Al Gore's 1999 Worldwide Anti-Corruption Conference
When I worked at the US Embassy, Baghdad, I had access to the State Department internal internet and a huge repository of old white papers, etc. Periodically, I would search on the word corruption, and not find much information that was organized. But once, I found a whole group of white papers created during a 1999 Worldwide conference on Corruption led by none other than Al Gore.
I never could find those files again, but here is an internet article about that conference. Perhaps someone else can find those files since they did a LOT of work and the information might be useful.
PS: This article is rather biased, politically, but it is the only reference to the conference I could find.
vj
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from:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14684
Gore fights corruption
by Joseph Farah
Posted: February 23, 1999
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Representatives from 79 governments, every imaginable global agency and plenty of non-governmental organizations will convene in Washington tomorrow for the first international conference devoted to fighting corruption.
And who better to lead the meetings but Vice Perpetrator Al Gore -- Mr. No Controlling Legal Authority himself.
"As we move into the global information age, foreign corrupt practices threaten to undermine both the growth and stability of our global trade and financial system," said Gore. "Nowhere are the consequences more evident than in emerging and developing economies."
In other words, Gore and his organized crime bosses don't like these little tinhorn foreign thieves cutting in on their action. So they're going to have a family meeting, see. And what's going to be discussed? Well consigliere Gore is going to give these goodfellas an offer they can't refuse.
I quote from the U.S. Information Agency statement on the crime council: "Billed as a 'new approach' to fighting corruption, the U.S. government intends for the conference to develop methods to enforce (are you ready for this?) integrity among justice and security officials, including police, border officials, military personnel, prosecutors and judges."
Do you love that? The Clinton administration, the most corrupt regime in American history, is going to develop methods to "enforce integrity."
But that's not even the best part. Washington wants to submit the conference resolutions and incorporate the principles and practices against corruption into the United Nations Global Program Against Corruption when the U.N. convenes in October. In other words, that squeaky clean body of integrity known as the U.N. will be the ultimate enforcer when it comes time to keeping international corruption under control.
One tip-off as to why global corruption is skyrocketing is that Attorney General Janet Reno's Justice Department is running international programs for prosecutors and police agencies throughout the world, "notably in South America and Eastern Europe where corruption is entrenched," explains the U.S. Information Agency.
You can bet cyberspace will be a major focus of the conference.
Assistant Attorney General James Robinson, head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, explains that "our borders have become largely irrelevant in the fight against crime as people can flee easily and get on the Internet in a foreign country and engage in criminal activities and frauds."
The conference comes on the heels of the implementation of a treaty known as the Anti-Bribery Convention of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
According to Commerce Secretary William Daley, the treaty "took more than eight years to negotiate. The entrenched interests trying to keep bribery 'business as usual' were hard to beat. These interests are still trying to maintain the status quo."
While the U.S. has ratified the treaty, interestingly, one of the world's largest economies, China, has not. Of course, that makes it very easy for Gore and the Clinton administration to keep the money flowing to their own political machines, while technology and arms secrets continue to flow out of the U.S. Some of the biggest bribes in the history of international relations have taken place between Beijing and Washington.
So, I guess it is only fitting that Al Gore should preside over this charade. If there's one area in which he has real expertise it is international corruption. In fact, Gore has been steeped in it throughout his life.
You see, Gore's daddy was a business partner with Armand Hammer -- the part-time Soviet spy, part-time money-launderer and full-time traitor to the United States. Throughout his career as a politician, Gore Sr. helped Hammer make connections with a series of U.S. presidents and used his influence to help Hammer's Occidental Petroleum company gain access to foreign political leaders.
Most importantly, reveals Edward J. Epstein, in his book, "Dossier," it was Gore who helped stop the FBI from pursuing an investigation of the so-called industrialist as a Soviet agent of influence.
After that, shaking down some nuns at a Buddhist temple was child's play for the younger Al. Using government offices, facilities, power and prestige to coerce campaign money from high-rollers was a piece of cake. Accepting money with a few strings attached from the likes of Mochtar and James Riady was a no-brainer.
Yeah, if you were going to convene a meeting on international corruption, Al Gore's the man for that assignment.
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. His latest book is "Taking America Back." He also edits the weekly online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, in which he utilizes his sources developed over 30 years in the news business.
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