Issue 96 Table of Contents

Issue 96
Table of Contents

	"Get Eisner Down Here"	by Joe Shea In November 1999, "Disney's then counsel learned that Disney had destroyed a vast number of other documents ... plus hundreds of the files of Disney's subsidiary, Canasa Tradiing Corporation," the motion says. ... Disney deliberately concealed this highly relevant information from the Court and Slesinger" throughout a November 1999 hearing," and only told Slesinger about it in December 1999
	The Pooh Files	by Joe Shea At stake is the right to sell Pooh and his pals Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and Christopher Robin in the United States and Canada, an enterprise that globally is said to contribute as much as one-fifth of the $25 billion Disney generated in 2001 from sales on every continent but Antarctica. The judge in the case has said the family can terminate the Pooh contract if breach or fraud is found at trial sometime later this year
	Environmentalism Under Attack	by Colin Woodard The Skeptical Environmentalist presents itself as a work of impartial scholarship, an attempt to test the validity of various environmental concerns through a careful analysis of the evidence. In fact, it's a polemic, an intellectually dishonest tract filled with glaring omissions, appalling errors of fact and analysis, and inaccurate characterizations of contrary arguments. There are some valid points as well -- Greenpeace and other advocacy groups have distorted scientific information for their own ends -- but Lomborg must be read with a very skeptical eye
	Peace Activists In Pakistan Walk Tightrope	by Muddassir Rizvi Amid a war-like situation along the borders with India, the peace movement here walks a tightrope in a country where the military does not like dissenters
	Bush Was Allied With Taliban Until August, Book Says	by Julio Godoy A new book by two French intelligence analysts claims that at the behest of U.S. oil companies, the Bush administration initially blocked FBI investigations into terrorism, while it bargained with the Taliban for the delivery of Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition and economic aid
	Iraqi People Expect U.S. Attack	by Ramzi Kysia Everyone agrees that after Afghanistan, America will bomb here next, but, as one man put it to me, the Iraqi people are "used to the voice of American bombs." Iraqis are celebrating Ramadan, and going about their lives as usual. They say that the future is out of their hands, so why bother worrying about it? I don't know. This time seems different: much more serious, much more frightening
	Bush Fuels Oil Pipeline Conspiracy Theory	by James Ridgeway Did Bush exploit the Sept. 11 attacks to justify a Central Asian oil grab? The answer seems clear. On Dec. 31, Bush appointed his special envoy to Afghanistan: Zalmay Khalilzad. "This is a moment of opportunity for Afghanistan," the former Unocal employee commented upon arrival in Kabul Jan. 5. You bet it is: Pakistan's Frontier Post reports that U.S. ambassador Wendy Chamberlain met in October with Pakistan's oil minister to discuss reviving the Unocal project
	Bush Can't Escape Enron Scandal	by Edward B. Winslow With the press and Congress distracted by President George W. Bush's war in Afghanistan, they are ignoring another scandal. No third rate burglary, the Enron Corp. scandal involves millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Bush, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and other members of Congress. The cozy relationship between the Bush White House and Enron enabled Kenneth L. Lay, then Enron's CEO, to meet in secret with Vice President Richard Cheney to help mold the nation's energy policy. Bush's presidential campaign received $1.14 million from Enron
	GOP 2002 Political Platform: War, War, War	by Randolph T. Holhut As long as the war is going well -- "well" being defined as few American casualties, no new terrorist attacks on American soil and President Bush's approval rating hovering in the high 80s -- that may be the only issue the GOP can campaign on
	Bush Admin Can't Shrug Off Ties To Enron Scandal	by David Corn Safire and Company are not wrong to point out that the cliched smoking-gun -- a piece of incontrovertible evidence hog-tying George W. Bush or one of his aides to Enron fraud or coverup -- has yet to be discovered in the massive pile of bad paper and shredded documents that federal and congressional investigators will be poking through for years to come. (The scandal is still young.) And the Bush White House and its defenders vehemently maintain administration officials did not rush to the rescue of Enron chairman-in-distress Kenneth Lay, Bush's most generous contributor, after Lay called his pals in government to say Enron was in deep doo-doo. But none of this means the scandal is politics-free
