Open in TheBrain

IT&T

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">=</span></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ITT 400K$ to nixon to get doj to drop monop case trms 12/19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kleindienst sp AG resigns; butied by watergate</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no sunglasses</font>

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<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Brief History of Washington’s Relationship to Telecom</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From a neoliberal political point of view there are two advantages to a propaganda offensive centered upon telecom corruption. &nbsp;The first is obvious. If telecom corruption can be tied directly to a leader who is not following Washington’s agenda, it promotes public support for the leader’s removal. &nbsp;The second is a little less obvious, but equally as important. &nbsp;It promotes the argument that telecom companies under state control really ought not to be, especially in underdeveloped countries, and would be better off privatized.</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To make that argument, one must of course ignore the abundant evidence of telecom corruption in the United States, where men like Bernie Ebbers and Joseph Nacchio, who became telecom kingpins thanks to privatization (called “deregulation” in the U.S.) are serving federal prison terms for accounting fraud and insider trading. &nbsp;The fact is that telecom, as an essential service in the modern world, has always been a kind of money printing press, and the fight over state control vs. private control is all about who gets to control the switch, and what will be done with the profits.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ITT, which owned the Cuban phone company at the time of the revolution in 1959, was the first foreign owned property to be nationalized in Cuba, in 1961.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span>&nbsp;In 1973, ITT was so fearful of repeating the experience in Chile that John McCone, a board member and former [allende2]</font></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CIA man promised Henry Kissinger a million dollars to prevent Salvador Allende’s election. &nbsp;According to the U.S. Ambassador to Chile at the time, Edward Korry, ITT did pay $500,000 to a member of the compensation committee for expropriated properties in Chile, until Allende found out about the payments and nixed the compensation entirely.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Venezuela in 2007, privatization was also reversed, and Verizon was paid $572 million for its share in the Venezuelan phone company, Cantv. This sent chills down the spine of every U.S. politician and telecom executive or consultant (like Reich) invested in expanding telecom privatization extra-territorially. &nbsp;And the chill was bipartisan. &nbsp;Democrats as well as Republicans had benefited equally from global privatization of the telecom mint.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As someone who counted AT&T and Bell Atlantic (Verizon) among his former (acknowledged) clients and a proven antipathy for leftist governments, Reich had plenty of motive. &nbsp;A front group disguised as a foundation would provide the opportunity.</font>

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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation</font></a></p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="History"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">History</font></span></h2>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ITT was formed in 1920, created from the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_Telephone_Company" title="Puerto Rico Telephone Company">Puerto Rico Telephone Company</a> co-founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosthenes_Behn" title="Sosthenes Behn">Sosthenes Behn</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-0"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0">1<span>]</span></sup></a> Its first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the Spanish Telecoms market into what is now <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telef%C3%B3nica" title="Telefónica">Telefónica</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-sampson-1"><span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sampson_1-0">[</sup></span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sampson_1-0">2<span>]</span></sup></a> From 1922 to 1925 it purchased a number of European telephone companies. In 1925 it purchased Bell Telephone Manufacturing company in Belgium, which was formerly affiliated with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T" title="AT&T">AT&T</a>, and manufactured <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_system" title="Rotary system">rotary system</a> switching equipment. In the 1930s, ITT grew through purchasing German electronic companies <a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Standard_Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Standard Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft (page does not exist)">Standard Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft</a> (SEG) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mix_%26_Genest" title="Mix & Genest">Mix & Genest</a>, both of which were internationally active companies.</font></p>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">75 Broad Street, Manhattan, former headquarters of ITT</font></div>

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<h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Nazi involvement" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITT_Corporation&action=edit&section=5">edit</a>]</span> <span id="Nazi_involvement" class="mw-headline">Nazi involvement</span></font></h3>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Anthony Sampson's book <a class="mw-redirect" title="The Sovereign State of ITT" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sovereign_State_of_ITT"><i>The Sovereign State of ITT</i></a>, one of the first American businessmen Hitler received after taking power in 1933 was <a title="Sosthenes Behn" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosthenes_Behn">Sosthenes Behn</a>, then the CEO of ITT and his German representative, Henry Mann.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-sampson-1"><sup id="cite_ref-sampson_1-1" class="reference"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></sup></a> <a title="Antony C. Sutton" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_C._Sutton">Antony C. Sutton</a>, in his book <i>Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler</i>, makes the claim that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments to <a title="Schutzstaffel" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel">SS</a> leader <a title="Heinrich Himmler" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler">Heinrich Himmler</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ITT, through its subsidiary The Lorenz Company, owned 25% of <a title="Focke-Wulf" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf">Focke-Wulf</a>, the German aircraft manufacturer, builder of some of the most successful <a title="Luftwaffe" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffe#Interwar_period">Luftwaffe</a> <a title="Fighter aircraft" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_aircraft">fighter aircraft</a>. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by WWII Allied bombing.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-sampson-1"><sup id="cite_ref-sampson_1-2" class="reference"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></sup></a> In addition, Sutton’s book uncovers that ITT owned Huth and Company, G.m.b.H. of <a title="Berlin" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin">Berlin</a>, which made <a title="Radio" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio">radio</a> and <a title="Radar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar">radar</a> parts that were used in equipment going to the <a title="Wehrmacht" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht">Wehrmacht</a>.</font></p>

