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.
1What they think is important to those of us who pick up the tab for all this corrupt B******t.
Ok bud.
Seems like the Enron fraud investigation may rival the Marc Rich-BCCI racket.
....we can spread the truth.
Republican leaders in Congress are trying to make sense of rumors that Patricia Godley, the Clinton administration's assistant energy secretary, is about to be named chief Washington lobbyist for Enron......
.....Representative Clients
....Enron International
Entergy Power Group
.....Patricia Fry Godley
Pat Godley has 20 years of experience in the private and public energy sectors. Her practice focuses on the natural gas and electric power industries in four inter-related areas:
Business Transactions: advising clients in completing asset acquisitions and divestitures, drafting and negotiating contracts, and assessing the impact of federal laws and regulations on business ventures.
Regulatory Proceedings: counseling clients in matters before regulatory agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Interior.
Government Policy: representing clients before the Administration and Congress in proactive efforts to affect government policy.
International Trade: assessing and implementing client investment opportunities in developing countries, primarily in Latin America and the Former Soviet Union.
Prior to joining Van Ness Feldman, Ms. Godley served as the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy, where she managed federal investment in the research and development of fossil fuels technologies, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves. In addition, she developed policy proposals concerning access to federal lands for oil and gas development, electricity sector restructuring, and global climate change and other environmental regulatory matters.
Prior to her service with DOE, Ms. Godley was a partner in the law firm of Bracewell & Patterson, where she developed regulatory and contracting strategies for U.S. and Canadian energy companies, devised and implemented domestic asset acquisition and disposition strategies, and litigated contract disputes. In the international arena, she advised the World Bank on projects to develop natural gas and oil pipeline legislation and regulation for Bolivia, Argentina, and Russia......
.....The legislative practice group at Bracewell includes Gene Godley, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Legislative Affairs.......
Bracewell's major clients include Enron Corporation (the firm's largest client), Shell Oil Company, Lyondell Chemical Company, Southdown, Inc. and British Nuclear Fuels, Inc. (BNFL).....
-DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON --
I'd swear she has documents linking clinton, Lippo, & the Riadys going back to the 1970's....
You said:
There was also corruption between Enron and local police in India. United States: Enron bribed police to suppress Indian protests?: "HRW and other organisations alleged that Enron paid local authorities who arrested and tortured protestors at the company's Dabhol Power plant in Maharashtra state. In response, an Enron official said that all "problems" at Dabhol had been 'put to rest.'"
Let's just see who HRW is before we believe what they say as "fact", ok?
Sitting on the board of directors at HRW are Clinton and longtime socialist supporter George Soros, longtime do gooder and ex-wife of Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger and many more hollyweird and leftists types.
Oh yeah, I'd site that source as fact. /sarcasm...
Should read as:
...are longtime Clinton supporter and socialist George Soros....
DUBOB 9-- even *more* tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast.....
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