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MARCH 1, 1995 Written by Ken Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn VOL. 2, NO.5 The Gang's All Here! • IN THIS ISSUE • Clinton, Tyson, Wal-Mart Special Report on and the Arkansas Poultryport Infrastructure in Rural Arkansas remote cow pasture in northwest (NAC), a private group promoting re or Arkansas has been the focus of gional development . The airport has al How Clinton's Cronies A ardent lobbying by the Clinton ways been its central goal, though the are Wolfing Down White House on behalf of the president's Council has also been chasing up money the Pork billionaire Arkansas backers, who have for a number of projects decorously as been conniving to have taxpayers under sembled under the worthy label of "infra • The Concourse write a commercial airport planned to structure," usually a tip-0££ that have the second largest runway in the pork-barreling is under way. in the Cow Pasture nation. Many of the major players, famil A secretive outfit, the NAC has been iar to the public from the older and infi demure about detailing its activities or • Sky .Dark With Chickens nitely less grandiose web of dealings even disclosing its membership. Jim Flying Off to Tokyo known collectively as the Whitewater Blair, a charter member of the group - scandal, are mustered in the Highfill air and also the lawyer for Tyson Foods, a • Will They Come Home port scheme: the Walton lamily of Wal- . close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton to Roost? Mart, Don Tyson of Tyson Foods, and and the man who handled the latter's Jim Blair, the man who handled Hillary commodity trades - once described the • How Mack McClarty Clinton's sensationally profitable com Council as "a self-appointed ad hoc com Goosed the FAA modity dealings. mittee" comprised of people "who feel Beginning in the closing years of Clin they can do something for the area be ton's gubernatorial career in Little Rock cause the area has been good to them and and pressed by President Bill's White they essentially want to put something • House adviser, Mack McLarty, the · back into it" scheme is now nearing the point of no Like Blair, most of the Council's {oun The Dismal Science return . A cowed Federal Aviation Ad ders had been long-time political sup ministration (FAA) has already bestowed porters of Bill Clinton. Aside from the "Unbelievably, unem• millions on the Northwest Arkansas Re above mentioned Don Tyson o{ Tyson ployrnent is too low in gionalAirport, whose prime function will Foods and Sam Walton, the now de [northwest Arkansas] . be to ferry Tyson chickens to Japan and ceased owner of Wal-Mart, there's also offer a huh for Wal-Mart's vast commer J.B. Hunt o£J.B. Hunt Transport Services This has caused its own cial operations. "From day one, and es Inc ., the country 's largest Eull-load trans share of problems - pecially since Clinton was elected portation company . All of these compa particularly for growing president, backers have boasted that they nies are headquartered within twenty companies that are have a commitment from the federal gov miles of Highfill, Arkansas, a town of 92 unable to find enough ernment to build the airport," John Lisle, people and the proposed airport site, workers. That, in turn, a lawyer who represents some of the fami The Council's first order of business lies who would be displaced by the pro was to pressure local government bodies has put inflationary ject, says. "They don't disclose the nature - city councils, municipal boards, quo pressures on wages, of that commitment, but they're abso rum courts - to join the Northwest Ar and that could stifle the lutely confident that the project will be kansas Regional Airport Authority growth." approved ." (NARAA), a quasi-public agency estab Planning for the airport began in mid- lished to oversee the airport program . -Arkansas Business, 1990, when local powerbrokers quietly Leading the drive were Jim Blair and October 18, 1993 formed the Northwest Arkansas Cou_ncil Uvalde Lindsey, who in the early-Eighties COUNTEHPUNCH MARCH 1, 1995 was Governor Clinton's liaison to the state paid the salary of its acting head, Uvalde opment grants and had "gotten a verbal senate and who later served as head of the Lindsey. At times, as many as six people committnent for more money than [the Council and, later still, as staff direct or of have served simultaneously on both the area has ever] gotten out of them" . the Authority . They proclaimed that the public Authority and the private Council. The Authority's original feasibility airport was vital to the region's future, study - conducted with a grant from the and drew dolorous pictures of the area's f all goes according to plan, the North Department of Transportation - showed fate if the airport plan failed : a veritable west Arkansas