	Call Bush And Company "Enron Conservatives"	by Arianna Huffington Enron Conservatives are people who use political money and connections as levers to free themselves of all accountability to laws, regulations and responsibility -- even to their own employees. Simply put, they are people who consistently, shamelessly and aggressively put their self-interest above the public interest. And when the lives of others are destroyed in the process, they just look the other way and hope that the law does, too
	Both GOP And Demos Lying About Economy	by Mark Weisbrot Why not tell the truth? We're losing jobs at the fastest rate in 20 years, and the House Republicans in October passed an "economic stimulus" bill that contained very little to boost the economy. Instead they loaded it with more tax breaks for the rich, and tens of billions of dollars in refunds for America's largest corporations. To take advantage of September 11th and the recession with this kind of callousness and greed was bound to cost them politically
	The Day Ashcroft Foiled FOIA	by Ruth Rosen Passed in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Freedom of Information Act has been hailed as one of our greatest democratic reforms. It allows ordinary citizens to hold the government accountable by requesting and scrutinizing public documents and records. Without it, journalists, newspapers, historians and watchdog groups would never be able to keep the government honest. It was our post-Watergate reward, the act that allows us to know what our elected officials do, rather than what they say. It is our national sunshine law, legislation that forces agencies to disclose their public records and documents. Yet without fanfare, the attorney general simply quashed the FOIA
	Bush Sneaks In Appointment of Controversial Hard-liner	by Jim Lobe Otto Reich, the hard-liner whose nomination to the State Department's top Americas post has been opposed by senior Democrats, won a back-door appointment as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Reich, who became notorious for his role in running a secret propaganda campaign on behalf of the Nicaraguan contras in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, has been lobbying hard for the appointment
	White House Seen Grooming Tom Ridge As Cheney Successor	by Walter Brasch Bush and Ridge knew that if Ridge completed his term as governor, he would be out of office -- and possibly out of the public's interest -- for the last two years of the Bush presidency. There is nothing worse for a politician than to be seen as irrelevant. The Sept. 11 disaster guaranteed national exposure -- and the perception that Ridge, by giving up the governorship, was serving his country, not his own political interests. As director of homeland security, Ridge has a broad mandate, but little actual power, a small staff and minimal budget. The possibility of him being able to coordinate well-entrenched biases and turf-sensitivities within the FBI, CIA, and Defense Department are remote. But, for several reasons, the position assures Ridge of being a prime candidate for the vice-presidency
	Ashcroft's Dangerous Arrogance	by Jim Hightower Using terrorism as his excuse, the arrogant and inept Ashcroft has defiled our Constitution, engaged in massive racial profiling, jailed thousands of innocent people in a political ploy to look like he's "doing something," arbitrarily set up secret star chambers that subvert our judicial system, and made such a mockery of good American police work that his autocratic tactics have been rejected by some of his own FBI officials, some local police departments, and some of our European allies. Meanwhile, he has not nailed a single terrorist
	Will Bush "War On Terrorism" Target Somalia?	by Sharif Nashashibi Washington has declared the Somali Islamic movement al-Itihaad a terrorist organiztion. Al-Itihaad emerged in 1991 as one of numerous warring militias, and its aim was the establishment of an Islamic state. However, its military operations ended with its defeat in 1997 by invading Ethiopian troops. Since then, it has become Somalia's leading provider of education, judicial, health and welfare services, all scarce and badly needed in a country experiencing an extensive drought in the south and half a million people reportedly facing severe food shortages there. The Somali government and the UN deny that al-Itihaad undertakes terrorist operations or has any links with al-Qaeda
	Bush Used Sept. 11 To Push Ahead FTAA	by Diego Cevallos The FTAA model is designed to provide strong benefits for the United States and few for the rest of the Americas, said De la Reza, who coordinates a research team on integration in Mexico and Sweden. Unlike the integration model followed by the European Union, social aspects and questions of political, cultural and monetary integration as well as migration issues and the environment do not figure on the agenda, or have been relegated to a secondary level, in the FTAA negotiations
