
However, Enron says it has so far not received any orders to shut down the plant - run by its subsidiary Dabhol - and so it is continuing operations.
According to an MSEB chief engineer, the shutdown came into force after they informed the Dabhol plant on Tuesday of their decision to not buy a single unit of power.
The plant had already issued a preliminary termination notice to MSEB nearly 10 days ago.
They stated they had no choice but to wind up their Indian operations because of non-payment of outstanding dues by the state electricity board.
Tariff row
At the heart of the dispute between the two sides is the power tariff arrangement.
Indian officials find the tariff too steep - nearly three times more expensive than the tariff charged by domestic power producers.
However, Enron officials maintain that their tariff is high because their plant is state of the art.
Is this right? What about Charlie Trie and his restaurant in AK?
Is this right? What about Charlie Trie and his restaurant in AK?
You're engagingly naive and have no understanding how business is conducted in other parts of the world.
The tariffs are a red herring. Somebody, somewhere didn't get paid enough under the table.
I just read thread one and didn't know that you wrote this when I posted my comments above. You can take me to the woodshed for calling the author a liar. Heavy rhetoric on my part.
But, the India plant closing had nothing to do with corruption. I don't know much about the x42 cronyism stuff and I trust thAt you researched it well.
Again, please accept my apology. It's not easy to write and get everything correct. I know that firsthand.
RB
The story is certainly not complete.....Trie had a hand in it no doubt.
How or where? We'll have to check our resources. Be patient, it will surface.
America is sick and tired of this kind of political crap. This Enron stuff just may be the GOP's ticket to a huge gain in the Senate and the House for 2002!
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