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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
June 23, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
June
14, 2004
John
Stanton / Wayne Madsen
Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins
the Party
Kathy
Kelly
Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies?
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Gets Testy About Torture
Lee
Sustar
Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs
Kurt
Nimmo
The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit
9/11
Jim
Davis
Hard Right Nativism
Eliot
Katz
Death and War
Uri
Avnery
The Nightmare Comes True
Website
of the Day
Instruments of Statecraft
June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
June
11, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Reagan in Truth and Fiction
Ron
Jacobs
Ray Charles' Legacy of Spirit
Chris
Floyd
Funeral Games
Steven
Sherman
How Reagan Destroyed the Democrats and Paved the Way for Clinton
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Remembering Reagan
Norman
Solomon
Media's Mourning in America
Paul
Alexander
The Kerry Fantasies of Chalmers Johnson
CounterPunch
Wire
The Terror Hour: Miami TV Station Invites Commandoes to Talk
About Planned Attacks on Cuba
June
10, 2004
Noam
Chomsky
The Apotheosis of Reagan : Divinity
Through Marketing
Gary
Leupp
Bush, the Religious Scholar
Patrick
Cockburn
The Iraqi Street Has Spoken: New
Govt. Made Up of CIA Pawns
Saul
Landau
Force-Feeding Lies About Free Trade
Scott
Evans
Settling for the System: How Punkvoter.com Became Just Another
Tool of the Democrats
Jacob
Levich
John Kerry's World of Hurt: Senator Supports Beam Weapons
Zeynep
Toufe
Reagan, Neo-Cons and the "Intelligence Failures"
Nico
Pitney
Reform at Wal-Mart?
Dave
Zirin
Son of a Reagan: What a Sporty 6-Year Old Saw at the Revolution
Jack
McCarthy
Where Were You When Reagan Croaked?
Gary
Corseri
Nouns That Should be Acronyms
David
Price
Reagan and the Black Budget
Website
of the Day
Inequality by the Numbers
June
9, 2004
Mustafa
Barghouthi
Israel's Common Use of Torture
Must be Exposed
Mike
Whitney
Alan Dershowitz, Still Defending
Torture
John
Chuckman
Why the CIA will Always be a Costly Flop
Jim
Tarbell / Roger Burbach
Bush's Democratic Charade in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Put Reagan on the $3 Bill
Miguel
D'Escoto
Reagan was the Butcher of My People
Becky
Burgwin
The Betrayal of Smarty Jones: Flogging a Natural Born Hero
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rich Have Been Warned to Leave
Baghdad
June
8, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Nature of Ronald Reagan: Will
the Earth Accept His Corpse?
Dave
Lindorff
The March on Rumsfeld's House: Is
the US Anti-War Movement Running Out of Steam?
Phillip
Cryan
Torture, Bombings & the Press in
Colombia
Mark
Zepezauer
Getting Reagan Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Reagan, Radicals and Repetitive Reactions
John
L. Hess
Reagan and Bush in Normandy
Alex
Dawoody
Reagan and Saddam: the Unholy Alliance
Christopher
Fons
Reagan in a Word: Mean
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Some Tenets are More Important Than Others
Ahmed
Bouzid
Nothing New Under the Israeli Sun
Michael
Leon
Bush the Narcissist
June
7, 2004
Jason
Leopold
New Enron Docs Show Lay and Skilling
Knew of California Trading Schemes
Patrick
Cockburn
The Baghdad Bombings: the Pattern
of Attacks is Changing
Dennis
Hans
From Afghanistan to El Salvador: Reagan's
Dark Global Legacy
Tracy
McLellan
Nader at the National Press Club:
a Glimpse at a Different Kind of Politics
Bill
Blum
The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't
End the Cold War
Ben
Tripp
What I Owe Reagan: the Brylcreemed
Bullshitter
Susan
Davis
Reagan, In a Nutshell
Phil
Gasper
Reagan: Goodbye and Good Riddance
Website
of the Day
A Child's ABCs of Terrorism
June
5 / 6, 2004
C.
Douglas Lummis
Toward a Universal Declaration of
Human Wrongs
Saul
Landau
Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession
Dave
Lindorff
John Walker Lindh, Revisited
Brian
Cloughley
Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong
Rich
Gibson
The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black
Elaine
Cassel
A Sorry FBI
Cathrin
Schütz
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
Ben
Tripp
Call Me, Mr. Cassandra
Kurt
Nimmo
The Madness of King George
Ron
Jacobs
They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So)
Laura
Flanders
The Lynne Cheney Show?