<h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Post-war" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITT_Corporation&action=edit&section=6">edit</a>]</span> <span id="Post-war" class="mw-headline">Post-war</span></font></h3>

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<span id="Post-war" class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></p>

<h3><span id="Involvement_in_1973_Pinochet_coup_in_Chile" class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Involvement in 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile</font></span></h3>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1970, ITT owned of 70% of <a class="new" title="Chitelco (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chitelco&action=edit&redlink=1">Chitelco</a>, the Chilean Telephone Company, and funded <a title="El Mercurio" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mercurio"><i>El Mercurio</i></a>, a Chilean <a title="Right-wing politics" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_politics">right-wing</a> newspaper. Declassified documents released by the <a class="mw-redirect" title="CIA" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA">CIA</a> in 2000 suggest that ITT financially helped opponents of <a title="Salvador Allende" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende">Salvador Allende</a>'s government prepare a <a class="mw-redirect" title="Military coup" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_coup">military coup</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-2"><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></sup></a><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-3"><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference">[</sup></a></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-3"><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference">4<span>]</span></sup></a> On September 28, 1973, ITT's headquarters in <a class="mw-redirect" title="New York City, New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City,_New_York">New York City, New York</a>, was bombed by protesters for alleged involvement in the <a title="1973 Chilean coup d'état" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat">September 11th</a> overthrow of the democratically elected and emerging socialist government in <a title="Chile" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile">Chile</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-4"><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></sup></a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1972, newspaper columnist <a title="Jack Anderson (columnist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson_%28columnist%29">Jack Anderson</a> disclosed a memo of ITT's Washington lobbyist, <a class="new" title="Dita Beard (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dita_Beard&action=edit&redlink=1">Dita Beard</a>, which revealed a relationship between ITT's providing funds for the <a title="Republican National Convention" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_National_Convention">Republican National Convention</a> and a <a title="United States Department of Justice" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice">Justice Department</a> settlement of an antitrust suit favorable to ITT.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-5"><sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></sup></a></font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geneen remained CEO of ITT until 1977 while many conglomerates had removed their CEOs due to lack of profits. His successor, <a title="Rand Araskog" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Araskog">Rand Araskog</a>, dismantled much of ITT, selling most of its holdings, including the last of ITT's telecommunications businesses.<sup class="Template-Fact" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from June 2008" style=" white-space: nowrap;">[<a title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The business historian <a title="Robert Sobel" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sobel">Robert Sobel</a> published <i>ITT: The Management of Opportunity</i> in 1982.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The song "International Thief Thief" by <a title="Fela Kuti" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti">Fela Kuti</a> documents the alleged corruption and meddling of the company in Nigerian politics.<a class="external text" href="http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858727854/" rel="nofollow"><sup>[11]</sup></a></font></p>

<h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Breakup" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITT_Corporation&action=edit&section=10">edit</a>]</span> <span id="Breakup" class="mw-headline">Breakup</span></font></h3>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1989, ITT sold all international telecommunications products business to Alcatel, now <a title="Alcatel-Lucent" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatel-Lucent">Alcatel-Lucent</a>. ITT Kellogg was also part of the 1989 sale to Alcatel. The company was then sold to private investors in the U.S. and went by the name Cortelco Kellogg. Today the company is known as <a class="mw-redirect" title="Cortelco" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortelco">Cortelco</a> (Corinth Telecommunications Corporation, named for <a class="mw-redirect" title="Corinth, MS" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth,_MS">Corinth, MS</a> headquarters). <a title="ITT Technical Institute" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Technical_Institute">ITT Educational Services, Inc.</a> (ESI) was spun off through an <a class="mw-redirect" title="IPO" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPO">IPO</a> in 1994, with ITT as an 83% shareholder. ITT merged its long distance division with <a title="Metromedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metromedia">Metromedia</a> Long Distance, creating Metromedia-ITT. Metromedia-ITT would eventually be acquired by Long Distance Discount Services, Inc. (LDDS) in 1993. LDDS would later change its name to <a title="MCI Inc." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCI_Inc.">Worldcom</a> in 1995.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1995, ITT Corporation split into 3 separate public companies:</font></p>

