From: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com (roc-digest) To: roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: roc-digest V2 #73 Reply-To: roc-digest Sender: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk roc-digest Thursday, February 19 1998 Volume 02 : Number 073 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 08:44:53 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: CAS: WSJ:OT: Al D'Amato,Geraldine Ferraro And the Mob (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 05:19:16 -0500 From: Trent C Mulkern To: cas@majordomo.pobox.com Subject: CAS: WSJ:OT: Al D'Amato,Geraldine Ferraro And the Mob February 18, 1998 Al D'Amato, Geraldine Ferraro And the Mob By BYRON YORK New York promises to have one of the most bruising Senate races in the country this November. Already Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato is taking on his leading Democratic challenger, former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro. As a recent New York Post headline put it: "Senator Al Out to Marry Gerry to the Mob." The D'Amato camp pledges to play up Ms. Ferraro's connections with Arthur Coia, head of the Mafia-plagued Laborers International Union of North America. And it's true that Ms. Ferraro has ties with Mr. Coia. But it turns out Mr. D'Amato too has unsavory union connections, including some to the very same Mr. Coia. Partisan mudslinging aside, there are serious reasons for concern about what kind of people both candidates associate with. Mr. Coia's sordid record is well known. In 1981, he and his father, also a top Laborers official, were indicted in connection with a scheme to loot a Laborers insurance fund. (Also charged in the indictment was New England mob boss Raymond Patriarca.) But the racketeering and bribery charges against Mr. Coia and his father were dropped when a judge ruled that the statute of limitations had expired. In 1986 the President's Commission on Organized Crime named the Laborers one of the most corrupt unions in the country. In November 1994, the Justice Department finished a draft of a lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, which alleged that Mr. Coia had "associated with, and been controlled and influenced by, organized crime figures." But the Justice Department and the union ultimately settled. The suit was never filed, and Justice allowed Mr. Coia himself to direct the union's mob cleanup. The move provoked suspicion in light of Mr. Coia's close relationship with President Clinton: The union boss was listed as one of the president's top 10 supporters in a Democratic National Committee document uncovered during the campaign finance investigation. But House hearings in 1996 failed to find any proof that the White House directed the Justice Department to go easy on the Laborers. Now Mr. Coia faces new charges of mob involvement, this time from within his own union. In November the Laborers' ethics enforcement officer--an in-house prosecutor installed as a condition of the RICO settlement--filed papers charging that Mr. Coia knowingly associated with mobsters and knowingly permitted them to influence the affairs of the union. The complaint, filed with the union's quasijudicial independent hearing officer, also charges that Mr. Coia took kickbacks from companies that did business with the Laborers. And more than one grand jury is probing Mr. Coia. None of which seems to bother Ms. Ferraro. The RICO allegations notwithstanding, she happily attended a lavish birthday party Mr. Coia threw in her honor at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. A month later she traveled to Las Vegas for a featured speaking role at the Laborers annual convention. She embraced Mr. Coia on stage and spoke warmly of him and of the union. Ms. Ferraro has insisted that there was no proof Mr. Coia is an associate of mob figures. "He has not been accused of anything with organized crime," she claimed on CNN in February 1997. "This man Coia has never been convicted of anything," she said, this time accurately, on a local New York newscast last month. The accusations of mob ties, she told the Providence Journal-Bulletin, were nothing but bigotry: "It seems any time there is an Italian-American in a position of prominence, there are these allegations." (The Coia connection, of course, is far from the only allegation of organized-crime links in Ms. Ferraro's past. Readers wanting more information might want to look at Sidney Blumenthal's detailed account in the Jan. 6, 1986, issue of The New Republic.) Nonetheless, the Ferraro camp is quick to point to Mr. D'Amato's own Coia connections. Mr. D'Amato, they note, has accepted $15,000 in campaign contributions from the Laborers. He returned $5,000 that was given in the last two years, but decided not to return donations made to his 1992 re-election effort. What Ms. Ferraro apparently doesn't know is that Mr. D'Amato's link to the Laborers involves more than just campaign contributions. A clue to the connection is in a Jan. 9 letter from Mr. Coia to Mr. D'Amato. Mr. Coia wrote that he was "appalled" by Mr. D'Amato's allegations about Ms. Ferraro and demanded that he apologize. He also reminded Mr. D'Amato of those Laborers contributions he had accepted. And then this: "Perhaps even more telling, you attended a private meeting with our New York representative within the past few weeks at which you suggested that a meeting be set up with me to discuss your upcoming Senatorial race." D'Amato campaign official