U.S. Military Targets Southeast Colorado

Part 3

By Deanna Spingola

24 May 2008

 

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After the $1.4 billion purchase of ConAgra by HM Capital Partners LLC (formerly Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated) they retained ConAgra’s president, John Simons, and named the newly-acquired company Swift & Company to honor “one of ConAgra’s ' premier brand names.” ConAgra, still extant, has a huge product line. [1] In 1989, Thomas O. Hicks co-founded Hicks, Muse & Company, a private equity firm specializing in leveraged acquisitions. [2] HM has acquired media, food, oil, gas, energy, and financial services and benefits from numerous government contracts through Sodexho. Reinventing Government (REGO), both state and federal, has enabled well-connected corporations to amass fortunes and power at the expense of the taxpayers, especially independent middle-class citizens who produce tangible goods.

 

Private property rights, via numerous tactics, have been abused, altered and are in the process of being abolished (the first plank of the Communist Manifesto). The U.S. Constitution, a protective document, has been surreptitiously supplanted by the U.N. Charter, the vehicle to global governance – the real objective of the dismantling of the middle-class through property, job and lifestyle seizure. 

 

With the consent of the leadership of both morally bankrupt parties, the U.S. adopted the following recommendations from the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I), held in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1976: a national policy on population distribution according to available resources; public land control or ownership in the public interest with equitable distribution of benefits while assuring environmental impacts. Land, a scarce resource, should be subject to public surveillance or control for the common interest. Governments must exercise full jurisdiction over land and freely plan the development of human settlements. [3] Habitat II was in 1996. [4] When you see the words public or common interest, think Communism, a political system wholly financed and supported by international bankers.

 

Agenda 21, also endorsed by the leadership of both parties, was created at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) also known as the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 3 to June 14, 1992 under the direction of Maurice F. Strong, Conference Secretary General. [5] [6] An objective of Agenda 21 “is to improve the social, economic and environmental quality of human settlements and the living and working environments of all people, in particular the urban and rural poor.” The government will make all lifestyle decisions.

 

A follow-up meeting, called World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) convened from August 26 through September 4, 2002. Agenda 21 is a very well-organized plan to reinvent and regionalize government beginning with the “rural-cleansing” of America and those referred to by the elite ruling class as resource-draining, expendable useless eaters. [7] The concept of sustainable development came from the constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1977), Chapter 2, Article 18 where it discusses the need “to protect and make scientific, rational use of the land and its mineral and water resources, and the plant and animal kingdoms to preserve the purity of air and water, ensure reproduction of natural wealth, and improve the human environment.” [8]

 

Bill Clinton’s Executive Order #12852 of June 29, 1993 established the President’s Council on Sustainable Development which consisted of not more than 25 members chosen by the president. [9] This council, under Al Gore, functioned until June 1999 and successfully implemented the U.N.’s Agenda 21. [10]

 

REGO, said Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton, means “to change the way our governments work to fit a different time and…come together behind our common purpose.” To facilitate change, The Government Performance and Results Act became law on January 5, 1993 establishing the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), also known as the National Performance Review, similar to the Republican’s Grace Commission of 1982. Peter Grace founded Citizens Against Government Waste in 1984. It sounds good; taxpayers would not oppose ending government waste. Al Gore, convening with a group of 250 unelected civil servants later presented, to congress, 384 recommendations with 1,250 specific actions which required bureaucratic agencies to implement two-thirds of the recommendations. [11]

 

By September 7, 1993, official guidelines were established. Gore transferred many government activities to the private sector and attempted to corporatize the federal government while allowing profit-motivated corporations, “trusted partners in enforcing laws,” to “comply voluntarily with federal laws and regulations” actually a ploy to demolish food-safety, clean air regulations and other consumer safety measures. [12]

 

REGO uses Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) composed of corporations, tax-exempt foundations and Non Government Organizations (NGOs) to alter the balance of power and diminish congressional responsibility while enlarging executive power and downsizing and shifting power from the federal to the local level. [13] Shifting power to the local level almost sounds constitutional – but has nothing to do with states’ rights. Rather a plethora of authoritarian agencies, staffed by unelected, decision-making low-level smug bureaucratic minions, function under the direction of the Executive Branch with little, if any, oversight from Congress.

