|
|
=
| =
|
|
| = | ||
| =
Best democracy =
money can buy
=
Gregory Palast e= xamines the sources of the $500m that boosted Bush's bid for the White Ho= use = Observer<= P> Sunday November 26, = 2000
Last week, I mailed my o=
verseas ballot for the US presidency - and you can wipe that smug little =
grin off your face. I won't put up with condescending comments about Amer=
ica's democratic rituals from a nation with an unelected House of Lords o=
ccupied by genetic fossils and, soon, Chris Woodhead. In fact, you cou=
ld think of the $3 billion spent in the US campaign in positive, New Labo=
ur terms. Call it 'the efficient privatisation of the democracy' - though=
an outright auction for the presidency would be more efficient still. <=
P>If the guy who lost the vote, George W Bush, nevertheless wins the Whit=
e House, he'll have surfed in on a crushing wave of nearly half a billion=
dollars ($447 million), my calculation of the suffocating plurality of c=
ash from corporate America, a good 25 per cent more than Al Gore's take. =
George W could not have amassed this pile if his surname were Jones o=
r Smith. The key to Dubya's money empire is Daddy Bush's post-White House=
work which, incidentally, raised the family's net worth by several hundr=
ed per cent. Take two packets of payments to the Republican Party, to=
talling $148,000, from an outfit called Barrick Goldstrike. That's quite =
a patriotic contribution from a Canadian company. They can afford it. In =
1992, in the final hours of the Bush presidency, Barrick took control of =
US government-owned property containing an estimated $10bn in gold. For t=
he whole shooting match, Barrick paid the US Treasury only $10,000. B=
arrick made deft use of an 1872 gold rush law meant to allow pan-and-buck=
et prospectors to gain title to their tiny claims. In 1992, Clinton's new=
ly elected administration was ready to prevent Barrick's stunning grab. B=
ut Barrick is a lucky outfit. Bush's Interior Department expedited proced=
ures to ram through Barrick's claim stake before Clinton's inauguration. =
Ex-Pres George Bush was lucky, too. When the electorate booted him fr=
om the White House, he landed softly - on the Barrick Goldstrike payrol=
l, where he comfortably nested until last year. Who is Barrick? Its f=
ounder, Peter Munk, made his name in Canada in the 1950s as the figure in=
an infamous insider stock-trading scandal. Munk headed a small speaker m=
anufacturer that went belly-up, just after he sold his stock. This is not=
quite the expected pedigree for an international minerals mogul. If =
we look in the shadows behind Munk we can see the more accomplished playe=
r who provided the capital to set up Barrick - Saudi arms dealer Adnan Kh=
ashoggi. During Bush's presidency, Khashoggi was identified as condui=
t in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. He had already run into trouble with US =
lawmen when, in 1986, he was arrested and charged - but not convicted - o=
f fraud. He was bailed out of the New York prison by Munk, who provided t=
he $4m bond. Bush performed an even bigger favour for Khashoggi: as his l=
ast act in office, the president pardoned Khashoggi's alleged co-conspira=
tors, key members of Bush's own cabinet. As a result, no case could be ma=
de against Khashoggi. In 1996, a geologist prospecting in Indonesia, =
Mike de Guzman, announced his discovery of the world's richest gold field=
=2E Munk rapidly deployed his president. Bush, on behalf of Barrick, cont=
acted officials of the former dictator Suharto who were in control of min=
ing concessions. Thereafter, De Guzman's company was told it would have t=
o turn over 68 per cent of its claim to Barrick. Barrick didn't have =
long to gloat. Jim-Bob Moffett, the tough, old, Louisiana swamp dog who h=
eads Freeport-McMoRan Mining, had a private meeting with his old benefact=
or Suharto. At the end of the meeting, Jim-Bob and the dictator stood on =
the steps of the presidential palace to announce that Freeport-McMoRan wo=
uld replace Barrick. (Ironically, Barrick lucked it again. The gold find =
was a hoax. After Jim-Bob learnt he'd been suckered, his company invited =
geologist De Guzman to talk it over. Sadly, on way to the meeting, De G=