Regional Airport will that its own founders stood to reap wind ghost region, "with main streets boarded I occupy some 2,700 acres of what is fall profits if the airport were constructed . shut, theaters and restaurants closed," as now rolling pasture land . It will have cost, According to the study, the biggest win Council literature put it. at current estimates, $145 million, two ners would include: Under such duress, local counties and third s which is to come from federal • Major poultry firms, including Tyson municipalities - seven in all - soon grants and the rest from the sale of public Foods, Hudson Foods, and Peterson agreed to participate in the Authority , bonds baclced by airport revenues . Industries, all whom helped found which was granted unusually sweeping the NAC. "If competitive air freight powers. Its fourteen members, all of them rates were available , these compa appointed, can issue zoning ordinances, The airport's prime nies estimate that Japan would be market bonds and condemn property. "I function will be to ferry come a boom market for U.S . fresh · object to the Authority as a governmental chicken products," the feasibility structure, regardless of the merits of the Tyson chickens to Japan study states . By 1994, it predicted, project," says Zola Moon, a computer pro and offer a hub for with the airport open, at least five grammer and airport opponent . "It's an Wal-Mart's vast weekly 74 7 flights would be taking off unelected board of people with tremen from the airport, laden with the poul dous power ... who are not subject to citi commercial operations. try needed to meet Japanese demand .. zen oversight." Tysons is already the largest chicken Links between the Council and the Currently occupying the proposed air supplier to Japan, which imports a thircJ Authority are intimate. For months after port site are about 50 families, a few cows of the poultry it consumes. That figure is the Authority was created, the Council and some chicken houses . Many of the expected to grow to one-half by the year residents are elderly people living in 2000. homes built by their parents. According to • Wal -Mart . The Walton clan recog Editors Lisle, just eight property owners have nized that the airport would offer KEN SILVERSTEIN agreed to sell their land to the Authority immense benefits, linking its U.S. ALEXANDER COCKBURN and others say they'll leave their homes headquarters with Asian suppliers. only if forced out. According to the study, "Given de Production The initial emphasis of the boosters pendable air service available at TERRY ALLEN was on the airport's potential for shippers . competitive rates, [Wal-Mart] would The Council claimed that "the air cargo import a number of electronics, Counselor carriers of the nation are looking for a men's and women's fashion apparel BENSoNNENBERG location which is centrally located within product lines by air." the U.S. which has the airspace and air • J.B. Hunt Transport Co. Along with Design port capacity to handle wid&-body air other transportation firms head DEBORAH THOMAS craft ." quartered in the region, Hunt's firm This vision of rural northwest Arkan would "provide a strong trucking Intern sas becoming to air cargo what Wall Street base to efficiently transport the re JOHN MCNEILLY is to finance was ludicrous, but it served gion's cargo to/ from a new airport ." as a handy cover for raking in money from The airport backers planned to build Published twice monthly except Washington. Minutes from the Nov. 8, an 8,800 -foot runway and purchase August, 22 issues a year: 1990 meeting of the Washington County enough land to construct two 12,500-feet $40 individuals, Quorum Court shoy.,an excited Jim Blair runways at a future point. A runway of the $100 institutions , stating that the project represented what latter length could accommod~te jetliners $25 students/low-income he termed an "incredible chance to get capable of flying non-stop to Japan . Counter Punch. $90 million from the federal govern We checked with the FAA and it ap All Rights reserved. ment." Uvalde Lindsey informed the Quo pears that among civil airports, only CounterPunch welcomes all tips, rum Court that "there have been three O'Hare in Chicago has a longer runway- information and suggestions . meetings with the FAA who have [sic] in 13,000 feet - than the two runways Please call or write our offices. dicated that we have a unique opportu planned for the Poultryport at Highfill. CounterPunch, IPS, 1601 nity to be able to enter a funding The longest runway at JFK in New York is Connecticut Avenue NW, package." Furthermore, Lindsey said , 11,351 feet; at Dulles in Washington, Washington, DC 20009 the group had talked to other funding 11,501 feet; and at Los Angeles Interna 202/234-9382; 202/387-7915 (fax) agencies which provide economic devel- tional, 12,091 feet.