Lenni
Brenner
Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met
Abigail
Jones
Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy
Prisoner?
Mark
Latham
Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes
Gerry
Adams
I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too
Toni
Solo
Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised
Derek
Seidman
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old
M.
Junaid Alam
Torture is Just the Symptom
Matt
Siegfried
An American Way of War
Dave
Zirin
The Politics of Charles Barkley
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Krieger, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Overnight Sensations
June
4, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's
Animal House
Cornwell
/ Penketh
Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy
Wayne
Madsen
Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink
Greg
Moses
Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq
Yitzak
Laor
Before Rafah
Ghali
Hassan
Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte?
Jane
Stillwater
God, the Rapture and Vera Casey
CounterPunch
Wire
D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage?
John
Borowski
Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush
Mike
Griffin
Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW
Alexander Cockburn
Has Bush Gone Over the Edge?
Website
of the Day
Aquae Urbis Romae:
Water and Empire
June
3, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Iran's Nuclear Dilemma
Dr.
Susan Block
America in tha Hood
Michael
Donnelly
The Bully and the Brahmin
John
Chuckman
Insanity in America: US Ranks Number
One in the Deranged
Christopher
Brauchli
The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome
on $12,000 a Month
Samia
Nassar Melki
Caravaggio in Iraq
Mike
Whitney
Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case
Diane
Rejman
Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead
Scott
Morris
"WMDs" in Cuba
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
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of the Day
Rafah Today
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Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
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Marcos
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Impeach
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|
June
23, 2004
Foundation
Wars
Hostile
Takeover Attempt Threatens Hitchcock Foundation
By
PATRICIA WOLFF
The battle for control of the Gilbert
M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation, now well into its second
year, is raising serious questions about the way tax-exempt foundations
in the United States are governed and regulated.
Will the Hitchcock Foundation
survive this hostile takeover attempt? Why aren't regulators
such as the IRS doing more to enforce laws against self-dealing
and conflicts of interest on foundation boards? What protection
should whistleblowers expect when they come forward with reports
of illegal activities?
The whistleblowers in this
case are foundation President Denman Kountze, Jr. and his sons
Edward Kountze of Boulder CO and Charles Kountze of Ann Arbor
MI. President Kountze and sons are asking a Nebraska judge and
the IRS to examine self-dealing and conflicts of interest by
the foundation's former lawyer and other foundation trustees.
Their opponents in this battle
are powerful and privileged, at least in Nebraska circles. They
include:
Thomas R. Burke, the foundation's former attorney,
secretary, and grants manager. Burke is a past president of
the Omaha Bar Association and the Nebraska Bar Association. Burke's
law firm is known for representing Catholic causes and pedophile
priests. Doubts were first raised about Burke's questionable
ethics back in the late 1980's when he attempted to whitewash
corruption by Nebraska Attorney General Paul Douglas. The former
AG was accused of misconduct involving the failed Commonwealth
Savings Co. of Lincoln. Burke served as the state bar's hearing
judge in the case against Douglas and issued findings that charges
of Douglas' impropriety were "without merit." The state
bar's disciplinary counsel responded by filing 26 exceptions
to Burke's findings and blasted them as being either contrary
to law or contrary to the evidence. The Nebraska Supreme Court
ruled in 1987 against Burke and suspended Douglas' law license
for four years.
Neely Kountze and Mary Kountze, trustees of
the Hitchcock Foundation. Mary sells diamonds at Borsheim's
jewelry store in Omaha and Neely, a cousin to Edward and Charles
Kountze, has been involved in numerous business enterprises in
Omaha and Texas. He is a general partner of the South Texas Land
Limited Partnership, which has mineral and land holdings in the
Texas Counties of Wharton, Matagorda, and Jackson. According
to Edward Kountze, ExxonMobil Corp. is negotiating a business
deal with the South Texas Land partnership that involves a new
Liquified Natural Gas facility in southeast Texas.
