NOVIM •ER 1•15, 1996 Ken Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn VOL. a, NO. 19

• IN THIS ISSUE How Little Rock Went Global

t was 24 years between the two elec­ cal and financial supporters, and a tion finale:\ but the similarities were prominent power in the state. James Here's Four More Years Ivivid. A triumphant candidate Riady became co-president of the bank, coasted to victory with his forlorn rival which is best known for extending a cru­ • You don't need vainly urging the US people to pay heed cial $3 .9 million line of credit to the Clin­ to be clairvoyant to the corruption staining the nation's ton campaign in 1992, a loan secured highest office. Nixon destroyed McGovern only by federal matching funds. and then faced the fatal aftershock of Another Riady holding in Arkansas Watergate. Dole destroyed himself , but was the First National Bank of Mena, Bill Clinton's now Clinton faces probes of his political which the family acquired in 1984 . This Asia Policy and domestic financing across twenty was about the time that CIA and DEA years, from Whitewater to Indonesia . informant Barry Seal was using the West The arrogance of the Clintonites has Arkansas airport at Mena a.s the center of • Little Rock and Jakarta: been prominently on display. The Demo­ a drug-and-guns operation for the Nica­ Lippo's Sister Cities cratic National Committee at first refused raguan contras ; Seal's enterprise was to file its final pre-election report with the running tens of thousands of dollars • The ghost of Ron Brown: Federal Elections Commission . Then it through the Mena bank every week. How Entergy hit pay dirt relented in part and promised "raw data" . after its stance caused a public uproar. Al mong the other client, of the in China Gore stonewalled about his collection of Riadys' Mena Bank was Seth $140,000 from Buddhist monks, many of A:Ward, father-in -law of Webster • From '72 to '96: whom had taken vows of poverty, at a Hubbell, who later became Deputy Attor­ Dick and Bill's foreign$$ California temple . John Huang, formerly ney General under Clinton. Ward helped an executive with the Indonesia-based set up a manufacturing company at the Lippo Group, and more recently with the . Mena airport called POM, Inc., whose Commerce Department and the fund­ corporate charter was drafted by Hub­ Buying Russia's Nukes raising arm of the DNC, went into hid­ bell. POM was supposed to be a manufac ­ ing to avoid a subpo ena seeking turer of parking meters, but aside from • US Cold Warriors set to information about the connections be­ nose cones for the MX missile, it also feed at nuclear trough tween his role in raising money for the made military equipment for transport Democrats - some $5 million in the pa.st to the contras. Ward was also a central two years - and his work with Lippo . player in one of the more flagrant trans­ • Meet Alexander The Lippo/Huang affair, in which the actions in the Whitewater scandals, the Shusterovich, influence peddling of the Clinton years is "Castle Grande Shuffle" dreamed up by a king in New York so harshly displayed, foreshadows what Hillary Clinton, then at the Rose Law can be expected during the next Clinton firm . administration . Lippo is one of Indone­ The Riadys became clients of Rose Plus: sia 's biggest firms, a $6 billion banking, Law and in 1983 the firm helped James real estate and insurance behemoth . The Riady and his wife Ailyn set up Lippo Riady family at Lippo's helm was anx­ Finance and Development Company, the • South Dakota's free press ious to establish itself in the US and first Lippo subsidiary in the US. To run presciently established its beachhead in the firm, the Riadys picked Vernon • Update on CIA Little Rock. Weaver, who once headed the Small Busi­ One of the Riady clan's first moves contra/ cocaine scandal ness Administration in the Carter years . was to buy a controlling interest in the Weaver immediately applied for an SBA Worthen Bank with Jackson Stephens, loan for the Lippo Company . In the ap­ one of Governor Clinton's closest politi- plication for the $2 million loan, Weaver 2/COUNTERPUNCH NOVEMIJEH 1-15, 11196