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<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i>ITT Corp.</i> — In 1997, ITT Corp. completed a merger with <a title="Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwood_Hotels_%26_Resorts_Worldwide">Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide</a>, selling off its non-hotel and resorts business. By 1999, ITT completely divested from ITT/ESI; however, the schools still operate as <a title="ITT Technical Institute" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Technical_Institute">ITT Technical Institute</a> using the ITT name under license.<a class="external autonumber" href="http://www.ittesi.com/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=ESI&script=1801" rel="nofollow">[1]</a> Also in 1999, ITT Corp. dropped the ITT name in favor of Starwood.<a class="external autonumber" href="http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2001/d2001-0166.html" rel="nofollow">[2]</a></font></li>

<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i>ITT Hartford</i> (insurance) — Today ITT Hartford is still a major insurance company although it has dropped the ITT from its name altogether. The company is now known as <a title="The Hartford" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hartford">The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.</a></font></li>

<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i>ITT Industries</i> — ITT operated under this name until 2006 and is a major manufacturing and <a title="Defense contractor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_contractor">defense contractor</a> business.

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<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On July 1, 2006, ITT Industries changed its name to ITT Corporation as a result of its shareholders vote on May 9, 2006.</font></li>

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<h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="editsection">[<a title="Edit section: Criminal prosecution" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ITT_Corporation&action=edit&section=11">edit</a>]</span> <span id="Criminal_prosecution" class="mw-headline">Criminal prosecution</span></font></h3>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March 2007, ITT Corporation became the first major defense contractor to be convicted for <a title="Corporate crime" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_crime">criminal</a> violation of the <a title="Arms Export Control Act" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_Export_Control_Act">Arms Export Control Act</a>. The fines resulted from ITT's <a title="Outsourcing" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing">outsourcing</a> program, in which they transferred <a class="mw-redirect" title="Night vision goggles" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision_goggles">night vision goggles</a> and <a title="Classified information" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information">classified information</a> about <a title="Countermeasure" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countermeasure">countermeasures</a> against <a class="mw-redirect" title="Laser weapon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_weapon">laser weapons</a>, including light interference filters to engineers in <a title="Singapore" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore">Singapore</a>, the <a title="People's Republic of China" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China">People's Republic of China</a>, and the <a title="United Kingdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom">United Kingdom</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-6"><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></sup></a> They were fined <a class="mw-redirect" title="US dollar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_dollar">US$</a>100 million although they were also given the option of spending half of that sum on <a title="Research and development" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_and_development">research and development</a> of new night vision technology. The United States government will assume rights to the resulting intellectual property.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-7"><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></sup></a><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-8"><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference">[</sup></a></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-8"><sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference">9<span>]</span></sup></a></font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In its investigation and subsequent ruling the <a title="United States Department of Justice" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice">United States Department of Justice</a> found that the corporation went to significant lengths to circumvent rules regarding the exports including setting up a <a class="mw-redirect" title="Front company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_company">front company</a>. According to <a class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Attorney" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Attorney">U.S. Attorney</a> <a title="John L. Brownlee" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L.Brownlee">John L. Brownlee</a> the company fought the investigation in order "to essentially run out the clock on the statute of limitations." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#cite_note-9"><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></sup></a></font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1951, ITT purchased <a title="Philo Farnsworth" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth">Philo Farnsworth</a>'s <a title="Television" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television">television</a> company to break into that market. At the time Farnsworth was also developing the <a title="Fusor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor">Fusor</a>. Also in 1951, ITT bought a majority interest in the <a title="Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellogg_Switchboard_%26_Supply_Company">Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company</a>, founded in 1897 as a pioneer in "divided-multiple" <a title="Telephone switchboard" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_switchboard">telephone switchboards</a>), and bought the remaining shares the next year. ITT changed the company's name to ITT Kellogg. After merging Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation into ITT Kellogg and combining manufacturing operations the name was changed again to ITT Telecommunications.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">time 1973</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the Nixon Administration's earliest scandals is also turning out to be one of its most persistent embarrassments. The affair centers on the charge, flatly disputed by all officials involved, that the Justice Department in 1971 settled an antitrust case against the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. on relatively favorable terms to the company shortly after ITT had pledged up to $400,000 to support the 1972 Republican National Convention. Last week it was revealed that President Nixon himself had personally and bluntly intervened in the case.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time of Nixon's intercession, the Justice Department was determined to carry an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to establish the principle that business competition can be unlawfully hindered by the growth of conglomerates, which expand by acquiring unrelated businesses, as much as by corporate growth in a single industry. The test suit was being pushed by Richard McLaren, chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division and now a federal judge. It had the support of then Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Solicitor General Erwin Griswold. (Attorney General John Mitchell had withdrawn from the case because his New York law firm had handled some ITT matters.) ITT, fearing an adverse Supreme Court ruling and the probable loss of its profitable Hartford Fire Insurance Corp. acquisition, was seeking at least a delay in the suit. The Government was also asking that ITT be forced to divest itself of two lesser firms, Grinnell Corp. and Canteen Corp.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stone</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kleindienst and McLaren met on April 19, 1971, and agreed that there should be no delay; the appeal would be filed that day. Kleindienst so informed New York Lawyer Edward Walsh, who was helping to advise ITT. Within hours Kleindienst received a telephone call from John Ehrlichman, then Nixon's top domestic affairs adviser. Ehrlichman said the President was "directing" Kleindienst not to file any appeal at all. Kleindienst said he could not agree with this. He explained that the decision to appeal had been made by McLaren and Griswold and declared that it would be carried out. Snapped Ehrlichman: "Oh? We'll see about that."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kleindienst then received a call from Nixon, who said: "You son of a bitch, don't you understand the English language?" Nixon ordered him to drop the appeal.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking time to dissuade the President, Kleindienst talked to McLaren and Griswold and suggested that the appeal be delayed, although he did not tell them of the White House orders. They agreed. Kleindienst then insisted on an immediate meeting with Mitchell. He told Mitchell flatly that he would resign rather than carry out Nixon's command, and that Mitchell should tell Nixon this. McLaren and Griswold also would resign, Kleindienst suspected, rather than drop the suit at Nixon's behest. Within a couple of days Mitchell told Kleindienst: "I've talked to your friend [Nixon]. He says do anything you want on antitrust cases."</font></p>

