Cantwell to seek new inquiry in Enron case (Seattle P-I)

[icymist]

Friday, February 4, 2005

Cantwell to seek new inquiry in Enron case
Agency is stalling on ruling, senator says

By DAN RICHMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Enron's scams and bogus transmission deals were running up the cost of power years before the Texas energy trader's actions led to a West Coast energy crisis four years ago, according to audio transcripts and other documents released yesterday by the Snohomish County Public Utility District.

The documents were released in a continuing effort by the utility to dodge a $122 million bill from the failed energy company. And in that regard, the utility also yesterday won a pledge from Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to ask congressional regulators to investigate the federal agency it says is stalling on ruling whether the public utility district should have to pay.

Cantwell announced her intentions during an Everett press conference at which the utility released what it called new evidence of wrongdoing by Enron.

"We have now provided so much documentation (of Enron's alleged wrongdoing) that, frankly, I am going to ask now that the Government Affairs Committee of Congress investigate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission," Cantwell said by phone from Washington, D.C. "They are not doing their job in upholding the Federal Power Act."

More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/210732_enron04.html

[AlCzervik]

1. I'm in no california and this was big story last nght

Thye said ENRON exploited loopholes in deregulation....Pete Wilson, our former gov was the who deregulated the energy market here, Grey Davis paid the price.

[Im with Rosey]

2. Repercussions are deep

I think this is going to blow sky-high. This might be the investigation that starts the house of cards from Ca. election to the secret meeting with cheney all the way to gonzo. I would LOVE to see a SERIOUS investigation into this, everyone is dirty in this.

[Al-CIAda]

3. Enron and the PNAC -William Kristol

January 29, 2005
PNACers Calling for Bullet-Stopper Conscription?

Let’s dissect the letter sent by a gaggle of Strausscons to senators Frist, Reid, Hastert, and representative Pelosi. I first saw this letter yesterday, posted by William Kristol on the Weekly Standard web site. It is posted, as well, and predictably, on the PNAC web site.

http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/index.php?p=518

Excerpt-

Let’s take a look at a few of the people who signed this letter:

Max Boot. “Max Boot, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations and former editor for The Wall Street Journal, occupies the extremist end of the neoconservative ideological spectrum,” writes Right Web. He is also connected to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Eliot Cohen. Cohen is considered “the most influential neocon in academe.” Right Web notes, “Cohen is famous for his thesis that the war on terror constitutes World War IV, and that the Cold War should really be considered World War III… Cohen has been affiliated with a number of hawkish advocacy groups, including the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and the Project for the New American Century. He also serves on the Defense Policy Board, the Pentagon’s in-house think tank, which has been heavily criticized for members’ conflicts of interests and for its stilted ideological profile. (Nearly a third of the board members come from the staunchly conservative Hoover Institution.)”

Ivo Daalder. Daalder was a prominent member of Clinton’s National Security Council staff. He is considered a “liberal hawk,” a term that is not considered an oxymoron in Bushzarro world.

Thomas Donnelly. Another PNACer. As Donnelly wrote for the Strausscon “think tank” AEI, “the strategic imperative of patrolling the perimeter of the Pax Americana is transforming the U.S. military, and those few other forces capable and willing of standing alongside, into the cavalry of a global, liberal international order. Like the cavalry of the Old West, their job is one part warrior and one part policeman—both of which are entirely within the tradition of the American military.” Considering who is president, the cowboy metaphor is apropos.

Frank Gaffney. A Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle understudy, Gaffney “is one of the key heavy-lifters of the neoconservative-hawk policy institute world,” as Right Web puts it.

Reuel Marc Gerecht. Gerecht, a former CIA agent and recruiter, was a “vocal proponent of War upon Iraq, Iran and Syria well before 911,” according to Disinfopedia. “If President Bush follows his own logic and compels his administration to follow him against Iraq and Iran, then he will sow the seeds for a new, safer, more liberal order in the Middle East,” Gerecht said in the AEI 2004 Annual Report. In other words, an “order” ruled by Israel and the United States.

Gary Schmitt. Schmitt is the executive director of PNAC, the Strausscon “think tank” responsible for Bush’s Iraq invasion. Enough said.

Robert Kagan. Kagan is one of the top dog Strausscons, co-founder of PNAC, and buddy of William Kristol. In the preface to Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in America’s Foreign and Defense Policy, edited with Kristol, Kagan quotes Elliott Abrams, another rabid Strausscon, who “describes the faulty logic that has driven American policy toward the Middle East for more than a decade, warning that the security of Israel, Turkey, and American friends in the Arab world may be jeopardized unless the United States shifts its focus toward strengthening friends and consolidating American influence in the region,” possibly, as the above letter indicates, with conscripted bullet-stoppers.

William Kristol. Kristol edits the Rupert Murdoch financed Weekly Standard, essentially the Strausscon house organ, and is also a co-founder of PNAC. In 2002, Media Bypass reported, “In what has been called ‘punditgate,’ conservative journalists Bill Kristol and Erwin Stelzer of The Weekly Standard … have been exposed for accepting Enron largesse. … Kristol, chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle, took $100,000 without disclosing the payments at the time. … Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard who postures as an independent journalist, got the money for serving on an Enron advisory board…” In other words, in addition to plotting and facilitating the murder of 100,000 or more Iraqis, Kristol also works for criminal organizations and does not bother to report the income. If your local grocer did this, he would be thrown in the hoosegow.

The above mentioned are only the more well-known names signing on to this letter, so reminiscent of the letter PNAC sent to Clinton, urging him to invade Iraq. In fact, considering the preponderance of PNACers signing the letter, it is fair to say the Strausscon call for a larger military—in the name of “national security, global peace and stability, and the defense and promotion of freedom in the post-9/11 world,” i.e., bombing Israel’s enemies and invading sovereign nations in violation of international law—is strictly a PNAC affair.

[fooj]

4. Those rat bastards! I live in No. Cal and been waiting a long time

for this shit to hit the fan! How dare those jackasses!