Congress Poised to Probe Dems' Global Crossing Scandal
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Saturday, Feb. 9, 2002
WASHINGTON – The Democrats, frustrated over their inability to tie the Enron garbage can to President Bush, may soon find themselves targeted by congressional scrutiny of a scandal reaching into the highest ranks of their own party. Furthermore, the case is developing a China connection that could threaten U.S. national security.
A veteran member of the House of Representatives told NewsMax.com on Thursday night that as soon as the House Commerce Committee is through probing Enron, the bankruptcy of telecommunications giant Global Crossing may well be next.
"They’re seriously considering it,” said the lawmaker, who did not wish to be identified.
The committee had not returned a call from NewsMax.com as of Friday night.
The mainstream media, for the most part, have been hushing up the juiciest parts of the Global Crossing debacle, the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Terry McAuliffe and Corporate Greed
This has all the indications of sleaze attributed to Enron, but with this difference. This time there is a questionable political connection that is real. It turns out that Democrat National Chairman Terry McAuliffe made an 18,000 percent profit from Global Crossing, turning a $100,000 stock investment into $18 million.
But there's more: McAuliffe took his money off the table just before the corporation went into the tank. Global Crossing employees and small shareholders and pensioners were left holding the bag.
That’s exactly what happened at Enron. The media are up in arms over Enron but strangely silent about the same script playing itself out at Global Crossing. That leads to a suspicion that Bill Clinton’s handpicked DNC chairman is getting the kid-gloves treatment because the liberal media, which can smell a Republican scandal (real or otherwise) halfway around the world, somehow lose their bloodhound instinct when tracking the suspicious dealings of Democrats.
So far it has been left to the public interest law firm Judicial Watch (JW) to begin the spadework that may lead to answers on the "political” work McAuliffe did for the telecom company, whose stock once surpassed that of General Motors. JW General Counsel Larry Klayman says this may be tied to a huge Pentagon contract and a $1 million donation to the Clinton Presidential Library.
And there’s more: The Global Crossing scandal involves Arthur Andersen, the same accounting giant that got a black eye with its handling of Enron.
Information that House probers are considering a look at Global Crossing comes hot on the heels of a revelation, confirmed to USA Today and other newspapers, that the FBI is investigating the Bermuda-based company, including its accounting practices. The bureau is cooperating with an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The China Syndrome
And it turns out there is a Chinese connection to the Global Crossing scandal. As a part of its reorganization, the telecommunications company intends to sell a majority stake to two Asian companies. One of those has ties to the communist Chinese regime.
The company in question is none other than Hutchison Whampoa, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Recall this is the company whose subsidiaries, in recent years, moved into control of much of the commerce at both ends of the Panama Canal. That void was filled after the U.S. pulled out of the canal, thanks to a treaty whose ratification was rammed through the Senate in the 1970s by the Carter administration.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is trying to block the sale. He says Li Ka-shing is part of the Chinese government’s inner circle.
In a statement Friday to NewsMax.com, the California lawmaker said he was concerned that "a front company for the Chinese communist leadership is now trying to take over a company that owns a significant part of the fiber optics network and may threaten the national security interests of the United States.”
He wants a congressional probe with a focus on the security angle, possibly separate and apart from any House Commerce investigation of the business angle.
When nailed for his cool $18 million windfall last week on Fox News Channel, McAuliffe evaded co-host Sean Hannity’s challenge to share some of the money with the less fortunate company employees and stockholders who lacked his political connections. The DNC boss’s sole defense is that he made the killing strictly through the good old capitalist system, which he has often criticized in the past.
As for the China connection, Global Crossing, which owns an undersea fiber optics network to more than 200 cities, says not to worry. Its networks would remain secure under any deal with Hutchison Whampoa.
"Right,” the skeptics scoff.
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