Kieran Mahoney denies that Mr. D'Amato wanted a meeting with Mr. Coia; a Laborers spokesman says the union stands by Mr. Coia's account. What is not in dispute is that the Laborers "representative" who did meet with Mr. D'Amato is a friend of the senator named Sam Fresina, a Laborers local official in Albany, N.Y. A Republican consultant who is looking into the Ferraro-Coia connection readily concedes the relationship. "The real reason behind [D'Amato's] taking Laborers money was always Fresina," the consultant says, adding that he has checked out Mr. Fresina's past and found him to be "clean." Yet Mr. Fresina was mentioned in the Justice Department's never-filed 1994 RICO draft lawsuit, which said that in 1992 "Sam Fresina, an associate of the Buffalo LCN [La Cosa Nostra] family" was installed in the job of business manager of the Laborers Upstate New York District Council. The RICO draft says Mr. Fresina was one of two men chosen to lead the council; the other was the son-in-law of Buffalo mob boss Joseph Todaro. (Mr. Fresina has not returned repeated phone calls seeking comment.) Now Mr. Fresina, like Mr. Coia, is facing disciplinary charges from within the Laborers union. The union's ethics officer has filed a complaint with the independent hearing officer, alleging that Mr. Fresina took part in a scheme to steer about $220,000 in union funds to Salvatore Lanza, yet another alleged mob associate who was part of the union's notoriously corrupt Mason Tenders District Council in New York City. After federal prosecutors filed RICO charges against the Mason Tenders, Mr. Lanza landed a position as administrator of the Laborers' state political action committee. The complaint says that union ethics officers then ordered Mr. Fresina, who was the PAC chairman, to fire Mr. Lanza without any severance pay. According to the ethics officer's complaint, Mr. Fresina and others in the PAC made up a phony employment agreement under which Mr. Lanza was paid off; the papers further allege that Mr. Fresina tried to hide the payoff from union investigators. Mr. Fresina has denied the allegations. A secret hearing was held last week on the ethics officer's complaint, and a ruling on Mr. Fresina's case is expected within a few weeks. Asked about Mr. D'Amato and Mr. Fresina, Mr. Mahoney said, "The basic answer is that Sam Fresina and his local of the Laborers have been friends and supporters of the senator's campaign. He's a friend and a supporter, but it's not a close personal friendship." It seems unlikely that either Mr. D'Amato or Ms. Ferraro will volunteer a full explanation of their ties to Laborers officials suspected of mob connections. But New York voters should demand one. Mr. York is an investigative writer with The American Spectator. ========================================================================== This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send electronic mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com. In the message body put: unsubscribe cas - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 98 11:09:29 PST From: Jack@minerva.com Subject: Re: Fratrum: Fwd: Blind Man's Bluff in the Year 2000 (fwd) > > BLIND MAN'S BLUFF IN THE YEAR 2000 > > > What are you going to be doing for a living in the >year 2001? Unless you're a fix-it man living in a small >town, you won't be doing what you do today. If you make >your living in financial services, you will surely be doing >something else. If you're a journalist, you will be in a >new profession. But what? What other useful service can >you provide? You have very little time to make the switch. > > This is all very interesting and I am sure that Gary North is doing his part toward developing awareness toward the Y2K problem .....and maybe selling lots of subscritpions to his letter. However, it is obvious that he is not a programmer or a manager of programmers and is overlooking several significant facts in the real world 1) In the Real World programs are replaced / modernized, but managers always have one goal: More money / more staff / more prestige. Hence, they continually count up all the lines of code with a holly zeal in order to convince their management how horrible the work load was and how they needed more staff .....lots more staff to maintain all these lines of code......even tho a large part of this code had not been used for years / no one had any idea how to use it. A certain large institution in the military space complex was trying to justify newer faster computers as no one is ever interested in making what they have work better...... So, they looked at a major application that was in FORTRAN and had maybe a 150 subroutines that were in the modern style....that is they were highly modular and only has 10 to 20 lines of code, so to the non managerial eye the whole complex had maybe THREE thousand lines of code. However, each subroutine had an INCLUDE to bring in all the data declarations and were about 150 lines long. So, if one counted the lines of program when the programs were listed there were not 20 line subroutines but 170 line subroutines and the total number of lines of code to maintain had magically grown by 22,500 or a factor of 7.....and all with no extra requirement of maintenance. Since, I suspect manager everyplace have the same mentality I think these line counts of code are vastly over stated 2) I have noticed great changes in the banks I deal with. One calls and pushes a few buttons and all sorts of account details come forth. I