In my
diaries about Abramoff I often come across comments reminding me to remember
Richard Pombo and his connections to the growing scandal.
Now I'll admit that I hadn't spent a lot of time researching Pombo. To me, he was just another example of the absolute corruption of the GOP Congress, but he was generating a lot of passion in the comments. So, I decided to take a closer look at Dick Pombo. And he is a true dick in the most pejorative sense of the word.
I will not go chapter and verse of why he is such a dick, but the many entries at the Richard Pombo tag will give you a good idea.
I would like to add a few details to the record.
In January 2004, Pombo led one of the last trips organized by Team Abramoff to CNMI. Relationships were sealed and today Pombo is the new protector of the business interests of the Tan Family: sweatshops, casinos, shipping, factory tuna fishing and human trafficking.
To the jump.
This is an involved tale. It will take a few moments of your time, but I think it is an Abramoff scandal story you should know. It not only illustrates the depth of GOP corruption, it also involves sweatshops, tuna and the A-Bomb. So let's dig in...
After the 2002 election, Pombo become the new Chair of the House Resources Committee. That moved him from your average GOP crime family wiseguy to a Cappo with his own powerbase.
Naturally he would have to work with the slush fund's lead bagman, Jack Abramoff. And now that he was taking the reins of the very profitable Resources Committee, he would have to be introduced to some of the GOP's key patrons. That meant a road trip.
January is a great time for travel to Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). White sand beaches, tropical breezes, great golf and access to key donors to the Abramoff/DeLay/GOP slush fund make it the perfect tourist destination for GOP Congressfolk, their families and staffs. So Dick Pombo did not travel alone.
He led a delegation that included Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Deputy Assistant Secretary David Cohen, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-MT), Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Rep. Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa), Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (Guam) and congressional staffers.
Now I have not yet found the direct link between Abramoff and the organization of this trip, but I know it is there. The trip was in January 2004. Jack was riding high. Bush had just been re-elected and the GOP made gains in Congress. The sky was the limit. The money was rolling in. And the bubble wouldn't burst until Feb. 22, 2004 when the Washington Post published their first article about Abramoff, Scanlon and their swindle of Native American Tribes.
But before the fall, these trips were a big part of the Abramoff MO. And just before the delegation touched down on Saipan, Jack's old pal Benigno (Ben) R. Fitial had just been re-elected as Speaker of the CNMI House. (Ben lost an election for Governor in 2001 and was out of the government for two years. In 2005 he was elected Governor, a job he currently holds.)
Ben was installed as speaker on Jan. 12, 2004. His return to power was reported in the pages of the Saipan Tribune (ST). The Faux News of CNMI, the Saipan Tribune is owned by the Tan Family and it is a good place to followed the relationship between the Hong Kong family and the GOP gang in Washington DC.
Pombo's delegation arrived within days of Fitial's return to power. This was a big event and the ST announced the coming visit on Friday January 9, 2004:
Interior Secretary Gayle Norton, together with a Congressional delegation led by Calif. Rep. Richard Pombo, will be arriving on Saipan Thursday next week for a familiarization tour of the CNMI, according to Gov. Juan N. Babauta. [snip]
He said his administration is looking forward to the opportunity of showing Norton and Pombo around and the chance to talk to them about several local issues that he would like to bring up with the delegation. [snip]
As chairman of the House Resources Committee, Callaghan said Pombo is very important to the CNMI, particularly in terms of funding "so we're very happy to have him here." The congressman is also a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
Like Don Young before him, Pombo was (and is) very important to the powers that be on CNMI. And the power on the US Territory is the Hong Kong based Tan Family. They own everything (and almost everyone). They have been patrons of the GOP for years (only recently breaking the partisan giving pattern to throw money at Hillary Clinton--she should throw this cash back). Pombo's delegation was to be on CNMI for less than 48 hours, I wonder if there was time carved out to hang with the Tans?
Of course there was.
On Thursday January 15, 2004 the SP reported Norton to speak at SCC's installation dinner:
Interior Secretary Gayle Norton, the 48th Secretary of the department, will be this year's guest speaker at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Installation dinner. In addition, House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial has been invited to be the Chamber's keynote speaker.
