Arrest warrant for Menem

[Judi Lynn]

Arrest warrant for Menem
From correspondents in Buenos Aires, Argentina
21apr04

AN Argentine judge today issued an international arrest warrant for former president Carlos Menem, who lives in Chile, after he failed to appear in court in an ongoing corruption probe, a court source said.

Judge Jorge Urso requested the detention of Menem, 73, through Interpol and the next step will be for a Chilean judge to act in the case.
(snip)

He failed to attend a court appearance in Buenos Aires last month.

Chilean officials previously indicated they would cooperate with any possible extradition request.

On February 24 an Argentine federal judge ordered a complete freeze of Menem's assets for alleged "malicious omission of assets" in the corruption probe, court sources said.
(snip)

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9344982%255E1702,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lots of references to check on Bush's friendship with Carlos Menem. This is one of the first ones to pop up in a search:

Shortly before Bush announced his own campaign for president, he had received a visit from Carlos Saul Menem, the right-wing leader of Argentina for the past decade. The two men retired to an Austin country club, where they were joined by Bush's father. Governor Bush had the flu, so he contented himself with riding along as the former president and Menem played a round of golf.

The capitol press corps trailed along, dutifully recording the governor's cordial relationship with a visiting head of state. Unknown to the assembled reporters, however, was the story of how Bush and his family became immersed in Argentine politics. The little-known tale begins with George W. making a phone call to secure a $300-million deal for a U.S. pipeline company -- a deal that provoked a political firestorm in Argentina, drawing scrutiny from legislators and a special prosecutor. The episode marked one of George W.'s first ventures into foreign affairs, demonstrating the fundamental rule by which the Texas governor and his family conduct business: Always know that the Bush name is a marketable commodity.
(snip)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/03/argentina.html

[Vladimir]

1. About time too n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. I second that. eom

[cosmicdot]

2. Enron - the Bushes - Argentina - Menem

Posted January 17, 2002

Enron and the Bushes
by David Corn


When George W. Bush was first running for governor of Texas, Washington editor David Corn took a look at Bush family activities on behalf of Enron in Argentina--itself now suffering the results of untamed financial markets. We reprint this November 21, 1994, article to show how Enron's connections with the Bushes stretch not just to Washington but around the world.
--The Editors

Several years ago, says Rodolfo Terragno, a former Argentine Cabinet Minister, he received a telephone call from George W. Bush, son of the then-Vice President. When he hung up, Terragno was annoyed, he recalls, for the younger Bush had tried to exploit his family name to pressure Terragno to award a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron, an American firm close to the Bush clan.

During this past year, as George W. campaigned across Texas to replace Governor Ann Richards, he portrayed himself as a successful businessman who relied on "individual initiative," not his lineage. Contacted in Buenos Aires, Terragno, now a member of the Chamber of Deputies, offered an account that challenges Bush's campaign image.

In 1988, Terragno was the Minister of Public Works and Services in the government of President Raúl Alfonsín. He oversaw large industrial projects, and his government was considering construction of a pipeline to stretch across Argentina and transport natural gas to Chile. Several US firms were interested, including the Houston-based Enron, the largest natural gas pipeline company in the United States. But Terragno was upset with the corporation's representatives in Argentina. They were pressing Terragno for a deal in which the state-owned gas company would sell Enron natural gas at an extremely low price, and, he recalls, they pitched their project with a half-page proposal--one so insubstantial that Terragno couldn't take it seriously. Terragno let the Enron agents know he was not happy with them.

~snip~

In late August, several members of the Chamber of Deputies--Terragno not among them--submitted a request for information, calling on President Menem to answer dozens of questions about the business activities of the Bush family in Argentina. (In 1987, Neil Bush created a subsidiary of his oil company to conduct business there. In early August, a Buenos Aires newspaper reported that on a forthcoming trip to Argentina the former President would lobby the Menem government to allow a US company to build a casino there. The onetime President said this was not true.) One of the deputies' queries was, Does Menem know whether George W. Bush attempted to capitalize in Argentina on his father's position? So far Menem has not responded.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020204&s=corn

[Judi Lynn]

6. Outstanding article, cosmicdot. A lot of information

delivered in a small space.

This was also interesting:

(The day after Menem was inaugurated, Neil Bush played a highly publicized game of tennis in Buenos Aires with Menem.)

The Enron references were truly interesting, considering _{George W. Bush} had to stop a moment to search his memory when asked about Ken Lay by the press.

Quite the accomplishment being best buds with the most corrupt Presidents of Latin America. Remember that the elder Bush is also a great friend of the impeached-for-corruption past President of Venezuela, Carlos Andres Perez, who also was responsible for the gunning down of protesters in El Caracazo. Smoooooth operators.