	Chill In Saudi-U.S. Relations No Surprise	by Jim Lobe This kind of talk is dangerous heresy to those, like President George W. Bush's father, the former oilman and Gulf War crusader, who have considered Riyadh to be Washington's most steadfast, reliable, and stable friend in the region. Yet, even before Sep. 11, the elder Bush intervened at least twice with Abdullah to assure him the younger Bush's heart was in the right place on Middle East issues
	Growing Serbia Market For Selling Kidneys, Livers	by Vesna Peric Zimonjic For years now, it has been an open secret that Serbia is a hub for an illegal trade in organs, mostly livers and kidneys. "Donors" come from neighboring Bosnia or the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and go to the Western countries. It is hard to establish how much an organ costs, but couriers are paid up to $2,000 for a quick transfer to the country of destination
	Enron Got Its Money's Worth	by Robert Scheer Oddly, given that Republicans are presumed to favor leaving power with the states, the Bush energy plan emphasized increased federal power over utility pipelines that forced local utilities to carry Enron's product. This was an expansion of the "open access" powers granted in the 1992 Energy Policy Act, passed in the first Bush administration. That law undermined the power of local authorities and regional utility companies for the benefit of Enron. In 1999, Enron had defined "open access" as the company's "single-most important initiative." Two years later, George W. delivered
	New Estimates of Afghanistan's Civilian Dead	by Geov Parrish For two months, British and Islamic media outlets, and their reporters in the field, have relayed daily accounts from non-Taliban sources -- aid workers, refugees, and even anti-Taliban forces -- of Afghan civilian deaths and mayhem. United States media, by contrast, understated and deemphasized the civilian dead, and overstated, in perfect harmony with Pentagon pronouncements, the precision of U.S. weaponry
	Secret Offshore Banks Were Key To Enron Scheme	by Lucy Komisar Andrew Fastow, the company's chief financial officer until October 2001, was known as a master of international offshore banking laws. The key to the Enron swindle was the company's 3,000 corporate subsidiaries and partnerships. A fourth of them were registered in Grand Cayman or Turks and Caicos, two notorious offshore centers. Why put company ownership records in secrecy jurisdictions? So that regulatory authorities, investment analysts and stockholders won't know about self-dealing or other improper activities. If authorities don't know who the owners are, they can't know if Enron managers or associates secretly own a partnership
	Refugees Protest Asylum Rejections By Sewing Lips Shut	by Bob Burton The Australian government is struggling to defuse a growing crisis over its hard-line policy toward asylum seekers, as a hunger strike by more than 200 of them -- held in searing summer temperatures at a detention center in a remote desert location -- enters its second week
	UN Human Rights Commission Begins Year Without U.S.	by Gustavo Capdevila It was the Europeans who dislodged the United States from the Commission, to which it will return in 2003. Sources close to the Commission said western Europe wanted to teach Washington a lesson for its condescending, isolationist behavior in the Commission and other international fora. The United States took the rest of the Commission's members by surprise in 2001 by voting against a resolution on the right to food, which was approved by the other 52 member states
	No Clear Policy On Nuclear Weapon Use By India Or Pakistan	by Nadeem Iqbal As they have done for the last 10 years, the first day of the year saw rivals Pakistan and India exchanging a list of nuclear installations and facilities that should not be attacked should armed conflict arise. But in truth, both countries have failed to officially declare their nuclear doctrines, which would clearly state under what circumstances they would use nuclear weapons
	NOW Debunks Right-Wing Charges Of Exploiting Sept. 11	by Bill Berkowitz There are all-too-few-positive talking-head television moments worth noting. That's why Kim Gandy's meeting with conservative Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes" program, was such a special moment. Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), sat down with Hannity on Tuesday, January 8, and cleaned his clock. She was sensational. Give this woman her own television program!
