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"Bill Clinton was the best president Enron ever had!"

Clinton Enron Nexus

-August 1993. New President Bill Clinton takes his first vacation, a ski weekend to Vail, Colorado. Who shows up to visit with Clinton? Ken Lay, Enron CEO.

"A tired-looking Clinton, off on his first real vacation since becoming president, seemed reluctant Saturday morning to admit to reporters that he was having a good time. He kept mumbling stuff about health care being the next big ticket item on his domestic agenda. But by evening, he'd had such a good time on the local links with Ford, golf legend Jack Nicklaus and Houston's own Ken Lay, chairman of the Enron Corp..." (Source: The Houston Chronicle, August 16, 1993, Monday, 2 STAR Edition SECTION: A; Pg. 5; "Clinton Takes Real Vacation")

-1994/1995 Clinton Administration "makes a sale" for Enron. Enron and the administration work together to win Enron the contract for a power plant in India. Clinton uses resources from the CIA to assess risk and analyze the strategy of Enron's British competitor. The administration is instrumental in procuring $400 million in financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

"For 18 months, the Indian power-plant deal has floated near the top of the list of 100 or so big infrastructure projects around the world that the United States Government desperately wants American firms to win. It is the first of eight big power generation projects in India, and if the American consortium could close this one, it would create a precedent likely to give other American companies an advantage in billions of dollars of follow-on deals. In years past, American officials would have offered some modest help, but only as a sideshow to bigger foreign policy concerns, from containing Communist influence in South Asia to keeping India and Pakistan from accelerating their nuclear arms race. But that was another era in American foreign policy, before the Commerce Department built what Jeffrey E. Garten, the undersecretary of commerce for international trade, calls "our economic war room."

From that Washington war room, the negotiators for the Enron Corporation, the lead bidder in the American consortium, have been shadowed and assisted by a startling array of Government agencies. In a carefully-planned assault, the State and Energy Departments pressed the firms' case. The American ambassador to India, Frank G. Wisner, constantly cajoled Indian officials. The Secretary of Energy, Hazel O'Leary, brought in delegations of other executives -- including some last week -- to make the point that more American investment is in the wings if the conditions are right.

To sweeten the pot, the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation put together $400 million in financing. And working just behind the scenes, as it often does these days, was the Central Intelligence Agency, assessing the risks of the project and scoping out the the competitive strategies of Britain and other countries that want a big chunk of the Indian market.

The big push by Washington Inc. paid off last month when the Indian government awarded the power plant project to the American consortium." (Source: The New York Times, February 19, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 3; Page 1; Column 2; Business/Financial Desk; "How Washington Inc. Makes a Sale")

-October 1995. Bill Clinton recruits Ken Lay to act as a point man for Clinton in drumming up support for Fast Track legislation. Lay just happens to be an old friend of Mack McClarty.

"Two distinguished political doctors have been brought in to try to revive a nearly dead bill allowing President Clinton to secure new trade agreements with other nations.

Bill Frenzel, a former Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Ken Lay, chief executive of natural-gas giant Enron Corp., have been called in to break a year-long impasse that has blocked meaningful progress on trade pacts with Chile, the rest of Latin America, and the Pacific im.

Both men are well known to one player in that dispute - Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, whose district includes Enron's headquarters in Houston. The two also have connections to the Clinton administration. Mr. Frenzel served as a special adviser to Mr. Clinton to lobby his former colleagues on the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr Lay has been a friend of Clinton adviser Thomas "Mac" McLarty since Mr. McLarty's time as head of Arkansas' largest natural-gas utility." (Source: Journal of Commerce, October 10, 1995, Tuesday SECTION: FOREIGN TRADE, Pg. 3A; "Outsiders Called in to End Logjam on Trade Authority")

-August 1997 Clinton hosts Ken Lay at White House to discuss upcoming meeting in Kyoto, Japan concerning greenhouse gas.

