Lis­ten: One Seg­ment

1. The pro­gram begins with dis­cus­sion of the “energy cri­sis” in Cal­i­for­nia. There is sig­nif­i­cant evi­dence that this “cri­sis” was exac­er­bated (if not caused) by the very energy inter­ests that George Bush serves. (“Turn­ing Cal­i­for­nia On” by Paul Krug­man; New York Times; 6/27/2001; p. A25.)

2. Bush’s Sec­re­tary of the Army, Thomas White Jr., served with one of the most impor­tant of the energy firms that Bush is beholden to, Enron. (“Army Boss Thomas White Jr. Vows No Con­flict in Ties with Enron” by Esther Schrader; Los Ange­les Times; 6/20/2001; p. A6.)

3. Enron is among the bid­ders to han­dle energy gen­er­a­tion on key mil­i­tary bases. (Idem.)

4. One of the most for­mi­da­ble mem­bers of the Bush White House is Karl Rove, a cun­ning, Machi­avel­lian oper­a­tive viewed as the “dirty tricks spe­cial­ist” of the Bush camp. A sig­nif­i­cant investor in the afore­men­tioned Enron, Rove has recently come under scrutiny for pos­si­ble con­flict of inter­est. (“White House Sees No Con­flict in Aide’s Role” [AP]; New York Times; 6/30/2001; p. A11.)

5. Inter­est­ingly, and pos­si­bly sig­nif­i­cantly, Rove was deeply involved in the Bush administration’s effort on behalf of ASM Lith­o­g­ra­phy Hold­ing’s attempt to pur­chase Sil­i­con Val­ley Group. (“Rove’s Intel Meet­ing Didn’t Affect Rul­ing, White House Says”; Wall Street Jour­nal; 6/14/2001; p. A4.)

6. Ini­tially, the Pen­ta­gon blocked this deal. (“Pen­ta­gon Blocks Sil­i­con Val­ley Deal” by Peter Siegel; Finan­cial Times; 4/25/2001; p. 1.)

7. Even­tu­ally, pres­sure from Bush, Rove and com­pany over­came the Pentagon’s oppo­si­tion to the deal. (“Dutch Takeover of Sil­i­con Val­ley Group is Approved” by Edward Alden and Gor­don Cramb; Finan­cial Times; 5/4/2001; p. 1.) With SVG’s impor­tance to Amer­i­can sur­veil­lance satel­lites, this deal may seri­ously com­pro­mise Amer­i­can national secu­rity. It is worth not­ing that Europe has lagged behind the United States in space sur­veil­lance, a short­com­ing that may well be over­come by ASM’s pur­chase of SVG to the even­tual detri­ment of this country.