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January
30, 2002
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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January
30, 2002
Hill
and Knowlton Taught Her How to Cry
Tears of a Clown
By Jeffrey St. Clair
It turns out that Linda Lay's weepy interview
with Lisa Meyers of NBC News this week was as phony as an Enron
stock prospectus. The tears shed by Lay's latest trophy wife
were scripted by public relations mavens from the powerhouse
firm Hill and Knowlton.
Kenneth Lay's sister, Sharon, told the
Houston Chronicle on Wednesday, that she sent out a distress
call last week to her friend, M.A. Shute, an executive for the
public relations firm Hill & Knowlton who had represented
Enron. When she called, Shute was sailing in the Caribbean with
her husband.
"Get back here right now,"
Sharon Lay demanded. "We need your help!"
Hill and Knowlton is to corporate damage
control what Arthur Andersen is to the financial books of an
ailing company, a sleight of hand artist. Hill and Knowlton has
transformed the leaders of Latin American death squads into agents
of altruism, tobacco pushers into health nuts, toxic waste generators
into saviors of the wilderness.
"We wanted M.A. to give us some
suggestions and insight as to how to handle all of this,"
Sharon Lay said. The Lay's were piqued that the press and the
nasty Rep. Henry Waxman were constantly deploying words such
as "arrogance" and "greed" to describe top
Enron executives. "These words would never have come to
mind in describing my family," Sharon Lay said.
Of course, Ken Lay can't talk. His lawyers
have told him that anything he says will be used against him
in court. So he sent his family forth to defend him. That's where
Hill and Knowlton's Shute came into play.
Shute moved into Sharon Lay's Houston
home and spent a furious week coaching Sharon and Linda and the
rest of the Lay brood on how to present themselves to the media.
Then it was off to the Today show, the executive class's Oprah.
Before Lisa Meyers, Linda Lay depicted
herself as distraught and busted, a lonely housewife whose membership
in the local Houston country clubs might be endangered by the
calamitous downturn in her husband's financial prospects. Her
husband Kenny Boy, according to Linda Lay, was as much a victim
as lowliest Enron wage earner whose pension had dissolved into
thin air. He had done no wrong. Instead, wrong had been done
unto him. His company had been sabotaged by evil advisors. "He
didn't know what was going on," she said.
Now the Lays face poverty and deserve
pity, not jail time. "We're broke," Linda moaned. "We're
selling everything we own." The tears streamed. Even Lisa
Meyers' eyes seemed to mist over at the tragic narrative of the
Lay's reversal of fortune.
Too bad the account appears to be a nicely
packaged tissue of lies. According to a review of the Lay's real
estate holdings in the Houston metro area, they still own over
a dozen properties valued at more than $10 million. None of
them are on the market. Then there's that $14 million "vacation"
home in Aspen.
Welcome to hard times, Linda and Ken.
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