"The Clinton administration, when calling business leaders to the White House to discuss what the United States' bargaining position on global warming should be at upcoming negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, chose John Browne of British Petroleum to represent the oil industry. But Browne is British, head of a London-based company. And Britain's new Labor government has blasted the United States for failing to go far enough to reduce greenhouse gases. So why was a Brit asked to participate? Browne has broken ranks with other oil executives to concede a buildup of carbon dioxide gases may be changing the Earth's climate. BP also happens to be the United States' largest crude oil producer with 13,000 employees in this country, company officials pointed out. Enron Corp.Chief Executive Ken Lay, who also was at the Monday meeting, said Clinton sounded Browne out on his opinions of the policies being pushed by the Europeans. Nobody seemed to worry the United States was tipping its hand. ""This is kind of early in the process,'' Lay said." (Source: The Houston Chronicle, August 6, 1997, Wednesday, 3 STAR Edition SECTION: BUSINESS; Business Digest; Pg. 1; "White House warms to BP exec")

-September 1997 Clinton helps Enron get a 3 billion dollar power-plant project in India.

"On Nov. 22, 1995, for example, Clinton scrawled an FYI note to McLarty, enclosing a newspaper article on Enron Corp. and the vicissitudes of its $3 billion power-plant project in India. McLarty then reached out to Enron's chairman, KEN LAY, and over the next nine months closely monitored the project with the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi, keeping Lay informed of the Administration's efforts, according to White House documents reviewed by TIME. In June 1996, four days before India granted final approval to Enron's project, Lay's company gave $100,000 to the President's party." (Source: Time Magazine, SEPTEMBER 1, 1997 VOL. 150 NO. 9; "THAT INVISIBLE MACK SURE CAN LEAVE HIS MARK")

-October 2000 Near end of Clinton's Presidency, but prior to the November election, a Clinton Assistant Treasury Secretary takes a position at Enron as vice president for federal government affairs. Observers call it a slap in the face to George Bush.

"Enron announced yesterday that Linda Robertson, assistant Treasury secretary for legislative affairs and public liaison, will join the Houston energy company in early November as vice president for federal government affairs. She will replace Joe Hillings, who earlier announced his retirement.

Ken Lay, chairman and chief executive of Enron, has given more than $ 290,000 of his own money to the Republican Party this year to help elect Bush, his longtime friend, president. But that didn't insulate Enron from criticism in some Republican quarters on Capitol Hill. "Enron has just slapped George W. Bush across the face. It just makes little sense," a GOP leadership aide said yesterday." (Source: The Washington Post, October 12, 2000, Thursday, Final Edition SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A23; SPECIAL INTERESTS; "Enron Hire Faces Some Partisan Fire")

Clinton to Enron: Over One Billion Tax Dollars!

The Clinton administration provided more than $1 billion in subsidized loans to Enron Corp. projects overseas at a time when Enron was contributing nearly $2 million to Democratic causes.

Clinton officials refused to finance only one out of 20 projects proposed by the energy company between 1993 and 2000 to build power plants, natural-gas pipelines and other big-ticket energy facilities around the world, according to the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the agencies that provided the subsidies.

In addition, the administration, which lauded Chairman Kenneth L. Lay as an exemplary "corporate citizen," granted about $200 million worth of insurance against political risks for nine Enron projects in such politically volatile areas as Argentina, Venezuela and the Gaza Strip, according to documents the agencies provided to the Senate Finance Committee.

"These projects obviously were a tremendous benefit to Enron's operations," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and ranking minority member of the committee. He noted that the Reagan and Bush administrations approved no loans for Enron between 1985 and 1992 and provided insurance for only one Enron power project in Guatemala in 1992.

The Clinton administration provided three loans between 1994 and 1998 to the now-defunct Dabhol power project in India. Mr. Clinton's commerce secretary, Ron Brown, trumpeted the approval of the Dabhol loans on a trade mission to India in 1995, with Mr. Lay by his side.

