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. MAHCH 1, 1995 COUNTER PUNCH

rged by powerful local leaders, backers claim that by 1998, the airport's picions that Tyson Foods, Wal-Martand the airport project sped forward. planned first year of operation, between other companies still see the airport as an U Then, in August of 1991, came a 300,000 and 900,000 passengers will entrepot for their commercial require­ dreadful blow. The FAA issued a study bustle through Highfill. But the trouble ments . demolishing the entire basis for the is that not so far down the road in Fayet­ We talked to Pierre Sprey, an engineer Council's justification for the airport. teville, some 35 miles away, is the per­ and military analyst, who says such sus­ The study concluded that cargo would fectly sound airport of Drake Field. The picions are well founded. "Regular pas­ remain concentrated at "very busy air­ boosters of Highfill base their estimates senger 747s don't need a 12,500-foot ports near population centers where on the transfer of all Drake users to the runway," Sprey says . "Only a laden 747 there is ample capacity available to ship­ new facility. - a very heavily laden 747 - would re­ pers in the baggage hold of airliners ... To this point not a single airline has quire a runway of that length. They're Efforts to develop regional air-cargo air­ agreed to move from Drake to the new _ clearly still thinking about moving cargo." ports at other locations will involve con­ airport - a step which would be foolish siderable expense and financial risk.~ since per passenger fees at Drake are y now, every second bigwig in Such a conclusion threatened to about $3 per head versus an estimate of northwest Arkansas has a stake in doom any chance of obtaining federal $15 per head projected for the Poultry­ Bthe proposed airport. The 1993 support for a cargo airport. The Author­ port. "It's unlikely that people from New "Who's Who" guide to business in north­ ity and the Council quickly shifted gears. · York and Washington are going to be west Arkansas, published by Arkansas I ts members now claimed that the region packing up big jetliners and flying into Business, listed 34 firms. Executives from desperately needed a new airport to han­ Highfill on a regular basis," John Lisle at least half of those companies have dle passenger traffic . So great was the points out. "But proponents don't care served on the board of the Council, the growth in such traffic, they said with Authority, or both. straight faces, that existing regional fa­ Like any tiny primal horde, the Arkan­ cilities would soon be overwhelmed. A $9 million grant from sas ruling elite is incestuous by socio-bio­ This claim, like the earlier cry that the the FAAwas approved logical necessity. Woodson "Woody" nation's air cargo carriers were in desper ­ Bassett, a 'Campaign operative for Clin­ ate need of an Arkansas-basedly facility, after Mack McClarty ton, has promoted the airport project as has no relation to objective conditions in lobbied the Department a member of the Fayetteville City Board northwest Arkansas. In December of of Directors . His family's law firm, 1990, eight months before the FAA re­ of Transportation on the headed up by Woody's father and several leased its study, then-Airport Authority Airport Authority's behaH. brothers, does legal work for Tyson Chairman George Westmoreland de­ Foods. Woody's sister, Beverly Bassett scribed the Highfill facility as a major whether they ever fly a single passenger Schaffer, is the former director of the cargo distribution center and industrial out of this airport . The projections were Arkansas Securities Commission who re­ airport which would be a "wayport" for simply drawn up because they are ceived inquiries from Hillary Clinton goods . "We have Memphis, Dallas-Ft . needed to win financial support from the when the latter was seeking information Worth and Kansas City all within an FAA." on behalf of Madison Guaranty, the fi­ hour of here, and FAA would certainly Seekingto bolster its cause, the Airport nancial institution which sits at the heart like to take some congestion out of the Authority has been pressuring Fayet­ of the Whitewater affair. Beverly's hus­ terminal control areas," he said in an teville to cut back operations at Drake, band, Archie Schaffer, 'handles public interview with Aviation Daily . "We think which handles 42 flights a day and which relations for Tyson Foods. This is Gothic we will be able to provide some passenger during recent years has received more politics in the New South . enplanage here, but we are probably ten than $20 million from the FAAto pay for The Authority has repeatedly doled years away from being where we could a microwave landing system and a radar out official business to firms owned by support major enplanage in this area." system. This pressure has caused resent­ well-0>nnected airport backers: In late 1991, Uvalde Lindsey admitted ment in Fayetteville since Drake's opera­ • On Feb. 21, the Authority formally that the Authority's call for a passenger tions bring th_e town some $40 million in selected the Arkansas National airport was purely opportunistic . He told revenues annually . Bank to provide banking services for the Northwest Arkansas Times that, as If passenger traffic really was a proh­ the project. The bank was formed the newspaper phrased it, the Council lem, Drake and other regional facilities last June by Dan Dykema, whose had "pursued a cargo facility first be­ could be upgraded at a fraction of the wife, Lisa, is the only woman on the cause that's where the federal money cost of the proposed new airport . But Authority . seemed to be when the project first sur­ geographical and physical limitations at • Late last year the Authority chose faced in 1990," only changing direction those other facilities don't allow for the The Llama Co., a local investment when "it became apparent the numbers construction of the 12,500-foot runways banking firm, to underwrite the weren't there to support a cargo airport ." envisaged for Highfill. The airport's cur­ bonds which will finance the air­ A!3 Westmoreland's comments indi ­ rent design is virtually identical to the port . The company's owner is Alice cate, the numbers aren't there to support original plan, when proponents were pro­ Walton, Sam Walton's daughter, an a new passenger airport either . Airport posing a cargo airport, this pressing sus- early member of the Northwest COUNTERPUNCH MARCIi 1, 1995