listed Clinton as a character reference . ohn Huang went to work for Lippo Entergy during his days in Arkansas was Last year, Clinton selected Weaver to in the 1980s and became especially a particularly unsavory deal to bail out serve as US Trade Representative to the Jclose to James Riady. The man who the company's ailing Grand Gulf nuclear European Community . drew Huang into Clintonite circles was power plant located in Mississippi . Clin­ At Rose Law the Riadys' business was Mickey Kantor. While still at the Los An­ ton agreed to Entergy's plan to soak Ar­ handled by Vince Foster, Joseph Giroir geles-based law firm of Manatt, Phelps, kansas rate payers with 80 percent of the and Webster Hubbell . After Clinton was Philips and Kantor in the late 1980s the costs of the Grand Gulf plant , even elected president Giroir left Rose to future Secretary of Commerce was re­ though the reactor doesn't serve any Ar­ found the Arkansas International Devel­ tained to represent Lippo Securities, the kansas residents or businesses. opment Corporation, which brokers company's banking subsidiary, also Entergy's board includes Beryl Anthony, deals between Arkansas businesses and based in Los Angeles. Kantor was a major former chairman of the Democratic Con­ Asian countries . Giroir has gained con­ Democratic fundraiser and later served gressional Campaign Committee and a tracts for Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods in as chairman of Clinton's 1992 campaign . long-time Clinton friend who represented Indonesia and Hong Kong, with both In July 1994, Kantor recommended northern Arkansas in congress for a dec­ deals made in cooperation with the that John Euang be hired by the Com­ ade. Another Entergy board member is Lippo Group . Indeed the first Wal-Mart merce Department as assistant secretary John Palmer, CEO of Mobile Telecom­ store to open in Indonesia is located in for trade. Huang was swiftly brought on munications Technologies Corp., who Lippo Village, a 1,600 acre real estate board, just prior to important trade trips was selected by Clinton to serve as on the development outside Jakarta. In the past led by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown President's Export Council. Palmer has two years, Giroir has given nearly to China and Indonesia . also served as an advisor to Mickey Kan­ $100,000 to the Democratic Party and he These forays, in which scores of corpo­ tor at the Office of the US Trade Repre­ has met with Clinton in the Oval Office. rate CEOs flew along with Brown, were sentative, the post Kantor held before The Riadys have also been generous shakedown schemes in which Commerce moving into Brown's office at Commerce . Clinton supporters . Mochtar Riady, his rewarded Democratic Party donors by Entergy was desperate to get on Ron family and friends have funneled at least giving them executive seats on Brown's Brown's China trip. In June of 1994 a $1 million to Clinton and the Democrats plane . One of the most highly prized trips company official traveled to Washington during the past five years. was Brown's August 1994 expedition to to meet with Jude Kearney, a deputy as­ China . Of the 25 executives selected to go sistant secretary at the Commerce De­ along, at least 12 proved to be major partment and a Clinton staffer from the Editors donors or fundraisers for the Democrats . Arlcansas days . An internal Entergy memo ICENSILVERSTEIN While the Clinton administration has drafted by the official - who signed only ALExANDER COCKBURN repeatedly claimed over the past few weeks with the initials JCB - says : "[Kearney] that Huang had recused himself from all indicated competitive nature of being se­ Co-writers trade matters involving Indonesia and lected to ride on the plan with the Secre­ JEFFREY Sr. CLAIR Lippo interests, it is now apparent that tary. Also indicated that the politics of the ANDREW COCKBURN Huang's primary input during those early . situation were important and he as a months of his tenure was to advise the political appointee would push those that Production administration on opportunities for US were politically connected ." TERRY ALLEN business ventures in Hong Kong, China, On July 1, an Entergy executive wrote and Indonesia. Secret Service logs indi ­ Brown directly "to discuss ways for En­ Counselor cate that Huang visited the White House tergy to be included on your trip". At­ BEN SONNENBERG more than 70 times in the past year, tached to the letter was a summary of a although the administration refuses to deal for a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power Design discuss the nature of those visits. plant that Entergy, in partnership with DEBORAH THOMAS Certainly, Huang's former employer Lippo, was hoping to close during the made out well during the business trips trip, as well as "Actions Entergy Would Published twice monthly except that immediately followed his hiring by Appreciate Secretary Brown's Help On" . August, 22 issues