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Read more: <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944655,00.html#ixzz0vkkmUFYv">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944655,00.html#ixzz0vkkmUFYv</a>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Palast</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In exclusive interviews with The Observer last week, the former US Ambassador to Chile, Edward Korry, told the story in - and behind - these and other top secret CIA, State Department and White House cables recently released by the National Security Archives. Korry filled in gaps in the story by describing cables still classified, and disclosing information censored in papers now available under the US Freedom of Information Act.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Korry, who served Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, told how US companies, from cola to copper, using the CIA as an international debt collection agency and investment security force.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, the October 1970 plot against Chile's President-elect Salvador Allende, using CIA 'sub-machine guns and ammo', was the direct result of a plea for action a month earlier by Donald Kendall, chairman of PepsiCo, in two telephone calls to the company's former lawyer, President Richard Nixon.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kendall arranged for the owner of the company's Chilean bottling operation to meet National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on September 15. Hours later, Nixon called in his CIA chief, Richard Helms, and, according to Helms's handwritten notes, ordered the CIA to prevent Allende's inauguration.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this is only half the story, according to Korry. He claims the US conspiracy against Allende's election did not begin with Nixon, but originated - and read no further if you cherish the myth of Camelot - with John Kennedy.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1963, Allende was heading towards victory in Chile's presidential election. Kennedy decided his political creation, Eduardo Frei, the late father of Chile's current President, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, could win the election by buying it. Kennedy left it to his brother, Bobby, the Attorney-General, to put the plan into action.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kennedys cajoled US multinationals into pouring $2 billion into Chile, a nation of only 8 million people. This was not benign investment, but what Korry calls 'a mutually corrupting' web of business deals, many questionable, for which the US government would arrange guarantees and insurance.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In return, the American-based firms kicked back millions of dollars to pay for well over half of Frei's successful election campaign. By the end of this process, Americans had gobbled up more than 85 per cent of Chile's hard-currency earning industries.

