- Part I: "Money To Get
Power, Power To Protect Money."
-Motto of the Medici family
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- In portraying Enron as a "scandal,"
and as an isolated case of overheated capitalism and "unusual political
influence," the American corporate media and congressional investigators
are studiously avoiding the truth: Enron, like many multinational corporations,
has functioned as an operational arm of the US government, and as a weapon
of economic, political, and territorial hegemony. The case exposes an almost
unspeakable and terminal malignancy at the heart of world politics, and
global capitalism itself.
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- Cold Warriors in Suits
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- In a "free market world" in
which (1) the goals of the state, corporations, and the national security
apparatus (intelligence agencies and military) are indistinguishable, (2)
these three groups plan and conduct operations cooperatively, and (3) government
and business elites (linked by longtime social ties) move seamlessly between
public and private sectors, the hydra that is Enron is nightmarishly uncontroversial--and
quintessentially American.
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- Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was a Pentagon
official during the Vietnam War. Another Enron board member who facilitated
Enron's most egregious violations overseas, Frank Wisner, Jr., has intimate
CIA ties and is the son of former CIA Deputy Director Frank Wisner, Sr.,
who was present at the creation of the CIA.
-
- Enron's symbiotic relationship to the
CIA/Pentagon-based Bush/Cheney oligarchy is well documented. As a pioneer
of energy deregulation during his administration, George H.W. Bush virtually
created Enron, and paved the way for its meteoric growth. And, as David
Walsh (www.wsws.org) wrote, "to speak of "connections" or
"intimate ties" between Enron and the Bush regime nearly misses
the point. To a large extent, the present administration is an extension
of the Enron board of directors. This government, one might say, is Enron
in office, not simply because numerous Bush cabinet members and other appointees
(and other leading Republicans) have been employed in one capacity or another
by Enron, but more profoundly in the sense that the social types found
in Enron's boardroom and in leading government posts in Washington are
interchangeable."
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- As a corporate agent and beneficiary
of US and western military and intelligence operations, Enron is also no
more an aberration than the United Fruit and Standard Fruit companies,
whose dominance of Central America during the 1960s depended on cooperative
operations with the CIA, the Pentagon and organized crime.
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- More modern examples abound.
-
- American International Group, the insurance
giant, has long been tied to the CIA and the military, and its board (not
coincidentally) also includes Enron director Frank Wisner Jr.
-
- Citigroup over the years has been repeatedly
charged with money laundering. Citigroup's board includes John Deutch,
former CIA Director, Robert Rubin, former Treasury secretary and intimate
friend to Ken Lay (who personally and financially intervened to bail out
the collapsing Enron), and retired Executive Director of the CIA Nora Slatkin.
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- Then there is Enron's corporate cousin,
Halliburton, which was headed by Dick Cheney from 1995 until he became
vice president. The company provides "support services" to the
military and oil industries, living off of US wars and "counter-insurgency"
operations in Algeria, Angola, Bosnia, Burma, Croatia, Haiti, Kuwait, Nigeria,
Russia, Rwanda, and Somalia and elsewhere.
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- Corporate quasi-agents like Enron are
effective fronts in implementing the policies of the ruling elite. Among
the goals are (1) securing and controlling of natural resources (oil, natural
gas, electricity), (2) maintaining economic, geopolitical, and military
advantage, and (3) controlling populations through the stifling of dissent,
the elimination of political opposition, and the destruction of democratic
reform movements.
-
- Seen within this broad framework, Enron's
activities are not only inherent manifestations of the ruling order, but
official policy.
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- Enron at Home: Extortion and Racketeering
for Bush and Gang
-
- While media coverage and congressional
inquiries have dwelled on the fraud, accounting irregularities, swindled
mutual fund managers and stock jockeys, and ripped off pension fund owners,
the most sinister aspects of Enron's operations remain cloaked.
-
- Through manipulation of energy distribution,
Enron was effective in subverting and controlling the politics and pocketbooks
of entire populations within the US and overseas.
-
- One of Enron's first acts on behalf of
the present Bush administration was the manipulation of the California
energy grid, which essentially blackmailed the state. California is a Democratic
stronghold and "hotbed of liberal dissent" that opposed the installation
of George W. Bush in the White House. California's once burgeoning economy
was derailed, and its damaged Democratic political leadership was sent
scrambling into months of damage control. So emasculated were the Democrats
that they were unable to oppose Bush on the rest of his extreme right wing
agenda. This delighted Bush and Cheney, who (on Ken Lay's advice) not only
refused to assist, but also blamed California for "its own failures"
and blocked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision (FERC) from intervening.
Enron made a fortune.
-
- Today, California remains a hostage to
the Enron/Bush scam, locked into expensive long-term energy contracts that
will sap its resources and fleece consumers for years to come. Democrats
throughout the state appear vulnerable to losing seats to Republicans in
2002.
-
- As reported by David Lazarus in the San
Francisco Chronicle (1/30/02), memos of conversations between Lay and Dick
Cheney provide ample evidence of Lay's insider status in the Bush White
House: he essentially dictated the administration's ruthless response to
California--and perhaps the rest of the energy policy.
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- The California "energy shortage"
became George Bush's national rallying cry for more deregulation, drilling,
building new power plants and systematically gutting environmental regulations.
The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and other protected lands, and the
California coast, have been targeted for drilling.