a year: Commerce . Consider the case of the Lou­ A few weeks later Brown wrote Lup­ $40 individuals, isiana-based energy giant Entergy, which berger to invite him to join the business $100 institutions, has a number of lucrative joint ventures delegation . With the Secretary's help, En­ $25 student/low-income in Asia with Lippo . tergy and Lippo closed the power plant CounterPunch. In addition to the Lippo connection, deal during the China trip, an agreement All rights reserved . Entergy CEO Edward Lupberger is a per­ worth $1 billion . Backing for the Exim­ CounforPunch welcomes all tips, sonal friend of Clinton's . His firm has bank soon followed . information and suggestions. donated hundreds of thousands of dol­ At the time the Exim was headed by Please call or write our offices. lars to the Democrats during the past Maria Haley, a long time Clinton staffer CounterPunch four years. Entergy is also the parent com­ in Arkansas and the recently divorced P.O. Box 18675, pany of Arkansas Power & Light, a big wife of Giroir . Haley, Giror and Jim Guy Washington, DC 20036 donor to Clinton during his years as gov­ Tucker, former governor of Arkansas who 202-986-3665 (phone/ fax) ernor . Among Clinton's many favors to (continued on p . 6) NOVEMBEH 1-1:>, 19% COUNTEHPUNCll/:l

ing the true nature of things, such as the It's All Over, and Now $100 million fine - the largest criminal penalty for price-fixing in the nation's history by a factor of seven - levied on ... Back to the Future Archer Daniels Midland, one of the most is edition of CounterPunch In 1992 Clinton pledged to end wel­ prominent paymasters of both Demo­ eaves the presses as voters pre ­ fare and many liberals deluded them­ crats and Republicans, and also dis­ pare for their sorties to the polling selves with the thought that this was burser of funds - about $6 million a booth. As political education, Campaign rhetorical cover for a national jobs pro­ year - to the Lehrer News Hour, which '96 has been useful. Awareness of the gram. Ever since that pledge, the liberal reaffirmed its loyalty to ADM in the wake overwhelming weight of corporate advocates have been content to provide of the $100 million fine. money has been considerably enhanced, the president with political cover from For the left the campaign was a pretty with the Lippo Affair evoking the arche­ the left, exacting no price except personal mixed bag. The Nader campaign failed typal Democratic bagman of our time, advancement. In Chicago, with the ink to capitalize on considerable enthusi­ the late Ron Brown . still not dry on his signature on the wel­ asm, largely because the candidate had Two years ago, in the wake of so-called fare bill, they endorsed Clinton with no wish to offer himself as anything more "Newtquake", CounterPunch disputed scarcely a hiccup . than what he frankly told CounCer­ the notion of a seismic change in the Punch he was; someone who felt that the political landscape, of the sort ecstati­ left had to offer some alternative, how­ cally heralded on the editorial pages of It's hard to recall a ever symbolic, to Clinton. the WallStreet Journal. We were right and But if the more serious question now the Journafs editors were wrong, as they president keener on is what sort of resistance is mounted be­ have been with gratifying frequency ever registries and police tween these forays to the polling booth, it since. data bases designed to is hard to descry anything more than the We also disputed the likelihood - tire­ most embryonic challenge from the left. lessly promoted by The Nation and other ensnare the poor. Big Labor threw all its resources behind liberal periodicals - of a legislative Clinton. The nascent Labor Party has bloodbath executed by the far right. We ruled out electoral politics, and also any said then that the neoliberal agenda rep­ It is not hard to forecast the legislative vigorous reform movement within the resented far more of a threat. And so it contours of Clinton's second term as an unions . The New Party has developed came to pass. It was the Clinton admini­ onslaught on Social Security and Medi­ promising economic and wage strategies stration, not the Young Turks massed care . This has already been announced in cities such as Milwaukee, but is still far behind Dick Anney which: by White House Chief of Staff Leon from making a national impact. All in all, • annulled the rights of immigrants Panetta in mid.September when he told there is scant threat to the sort of tripar­ to review evidence against them USA Today that Clinton hopes