 

In a Public-Private Partnership public assets are surrendered to corporations. Occidental Petroleum “funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars ($470,000)[14] in campaign contributions” to Clinton and Gore. To reward their generosity, Gore facilitated “Occidental’s acquisition of oil drilling rights in the Elk Hills National Petroleum Reserve, part of the Kitanemuk people’s traditional lands, outside of Bakersfield, California” a federal oil resource. It was the largest surrender of “public lands to a private corporation in American history. It tripled Occidental’s U.S. petroleum reserves.” Within five years, Occidental had destroyed 100 native archaeological sites, “including ancient burial grounds.” However, Gore, the self-serving professed environmentalist “authority”, benefited through his control of “between $250,000 – $500,000 worth of Occidental shares through a family held trust.” [15]

 

Hooker Chemicals, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Company, one of the worst corporate polluters in the world, refused to accept liability for the 21,000 tons of chemical waste that they buried at Love Canal. [16] Ultimately, Occidental Petroleum Corporation was sued by the EPA in 1995 and agreed to pay $129 million in restitution. [17] Given their abundant assets and political clout, it was a small price to pay. Gore paved the way for whatever environmental crisis we face today. That is what globalists do best – they create a crisis and then offer a predetermined solution that citizens would have previously rejected.  

 

In 1996, the Clinton Administration passed a bill privatizing the U.S. Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a government-owned corporation. William Rainer, a large donor to the Presidential Inaugural Committee in 1993, headed USEC’s board of directors when they decided to accept $1.9 billion from private investors in 1998. Rainer was rewarded – he was appointed chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Gore’s biggest contributors enjoyed a “$75 million bonanza. Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter & Company, Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Company collectively raked in at least $42 million in underwriting fees.” However, it placed the management of contaminated facilities into private hands. [18]

 

Gore claims that he turned the Pentagon into a “well-run business.” [19] Actually REGO simply intensified the Pentagon accounting debacle and nicely benefited well-connected military contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin (repeatedly upgraded NORAD) – another example of Public-Private Partnerships. In 1998, the General Accounting Office and the War Department discovered that “the Pentagon had made more than $2.3 trillion worth of bookkeeping errors. The Pentagon has likewise misplaced “nearly $120 billion worth of equipment,” including trucks, tanks and ships. Financial crimes at the Pentagon were/are rampant. [20]

 

On January 14, 1999, Gore held the first global REGO council which “included high-level representatives from nearly 40 countries.” Gore promoted “three key government reinvention initiatives – civil service improvement, children's well-being and measuring customer satisfaction.” [21] Customer satisfaction is an interesting phrase unless you consider Public-Private Partnerships. Global councils have been held, since then, on a yearly basis. Gore’s fix-all inspiration for the crisis/solution globalist tactic came from David Osborne and Ted Gaebler, co-authors of Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector. Osborne presented his paper at the UN’s 7th Global REGO forum, Building Trust in Government, held in Vienna from June 26-27, 2007. [22] Recently, Osborne wrote a paper Reinventing the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to assist Louisiana in their post-Katrina transformation.

 

An expanding global network of NGOs successfully operates as strident hired mobs to apply pressure to politicians and “provide the appearance of popular support” for “world governance.” Their “orchestrated clamor” is deliberately designed to appeal to political and corporate leaders. “The political and corporate leaders – according to plan – then ‘respond’ to the ‘will of civil society.’” [23] Actual community essentials which do not generate profit are sacrificed as public monies are appropriated by profit-minded, consumer-seeking corporations.  

 

REGO is now on the Republican fast track, the party most adroit at initially deceiving the masses by their conservative claims. The concept of a Public-Private Partnership was thoroughly tested on the taxpayers of Arlington, Texas by George W. Bush. Later, Bechtel, Halliburton, Blackwater, HM Capital Partners LLC and the coffers of a multitude of other candidate-contributing corporations would be greatly enriched through their cloaked Public-Private Partnerships.

