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 .