	Dead Sea At Environmental Risk	by Danielle Knight The Dead Sea, already the lowest point in the world, appears to be sinking because its waters are being siphoned off for agricultural, industrial, and residential use
	Bush Working Against Environment, Public Interest, Watchdog Group Says	Attorneys from across the country told reporters that Bush administration officials have been keeping the American public out of environmental decision making by holding closed door meetings with some industries, allowing other industries to rewrite environmental rules, and refusing to produce documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act
	TV Documentary Shows Aftermath Of "Bombies"	by Tamara Straus There are several disturbing lessons in "Bombies," the forthcoming PBS documentary on cluster bombs in the U.S's covert war in Laos. The first is that the wounds of war don't end with peace treaties in the modern era; they continue in the form of undetonated bombs that cover the former killing fields of the world. In Laos, they have killed 12,000 civilians in the past three decades
	Corporation Tax Break Loophole Ruled Legal	by Geov Parrish The federal deficit just got a lot bigger, and you probably didn't hear about it. In a lightly reported decision published last week, a federal appeals court made it much easier for corporations to use tax shelters and investment strategies without getting hassled by the IRS, even if those shelters have no purposes other than tax avoidance
	Osama bin Laden Merchandising Sweeps Egypt	by David Cassel It seems that given the chance, Egyptians are eager to buy anything associated with America's nemesis. An Arabic book titled "Bin Laden: A Man Confronting the World" a biography that appeared within a month of the Sept. 11 attacks, was passed by censors and is now found at most street-side book stalls. "It's a slow read," confesses book seller Moustafa Shafik. "But the cover has a picture of bin Laden so it's my best seller"
	Central Florida Drinking Water Could Run Out in Five Years	by Donald Sutherland Water management officials in central Florida warn the region has supplies of drinking water that will last just five more years if current unfettered growth and projected drinking water demand is not abated
	New Stem Cell Discovery Could Revolutionize Medicine	by Sylvia Pagan Westphal Until now, only stem cells from early embryos were thought to be able to do this. If the finding is confirmed, it will mean cells from your own body could one day be turned into all sorts of perfectly matched replacement tissues and even organs
	Militant Palestinian Groups Eager To Fight Israel	by Ferry Biedermann � The relationship between the militant movements and Arafat's Palestinian Authority has changed since Arafat called a cease-fire and started his half-hearted crackdown on people accused of being involved in attacks against Israel. While the statements and some of the actions indicate that Hamas and other militant groups are straining to resume the fighting, the PA is still exerting pressure to keep the situation calm. The patience of the militant groups is clearly running out, though
	Bush Seeks Court Approval To Expand Police Searching	by Philip Smith At the urging of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court will review a federal appeals court ruling holding that police officers who seek to search or question passengers on public transportation, such as interstate buses and trains, must first inform citizens of their constitutional rights, particularly the right not to consent to an unwarranted search
	Argentina's Collapse Discredits U.S. Policy	by Mario Osava and Raul Pierri Argentina, a country that in the 1990s carried out the reforms counselled by the Washington Consensus -- a set of policy recommendations for economic reform -- will leave a profound mark on economic theory. The Argentine crisis will be cited to promote a strong new argument in favor of a more balanced trade system and fuel criticisms against the neo-liberal stance of the Washington Consensus, which promotes the deregulation of domestic markets, says Antonio Carlos Lacerda, president of the Brazilian Society for Studies of Transnational Firms and Globalization
	Sinking Of Korean Boat Raises Doubts Of Japan's Pacifism	by Suvendrini Kakuchi On Dec. 22, Japan's coast guard opened fire on an intruding ship suspected of carrying North Korean spies off the coast of Amami-Oshima Island, the first such clash in Japan's postwar history. Fifteen crewmen died when the ship exploded and sank. Experts say the unprecedented attack implies far-reaching consequences on the domestic front and is bound to raise questions about Japan's relations with East Asia
	Jaguar Conservation Spotty	by Stephen Sautner New research shows that the jaguar is in trouble in two-thirds of its historic range. Part of the problem is that jaguars live in 18 countries and there is no coordinated plan for conserving them -- such wide-ranging species need conservation plans that transcend political boundaries
	Iran's Religious Hardliners Target Satellite Internet, TV	by Yassaman Taghi Beigi Despite popular resistance, satellite dishes are about to disappear from thousands of rooftops here in the Iranian capital, if the hardliners in Iran's government have their way. Iran has seen a massive crackdown on satellite dishes since October, with the second stage of the operation launched last month. Authorities plan to confiscate at least 150,000 satellite dishes, and to penalize owners with heavy fines and even jail terms