-
- There is evidence that the California
"crisis" was entirely manufactured. Several investigations into
the scam have begun.
-
- Not content simply to deregulate energy
markets, Enron deregulated futures markets, making itself exempt from government
oversight and from fraud laws. This maneuver, headed by Wendy Gramm (who
moved back and forth between the Chicago Board of Trade and the Enron board)
and assisted by Phil Gramm (who pushed Enron-friendly changes in legislation
in Congress), was tantamount to the company giving itself permission to
launder massive amounts of money. Which it did.
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- Enron, Bush administration officials
and Enron-funded right-wing "think tanks" such as the American
Enterprise Institute, the American Council for Capital Formation (where
Ken Lay is a director), the Institute for Policy Innovation (founded by
Dick Armey) collaborated to lift restrictions on offshore tax havens. This
blocked a multi-year 30-nation crackdown on the abuse of offshore tax havens
led by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
-
- Today, thanks to Enron, billions of dollars
of mystery money are sheltered in thousands of phantom offshore accounts,
in 874 Enron subsidiaries.
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- Enron's Past Overseas Adventures: Collusion
and Exploitation
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- Where there has been warfare (led or
funded by the US), there have been capitalists ready to profit from it,
regardless of the cost in human lives. Where there is oppression, corporations
are there to cut deals with dictators and corrupt finance ministers. Enron
was a master at this game, working alongside operatives of the Bush and
Clinton administrations.
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- * In 1988, George W. Bush pressured Argentina's
public works minister to award Enron a contract to build a natural gas
pipeline by invoking the name of his father, president George H.W. Bush.
The contract was eventually awarded to Enron when Carlos Menem, a friend
of the Bush family, became president.
-
- * Operation Desert Storm secured the
Iraqi oil field of Rumaila for western interests, expanding the boundaries
of Kuwait, doubling Kuwaiti oil output for American and British oil companies.
In 1993, with James Baker, Robert Mosbacher and former operations director
of the Joint Chiefs Thomas Kelly on the Enron payroll, the three former
Bush administration officials, along with George H.W., Neil and Marvin
Bush pressured Kuwaiti officials to award Enron a contract to rebuild the
Shuaiba power plant, which was destroyed during the war. The contract was
awarded to Enron, even though Enron's price for supplying power was significantly
higher than that of other bidders.
-
- * Enron hired former US Ambassador to
India Frank Wisner, who subsequently used CIA influence to help Enron win
a $2.8 billion contract for the Dabhol power plant, the biggest international
investment since India opened its economy in 1991. When thousands of local
residents, including acclaimed journalist Arundhati Roy, protested the
plant, Enron hired Indian police to beat and arrest opponents of the project.
A detailed Human Rights Watch analysis of the human rights violations of
Enron and the US government can be found at www.hrw.org/reports/1999/enron/enron9-0.htm.
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- * According to Enron's web site, as of
January 2002, the company is in the early stages of developing a natural
gas pipeline on India's west coast in Maharashtra.
-
- * In 2001, as vice president, Dick Cheney
spoke to Indian government officials about the Dabhol project. His justification:
the plant was financed in part through the US government's Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC).
-
- * According to an investigative series
on the notes of the late Ron Brown by WorldNetDaily.com, Enron became a
major contributor to the Democratic National Committee (after the heavily
Enron-financed George H.W. Bush re-election effort failed in 1992). Members
of the Clinton administration, particularly Commerce Secretary Ron Brown,
routinely negotiated deals for Enron and other big donors.
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- * In 1994, Brown participated in a US
business trade mission in Indonesia. Documents obtained using the Freedom
of Information Act shows that Brown assisted Indonesian dictator Suharto
and his son in a kickback scheme involving US tax money and the construction
of the Paiton Power Plant. Enron was awarded a contract. This project was
funded in part by the Export-Import Bank (EXIM), which also financed $4
billion in gas deals for Enron. EXIM has ties to Robert Rubin, a longtime
friend of Kenneth Lay and Enron from his Goldman Sachs days.
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- * Also in part from generous DNC contributions,
Enron received Clinton administration help in the marketing of Russian
gas in Europe. Ken Lay and Boris Brevnov of Unified Electricity Systems
of Russia signed a 10-year strategic alliance during the 1998 World Economic
Summit in Davos, Switzerland. The press release quotes Lay: "We are
very optimistic that the rapidly liberalizing markets in Russia, Europe,
and Central Asia will create new electricity trading and marketing opportunities
for both our companies."
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- * When Frank Wisner was the US Ambassador
to the Philippines (1991-92), Enron was negotiating to manage the two Subic
Bay power plants. Wisner helped Enron win the deal and began to manage
the plant in January 1993. The plants cost the Philippine National Power
Corporation (NPC) eight cents a kilowatt-hour--20 percent more than NPC
charged customers. The entire NPC board resigned in protest.
-
- * In 1995, Enron signed an agreement
to build a gas pipeline from Mozambique to South Africa, to develop a gas
field in southern Mozambique. Anthony Lake, president Bill Clinton's National
Security Advisor, and the US Agency for International Development pressured
the Mozambican government to sign with Enron.
-
-
- Next, Part II: Enron, the Bush administration,
and the Central Asian war
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- Larry Chin is a freelance journalist
and an Online Journal Contributing Editor.
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- http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports
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