 

Karl Rove, the power-loving master manipulator, early-on urged Bush to run for the Texas governorship. Rove claimed that ownership of the Texas Rangers would be Bush’s 1994 “ticket to the big time” giving him widespread “exposure” and credibility after a series of business failures (a family characteristic? – Neil (scroll down) and Jeb, here and here). [24] The Bush brothers were frequently rescued by rich family friends, apparently intent on exploiting political connections. [25] They are also regularly absolved by “thoughtful” government agencies. Bush’s share of any team profits would later increase to 11 percent when the other syndicate members had recouped their investment – doubtless an indulgent elite-by-birth benefit? [26]

 

George Bush and a group of investors, including Spectrum 7 business partner, William O. DeWitt Jr. (father once owned the St. Louis Browns and the Cincinnati Reds) and Fort Worth financier Richard E. Rainwater, bought the Texas Rangers for $86 million on April 21, 1989 from Eddie Chiles, a Bush family friend. Bush paid $606,302 for 1.8 percent of the Rangers after borrowing $500,000. He repaid that loan when he “fortuitously” dumped Harken stocks in June 1990, one week before Harken announced an overall loss of $23.2 million. For 34 weeks, he failed to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about this transaction despite the law that requires prompt disclosure of insider sales. On March 8, 2002, while campaigning to get brother Jeb re-installed as Florida governor (January 5, 1999 – January 2, 2007), Bush said: “Corporate officials should not be allowed to secretly trade their company’s stock. Every time they buy or sell, they should be required to tell the public within two days.” [27]

 

No charges were filed against the U.S. president’s son. The SEC general counsel, Texas Attorney, James Doty, handled the Bush syndicate’s 1989 purchase of the Rangers. Harken and Arbusto (Bush’s first company) had some interesting investors – like Ghaith R. Pharaon, the second largest shareholder in CenTrust Bank which failed in 1990 costing the taxpayers $1.7 billion. He is wanted for questioning for his role as front man for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). [28] George Soros was also an investor.

 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) sued Richard Greene (Arlington’s mayor 4/4/1987-5/6/1997) for his participation, as president of Sunbelt’s Arlington branch, in the Sunbelt Savings Association scam which lost between $2 and $3 billion for American taxpayers and had cost the Feds $297 million just to investigate. Sunbelt’s owner, Edwin T. McBirney, agreed to plead guilty to fraud for his four-year lending spree. [29] In October 1990, Greene, in writing, guaranteed that Arlington taxpayers, rather than the owners, would pay $135 million towards the larger, more elaborate stadium that the team’s new owners wanted in order to maximize their profits, the whole reason for their venture. The FDIC lawsuit quickly evaporated and all Mayor Greene paid was a paltry $40 thousand – no more questions and apparently no long-term consequences. [30] It’s not what you know but who you know. Rules differ for certain segments of society. Greene was appointed EPA Regional 6 Administrator, effective March 31, 2003, by George W. Bush. [31]

 

Consequently, on October 24, 1990, the syndicate announced their sweetheart deal, for a Public-Private Partnership, with the city of Arlington for a new state-of-the-art facility. A Master Agreement was entered into on December 4, 1990 between the City of Arlington, Texas, a municipal corporation of the State of Texas and the Texas Rangers, Ltd., a Texas limited partnership. [32]

 

On November 13, 1990, the “City” called a referendum vote to authorize the levy and collection of an additional one-half cent sales and use tax within the City to be used to repay the Bonds amounting to $135 million. Arlington would hold the Referendum on January 19, 1991. A favorable vote was essential to enact the enabling legislation to authorize the transactions. [33] Arlington spent $150,000 on a public relations campaign with brochures, telemarketing and a “Hands Around Arlington Day” to convince the voters to approve of this tax increase.