	Little Success For "Jubilee" Campaign So Far	by Samanta Sen The Jubilee Debt Campaign is taking on what it acknowledges is a huge challenge. Fifty-two of the world's poorest countries owe more than $300 billion to their wealthy counterparts. Only about $18 billion of this has been cancelled so far. Another $54 billion cancellation is in the works, but so far it amounts to just 5 percent of the poor countries' debt. If all of the planned cancellations are carried out, they would still only slice another 15 percent off the debt
	Fragmentation Makes Forest Seedlings Whimpy	New research shows that fragmentation of tropical forests can make trees wimpy. Seeds from isolated trees had less genetic diversity and were less likely to germinate, and the seedlings that did grow had smaller leaves. This is the first study of how forest fragmentation affects seedling quality
	Argentina Pharmacies Hoarding Critical Drugs	by Marcela Valente Cancer and transplant patients and diabetics in crisis-stricken Argentina are unable to obtain the medicine on which their lives depend, even though pharmacies have the drugs on hand
	Yucca Mountain OKd for Nuclear Waste	Over the objections of Nevada politicians in both parties at every level of government, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham January 10 notified Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn and the Nevada Legislature that in 30 days he intends to recommend to President George W. Bush that the Yucca Mountain site is scientifically sound and suitable to hold radioactive waste
	Indonesia Quiet Before Next Political Storm	by Kafil Yamin Despite her perceived lack of political skills and acumen, Megawati, who became Indonesia's chief executive just a few months ago, continues to enjoy the confidence of many major political and social organizations. But some Indonesians say they are still waiting for the new regime in this country of more than 200 million people to translate into better economic times as well
	Enron Scandal Implicates Financial Journalists, Wall Street Pundits	by Jim Hightower Where, for instance, were the "independent" Wall Street experts who, despite having serious doubts about how Enron actually made its money, kept touting the company, helping send its stock price soaring? Clearly, the market bulls were all too eager to buy into the company's bull. And where were the "independent" financial journalists who, instead of digging for answers, collectively genuflected at the mere mention on the Enron miracle? (The editors of Fortune voted Enron the "most innovative" of the magazine's "most admired" companies six years in a row.)
	Why the SLA Still Haunts Us	by Earl Ofari Hutchinson Prosecutors bank on more than the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony to convict them, they are banking on their terrorist past and anger over public revulsion over the September 11 terror massacre at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
	UN Slams U.S. Over Treatment Of Taliban Prisoners	The United States has reserved the right to try the prisoners on its own terms, refusing to call them prisoners of war (POWs) because this designation would trigger rights protections under the Geneva Convention. Nevertheless, U.S. officials insist the prisoners are being treated humanely
	Black Hawk -- and Truth -- Down	by Danny Schechter Black Hawk Down is an action movie that tries to turn a U.S. defeat into a victory by encouraging you to identify with the men who fought their way out of an urban conflagration not of their making. But with Somalia looming as a possible next target in the war against terror, Black Hawk Down may turn into a recruiting film for revenge. While Al Qaeda was not visible in the film, there is evidence that they, too, were involved in the background of the events in l993, stirring up the violence and training the warlord militias
	Let Down His Rich Pals? Over His Dead Body	by Robert Scheer With blase arrogance, the president now insists that his skewed tax cut be amplified in the years to come. This is a cheerleader who doesn't know the game is lost: Unemployment is at a decade high, the huge Clinton budget surplus is now going into deficit, and eight years of buoyant prosperity and growth have been turned into a sour recession
	Enron Is a Cancer on the Presidency	by Robert Scheer Enron rode to power primarily on the strength of Lay's influence with the Bush family. This fact is not mitigated by Enron now hiring Clinton's former lawyer and various top Democratic lobbying groups, except to note that these hired guns have no shame. The Bush family ties to Kenny Boy Lay are just too intimate and lucrative to ignore
	Why Do You Think They Hate Us?	by Molly Ivins This is why a lot of people hate us. For the sheer bloody arrogance of having it both ways all the time. For thinking that we are above the rules, that we can laugh at treaties, that we can do whatever we want -- we don't have to keep our word or behave like other civilized nations, and we can just tell people to bugger off when they raise questions
	Overlooking The Misery That's Out There	by Molly Ivins Homelessness is up, shelter populations are up, food distribution centers and soup kitchens are overwhelmed. And all this is happening in a cruel synergy of inattention, indifference and the final fraying of the social safety net. Charities are overwhelmed and suddenly vastly underfunded in large part as a consequence of the complete focus on the victims of Sept. 11. The federal government, largely under Republican control, is dealing with war, terrorism and recession. State governments, with far less attention, are out of money, running into deficits and cutting services across the board
	Fine Line Between Prosecution and Persecution	by Molly Ivins Do people think Andrea Yates would be "getting away" with murder?" Do they think she's faking her illness? What possible solution to this tragedy can be offered by the criminal "justice" system?
