Here ya go NYC
Global Crossing Tied to Clinton Defense Secretary
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Saturday, Feb. 16, 2002
WASHINGTON – A top Clinton administration official, former Defense Secretary William Cohen, sits on the board of Global Crossing. This is the telecom giant that went belly up Jan. 28 in the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, leaving a trail of inflated revenues, top executives enriching themselves, employees and shareholders holding the bag, and Arthur Andersen acting as both consultant and auditor.
If this sounds familiar, it is because this is a replay of the Enron script. However, the Global Crossing scandal has direct political links, whereas unhappy Democrats have failed to find an improper Bush-Enron tie – though Bill Clinton pushed the economy-destroying Kyoto "global warming" treaty, rejected by the Senate 95-0, after Enron gave Democrats $420,000.
A Bigger Player Than Enron
Another curious fact revealed Friday, mentioned in passing by the Associated Press: Since 1999, when Global Crossing became a major campaign contributor, it has given nearly $3.5 million in political donations, more than the $2.9 million handed out by Enron and its executives in the same period. Of course, GC gave more to Democrats, so the media establishment isn't raising a fuss.
The New York Times on Thursday casually dropped into the middle of a story focused mainly on the business side of Global Crossing’s problem the fact that "Global Crossing, which has tried to forge close ties with military organizations, appointed William S. Cohen, a secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, to its board last year.”
Radio talk show hosts have previously mentioned this, although up until now no one has given the Cohen connection much scrutiny.
Now comes a story by the Washington Dispatch, called to our attention by a NewsMax reader.
Though the New York Times says the Global Crossing problems "have delayed the awarding of a prestigious $450 million contract to provide the Defense Department with fast Internet services connecting laboratories and other research locations around the country,” the Dispatch spotlights the fact that the contract in question (sidetracked by the Bush Defense Department) "was initially approved under Clinton.”
Mentioned by the Dispatch, but only hinted at by the establishment New York Times, is that Cohen "could have been influential” in steering defense contracts to Global Crossing.
And the Associated Press reported Friday, "Even as Global's stock price was hovering just above $1 a share in December, the company's political action committee was giving $2,500 apiece to Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Carl Levin of Michigan and $500 to Rep. Robert Ehrlich, R-Md."
Significantly, Levin is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Global Crossing was after that $450 million contract, "rescinded last year amid complaints from competitors that the company may lack the ability to provide secure and fast Internet services and, in any event, should be ineligible because it is based in Bermuda." That's when GC hired a Washington law firm to lobby on defense issues and added Cohen to its board.
The New York Times fails to mention that Democrat national Chairman Terry McAuliffe made a profit of $18 million on an investment of $100,000 investment in Global Crossing. This 18,000 percent killing on the market has raised suspicions of "insider training,” according to Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm, which has launched its own probe.
(It should also be noted that former President George H.W. Bush received a reported $80,000 worth of Global stock options for a speech he made in Tokyo in 1997, a pittance compared to the lecture fees paid to Clinton. At one point, that holding did swell up to $14.4 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, but it is not known whether Bush sold the stock.)
The Times does say "questions” have been raised by a proposal by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. of Hong Kong and a unit of Singapore Technologies to buy Global Crossing. However, the Old Gray Lady does not mention Hutchison Whampoa’s connection to the communist Chinese army.
As reported earlier by NewsMax.com, the CEO of Hutchison, which controls commerce at both ends of the Panama Canal, is part of the "inner circle” of the Chinese regime. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told NewsMax he is protesting the sale.
Clinton, McAuliffe, Cohen; now Reno, Bingaman
The Dispatch and the Associated Press reported that Global Crossing paid a whopping $2.5 million lobbying fee in cash and stock options to to Anne Bingaman, former Reno Justice Department lawyer, and wife of Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
When she sold most of her GC stock in January 2000, she posted a profit of more than $1 million, according to her husband's financial disclosure report.
This flies in the face of then-President Clinton’s vow that his White House would be "the most ethical administration in history” and discourage the revolving-door process. But since Clinton himself did not take his own rhetoric seriously, Mrs. Bingman might have reasoned that neither should she feel bound by it.
In his previous incarnation, Cohen was a Republican senator from Maine. He was a prominent RINO (Republican in Name Only). You may recall that he was very self-righteous during the Iran-Contra hearings and mugged for the cameras right along with his Democrat colleagues who tried, without success, to do in the Reagan administration.
McCain the 'Reformer' Caught
Another RINO, the anti-Bush Sen. John McCain of Arizona, is the No. 1 congressional beneficiary of Global Crossing. Mr. Campaign Finance "Reform" snapped up $31,000 from Global Crossing employees for his failed presidential campaign in March 1999, AP reported Friday. "That same month, McCain, at the company's urging, asked the Federal Communications Commission to encourage the development of undersea cables for transmitting telecommunications signals."
McCain, crowing over the House's passage of unconstitutional campaign finance "reform" legislation, did not respond to AP's requests for an interview.
The NBC-Olympics Connection
Oh, yes and one more thing about the mainstream mediaÂ’s ignoring or soft-pedaling the Global Crossing scandal: The Dispatch mentions that NBC had announced it had contracted with Global Crossing to transport video feeds from the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to seven stations around the country. NBC announced the selection of Global Crossing several days after the companyÂ’s bankruptcy.
Nothing wrong or improper about that. But does anyone recall NBC giving the Global Crossing scandal anywhere near the coverage it has given the Enron uproar? Just wondering.
