-Caveat Lector- http://www.mediawhoresonline.com/
BUSH - PITT HARKEN COVER-UP New Docs Show Why Bush In Deep Trouble Is Fear Of New Harken Probe Behind Latest Scandal? White House Desperate To Limit Senate Inquiry Dubya Needs GOP Senate To Stop SEC And Harken Inquiries Newly-revealed documents about George W. Bush’s wrongdoing in his Harken Energy dealings strongly suggest that he was fully aware of his insider trading and Enron-like manipulations in 1990. At the same time, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt, who has publicly stated his adamant opposition to reopening the suspended SEC probe into Harken, is engaged in an ethical fiasco. And yet, the Bush White House continues its unwavering support for Pitt's tenure. Pitt destroyed the candidacy of an independent head of the new accounting ethics oversight board, John Biggs, and replaced him with William Webster, who is being investigated by the SEC for his own activities as a member of the auditing committee of U.S. Technologies. Webster told Pitt of his conflict, but Pitt hid it from the other SEC commissioners. Why does Bush continue to back this tainted SEC chairman? Because the two scandals -- Harvey Pitt’s corrupt efforts to rig the new oversight panel and Bush’s Harken troubles –- are actually one mega-scandal. If the new oversight panel were truly independent, with an independent head, it would reopen the SEC investigation into Harken Energy, given the new information that has come to light. But Pitt and the White House feared the independent man, John Biggs, and Pitt eliminated his candidacy in favor of a pillar of the Washington crony establishment, William Webster. The old investigation was suspended because Harken’s stock price suddenly shot up, suggesting the firm’s financial liquidity. But the new documents tell a different story – one of manipulated stock prices, insider trading, and investor fleecing. Bush's unyielding support for Pitt prevents the SEC investigation into Harken from being reopened. The Pitt scandal and the Harken scandal are one and the same. The White House’s fixed loyalty to Pitt is an extraordinary indication that George W. Bush will do anything to defend him, no matter what the cost. Why is Bush putting so much political capital on a discredited figure like Pitt? Because Pitt, the former chief lobbyist for the accounting interests -- including the now-defunct Arthur Andersen, which performed the audits for Enron and Harken Energy -- is the stone wall for him against a reopened SEC investigation. When asked about the Harken case last July on Meet the Press, Pitt was emphatic: MR. RUSSERT: In your mind did the SEC exonerate President Bush? MR. PITT: In my mind the independent staff of our enforcement division concluded there was no basis for enforcement action. That is what the American public should understand and now what we should do is focus on all of the major efforts we're undertaking to help investors regain their confidence in the system. MR. RUSSERT: And so the matter's closed, in your mind? MR. PITT: The matter is closed. It was closed by the enforcement division 10 years ago, long before I was at the SEC. Internal memos reported by the Boston Globe and the Washington Post document that Bush was warned in 1990 that he and other Harken Energy board members faced possible charges of insider trading if they sold off their Harken stock. The explosive material, it turns out, arrived at the SEC the very day AFTER the SEC -- loyal to President George H.W. Bush -- hastily decided not to investigate the deal. In short, the SEC has known for twelve years that its original aborted investigation into Harken was incomplete. The new revelations about Harken Energy prove that George W. Bush’s cover stories about Harken, since the beginning of this political career, have been flimsy lies. SEC chairman, Harvey Pitt has steadfastly refused to reopen the investigation, and pronounced the Harken matter "ancient history," But the new material reported by the Boston Globe and the Washington Post show that the full truth has yet to be known, and that the history is not so ancient after all. The growing scandal goes to the core of the current Administration's viability. The Harken Energy deal was the foundation of Bush’s personal fortune, which allowed him to pursue public office. Previous evidence has shown that, with Harken in deep financial difficulty, a Bush family friend at the Harvard Management Company helped secretly bail the firm out, with off-the-books loans that covered up Harken’s near collapse. It is now also absolutely certain that the SEC learned that Bush had been warned that by selling his Harken stock, he might open himself up to charges of fraud and insider trading – but that Bush dumped the stock anyway. It is also certain that Harvey Pitt sat on that fact when questions arose about Harken earlier this year. And now, Pitt’s over-the-top partisan campaign to halt John Biggs by any means necessary – including more cover-ups – suddenly is linked to Pitt’s cover-up of Harken. George W. Bush is currently waging a desperate, bitterly partisan campaign to grab the Senate for the Republicans. If that were to happen, any possibility of reopening the SEC probe into Harken Energy would be assuredly dead. Only if the Senate remains in Democratic hands is there a chance that pressure can be put to remove Harvey Pitt and force a reopening of the Harken Energy investigation. Now we know why the White House is so loyal to Harvey Pitt – and so desperately seeking votes, more desperately than any other White House in living memory during a mid- term election. For George W. Bush, the current election is ultimately about lifting the lid off of his past. It’s about Harken. Email Senator Paul Sarbanes, Democrat of Maryland and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and thank him warmly for his call for Harvey Pitt’s resignation and for announcing an investigation into the SEC fiasco. Encourage him to expand his probe to include reopening the SEC investigation into Harken Sources: MSNBC http://www.msnbc.com/news/828635.asp Wall Street Journal http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/001060.html Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/303/nation/Board_was_told_of_risks_before_Bush_sto ck_sale+.shtml Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49309-2002Oct31.html <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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