WEEKLY UPDATE Volume 2 Issue 24 March 7-14, 1996 BUYING OF A PRESIDENT UPDATE TO THE DOLE TOP TEN CAREER PATRONS LIST: With more time available, more figures have come to light. An update shows contributions in the amount of $172,500 from Carl Linder and his family and company, American Financial Corporation, were made to presidential candidate Bob Dole's Senate campaigns, his political action committee Campaign America and the defunct nonprofit Better America Foundation. This puts Linder and family in seventh place among Dole's top 10 career patrons and drops Fisher Brothers from the list. Of special note, Forbes Holdings number two and Thomas C. Foley (Democrat) is in the number six position. 1 Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery $381,000 2 MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings $277 .500 3 Koch Industries $245,000 4 Archer Daniels Midland $217,800 5. American Citizens for Political Action $192,580 6. Thomas Foley, NTC Group $183,285 7. Carl Linder & Family $172,500 8. Torchmark $166,125 9. Philip Anschutz $162,380 10. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance $157,358 This includes all U.S. Senate campaign cycles, 1979 through 1994, as well as all donations to Campaign America, 1979 to 1994, based upon Federal Election Commission records and Center for Responsible Politic s data. Also includes donations to the Better America Foundation, based upon their donor list. Donations to the Dole foundation could not be included in the compilation of this list, because The Dole Foundation does not disclose its donors. LOGGING SALVAGE RIDER Congress passed and President Clinton reluctantly signed a measure to increase the timber industry's take of trees in national forests. Dubbed by environmentalists as "logging without laws," the measure attached to a budget bill forced the government to proceed with timber sales that had been held up over concerns about the effects on fish and wildlife. It also allowed harvesting of " salvage timber" which was defined broadly enough to include healthy stands. The Wilderness Society and other environmental groups said they will urge the repeal of the logging rider. Jim Jontz, campaign director of the Endangered Species Coalition said "We are at a critical point. The White House is getting ready to make a decision. The White House realizes its impact is inconsistent with their pro-environment position." Bills are pending in the House of Representatives and Senate to repeal the rider but they face a tough fight particularly in the Senate where 60 votes are needed to move legislation. Reuters February 1996 CIA USE OF JOURNALISTS AS AGENTS Central Intelligence Agency Director John Deutch recently confirmed and defended the CIA's use of American journalists as intelligence sources but said it would happen only in very rare circumstances. Deutch told the Senate Intelligence Committee the policy on use of journalists by the CIA was approved in 1977. "The policy says that we will not use American journalists except under very very rare circumstances " he said. Asked for examples he replied: "One would be where you have a journalist involved in a situation where terrorists were holding U.S. hostages -- that journalists might have tremendously unique access in such a situation -- or where there was particular access to a nation or a group who had an ability to use weapons of mass destruction against the U.S." "These are the kinds of circumstances where I think it would be very difficult not to take advantage of every possible way of defending American lives" he said. Committee Chairman Arlen Specter R-Pennsylvania asked Deutch to supply a more specific interpretation of the policy on the use of journalists. Reuters February 1996 WORLD RELIGION UPDATE The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "Bishop William Swing's proposal for a 'United Religions' headquarters at the Presidio will reach a new stage [in February] when the San Francisco Episcopalian embarks on an ambitious round-the-world pilgrimage to sign up spiritual leaders from Rome to Dharmasala. Swing is collaborating in this effort with the World Conference on Religion and Peace, the Gorbachev Foundation, and private foundations (which he declined to identify). He is proposing to build a "United Religions" (UR) complex -- consisting of a "Ha ll of Speaking", "Hall of listening", "Hall of Action " and "Hall of Meeting" at the Presidio site now occupied by the Letterman Hospital high-rise building. "This is not about creating one big religion. This is about inviting religions to be responsible for global good " Swing insists. "Up to now the world's religions have been co-opted by tribes and ethnic groups and end up in murderous postures that vio late the teachings they inherited." The UP would dispatch "conflict-resolution teams" to areas "where religious extremism leads to violence." Swing presently plans to hold an interfaith summit conference in San Francisco from June 24th-28th with the objective of holding a charter-signing ceremony for the new organization. The New American March 18, 