his "leg­ tisanship that saw Bob Dole vote ap­ amassed by the FBI and INS; acy" will be reform of these two memen­ proval for 97 percent of Clinton's judicial • extended police surveillance and tos from the New Deal and the Great nominees to the federal bench (34 per­ eavesdropping powers; Society. It won't be long before Clinton cent them were millionaires) and that • upheld the 100-to-1 imbalance in will pick the bankers and planned saw "independent socialist" Bernie sentencing for cocaine and crack shrinkers to sit on the bipartisan commis­ Sanders vote more often (about 94 per­ possession; sions which will recommend : cuts which cent of the time) for the Dem"acratic line • passed the "Securities Reform Act", the liberals will ultimately forgive as be­ than did the Democratic Majority leader a gargantuan gift to Wall Street, ing necessary to ensure the succession of himself, Dick Gephardt . the insurance industry, the big ac­ Al Gore . The function of the right, as The populist tinder is always dry and counting firms and Silicon Valley; before, will be to press mru3malist bills ready to be kindled. Buchanan briefly • pressed for nullification of US from which Clinton and the Democrats ignited it, albeit in a manner fatally laws under the terms of the free can then boast they have trimmed the stained by racism. Nader and Perot trade agreements; worst excesses. failed. But the constituency is there, and • hollowed out the Endangered Spe­ growing . The New York Ti.mes has cies Act. is was a bloodless election, in launched Bill Clinton on his second term It's hard to recall a president keener which the Demons tirelessly with the encouragement that with suit­ on registries and police data bases de­ T:voked by Democratic fundrais­ able adjustments to his morals he could signed to ensnare the poor and the sus­ ers - Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, the end up as one of the century's great presi­ pect. Clinton's favorite target of Christian Right - were forced into the dents. The liberals dream that now at last self-righteous abuse has been the black shadows by the obvious fact that they Bill will allow himself to be Bill. Part of teenage mother. He has postured vilely were death to the larger Republican our role here at CounterPunch is punc­ on the death penalty . His most enduring cause. It was an election in which there turing illusions and introducing uncom­ legislative triumph thus far has been the was an often astonishing fissure between fortable and inconvenient facts. The next ending of the federally guaranteed wel­ the demure banality of political dis­ four years promise to be fertile ones for fare entitlement. course and the lurid headlines advertis- such an endeavor . • 4/COUNTEHPUNCI -I NOVEMBER 1-15, 1996

from the taxpayer - should be privat· ized so as to raise $1 .5 billion for the Russia's Nukes: New Deal Treasury . The scheme was fomented by Department of Energy officials who later ehind closed doors in Washing­ Victor Mikhailov, the powerful Minatom­ became executives of USEC, and who ton and Moscow rages a furious chief who has tried to make money by hope to be at the helm when the corpora­ Bbattle over the fate of 500 tons of selling nuclear technology to the Irani­ tion is sold off. Although the removal nuclear material from the warheads of ans , was delighted at the prospect of such from Russia of material for making Russian nuclear missiles . The material is an enormous flow of cash. His dealings 25,000 nuclear weapons was the original highly enriched uranium (HEU). It can with the West have not always ended hap­ objective, the USEC wheeler dealers easily be used to make new weapons, pily. Nuexco, an American nuclear trad­ found they could make even more money which is why the Bush administration ing company, went bankrupt owing by discouraging the Russian shipments decided to buy it from the Russians - for Minatom almost $430 million - al- and obtaining their raw material at a $12 billion. Now a group headed by a cheaper rate elsewhere. mysterious Russian-American business­ But now another player has emerged man with high level connections in Wash­ Shusterovich's ties to the on the scene. Earlier this year a new ington and Moscow is trying to take over company called Pleiades announced its the trade. master of the Russian intention of buying USEC at the still-to­ The "HEU deal", as it is commonly nuclear complex has be-concluded privatization sale. known, was born at the time of thecol­ given him an inside track Pleiades, a privately-owned Delaware