The trip was one of 11 Clinton trade missions provided at taxpayer expense for corporate executives from Enron and other companies. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which sponsored the trips, also provided $1 million in funding to study Enron energy projects in Russia, Eastern Europe and former Soviet states. (Source: The Washington Times, February, 21, 2002; Section: Business "Clinton helped Enron finance projects abroad")

"Enron did surprisingly well during the Clinton years," declared NBC News reporter Lisa Myers on the February 25 NBC Nightly News. She explained: "Lay played golf with the President, and Enron received $1.2 billion in government-backed loans for projects around the world. Documents obtained by NBC News show the Clinton administration billed three Enron projects in India and Turkey as success stories, personally pushed by the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. About that time, Enron made its first $100,000 contribution to the Democrats." (Source: NBC Nightly News, February 25, 2002)

Under the Clinton administration, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. "gave hundreds of millions of dollars" in loans and other government support to risky Enron-related projects overseas, according to a Senate Finance Committee audit released today.
As WorldNetDaily first reported Jan. 22, Enron became one of OPIC's biggest customers during the Clinton years.

From fiscal year 1993 to fiscal 2000, OPIC gave at least $544 million in loans to Enron-related projects, the agency reported in a letter to the Senate panel. It provided another $204 million in political-risk insurance. OPIC listed only currently supported projects.

The Export-Import Bank, another federal overseas economic-development agency, gave more than $650 million in loans to Enron-related projects over the same period, confirming WorldNetDaily's earlier reporting.

Between 1993 and 1995 alone, Ex-Im Bank supported Enron deals in India, Turkey, the Philippines and China worth nearly $4 billion, making the Houston-based company one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Clinton administrations export policy. The head of the federal bank at the time, Kenneth Brody, is a close friend of former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, having worked with Rubin at Goldman Sachs. In his financial disclosure report, Rubin listed Enron among firms with which he had significant contact at his Wall Street firm. Former Enron CEO Ken Lay offered Rubin a seat on Enrons board in 1999, as he was resigning from the Clinton administration.

The Senate panel asked for data back to 1985. "It appears the agency made no loans to Enron-related businesses from 1985 to 1992," during previous Republican administrations, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking committee member.

Current outstanding balance on all the Clinton-era federal loans to Enron-related projects is $965 million, according to documents. With the insurance liability, the federal agencies' indirect exposure to Enron-related projects approved by the Clinton administration totals nearly $1.2 billion.

"These loans obviously were a tremendous benefit to Enron's operation," Grassley said, particularly since commercial banks rarely finance such long-term projects in unstable foreign markets.

A committee investigator told WorldNetDaily that the panel is reviewing confidential memos written or received by OPIC and Ex-Im Bank officials regarding the Enron transactions.

Former OPIC head Ruth Harkin was appointed by Clinton after her husband, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, campaigned vigorously for Clinton in '92 and '96. The senator was one of the ex-president's biggest boosters during his impeachment trial.

Prior to joining the Clinton administration, Ruth Harkin was a top corporate lawyer at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a Washington firm that includes Clinton pal Vernon Jordan and Democratic power broker Robert Strauss. Akin Gump has listed Enron among its clients.

Ex-Im Bank board members during the Clinton years include Jackie Clegg, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Maria Haley, a former aide to Clinton in Little Rock and ex-wife of John Haley, who was convicted in the Whitewater investigation.

Dodd served as co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the '96 Clinton-Gore campaign. Clinton appointed Clegg vice chair of the Ex-Im Bank board in June 1997.

Haley has ties to the crooked Riady family who operate the Lippo Group out of Jakarta, Indonesia. The Riadys ran afoul of federal bank regulators after they took control of the Worthen Bank in Little Rock in the 1980s. Haley's long-time law partner, Mark Grobmyer, a Clinton golfing buddy, is a Lippo lobbyist.

While at Ex-Im Bank, documents show Haley OK'd federal loans for Indonesian projects worth more than $40 billion, including many involving Lippo and its subsidiaries.