The Chamber's premiere event of the year will take place this Friday, Jan. 16, at the World Resort ballroom. [snip]
"In the past, we have had distinguished speakers such as Congressmen Sweeney and Radonovich, but never a Cabinet member. This will be a historic event for the Chamber and the island of Saipan," said Jay Jones, president of the largest business organization of Saipan. [snip]
Prior to the completion of the program, the Business Person of the Year will be announced.
Gosh, I wonder who was named the SCC's Business Person of the Year?
The SP reported about the winner on Monday January 19, 2004:
Tan is SCC's Business Person of the Year
Jerry Tan, who is executive vice president of the Tan Holdings Corp., has been chosen as the Saipan Chamber of Commerce's Business Person of the Year for 2003. [snip]
According to a bio provided by the Chamber, Tan oversees the "non-apparel" companies for Tan Holdings Corp., which includes the Century Group of Companies and numerous others. Tan Holdings Corp. is a diverse holding company, which does business in 14 industries in the Western Pacific.
He is vice president & director of Asia Pacific Hotels, which owns the Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach and Guam Dai-Ichi Hotel. He is also president and CEO of the CTSI Logistics Group, a company founded on Saipan, which today has offices in 19 countries. He is a director of the Luen Thai Group, a global conglomerate specializing in apparel manufacturing, logistics services and software development.
There are a lot details embedded in Tan's "bio", such as how the Century Group of companies holds the bonds on the guest workers that they must pay off for their opportunity to work in Tan Family sweatshops before they can make any money to send home.
Anyway it was great that Pombo and his delegation had some time to party with the Tan clan. Especially since the recently rebuilt airports on Rota and Tinian (two of CNMI's islands) were yielding the Tan Family new business opportunities:
Friday January 16, 2004
Agreement signed for Shanghai-Saipan flights
Century Travel and Century Tours, both affiliates of the Tan Holdings Corp., have signed an agreement with China Eastern Airlines to operate four charter flights between Shanghai and Saipan. [snip]
"With our Century Travel offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we have the opportunity to create an additional source of visitors to improve the CNMI's tourism industry," said THC President Willie Tan. "This is part of our long-term commitment to the CNMI and the industry. We are very happy to help boost the islands' economy by bringing direct access between the CNMI and Shanghai and, if this is well received, possibly other locations in China in the future."
Executive Vice President of THC and Century Group President Jerry Tan said the charter arrangement is just the beginning of the company's expansion in the tourism market.
"We would like to see these charter flights between Shanghai and Saipan become ongoing charters. With the eventual opening of the Chinese outbound market, we are optimistic that it will also bring the CNMI's tourism industry to higher grounds," said Tan. "THC has chosen to tap the China market through Shanghai, the financial capital of China and one of the richest cities in the country. Shanghai, the hub and headquarters of China Eastern Airlines, has the geographic advantage from where connecting flights to other major cities in China set off."
Now, I haven't done the research, but I think CNMI needed approval from the FAA for these routes. I guess it helps to know Jack. And it sure helped that the GOP Congress passed the 2002 Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act (PDF) to increase the amount of Airport Improvement Project (AIP) funds awarded to CNMI by Don Young's Transportation Committee.
And those flights help the Tan Family get to their new garment factories in China. They have been closing factories on CNMI and moving the work to China. But the Pombo delegation did make an orchestrated visit to a non-Tan Family garment factory on Friday:
Norton, together with a congressional delegation led by House Resources Committee chair Calif. Rep. Richard Pombo, toured a United International garment factory Friday morning where they saw first-hand the working conditions and met with some of the workers. The factory is owned by James Lin, who is the chairman of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association. [snip]
When asked if she saw any areas that could be further improved, Norton said that overall, the wages and conditions at this point are good "but I think over time we will see things getting better."
So like Tom DeLay and all the other GOP visitors to CNMI, Norton and Pombo didn't see anybody sweating. They also didn't look.
They did have time to respond to a number of pitch requests for more CNMI funding, like this one:
With the Prior Service Trust Fund still making do with every-other-month issuance of checks to its beneficiaries, Fund administrator Jeff Facey has asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton for help in infusing some $1.5 million into the fund.
