U.S. Mining Company's Support of Terrorists Linked to Al-Qaeda

[donsu]

Sierra Magazine Story Reveals U.S. Mining Company's Support of Terrorists Linked to Al-Qaeda

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=177-04152004

The Sierra Club announced today that an expose will appear in the May/June issue of Sierra, the official magazine of the Sierra Club, revealing how a Denver-based mining company secretly paid off Al-Qaeda- linked terrorists under the auspices of "international security."

The story also shows how the Bush administration's Homeland Security and Justice Departments turned a blind eye when first informed that Denver-based Echo Bay Mining Co. paid millions of dollars to the international terrorist group Abu Sayaff and other terror groups in the Philippines in exchange for protection of its gold-mining operations.

However, shortly before the Sierra magazine investigation was reported on tonight's edition of ABC's World News Tonight, the Justice Department reversed course and announced that it would open an investigation into Echo Bay's operations. Tipped off by the Sierra story, U.S. Reps. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Mark Udall, D-Co, also issued letters calling for a congressional investigation into Echo Bay and the general practice of U.S. corporate support for international terrorism.

The Sierra magazine investigation, titled "The Cost of Doing Business," is the result of a two-month investigation by Marilyn Berlin Snell, a writer/editor at Sierra. Allan Laird, a project manager for an Echo Bay project located on the southern Philippine island of Mindano, brought the story to the Sierra Club because of its well-known opposition to mining operations.

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The Sierra Club is calling for immediate congressional investigations to determine whether this was an isolated incident confined to the operations of one company, or a standard practice for extractive industries. There are many other U.S. multinationals involved in natural resource extraction operations in politically unstable countries around the world.
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[cosmicdot]

1. see these links

Gold, Greed, and Terrorism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=489067

Federal inquiry eyeing Echo Bay
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=489956

Sierra Magazine Story Reveals U.S. Mining Company's Support of Terrorists
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=7373

Gold, Greed, and Terrorism -- Bush Sr. connection to Echo bay
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=10791

It's so disappointing to learn that people who associate with the Democratic Party serve Barrick Gold, past and/or present, as "International Advisors": Sam Nunn, who serves on several major corporate boards like GE ... and, Bill Clinton's 'friend', Vernon Jordan, who, too, sits on major corporate boards ... he used to be on Clear Channel's Board ... and, even Andrew Young ... and William Cohen
http://www.barrick.com/fi_reports/annual/2001annual_en.pdf

the Internet opens eyes ... participation with these outfits becomes known ... what it tells me is they care only about themselves and perpetuating their own wealth ... they should have used more care with whom they associated

Poppy Bush just gave away the store ... Americans should loathe the man ... "Bush Sr. involved in 'biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy'" http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1019

The answer lies with a Canadian gold mining outfit called Barrick Corp. It takes a bit of explaining.

In the final days of the first Bush regime, the Interior Department adopted policies that enriched Barrick -- and cost U.S. taxpayers -- "a cool billion or so," according to Palast. In 1995, Barrick hired Bush I as "honorary senior adviser" -- but of course claimed there had been no deal. (When Bush the Younger became president in 2001, one of his first deeds was to dump rules on gold mining waste disposal -- which is likely to cause irreparable environmental harm. One of the biggest beneficiaries is, of course, Barrick.)

Barrick in 1999 acquired another Canadian mining company, Sutton Resources, which was seeking to grab land in Tanzania from small-time prospectors. In his book, Palast reports: "In August 1996, Sutton's bulldozers, backed by military police firing weapons, rolled across the goldfield, smashing down worker housing, crushing their mining equipment. ... About 50 miners were still in their mine shafts, buried alive."

Not good public relations.

Bush left Barrick in 1999 -- it was probably a risky affiliation as his son's campaign ramped up. Replacing Bush was Atlanta's own Andrew Young, who joined another of the city's favorite sons, Vernon Jordan. In an interview, Palast was brutal. "Andy Young is pocketing blood money from African gold." (Young did not return a detailed message asking about his relationship with Barrick.)

McKinney, meanwhile, chaired congressional hearings that had launched a probe of Barrick's activities in the Congo, where the firm was accused of, as Palast says, "stoking the civil war." McKinney was also fighting to protect the life of a whistleblower in the Tanzania episode.

So, who were the black leaders that helped torpedo McKinney? "Andy Young and Vernon Jordan," replies Palast. "No one has held them accountable."
http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=210

A Congressman Rahall from West Virginia has worked to amend the Mining Law of 1872 which offers mining companies cheap access to federal land with few environmental restrictions.