	Fine Line Between Prosecution and Persecution	by Molly Ivins Do people think Andrea Yates would be "getting away" with murder?" Do they think she's faking her illness? What possible solution to this tragedy can be offered by the criminal "justice" system?
	Repubs Trash Economy in Record Time	by Molly Ivins "Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes," announced the president. Well, we know what he meant. According to bipartisan budget experts, we're back in deficit for at least the next several years. That didn't take them long, did it?
	Patriotism Is Also Last Refuge Of Scoundrels	by Molly Ivins High on my scoundrel list is Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who waited two whole days after Sept. 11 before introducing a steep capital gains tax cut -- 80 percent of the benefits to the richest 2 percent of taxpayers

	Ashcroft's Civil Rights Amnesia	by Norman Solomon Ashcroft is getting a pass from journalists. When he presided at a recent Justice Department event commemorating King, much of his speech aired live on CNN. "I'm personally privileged and we are all privileged to follow in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's footsteps in defending freedom and ensuring justice," Ashcroft proclaimed. Viewers didn't get a clue about Ashcroft's long record of opposition to civil rights -- and his publicly expressed affection for the Confederacy
	Mark Twain Whitewashed	by Norman Solomon The other day, with calendars showing January 2002, a radio was having its usual effect -- until suddenly my eyelids popped open. A young fella named Ken Burns was talking about me. I listened attentively in case I might, at last, learn the meaning of my glorious and wretched life. Weighing me on literary scales, his thumb was heavy on the glory side. I will not object, though I might quibble a tad
	KPFA Radio Struggles Back to Life	by Norman Solomon The pressure became too much for the corporate-minded majority on the Pacifica national board. In late December, a legal settlement reconstituted the board. And now, for the first time in many years, the board's majority is committed to progressive principles
	Donald Rumsfeld, Master Spinner	by Norman Solomon Deep into the mass-media groove, the Wall Street Journal piece declared: "The basic source of Mr. Rumsfeld's charm is that he talks straight. He doesn't expend his energy on spin..." Now there's an example of some prodigious spinning. Actually, Rumsfeld -- who excels at sticking to the lines of the day -- is a fine practitioner of spin in the minimalist style, with deception accomplished mostly by what's left unsaid
	The Enron Uproar	by Alexander Cockburn Enron, it's true, did push the envelope. A PGE executive confided recently that "we knew the company was listing when we heard that it was trying to buy Internet porn sites." Even by the usual standards of corporate chicanery, the accounting procedures were manic in their crookedness. But the basic recipe was entirely in sync with what we are regularly instructed on CNN, MSNBC and Forbes is the building code for the New Economy of the 21st Century: The Marketability of More or Less Everything on the e-Bay of Planet Earth
	War And Claptrap	by Alexander Cockburn Somalia is now touted as a prospective target nation in the war on terror. The new movie "Black Hawk Down" hails the heroism of U.S. special forces, in the form of the Delta Force and Army Rangers. The reality was somewhat different
	Pebbles And Poppies	by Alexander Cockburn Afghanistan's new government will still impose Sharia Islamic law on its people, but with less harshness. The details were fleshed out by Judge Ahamat Ullha Zarif, who has told the French news agency Agence France Presse that public executions and amputations will continue, but there will be changes: "For example, the Taliban used to hang the victim's body in public for four days. We will only hang the body for a short time, say 15 minutes"
	Conspiracy Theories -- Or Forbidden Truth?	by Alexander Cockburn As for all those mad theories about permitting the September 11 attacks to occur or about remote control planes, they seem to add up to the notion that America's foes are too incompetent to mount operations unaided by U.S. agencies, or that intelligence agencies aren't vast, bumbling bureaucracies quite capable of ignoring or underestimating or discounting warnings of an attack
	Bush to Lay: What Was Your Name Again?	by Robert Scheer Lay's loyal support of the Bushes may have been gratitude for the decisive role that the first Bush administration played in Enron's meteoric rise. Building on the Republican-engineered deregulation of the electricity industry that began in the 1980s, Enron got a huge boost during the first Bush administration with passage of the 1992 Energy Act, which forced utility companies to carry Enron's electricity on their wires
	Comments? Send a letter to the editor. Albion Monitor Issue 96 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor) All Rights Reserved. Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to use in any format.