And this one:
The chairman of the House Resources Committee assured yesterday that he remains committed to supporting the CNMI's efforts to have its own National Guard unit.
Although the provision that would have provided funding for this endeavor was dropped from the fiscal year 2004 defense appropriation measure, Calif. Rep. Richard Pombo said the issue is not yet dead and he would support such a measure should it be placed before his committee again.
"That is not stopped. There may have been just a temporary reason why it was dropped out on this fiscal year but I know that the effort is continuing," he said.
When asked if he supports the CNMI's bid for its own National Guard unit, Pombo said, "Yes." [snip]
The setting up of the unit is estimated to cost some $275 million, a price tag that some lawmakers have reportedly deemed too costly.
CNMI only has a population of 65,000 people and more then 36,000 are guest workers toiling in the sweatshops and brothels of the US Territory. Currently CNMI is covered by units of the Guam National Guard. This "vanity" CNMI Guard unit is still on the table. Perhaps Pombo will push it through this year. At $275 million this would be a very expensive Guard unit on a per capita basis.
And the Pombo delegation let Fitial, Tan and the gang on CNMI know that the Bush White House had put together a group to look out for the interests of CNMI in Washington:
CNMI issues will be discussed at the top level when President Bush's recently reactivated Interagency Group on Insular Areas convenes in the White House next month.
Gov. Juan N. Babauta, a member of the group, said the meeting will take place during the National Governor's Association meeting on Feb. 18 to 23 in Washington D.C. [snip]
Babauta said the agenda will include "all kinds of issues" such as the CNMI representation in the U.S. Congress, funding for water projects, and taxes due the CNMI under the provisions of the CNMI-U.S. Covenant.
And of course the Pombo delegation came with money. While on Saipan Gale Norton signed the documents awarding CNMI $5.1 million:
Interior Secretary Gale Norton came bringing gifts to the CNMI-actually some $5.1 million in Compact impact funds, the highest allotment the CNMI has ever received as compensation for the costs associated with the migration of Micronesians to the Commonwealth. [snip]
"The grant.is the first installment of impact assistance and it will send $5,171,914 to the Northern Marianas," said Norton, prompting applause among the audience. She explained that the amount was based on population figures. [snip]
Norton credited the role played by Pombo and other members of Congress in the passage of the new Compacts of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands, which provided the Compact impact funding totaling $600 million, to be spread out at $30 million each fiscal year from 2004 until 2023. [snip]
Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Interior David Cohen echoed this, saying: "It was a tremendous feat to take legislation that was about 1,000 pages long, to shepherd it through Congress, to make important changes, all the while keeping the support of the [Bush] administration." [snip]
The Compact legislation provides that $30 million will be divided each year for the next 20 years among the Marianas, Guam, Hawaii and American Samoa to help those jurisdictions deal with the effects of migration from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands, which are commonly known as the freely associated states.
The funds are to be divided proportionally among the jurisdictions on the basis of the number of people in each jurisdiction who migrated from the freely associated states after the 1986, when the original Compacts went into effect. Minor children of such migrants are also counted.
Now this is where the Atomic Bomb comes into the story.
Those freely associated states are where we tested some dozens of atomic bombs even as the locals went about their daily routines. As a Nation we did great harm to the indigenous peoples of these islands and we owe them some restitution. In 1986 we entered into a Compact of Free Association (Compact) with the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Each year between 1986 and 2003 the US sent $1.5 billion to FSM and $1 billion to RMI. It may be these large sums of money that helped to attract Abramoff and the GOP to the Pacific. It certainly helped to attract the Tan Family to the islands.
Now, in November 2003, Congress passed and Bush signed the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003. This increased the funding to $2.1 billion for FSM and $1.5 billion for RMI for every year until 2023.
Of course some of that had to find its way to CNMI. As it stands now they will get $5.1 million every year for Compact migration assistance. This is aide to help Hawaii, Guam and CNMI offset costs associated with migration from FSM and RMI.
As you might imagine, the fallout from the A-bomb tests left some parts of the freely associated states undesirable, so immigration laws were loosened so people could freely migrate to US Territories and States. Most went to Guam or Hawaii. Over the years the influx of these migrants had some real costs to the receiving governments. Before 2003 up to $15 million a year was released to Guam, Hawaii or CNMI depending upon the population of migrants from FSM and RMI.