could be very wrong but I do not think all these changes were made without at the same time getting rid of the date problem in the programs that process accounts / credit cards. Now, it may be true that a given bank has say 100 million lines of code and it may be that say only 20 million has been made Y2K compliant and so Gary North is shouting from the housetops the banks will close / fail since they still have 80 million lines of code to convert. Now, I confess I do not know but large institutions have zillions of programs for lots of things other than processing accounts / credit cards. There are programs for inventory / employee records / managing trust accounts / computing taxes / scaling risk on derivatives and so while the bank might only have made 20 percent of its code Y2K compliant it may well have made 100 percent of its programs Y2K compliant that have to do with its root business: processing checks, deposits and credit cards. One suspects that if inventories are not right or some risk management routines do not work quite right money will be lost and lawyers will be happy ....but the banks will still be processing checks and the world will be functioning....tho not quite so well 3) Finally Gary makes a great to do that the IRS is very far behind and if its computers do not work the government will end or something like that. However, Gary obviously has nothing to do with business or he would know that virtually all taxes are collected with nothing being done by the IRS. Employers make more or less instant deposits of with held income taxes / FICA / Medicare / Excise Taxes / Corporate Income taxes are deposited in either local bank or the FED depending on size of depositor. No one has any idea whose income / medicare taxes have been deposited until the employer sends a copy of the W2 forms to the SSA. So, while the government might not know whose taxes they were spending the money would still be flowing thru the federal government with or without Y2K compliant computers ......Now come April of 2001 if the government could not process requests for refunds trouble might break out with great ease....but certainly nothing would take place on the stroke of midnight at the start of the millenium Jack > >- > > > Jack Perrine | ATHENA Programming, Inc | 626-798-6574 | ---------------- | 1175 No. Altadena Drive | fax 398-8620 | jack@minerva.com | Pasadena, CA 91107 US | - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 13:15:45 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: Clinton singing "These are a few of my favorate things" >MY FAVORITE THINGS - CLINTON VERSION > >Blow jobs and land deals in backwater places, >Big Macs and french fries and girls with big faces >Lots of nice cleavage that makes willie spring >These are a few of my favorite things > > >Susan McDougal and Gennifer Flowers >Horny young interns who while 'way the hours >Profits from futures that Hillary brings >These are a few of my favorite things > > >When that Jones bites, >When Ken Starr stings, >When I'm feeling sad, >I simply remember my favorite things >And then I don't feel so bad > > >Beating the draft board and getting elected >Naming to judgeships some hacks I've selected >Conspiracy theories that blame the right wing >These are a few of my favorite things > > >Golfing with Vernon and suborning perjury >Falling down drunk that required knee surgery >Stars in the White House who come here to sing >These are a few of my favorite things > >When that Jones bites, >When Ken Starr stings, >When I'm feeling sad, >I simply remember my favorite things >And then I don't feel so bad > > >Meeting with Boris and Helmut and Tony >States of the Union with lots of baloney >Winning debates and the joy of my flings >These are a few of my favorite things > > >When that Jones bites, >When Ken Starr stings, >When I'm feeling sad, >I simply remember my favorite things >And then I don't feel so bad - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 16:43:08 -0500 (EST) From: John Curtis Subject: Re: Fratrum: Fwd: Blind Man's Bluff in the Year 2000 (fwd) Everyone I know in computer work concedes that the Y2K problem is real and has been grossly overstated. It has been a dandy "Cobol Employment Act". Gary North is, in my opinion, acting out some sort of techno-phobia. It might well be worthwhile to keep paper records of all your bank, broker, and investment accounts. Maybe pull a month's expenses out in cash, just in case. The IRS has been screwing up their computers for many years now, to the tune of ~$7B in this last iteration. Western Civilization *may* be declining, but a whole set of Cobol bugs is unlikely to bring it down in one big hooey. jcurtis - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 16:00:17 -0600 From: neil@jove.geol.niu.edu (Neil Dickey) Subject: Re: Fratrum: Fwd: Blind Man's Bluff in the Year 2000 (fwd) John Curtis wrote in part: > Western Civilization *may* be declining, but a whole set > of Cobol bugs is unlikely to bring it down in one big > hooey. Aw, but John, it's been fortold: This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. T. S. Eliot Maybe old T. S. was on to something. (I hope I quoted him correctly; somebody please fix it if I didn't.) The opinions which I have expressed herein are entirely my own, unless other- wise noted. No-one else should be held responsible for what I think. