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Non-Tech : The Enron Scandal - Unmoderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (1051)	2/1/2002 3:15:47 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3602

I'm not saying it wasn't true....I think Lay accompanied the late Ron Brown (Clinton Commerce Sec.) on some overseas trips to promote business...I just hadn't heard about him staying at the White House, much less 11 times. If he did, and didn't stay at the WH while Bush was Prez, I think the media ought to report that.

To: Bill who wrote (1051)	2/1/2002 3:20:17 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3602

lewrockwell.com Consider Ron Brown, President Clinton's Commerce Secretary. The allegation loudly made was that corporations had to "pay to play" to get a seat on his plane as he embarked on visits to foreign governments promoting American business. It was, of course, very useful if your company was in on these delegations and cutting the deals for big third world projects. At the very least one would have enlarged their business contacts and possibly gained the promise of foreign tax breaks. Enron accompanied our secretary on a trade mission to India in 1995. They came out with three contracts worth a total of about $2.5 billion. When Enron accompanied Brown to Russia in 1994, they got a deal to develop a market for Russian gas in Europe. Who needs the free market when you have a personal, symbiotic relationship with politicians? Well, customers do and this is perfectly exemplified in the aforementioned Indian contract, which included building a power station at Dabhol. The New York Times reported in 1995 that the U.S. ambassador "constantly cajoled" Indian officials over the contract and that Enron was also helped by the CIA, which provided privileged information on competing contractors. All this is denied, but six years on and we see the fruits of an uncompetitive bid beginning to unravel over disputes of high prices being charged by Enron (who have a 65% stake in the plant). Enron had signalled their intention to pull out, now they have no choice and the Indian banks are left nursing unpaid $1.4 billion loans. Sin in haste, repent at leisure. After Enron signed a deal in 1995 to supply a 900-km gas pipeline in Mozambique, the country's natural resource minister was reported as saying: "Enron was forever playing games with us and the embassy forever threatening to withdraw aid. Everyone was saying that we would not sign the deal because I wanted a percentage, when all I wanted was a better deal for the state." (From a report in the 1995 Houston Chronicle). Implicated were Anthony Lake, President Bill Clinton's National Security Adviser, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Embassy in Maputo, who put pressure on the government to sign with Enron. In 1993 Enron won a contract to build a 105-megawatt, diesel-fired power plant in the Philippines that critics said would cost the Philippine National Power Corporation (NPC) eight cents a kilowatt hour - 20 percent more than NPC charged consumers. The controversy led to resignations in 1993 of all seven members of the NPC board. Needless to say, Enron have made large contributions to the Democratic Party coffers. Interesting to also note that Ron Brown was the former chairman of the Democratic Party who at the same time worked as a highly recognised deal-making lobbyist for Patton, Boggs and Blow. Some things do not seem to change.