lapse of the Soviet Union . The idea was corporation is certainly not a known to take the lethal bomb-grade material to buy billions in nuclear player in the nuclear industry . The com­ from Russian warheads, dilute it with material. pany does, however, have an interesting natural uranium and thus render it suit­ Russian connection in the form of its able as fuel for nuclear reactors. The US president, Alexander Shusterovich, a 30- governmentwould then buy it, recouping though Mikhailov himself may not have year--old US citizen who shuttles between its invesnnent by selling the material to done so badly . "There is a common per­ Moscow and New York. nuclear power companies in the US. As ception in the (nuclear fuel) industry that Born in Russia, Shusterovich came to eventually negotiated, 500 tons (enough the $30,000 Rolex Presidential watch he the US with his parents at the age of 12 for 25,000 simple nuclear weapons) wears came from Nuexco," one nuclear and ultimately graduated in law and would be delivered over 20 years for a executive confided in an .interview . business from Harvard University . Even total cost of $12 billion . The Americans appointed the United while at Harvard he was hard at work On the Russian side the deal was in States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), exploiting the business opportunities of the hands of Mina tom, the colossus that­ wholly owned by the government, to han­ the new Russia . His interests in Moscow controls the nuclear industry there, in­ dle the US side of the bargain . In 1993, have reportedly included a share in a cluding the famous "secret cities" where Congress declared that USEC - highly movie studio, an art gallery, a brewery the weapons are made and dismantled. profitable, thanks to heavy subsidies and a scientific publishing business. Sources in the Russian nuclear industry, who detest this interloper, have alleged Guns, Drugs and the CIA: Sequel that he has also been involved in the flourishing Russian pornography busi­ '' 'Jhen we left him in our last issue of CounterPunch the Washington Post's ness . When in Moscow he moves around l' l' Walter Pincus was expending many thousands of words in efforts to demol­ amid a robust team of bodyguards. ish charges that his erstwhile would-be employer, the CIA, had ev~r had any Why would a well-protected "scientific connection with the drug smuggling from Nicaraguan contras to the inner cities publisher" think he has a ch~nce of get­ and white suburbs of the United States . ting the right to buy $12 billion worth of Pincus went back into action in the Post for October 31, in a modified hang-out nuclear weapons material? Part of the posture. He concedes that when Eden Pastora (aka Commandante Zero) was head answer lies in Shusterovich's very inti­ of the contra group known as ARDE, he was engaged in cocaine trafficking with mate connection with the master of the Miami-based drug smuggler George Morales, and that the CIA was aware of this. Russian nuclear complex, Victor Mik­ But once again Pincus gets it wrong . The CIA was always happy to tout stories hailov. The two are so close that Mik­ about Pastora because the Agency regarded him as a loose cannon . What Morales hailov is commonly referred to as told the Kerry Committee and certain journalists was this: he flew arms from Shusterovich's "godfather" . The older Florida down to John Hull's ranch in Costa Rica, to a group supported by the CIA man attended Shusterovich 's gradu­ and aimed at supplanting Pastora and ARDE. Morales carried back drugs to ation ceremony, the pair have traveled Florida and recounted how his landings at Homestead and other airports, though together in the United States and, most in DEA and CIA-monitored airspace, were always remarkably trouble-free . He was importantly, Mikhailov is unreservedly clear that the CIA connived at the drug smuggling . Morales was killed in a car crash backing Shusterovich's nuclear bid. As some years ago . • chief counsel of Pleiades, the youthful Nasir Hashim, a lawyer bereft of nuclear NOVEMBER 1-15, 1996 COUNTERPUNCH/5