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | D. N. Dickey | Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and | | Research Associate | timidity, are no match for armed and | | Northern Illinois Univ. | resolute wickedness. | | neil@earth.geol.niu.edu | - W. S. Churchill | | **Finger for public key** | | - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 18:15:34 -0800 From: Liberty or Death Subject: Re: Fratrum: Fwd: Blind Man's Bluff in the Year 2000 (fwd) > Everyone I know in computer work concedes that the > Y2K problem is real and has been grossly overstated. > It has been a dandy "Cobol Employment Act". > > Gary North is, in my opinion, acting out some sort of > techno-phobia. It might well be worthwhile to keep > paper records of all your bank, broker, and investment > accounts. Maybe pull a month's expenses out in cash, > just in case. The IRS has been screwing up their > computers for many years now, to the tune of ~$7B in > this last iteration. > > Western Civilization *may* be declining, but a whole set > of Cobol bugs is unlikely to bring it down in one big > hooey. > > jcurtis It's way more than COBOL bugs, j. I worked in computers, as a programmer, for 15 years. It involves most PCs, as well as imbedded chips, which are in everything from microwave ovens to nuclear reactors. Ignorance continues to be bliss; for another 700 or so days. - - Monte -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Maybe freedom's just one of those things that you can't inherit." - Peter Bradford, in the film "Amerika" -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Idaho Observer http://www.proliberty.com/observer - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 98 21:59:08 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Re: Fratrum: Fwd: Blind Man's Bluff in the Year 2000 (fwd) On Feb 18, John Curtis wrote: > Everyone I know in computer work concedes that the > Y2K problem is real and has been grossly overstated. > It has been a dandy "Cobol Employment Act". > > Gary North is, in my opinion, acting out some sort of > techno-phobia. It might well be worthwhile to keep > paper records of all your bank, broker, and investment > accounts. Maybe pull a month's expenses out in cash, > just in case. The IRS has been screwing up their > computers for many years now, to the tune of ~$7B in > this last iteration. > > Western Civilization *may* be declining, but a whole set > of Cobol bugs is unlikely to bring it down in one big > hooey. > > jcurtis You're forgetting all the embedded systems involved, too though. These are everywhere from banks to aircraft/port systems to freight haulling to Public Utility/Power Distribution systems, Reactor Controls, and on and on and on. It's not just one or two things here and there that we're looking at, it's the Domino Effect that will get us. The number, "99", being a Control Char for all sorts of data may well give us a preview/shakeup as well. - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 98 23:36:40 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fwd: (from Sen. Ashcroft) Hatch's S-10 will go to the full Senate (fwd) On Feb 19, C. F. Inston wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] Looks like the work on the Senate Judiciary committee didn't work to kill S.10, time to work on our individual U.S. Senators now. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% FWD %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% John Ashcroft wrote: > > Dear On-Line Friend: > > Thank you for sharing your ideas with me about juvenile > justice. I am happy to report that the Senate Committee on the > Judiciary, of which I am a member, favorably reported the Violent > and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997, clearing it for > consideration by the full Senate early in the new year. > > The Committee recognizes that a traditional rehabilitative > approach to juvenile justice has been ineffective and inadequate > in trying to curb juvenile crime. Data confirms this -- from > 1985 to 1996, the number of persons under the age of 18 arrested > for violent crimes rose by 75 percent. Criminologists also > expect the number of juvenile offenders to increase as the > children of the baby boom generation reach the age at which they > are most likely to commit crimes. > > To counteract this trend, the Violent and Hardcore Juvenile > Offender Act (S.10), which I sponsored, enables state and local > governments to establish effective juvenile justice systems so > that serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders can be > identified, punished, and deterred. The Judiciary Committee > recognizes that an effective strategy to reducing violent > juvenile crimes requires greater access to juvenile records and > greater collection of data. Currently, juvenile records are > tightly controlled. The police, school officials, and even > judges are unable, in many cases, to obtain information about > possible violent and repeat youth offenders. Neither these > juvenile offenders nor society is well served by this policy. > > It is imperative that judges, educators, and law enforcement > officers have accurate information about violent juveniles. Many > of these offenders move from county to county and from state to > state in committing crimes. Therefore, I have authored > provisions in S.10 that encourages states to create and maintain > criminal records on juveniles. S.10 would encourage states to > transmit juvenile criminal records, including fingerprints and > photographs, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for inclusion > into the national criminal identification