The Power Elite: Enron and Frank Wisner, Jr.

["michael pugliese" <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

   I'm amazed sometimes what this rightist, militia list sends.
Writer is "Vijay Prashad is Assistant Professor of International
Studies at Trinity
College in Hartford, Connecticut.
 Source: People's Democracy, 16 November 1997." Prashas appears
frequently in the People's Weekly World of the Communist Party,
U.S.A. http://www.pww.org I think.
People's Democracy is an Indian communist journal. If memory
serves they have a bit of a musty Stalinist line.
Michael Pugliese
P.S. Wasn't it Wisner, Sr. that had the great line about the
CIA playing journalists like mighty Wurlitzer?
P.P.S. Cockburn & St. Clair read APFN. They mentioned it on Counterpunch
recently re: 9-11 conspiranoia.
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The Power Elite: Enron and Frank Wisner
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16588


On 28 October 1997, Enron Corporation announced the entry of
Frank G. Wisner
Jr. onto its board of directors. Most of the business press did
not find this
untoward and it certainly did not emerge as part of the US discussions
on
corruption at the highest level. Frank Wisner, as we know in
India, was the
US Ambassador from 1994 until this year and his entry into Enron
must be seen
in light of the scandal of Dabhol. Enron, like most US corporations,
uses its
close association with the state (both its elected and bureaucratic
arms)
for its own ends.

US campaigns are financed by corporations whose money not only
enables
politicians to win elections, but it also buys businesses the
state's power
both for domestic subsidies and for the use of US power in the
international
arena.

Frank Wisner, Jr. was a big catch for Enron Corporation. His
lineage is
impeccable, since his father, Frank Wisner Sr., was a senior
CIA official
(from 1947 until his suicide in 1965) who was involved in the
overthrow
of Arbenz of Guatemala (1954) and Mossadeq of Iran (1953). Wisner
Junior
was well-known in the CIA and he worked as Under Secretary of
Defense for
Policy and Under Secretary of State for International Security
Affairs;
his current boss, Kenneth Lay, Chief Executive Officer of Enron
Corporation,
also worked for the Pentagon during the US war in Vietnam. With
"economic
espionage" as a task for the CIA (see PD, 12 October 1997), there
is little
doubt that Wisner used this instrument during his long-tenure
as Ambassador
in Asian nations. A Wisner staffer told InterPress Services this
year that
"ifanybody asked the CIA to help promote US business in India,
it was
probably Frank".

When Wisner was US Ambassador to the Philippines (1991-92), Enron
was in the
midst of negotiations to manage the two Subic Bay power plants.
When Wisner
left Manila in July 1992, Enron won the deal and began to manage
the plant
in January 1993. During Wisner tenure in India, he fought long
and hard to
secure various deals for Enron. He went so far as to boycott
the "India
Power '96 -- Beyond Dabhol" summit, despite being scheduled to
give an
address (this was part of a US advisory to companies to avoid
India for
six-months, a pressure tactic on India during the winter of 1995-96).
Wisner
left India earlier this year only after it seemed like Enron's
place was
secure.

Enron, like most monopoly corporations in the US, uses money
as a means to
buy influence and power. To gain access to a lucrative contract
to rebuild
the Shuaiba power plant in Kuwait, Enron hired former US Secretary
of State
James Baker as a consultant who travelled to the oil kingdom
to negotiate
with his Gulf War allies for his new employer. The sons of George
Bush also
helped Enron win this contract despite a lower bid from Deutsche
Babcock,
a German firm. The Bush brothers also helped Enron in their deal
to win a
contract to build a pipeline from Chile to Argentina in 1988.
Finally,
Wendy Gramm (wife of Senator Phil Gramm) joined Enron's Board
of Directors
in 1993 after she resigned from the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission.
This Commission, just days after Gramm's resignation, deregulated
energy
futures, thereby allowing Enron to earn 10% of its profits by
adventures
on the financial markets. Beside all this evidence, it appears
hypocritical
for Rebecca Mark, Chairperson of Enron Development Corporation,
to declare
that "Enron's reputation is being attacked, and we do not do
business
under the table".

The story does not end there. In 1991-92, Enron donated $28,525
to the
Democratic Party and in 1993-94, it gave $42,000. These monies
enabled
Enron to send its executives on international tours with the
late
Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown in January 1995 (when Kenneth
Lay came
to India) and in March-April 1994 (when Chief Executive Officer
of Enron
International, Rodney Gray came to Russia). In the former, Enron
was in
negotiation for the Dabhol plant among other things (such as
the $1.1
billion offshore holdings) and in the latter, Enron was interested
in
the marketing of Russian gas in Europe. President Clinton noted
that
Brown's trips resulted in "expanded opportunities for American
business
in [the USA] and abroad". The "pay to play" project of US "democracy"

is once again in evidence. The example of Enron and Wisner proves
beyond
a reasonable doubt that the US state is not a neutral actor in
world
affairs and that US transnational corporations are part and parcel
of
the corruption within the US Empire. The hearings in Washington
on
"campaign finance reform" do not bother with this level of corruption,

for most of those who are running the investigation are beholden
to
business interests. Enron, for instance, will not be a part of
the
investigation, since it is deemed to be a patriotic US entity
out to
create jobs for US workers and to accumulate wealth to defer
the costs
of the US's mercenary army.

Vijay Prashad is Assistant Professor of International Studies
at Trinity
College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Source: People's Democracy, 16 November 1997
=========================================================================


Enron (formerly Hughes Tool)

3. What would you think the following may have in common? Ken
Starr,
James A. Baker III (who is a former, Sec. of State, Sec. of the
Treasury,
and twice White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Reagan
and Bush),
Enron (formerly Hughes Tool), Hughes Aircraft, Hughes Electronics,
and
Howard Hughes Medical Institute? How about fraud, billions of
dollars
in estate tax fraud, corruption, satellite and missile technologies

transfers, the "China-Hughes" Conspiracy, and even including
arming
Sadaam Hussein in Oct. 1989, and doing so by charging the U.S.
taxpayers
well over $1 billion dollars to do it?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16587


The Enron Investigation
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16586


Bush: No 'Fishing' For Info Allowed in Enron Debacle
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16585

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service"

Insider Report - 12/25/95
Retired General Colin Powell, who received the first annual "Enron
Prize for
Distinguished Public Service" at the Baker Institute conference,
offered some
provocative remarks regarding the new roles performed by the
U.S. military:

"[D]uring the four years I was chairman [of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff], we
deployed the armed forces of the United States some 28 different
times,
sometimes to war, sometimes to peacekeeping, sometimes to
peacemaking, sometimes to peacemaking in our own cities [during]
the
Los Angeles riots...." Don't forget the military in waco in 1993!

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16584