Arkansas Council and a woman who • The Authority contracted Ozark In­ cepted Super Bowl tickets, a $1,200 schol­ raised millions for Clinton's presi­ ternational Consultants to provide arship for his girlfriend and other tokens dential run . Llama employs a host of staff. Ozark's principals are Lindsey of esteem from Tyson Foods . Don Tyson's local heavy hitters, including lawyer and his wife, Carol, who was one of intimacy with the Clinton administration Field Wasson, Clinton's cousin . When Clinton's campaign advisors during was also symbolized by the hefty dona­ Clinton won the presidency, Wasson several of his gubernatorial bids . tions he made to the president's 1992 served as the liaison between his ad­ campaign, and the chicken magnate's in­ ministration and that of Jim Guy nd what sort of relationship has vitation to speak at Clinton's pre-inaugu­ Tucker, who replaced Clinton as gov­ Bill Clinton had with the airport ration economic summit in Little Rock. ernor . A planned for Highfill? In 1992, Airport backers deny any linJrnges be­ The Llama Co. beat out thirteen firms then-Gov. Clinton signed legislation - tween the two projects but coincidences who hid on the bond underwriting con­ proposed by an aviation task force whose abound. Millard Goff, a member of the tract. An executive from one of the losing members included the ubiquitous Alice Council, is chairman of the Two-Ton pro­ firms told Arkansas Business that the Walton and drafted by Uvalde Lindsey­ ject, and Carol Lindsey serves as a consult­ Authority knew "from day one" that Wal­ which allows the airport authority to es­ ant to the reservoir program. It also seems ton's firm would get the contract. "We tablish "foreign trade zones" within the highly probable that the Highfill facility accept that this happens. It happens in Authority's area. That means no taxes will will receive water &om the Two-Ton facil­ our favor sometimes," the executive, who be levied on exports or imports that move ity, which will service the area where the requested anonymity, told the magazine . through the airport Clinton also backed airport is located. "That's the way this business operates . task force-sponsored legislation which of­ The Council touts the social aspects of But they should have told us that up front. fered incentives to aerospace companies the Two-Ton project, saying it will supply Instead, they used our time and our moving to Arkansas . water to communities where many fami­ money to legitimize the process." Such support continued from inside lies still have backyard wells. Cynics note The Llama Co. recently created a new the White House after Clinton moved to that this problem has existed for years, aviation and aerospace division, which is Washington. Last September, the FAA ap­ and no one lifted a -finger to help those drawing up plans for a $25 million main­ proved an Airport Authority request for families until the airport plan was hatched. tenance base at the new airport . Three $9 million, money which will be used to members of the Authority resigned when finance land purchases for the project . or four years opponents of the air­ it was disclosed that they had invested in The grant was authorized after Mack port have tried unsuccessfully to the maintenance firm . McClarty lobbied Transportation Depart­ F interest reporters in the Poultry­ ment Secretary Federico Pena on the port affair. "The problem is that in north­ Authority's behalf. The money came out west Arkansas you don't go up against SUBSCRIPTION INFO of the FAA's Airport Improvement Funds, somebody with more money than God," a discretionary account which requires no says a local activist who prudently asked Enter/renew subscription here: budgetary approval from Congress. to remain anonynious . "Newspapers here So certain were Authority officials that don't want to do battle with the likes of the 0 One year individual, $40 the money would he approved that they Tysons or the Waltons ." That doesn't ex­ 0 One year institution, $100 began conducting appraisals and taking plain the detached attitude of the national D One~ student/low-income,$25 other steps towards land purchases even press, which threw itself on the Whitewa­ 0 Please send haclc is&ie(s) before the FAA had announced its deci­ ter scandal for a while, hut which has ______($3/is&ie) sion . They had reason to be confident. displayed no interest in the fragrant aro­ 0 I am enclosing a separate sheet Bradley Kutchins, the FAA's Ft. Worth, mas of scandal wafting above Highfill. for gift subscriptions Texas-based project manager for the "Who will pay the real cost of economic southwest region, had aheady hinted to development, including the social and en­ Name.______the local press that dispatch of the $9 vironmental costs?," the activist Zola million would not be long in coming, and Moon asks about the Highfill airport . Address,______said that there had "been a very close "Who will benefit if the project fails? Who working relationship between the spon­ will benefit regardless because they made City/State/Zip ______sors and the [FAA]office here ." their money up front? Why should public The Clinton administration has sup­ money be used for what is essentially pri­ ported another Council-hacked proposal, vate venture capital?" the "Two-Ton Water Loop Project," a large These are the bottom-line questions in Payment must accompany order . water distribution center. The project a society which proclaims its faith in free Add $10 for foreign subscriptions . originated in the early-Nineties, and fed­ . enterprise on an almost hourly basis . Pulr Makechecks payable to: CountcrPunm. eral money- some $20 million -was first lie money underwrites private risk, Return to: IPS, authorized by the Agriculture Department whether it is the speculation of New York's 1601 Connecticut Avenue, NW, in September of 1993. The Department's investment houses and banks in Mexico, Washington, DC 20009 head at the time was Mike Espy, who later or the Poultryport of the Arkansas pluto­ resigned when it was_revealed he had ac- crats . •