data base. Juvenile > criminal records would then be made available to state and > federal courts for purposes of sentencing juveniles. These > records would also be made available to law enforcement agencies > and school officials. > > Likewise, violent disabled students should be held > accountable for their behavior, especially when the disability > has no relationship to the violent behavior. On June 4, 1997, > the President signed the Individuals with Disabilities Education > Act Amendments of 1997 (P.L. 105-17). This legislation expands > the authority of school officials to discipline students with > disabilities. Under prior law, violent children were not removed > from the classroom until the dispute was resolved. Now, a > hearing officer can order a change in placement for no longer > than 45 days if the child is considered to be of harm to himself > or others. The new law also subjects disabled students to the > same discipline as a child without a disability if the child > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > carries a weapon to school or uses, possesses, or sells illegal > drugs. > > While I support tough action against juvenile offenders, I > will not allow S.10 to be used as a means to expand gun control > regulations. Standing firm in my belief in the Second Amendment, > I will continue to oppose misguided amendments to S.10 that > infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens to keep and bear > arms. Restricting lawful firearm ownership will not stop crime. > > Finally, let me stress that S.10 as it was voted out of the > Judiciary Committee is not a perfect bill. In particular, the > bill does not do enough to ensure that the most violent juvenile > criminals are treated as adults. I plan to offer amendments on > the Senate floor to ensure that those who commit adult crimes are > sentenced as adults. > > Once again, thank you for expressing your views. If you > have additional concerns, please feel free to contact my office. > > > Sincerely, > > John Ashcroft > www.senate.gov/~ashcroft - -- Charles 'Chuck' Inston Copyrighted material contained within this document is used in compliance with the United States Code, Title 17, Section 107, "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching" [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 08:52:54 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: CAS: Would anyone care to critique these ideas? (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 15:26:44 -0600 From: george To: CAS list Subject: CAS: Would anyone care to critique these ideas? If Iraq is partitioned, a northern, oil-rich portion going to a nominal Kurdistan sponsored and largely directed by Turkish and US national interest, specifically that of ridding Turkey of its Kurdish dissenters, and that of permitting the U.S. to exert a measure of control over the quantity of oil available on international markets, with the effect of maintaining a stability of price in ongoing efforts to prevent further deflation, and a southern Shiite portion ceded to the control of Iran, a number of mid and long-range problems may be foreseen. These mid and long-range problems are only relevant of course in the assumption that the immediate coordination of an attack upon Iraq itself by three military powers, Turkey, Iran and the United States, each with widely divergent national interest, and thus objectives, is altogether successful in achieving the creation of three stable new national entities, or the alternative of absorbing formerly Iraqi territory into one or more existing states. An endeavor necessarily attempted only with very high risk factors of unforeseen and unintended consequences involved. Assuming all goes well in the initial territorial acquisition envisioned by the plan of partition, and does not in the process ignite broader military conflicts within tribal, political or national entities, it is of prime importance to evaluate the United States' national interest in terms of risk and reward. The greatest reward available to the United States appears two fold; first, in no particular order of precedence, the achievement of a domestic political stability for its executive and legislative branches of government, presently threatened by a burgeoning series of scandals, rapidly escalating out of control, thus avoiding a constitutional crises for the president and maintenance of a status quo for the congressional houses. Second; the successful achievement of a mechanism with which to maintain a control over the pricing of global energy resources by regulation of supply at a time when an oversupply threatens to further erode commodity prices in an already severely deflating world economy. The greatest apparent risk, and only that which is readily apparent, as the unforeseen must also be weighed into the balance as well, is that the nations involved in the benefit or territorial acquisition, particularly Iran, are possessed of agendas either hidden and inimical to the interest of the United States, or particularly with Turkey, be forced by the rearrangement of geo-political realities to assume new positions of alignment against the United States. Iran's interest in a partition of Iraq is understandable. Eliminating Iraq as a rival and establishing undisputed Iranian control of the Shatt-al Arab waterway is a long-standing goal of Iran. The achievement of this Iranian goal explains why Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are appalled at the idea