The US government, the guarantor of these investments, committed extraordinary monetary, intelligence and political resources to protect them. Several business-friendly US government front organisations and operatives were sent into Chile -including the American Institute for Free Labor Development, infamous for sabotaging militant trade unions.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then, in 1970, US investments, both financial and political, faced unexpected jeopardy. A split between Chile's centre and right-wing parties permitted an alliance of communists, socialists and radicals - uniting behind the socialist Allende - to finish the presidential election 1 per cent ahead of his nearest rival.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That October, Korry, a hardened anti-communist, hatched an off-the-wall scheme to block Allende's inauguration and return Frei to power. To promote his own bloodless intrigues, the ambassador claims he 'back-channeled' a message to Washington warning against military actions that might lead to 'another Bay of Pigs' fiasco. (Korry retains a copy of this still-classified cable.)</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Korry's prescient message only angered Kissinger, who had already authorised the Pepsi-instigated coup, scheduled for the following week. Kissinger ordered Korry to fly in secret to Washington that weekend for a dressing-down. Still not knowing about the CIA plan, Korry told Kissinger in a White House corridor that 'only a madman' would plot with Chile's ultra-right generals.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As if on cue, Kissinger opened the door to the Oval Office to introduce Nixon. Nixon - who described his ambassador as 'soft in the head' - did agree that, tactically, a coup could not yet succeed. A last-minute cable to the CIA to delay action was too late: the conspirators kidnapped and killed Chile's pro- democracy Armed Forces Chief, Rene Schneider. Public revulsion at this crime assured Allende's confirmation by Chile's Congress.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if the US president's sense of realpolitik may have disposed him to a modus vivendi with Allende - Korry's alternative if his Frei gambit failed - Nixon faced intense pressure from his political donors in business who were panicked by Allende's plans to nationalise their operations.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In particular, the president was aware that the owner of Chile's phone company, ITT Corporation, was illegally channelling funds into Republican Party coffers. Nixon could not ignore ITT - and ITT wanted blood. An ITT board member, ex-CIA director John McCone, pledged Kissinger $1 million in support of CIA action to prevent Allende from taking office.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Separately, Anaconda Copper and other multinationals, under the aegis of David Rockefeller's Business Group for Latin America, offered $500,000 to buy influence with Chilean congressmen to reject confirmation of Allende's victory. But Korry wouldn't play. While he knew nothing of the ITT demands on the CIA, he got wind of, and vetoed, the cash for payoffs from Anaconda and the other firms.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Korry, speaking last week from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, disclosed that he even turned in to the Chilean authorities an army major who planned to assassinate Allende - unaware the officer was linked to the CIA plotters.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Once Allende took office, Korry sought accommodation with the new government, conceding that expropriations of the telephone and copper concessions (actually begun under Frei) were necessary to disentangle Chile from seven decades of 'incestuous and corrupting' dependency.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">US corporations didn't see it that way. While pretending to bargain in good faith, they pushed the White House to impose a clandestine embargo on Chile's economy. But in case all schemes failed, ITT, claims Korry, paid $500,000 to someone referred to in their intercepted cables as 'The Fat Man'. Korry identified him as Jacobo Schaulsohn, Allende's ally on a committee set up to compensate firms whose property had been expropriated.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was not money well spent. In 1971, when Allende learned of the corporate machinations against his government, he refused the compensation. It was this - the Chilean leader's failure to pay, not his perceived allegiance to the hammer and sickle - that sealed his fate.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The State Department pulled Korry out of Santiago in October 1971. On his return to the US, he advised the government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation to deny Anaconda Copper and ITT compensation for their seized property. Korry argued that, like someone who burns down their own home, ITT could not claim against insurance for an expropriation the company had itself provoked by violating Chilean law.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Confidentially, he recommended criminal charges against ITT's top brass, including, implicitly, chief executive Harold Geneen, for falsifying the insurance claims and lying to Congress.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given powerful evidence against the companies, OPIC at first refused them compensation, and the Justice Department indicted two mid-level ITT operatives for perjury. But ultimately, the companies received their money and the executives went free on the grounds that they were working with the full co-operation of the CIA - and higher.</font>

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<a href="http://www.gregpalast.com/a-marxist-threat-to-cola-sales-pepsi-demands-a-us-coup-goodbye-allende-hello-pinochet/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.gregpalast.com/a-marxist-threat-to-cola-sales-pepsi-demands-a-us-coup-goodbye-allende-hello-pinochet/</font></a></p>