To: American Spirit who wrote (466028 ) 9/27/2003 9:40:13 PM From: Glenn Petersen Read Replies (1) | Respond to Fact check time again. Three sources on Gore's ties to Occidental. There was a huge conflict of interest. Many more available. Once again, I never asked for jail time for Al.TomPaine.com (not exactly a RWE habitat) tompaine.com Gore Jr. directly benefits from this family relationship in several ways. He owns up to $500,000 in Occidental stocks, and stands to reap large financial rewards if Occidental finds the 1.5 billion barrels of oil that the company estimates is under U’wa land. Occidental and its employees are also frequent and generous funders to both the Gore campaign and to the Democratic party. In 1996, Occidental Chairman Ray Irani gave the Democratic National Committee $100,000 just 2 days after sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. ABC News abcnews.go.com Not that Gore’s hurting, exactly, because his papa appears to have left him a very large sum of money. Gore has a remainder interest (Tobias assumes that means he’s the beneficiary, though it’s not exactly clear.) in a trust that includes Occidental Petroleum stock and cash, worth a little more than $815,000. (Again, this figure is derived from using averages — the actual value could be more or less.) It’s not clear whether Gore has access to the trust, however. The Nation (not exactly a RWE rag) thenation.com Traditionally a Republican firm, Occidental was linked to the Democrats for many years primarily through Gore's father, Senator Al Gore Sr. The elder Gore was such a loyal political ally that Occidental's founder and longtime CEO, Armand Hammer, liked to say that he had Gore "in my back pocket." When Gore Sr. left the Senate in 1970, Hammer gave him a $500,000-a-year job at an Occidental subsidiary and a seat on the company's board of directors. At the time of his death in 1998, Gore the elder's estate included hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of Occidental stock. The Vice President is the executor of the estate, which still includes the stock and whose chief beneficiary is his mother.Gore Sr. sold the land for $140,000 to Gore Jr., who has received a $20,000 check nearly every year since he acquired it. Strangest of all, Occidental has never actually mined the land. Al Jr.'s coffers swelled further in 1985 when he began leasing the land to Union Zinc, an Occidental competitor. (For a full account of the Gore-Occidental relationship, see The Buying of the President 2000 by Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity.)