[Just Me]

9. Someone, somewhere should show the Bushies how the "free market"

operates,...and swallow them up, the whole bunch of them,...whole!!!! Then, divide the profits to NGOs which refuse the "free market" Bushies any assistance since 'they who live by the sword must die by the sword',...eh *LOL*?

:bounce:

[mobuto]

4. Hope they get him

Menem's a thoroughly wretched human being: a cross between Richard Nixon and Ferdinand Marcos.

[UpInArms]

5. Menem, Moon and Bush

an unholy triangle

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon1.html

excerpt:

Given the controversy, Argentina's elected president, Carlos Menem, did decide to reject Moon's invitation. But Moon had a trump card to play in his bid for South American respectability: the endorsement of an ex-president of the United States, George Bush. Agreeing to speak at the newspaper's launch, Bush flew aboard a private plane, arriving in Buenos Aires on Nov. 22. Bush stayed at Menem's official residence, the Olivos. But Bush failed to change the Argentine president's mind.

Still, Moon's followers gushed that Bush had saved the day, as he stepped before about 900 Moon guests at the Sheraton Hotel. "Mr. Bush's presence as keynote speaker gave the event invaluable prestige," wrote the Unification News. "Father and Mother sat with several of the True Children just a few feet from the podium."

Bush lavished praise on Moon and his journalistic enterprises. "I want to salute Reverend Moon, who is the founder of The Washington Times and also of Tiempos del Mundo," Bush declared. "A lot of my friends in South America don't know about The Washington Times, but it is an independent voice. The editors of The Washington Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington, D.C. I am convinced that Tiempos del Mundo is going to do the same thing" in Latin America.

Bush then held up the colorful new newspaper and complimented several articles, including one flattering piece about Barbara Bush. Bush's speech was so effusive that it surprised even Moon's followers.

"Once again, heaven turned a disappointment into a victory," the Unification News exulted. "Everyone was delighted to hear his compliments. We knew he would give an appropriate and 'nice' speech, but praise in Father's presence was more than we expected. ... It was vindication. We could just hear a sigh of relief from Heaven."

Bush's endorsement of The Washington Times' editorial independence also was not truthful. Almost since it opened in 1982, a string of senior editors and correspondents have resigned, citing the manipulation of the news by Moon and his subordinates. The first editor, James Whelan, resigned in 1984, confessing that he had "blood on his hands" for helping the church achieve greater legitimacy.

...more...

and just for the prescience of it

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/History/CloudsOverGeorgeBush.html

excerpt:

As Gov. George W. Bush registers double-digit leads in early polls pitting him against Vice President Al Gore, those questions include:

Is the personable Texas governor, in part, a front man for the restoration of his father's unsavory cronies who relied on national security secrecy to avoid accountability for serious mistakes and even criminal acts?

Will the sins of this father -many of them still only hazily understood years after the fact - be played out again in a presidential administration of his son?

[Judi Lynn]

8. Tremendous exerpt concerning Bush's endorsement of Moon's paper,

The Washington Times.

It almost makes you giggle until you realize there are some people who actually QUOTE that stuff on their right-wing talk shows, and even on C-Span's "Washington Journal."

Really, really interesting.

[Snazzy]

7. S&L meltdown and Neil *

O, Brother! Where Art Thou?
BY LOUIS DUBOSE
(Austin Chron)

March 16, 2001

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-03-16/pols_feature3.html

...

Bush wasn't just an average S&L exec drawing a big salary and recklessly pushing a federally insured institution beyond its lending limits. As a director of a failing thrift in Denver, Bush voted to approve $100 million in what were ultimately bad loans to two of his business partners. And in voting for the loans, he failed to inform fellow board members at Silverado Savings & Loan that the loan applicants were his business partners. Federal banking regulators later followed the trail of defaulted loans to Neil Bush oil ventures, in particular JNB International, an oil and gas exploration company awarded drilling concessions in Argentina -- despite its complete lack of experience in international oil and gas drilling. It probably helped that the Bush family had cultivated close ties with the fabulously corrupt Carlos Menem, former president of Argentina.

When JNB's rights and obligations were assumed by other investors, Neil tried to persuade another American oil and gas exploration company, Plains Resources, to invest in Argentina. Plains wasn't buying. But it was hiring, and picked up Neil as a consultant for its Argentine market -- because, as Plains executive Carlos Garibaldi told The New York Times' Jeff Gerth in 1992, Neil had "traveled and played tennis with President Menem."

....