On September 10, 2001, America was just about to roast
the Bush-Cheney cabal alive over Enron and the failing
Economy...Then, as George "lucky me" Bush says, he
"hit the Trifectta."
Now Kenny-Boy has finally been indicted...It remains
to be seen whether or not this prosecution will be a
real one...
Regardless, the case against Bush cabal vis-a-vis
Enron, the secret "Energy Task Force" and the phoney
California "energy crisis" must be tried in the court
of public opinion, and Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) is the
man to do it...
William Rivers Pitt, www.truthout.org: Enron made
campaign contributions totaling more than $5.7 million
between 1989 and 2001. Republicans received 73% of
this money. Ken Lay was an ardent supporter of George
W. Bush during Bush's time as Governor of Texas.
During the 2000 campaign, Lay allowed Bush to use
Enron corporate jets to fly from stump speech to stump
speech. So close were these men that Bush granted Lay
a nickname: 'Kenny-Boy.'
Some 15 high-ranking Bush administration officials
owned Enron stock in 2002. The stockholders included
Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, political advisor Karl
Rove, deputy EPA administrator Linda Fisher, Treasury
Undersecretary Peter Fisher and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert
Zoellick. Army Secretary Thomas White was a
vice-chairman for Enron before assuming his post, and
owned between $50 million and $100 million in Enron
stock.
Two other officials had professional connections
to Enron. Former White House economic adviser Lawrence
Lindsey was a consultant for Enron while serving as
managing director of Economic Strategies Inc., a
consulting firm. Zoellick also served on the Enron
advisory council, earning $50,000 a year.
Enron, in many respects, set about to write the
Bush administration's energy policy. Ken Lay gave the
White House a list of his personal recommendations for
key federal energy posts. Lay pushed his list of
suggested members of the federal energy regulatory
commission in the spring of 2001. Two of the people he
suggested - Pat Wood and Nora Brownell - were
appointed by Bush to positions that would directly
affect the fate and fortunes of Enron.
Lay himself was on the short list of potential
appointees for the position of Energy Secretary. The
CBS Enron tapes reveal one trader looking forward to a
Bush win during the 2000 campaign. "It'd be great,"
says one. "I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of
Energy." Another trader responded by saying, "When
this election comes, Bush will fucking whack this
shit, man. He won't play this price-cap bullshit."
The infamous secret energy policy meetings run by
Vice President Dick Cheney, the substance of which he
still refuses to reveal, were riddled with Enron
officials and Enron priorities. It has been speculated
that one of the reasons Cheney refuses to divulge the
elements of those meetings is that Enron was wielding
the drafting pen as Bush's energy policy was created.
It has also been speculated that the secrecy
surrounding these meetings is due to the fact that the
not-yet-begun Iraq war, and the resulting
petroleum/pipeline profits to be reaped, played a
large role in the discussions.
The beat goes on and on in this fashion, leading
to an inescapable conclusion. Enron was certainly
among the most crooked, corrupt, twisted companies
ever to hang a sign in the American marketplace. Enron
was, simultaneously, umbilically tied to George W.
Bush and vast swaths of his administration.
Now that Lay has been indicted, those Enron
stockholders still experiencing the length, breadth
and depth of the shaft can hope for a measure of
justice. For the rest of us, we citizens who have to
live in a country whose energy policy was essentially
written by Lay and his pals, we citizens who have to
wonder if our current adventure in Iraq somehow plays
a central role in that Enron-birthed policy, we can
perhaps hope that a thousand days is enough time to
wait before we hear the truth about Kenny-Boy and
George.
Free Martha Stewart, Prosecute the Real Corporate
Criminals, Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush
(again!)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/070804A.shtml
Kenny-Boy and George
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 07 July 2004
You have to love the irony: Since Kerry announced
his VP choice of John Edwards, the Bush campaign has
broadbanded the anti-Edwards slam that he is nothing
more than your basic gutter-dwelling trial lawyer.
This comes blithely on the heels of Bush hiring his
own trial lawyer to protect him during the 70-minute
Oval Office interrogation he endured regarding the
Valerie Plame CIA-outing case some weeks ago. Everyone
hates lawyers until they need one, it seems.
Perhaps Bush doesn't like trial lawyers because a
team of them failed to keep his long-time friend and
financial backer, Kenneth Lay, from getting his hide
nailed to the shed in Houston. According to CNN, Lay
was indicted by a Texas grand jury today for crimes
relating to the apocalyptic Enron scandal. The
indictment is sealed until further notice, so no
determination of the exact criminal charges can be
made.
Damn lawyers.
For those who cannot quite recall the specifics of
Ken Lay and Enron, a bit of background is in order.