uzman fell out of a helicopter.) While Mr Munk's president did not pa=
y the cost of his rental in Indonesia, Bush could redeem himself in Afric=
a. In 1996, as genocide in Rwanda fomented civil war in Zaire, Barrick sm=
elt opportunity. We have learnt that, at that time, Bush spoke with his o=
ld golfing buddy, Mobutu Sese Seko (then dictator of Zaire) about diamond=
concessions. I don't know what ex-CIA director Bush told the panicke=
d dictator, but we do know that Mobutu granted Barrick exclusive rights t=
o mine diamonds in north-west Zaire. Maybe Bush talked about Barrick'=
s mining experience in neighbouring Tanzania where, according to Amnesty =
International, Barrick's subsidiary carried out 'extra-judicial killings'=
=2E Amnesty reports that 50 independent miners who refused to move off th=
e Barrick unit's concession were buried alive in the pits by company bull=
dozers. Barrick denies the allegations. Beyond Barrick, Daddy Bush ha=
s many other friends who filled up his sonny-boy's campaign kitty while B=
ush performed certain lucrative favours for them. In 1998, Bush pè=
;re created a storm in Argentina when he lobbied his close political ally=
President Carlos Menem to grant a gambling licence to Mirage Casino corp=
oration. Bush wrote that he had no personal interest in the deal. Tha=
t's true. But Bush fils did not do badly. After the casino flap, Mirage =
dropped $449,000 into the Republican Party war chest. The ex-presiden=
t and famed Desert Strormtrooper-in-Chief, also wrote to the oil minist=
er of Kuwait on behalf of Chevron Oil Corporation. Bush says honestly tha=
t he, 'had no stake in the Chevron operation'. Following this selfles=
s use of his influence, the oil company put $657,000 into Republican Part=
y coffers. Most of that loot, reports the Center for Responsive Politics,=
came in the form of 'soft money' That's the squishy stuff corporations u=
se to ooze around US law which, you may be surprised to learn, prohibits =
any donations to presidential campaigns in the general election. Not =
all of the elder Bush's work is voluntary. His single talk to the board o=
f Global Crossing, the telecoms start-up, earned him $13m in stock. The c=
ompany also kicked in another million for his kid's run. And while th=
e Bush family steadfastly believes that ex-felons should not have the rig=
ht to vote for president, they have no objection to ex-cons putting presi=
dents on their payroll. In 1996, despite pleas of US church leaders, Dadd=
y Bush gave several speeches (he charges $100,000 per talk) sponsored by =
organisations run by Rev Sun Myung Moon, cult leader, tax cheat - and for=
merly, the guest of the US federal prison system. There are so many m=
ore tales of the Bush family daisy chain of favours, friendship and campa=
ign funding. None of it is illegal - which I find troubling. But I don't =
want to seem ungrateful. After all, the Bushes helped make America the be=
st democracy money can buy. Blackout in Florida Vice-Preside=
nt Al Gore would have strolled to victory in Florida if the state hadn't=
kicked 12,000 citizens off the voters' registers five month ago as forme=
r felons. In fact, only a fraction were ex-cons. Most were simply guil=
ty of being African-American. While 8,000 of those disenfranchised went t=
hrough the legal rigmarole of getting on to the voting list, the rest - e=
nough to have won the state for Gore - did not. A top-placed election=
official (not a Democrat) told me that the government had conducted a qu=
iet review and found - surprise! - that the listing included far more Afr=
ican-Americans than would statistically have been expected, even accounti=
ng for the grievous gap between the conviction rates of blacks and whites=
in the US. The source of this poisonous blacklist: Database Technolo=
gies, a division of ChoicePoint, and hired by Governor Jeb Bush's frothin=
gly partisan Secretary of State, Katherine Harris. My thanks to investiga=
tor Solomon Hughes for informing me that DBT is a division of ChoicePoint=
=2E Under fire for mis-use of personal data in state computers, ChoicePoi=
nt founder Rick Rozar made a strategic six-figure soft cash donation to t=
he Republican Party.
• Email: Gregory.P=
alast@observer.co.uk
|
|
| = | |