Clinton replaced her on the board with Vanessa Weaver, who was forced by the Senate Banking Committee to recuse herself from Lippo transactions after a 1999 Investor's Business Daily story exposed her close ties to Lippo executive John Huang.

Both Huang and James Riady have since been convicted of fraud relating to Clinton-Gore fund-raising.

Two Enron executives -- Joseph Sutton and Rebecca McDonald -- have served on the Ex-Im Bank's advisory committee.

Enron, which usually backs Republicans, gave more than $150,000 to Clinton's party during the 1996 election cycle.

Yet another federal agency, the Trade and Development Agency kicked in more than $1.1 million from 1992 to 2001 for foreign projects involving Enron or its subsidiaries. It also sponsored 11 visits to the U.S. by foreign officials who participated in Enron-related projects. (Source: World Net Daily, January, 22, 2002; "Senate probes Clinton loans for Enron deals")

Enron and the Clinton Administration: Ties That Bind

(CNSNews.com) - While Capitol Hill Democrats have been trying with limited success to tie the Bush administration to the energy conglomerate Enron Corporation, the now-bankrupt firm actively cultivated a long-term relationship with the Clinton administration, according to documents obtained by CNSNews.com and authenticated by the company.

The seeds of the relationship were planted even before Bill Clinton was sworn in as president, and lasted until the final months of his administration. The documents also show the company and the Clinton administration sought to use each other to promote their respective agendas, both in Congress and abroad.

While the documentation gives no indication of any illegal activities, it does paint a picture of an American corporate giant seeking to influence an administration and exploit its policies, while entertaining the prospect of using its corporate clout to advance Clinton administration initiatives.

The Seeds of a Relationship Sown

Enron Corporation saw the opportunity to exploit the newly minted Clinton administration even before Clinton was sworn into office, and saw 1992 campaign issues including investment tax credits and restrictions on carbon dioxide (CO2) as beneficial to the company.

According to the November 1992 edition of the Enron corporate newsletter, 'To The Point,' the company looked forward to dealing with the upcoming Clinton administration.

The newsletter noted, "Senator [Al] Gore has been an avid proponent of a strong global warming policy" that would lower greenhouse gas emissions, and the Enron communique noted that Clinton and Gore's support of restrictions on CO2 emissions "should provide a real opportunity for natural gas."

Enron stood to benefit from any government restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions because the company had ownership or financial stake in numerous natural gas and wind power technologies, which produce little or no greenhouse gas emissions.

The company often described itself as "a major supplier of solar and wind renewable energy worldwide," and Enron also praised the newly elected Democrats for their "plans to aggressively convert government and other vehicles to alternate fuels, mainly natural gas."

The November 1992 newsletter also praised the Clinton campaign's economic policies, including its proposed investment tax credit, which the newsletter stated "would be beneficial to Enron and the natural gas industry," by facilitating lower costs for future Enron projects.

Enron even praised Clinton for his proposed health care plan, which ultimately died in the Democratic-controlled Congress in 1994. "Anything the new administration can do to control health costs will be of tremendous value to Enron and the nation," the newsletter noted.

Enron Feeds at Government Trough

Enron's ability to harness feelings of goodwill with Clinton's new team bore fruit in short order.

By 1995, Enron was able to successfully secure financing for the Dabhol Power plant in India with loans from the U.S. Export-Import Bank totaling $298 million dollars to cover about 32 percent of the costs. Enron's ownership stake was 80 percent in the Indian power plant.

Enron was able to secure another $100 million in investment money from the U.S. federal agency, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

In 1996, the investment corporation provided another $200 million dollars in "political risk insurance" for the India project, according to OPIC documents.

But Enron's relationship with the Clinton administration was not a one-way street, and top corporate officials lent their aide to the president.

Former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay wrote a personal letter to Clinton in 1995, supporting the president's budget proposal in Congress.