The 2003 law changed the process. The Compact Migration Assistance funds were increased to $30 million a year and it became an entitlement embedded in the budget. The money had to be appropriated. And the money is supposed to be used for a restricted list of expenditures. According to the most recent Compact Report, there are 20,808 migrants for FSM and RMI on the US pacific island. Here is the split:
Hawaii 7,297
Guam 9,931
CNMI 3,570
American Samoa 10
This is a legitimate issue in many respects. The migrants do have an impact and they are on the move because we exploded atomic bombs over their islands. But on CNMI the bigger problem might be the 35,000 plus guest workers.
The CNMI share of this money may have Abramoff's fingerprints on it, but it might not. Jack did mention working on Compact aid in several emails and billing statements from 2000 and 2001, so he might be involved. And if that's the case, so is Pombo.
But the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003 had some other goodies in it for the GOP's Hong Kong patrons. And this one seems to have the mark of Pombo upon it. Here is Article IV, Section 242 of the law (emphasis added):
The President shall proclaim the following tariff treatment for articles imported from the Federated States of Micronesia which shall apply during the period of effectiveness of this title:
(a) Unless otherwise excluded, articles imported from the Federated States of Micronesia, subject to the limitations imposed under section 503(b) of title V of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2463(b)), shall be exempt from duty.
(b) Only tuna in airtight containers provided for in heading 1604.14.22 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States that is imported from the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands during any calendar year not to exceed 10 percent of apparent United States consumption of tuna in airtight containers during the immediately preceding calendar year, as reported by the National Marine Fisheries Service, shall be exempt from duty; but the quantity of tuna given duty-free treatment under this paragraph for any calendar year shall be counted against the aggregated quantity of tuna in airtight containers that is dutiable under rate column numbered 1 of such heading 1604.14.22 for that calendar year.
Pombo loves his fishing and so does the Tan Family. In fact one of the Tan Family corporations is the Luen Thai Fishing Venture which started on Pohnpei, one of the islands that make up the FSM.
Being able to suddenly ship up to 10% of US tuna consumption, duty free, to the United States is very profitable for the Tan Family and thanks to other Pombo and Bush administration efforts they can slap a dolphin-safe label.
These tuna fishing ships are floating factories at sea. An effort has to be made to protect the dolphins that swim with schools of tuna from being killed. There used to be oversight to ensure compliance, but now the tuna industries can do their own oversight as long as they tell the Bush administration that everything is A OK.
And I'm sure a family that made a fortune trafficking in human beings to work in sweatshops across the globe is taking the extra steps to ensure they don't kill any dolphins as the factory-fish the Pacific.
It looks like the donations the Tan Family made to Pombo's Rich PAC were more than worth it.
And Pombo is the Tan Family's new first line of defense to stop Congressman George Miller as he joins with others to finally extend US labor, immigration and custom laws to CNMI.
Rebecca Clarren's article in Ms. Magazinedetails her recent trip to CNMI and how she met with the sweatshop workers, sex workers and other victims of the Abramoff/DeLay/GOP efforts to protect the sweatshops and keep the abuse going. As of now the full article is only available in print, but I would recommend purchasing a copy of Ms. to read the report. Excerpts are also available at AlterNet.
This record of abuse should be thrown in Pombo's face. He should be forced to explain why he has spent his time in Congress working to protect a system of forced labor, forced prostitution and forced abortions.
This should be a National campaign issue. The Republican Party has some explaining to do. They put the interests of their Hong Kong patrons ahead of justice and America.
They used their offices and positions to protect abuse and promote injustice. They put the Government of the United States of America in the business of supporting sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion. And they did it for money and power.
We need to talk about this. We need to make this an issue for 2006. The more we talk about it the less likely it is that the Bush political appointees will be able to sweep the abuse under the rug (once again).
Every member of the GOP Caucus who worked to block legislation extending US labor, immigration and custom laws to CNMI should be put on the defensive. The crimes were real and the evidence has been presented to Congress since before 1994. It is time to hold these folks accountable: both as co-conspirators and at the ballot box.
2006 is now. Let's take our Country back!