 

Greene and Bush spoke from the pulpit of Arlington’s Mount Olive Baptist Church. Bush claimed “A vote for the tax would be a vote for contracts for African American businesses.” No minority contracts were ever awarded. [34] With minimal opposition, citizens voted two-to-one for approval of the tax increase. “Between the sales tax revenue, state tax exemptions, and other financial incentives, Texas taxpayers handed the privately owned Rangers more than $200 million in public subsidies. Taxpayers didn't get a return from the stadium's surging new revenues. The profits went almost exclusively to the team's already wealthy owners.” [35] That is how Public-Private Partnerships work. For his managerial and spokesperson efforts, Bush was paid an annual salary of $200,000. [36]

 

Additionally, according to the legal agreement, the Rangers retained all monies from “the concessions, parking, signage, sublease revenues, naming allowances, and any and all other revenue produced within the Facilities and would assume ownership of the stadium for $60 million after the bonds were paid. The City agreed that the Facility Lease Tract would be exempt from the sign ordinance of the City for signs within the Facilities.” [37] Baseball, a government-protected monopoly, has an exemption from all federal antitrust laws.

 

Legislation, signed by Democratic Governor Ann Richards, was enacted to create the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority ASFDA (incorporated April 11, 1991) a quasi-governmental entity, a component of the City of Arlington which would give power to issue the necessary bonds and exercise eminent domain. ASFDA hired Hutchison Boyle Brooks & Fisher, P.C. to plan strategy, financing and to figure out how to minimize the amount of cash Bush and his partners had to spend.  According to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity the owners simply had to target the land they wanted. Then Mike Reilly, hatchet man real estate broker and Rangers investor, would offer to purchase the parcels of land at prices well below their market value. If the owners rejected his offer, AFSDA could seize their private property and a government court would determine the price. [38] Condemnation of private property, especially since the Kelo decision of June 23, 2005, is rampant. Although the foregoing seems irrelevant to the attempted land grab in southeast Colorado (or any other state) – it isn’t.  

 

Bibliography: Reinventing The Government Corporation by A. Michael Froomkiin


Part 4

[3] United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, See also HABITAT: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements

[7] National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200) - April 1974

[9] Federal Register / Vol. 58, No. 126 / Friday, July 2, 1993 / Presidential Documents

[11] National Partnership for Reinventing Government (formerly the National Performance Review), A Brief History by John Kamensky, January 1999

[12] Al Gore: A User’s Manual by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Verso 2000, pgs. 172-187

[13] The United Nations’ Global Straightjacket by Joan Veon, 2000, pgs. 62-104

[14] Al Gore's Teapot Dome by Alexander Cockburn, July 17, 2000

[15] Some Inconvenient Truths About Al Gore by Stephen Marshall, May 26, 2006

[16] The Love Canal Tragedy by Eckardt C. Beck, January 1979

[18]  The Buying of the President 2000 - Albert Gore, Jr., The Center for Public Integrity

[19] Al Gore: A User’s Manual by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Verso 2000, pgs. 172-187

[20] Hold the Oven Cleaner by Alexander Cockburn; See also: Al Gore: A User’s Manual by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Verso 2000, pgs. 172-187

[21] 1st Global Forum on Reinventing Government, January 14, 1999, White House Press Release

[23] The United Nations Exposed, the International Conspiracy to Rule the World by William F. Jasper, 2001, pgs. 79-81

[25] Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings By George Lardner Jr. and Lois Romano, Washington Post, July 30, 1999

[26] One Thing is Crystal Clear: Clear Channel is a Subsidiary of Bush, Inc., April 18, 2003

[27] The Buying of the President 2004, Who’s Really Bankrolling Bush and his Democratic Challengers – And What They Expect in Return by Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, pg. 132

[34] Team Player, Texas Monthly By Joe Nick Patoski, June 1999

[35] Right on the Money: The George W. Bush Profile, The Buying of the President 2000, Part 2 of 3

[36] Team Player, Texas Monthly By Joe Nick Patoski, June 1999

[38] Right on the Money: The George W. Bush Profile, The Buying of the President 2000, Part 2 of 3

 

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