The letter, dated June 27th and blind copied to Clinton senior advisor Mack McLarty, Enron Vice President Joe Hillings and Enron Senior Vice President of Environmental & Government Relations Terry Thorn, was sent at the height of the budget battle with the newly elected Republican-controlled 104th Congress.

"I applaud your political courage and leadership in supporting a balanced federal budget," Lay wrote. "The debate should be about budget priorities and timing, not whether a commitment should be made to fiscal responsibility."

After offering his opinions on how to limit federal spending, Lay ended by writing, "I believe the American public will look kindly upon your leadership to bring closure on this vital issue."

Later that year, Clinton administration officials helped Enron during the company's negotiations over a natural gas project in Mozambique.

The top negotiator on the gas project for Mozambique was Minister of Mineral Resources John Kachamila, who complained of "outright threats to withhold development funds if we didn't sign," with Enron.

Kachamila said U.S. diplomats, "especially [U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission] Mike McKinley, pressured me to sign a deal that was not good for Mozambique. He was not a neutral diplomat," according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Clinton administration's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was also reportedly involved in the pressuring of Mozambique to sign the deal with Enron.

USAID is especially powerful because of the volume of money it pumps into the developing world. Mozambique was receiving over $40 million dollars during this time from USAID.

Enron Entertains Favors for Clinton Administration

In an Oct. 15, 1996 memo from John Palmisano, senior director for environmental policy and compliance at Enron, it was noted that the Clinton administration sought the company's help in gaining support from China and India for proposed climate change regulations.

Palmisano's memo, which was sent to Thorn, Hillings and a variety of other Enron corporate officials and lobbyists, noted, "the Administration is concerned about getting China and India into the family of nations committed to both carbon emissions trading concepts.

"We have been asked how we can help in this regard and how natural gas might be part of [joint implementation] activities in China," Palmisano wrote in the memo. Joint implementation involves a wealthier "donor" country that invests in pollution reduction measures in a "host" country in exchange for "credits," which the donor nation may use to meet its own pollution reduction targets. The Palmisano memo was written following meetings in Washington, D.C. with Clinton administration officials.

Palmisano's memorandum indicated he had met with several representatives of Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget.

The memo continued, "there seems to be an opportunity to get Administration support, and maybe money, to identify natural gas related activities in China that link to climate change in general and joint implementation in particular. I was approached twice during last week on this issue."

Palmisano bluntly sought guidance from his colleagues at Enron when he asked, "Does anyone have a notion as to how I should follow up?"

Enron also entertained requests on helping the Clinton administration move its climate change agenda on the domestic front.

A Feb. 7, 2000 memo from Jeffrey Keeler, Enron's Director of Environmental Strategies, to various Enron executives recalled another attempt to secure the company's help.

"I spoke with Jeff Seabright of the White House Climate Change Task Force today, who asked if Enron might become involved in supporting an initiative in the FY 2000 budget request on the subject of 'international energy collaboration.'"

Keeler noted how the proposal could benefit Enron because it "provides $100 million, spread across various agencies [Dept. of Energy], USAID, Commerce Dept. [Export, Import Bank], [U.S. Trade and Development Agency] for collaboration on energy technologies ..."

Climate change in general and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change specifically were the target of criticism in some quarters of Congress, and Keeler's memo explained one way in which some of the objections to Kyoto could be decreased or eliminated.

"The White House would be interested in our assistance in building support for such 'international' support," wrote Keeler, while also cautioning against the use of word "Kyoto" when referring to climate change initiatives.

"This proposal avoids direct mention of 'Kyoto' - in fact is more in line with the [Alaska Republican Sen. Frank] Murkowski, [Idaho Republican Senator Larry] Craig, [Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck] hagel (sic) approach to climate change - supporting R&D for energy technologies," the Keeler memo stated.

Conversely, Keeler, a strong proponent of climate change initiatives, was not happy with President Bush's decision in 2001 to oppose any new laws that set mandatory reductions on carbon dioxide emission from electric power plants.