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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorrie coey who wrote (26845)	1/9/1999 11:00:00 AM
From: Johannes Pilch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Alas yes. I have failed. I simply cannot resist taking advantage of kicking the stuffing out of a dumb new age broad. The point of your aroma is well taken. I suggest you consider taking a douche every now and then, a douche of sulfuric acid. No doubt this would be merely the start of a treatment for your abhorrent malady, but it would be a start. New age animals are disgusting indeed. P.S.> LOL

To: lorrie coey who wrote (26845)	1/9/1999 3:03:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Indians' Special Trustee Quits, Criticizing Babbitt Problems With Trust Fund Accounts Noted By William Claiborne Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 8, 1999; Page A19 The Clinton administration's special trustee for American Indians resigned in protest yesterday, charging Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt with obstructing his efforts to untangle billions of dollars in mismanaged Indian trust fund accounts. Paul M. Homan, the special trustee, said in a letter to his staff that an order issued by Babbitt on Tuesday that reorganized Homan's office "usurped the powers, duties and responsibilities" of the special trustee. Homan, who has been at loggerheads with Babbitt for years over reforming the management of Indian trust accounts, said the order effectively "designated two other officials to become the special trustee, "thereby taking away the independence guaranteed by the 1994 law that created his office. "In short, I felt I was deprived of the authority and the resources, principally managerial resources, necessary to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the special trustee," he wrote. Homan did not return telephone calls to his office for comment. His resignation came just four days before Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who has frequently clashed with the Clinton administration, to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for delays in producing the records of five Indian trust accounts involved in a class action lawsuit filed in 1996 over the Bureau of Indian Affairs' alleged mismanagement of Indian trust funds. Interior spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna said yesterday that Babbitt "feels all Indian tribes and individuals with trust fund accounts are owed the best level of expertise as possible." That is why, she said, the secretary reorganized the special trustee's office to "strengthen and clarify" management responsibilities. She said a new principal deputy and the new head of the Albuquerque records office would report to the special trustee and were "part of an effort to improve things." Hanna said Babbitt has accepted Homan's resignation but has no comment. She said the secretary "appreciates all of the work Paul Homan has done and knows that it is an enormous task to undo 80 years of management deficiencies and underfunding in [Indian] trust account management." Homan, the former president of Riggs National Bank and a onetime senior official of the Comptroller of the Currency's office, was named by President Clinton in 1995 to one of the federal government's most daunting jobs--untangling $2.9 billion in trust accounts that the government holds for Native Americans, much of which federal audits have shown cannot be accounted for. It is not known how much is actually missing, but an advisory committee said the government could be liable for as much as $575 million in undocumented disbursements, which may have resulted in less money going to the tribes. Homan initially targeted 300,000 accounts belonging to individual Indians who are supposed to receive royalties from the sale of petroleum and other natural resources from their land. As much as $1 million has flowed through some of the accounts in a single year, while others received only a few dollars. In a deposition filed in June 1997, in connection with the class action lawsuit, Homan said he had encountered "obstruction" from senior Interior officials, including Babbitt, who he said had failed to provide adequate funds and staff for running the special trustee's office and Indian trust programs. In his testimony, he said Babbitt's trust policy committee, which includes the secretary and top officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Management and Budget, had become known by many involved in Indian trust management as the "Homan Containment Committee." Elouise Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet tribe and one of the lead plaintiffs, called Homan's resignation a "sock in the stomach" to all Indians and an indication of how desperately Babbitt is trying to cover up the mismanagement of the trust funds. "We lost the only credible person who knows anything about managing trust funds and who knew how to fix it," Cobell said. "For more than 100 years, any time we have tried to get accountability of trust funds, someone like Babbitt has come along to stop us." Said Cobell: "He's playing dirty and retaliating against us for making him show cause why he shouldn't be held in contempt." © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company