- The US military is issuing a contract to extend the internment
facilities at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba but it will not be for terrorists
who wear suits, ride in limos and jet in their private planes to palatial
homes in Florida and California.
-
- Presently there are several hundred suspected terrorists
housed in open compounds in Cuba but there are no plans to increase their
numbers with men who have done more damage to the United States than many
of those held incommunicado at the Guantanamo camp.
-
- The problem for the Bush Administration is that terrorism
has been too narrowly defined. As a consequence, it is difficult
if not impossible - for the US judicial system to bring corporate terrorists
to justice.
-
- A CEO of a companies like Global Crossing and Enron -
or the accountancy firm, Andersen - can wreck havoc with the US economy
but that is not considered terrorism.
-
- The loose term for such conduct is "white-collar
crime" a definition that in no way conveys the enormity of a
particular crime.
-
- It is possible to seriously damage the economic health
of a superpower, to blight the lives of tens of thousands, to deprive people
of their retirement savings and remain immune from prosecution.
-
- In fact, greed is not defined as a criminal act just
as lying to shareholders and investors about the financial status of a
company is regarded by many corporate terrorists as part of the financial
game a necessary prequisite to becoming super wealthy and raising
stock prices.
-
- The attack on the World Trade Center but was not simply
aimed at causing a massive loss of life but striking at the financial heart
of the United States. The terrorists achieved both aims. The economic loss
resulting from 9/11 has been estimated at over $60 billions though some
economists regard that figure as a conservative estimate.
-
- The economic losses incurred by the collapse of some
of the world's largest companies such as Enron, Global Crossing and WorldCom
may have exceeded the damage done by Al-Qaeda's suicide bombers.
-
- The effects are also likely to be long lasting. Not only
have the corporate terrorists undermined confidence in the US Stock Market
but their greed and dishonesty will serious affect the economic prospects
for tens of thousands and make retirement a painful period for many.
-
- The CEO's and senior managers in some companies, as well
as the accounting firms and stock analysts who contributed to the demise
of the shares of so many investors, are unlikely to ever see the inside
of a prison cell.
-
- The fact is that corporate terrorism has never had a
sufficiently high profile in the corridors of power in Washington where
so many politicians have lined their pockets from the same companies that
were raided from the top.
-
- The recent images of CEOs sitting before Congressional
Committees and taking the Fifth Amendment was the precursor to a contrived
silence the Department of Justice will find hard to penetrate.
-
- In some companies the terrorism was compounded by the
shredding of documents - a clear sign that getting rid of the evidence
is the first step on the road to maintaining silence about wrongdoing.
-
- Next it will be the role of high-class lawyers to keep
the corporate terrorists out of prison. In the United States that is not
difficult to do. As O/J. Simpson demonstrated, money talks. It buys legal
teams that can make complex even the simplest issues.
-
- For the first time in US history, there is a public demand
for action against the corporate terrorists. Those who have suffered and
are likely to suffer into retirement want swift justice. But they are not
likely to get it.
-
- They want to see the master corporate terrorists deprived
of their trappings of wealth and placed behind bars like the terrorist
suspects in Guantanamo.
-
- The difference is that the guys in Guantanamo have no
right to lawyers or the money to hire the best.
-
- In fact, the master corporate terrorists are a devious
lot. Many of them have bought palatial home- some costing as much as $90
millions in States where the law does not allow property to be seized
even if someone is found guilty of a serious crime.
-
- President George Bush, who has shown little personal
empathy with the victims of corporate terrorism, has signed into law a
bi-partisan piece of legislation aimed at creating stiffer penalties for
corporate terrorism.
-
- For those waiting to see the first of the corporate terrorists
take the long walk down a corridor to a prison cell, the wait will be a
long one. Guantanamo cells may well be empty by the time that happens.
-
-
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- Martin Dillon is a world authority on Russian and East
European intelligence and the Ireland conflict. He is also the author of
the bestsellers: The Shankill Butchers (Random House); The Dirty War (Random
House) and God and the Gun (Orion). This trilogy is also published by Routledge,
New York. His books are also available on Amazon.com
-
- Martin Dillon is an editor of www.Globe-Intel.net
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