Tyler B. Gaines, another Omaha attorney, also a Hitchcock
Foundation trustee. Gaines was one of several prominent individuals
subpoenaed in the late 1980's to testify before grand juries
looking into allegations surrounding the looting of the Franklin
Community Credit Union and child-sex parties organized by Republican
party activist Larry King. Gaines also represented the Miracle
Hill Golf Course in 1986 when it was charged with illegally dumping
more than 100 truckloads of concrete and dirt along Papio Creek,
damaging a city bridge and polluting the water.
John Webster, well-to-do business tycoon and former
President of the Nebraska Broadcasters Association. Webster is
a close friend of Neely and Mary Kountze. Webster's company was
the owner of KEFM, Omaha's last locally-owned FM radio station,
until it was sold in 2003 to Clear Channel Worldwide for a reported
$10 million. The parties are disputing whether Webster is a legally
elected member of the foundation board.
"Throughout 2001 and 2002,
Neely Kountze, Mary Kountze, Tyler Gaines and Thomas Burke systematically
endeavored to undermine my authority and attempted to seize control
of the foundation through unethical and improper means,"
says Denman Kountze, Jr. The President contends his opponents
wanted control of the Hitchcock Foundation and its millions of
dollars for selfish reasons: to enhance their own images in the
community, grease business deals and relationships, and ultimately
to benefit themselves financially.
The Hitchcock Foundation controversy
exploded in 2002 when the President and his sons raised concerns
about Burke's self-dealing and breaches of fiduciary duties.
Their ousting of Burke as foundation attorney resulted in an
attempted coup d'etat by Burke's allies on the board and the
filing of a retaliatory lawsuit. Omaha's Judge James T. Gleason
still has not ruled in that case, Hitchcock Foundation v.
Kountze, even though the trial concluded in early December,
2003.
President Denman Kountze, Jr.,
Edward Kountze, and Charles Kountze have since sued Thomas R.
Burke and his law firm, but that case, Hitchcock Foundation
v. Burke, is also still pending before Judge James T. Gleason.
Both purported Hitchcock Foundation
trustee John Webster and Judge James T. Gleason are trustees
of the Omaha Home for Boys. Despite this potential conflict,
the judge has chosen not to recuse himself from deciding the
Hitchcock cases.
In an attempt to get the IRS
to investigate the self-dealing problems, President Denman Kountze,
Jr., and his sons have hired Marcus Owens of the Washington D.C.
law firm of Caplin & Drysdale to write letters asking for
agency intervention. Owens serves as a Director of the Better
Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance and is the former director
of the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS. Owens has written
several letters to the IRS about this matter, but so far to no
avail. Meanwhile, the Nebraska Attorney General's office is looking
the other way, ignoring alleged violations of the Nebraska Nonprofit
Act, and the Nebraska Supreme Court's Counsel for Discipline
has declined to investigate a complaint that charges Burke with
attorney misconduct.
The Omaha World-Herald
newspaper has also turned a blind eye to the scandal, even though,
or perhaps because it involves so many prominent and powerful
individuals.
Twelve months after the first lawsuit was filed, the World-Herald
produced one short, error-ridden article on the case, but only
after it learned that the New York Times and Associated
Press were working on stories. In an attempt to stifle media
coverage, the Omaha faction's attorney, Ed Hotz, threatened to
sue both the New York Times and the Associated Press
for their stories on the case.
Ironically, the foundation's
namesake, Gilbert Hitchcock, was the founder of the Omaha
World-Herald. Hitchcock, a Wilsonian Democrat, was elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902 and to the U.S.
Senate in 1911. His wife Martha Hitchcock established the foundation
in 1944 with the help of Omaha attorney Al Munger, father of
Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger.
Martha's nephew, Denman Kountze,
Jr., was named foundation trustee in 1963 and elected President
in 1984. Under his leadership, Denman Kountze Jr. turned the
foundation into one of Nebraska's largest philanthropic givers,
awarding millions of dollars in grants to charitable organizations
and universities. Its scholarship program for Columbia University
journalism students is one of the school's oldest. (See http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/.)
In September, 2002, the Neely
Kountze faction staged a special board meeting during which they
tried to illegally amend bylaws and elect John Webster to the
board to tip the balance of power in their favor. By January
14, 2003 the board was so irreconcilably divided that each faction
held its own annual meeting and each faction claimed its meeting
was the legitimate one.
In a lawsuit filed a week later,
the Neely Kountze faction asked the court to rule in favor of
their annual meeting, by-law revisions, slate of officers, and
the election of John Webster. They also asked for the removal
of President Denman Kountze, Jr. Edward Kountze, and Charles
Kountze from the board.