Lay, along with Andrew Fastow, Jeffrey Skilling and
some dozens of other high-flying bosses from Enron,
are accused of insider trading, securities fraud, wire
fraud, conspiracy, manipulation of earnings reports to
hide the fact that Enron was hemorrhaging cash from
every pore while they reaped massive salaries and
bonuses, and finally, manipulation of the California
energy market for no other reason than to wring pin
money out of grandmothers who were forced to live in
the dark because they couldn't afford to pay their
Enron-inflated energy bills.
Tape recordings of Enron energy traders were
recently aired by CBS News. In one segment, the
traders can be heard discussing the ins and outs of
manipulating the California energy market. "They're
fucking taking all the money back from you guys?"
complains one Enron employee. "All the money you guys
stole from those poor grandmothers in California?" The
response: "Yeah, grandma Millie, man." Another
response: "Yeah, now she wants her fucking money back
for all the power you've charged right up, jammed
right up her asshole for fucking $250 a megawatt
hour."
Charming.
In filing the largest bankruptcy claim in the
history of the universe, Lay and his merry men cost
investors somewhere in the neighborhood of $30
billion. This wiped out retirement benefits not just
for the Enron employees who were forbidden from
selling their stock (while Lay et al. happily shucked
theirs off to the tune of a $1.1 billion profit), but
also wiped out the retirement portfolios of millions
of Americans who had put their savings into Enron
stock. The resulting carnage on Wall Street, which
erased the accounting giant Arthur Andersen, did even
more financial damage.
Martha Stewart was convicted of crimes that seem
quaint by comparison, and meanwhile Mr. Lay has been
walking free and happy. How did the priorities of the
Justice Department get so far out of whack on this
one? The Enron debacle happened in December of 2001,
and it has taken them almost a thousand days to get an
indictment returned on Lay.
Hm.
Enron made campaign contributions totaling more
than $5.7 million between 1989 and 2001. Republicans
received 73% of this money. Ken Lay was an ardent
supporter of George W. Bush during Bush's time as
Governor of Texas. During the 2000 campaign, Lay
allowed Bush to use Enron corporate jets to fly from
stump speech to stump speech. So close were these men
that Bush granted Lay a nickname: 'Kenny-Boy.'
Some 15 high-ranking Bush administration officials
owned Enron stock in 2002. The stockholders included
Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, political advisor Karl
Rove, deputy EPA administrator Linda Fisher, Treasury
Undersecretary Peter Fisher and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert
Zoellick. Army Secretary Thomas White was a
vice-chairman for Enron before assuming his post, and
owned between $50 million and $100 million in Enron
stock.
Two other officials had professional connections
to Enron. Former White House economic adviser Lawrence
Lindsey was a consultant for Enron while serving as
managing director of Economic Strategies Inc., a
consulting firm. Zoellick also served on the Enron
advisory council, earning $50,000 a year.
Enron, in many respects, set about to write the
Bush administration's energy policy. Ken Lay gave the
White House a list of his personal recommendations for
key federal energy posts. Lay pushed his list of
suggested members of the federal energy regulatory
commission in the spring of 2001. Two of the people he
suggested - Pat Wood and Nora Brownell - were
appointed by Bush to positions that would directly
affect the fate and fortunes of Enron.
Lay himself was on the short list of potential
appointees for the position of Energy Secretary. The
CBS Enron tapes reveal one trader looking forward to a
Bush win during the 2000 campaign. "It'd be great,"
says one. "I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of
Energy." Another trader responded by saying, "When
this election comes, Bush will fucking whack this
shit, man. He won't play this price-cap bullshit."
The infamous secret energy policy meetings run by
Vice President Dick Cheney, the substance of which he
still refuses to reveal, were riddled with Enron
officials and Enron priorities. It has been speculated
that one of the reasons Cheney refuses to divulge the
elements of those meetings is that Enron was wielding
the drafting pen as Bush's energy policy was created.
It has also been speculated that the secrecy
surrounding these meetings is due to the fact that the
not-yet-begun Iraq war, and the resulting
petroleum/pipeline profits to be reaped, played a
large role in the discussions.
The beat goes on and on in this fashion, leading
to an inescapable conclusion. Enron was certainly
among the most crooked, corrupt, twisted companies
ever to hang a sign in the American marketplace. Enron
was, simultaneously, umbilically tied to George W.
Bush and vast swaths of his administration.
Now that Lay has been indicted, those Enron
stockholders still experiencing the length, breadth
and depth of the shaft can hope for a measure of
justice. For the rest of us, we citizens who have to
live in a country whose energy policy was essentially
written by Lay and his pals, we citizens who have to
wonder if our current adventure in Iraq somehow plays
a central role in that Enron-birthed policy, we can
perhaps hope that a thousand days is enough time to
wait before we hear the truth about Kenny-Boy and
George.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Rivers Pitt is the senior editor and lead
writer for t r u t h o u t. He is a New York Times and
international bestselling author of two books - 'War
on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and
'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
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