1996 SOVEREIGNTY AND THE WTO On January 17th, the World Trade Organization (WTO) enforcement arm of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) - announced its first-ever ruling. The case matched Venezuela and Brazil against the United States. At issue was a 1993 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that imposed more stringent environmental restrictions on imports of high-pollution reformulated gasoline than on similar fuel produced domestically. A three-member WTO dispute-settlement panel ruled against the United States decreeing that this double-standard violates GATT's "national treatment" clause requiring member nations to "ensure that in respect of technical regulations products imported shall be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to like products of national origin." The EPA regulation which sparked the conflict was an administrative law decree. Congress should properly have ratified modified or scrapped it but opted instead to let it stand. The intervention by the WTO breached the U.S. Constitution, which gives C ongress sole authority to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." The WTO sets an ominous precedent for future, more perilous GATT-related assaults on our country's economic independence. More than two decades ago, writing in the April 1974 issue of the Council on Foreign Relations journal Foreign Affairs, professor Richard Gardner (CFR) contended that "the 'house of world order' will have to be built from the bottom up rather than fro m the top down," and that "an end run around national sovereignty eroding it piece by piece will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault." Gardner listed a few of the arrangements that he believed would be especially useful in subtly surrendering national sovereignty to international institutions. "Among other things " he wrote "we will be seeking new rules in the GATT to cover a whole range of hitherto unregulated nontariff barriers. These will subject countries to an unprecedented degree of international surveillance never up to now sacrosanct 'domestic' policies..." The recent WTO decision against the U.S. signals just such a concession. The New American March 18, 1996 STATES TURN DOWN GOALS 2000 Last December Alabama Governor Fob James decided to return $1.4 million to the federal Department of Education. The money was Alabama's share of the funding of state education departments under the federal Goals 2000 program. James had decided that Go als 2000 was something Alabama could do without. It is certainly not of the ordinary for a state to return money it has gotten from the federal government . But Alabama wasn't alone in refusing the federal funding. Montana had done so earlier and two other states, Virginia and New Hampshire had neve r even applied for the money. Officials in each of these states feel that Goals 2000 funding would lead to federal mandates to participate in educational programs and standards they don' t want. While federal officials insist that they are only interested in helping state boards of education with funding for "bottom-up reform," a group of concerned new Hampshire parents had their suspicions confirmed when they actually read through the Goals 2000 plan. They found 195 uses of the word "shall," 63 places where the word "will" appeared, 33 mentions of "require " and 13 insertions of "must." When New Hampshire officials resisted the offer of Goals 2000 funding, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley sent a lengthy letter seeking to reassure them that any worries about federal control were misguided. But he was rebuffed and New Hampshire has adamantly resisted the funding. The New American March 18,1996 MILITIA, FEDS AVERT TRAGEDY An army of militia armed with cameras and tape recorders mustered to north-central Louisiana last month in defense of a doctor surrounded by a group of FBI agents and local sheriff's deputies. Law enforcement officials wanted to arrest Dr. Lynn Truman Crawford at the home of his 80-year-old mother in Coushatta about 50 miles southeast of Shreveport on February 21. However the arrest went badly after the Crawford family dog was killed. After the dog was shot by a deputy, Crawford, armed with a rifle or shotgun, drove the police off. A nine-hour siege ensued after FBI agents and deputies surrounded the Crawford residence. During the siege, Carwford phoned patriot talk shows and faxed pleas for help to militia around the country. Within hours, militia members were on the scene to keep an eye on things. Militia men remembered too well Ruby Ridge. "Everyone we sent was heavily armed -- with still cameras, tape recorders and video cameras, " said Mike Kemp a spokesman for the Gadsden Minute Men. Police authorities said they too remembered the Ruby Ridge scene and wanted to prevent another one. "To de-escalate the situation," the FBI press release stated, "agents and sheriff's personnel retired to a secure position and set up a perimeter." Five days later, Crawford surrendered to FBI agents. He is currently in federal custody in Oklahoma City.