of an American attack. Further, it means that the United States has abandoned a fundamental tenet of its foreign policy since the late 1950s, which is maintaining the balance of power between Iran and Iraq so that neither could dominate the Persian Gulf. The dismantling of Iraq and making Iran the undisputed native power in the region, is necessarily inherent in the proposed military action . The only things which could limit Iran's threat to the United States' national interest at that point would be the continued presence of massive U.S. forces in the region as a permanent deterrent; an option which is not available at this time, due to the overextended condition of U.S. military power. Or, dramatically emphasizing the U.S. and Israeli nuclear deterrent in an area where no assurance of mutual assured destruction can be guaranteed to suffice in preventing further hostilities which could then necessarily ignite a global thermonuclear exchange. A possible hidden agenda of Iran's may be contemplated in addition to the more obvious ones outlined above. If Iran achieves position key to the geo-political realities of world stability it must be accepted that whatever alliances it might already have, or would establish with other nations becomes critically important to the interest of the United States. Present geo-political realities are such that the only creditable direct military threats to the United States are seen from Russia, China, and North Korea. At this time each of these nations, individually though possessed of sufficient armament and ambition to bear close attention, are rendered somewhat benign to the interest of the United States due to their economic reliance upon U.S. markets and credit facilities. Despite this economic condition however, it must be noted that these three significant military threats to the United States are in fact natural allies, and despite recent conditions in Russia, remain so, both ideologically, geographically, and economically, and each of these three nations have been traditionally, and conceivably could still be, enemies of the United States, committed to its removal as the single super power. If conditions were to come about wherein the reliance upon U.S. markets and credit could be either externally controlled, or rendered secondary to the possible objectives of these traditional communist allies, the recreation of an axis against the United States can easily be anticipated. If Iran is further permitted the opportunity to become a single key factor in the stability of global commerce by virtue of its geography and military supremacy, it is to be expected that its freedom to ally itself militarily with those powers it perceives most in line with its own self-interest will be greatly enhanced. Despite the apparent ideological, i.e. religious, barriers which presumably would restrain its close military allegiance with communist powers, even if economically reformed communist powers, Iran presently is a major recipient of both military and industrial technology from both Russia and China, while at the same time being geographically far more naturally aligned with those powers than with any other. In addition it must be recalled that the same religion which might presumably restrain such an allegiance, is also one which promulgates the idea that the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Certainly Iran has made it eminently clear, both in word and in action, it considers the United States its greatest enemy. A position which the United States could take lightly, or discounted only at great risk of peril. Iran is also is possessed of a culture in which economic benefit is not conceivable as its greatest benefit, and has, even in recent times, been seen to act decisively on that premise. Thus to assume Iran could be controlled by the economic benefits the U.S. could offer, would be highly problematical, even unlikely. I would propose that it is very likely, and in fact probable, any axis against the United States would, if not already, then in the event of Iran achieving regional supremacy would include Iran. If such an axis comprised China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, it becomes difficult to imagine how the United States could avoid being subject to the greatest possible threat, both economically and militarily. In the event of the establishment of such an axis against the United States it also becomes difficult to imagine Turkey retaining its traditional loyalty to the interest of the United States, and indeed is far easier to envision a realignment of the majority of the mid-east nations more to resemble the allegiances present at the height of the Cold War. In such a situation, it is improbable that any nuclear or other military deterrent of the United States would be effective, as such an axis would have as an option, control, even to the point of destruction, of the U.S. economy, and would not necessarily need resort to the use to any degree more than the implied use of military force. In conclusion, any reward conceivable in the partition of Iraq is far out weighed by the possible risk to the United States as the leading global power. Containing any Iraqi threat by continued embargo is by far the more attractive course; one with a more foreseeable outcome, and one, despite the possibility, by no means a certainty, of partition serving to contain the effect of U.S. domestic political scandal, while providing control of oil prices, whatever the outcome may be