The defendants fired back with
an answer and counterclaim, asking the court to prevent the plaintiffs
from holding meetings in the name of the foundation, to invalidate
the plaintiffs' "special meeting," and to void the
election of John Webster. They also asked the court to declare
that Neely Kountze, Mary Kountze, and Tyler B. Gaines were "no
longer fit to serve as foundation trustees."
According to the defendants'
counterclaim, trustees Neely Kountze, Mary Kountze, Tyler B.
Gaines, and purported trustee John Webster "engaged in fraudulent
or dishonest conduct, and engaged in a gross abuse of authority
or discretion with respect to the foundation." The charges
against Neely Kountze include "voting in favor of a grant
to the Omaha Children's Museum despite the fact that the museum
had or was in the process of purchasing property in which Neely
Kountze, or any affiliated entity, held an interest."
The Omaha Children's Museum
controversy reaches back to 1986, when Neely Kountze and his
business partner, Richard P. Jeffries, the founder of Godfather's
Pizza, purchased the McFayden Ford dealership in Omaha for $500,000.
They sold off the dealership and then announced in 1990 that
they were "donating" the land and building to the Omaha
Children's Museum.
Court records would later reveal
that the so-called donation included a transfer of the partnership's
$500,000 mortgage debt to the Children's Museum. Then Neely Kountze
turned around and voted for a $50,000 Hitchcock Foundation grant
to the Children's Museum. This constituted a blatant act of self-dealing,
according to tax and legal expert Bruce R. Hopkins, in a report
prepared for the court.
Another question is what benefit
Neely Kountze received by voting for Hitchcock Foundation grants
to Brownell-Talbot, a private school in Omaha. The foundation
gave $2.7 million to the school between 1962 2002. Neely
and his children graduated from Brownell-Talbot and for several
years, unbeknownst to some other board members, Neely was a Brownell-Talbot
board member.
The allegations against Thomas
R. Burke are even more interesting. Court documents show that
in 2000, while Burke was serving as foundation attorney, secretary,
and grants manager, he solicited the Hitchcock Foundation for
a contribution to The Stephen Center, an Omaha nonprofit that
assists drug addicts with treatment and transitional housing.
Burke knew at that time but failed to disclose to the board that
his daughter and two grandchildren were living in housing owned,
operated, and maintained by The Stephen Center. Nor did Burke
disclose the fact that he was serving on The Stephen Center's
development committee and actively assisting the center with
fundraising.
At its April 2001 annual board
meeting, the Hitchcock Foundation approved a grant to The Stephen
Center, with $25,000 to be contributed in 2001 and $25,000 in
2002. Burke then attempted to conceal the grant by failing to
mention it in the minutes he prepared for the meeting. In a letter
to President Denman Kountze dated December 27, 2001, Burke finally
admitted that his daughter and her two boys were living in a
Stephen Center house. That's when the President realized he had
to terminate Burke as secretary and attorney for the foundation.
The complaint against Burke
and his law firm also alleges that they:
Refused to surrender foundation
books and records to Secretary Edward Kountze, Burke's replacement.
Performed unauthorized and
unnecessary legal services and then billed the foundation for
them.
Sought excessive legal fees
from the foundation in billing statements that were not itemized.
Researched by-law changes that
would undermine the powers of President Denman Kountze and attempted
to implement them through illegal procedures.
Conspired with and allied themselves
with a three-member faction of the board that sought to remove
the President and his two sons from the Board of Trustees.
Misrepresented Burke's role
with the foundation to the public more than a year after Burke
was fired.
Committed negligence and breached
their fiduciary duties.
The Hitchcock Foundation case
is just one of the several nonprofit organization scandals that
have surfaced in the last few years. In response to the scandals,
members of Congress and the Internal Revenue Service appear to
be realizing that greater oversight is needed.
The Senate Finance Committee,
led by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) will be holding a hearing
on charitable organization abuses on June 22 titled "Charity
Oversight and Reform: Keeping Bad Things From Happening To Good
Charities." According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy,
Senator Grassley said the committee wants to look at transactions
"which may be inappropriately exploiting charities' tax-exempt
status and which may be unfairly enriching individuals and corporations."
Patricia Wolff is a writer and private investigator
living in Colorado.
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