Larry Pressler's Stool Pigeon e discovered the degree of timidity in the South by too close an affiliation with CounterPunch, especially as Dakota press when we sought to distribute our one of its editors recently visited South Dakota at the invita­ Wdetailed findings about Larry Pressler's frequent tion of former Senator Jim Abourezk, savaged Pressler and foreign junkets, as published in the last issue of Counter­ became involved in fierce altercations with Pressler support­ Punch . Contacts in Sioux City were not optimistic about the ers - all broadcast on local radio . Soon after the visit, Pressler prospects, advising us first to funnel our article to an began to slide. out-of-state newspaper . That . they said, would allow the Our efforts to crack the South Dakota press's iron curtain Dakota press to pick up the story ("'The Washington Post were not entirely unsatisfactory, however. Some of the state's reported yesterday that Senator Larry Pressler ... ") while reporters passed on amusing information about Pressler's remaining shielded from Pressler's frequent attacks about less than illustrious senate career . One source told us that what he claimed was the media's unfair hostility toward his Pressler's full-time chauffeur, Todd Trautman -who the campaign. senator has on his payroll as a "'legislative assistant" - was Gannett's bureau in Washington initially expressed inter­ preceded in his post by a number of other staffer/drivers . est in information about Pressler's foreign travels, but a staff One of these unfortumttes, now ensconced at the South reporter soon called back to say that her editors felt it Wouldn't Dakota Chamber of Commerce, had told our sourc e of the be fair to do a "'gotcha" story so close to the election . Presum­ best of times and the worst of times as Pressler's driver . The ably, the time to do such a story would be well before an high point : sharing a cigarette with Bianca Jagger as he waited election, when it wouldn't matter . for Pressler to emerge from a DC social affair and she waited Finally, the Rapid City Journal decided to pursue a story for her then paramour, Senator Christopher Dodd, attending about Pressler's foreign travels and mentioned our report in the same gathering . The low point : being ordered to carry a a tough dispatch p11blished on October 28 . The newspaper's brown paper hag with a senatorial stool sample to a laboratory reporter, Bob Mercer, expressed concern about being tainted for inspection. •

experience, sits in his small office up a man and Hadley turned up at the narrow staircase at the top of a mid-town White House to lobby the US National SUBSCRIPTION INFO Manhattan b11ilding, the home of the Security Council for approval of the Pleiades Corporation. He confirms the Pleiades deal. relationship between Shusterovich and Shusterovich has not confined him­ Enter/renew subscription here: Mikhailov, calling it the "'fundamental self to Republicans . Also on the team are D One year individual, $40 value-added that this company brings to Ron Rozensweig, chief of staff to Energy D One year institution, $100 the deal" and claims, wrongly, thatShus­ Secretary Hazel O'Leary before he re­ One~ student/low-inrome, $25 terovich was one of the originators of the signed following unpleasantness regard­ D 0 Please send back issue(s) whole idea of the US buying the Russian ing her extravagant travel arrangements ______($3/issue) bomb material in the first place because and Wyche Fowler, formerly Democratic D I am enclosing a separate sheet he is devoted to "bridging gaps between Senator from Georgia and currently Am­ for gift subscriptions Russia and the US". Hashim told Coun­ bassador to Saudi Arabia. Hashim likes terPunch the proposed nuclear deal was to display pictures of himself with Gore Name ______a very good opportunity to do "God 's at Fowler's swearing-in ceremony as am ­ work" . bassador earlier this year. Address ______Hashim denied a story circulating in "'This is bad", one high-ranking expert the somewhat puritanical nuclear indus­ on highly enriched uranium says. "'We City/State/Zip ______try that Shusterovich has made ap­ have a possible situation where the Rus­ proaches to buy Penthouse magazine. sians will control both ends of the entire But Penthouse executives rather nerv­ HEU deal - 500 tons of bomb grade ura­ ously admit to having had a business nium. What you have here is a classic Payment must accompany order. relationship with Shusterovich. mafia type operation. Someone turns up Add $10 for foreign subscriptions . Shusterovich has been able to recruit and tries to insert themselves in the mid ­ Malcecheclcs payable to: CounterPunm. some big names as advisers to his project. dle in order to take a percentage without Return to: CounterPunm. These include Ambassador Max Kam­ really adding anything of value . Pleiades P.O. Box 18675 pelman, formerly the chief US trade ne­ does not bring any value-added to the Washington, DC 20036 gotiator, Stephen Hadley, assistant deal . Victor's interest has got to be per­ secretary of defense in the BushPentagon sonal revenue flow. He must be hoping and former Secretary of Commerce that Shusterovich will make him rich." Give gift suhcriptions:' Robert Mossbacher - who will serve as Plenty of people in Washington are ready for the holidays! chairman of Pleiades . Recently, Kampel- to join him at the trough . • 6/C0UNTERPUNCII NOVEMBER 1-15, 1996