of these far lesser dangers. ========================================================================== This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send electronic mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com. In the message body put: unsubscribe cas - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 09:08:14 -0600 (CST) From: Subject: CAS: Maria HsiaIndicted (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 22:21:36 -0500 From: Bonnie Granat To: CAS Subject: CAS: Maria HsiaIndicted Democratic Fund-Raiser Indicted 8.01 p.m. ET (102 GMT) February 18, 1998 WASHINGTON =97 A Democratic fund-raiser, Maria Hsia, was indicted Wednesday on charges of conspiring to use corporate money belonging to a Buddhist Temple to make illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton's re-election campaign. The International Buddhist Progress Society, commonly known as the Hsi Lai Temple, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, the Justice Department said. Vice President Al Gore was a featured guest at an April 29, 1996 event at the Temple in Hacienda, Calif. but has said he did not know the purpose was to raise funds for Democratic campaigns. The indictment alleges that Hsia and others solicited contributions for the event. Chris Lahane, a Gore spokesman, said Wednesday: "The matters for which Ms Hsia has been indicted do not involve Vice President Gore. This is now a question for the courts to determine and we are confident fairness will be done.'' The Justice Department said the six-count indictment charged Hsia, 47, with conspiring to defraud the United States and causing the submission of false statements to the Federal Election Commission. It was the second indictment the Justice Department has obtained in its investigation of fund-raising abuses. Late last month, Yah Lin "Charlie'' Trie was indicted on charges of illegally concealing the source of thousands of dollars in donations to Democrats. "This is yet another step forward in the Justice Department's investigation of campaign finance abuses associated with the 1996 election,'' Attorney General Janet Reno said. Hsia, who has an immigration consulting business in Arcadia, Calif., was expected to surrender Thursday for arraignment in Washington federal court, the department said. Nancy Luque, Hsia's attorney, denied the allegations in a statementWednesday, saying the Justice Department's case was ''built on a factual and legal house of cards'' and the indictment itself was "false and misleading.'' "Its central premise, that Maria Hsia knew about and/or orchestrated the reimbursement of political contributions by a religious organization, is absolutely false. Knock it down and the indictment falls of its own weight,'' Luque said. She said Hsia made no campaign contributions "in the name of another'' and planned to fight the charges, adding that the indictment was political and would not withstand scrutiny. The indictment alleges that from mid-1993 through 1996, Hsia was involved in a conspiracy in which corporate money belonging to the Temple was used to make secret, disguised and illegal campaign contributions to federal, state and local candidates and their political committees. It further alleged that the scheme used a variety of straw donors or "conduits'' including Temple monks and nuns, volunteers, Hsia and her clients. According to the allegations, Hsia and the Temple caused the conduits to make contributions in their own names to various political campaigns and committees. Those included the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Clinton's 1996 campaign, Senator Edward Kennedy's 1994 re-election campaign and Congressman Patrick Kennedy's 1996 re-election campaign. The straw donors, including Hsia, were reimbursed with money from the Temple, the indictment alleged. The part of the indictment dealing with the April event attended by Gore alleged that individuals associated with the Temple wrote about $45,000 in checks to the DNC Committee. The Temple paid three people, who gave a total of $10,000, in full for their contributions, according to the indictment. The day after the event, Hsia was alleged to have contacted Temple personnel and requested that the Temple solicit $55,000 toward the event. The Temple then allegedly collected $55,000 in contributions by obtaining $5,000 checks from 11 people. The Temple then allegedly provided the checks to Hsia and a DNC fund-raiser. The Temple allegedly reimbursed each of the 11 individuals in full with checks drawn on a corporate bank account. The indictment alleged the contributions were provided to the DNC. "The only explanation for this indictment is a political one,'' Luque said. "It is apparently easier for everyone with a stake in the system to criminalize (and demonize) the political involvement of a powerless and well meaning ethnic group than ... to recognize that the system is broken and must be fixed.'' =A9 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved =A9 1998, News America Digital Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Fox News Online. All rights reserved. Fox News is a registered trademark _________________________________________________ Bonnie Granat Technical Writing, Editing, & Consulting Updated Resume: http://lynx.neu.edu/home/httpd/b/bgranat =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list, send electronic mail to majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com. 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