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Enron frank wisner cia { October 28 1997 } Subject: [infowars] Enron and a co-founder of the CIA
The Power Elite: Enron and Frank Wisner
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
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http://www.apfn.org/enron/wisner.htm is the source but, uh, they got it from me..
smiley*
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The CIA was conceived and created by Wall Street lawyers ("Wild Bill" Donovan, the Dulles brothers, Frank Wisner, etc. [see The Old Boys: the American Elite and the Origins of the CIA by Burton Hersh]) in the immediate post-World War II period, and has been controlled by the same financial powers throughout its existence. A primary reason for the CIA's creation was to set up the system of illegal laundering of profits from drug smuggling, gun running, and other global criminal operations. The CIA controls much of this activity over the world, and funnels the money into Wall Street banks. Another principal purpose of the Agency from the beginning has been to provide the U.S capital/state with the ability to control foreign governments, through whatever means are found necessary -- coups, assassinations, illegal funding of political parties and individuals, subversion by "freedom fighters", or campaigns of terror.
is from 9/11 IN CONTEXT: PLANS AND COUNTERPLANS http://sydney.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/9_11_in_co.txt
another snip from this EXCELLENT piece follows:
The attacks of September 11 seem to have been an especially complex mixture of modalities, in which the exact role of "the Arab hijackers" remains murky. Given the technological capability to crash Boeing 757s and 767s into buildings remotely, it is possible that no "Arab hijackers" were involved. Certainly no evidence has been presented of their actual boarding of the planes; no photos of them at the boarding gates have been released, and none of their names nor any Arabic names at all appear on the passenger lists from the flights. These facts are highly suggestive of a pure case of "fake terror". But even if "the 19 Arab hijackers" did just what the official story says they did, committing suicide for the glory of Allah and Osama, it does not for a moment prove that their actions were not intentionally facilitated by U.S. government operatives for purposes of provocation and domestic state terror. Indeed, the vast evidence still unfolding of the "incomprehensible" treatment afforded them for years prior to 9/11 by the FBI and CIA suggests nothing else.
~and another~
Alongside and underneath these visible structures is a veritable menagerie of secret planning cabals and "operational units" that try to put the contending strategies of different power centers of capital into effect. This is, broadly speaking, the principal charge of the CIA, the biggest snake in the pit. The "Agency" is precisely that; it is the active force that puts the plans and schemes of the most powerful Wall Street, armaments and oil interests into operation. Within the CIA the lines between the state and private, corporate power are totally blurred, in fact have melded into one.
~snip~
When the President is not trusted, or actually makes decisions they disapprove of, the CIA stops working for him and may in fact "neutralize" him. Kennedy was "neutralized" by assassination after proving lukewarm towards the CIA's pet Bay of Pigs fantasy; Nixon, by exposure as a criminal after trying to wrest control of the drug trade from the CIA; and Carter, by the October Surprise, in revenge for having "cleaned house" at the CIA when he came into office (he fired George Bush as Director and hundreds of his loyal operatives) and to take the White House back.
~more~
The Bush family has been deeply involved with the rise of fascism since its early years. Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush, great-grandfather and grandfather respectively of the current occupier of the White House, were bankers for and business partners with the German Nazi Party. The CIA milieu in which George H. W. Bush, with his fine pedigree, first throve as an agent and rose to prominence through the '50s and '60s, and then became Director in 1976, was steeped in Nazis of all kinds, brought to the U.S. through the CIA's Operation Paperclip.
~just one more~
Counter-Planning: Our Future, Not Theirs
Our future is in our hands. We vastly outnumber our totalitarian capitalist masters, and can put a stop to their plans. But to do so we will have to construct entirely new forms of organization and action. The old methods won't work anymore. The old ideas, held onto past their expiration date, will only confuse us as new conditions unfold. We have to dare to think and act in new ways.
Our greatest strength is each other. We simply need to be honest with and trust one another. Only two things are necessary to unveil this honesty and develop this trust: we need to talk together about our situation, and we need to treat each other as equals. We must stop passively allowing a few people to become our leaders, to do our thinking, talking and acting for us. We have to save ourselves; no one will save us. If history teaches one thing, it is that power always corrupts. Give a person power over others, and that person will betray them for his or her personal advantage. This proclivity may simply be a part of human nature, but it is not our whole nature. We are social beings and can socialize in infinitely various ways; an infinitely large subset of these ways can be entirely benign for ourselves, other species and the glorious living planet we share.
Please see, again, 9/11 IN CONTEXT: PLANS AND COUNTERPLANS by Max Kolskegg http://sydney.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/9_11_in_co.txt
I am at http://www.memes.org and my 'listserv' is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-bush-list/
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Feel free to forward this WIDELY.
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Michel Chossudovsky on H.A.A.R.P.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G3C843D03
Some links and my new listserv
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X3BE13C03
Scotland: Anti-war train drivers refuse to move arms freight
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R1AD21B03
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