(Little Rock, cont. from p. 2) rate (OPIC) chipped in with $400 million was convicted in the Whitewater case, are in financing and insurance coverage for Lippogate's all facing charges stemming from a one of those plants, the largest assistance fraudulent cable tv deal in Indonesia. package the federally-diartered organi­ Forerunner Tiuee months after the China trip, zation has ever handed out for a single emocrats struggling to fend Brown again picked Entergy as a travel project . off assaults over Clinton­ companion, this time to Indonesia on a OPIC also made arrangements with Gore overseas financial so­ trip headed by Clinton himsell. The In­ the Indonesian military to protect Mis­ D licitations are too ignorant of history donesia trip is shrouded in mystery. The sion Energy's investments. An internal to remind anyone of their oppo­ Center for Public Integrity, a DC watch­ OPIC memo from December of 1994 says nents' record of foraging in the same dog group, has investigated Brown's that "OPIC played a major role in nego­ pastures . Yet the record is clear and trade junkets and Commerce provided it tiating the security package with the Gov­ unedifying. with substantial materials on every jour­ ernment of Indonesia ." Back in 1968 Richard Nixon re­ At OPIC, too, there are interesting Lit­ ney- except the one to Indonesia . ceived no less than $549,000 from The Indonesia trip was a lucrative one tle Rock/Jakarta links. On OPIC's board the KYP, the Greek CIA and execu­ sits Lottie Shackelford, a former mayor for Entergy. The company closed two tive arm of the fascist junta then in power plant deals worth $500 million, of Little Rock and vice-chair of the DNC power in Athens . The money was both in association with the Lippo who was appointed by Clinton in 1993. laundered in through Tom Pappas, Group . Entergy also made headway in its Shackelford - whose father-in-law a Boston-based Greek American ty­ efforts to win government backing for a graces the Entergy board of directors - coon. 0£ course, since the KYP was $1 billion proposal to construct a hydro­ has continued in her day job as a lobbyist entirely funded by our CIA it could electric dam on the Mamberarno River in at Global USA, which specializes in se­ be argued that this was merely a the Indonesian province of lrian Jaya. curing trade deals for corporations in the domestic contribution to Nixon The 20,000-megawatt dam would flood so-called emerging markets of the devel­ from the US taxpayer. 10,000 square miles of lowland rainfor­ oping world. In 1972 a collection of Greek mil­ est and require the displacement of thou­ One of Shackelford' s partners at Global lionaires passed $35,000 via Pappas sands of indigenous people living in the USA is Paul Berry, a former roommate of to the Republican National Commit­ MElmhernmo basin. Bill Clinton's who helped steer a $20,000 tee, then chaired by Bob Dole, for Also E1ccompanying Brown and Clin­ unsecured loan to the Whitewater Devel­ Nixon's reelection effort . In ex­ ton to Jaka.rta wus a representative of opment Company in 1978 . One of change came various favors. Nicho­ Mission Energy, a wholly-owned subsidi­ Berry's clients is Giroir's Arkansas Inter­ las Vardinoyiannis, for example , ary of SCECorp (Southern California national Development Corporation, won the immensely lucrative con­ Edison ). The CEO of SCECorp is John which first hired Berry to seek out Ameri­ tract to refuel the US Sixth Fleet. The Bryson, a long-time Clinton backer who can companies who were interested in Watergate burglars may have been also traveled with Ron Brown to China. doing business with the Lippo Group . trying to find out whether DNC head Mission came back Crom the Jakarta jun­ This is the rancid political culture that Larry O'Brien knew of Nixon's ket with contracts for two power plants marks the Clinton years. No wonder a Greek connection and was planning valued at more than $650 million each. current joke in Washington has as a cam­ to use it in the '72 campaign . • The Overseas Private Investment Corpo- paign slogan, "Clinton '96, Gore '97 ." •

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